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Lincoln gives a speech at Henry Ward Beecher's church in Brooklyn, NY. He notes that at least 21 of the signers of the Constitution believed Congress should control slavery in the territories rather than allow it to expand, so Southerners should not be alarmed by the Republican stance on slavery.
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The Pony Express begins its first run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento California.
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John Bell is nominated by the Constitutional Union Party, which takes a neutral stance on slavery.
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Abraham Lincoln, a representative from Illinois, is nominated for the presidency by the Republican National Convention. Hannibal Hamlin is nominated for the vice presidency.
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The Democratic Party meets and nominates Stephen Douglas for the presidency.
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Republican "Wide Awakes" organise a rally and clash with armed Democratic supporters of Stephen Douglas.
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Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States and becomes the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln only earned 40% of the popular vote but still defeated the three other candidates: John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas.
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Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden introduces legislation with the aim of resolving the secession crisis in the South. The compromise outlaws slavery in the north but guarantees the existence of slavery in the South. It is rejected by many Northern Republicans, including President Lincoln, and fails.
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After Abraham Lincoln is elected President, southern states feel he is a threat to their business in slavery. The South Carolina legislature unanimously voted to declare secession.
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South Carolina issues the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union", which explains its reasons for seceding from the United States.
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Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union.
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Florida becomes the third state to secede from the Union.
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Alabama becomes the fourth state to secede from the Union.
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Georgia becomes the fifth state to secede from the Union.
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Louisiana becomes the sixth state to secede from the Union.
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Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union.
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Virginia becomes the eighth state to secede from the Union.
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Arkansas becomes the ninth state to secede from the Union.
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North Carolina becomes the tenth state to secede from the Union.
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Tennessee becomes the eleventh and last state to secede from the Union.
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The Battle of Fort Henry is the first significant Union victory of the American Civil War. This opens the Tennessee River to Union traffic south of the Alabama border.
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Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the first (and only) President of the Confederate States of America. Alexander Stephens is inaugurated Vice President.
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The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, A Confederate defeat ended any hopes of blocking the Union advance into northern Mississippi.
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Union troops officially take possession of New Orleans, completing the occupation that had begun four days earlier.
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Jefferson Davis replaces wounded Army of Northern Virginia commander Joseph E. Johnston with Robert E. Lee.
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Union forces capture Memphis, Tennessee, which is the Confederacy’s fifth-largest city, a naval manufacturing yard, and a key Southern industrial center.
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The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas is fought August 28–30, 1862 in Prince William County, Virginia. Confederate forces inflict a crushing defeat on Union General John Pope.
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Union forces defeat Confederate troops at Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the bloodiest day in U.S. history (with over 22,000 casualties).
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President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of over 3 million black slaves and turns the Civil War into a fight against slavery.
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President Abraham Lincoln removes General George B. McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan had always fought cautiously and as if he was outnumbered, when often the opposite was true.
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President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free in the rebellious states.
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The Battle of Chancellorsville begins in Virginia, in which General Robert E. Lee defeats Union forces with 13,000 Confederate casualties, among them Stonewall Jackson (lost to friendly fire), and 17,500 Union casualties.
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West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
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Union forces under George G. Meade turn back a Confederate invasion by Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle of the war (28,000 Confederate casualties, 23,000 Union).
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Ulysses S. Grant and the Union army capture the Confederate city Vicksburg, Mississippi, after the town surrendered. The siege lasted 47 days.
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The first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, unsuccessfully assaults Confederate-held Fort Wagner but their valiant fighting proves the worth of African American soldiers during the war.
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Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 375 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces at Salineville, Ohio.
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Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis refuses the request upon receipt).
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President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
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Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.
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President Abraham Lincoln appoints Ulysses S. Grant commander in chief of all Union armies.
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The Battle of Resaca begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
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Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia collide for the last time as the first wave of Union troops attacks Petersburg, a vital Southern rail center 23 miles south of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
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Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres of the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home Arlington House are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
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Admiral David Farragut leads a Union fleet through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
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The U.S. Congress admits Nevada as the 36th state in the Union in order to have support of the Republican-dominated territory for Abraham Lincoln’s reelection.
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Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over George B. McClellan.
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Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta and starts to move south, causing extensive devastation to crops and mills and living off the land.
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The once powerful Confederate Army of Tennessee is nearly destroyed when a Union army commanded by General George Thomas swarms over the Rebel trenches around Nashville.
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The march ends as Major General William Sherman captures the port of Savannah, Georgia.
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President Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for a second term, and Andrew Johnson becomes Vice President.
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Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the American Civil War. Lee had no other option, as he was forced to abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond and blocked from joining the surviving Confederate force in North Carolina.
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Actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth shoots and mortally wounds President Abraham Lincoln while he is attending an evening performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. Lincoln dies of his gunshot wound early morning the next day.
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Lincoln dies early in the morning from his gunshot wound and Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.
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John Wilkes Booth is killed by Union soldiers that track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
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Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured with his wife and entourage near Irwinville, Georgia, by a detachment of Union General James H. Wilson’s cavalry.
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Even though they have already lost the war, the Confederates win what can be considered the war's final land battle.
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David Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Payne, and Mary Surratt are hanged for their roles as conspirators in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Mary Surratt is the first woman executed by the U.S. federal government.
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After being ratified by the requisite three-quarters of the states earlier in the month, the 13th Amendment is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution. This ensures that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
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A group of Confederate veterans convenes in Pulaski, Tennessee to form a secret society that they christen the “Ku Klux Klan.” It rapidly grows from a secret social fraternity to a paramilitary force bent on reversing policies that elevate the rights of the local African American population.
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A private historically black university, Fisk University is established in Nashville, Tennessee.
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The Liberator is an abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp in 1831. The last issue of the abolitionist magazine is published in Boston.
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The first daylight robbery to occur during peacetime is committed by Jesse James and his gang. They rob the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is enacted, which is the first U.S. federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens, including African-Americans, are equally protected by the law.
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The U.S. Congress approves the minting of a nickel 5-cent coin, eliminating the previous coin, the half dime.
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Tennessee becomes the first Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union.
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The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (modern-day "5-star general"); Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.
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The National Union Convention is held in Philadelphia with hopes to reconcile the Radical Republicans in Congress with the "Reconstructionist" policies of President Andrew Johnson.
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President Andrew Johnson goes on his "Swing Around the Circle" speaking tour to gain support for his Reconstructionist policies and Democratic Party candidates in the upcoming elections. (considered disastrous and unsuccessful)
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House of Representatives elections: Despite President Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour, the Republican Party wins in a landslide.
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African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.
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Nebraska is admitted to the Union as the 37th U.S. state.
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Congress passes the first of many bills incorporating a commission to build a monument for the sixteenth president.
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Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million (about 2 cents per acre or $4.19 per km²) from Alexander II of Russia by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.
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Reconstruction in the South begins with black voter registration.
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The first elevated railroad in USA begins service in New York as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway.
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The third of the Reconstruction Acts gave supreme power to the five Union generals overseeing Reconstruction in the five districts of the South.
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President Andrew Johnson signs the Organic Act, an act of the United States Congress, creating Wyoming Territory. This new area takes land from the Dakota, Idaho, and Utah Territories.
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Elias Howe, one of the inventors of the sewing machine, dies of gout and a blood clot at the age of 48.
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In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States. Famous authors such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson attended the reading.
