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The liberator goes into print
It was the most influential antislavery periodical in the preCivil War period of U.S. history. Although The Liberator, published in Boston, could claim a paid circulation of only 3,000, it reached a much wider audience with its uncompromising advocacy of immediate emancipation for the millions of black Americans held in bondage throughout the South. http://www.history.com/. -
Compromise of 1850 passed
Divisions over slavery in territory gained in the Mexican American (1846-48). War were resolved in the Compromise of 1850. It consisted of laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery in each to be determined by popular sovereignty. -
Uncle Toms cabin published
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published. The novel sold 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862. Stowe encountered fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad. Later, she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in reaction to recently tightened fugitive slave laws. The book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery. The book established Stowe’s reputation as a woman of letters. -
Kansas Nebraska Act Passed
The Kansas-Nebrask Act was an 1854 bill that mandated popular sovereignty allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas Abraham Lincoln’s opponent in the influential Lincoln Douglas debates the bill overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territory. -
Dred Scott Desision
1857 the United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories thereby negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. -
Lincoln was elected 16th president
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge Constitutional Union candidate John Bell and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas a U.S. senator for Illinois. -
James Buchman Swarm in a president
James Buchanan 1791-1868 America’s 15th president was in office from 1857 to 1861. During his tenure seven Southern states seceded from the Union and the nation on the brink of civil war. A Pennsylvania native Buchanan began his political career in his home state’s legislature and went on to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress he later became a foreign diplomat and U.S. secretary of state -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
December 20 1860 and extended through June 8 of the next year when eleven states in the Lower and Upper South severed their ties with the Union. The first seven seceding states of the Lower South set up a provisional government at Montgomery Alabama. After hostilities began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12 1861. -
First Battle Of Bull Run
On July 21 1861 Union and Confederate armies clashed near Manassas Junction Virginia in the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Known as the First Battle of Bull Run the engagement began when about 35,000 Union troops marched from the federal capital in Washington, D.C. to strike a Confederate force of 20,000 along a small river known as Bull Run. -
Battle of Siloh
Also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing the Battle of Shiloh took place from April 6 to April 7, 1862 and was one of the major early engagements of the American Civil War 1861-65. The battle began when the Confederates launched a surprise attack on Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant 1822-85 in southwestern Tennessee. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 1862 involved nearly 200,000 combatant the largest concentration of troops in any Civil War battle. Ambrose Burnside the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac had ordered his more than 120,000 troops to cross the Rappahannock River where they made a two-pronged attack on the right and left flanks of Robert E. Lee’s 80,000-strong Army of Northern Virginia at Frederickberg
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Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville fought from April 30 to May 6 1863 is widely considered to be Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory during the American Civil War. Facing an enemy force nearly twice the size of his own Lee daringly split his troops in two confronting and surprising Union Gen. Joseph Hooker Though Hooker still held numerical superiority he did not press this advantage instead falling back to defensive positions. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg fought from July 1 to July 3 1863 is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late June 1863. On July 1 the advancing Confederates clashed with the Union’s Army of the Potomac commanded by General George G. Meade at the crossroads town of Gettysburg. -
Vicksburg surrenders to Union
1862 until July 1863 during the American Civil War 1861-65 Union forces waged a campaign to take the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which lay on the east bank of the Mississippi River halfway between Mephisto the north and New Orleans to the south. -
Sherman's march to the Sea
From November 15 until December 21 1864 Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman’s soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. -
South surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse, VA
April 9 1865 near Appomattox Court House Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Days earlier Lee had abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond and the city of Petersburg, his goal was to rally the remnants of his beleaguered troops meet Confederate reinforcements in North Carolina and resume fighting. Which lasted only a few hours, effectively brought the four-year Civil War to an end. -
Battle Of Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is an island located in Charleston Harbor South Carolina. Originally constructed in 1829 as a coastal garrison Fort Sumter is most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War.
After a 34 hour exchange of artillery fire Anderson and 86 soldiers surrendered the fort on April 13. -
Battle Of Antietam
On September 17 1862 Generals Robert E. Lee and George McClellan faced off near Antietam creek in Sharps burg Maryland in the the first battle of the American Civil War to be fought on northern soil.Though McClellan failed utilize his numerical superiority to crush Lee's army he was able to check the Confederate advance into the north. After string of Union defeats this tactical victory provided Abraham Lincoln the political cover he needed to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. -
Emancipation Proclamation Goes Into Effect
January 1st, 1863 That day had come the war was still continuing and so the Proclamation went into effect. However only a small number of slaves were actually freed on this day. The Proclamation was declaring the slaves free in areas over which the government had no control so until the armies pushed forward and recaptured the Southern states.
