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John Wilkes Booth is killed
John Wilkes Booth (born May 10, 1838, near Bel Air, Maryland, U.S. He died on April 26, 1865, near Port Royal, Virginia) was a member of one of the United States' most distinguished acting families of the 19th century and the assassin who killed U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln. -
Republican Party is formed
In 1854, the Republican Party was founded in the Northern United States by forces opposed to the expansion of slavery, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. -
Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia
1862 On June 1 Lee is given command of the Army of Northern Virginia, the main Confederate army in the eastern theater of the war. Union troops are poised at the gates of Richmond. Lee commences a series of counterattacks at the Seven Days Battle that drives the enemy away from the Confederate capital. -
First Battle of Bull Run is fought
The first land battle of the Civil War was fought on July 21, 1861, just 30 miles from Washington—close enough for U.S. senators to witness the battle in person. Southerners called it the Battle of Manassas, after the closest town. -
Abraham Lincoln elected president
Lincoln took office following the 1860 presidential election, in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field. Almost all of Lincoln's votes came from the Northern United States, as the Republicans held little appeal to voters in the Southern United States. -
South Carolina votes to secede from the United States
Charleston Mercury on November 3, 1860. South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860. The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered cries for disunion across the slaveholding South. -
Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy
On November 6, 1861, Jefferson Davis, who had been elected president of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy on February 9, 1861—as a compromise between moderates and radicals—was confirmed by the voters for a full six-year term. -
Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter
At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. South Carolina could not tolerate a federal fort blocking an important sea port. The state had control of Fort Sumter after secession on December 20, 1860, until Major Anderson moved Union troops to the fort on December 26. That act, some have said, led to the ensuing war. -
Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy
on May 8, 1861, in the Confederate Capital City of Montgomery, Alabama, the decision was made to name the City of Richmond, Virginia as the new Capital of the Confederacy. The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond in recognition of Virginia's strategic importance. -
Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address was a speech given by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at the official dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery. -
Lincoln gives his second inaugural address
President Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. In his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, a re-elected President Abraham Lincoln wanted to unify a broken nation. -
The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast
While the battle was inconclusive, the Monitor's action's prevented the destruction of the Union navy. The Merrimack's machinery is restored, and her wooden superstructure is replaced with an iron-covered citadel mounting 10 guns. -
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, allowed Union troops to penetrate the Confederate interior. The carnage was unprecedented, with the human toll being the greatest of any war on the American continent up to that date. -
Battle of Antietam
23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's first invasion into the North and led Abraham Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
Bloody engagement of the American Civil War fought at Fredericksburg, Virginia, between Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. -
Emancipation Proclamation is announced
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Freedman’s Bureau is created
On March 3, 1865, Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
Confederate troops, commanded by Robert E. Lee and led first by Stonewall Jackson and then by Jeb Stuart, soundly defeated the Union forces under the command of Fighting Joe Hooker. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point. -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.” The Vicksburg Campaign began in 1862 and ended with the Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863. -
Lincoln suspends habeas corpus
President Lincoln used the authority granted him under the Act on September 15, 1863, to suspend habeas corpus throughout the Union in any case involving prisoners of war, spies, traitors, or any member of the military. -
Richmond falls to the Union Army
General Grant attacked Five Forks on March 31, 1865, to cut Lee's last remaining supply line. As a result, Lee was forced to move the Army of Northern Virginia out of Petersburg, fleeing to the west in the hope of connecting with other Confederate forces and increasing the number of his troops. -
Congress passes the 13th Amendment
It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. The joint resolution of both bodies that submitted the amendment to the states for approval was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on February 1, 1865. -
Atlanta is captured
Hood and Sherman continued to battle for the crucial Confederate city throughout the summer until Hood was finally forced to abandon Atlanta to Union forces on September 1, 1864. -
Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election
It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1864. Near the end of the American Civil War, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote. -
Sherman begins his March to the Sea
The March to the Sea, the most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War began in Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and concluded in Savannah on December 21, 1864. Union general William T. -
Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox
Appomattox County, VA | Apr 9, 1865. Trapped by the Federals near Appomattox Court House, Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union general Ulysses S. Grant, precipitating the capitulation of other Confederate forces and leading to the end of the bloodiest conflict in American history. -
President Lincoln assassinated
He was the 16th president of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865. Shot in the head by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln died the next morning. -
New York City draft riots
When recruiting for the army began in July 1863, a mob in New York wrecked the main recruiting station. Then, for three days, crowds of white workers marched through the city, destroying buildings, factories, streetcar lines, homes.