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Republican party is formed
Republican Party was founded in the Northern United States by forces opposed to the expansion of slavery, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilders. The Republican Party quickly became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the briefly popular Know Nothing Party. -
Kansas - Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. -
Abraham Lincoln's election
Lincoln took office following the 1860 presidential election, in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field. -
South Carolina Secedes
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union -
Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis, who had been elected president of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy as a compromise between moderates and radicals—was confirmed by the voters for a full six-year term -
Lincoln's Second Address
Lincoln's second inaugural address previewed his plans for healing a once-divided nation. -
Confederate Forces Fire on Fort Sumter
Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. Less than 34 hours later, Union forces surrendered. -
Richmond becomes the capital of the Conferderacy
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. -
First Battle of Bull Run
Federal forces under General Irwin McDowell attempted to flank Confederate positions by crossing Bull Run but were turned back. The end result of the battle was a Confederate victory and Federal forces retreated to the defenses of Washington, DC -
Monitor vs. Merrimack
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 Siloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, allowed Union troops to penetrate the Confederate interior. -
Robert E Lee was named commander
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. -
Battle of Anitetam
Antietam, the deadliest one-day battle in American military history, showed that the Union could stand against the Confederate army in the Eastern theater,particularly in the Southern United States -
Lincoln Suspends Habeas Corpus
President Abraham Lincoln issued this Presidential Proclamation 94 suspending the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War. The writ of habeas corpus is a tool preventing the government from unlawfully imprisoning individuals outside of the judicial process. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
With nearly 200,000 combatants—the greatest number of any Civil War engagement Fredericksburg was one of the largest and deadliest battles of the Civil War. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Proclamation on January, 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." -
Battle of Chancellorsville
Despite the heavy casualties sustained there, the Battle of Chancellorsville is considered Gen. Robert E. Lee's greatest military victory. -
Battle of Gettysberg
The Battle of Gettysburg was a three-day battle in the American Civil War fought between Union and Confederate forces -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
When two major assaults against the Confederate fortifications, on May 19 and 22, were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. After holding out for more than 40 days, with their supplies nearly gone, the garrison surrendered on July 4. -
New York Draft riots
This act forced males from the ages of twenty to forty-five to enroll in a lottery for mandatory military service in the Union Army. This did not go well with the already tense situation in New York, which had strong economic ties to the south. -
Lincoln's Gettysberg Address
President Abraham Lincoln delivered a short speech at the close of ceremonies dedicating the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. -
13th Amendment
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. -
Atlanta was captured
“Atlanta is ours, and fairly won”: the immortal words of General William T. Sherman when he captured Atlanta on this date in 1864. Sherman had taken the Deep South's major manufacturing center and railroad hub, a huge loss for the Confederacy. -
Abraham Lincoln wins re-election
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 is march to the sea
The March to the Sea, the most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War (1861-65), began in Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and concluded in Savannah on December 21, 1864. Union general William T. -
Freedmen's Bureau
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. -
Fall of Richmond
Richmond was important to the Union in that its capture would signal the end of the Confederacy. Richmond fell when Lt. General Grant attacked Five Forks on March 31, 1865, to cut Lee's last remaining supply line. -
Robert E Lee surrender at Appomattox
Rather than destroy his army and sacrifice the lives of his soldiers to no purpose, Lee decided to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia. Three days later, a formal ceremony marked the disbanding of Lee's army and the parole of his men, ending the war in Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln's Assasination
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
John Wilkes Booth Death
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.