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Republican Party is formed
The Republican party was formed when the Whig party split. Northern Whigs wanted to stop the spread of slavery to the western territories. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
Repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote. -
Abraham Lincoln elected president
The national outcome of the 1860 election gave Lincoln a victory in both the popular vote and the electoral vote, with just under 40 percent of the popular vote, which totaled 1,866,452, and 180 electoral votes. -
South Carolina votes to secede from the United States
When Lincoln gets elected the entire South goes crazy and South Carolina is the first to break away from the United States. -
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. -
Lincoln suspends habeas corpus
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. -
Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy
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. -
First Battle of Bull Run is fought
Union and Confederate armies fought near Manassas Junction, Virginia. The battle 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. -
Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy
He was the only president to be elected as the president for the Confederate States of America. -
The Merrimac and the Monitor fight off the Virginia coast
Battle between the Monitor and Merrimac fought at Hampton Roads, near Norfolk, Virginia Library of Congress. -
Battle of Shiloh
Second battle of the American Civil War, fought in southwestern Tennessee, resulting in a victory for the North and in large casualties for both sides. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War. It was also the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign. -
Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia
Lee is given command of the Army of Northern Virginia, the main Confederate army in the eastern theater of the war. -
Battle of Antietam
23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours. 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
Battle fought at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Union army led by General Ambrose Burnside. Confederate army of Northern Virginia was one of the many armies of the South. -
Emancipation Proclamation is announced
The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Battle of Gettysburg
Fought around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It lasted 3 days. This battle is considered the turning point in the war and it had to most deaths of the entire war. -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
Confederate troops attack a Union supply depot and are met by untested United States Colored Troops. After 47 days of fighting, the Confederates surrendered to General Grant, ending the 18 month campaign for Vicksburg. -
New York City draft riots
Minor riots occurred in several cities, and when the drawing of names began in New York on July 11, 1863, mobs (mostly of foreign-born, especially Irish, workers) surged onto the streets, assaulting residents, defying police, attacking draft headquarters, and burning buildings. -
Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address
Lincoln delivered a short speech at the close of ceremonies dedicating the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. -
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
Despite the implication of finality in its name, the battle occurred midway through the Atlanta campaign, and the city did not fall until September 2, 1864, after a Union siege and various attempts to seize railroads and supply lines leading to Atlanta. -
Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election
Near the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln easily defeated former General George B. -
Sherman begins his 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. -
Freedman’s Bureau is created
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. -
Lincoln gives his second inaugural address
As the Civil War entered its final weeks, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address from the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. -
Richmond falls to the Union Army
The Confederacy's capital of Richmond was a chief distribution center for weapons, supplies, and troops, and the city resisted repeated Union assaults before officially capitulating on April 3, 1865. -
Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox
Robert E. Lee agrees to surrender his Northern Virginia Army. This makes a symbolic end to the Civil War. -
President Lincoln assassinated
Lincoln was at Ford's Theater watching a show when John Wilkes Booth assassinated him by shooting him in the head. -
John Wilkes Booth is killed
One soldier, Boston Corbett, approached the barn and claimed to have seen Booth leveling his pistol at him, so Corbett fired a round from his revolver. The bullet severed Booth's spinal cord and paralyzed him. John Wilkes Booth died three hours later.