Jump To: Fort
Sumter Attacked - First
Bull Run - Shiloh - Second Bull
Run - Antietam - Fredericksburg
- Chancellorsville - Gettysburg
- Chickamauga - Chattanooga
- Cold Harbor - March to the Sea
- Lee Surrenders - Lincoln Shot
6, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln, who had declared "Government cannot
endure permanently half slave, half free..." is elected president, the
first Republican, receiving 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent
of the popular vote.
December 20, 1860 - South Carolina secedes
from the Union. Followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
and Negro sales, Atlanta, Georgia.
9, 1861 - The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson
Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, as president.
March 4, 1861 - Abraham Lincoln
is sworn in as 16th President of the United States of America.
April 12, 1861 - At 4:30 a.m. Confederates
under Gen. Pierre Beauregard
open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Civil War begins.
Sumter after its capture, showing damage from the Rebel bombardment of
over 3000 shells and now flying the Rebel "Stars and Bars" -
April 14, 1861.
April 15, 1861 - President Lincoln
issues a Proclamation calling for 75,000 militiamen, and summoning a special
session of Congress for July 4.
Robert E. Lee, son of a Revolutionary War hero, and a 25 year distinguished
veteran of the United States Army and former Superintendent of West Point,
is offered command of the Union Army. Lee declines.
April 17, 1861 - Virginia secedes
from the Union, followed within five weeks by Arkansas, Tennessee, and
North Carolina, thus forming an eleven state Confederacy with a population
of 9 million, including nearly 4 million slaves. The Union will soon have
21 states and a population of over 20 million.
of Allegiances of the States - 1861.
April 19, 1861 - President Lincoln
issues a Proclamation of Blockade against Southern ports. For the duration
of the war the blockade limits the ability of the rural South to stay well
supplied in its war against the industrialized North.
April 20, 1861 - Robert E. Lee resigns
his commission in the United States Army. "I cannot raise
my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children." Lee then goes
to Richmond, Virginia, is offered command of the military and naval forces
of Virginia, and accepts.
July 4, 1861 - Lincoln, in a speech
to Congress, states the war is..."a People's contest...a struggle
for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose
leading object is, to elevate the condition of men..." The Congress
authorizes a call for 500,000 men.
First Bull Run
July 21, 1861 - The Union Army under
Gen. Irvin McDowell suffers
a defeat at Bull Run
25 miles southwest of Washington. Confederate Gen. Thomas
J. Jackson earns the nickname "Stonewall," as his brigade
resists Union attacks. Union troops fall back to Washington. President
Lincoln realizes the war will be long. "It's damned bad," he
of the Stone Bridge over which Northern forces retreated until it was blown
up by a Rebel shell adding to the panic of the retreat, with the Federals
returning to Washington as "a rain-soaked mob."
27, 1861 - President Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as
Commander of the Department of the Potomac, replacing McDowell.
McClellan tells his wife,
"I find myself in a new and strange position here: President, cabinet,
Gen. Scott, and all deferring to me. By some strange operation of magic
I seem to have become the power of the land."
September 11, 1861 - President Lincoln
revokes Gen. John C. Frémont's unauthorized military proclamation
of emancipation in Missouri. Later, the president relieves Gen. Frémont
of his command and replaces him with Gen. David Hunter.
November 1, 1861 - President Lincoln
appoints McClellan as general-in-chief of all Union forces after the resignation
of the aged Winfield Scott.
Lincoln tells McClellan, "...the supreme command of the Army will
entail a vast labor upon you." McClellan responds, "I can do
November 8, 1861 - The beginning of an
international diplomatic crisis for President Lincoln as two Confederate
officials sailing toward England are seized by the U.S. Navy. England,
the leading world power, demands their release, threatening war. Lincoln
eventually gives in and orders their release in December. "One war
at a time," Lincoln remarks.
January 31, 1862 - President Lincoln
issues General War Order No. 1 calling for all United States naval and
land forces to begin a general advance by February 22, George Washington's birthday.
6, 1862 - Victory for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee,
capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson. Grant earns the
nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
February 20, 1862 - President Lincoln is struck
with grief as his beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, dies from fever, probably
caused by polluted drinking water in the White House.
March 8/9, 1862 - The Confederate
Ironclad 'Merrimac' sinks two wooden Union ships then battles the Union
Ironclad 'Monitor' to a draw. Naval warfare is thus changed forever, making
wooden ships obsolete. Engraving of
Monitor at dock, showing damage from the battle.
In March -
The Peninsular Campaign begins as McClellan's Army of the Potomac advances
from Washington down the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay to the peninsular
south of the Confederate Capital of Richmond, Virginia then begins an advance
President Lincoln temporarily relieves McClellan as general-in-chief
and takes direct command of the Union Armies.
April 6/7, 1862 - Confederate surprise
attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee
River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded
and 10,000 Confederates, more men than in all previous American wars combined.
The president is then pressured to relieve Grant but resists. "I can't
spare this man; he fights," Lincoln says.
April 24, 1862 - 17 Union ships
under the command of Flag Officer David
Farragut move up the Mississippi River then take New Orleans, the
South's greatest seaport. Later in the war, sailing through a Rebel mine
field Farragut utters the famous phrase "Damn the torpedoes, full
May 31, 1862 - The Battle of Seven
Pines as Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's
Army attacks McClellan's troops in front of Richmond and nearly defeats
them. But Johnston is badly wounded.
1, 1862 - Gen. Robert E. Lee assumes command, replacing the
wounded Johnston. Lee then renames his force the Army of Northern Virginia.
McClellan is not impressed, saying Lee is "likely to be timid and
irresolute in action."
June 25-July 1 - The Seven Days
Battles as Lee attacks McClellan near Richmond, resulting in very heavy
losses for both armies. McClellan then begins a withdrawal back toward
Georgia Private Edwin Jennison, killed in the Seven Days Battles at Malvern
Hill - the face of a lost generation.
July 11, 1862 - After four months
as his own general-in-chief, President Lincoln hands over the task to Gen.
Henry W. (Old Brains) Halleck.
Second Battle of
August 29/30, 1862 - 75,000 Federals
under Gen. John Pope are
defeated by 55,000 Confederates under Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. James
Longstreet at the second battle of Bull
Run in northern Virginia. Once again the Union Army retreats to
Washington. The president then relieves Pope.
September 4-9, 1862 - Lee invades the
North with 50,000 Confederates and heads for Harpers
Ferry, located 50 miles northwest of Washington.
The Union Army, 90,000 strong, under the command of McClellan, pursues
September 17, 1862 - The bloodiest day
in U.S. military history as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies
are stopped at Antietam
in Maryland by McClellan and numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall
26,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing. Lee then withdraws to Virginia.
dead by the fence bordering Farmer Miller's 40 acre Cornfield at Antietam
where the intense rifle and artillery fire cut every corn stalk to the
ground "as closely as could have been done with a knife."
September 22, 1862 - Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation freeing slaves issued by President Lincoln.
Lincoln visits Gen. George McClellan at Antietam, Maryland - October, 1862
November 7, 1862 - The president replaces
McClellan with Gen. Ambrose
E. Burnside as the new Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln
had grown impatient with McClellan's slowness to follow up on the success
at Antietam, even telling him, "If you don't want to use the army,
I should like to borrow it for a while."
December 13, 1862 - Army of the Potomac
under Gen. Burnside suffers a costly defeat at Fredericksburg
in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men after 14 frontal assaults on well
entrenched Rebels on Marye's Heights. "We might as well have tried
to take hell," a Union soldier remarks. Confederate losses are 5,309.
"It is well that war is so terrible - we should grow too fond of
it," states Lee during the fighting.
January 1, 1863 - President Lincoln
issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories
held by Confederates and emphasizes the enlisting of black soldiers in
the Union Army. The war to preserve the Union now becomes a revolutionary
struggle for the abolition of slavery.
January 25, 1863 - The president appoints
Gen. Joseph (Fighting Joe)
Hooker as Commander of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Burnside.
January 29, 1863 - Gen. Grant is placed
in command of the Army of the West, with orders to capture Vicksburg.
March 3, 1863 - The U.S. Congress
enacts a draft, affecting male citizens aged 20 to 45, but also exempts
those who pay $300 or provide a substitute. "The blood of a poor man
is as precious as that of the wealthy," poor Northerners complain.
May 1-4, 1863 - The Union Army under
Gen. Hooker is decisively defeated by Lee's much smaller forces at the
Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia as a result of Lee's brilliant and
daring tactics. Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson is mortally wounded
by his own soldiers. Hooker retreats. Union losses are 17,000 killed, wounded
and missing out of 130,000. The Confederates, 13, 000 out of 60,000.
"I just lost confidence in Joe Hooker," said Hooker later
about his own lack of nerve during the battle.
soldiers at the Sunken Road, killed during the fighting around Chancellorsville.
May 10, 1863 - The South suffers
a huge blow as Stonewall Jackson dies from his wounds, his last words,
"Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."
"I have lost my right arm," Lee laments.
June 3, 1863 - Gen. Lee with 75,000
Confederates launches his second invasion of the North, heading into Pennsylvania
in a campaign that will soon lead to Gettysburg.
June 28, 1863 - President Lincoln
appoints Gen. George G. Meade
as commander of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Hooker. Meade
is the 5th man to command the Army in less than a year.
July 1-3, 1863 - The tide of war
turns against the South as the Confederates are defeated at the Battle
of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.
Read about the Battle of Gettysburg
- Battlefield Photos
soldiers on the Battlefield at Gettysburg.
July 4, 1863 - Vicksburg,
the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, surrenders to
Gen. Grant and the Army of the West after a six week siege. With the Union
now in control of the Mississippi, the Confederacy is effectively split
in two, cut off from its western allies.
July 13-16, 1863 - Anti-draft
riots in New York City include arson and the murder of blacks by poor immigrant
whites. At least 120 persons, including children, are killed and $2 million
in damage caused, until Union soldiers returning from Gettysburg restore
July 18, 1863
- 'Negro troops' of the
54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment under Col. Robert G. Shaw assault
fortified Rebels at Fort Wagner, South Carolina. Col. Shaw and half of
the 600 men in the regiment are killed.
August 10, 1863 - The president meets
with abolitionist Frederick
Douglass who pushes for full equality for Union 'Negro troops.'
August 21, 1863 - At Lawrence, Kansas,
pro-Confederate William C. Quantrill and 450 pro-slavery followers raid
the town and butcher 182 boys and men.
September 19/20, 1863 - A decisive Confederate
victory by Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga
leaves Gen. William S. Rosecrans'
Union Army of the Cumberland trapped in Chattanooga, Tennessee under Confederate
October 16, 1863 - The president appoints
Gen. Grant to command all operations in the western theater.
November 19, 1863 - President Lincoln
delivers a two minute Gettysburg Address at a ceremony dedicating the Battlefield
as a National Cemetery.
Page one of Gettysburg Address in
Page two of Gettysburg Address in
among the crowd at Gettysburg - Nov 19, 1863
November 23-25, 1863 - The Rebel siege
of Chattanooga ends as Union forces under Grant defeat the siege army of
Gen. Braxton Bragg. During the battle, one of the most dramatic moments
of the war occurs. Yelling "Chickamauga! Chickamauga!" Union
troops avenge their previous defeat at Chickamauga by storming up the face
of Missionary Ridge without orders and sweep the Rebels from what had been
though to be an impregnable position. "My God, come and see 'em run!"
a Union soldier cries.
March 9, 1864 - President Lincoln
appoints Gen. Grant to command all of the armies of the United States.
Gen. William T. Sherman
succeeds Grant as commander in the west.
May 4, 1864 - The beginning of a
massive, coordinated campaign involving all the Union Armies. In Virginia,
Grant with an Army of 120,000 begins advancing toward Richmond to engage
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, now numbering 64,000, beginning a war
of attrition that will include major battles at the Wilderness (May 5-6),
Spotsylvania (May 8-12), and Cold Harbor (June 1-3).
In the west, Sherman, with 100,000 men begins an advance toward Atlanta
to engage Joseph E. Johnston's 60,000 strong Army of Tennessee.
council of war with Gen. Grant leaning over the shoulder of Gen. Meade
looking at a map, planning the Cold Harbor assault.
June 3, 1864 - A costly mistake
by Grant results in
7,000 Union casualties in twenty minutes during an offensive against fortified
Rebels at Cold Harbor in Virginia.
Many of the Union soldiers in the failed assault had predicted the outcome,
including a dead soldier from Massachusetts whose last entry in his diary
was, "June 3, 1864, Cold Harbor, Virginia. I was killed."
June 15, 1864 - Union forces miss
an opportunity to capture Petersburg and cut off the Confederate rail lines.
As a result, a nine month siege of Petersburg begins with Grant's forces
13-inch Union mortar "Dictator" mounted on a railroad flatcar
at Petersburg. Its 200-pound shells had a range of over 2 miles.
July 20, 1864 - At Atlanta, Sherman's
forces battle the Rebels now under the command of Gen. John
B. Hood, who replaced Johnston.
August 29, 1864 - Democrats nominate
George B. McClellan for president to run against Republican incumbent Abraham
September 2, 1864 - Atlanta
is captured by Sherman's
Army. "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won," Sherman telegraphs Lincoln.
The victory greatly helps President Lincoln's bid for re-election.
October 19, 1864 - A decisive Union
victory by Cavalry Gen. Philip
H. Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley over Jubal Early's troops.
November 8, 1864 - Abraham Lincoln is
re-elected president, defeating Democrat George B. McClellan. Lincoln carries
all but three states with 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 233
electoral votes. "I earnestly believe that the consequences of this
day's work will be to the lasting advantage, if not the very salvation,
of the country," Lincoln tells supporters.
March to the Sea
November 15, 1864 - After destroying
Atlanta's warehouses and railroad
facilities, Sherman, with 62,000 men begins a March to the Sea. President
Lincoln on advice from Grant approved the idea. "I can make Georgia
howl!" Sherman boasts.
December 15/16, 1864 - Hood's Rebel Army
of 23,000 is crushed at Nashville
by 55,000 Federals including Negro troops under Gen. George
H. Thomas. The Confederate Army of Tennessee ceases as an effective
December 21, 1864 - Sherman reaches Savannah
in Georgia leaving behind a 300 mile long path of destruction 60 miles
wide all the way from Atlanta. Sherman then telegraphs Lincoln, offering
him Savannah as a Christmas present.
January 31, 1865
- The U.S. Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution, to abolish slavery. The amendment is then submitted to the
states for ratification.
February 3, 1865 - A peace conference
occurs as President Lincoln meets with Confederate Vice President
Alexander Stephens at Hampton
Roads in Virginia, but the meeting ends in failure - the war will continue.
Only Lee's Army at Petersburg and Johnston's forces in North Carolina
remain to fight for the South against Northern forces now numbering 280,000
March 4, 1865 - Inauguration ceremonies
for President Lincoln in Washington. "With malice toward none; with
charity for all...let us strive on to finish the work we are in...to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves,
and with all nations," Lincoln says.
March 25, 1865 - The last offensive
for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia begins with an attack on the center
of Grant's forces at Petersburg. Four hours later the attack is broken.
Petersburg, Virginia, well supplied Union soldiers shown before Grant's
April 2, 1865 - Grant's forces begin a
general advance and break through Lee's lines at Petersburg. Confederate Gen.
Ambrose P. Hill is killed. Lee evacuates
Petersburg. The Confederate Capital, Richmond,
is evacuated. Fires and looting break out. The next day, Union troops enter
and raise the Stars and Stripes.
Confederate boy, age 14, lies dead in the trenches of Fort Mahone at Petersburg.
April 4, 1865 - President Lincoln
tours Richmond where he enters
the Confederate White House.
With "a serious, dreamy expression," he sits at the desk of Jefferson
Davis for a few moments.
April 9, 1865 - Gen. Robert E. Lee
surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Grant allows Rebel
officers to keep their sidearms and permits soldiers to keep horses and
"After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage
and fortitude the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield
to overwhelming numbers and resources," Lee tells his troops.
Lee surrendered in the parlor of this house.
posed for this photo by Mathew Brady shortly after the surrender.
April 10, 1865 - Celebrations break
out in Washington.
portrait of a war weary president - April 10, 1865
April 14, 1865 - The Stars and Stripes
is ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. That night, Lincoln and his wife
Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At
10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots
the president in the head. Doctors attend to the president in the theater
then move him to a house across the street. He never regains consciousness.
April 15, 1865 - President Abraham
Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning. Vice President Andrew
Johnson assumes the presidency.
April 18, 1865 - Confederate Gen.
Joseph E. Johnston surrenders to Sherman near Durham in North Carolina.
Procession on Pennsylvania Ave. - April 19, 1865
April 26, 1865 - John Wilkes Booth
is shot and killed in a tobacco barn in Virginia.
May 4, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln is
laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery, outside Springfield, Illinois.
In May - Remaining Confederate forces
surrender. The Nation is reunited as the Civil War ends. Over 620,000 Americans
died in the war, with disease killing twice as many as those lost in battle.
50,000 survivors return home as amputees.
victory parade is held in Washington along Pennsylvania Ave. to help boost
the Nation's morale - May 23/24, 1865.
December 6, 1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment
to the United States Constitution, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865,
is finally ratified. Slavery is abolished.
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