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Events leading up to the civil war and events that happened during it.
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The slave population is at its highest with nearly four million, making the ratio of free to enslaved Americans approximately 7:1. -
Lincoln delivered an argument against the spread of enslavement and became an overnight star and a leading candidate for the upcoming presidential election. -
Lincoln visits Five Points and time with children at a Sunday school and appeared in newspapers during his presidential campaign. -
Pony Express was introduced as the new American express mail service that used horse riders to deliver messages. -
Arizona passes an Expulsion Act, banishing all free blacks from the state. -
Candidates did not actively participate in campaigning but Lincoln used posters and other images to win over voters -
Lincoln won the 1860 election and became the 16th President of the United States during a national crisis. -
The first Secession Convention meets in Columbia, South Carolina making the decision for South Carolina to secede. -
The unsuccessful proposal would make it unconstitutional for future congresses to end slavery proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden. -
In 1860 South Carolina officially breaks away from the United States of America. -
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas secede between January 9 and February 1st of 1861. -
Confederates fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina; Civil War begins -
C.S.A. President Jefferson Davis authorizes 400,000 C.S.A. volunteers -
Richmond becomes the capital of the South. -
U.S. Sanitary Commission created to provide care for wounded soldiers and their families -
Confederates rout Union troops at the First Battle of Manassas/Bull Run; Thomas Jackson earns the nickname "Stonewall" -
Major General George B. McClellan takes command of the Army of the Potomac -
Congress levies the first federal income tax -
U.S. Congress forms the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War -
Factions of Creek and other Indian nations loyal to the Confederacy clash with the Union at the Battle of Chustenahlah, Indian Territory -
McClellan's forces siege Yorktown, Virginia; Peninsula Campaign begins. -
Battle of Shiloh/Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee -
Slavery ends in the District of Columbia; the C.S.A. initiates the first military draft.
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U.S. Congress passes Homestead Act, granting up to 160 acres of land to settlers who improve the land for at least five years. -
General Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Army of Northern Virginia. -
United States Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act, which frees slaves that come under Union control. -
Confederate victory at the Battle of Second Manassas/Bull Run -
The bloodiest day of the war occurs at the Battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam with 23,000 casualties -
Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation -
The Union suffers one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg -
Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation, officially allowing black soldiers and sailors into Union forces -
Cherokee Nation abolishes slavery; declares support for the Union -
Confederates win a stunning victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville; Stonewall Jackson is fatally wounded -
West Virginia was admitted to the Union becoming one of the last to join. -
The Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the civil war also known as the turning point lasted 3 days and resulted in the Confederate defeat. -
Vicksburg surrenders to Grant's army. -
Confederate victory at Chickamauga; Union forces to retreat to Chattanooga and are besieged -
Chicago hosts first sanitary fair to raise funds for the U.S. Sanitary Commission (runs through November 7, 1863) -
Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address changed the direction of the aim of the war. -
Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which pardons secessionists who swear allegiance to the U.S. -
War's most notorious prison camp opens near Andersonville, Georgia -
Grant is promoted to lieutenant general and appointed general in chief of U.S. armies. -
Confederates capture Fort Pillow, Tennessee. Many of the U.S. Colored Troops are murdered after they surrender. -
Jubal Early and 12,000 Confederate troops threaten Washington. -
The 1 month lasting Overland Campaign ends and the ten-month siege of Petersburg, Virginia begins. -
Jubal Early and 12,000 Confederate troops threaten Washington -
Sherman captures Atlanta, Georgia -
Lincoln defeats McClellan in the 1864 presidential election -
Confederates' main western army shattered at the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee. -
Ending his March to the Sea, Sherman takes Savannah, Georgia -
Thoma Davis appoints Lee general in chief for the confederacy and the U.S. House passes the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery -
Sherman's army moves through Columbia, South Carolina; Schimmelfenning's Union troops occupy Charleston -
U.S. Congress establishes the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau) -
Davis signs a "Negro Soldier Law," authorizing the enlistment of slaves
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Petersburg, Virginia, falls to the Union; Richmond evacuated and set ablaze. -
Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia -
John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln and Andrew Johnson becomes president -
Sherman accepts the surrender of C.S.A's General Joe Johnston in North Carolina -
Jefferson Davis is captured and President Johnson proclaims armed resistance at an end -
U. S General Granger issued General Orders No. 3, confirming those enslaved in Texas had been freed under the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Local celebrations later inspired “Juneteenth,” commemorating the end of slavery. -
New York Legislature forms NYC Metropolitan Board of Health -
US Congress authorizes national soldiers' homes -
US Congress rejects presidential veto giving all equal rights in US. -
US President Andrew Johnson ends the civil war in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee & Virginia. -
The Civil Rights Bill passes over President Andrew Johnson's veto.
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US House of representatives passes 14th Amendment (Civil rights). -
Tennessee becomes 1st Confederate state readmitted to Union -
David Farragut was appointed as 1st admiral in US Navy. -
Ulysses S. Grant was named 1st General of the Army -
President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over -
African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia. -
Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state -
US Congress created the Department of Education -
First Reconstruction Act passed by the U.S. Congress; overturning Johnson's veto -
Congress passed a 2nd Reconstruction Act over President Johnson's veto -
Congress approved the Lincoln Memorial. -
The United States reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia for a price of $7.2 million. -
President Andrew Johnson announced the purchase of Alaska. -
President Andrew Johnson signed an act creating the territory of Wyoming. -
President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
