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Abraham Lincoln gives his speech explaining that the founding fathers intended for Congress to regulate enslavement. -
The mail service used relays of horse riders between Missouri and California. -
Northern Paiutes advance and raid Williams Station in Utah Territory. -
The Constitutional Union Party holds its convention and nominates John Bell for President. -
The Republican Party selected Abraham Lincoln to be their presidential candidate. -
The Paiute War comes to end after two battles in an informal ceasefire. -
Lincoln and his vice president, Hannibal Hamlin win the election with only 39% of the votes. -
This was an unsuccessful proposal to try and make slavery permanent in the United States. It attempted to make ending slavery unconstitutional for any future congresses. -
South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the union. -
Buchanan fires his cabinet after discovering corruption and treason amongst the members. -
Mississippi secedes from the Union. -
Florida secedes from the Union. -
Alabama secedes from the Union. -
Georgia secedes from the Union. -
Louisiana secedes from the Union. -
Texas secedes from the Union. -
The secessionist states establish the Confederate States of America. -
Abraham Lincoln is sworn into office and is officially the 16th president. -
The Civil War begins at For Sumter after Confederate forces attack the garrison there. -
The First Bull Run battle begins and becomes the first battlefield of the Civil War. -
Lincoln issues a war order, commanding the Union army to take aggressive measures against the Confederacy. -
Lincoln gets tired of general McClellan's inactivity and fears he won't be able to defeat Lee. He relieves him of his position and he becomes commander of Potomac Army. -
Confederate forces attacked Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh, Tennessee. By the end of the day, the federal troops were almost defeated. -
Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, commanding forces in the Shenandoah Valley, attacked Union forces in late March, forcing them to retreat across the Potomac. -
The Confederate army attacked federal forces at Seven Pines, almost defeating them; last-minute reinforcements saved the Union from a serious defeat. -
Between June 26 and July 2, Union and Confederate forces fought a series of battles: Mechanicsville (June 26-27), Gaines's Mill (June 27), Savage's Station (June 29), Frayser's Farm (June 30), and Malvern Hill (July 1). -
Major-General Henry Halleck was named general-in-chief of the Union army. -
The Second Bull Run was fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia. -
Confederate forces under General Lee were caught by General McClellan near Sharpsburg, Maryland. This battle proved to be the bloodiest day of the war; 2,108 Union soldiers were killed and 9,549 wounded—2,700 Confederates were killed and 9,029 wounded. -
General McClellan's slow movements, combined with General Lee's escape, and continued raiding by Confederate cavalry, dismayed many in the North. -
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring that all slaves in areas still in rebellion were, in the eyes of the federal government, free. -
Union General Hooker crossed the Rappahannock River to attack General Lee's forces. Lee split his army, attacking a surprised Union army in three places and almost completely defeating them. -
Union General Grant won several victories around Vicksburg, Mississippi, the fortified city considered essential to the Union's plans to regain control of the Mississippi River. -
Confederate General Lee decided to take the war to the enemy. On June 13, he defeated Union forces at Winchester, Virginia, and continued north to Pennsylvania. -
Hooker, never comfortable with his commander, General Halleck, resigned on June 28, and General George Meade replaced him as commander of the Army of the Potomac. -
Major General George Meade took command of the Army of the Potomac on June 28, 1863. Three days later his army defeated the Army of Northern Virginia commanded by General Robert E. Lee. Meade pursued Lee for the remainder of the summer and failed to bring him to battle and defeat him. -
On July 1, a chance encounter between Union and Confederate forces began the Battle of Gettysburg. In the fighting that followed, Meade had greater numbers and better defensive positions. He won the battle, but failed to follow Lee as he retreated back to Virginia. -
Union and Confederate forces met on the Tennessee-Georgia border, near Chickamauga Creek. After the battle, Union forces retreated to Chattanooga, and the Confederacy maintained control of the battlefield. -
On November 23-25, Union forces pushed Confederate troops away from Chattanooga. The victory set the stage for General Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. -
The difficult strategic situation of the federal armies after Chickamauga enabled Bragg to detach a force under Longstreet to drive Burnside out of eastern Tennessee. Burnside sought refuge in Knoxville, which he successfully defended from Confederate assaults. -
Union forces under William T. Sherman enter the city of Meridian, Mississippi after a successful month of campaigning through the central part of the state. The capture of this important southern town, well known for its industry and storage capabilities, severely hampers the efforts of Confederate commanders to sustain their armies in the deep south, Georgia, and west of the Mississippi River. -
The CSS H.L. Hunley, a seven-man submergible craft, attacked the USS Housatonic outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Struck by the submarine's torpedo, the Housatonic broke apart and sank, taking all but five of her crew with her. -
Universally referred to as Andersonville Prison Camp, it will become notorious for overcrowded conditions and a high death rate among its inmates. -
His rank was revived at the request of President Lincoln. Grant assumes command of all Union Armies in the field the following day. -
Relentless and bloody Union attacks fail to dislodge Lee's army from its strong line of defensive works northeast of Richmond. -
After withdrawing from the lines at Cold Harbor, the Army of the Potomac crossed the James River and with troops from the Army of the James attacked the outer defenses of Petersburg, the primary junction for several southern railroads. After four days of bloody attacks, Grant accepts that only a siege can systematically isolate the city and cut off Confederate supplies to the capital of Richmond. -
In an attempt to draw Union troops away from the ongoing siege of Petersburg and Richmond, a Confederate force under Jubal Early quietly moved north into Maryland. Early had made excellent progress until he reached Frederick, Maryland, where a force of 6,000 Federal troops under General Lew Wallace, was arrayed to delay his advance. -
In a sweeping assault, the Confederate stronghold known as Fort Harrison falls to the Army of the James. Confederate efforts to retake the fort fail. -
In an early morning surprise attack, Jubal Early's Confederates successfully attack and drive troops of the Army of the Shenandoah from their camps on the banks of Cedar Creek south of Middletown, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln is reelected president of the United States. -
Union occupation of this fort at the mouth of the Cape Fear River closes access to Wilmington, the last southern seaport on the east coast that was open to blockade runners and commercial shipping. -
Lincoln is inaugurated for his second term as president in Washington, DC. -
Confederate troops under General John B. Gordon attack and briefly capture the Union fort in the Petersburg siege lines in an attempt to thwart Union plans for a late March assault. -
The Confederate defeat at Five Forks initiates General Lee's decision to abandon the Petersburg-Richmond siege lines. -
General Lee abandons both cities and moves his army west in hopes of joining Confederate forces under General Johnston in North Carolina. -
After an early morning attempt to break through Union forces blocking the route west to Danville, Virginia, Lee seeks an audience with General Grant to discuss terms. -
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor, and Confederate sympathizer assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
General Joseph Johnston signs the surrender document for the Confederate Army of the Tennessee and miscellaneous southern troops attached to his command at Bennett's Place near Durham, North Carolina. -
General Richard Taylor surrenders Confederate forces in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana. -
The final battle of the Civil War takes place at Palmito Ranch, Texas. It is a Confederate victory. -
The United States Congress overwhelmingly passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the first federal legislation to protect the rights of African-Americans. -
U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoes the bill on March 27. -
The U.S. Congress approves the minting of a nickel, eliminating its predecessor, the half dime. -
The Judicial Circuits Act reduces the number of United States circuit courts to nine and the number of Supreme Court justices to seven. -
Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War. -
The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank. -
The Metric Act of 1866 becomes law and legalizes the use of the metric system for weights and measures in the United States. -
President Johnson formally declares Civil War over. -
The Second Plenary Council of American Roman Catholic bishops is held in Baltimore. -
The College of Wooster is founded in Ohio. -
Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state. -
Temporarily divided the South into five military districts and outlined how governments based on universal (male) suffrage were to be organized. -
Yellow fever kills 3,093 in New Orleans. -
African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia. -
West Virginia University is established in Morgantown, West Virginia. -
Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million from Alexander II of Russia. -
The first elevated railroad in USA begins service in New York. -
In Boston, Massachusetts, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established as the first dental school in the United States. -
U.S. takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, paying $7.2 million. -
Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas, a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.