The Civil War

1860:

• Abraham Lincoln is elected; South Carolina secedes

1861:

• Confederates attack Fort Sumter
• First Battle of Bull Run
• Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederacy
• George B. McClellan appointed commander of the Union Army.
• Trent Affair.

1862:

• Confederate Congress passes Conscription Act.
• Battle of Shiloh
• Robert E. Lee named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
• Second Battle of Bull Run.
• Battle of Antietam; McClellan is relieved of his command.
• Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
• Homestead Act passed.
• Battle of Fredericksburg.

1863:

• Congress passes the Conscription Act.
• Congress passes the National Banking Act.
• Draft Riots in New York City.
• The Emancipation Proclamation.
• Battle of Chancellorsville.
• Battle of Gettysburg.
• Siege of Vicksburg.

1864:

• Battle of the Wilderness.
• Capture of Atlanta.
• Sherman's March to the Sea.

1865:

• Capture of Columbia.
• Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
• Thirteenth Amendment is ratified.

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Causes of the War