Civil War TimelineBY: SAMANTHA WALKER

1861

• January- South Carolina, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas secede from the Union.

• February- At a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven seceding sates created the Confederate Constitution.

• March- At Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, President Lincoln said he had no plans to end slavery in the states where it already existed. He also said he wouldn’t accept secession and he hoped to resolve the crisis without warfare.

• April- The attack on Fort Sumter caused the fort to eventually be surrendered to South Carolina. The attack caused four more states to join the confederacy.

• July- First Battle of Bull Run.

South Carolina

1862

• April- On April 6, Confederate forces attacked Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant. This was at Shiloh, Tennessee. The federal forces were almost defeated, but during the night reinforcements were sent and by morning the Union was in command. When Confederate soldiers retreated, exhausted Union soldiers did not. This was known as the Battle of Shiloh.

• September- The Battle of Antietam. This battle is the single most bloodiest day of the war. There was no clear winner, but because General Lee surrendered to Virginia, McClellan was considered the victor.

1863

• January- Congress passed the Emancipation Proclamation, saying that all slaves against the Union were to be considered free.

• July- An encounter between forces began the Battle of Gettysburg on July first. The Union won the battle, but didn’t follow General Lee as he retreated back to Virginia.

• November- President Lincoln dedicated a portion of the battlefield as a national cemetery on November 19. Also he delivered his famous speech, the “Gettysburg Address.”

1864

• November- Abraham Lincoln was nominated for president by the Republican party along with Andrew Johnson for vice president. The Democratic party chose General George B. McClellan for president, and George Pendleton for vice president. President Lincoln was re-elected into office alongside Andrew Johnson.

1865

• January- Transportation issues and blockades caused shortages of food and supplies in the South. Starving soldiers began to leave Lee’s forces.

• February- President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy agreed to send delegates to a peace conference with President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward, but insisted on Lincoln’s recognition of independence for the South as a precondition. The conference never occurred because Lincoln refused.

• April- General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9 at Appomattox Courthouse. On April fourteenth, President Lincoln was watching a performance of “Our American Cousin,” at Ford’s Theater when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. He died the morning after. Booth was found eleven days later and shot by a Union soldier avenging President Lincoln’s death.

Division of states during the civil war

Resources

• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1861.html• catalog.flatworldknowledge.com • www.thelmagazine.com• http://www.piattcodems.us/• http://www.lowcountryafricana.com/south-carolina-a

ncestors/

• en.wikipedia.org• www.123rf.com• www.wpclipart.com