Judy Dodge Cummings - The Civil War: The Struggle that Divided America

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Civil War

1619

The first African slaves arrive in Jamestown, Virginia.

1787

The United States Constitution is written, guaranteeing protections for slave owners.

1820

The Missouri Compromise becomes law in an attempt to balance the power between slave states and free states.

1833

The American Antislavery Society is established by abolitionists committed to ending slavery.

18461848

The United States fights a war with Mexico and wins extensive territory in the South and West.

1850

The Fugitive Slave Law is passed in another attempt to pacify Southern states, but the harsh law angers citizens in free states.

May 30, 1854

The Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed, permitting these territories to vote on whether they want slavery or not. Two years later, Kansas explodes in violence between proponents and opponents of slavery.

May 6, 1857

In the Dred Scott Decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that even free African Americans are not citizens and the government cannot restrict slave owners right to take their slaves into free states.

October 16, 1859

Radical abolitionist John Brown raids the armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in an effort to launch a slave rebellion.

November 6, 1860

Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States.

December 20, 1860

South Carolina is the first state to secede from the Union.

February 4, 1861

The Confederate States of America is formed.

April 12, 1861

The opening shots of the Civil War are fired when Confederate artillery bombs Fort Sumter.

July 21, 1861

The First Battle of Bull Run occurs near Manassas, Virginiathis is the first major engagement of the Civil War.

April 67, 1862

The Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee results in more casualties than in all American wars combined up to this point.

September 17, 1862

The Battle of Antietam takes place in Sharpsburg, Marylandthis is the bloodiest day in American history.

January 1, 1863

President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in rebelling states and permitting African Americans to join the military.

July 13, 1863

The Battle of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, General Lees second and last attempt to invade the North, fails.

May 18July 4, 1863

The Union siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, ends in victory, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River.

July 1113, 1863

People in New York City riot over the draft.

November 15December 21, 1864

General Sherman leads the Union army on a destructive march from Atlanta, Georgia, to Savannah, Georgia.

March 4, 1865

President Lincoln is inaugurated into office for a second term.

April 9, 1865

General Lee surrenders to General Grant at the Appomattox Court House in Appomattox, Virginia, signaling the Civil War is all but over.

April 14, 1865

President Lincoln is shot while attending a play at Fords Theater in Washington, DC.

April 15, 1865

Abraham Lincoln dies. Vice President Andrew Johnson is sworn in as president.

18651877

The period known as Reconstruction works to bring the former Confederate states back into the Union and establish basic rights for former slaves.