Civil War Timeline

 

Before the Civil War

  1. 1854- Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, establishing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. This act increases the growing tension between the North and the South over slavery.

 

  1. 1857- Dred Scott v. Sanford case takes place, Supreme Court decision states that Congress does not have the right to ban slavery in states and that slaves are not citizens.  This case further inflamed the tension between the North and the South, and angered many antislavery organizations.

 

  1. 1859- Abolitionist John Brown and 21 followers capture federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia attempting to spark a slave revolt.  This revolt aroused many fears in the South of similar revolts.

 

  1. 1860- Abraham Lincoln is elected president.  Since he was a republican president many of the states seceded from the Union, because they did not want to be a part of a country with an antislavery president.

 

  1. 1861- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana secede and establish the Confederate States of America.  This action was an effort to protect slavery from being destroyed by the antislavery President Lincoln who was recently elected.

 

During the Civil War

 

  1. 1861- The Civil War begins over the expansion of slavery into western states.  This was the unavoidable result of the constant conflict between the north and the south over slavery.

 

  1. April 12, 1861- The confederate army attacks Ft. Sumter in Charleston, S.C., marking the start of the war.  This was the beginning of the bloodshed and pain that

 

  1. April–June, 1861- Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee secede from the union.

 

  1. Jan. 1, 1863- Emancipation Proclamation is issued, freeing slaves in the Confederate states.

 

  1. July 1–3, 1863- The Battle of Gettysburg is fought. This battle

 

  1. Nov. 19, 1863- President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.

 

  1. Sept. 2, 1864- Gen. William T. Sherman captures Atlanta.

 

  1. April 3, 1865- Gen. Ulysses S. Grant captures Richmond, Virginia capital of the Confederacy.

 

  1. April 9, 1865- The Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.

 

  1. Dec. 6-1865- The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified, prohibiting slavery.  This was the result that the war brought.

 

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Work Cited

 

<http://http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1861.html>.