Abraham Lincoln elected president (November 6)

South Carolina secedes (December 20)

Lincoln inaugurated (March 4)

Confederates fire on Fort Sumter (April 12)

Virginia leaves Union (April 17)

General Butler declares refugee slaves “contraband of war” (May)

Confederates win Battle of Bull Run (July 21)

First Confiscation Act (August)

Legal Tender Act authorizes greenbacks (February)

Union triumphs at Shiloh (April 6–7)

Confederacy introduces draft (April)

Congress passes Homestead Act and Transcontinental Railroad Act (May, July)

Union halts Confederates at Antietam (September 17)

Preliminary emancipation proclamation (September 22)

Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation (January 1)

Union wins battles at Gettysburg (July 1–3) and Vicksburg (July 4)

Union initiates draft (March), sparking riots in New York City (July)

Ulysses S. Grant named Union commander (March)

Grant advances on Richmond (May)

William Tecumseh Sherman takes Atlanta (September 2)

Lincoln reelected (November 8)

Sherman marches through Georgia (November and December)

Congress approves Thirteenth Amendment (January 31)

Robert E. Lee surrenders (April 9)

Lincoln assassinated (April 14)

Thirteenth Amendment ratified (December 6)