TIMELINE

1860
  • Abraham Lincoln elected president (November 6)

  • South Carolina secedes (December 20)

1861
  • 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)

1862
  • 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)

1863
  • 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)

1864
  • 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)

1865
  • Congress approves Thirteenth Amendment (January 31)

  • Robert E. Lee surrenders (April 9)

  • Lincoln assassinated (April 14)

  • Thirteenth Amendment ratified (December 6)