TIMELINE OF EVENTS
| 1845 | Frederick Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass |
| April 14, 1861 | Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces |
| May 23, 1861 | General Benjamin Butler declares escaped slaves “contraband” |
| June 1861 | U.S. Sanitary Commission established |
| July 21, 1861 | First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) |
| August 6, 1861 | Confiscation Act passed |
| April 1862 | Slavery abolished in the District of Columbia |
| Battle of Shiloh | |
| Jefferson Davis signs conscription act | |
| June 1862 | Rose O’Neal Greenhow exiled to the South |
| September 1862 | Battle of Antietam |
| Lincoln issues preliminary Emancipation Proclamation | |
| January 1, 1863 | Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation |
| March 1863 | Enrollment Act passed in North |
| July 1863 | Draft riots in New York City |
| Battle of Gettysburg | |
| Battle of Vicksburg | |
| September 2, 1864 | Atlanta falls; Sherman begins “March to the Sea” |
| 1865 | 200,000 African Americans serving in the Union army and navy |
| January 1865 | Sherman issues Field Order Number 15 |
| January 31, 1865 | Congress passes Thirteenth Amendment |
| April 9, 1865 | General Lee surrenders to General Grant at Appomattox Court House |
| April 14, 1865 | Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln |