Map of the Civil War
Blue: Union States
Light blue: Slave holding Union States
Red: Confederate States
White States were not states before or during the Civil War.
Light blue: Slave holding Union States
Red: Confederate States
White States were not states before or during the Civil War.
Timeline
Compromise of 1850 (1850):
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854):
Bleeding Kansas (1854-1861):
The Dred Scott Decision (1857):
Lincoln – Douglas Debates (1858):
Harper’s Ferry (1859):
Lincoln’s Election (1860):
Fort Sumter (1861):
Bull Run (1861):
Antietam (1862):
Emancipation Proclamation (1863):
Gettysburg and Gettysburg Address (1863):
Andersonville Prison (1864):
Surrender at Appomattox Court House (1865):
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1865):
Reconstruction (1865-1877):
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The compromise of 1850 was a series of resolutions presented to the Senate by Henry Clay to tackle the issue of the statehood of the expanding state of California. To please the North, California would be admitted to the Union as a free state and to please the South, the compromise proposed a new and more effective fugitive slave law. To please both, a provision allowed popular sovereignty. This compromise also ended the slave trade in Washington D.C. and successfully sorted out further more issues dealing with states won in the Mexican-American War. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was put in place in order to repeal the Missouri Compromise. Through this act, Nebraska was split into two territories- Kansas in the South and Nebraska in the North. This act then allowed white male settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to determine, through popular sovereignty, whether they would allow slavery in that state. This act was proposed by Stephen A. Douglas, a democratic senator from Illinois. As a result of this act being put in place, people with strong opinions moved to Kansas in order to place their vote and make sure the outcome was favorable to their beliefs. Once the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed and many pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters migrated to Kansas to cast their votes, violent clashes soon occurred. In the end, the pro-slavery side won the election and the anti-slavery side was not pleased. Tension boiled between the two groups and violence erupted in which some 55 people were killed. This conflict in Kansas was a major factor that led to the start of the Civil War. Dred Scott was a black slave from Missouri who temporarily lived in Illinois and Wisconsin with his owner, both of which were free sates, before eventually returning to Missouri. Scott believed that he and his wife should be free because of their previous residence in those free states. Scott then sued for his freedom in court. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that blacks are not citizens and therefore he and his wife were not granted the right to sue for their freedom. The LIncoln-Douglas debates were a series of debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephan Douglas. Both Lincoln and Douglas were campaigning for an Illinois Senate seat at the time. In the views they held, Lincoln wished to abolish slavery while Douglas favored the continuation of having some slave states and some non-slave states. In the end, Douglas won the election and gained a Senate seat, and Lincoln gained popularity from the Lincoln-Douglas debates that eventually won him a presidential election just a couple years later in 1860. In 1859 John Brown, a violent abolitionist, along with 18 other men raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, yet failed to succeed as Brown and many of his men were captured and killed in the process. Brown's plan was to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal and thus begin a slave rebellion. After his capturing, Brown was then convicted of treason in trail which resulted in death by hanging Abraham Lincoln was elected the16th president of the United States in 1861. Once Lincoln was elected, many southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy, contributing to the start of civil war a month after his inauguration. Lincoln then made it a goal to preserve the Union through the war. Fort Sumter was the first noted battle of the Civil War. This battle resulted after South Carolina left the Union and then wanted Union forces to leave the Charleston Harbor. The Union Army then moved their location to Fort Sumter, which was a defensible fort that controlled the entrance to the Charleston Harbor. The Confederates were furious with the Union's move and therefore attacked the fort until the Union forces were finally forced to surrender. This battle marked not only the beginning of the American Civil War, but the first Confederacy win. The Battle of the Bull Run, fought on July 21, 1861, was the first major land battle of the Civil War. The Union hoped to end the war with a victory in this battle by taking control of Richmond, but were unfortunately very unprepared. The Confederate troops were pushed back by the Union only until they were able to bring in reinforcements and force the retreat of the Union. Stonewall Jackson earned his name with this Confederacy victory and was considered a strong force on the Confederate side throughout the rest of the war. The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, is remembered as the bloodiest single day battle in American history with nearly 26,000 casualties. This battle came about as General George B. McClellan, of the Union, pursued Confederate General Robert E. Lee into Maryland. McClellan then launched attacks against the Confederate army, while defending themselves behind Antietam Creek. The battle ended in a standoff after a long day of brutal fighting. The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that freed the slaves in all regions behind Confederate lines. This Proclamation also stated that qualified people among those freed slaves could enroll into the United States Army, which was a huge benefit to Union forces. However, citizenship was still not granted to ex-slaves and not all slavery was out-lawed in the United States. The Gettysburg Address was a speech given by Abraham Lincoln four months after the Battle of Gettysburg took place. In this speech, Lincoln commemorated the fallen Union soldiers saying that they would not be forgotten for their brave hard-fought battle with the Confederacy over Union territory. The Battle of Gettysburg was a 3 day battle in which the Confederates were leaning towards the win after the first 2 days. Once the third day came, however, the Union ended the battle with a much needed victory. In this battle the Union had lost 23,000 men while the Confederates lost 28,000, making a total of 51,000 deaths. In late 1863, the Confederacy found that it needed to construct additional prisoner of war camps to house captured Union soldiers waiting to be exchanged. They decided to build the prison in Andersonville, where it would eventually hold 33,000 men in an area of 26 acres. Andersonville Prison had very poor living conditions resulting in the deaths of nearly 1/3 of prisoner population. On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met at Appomattox Court House to arrange a Confederate surrender. With Lincoln's request, Grant gave very generous terms of surrender in which he allowed the confederate soldiers to take home their personal possessions, their horses, and 3 days of rations. On April 14, 1865, only 5 days after the surrender of the Confederates, Lincoln was shot in the back of the head and killed while attending “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. His assassin was Confederate actor John Wilkes Booth. Booth managed to escape the theatre but was found 12 days later and shot to death. During the Reconstruction Era, the southern states were allowed back into the Union in order to create national unity. Also during the Reconstruction Era, amendments 14 and 15 were added to the constitution, both of which benefitted African Americans who were recently freed slaves. |