Abraham Lincoln elected president
December 1860
South Carolina secedes from the Union
February 1861
Jefferson Davis inaugurated as president of
the Confederacy; The South seizes Federal forts
March 1861
Lincoln's Inauguration
April 1861
Attack on Fort Sumter
July 1861
First Battle of Bull Run
March 1862
Battle of
the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (formerly the Merrimac)
April 1862
The Battle of Shiloh; The Peninsular Campaign.
June 1862
The Battle of Seven Pines; Robert E. Lee replaces
Johnston
July 1862
Seven Days' Battles
August 1862
Second Battle of Bull Run
September 1862
Battle of
Antietam
December 1862
The Battles of Fredericksburg and
Murfreesboro
January 1863
Emancipation Proclamation
March 1863
The First Conscription Act
May 1863
The Battle
of Chancellorsville and the Vicksburg Campaign; Bureau of
Colored Troops is established
June-July 1863
The Battle of
Gettysburg
September 1863
The Battle of Chickamauga
November 1863
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address; The Battle
of Chattanooga
March 1864
Ulysses S. Grant is named
commander of the Union Armies
May 1864
Battle of the
Wilderness-- Grant vs. Lee; The Battle of Spotsylvania
June
1864
The Battle of Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg
July 1864
Confederate troops approach Washington, D.C.
September 1864
General William T. Sherman captures
Atlanta
November 1864
General Sherman's "March
to the Sea;" Lincoln is re-elected President
February 1865
Sherman marches through North and South Carolina
March 1865 -- Confederacy approves enlistment of slaves
in return for freedom
April 1865
Battle of Five Forks;
Union troops occupy Richmond and Petersburg
April 1865
Lee Surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse.
April 1865
Assassination of President Lincoln; Vice President Andrew
Johnson becomes President
April-May 1865
Final surrenders
among remaining Confederate troops. The Civil War is over.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1861.html; The Everything Civil War Book by Donald Vaughan; The Civil War for Dummies by Keith Dickson; World Book Encyclopedia.