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UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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Events of the Civil War

Click on the map to choose an event, or go to the Calendar to choose an event of interest.

Please e-mail the publisher with additions or corrections.

Last updated May 23, 1999

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1860

1861

1862

1863

1864

1865

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1860
December
20th
South Carolina secedes from the Union.

 

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1861
January
9th
Cadets from the Citadel fire on the Star of the West from Cummings Point, South Carolina; arguably the first shot fired in the Civil War.

29th
Kansas is admitted to the Union.

February
18th
Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America.

March
4th
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as President of the United States of America.

April
12th
Bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina begins, 0430.
First Union return fire is ordered by Brigadier General Abner Doubleday.

14th
Robert Anderson, Major General, USA, surrenders Fort Sumter.

15th
Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers.

17th
Virginia secedes from the Union.

May
6th
The Confederacy issues letters of marque and reprisal.

July
21st
Battle of Manassas {Bull Run} in Virginia.

August
9th
Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri.

November
7th
Union naval troops capture Port Royal in South Carolina.

 

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1862
February
6th through 16th
Union troops under U.S. Grant capture Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee.

March
6th
Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas.

9th
USS Monitor and CSS Virginia {ex-USS Merrimack} engage off Hampton Roads in Virginia.

26th through 28th
Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico; Colonel John P. Slough and Major John M. Chivington {see November 29, 1864} defeat General Sibley's column and force his retreat to Texas.

April
6th & 7th
Battle of Shiloh {Pittsburg Landing} in Tennessee.

11th
Union troops capture Fort Pulaski outside Savannah in Georgia.

25th
Union troops capture New Orleans in Louisiana.

31st
Battle of Seven Pines {Fair Oaks} in Virginia.

June
1st
General Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Army of Northern Virginia at Richmond.

25th through 30th
Battle of the Seven Days.

August
29th & 30th
Battle of Second Manassas {Second Bull Run} in Virginia.

September
1st
Battle of Chantilly in Virginia.

17th
Battle of Sharpsburg {Antietam} in Maryland.
The bloodiest day in American history; total killed were more than 4,700

October
3rd
Battle of Corinth in Mississippi.

December
13th
Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia.

31st
Battle of Murfreesboro {Stones River} begins in Tennessee.

 

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1863
January
1st
Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.

1st through 3rd
Battle of Murfreesboro {Stones River} in Tennessee.

May
1st through 4th
Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia.

10th
General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, shot by friendly fire at Chancellorsville, dies at Guinea Station in Virginia.

June
20th
West Virginia is admitted to the Union.

July
1st through 3rd
Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

4th
Union troops under U.S. Grant capture Vicksburg in Mississippi.

18th
54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry unsuccessfully attack Fort Wagner outside Charleston, South Carolina. {Later made into the movie Glory}

August
21st
William C. Quantrill {whose troops included 'Bloody Bill' Anderson, Cole Younger, and Frank James} leads 400 Confederate guerrillas into Lawrence, Kansas; 150 men and boys are killed and the town burned.

September
19th & 20th
Battle of Chickmauga in Georgia.

November
23rd through 25th
Battle of Chattanooga in Tennessee.

 

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1864
April
8th
Battle of Sabine Crossroads in Louisiana.

May
5th through 6th
Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia.

May
8th through 19th
Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in Virginia.

14th & 15th
Battle of Resaca in Georgia.

15th
Battle of New Market in Virginia.

June
1st through 3rd
Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia.

18th
Union troops under U.S. Grant begin siege of Petersburg in Virginia.

19th
CSS Alabama, Admiral Raphael Semmes commanding, sunk by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France.

27th
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia.

July
9th
Battle of Monocacy in Virginia.

August
5th
Union fleet under Admiral Farragut enters Mobile Bay.

September
1st
Battle of Jonesboro in Georgia

2nd
Union troops under Sherman enter Atlanta in Georgia.

19th
Battle of Winchester in Virginia.

27th
William 'Bloody Bill' Anderson leads 30 guerrillas into Centralia, Missouri; in an ambush, 116 Union cavalry troopers were killed.

October
7th
Commodore Napoleon Collins, commanding USS Wachusett, boards and captures CSS Florida in the harbor of Bahia, Brazil.

19th
Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.

31st
Nevada is admitted to the Union.

November
8th
Abraham Lincoln is reelected.

15th
Union troops under Sherman begin marching toward the sea.

29th
Colonel John M. Chivington {see March 28, 1862} led the 3rd Colorado Cavalry in the Sand Creek massacre in Eastern Colorado; over 150 Cheyenne, mostly women and children, are killed.

30th
Battle of Franklin in Tennessee.

December
15th & 16th
Battle of Nashville in Tennessee.

21st
Union troops under Sherman enter Savannah in Georgia.

 

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1865
January
1
Captain William Quantrill, CSA, takes two dozen troopers {including Frank James and Jim Younger} disguised as the '4th Missouri Cavalry' [USA] out of Arkansas and through Tennessee into Kentucky, bound for Washington to assassinate Lincoln. His mission ended in failure in Kentucky on May 10, 1865.

February
17th
Union troops under Sherman burn Columbia in South Carolina.

March
20th
Battle of Bentonville in North Carolina.

April
1st
Battle of Five Forks in Virginia.

3rd
Confederate defenses collapse in front of Petersburg in Virginia.

9th
General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox.

14th
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington.
Robert Anderson, Major General, USA, returns to Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, and raises the same U.S. flag he had lowered when he surrendered it four years earlier.

26th
General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army at Durham Station in North Carolina.

May
10th
Jefferson Davis is captured near Irwinville, Georgia.

12th & 13th
Last battle of the War at Palmito Ranch in Texas.

26th
General Kirby Smith surrenders his Trans-Mississippi Department at Shreveport.

June
23rd
General Stand Watie surrenders his Cherokee brigade in Doaksville, Oklahoma.

November
6th
Captain James I. Waddell, CSN, surrenders the CSS Shenandoah in Liverpool.