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1861
April 12. Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter.
April 15. President Lincoln issued a call for troops.
April 19. Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of the South.
May 21. Richmond, Virginia, was chosen as the Confederate capital.
July 21. Northern troops retreated in disorder after the first Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).

1862
Feb. 6. Ulysses Grant's Northern troops captured Fort Henry.
Feb. 16. Fort Donelson fell to Union forces.
Mar. 9. The ironclad ships Monitor and Merrimack battled to a draw.
Apr. 6-7. Both sides suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Shiloh, won by the Union.
Apr. 16. The Confederacy began to draft soldiers.
Apr. 18-29. A Union fleet under David Farragut captured New Orleans.
May 4. George McClellan's Union troops occupied Yorktown, Virginia, and advanced on Richmond.
May 30. Northern forces occupied Corinth, Mississippi.
June 6. Memphis fell to Union armies.
June 25-July 1. Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee saved Richmond in the Battles of the Seven Days.
Aug. 29-30. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson led Southern troops to victory in the second Battle of Bull Run.
Sept. 17. Confederate forces retreated in defeat after the bloody Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg).
Sept. 22. Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
Oct. 8. Don Carlos Buell's forces ended Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in the Battle of Perryville.
Dec. 13. Ambrose Burnside's Union forces received a crushing blow in the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Dec. 31-Jan. 2. Union troops under William Rosencrans forced the Confederates to retreat after the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stones River).

1863
Jan. 1. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Mar. 3. The North passed a draft law.
May 1-4. Northern troops under Joseph Hooker were defeated in the Battle of Chancellorsville.
May 1-19. Grant's army defeated Confederates in Mississippi and began to besiege Vicksburg.
July 1-3. The Battle of Gettysburg ended in a Southern defeat and marked a turning point in the war.
July 4. Vicksburg fell to Northern troops.
July 8. Northern forces occupied Port Hudson, Louisiana.
Sept. 19-20. Southern troops under Bragg won the Battle of Chickamauga.
Nov. 19. Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.
Nov. 23-25. Grant and George Thomas led Union armies to victory in the Battle of Chattanooga.

1864
Mar. 9. Grant became General in Chief of the North.
Apr. 8-9. Federal troops under Banks met defeat in the Red River Expedition.
May 5-6. Union and Confederate troops clashed in the Battle of the Wilderness.
May 8-12. Grant and Lee held their positions in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
June 3. The Union suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Cold Harbor.
June 20. Grant's troops laid siege to Petersburg, Virginia.
July 11-12. Jubal Early's Confederate forces almost reached Washington, but retreated after brief fighting.
Aug. 5. Farragut won the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Sept. 2. Northern troops under William Sherman captured Atlanta.
Nov. 8. Lincoln was re-elected President.
Nov. 15. Sherman began his march to the sea.
Nov. 16. John Hood invaded Tennessee.
Nov. 30. John Schofield's Union forces inflicted heavy losses on Hood in the Battle of Franklin.
Dec. 15-16. The Battle of Nashville smashed Hood's army.
Dec. 21. Sherman's troops occupied Savannah, Georgia.

1865
Feb. 3. The Hampton Roads Peace Conference failed to end the war.
Feb. 6. Lee became General in Chief of the South.
Apr. 2. Confederate troops gave up Petersburg and Richmond.
Apr. 9. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.
Apr. 14. Lincoln was assassinated.
Apr. 26. Joseph Johnston surrendered to Sherman.
May 4. Confederate forces in Alabama and Mississippi surrendered.
May 26. The last Confederate troops surrendered.

This page was last updated on 04/12/2011.