AP United States History Intro Joshua

W. LaRue
1859-1863
12.7.2009

1859
• October 6, John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
• December 2, John Brown is hanged
•
1860
• Lincoln elected from the Republican Party(though he was not on the ballet in
the south)
• April 3, Pony Express begins
• May 9, Constitutional Union Party holds its convention and nominates John
Bell for president
• My 18, Lincoln is nominated for the candidate of the Republican Party
• November 6, U.S. presidential election: Lincoln beats John C. Breckinridge,
Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell and is elected the 16 th president of the
U.S., the first Republican to hold that office
• December 20, South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the
Union
1861
• Civil War begins
• January, South secedes
• February, South creates a government
• February, South seizes federal forts
• March 4, Lincoln’s inauguration
• April 12, Attack on Fort Sumner
• April, Four more states join the Confederacy
• June 20, West Virginia is born
• June, Four slave states stay in the Union
• July 21, First Battle of Bull Run
• July, General McDowell is replaced by General George McClellan
1862
• January 27, Abraham Lincoln Takes action
• February 6, Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant gives the U.S. their first
victory by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee
• February 15, Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson,
Tennessee and captures it the next day
• February 21, Battle of Valverde fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico
Territory
• March 7, Battle of Pea Ridge: Confederates are shut out of Missouri
• March 8, McClellan loses command
• March 8, The ironclad CSS Virginia is launched to Hampton Roads, Virginia;
Battle of Hampton Roads starts the same day
• March 9, First battle between two ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and
the CSS Virginia, begins
• March 13, The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from
returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of
1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
• March 28, Battle of Glorieta Pass: In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in
stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico Territory (the battle began
on March 26)
• April 5, Battle of Yorktown: The battle begins when Union forces under
General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital of Richmond,
Virginia
• April 6, Battle of Shiloh begins
• April 10-11, General Quincy A. Gillmore battered Fort Pulaski, the imposing
masonry structure near the mouth of the Savannah River, into submission in
less than two days
• April, Flag Officer David Farragut led an assault up the Mississippi River. By
April 25, he was in command of New Orleans.
• April, General McClellan's troops left northern Virginia to begin the
Peninsular Campaign. By May 4, they occupied Yorktown, Virginia. At
Williamsburg, Confederate forces prevented McClellan from meeting the
main part of the Confederate army, and McClellan halted his troops,
awaiting reinforcements.