Abraham Lincoln Timeline: Presidential Timeline of Important Events |
| 1861 | His inauguration as 16th President of the United States on March 4, 1861 |
| 1861 | April 2, 1861: The Confederate States of America are created from seven secessionist states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas - refer to Secession of the South |
| 1861 | Fort Sumter: Attack on Fort Sumter occurred in April 12, 1861 when Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard opened fire, marking the start of the Civil War (1861 - 1863) |
| 1861 | April: The Anaconda Plan outlining military strategy, was designed by General Winfield Scott and the leaders of the Union forces |
| 1861 | The remaining 4 states in the South Secede - Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia |
| 1861 | April 17, 1861: Virginia secedes from the Union |
| 1861 | May 6, 1861: Arkansas secedes from the Union |
| 1861 | May 20, 1861: North Carolina secedes from the Union |
| 1861 | June 8, 1861: Tennessee secedes from the Union |
| 1861 | June: General Robert E. Lee is appointed commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia |
| 1861 | President Lincoln ordered the Union Blockade of the Confederate seaports |
| 1861 | The President issues a Proclamation calling for 75,000 militiamen |
| 1861 | On July 18, 1861 Confederate victory at First Battle of Bull Run |
| 1861 | July: The coast of the Confederacy states are subject to a blockade |
| 1861 | November 8, 1861: The Trent Affair, a serious diplomatic incident with the British |
| 1862 | March 9,1862: Attack of the Union fleet in the Battle of the Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimac |
| 1862 | May 20, 1862: The Homestead Act was passed |
| 1862 | August 22: Abraham Lincoln issues the "Greeley Letter" in response to Horace Greeley's editorial "A Prayer of Twenty Millions." |
| 1862 | August 28-30, 1862: Confederate victory at Second Battle of Bull Run |
| 1862 | September 1862: Dr. Jonathan Letterman pioneered the very first military Ambulance Corps that saved the lives of thousands of casualties in the Civil War |
| 1862 | September 17, 1862: The Battle of Antietam of was fought, the bloodiest single day battle in the history of America. |
| 1862 | September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that changed the war aims of the Union. |
| 1863 | January 1: The Emancipation Proclamation - The war to preserve the Union now becomes a revolutionary struggle for the abolition of slavery. |
| 1863 | The Battle of Murfreesboro occurs on January 2, 1863 |
| 1863 | February 24: The territory of Arizona is formed from the Territory of New Mexico |
| 1863 | February 25: The National Banking Act |
| 1863 | March 3: The Conscription Act is passed. |
| 1863 | March 3: The Territory of Idaho is formed |
| 1863 | June 20: West Virginia is admitted to the Union |
| 1863 | July 3: The Battle of Gettysburg - a important Union victory but incurred massive casualties |
| 1863 | July 13 - 16: Draft riots erupt in New York City |
| 1863 | July: General Ulysses S. Grant is made lieutenant general for the Union |
| 1863 | November 19: Lincoln makes his famous Gettysburg Address and dedicates a portion of the Gettysburg battlefield as a national cemetery. |
| 1863 | December, 1863: Lincoln's Plan for Reconstruction. On December 3, 1863, he issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction |
| 1864 | General Ulysses S. Grant is appointed to command all of the armies of the United States. General Sherman succeeds Grant as the Western commander |
| 1864 | February 17, 1864: Sinking of the Confederate Submarine, the Hunley |
| 1864 | July 2, 1864: Republican radicals clamor for harsher terms for reconstruction and pass the Wade-Davis Bill. The pocket vetoed is applied by the President and the bill never became law. |
| 1864 | November 19: Nevada is admitted to the Union |
| 1864 | Abraham Lincoln is re-elected president |
| 1865 | January 31: The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed calling for the emancipation of all slaves with no compensation to their owners. It ends slavery in the United States |
| 1865 | April 3: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as President for his second term |
| 1865 | April 9: The Surrender of Appomattox. General Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to General Ulysses S. Grant |
| 1865 | Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction policy - the Ten Percent Plan providing ways to re-unify the nation. |
| 1865 | March 3, 1865: The Freedmen's Bureau is established to to help emancipated slaves (freedmen) |
| 1865 | April 14, 1865 - Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: President Lincoln takes his wife to Ford's Theater to see the play "Our American Cousin". John Wilkes Booth, a confederate sympathizer, shoots the president in the head. |
| 1865 | April 15: President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning. |
| 1865 | The presidency ends with his assassination and the Vice President assumes the presidency. The next US President was therefore Andrew Johnson |
Abraham Lincoln Timeline of important Events |