American Civil War Events

The Trial The acquittal represented a personal and professional triumph for Lincoln, who once rocked the defendant's cradle in New Salem. Lincoln took over the defense after a change o...

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect t..." —Abraham Lincoln

August 21, 1858, was the day that Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas met in Ottawa, Illinois, in the first of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Ottawa is a town in north-central Ill...

At Freeport Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. Douglas replied that settlers could circumvent the decision by not establishing the l...

MR. DOUGLAS’ SPEECH. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I appear before you today in pursuance of a previous notice, and have made arrangements with Mr. Lincoln to divide time, and discuss with him...

Fourth Joint Debate at Charleston Mr. Lincoln’s Speech (September 18, 1858) LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It will be very difficult for an audience so large as this to hear distinc...

At Galesburg Douglas sought again to prove that Lincoln was an abolitionist with the following quotes from Lincoln: “I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of Independen...

It was, wrote Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer of the Quincy Debate between U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, “the nastiest of the campaign.” Lincoln advisors ...

SENATOR DOUGLAS’ SPEECH. Long and loud bursts of applause greeted Senator Douglas when he appeared on the stand. As he was about to commence speaking, he was interrupted by Dr. Hope, o...

John Brown and other abolitionist followers raid the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, then in Virginia. He plans to start a slave insurrection and provide refuge for fleeing slaves. Fede...

In 1859, three of the Arlington slaves—Wesley Norris, his sister Mary, and a cousin of theirs—fled for the North, but were captured a few miles from the Pennsylvania border and forced to ...

Late on the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown and twenty-one armed followers stole into the town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) as most of its residents slept. The me...

Lincoln was chosen as the Republican candidate for the 1860 election for several reasons. His expressed views on slavery were seen as more moderate than those of rivals William H. Seward ...

On December 20, 1860, when it became clear that Lincoln would be the next president, South Carolina became the first state to declare its secession from the Union.

Battle of Manassas was written by Thomas Wiggins (aka "Blind Tom") at the age of 12. It is a programmatic work which describes the first major battle of the Civil War. As with many of his...

Naval service and European agent of Confederacy Bulloch served in the United States Navy for 14 years before joining a private shipping company. When the southern states attempted to l...

A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union. In the momentous step which our State has taken of diss...

His renewed service in the Senate was interrupted by an illness that threatened him with the loss of his left eye. Still nominally serving in the Senate, Davis spent the summer of 1858 in...

Four days after his resignation, Davis was commissioned a Major General of Mississippi troops. On February 9, 1861, a Constitutional convention at Montgomery, Alabama named him provisiona...

The Baltimore Plot was an alleged conspiracy in late February 1861 to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln en route to his inauguration. Allan Pinkerton, eponymous founder of the P...

The Corwin Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the United States Congress on March 2, 1861. Ohio Representative Thomas Corwin offered the amendm...

"The mystic chords of memory . . . will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." —Abraham Lincoln

The states that left the American Union in 1860 and 1861 brought with them a rich tradition of constitutionalism. Many Southern Leaders explained their support for secession in terms of t...

The Cornerstone Speech was delivered by Confederate Vice President, Alexander Stephens extemporaneously in Savannah, Georgia on March 21, 1861. The speech explained what the differences w...

Aaron Van Camp (June 23, 1816–September 15, 1892) was an espionage agent for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He was a member of the Rose O'Neal Greenhow C...

When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Hickok signed on as a teamster for the Union Army in Sedalia, Missouri, and by the end of the year he was a wagonmaster. In September 1862 he w...

On April 11, Beauregard sent three aides, Colonel James Chesnut, Jr., Captain Stephen D. Lee, and Lieutenant A. R. Chisolm to demand the surrender of the fort. Anderson declined, and the ...

The Baltimore riot of 1861 (also called the Pratt Street Riot and the Pratt Street Massacre) was an incident that took place on April 19, 1861, in Baltimore, Maryland between Confederate ...

In conformity with a resolution of the Confederate Congress, Davis immediately appointed a Peace Commission to resolve the Confederacy's differences with the Union. In March 1861, before ...

On May 22, 1861, Jordan resigned from the U.S. Army and was commissioned as a captain in the fledgling Confederate army. Promotion came rapidly, and by June 1861, he had become a lieutena...

As quickly as the Southern states seceded, pockets of resistance developed, the largest of which began in western Virginia and followed the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains south to G...

Sewell's Point is a peninsula of land in the independent city of Norfolk, Virginia in the United States, located at the mouth of the salt-water port of Hampton Roads. Sewell's Point is bo...

On May 25, 1861, a secessionist named John Merryman was imprisoned by military order at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Md., for his alleged pro-Confederate activities. Supreme Court Chief Justi...

The Battle of Aquia Creek took place from May 29 - June 1, 1861 in Stafford County, Virginia as part of the blockade of Chesapeake Bay during the American Civil War. Three Union naval ...

The Battle of Philippi — also called The Philippi Races — was fought on June 3, 1861, in and around Philippi, Virginia (now West Virginia) as part of the Western Virginia Campaign of the ...

Douglas died in Chicago from typhoid fever on June 3, 1861. He was buried on the shore of Lake Michigan. The site was afterwards bought by the state, and an imposing monument with a statu...

The Battle of Big Bethel, also known as the Battle of Bethel Church or Great Bethel was an American Civil War battle that took place on June 10, 1861, in Hampton and York County, Virginia...

The First Battle of Boonville was a minor skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring on June 17, 1861, near Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri. Although casualties were extremely lig...

The Battle of Cole Camp was a skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring on June 19, 1861, in Benton County, Missouri. The rebel victory assured an open line of march for the fleeing g...

Richard Thomas Zarvona (October 27, 1833 – March 17, 1875), born Richard Thomas Jr., was an American adventurer and a Confederate Army officer who became known as "the French lady" after ...

The Battle of Hoke's Run, also known as the Battle of Falling Waters or Hainesville, took place on July 2, 1861, in Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Virginia) as part of the Manassas C...

The Battle of Carthage, also known as the Battle of Dry Fork, took place at the beginning of the American Civil War on July 5, 1861, in Jasper County, Missouri. The experienced Colonel Fr...

Espionage during the Civil War The Greenhows had eight children: First came Florence, Gertrude and Leila. Then came four children who would never make it through infancy, Alice Rose, R...

The Battle of Rich Mountain took place on July 11, 1861, in Randolph County, Virginia (now West Virginia) as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil ...

The Battle of Corrick's Ford took place on July 13, 1861, on the Cheat River in Western Virginia (now the state of West Virginia) as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign du...

The Battle of Blackburn's Ford took place on July 18, 1861, in Prince William County and Fairfax County, Virginia, as part of the Manassas Campaign of the American Civil War. On July 1...

In the winter of 1860-61 pro-Confederate sentiment was strong in Baltimore. Norris made no secret of his southern sympathies and with the outbreak of war he and his family left for Virgin...

Other Names: First Bull Run Location: Fairfax County and Prince William County Campaign: Manassas Campaign (July 1861) Date(s): July 21, 1861 Principal Commanders: Brig. Gen. ...

The Battle of Mesilla was a Arizonan victory at Mesilla, in Confederate States of America's Arizona Territory on July 25, 1861. This victory paved the way for the Confederate offensive th...

The Battle of Athens was an American Civil War skirmish that took place in northeast Missouri in 1861 near present Revere and southeast Iowa along the Des Moines River across from Croton ...