Confederate forces from States of America attacked the U.S. military garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Less than two days later, the fort surrendered. The battle started the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in American history. It was important because it marked the official beginning of the American Civil War.

The Battle of Shiloh was a crucial success for the Union Army, led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee. It allowed Grant to begin a massive operation in the Mississippi Valley later that year.

The Battle of Second Bull Run was a decisive victory for the rebels, as Lee had managed a strategic offensive against an enemy force twice the size of his own. The Confederate had victory, the Union was crushed and the army was driven back to Bull Run. It was important because it opened the way for the south's first invasion of the north, and a bid for foreign intervention.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." It's important because it stated that slavery would officially end.

The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great loss to the Confederate army. Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Union victory, Gettysburg ended Confederate general Robert E. Lee's ambitious second quest to invade the North and bring the Civil War to a swift end.

The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery. It was important because it sought to give meaning to the sacrifice of soldiers who died during the war.

Lincoln took office following the 1860 presidential election, in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field. Almost all of Lincoln's votes came from the Northern United States, as the Republicans held little appeal to voters in the Southern United States.

Abraham Lincoln was re-elected president in the midst of the Civil War. Lincoln defeated Democratic candidate George McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote.

The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution says "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." It was important because it forbid chattel slavery across the United States and in every territory under its control, except as a criminal punishment.

The Appomattox campaign was a series of American Civil War battles fought March 29 – April 9, 1865, in Virginia that concluded with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House marked the end of the war in Virginia.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Abraham Lincoln's assassination dramatically changed the Reconstruction era.

Representatives from the six seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to formally establish a unified government, which they named the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy included the states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

The capture of New Orleans during the American Civil War was a turning point in the war that precipitated the capture of the Mississippi River. Having fought past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the Union was unopposed in its capture of the city itself. It was Union victory.

Antietam, the deadliest one-day battle in American military history, showed that the Union could stand against the Confederate army in the Eastern theater. Union victory at Antietam provided President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he had wanted to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, making the Battle of Antietam one of the key turning points of the American Civil War.

It featured the first opposed river crossing in American military history. Union and Confederate troops fought in the streets of Fredericksburg in the Civil War’s first taste of urban combat. The Battle of Fredericksburg at the end of 1862 was perhaps the Confederacy's most lopsided victory of the American Civil War. Confederate victory.

A significant consequence to the Battle of Chancellorsville was the death of General Stonewall Jackson to the Confederate war effort. It was a victory for General Lee to move north into Maryland and invade Pennsylvania.

Finally, in 1863, nearly two years into the war and twenty months after the special session, Congress passed an act authorizing Lincoln to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. The writ of habeas corpus is a tool preventing the government from unlawfully imprisoning individuals outside of the judicial process.

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was one of the first official black units in the United States during the Civil War.

The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. It eventually gave control of the Mississippi River and was part of the Union's successful Anaconda Plan to cut off all trade to the Confederacy. The Battle of Vicksburg was a decisive Union victory during the American Civil War.

On 1862, President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22, 1862. This bold move sent a message to his commanders that the president was tired of excuses and delays in seizing the offensive against Confederate forces. The unusual order was the product of a number of factors.

President Abraham Lincoln invoked the Insurrection Act in response to the secession of seven southern states at the outbreak of the Civil War.