Chronology: Key Events in The American Civil War, 1861–65

1860 November: Election of President Lincoln.

1861 February: The Confederacy established with Jefferson Davis as President.

1861 April: Confederates attack Fort Sumter – Civil War begins; the North implements the Anaconda Plan (1).

1861 July: First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run).

1862 March: Battle of Shiloh.

1862 Summer: McClellan’s Peninsula campaign (2).

1862 August: Second Manassas (Bull Run).

1862 September: Battle of Antietam; Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (3).

1862 December: Battle of Fredericksburg.

1863 May: Battle of Chancellorsville.

1863 July: Battle of Gettysburg; fall of Vicksburg.

1863 November: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

1864 Spring: ‘Wilderness Campaign’ (4).

1864 June: Siege of Petersburg.

1864 September: Fall of Atlanta.

1864 November: Lincoln re-elected President (5).

1865 April: Fall of Petersburg; Lee surrenders at Appomattox.

(1) This was named after the venomous snake that crushed its victims to death. The Anaconda strategy planned to surround the enemy and starve them into submission.

(2) McClellan was an able general noted for his competent organisation and cautious strategy. He was always reluctant to send his troops into battle unless the odds were heavily stacked in their favour.

(3) Lincoln was not in favour of Emancipation fearing that if granted it would encourage the South to continue the war. He waited until the South had been halted at Antietam before issuing the Proclamation and its impact in the North was not felt until the end of the war.

(4) McClellan’s troops suffered appalling casualties during the Wilderness Campaigns and at Cold Harbor – some 25,000 were killed.

(5) Lincoln announced that the North would continue in the war until slavery was unilaterally abolished, the Union was established and Confederacy abolished, and the South surrendered unconditionally. This was only achieved after Appomattox.