January 31 - U.S. Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment
to the United States Constitution:
Section 1. 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.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation
The amendment is then submitted to the states to be ratified.
February 3 - President
Lincoln meets with Confederate
Vice
President Alexander Stephens at Hampton Roads in Virginia, in an
effort to make peace, but alas, the meeting is a failure, and the war
continues. The only remaining military opposition faced by the 280,000
man strong Northern forces are General Lee's army at Petersburg, and
Joseph E. Johnston's troops in North Carolina.
March 4 - Inauguration ceremonies for President Lincoln take
place in Washington. The President delivers his
second inaugural address, calling for an end to the war.
March 25 - Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia attacks Grant's forces at Petersburg. The attack
fails in a matter of hours.
April 2 - General Grant's forces plow through Lee's lines at
Petersburg. Confederate
General Ambrose P. Hill
is killed, and Lee evacuates Petersburg, unable to fend off the might of
the Northern forces. Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate Capital,
is evacuated.
April 3 - Union troops enter Richmond and raise the Stars and Stripes.
April 4 - President Lincoln tours Richmond, after entering the
Confederate White House, he sits at Jefferson Davis' desk.
April 9 - General Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate
Army to General Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court
House in Virginia.
April 10 - Washington celebrates its victory.
April 14 - The Stars and Stripes is raised over Fort Sumter.
During the evening of the same day, President Lincoln is shot in the by
John Wilkes Booth
as he and his wife are attending a play at Ford's theater. Booth jumps
over the wall of the theater, catching his foot on the bunting
decorating the front of the presidential box, he then crashes on the
stage and breaks his leg; he manages to stumble out the back of the
stage and make his escape on horseback.
April 15 - At 7:22 am, as doctors struggle to save him,
President Abraham Lincoln dies. He is immediately replaced by
Vice President Andrew Johnson.
April 18 - Following General Lee's lead, General Joseph E. Johnston
surrenders his Confederate Army to General William Sherman near Durham, North Carolina.
April 26 - John Wilkes Booth is shot by detectives while
hiding out in a tobacco barn in Virginia, hours later, he dies from his
wounds.
May 4 - Abraham Lincoln is laid to rest in Oak Ridge
Cemetery, near Springfield, Illinois. In the days that follow, the
remaining Confederate Rebels surrender.
The Civil War cost over half a million American lives,
in addition to dying in battle, many succumbed to
disease and starvation, with many of the "lucky" ones who survived the
conflict returning home as amputees.
