150 Years Ago, a Civil War Timeline

The American Civil War took place between 1861 and 1865, a century and a half ago. The issue of slavery was one of the primary issues leading to the war. The roots of slavery in the "New World" date back to the earliest days of the colonies. Maryland in 1663 was the first colony that enacted a law stating that slaves were to be slaves for life, ignoring English law that at the time dictated that slaves were granted freedom if they converted to Christianity.

Succeeding years saw the establishment of other laws relating to slavery, and after the American Revolution and the formation of the United States, a series of events led to an attempt at keeping the number of slave to non-slave states close to equal in number.

By 1860 the United States census revealed a total population of 31,183,582 including 3,950,528 slaves or about 13%. Slaves equaled about 2% of the population in what would be the North. Thirty nine percent of the population of the South were slaves. The total population in the North was 22,080,250 with 9,103,332 people counted in the South. In the North 8% of the families owned slaves compared to 31% in the South.

In November of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote but won 59% of the Electoral votes. It is interesting to note that Lincoln was not even on the ballot in the Southern slave states. The fear of Lincoln's impending presidency was heating things up in the South. South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20^th. On December 26, 1860, U.S. Major-General Robert Anderson moves his troops from Ft. Moultrie, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Ft. Sumter located in the middle of Charleston Harbor.

The Star of the West, an unarmed merchant ship, arrived in Charleston Harbor on January 9, 1861 to deliver troops and supplies for Ft. Sumter. South Carolina artillery fired on the ship causing it to withdraw before reaching the fort. Ft. Sumter will surface again in the history of the war.

Thus the stage was set for a fairly rapid series of events.

January, 1861

January 9^th -Mississippi secedes from the Union.

January 10^th - Florida secedes from the Union.

January 11^th - Alabama secedes from the Union.

January 16^th - The Senate refuses to consider The Crittenden Compromise, one of several failed attempts to ease tension between the North and South. The compromise stated that the federal government could not interfere with slavery where it already existed and could not interfere with the recovery of slaves from any part of the Union.

January 19^th - Georgia secedes from the Union.

January 26^th - Louisiana secedes from the Union.

January 29^th - Kansas becomes the thirty fourth state and enters the Union as a free state in 1861.

February 1861

February 1^st - The Texas Legislature votes to secede from the Union. In a general election, held on February 23, 1861, voters ratified secession by a better than three to one margin.

February 8^th - Provisional Constitution of the Confederacy adopted in Montgomery, Alabama.

February 9^th - Jefferson Davis unanimously elected President of the Confederacy by delegates to the Montgomery convention.

February 11^th - President elect Abraham Lincoln leaves Springfield, Illinois, on his trip to Washington, D.C., arriving on Saturday, February 23.

February 18^th - Jefferson Davis inaugurated as President of the Confederacy, before Lincoln is inaugurated on March 4^th.

Additional articles will follow as the events of the Civil War play out, now one hundred and fifty years later.

Sources:

Smithsonian Timeline, Civil War

Civil War dot Net