EPISODE ONE 1861 1787: The United States Constitution is ratified; slaves are counted as three-fifths of a person and enjoy no rights of citizenship. 1793 Eli Whitney, a northerner, invents the cotton gin. 1803 Louisiana Purchase roughly doubles the size of the United States. 1831 William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of radical abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. 1831 55 whites killed in Virginia slave revolt led by Nat Turner. 1837 Pro-slavery mod kills abolitionist editor Elijah P. Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois. 1846-8 War with Mexico adds territory to the United States. 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s inter-national best-seller, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, exposes the evils of slavery. 1854-5 Anti-slavery northerners found the Republican Party. 1854 The Kansas-Nebraska Act allows incoming settlers to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery. 1857 The Supreme Court decides that a slave, Dred Scott, has no rights a white man is bound to respect. 1858 Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate issues in the campaign for Illinois United States Senate seat. 1859 John Brown is executed for treason against the state of Virginia after his unsuccessful attempt to incite a slave uprising at Harpers Ferry. 1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States. 1861 February - The Confederate States of America is formed, with Jefferson Davis sworn in as president. 1861 March 4 - Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as President of the United States. 1861 April 12 – Confederates fires on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. 1861 April 14 – Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to put down the insurrection. 1861 April 18 – Virginia’s Robert E. Lee rejects Lincoln’s request to command the Union army. 1861 April 19 – Lincoln orders the blockade of ports in Confederate states. 1861 July 21 – Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run) in Virginia; 4,878 casualties. EPISODE TWO 1862 1862 February 6 and 16 – Battles of Fort Henry and Donelson in Tennessee; 4,332 casualties. 1862 February 20 – Willie Lincoln dies of typhoid fever in the White House. 1862 March 9 – Battle of the Ironclads, the Confederate Merrimac vs. the Union Monitor, Hampton Roads, Virginia. 1862 March 13 – George McClellan plans to move his 121,500 troops to Richmond. It takes three weeks and 400 boats to land at Fortress Monroe on the Virginia coast. 1862 April 4 to 7 – Confederate General Jeb Magruder stages theatrical troop movements at Yorktown, with an army of only 11,000, creating the appearance of a much larger force. 1862 April 6 to 7 – Battle of Shiloh at Pittsburgh Landing in Tennessee; 23,700 casualties. 1862 April 16 – Lincoln signs into law a bill prohibiting slavery in the District of Columbia. 1862 April 24 – Battle of New Orleans: Admiral David Farragut sails past forts at mouth of Mississippi River to take the city. EPISODE THREE 1862 1862 June 25 – The Seven Days (the Peninsula Campaign) for Richmond, Virginia; 36,000 casualties. 1862 August 29 to 30 – The Battle of Second Manassas in Virginia (also known as Second Bull Run); 25,251 casualties. 1862 September 17 – Battle of Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland; 23,000 casualties in bloodiest day of combat in American history. 1862 September 24 – Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus for individuals deemed guilty of "Discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting military drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice offering comfort to Rebels." 1862 October 11 – The Confederate Congress passes a bill exempting from army service anyone owning 20 or more slaves. 1862 December 13 – The Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia; 17, 900 casualties. 1863 January 1 – Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. EPISODE FOUR 1863 1862-3 December 31 to January 3 – The Battle of Murfreesboro; 23,514 casualties. 1863 March 3 – Congress passes the Conscription Act, calling for the enlistment in military service of all able-bodied males between 20 and 45 years of age for terms of three years. 1863 March 10 – Faced with an estimated 125,000 deserters, Lincoln issues o general amnesty for all who will report back to duty. 1863 April 21 to May 11 – The Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia; 30,051 casualties. 1863 May 19 – Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham, an out-spoken critic of Lincoln and the war, is exiled to the South. 1863 May 19 – In three weeks Grant’s army marches 180 miles through Mississippi, fights and wins five battles, and surrounds Vicksburg. After a failed attack on the city, Grant settles for a siege to "Out-camp the enemy." EPISODE FIVE 1863 1863 July 1 to 3 – The Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania 51,000 casualties. 1863 July 4 - The Battle (Siege) of Vicksburg in Mississippi; 50,000 casualties; 29,000 rebels surrender. 1863 July 13 – 50,000 people (mostly Irish) riot in New York City in opposition to the draft, attacking and beating blacks. 1863 July 18- 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry attacks Battery Wagner at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. 1863 August 1 – Jefferson Davis offers amnesty to all Confederate deserters. 1863 August 21 – Confederate William C. Quantrill’s guerilla raid on Lawrence, Kansas; 150 civilian casualties. 1863 September 19 to 20 – The battle of Chickamauga Creek in Georgia; 34,444 casualties. 1863 November 19 – Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address dedicates a battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg Pennsylvania. 1863 November 23 to 25 – The Battle of Chattanooga in Tennessee; 12,491 casualties. EPISODE SIX 1864 1864 March 2 – U.S. Grant named General-in-Chief of Union armies. 1864 April 12 – The Massacre at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Tennessee; 431 casualties. 1864 May 5 to 19 – The Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania near Chancellorsville, Virginia; 54,000 casualties. 1864 May 31 – A group of radical Republicans meets in Cleveland, Ohio to nominate their own presidential candidate, General John Charles Fremont. 1864 June 1 to 3 – The Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia; 13,500 casualties. 1864 June 14 – Naval battle between CSS Alabama and USS Kearsarge near Cherbourg, France; 33 casualties. 1864 June 27 – The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain near Marietta, Georgia; 2,321 casualties. EPISODE SEVEN 1864 1864 June 8 – Lincoln is nominated by the Union Party for president. Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee Union Democrat, is nominated as vice-president. 1864 July 2 to 14 – Early’s Raid on Washington, D.C.; 9,000 casualties. 1864 August 5 – Naval Battle of Mobile Bay; 589 casualties. 1864 August 31 – General McClellan is nominated as the Democratic candidate for president. 1864 July 18 to September 3 – The Battles for Atlanta; 20,000 casualties. 1864 October 19 – The Battle of Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley: 8,665 casualties. 1864 October 19 – Confederate raiders, based in Canada, steal $200,000 from banks in the Vermont town of St. Albans. 1864 November 8 – Lincoln is re-elected to a second term winning more than 55 percent of the popular vote. 1864 December 16 – The Battle of Nashville in Tennessee; 4,449 casualties. 1864 December 21 – Sherman captures Savannah, Georgia. EPISODE EIGHT 1865 1865 January 15 battles for Fort Fisher in North Carolina; 1,841 casualties. 1865 February 3 – Lincoln meets with Confederate Peace Commission at Hampton Roads, Virginia. 1865 February 19 – Confederates abandon Charleston, South Carolina. 1865 March 3 – Union Congress creates the Freedmen’s Bureau. 1865 March 13 – The Confederacy authorizes the arming of slaves as soldiers. 1865 March 25 to April 2 – The Battle of Petersburg in Virginia; 17,000 casualties. 1865 April 3 to 4 – Davis flees Richmond, hoping to escape to the South; Lincoln arrives in the city. 1865 April 9 – Lee surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. 1865 April 14 – Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.