The document provides an overview of key events and figures of the American Civil War from 1854 to 1865, including the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, states seceding from the Union after Lincoln's election, the first battle at Fort Sumter, leaders Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, important battles at Antietam, Gettysburg and Petersburg, General Sherman's March to the Sea, the surrender at Appomattox Court House, and Lincoln's assassination.

1. The U.S. Civil War

2. Stephen Arnold Douglas
 In 1854 Illinois Senator
Stephen A. Douglas
pushed the Kansas-
Nebraska Act through
the United States
Congress.
 The act said that
residents of the two
territories should
decide for themselves
whether slavery should
be legal.

3. President Lincoln
 Soon after Abraham
Lincoln's election as
president of the United
States, seven Southern
states seceded from the
Union because they feared
that Lincoln would abolish
slavery.
 Four more states had
followed by the time Lincoln
delivered his first inaugural
address on March 4, 1861.

4. U.S. in 1861 before Civil War

5. Civil War Begins
 South Carolina was
the first state to
secede from the
Union on December
20, 1860. It was
also the site of the
first battle of the
American Civil War.
 On April 12, 1861,
Confederate artillery
shelled Fort Sumter
in Charleston
Harbor.

6. Jefferson Davis
 During the American Civil
War (1861-1865),
Jefferson Davis served as
the president of the
Confederate States of
America.
 Davis was a pro-slavery
advocate who initially
opposed secession.
However, when his state
withdrew from the Union,
he resigned from the
U.S. Senate to support
the South.

7. Giant Mobile Mortar
 Confederate troops
pose with a giant
flatcar-mounted
mortar.
 Railroads greatly
increased the ability of
both sides to transport
troops, supplies, and
weapons during the
American Civil War
(1861-1865).

8. Confederate Currency
 The Confederate
States of America
issued its own paper
currency throughout
the American Civil
War (1861-1865).
 Shown here are
Confederate bills
ranging in value
from 5 to 100
dollars.

9. Stonewall Jackson
 One of the most
famous generals of
the American Civil War
(1861-1865), Thomas
Jonathan Jackson
served under
Confederate General
Robert E. Lee.
 During the First Battle
of Bull Run, or
Manassas, Jackson’s
brigade was victorious
though it faced
overwhelming odds.

10. Robert E. Lee
 Robert E. Lee was a
brilliant general who
commanded the
Confederate Army during
the American Civil War
(1861-1865).
 He was known for his
leadership, dignity, and
calm manner, even in
times of stress.

11. Monitor and Virginia
 Ironclad ships Monitor and
Virginia fire cannonades at
one another at point-blank
range during the historic
battle of Hampton Roads
in March, 1862.
 The Union Monitor was
smaller and lighter than its
Confederate counterpart.
The battle was considered
a draw.

12. Union Battery near Yorktown,
Virginia
 Union General George B.
McClellan occupied
Yorktown, Virginia, in May
1862. Northern forces built
batteries and earthworks
such as the one pictured
here to protect their armies.
 McClellan used the Yorktown
area to prepare a planned
march on Richmond, the
Confederate capital.

13. Abraham Lincoln at Antietam
 After the Battle of
Antietam on September
17, 1862, President
Abraham Lincoln visited
Union commanders on the
battlefield.
 The battle marked the
bloodiest one-day battle of
the American Civil War—
casualties from both sides
mounted to about 23,000.
In the end, however, the
Union army emerged
victorious.

14. George Brinton McClellan
 A brilliant strategist,
organizer, and trainer of
troops during the American
Civil War (1861-1865),
General George McClellan
was praised as a “young
Napoleon.”
 However, his timidity on
the battlefield caused
President Abraham Lincoln
to replace him as leader of
the Union forces.

15. Union Casualties at Gettysburg
 During the American Civil
War, the Battle of
Gettysburg began on July
1, 1863, when a
Confederate brigade
searching for a badly
needed supply of shoes in
the small town of
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
ran into Union cavalry.
 After the three days of
battle were over, Union
forces claimed victory,
although both sides
suffered heavy casualties.

16. Union General Ulysses S. Grant
 During the American Civil
War, Ulysses S. Grant
was one of the Union
Army’s most successful
generals.
 President Abraham
Lincoln selected Grant to
lead the Union forces on
March 9, 1864, following
a string of unsuccessful
commanders.

17. Atlanta in the American Civil War
 This photograph depicts
Atlanta’s Peachtree
Street after the Union
army under General
William Sherman took
the city on September
2, 1864, during the
American Civil War.
 Sherman burned the
city two months later
before embarking on his
march to the sea.

18. American Civil War Destruction
 In 1864, during the American
Civil War, Union troops led by
General William T. Sherman
captured Atlanta, Georgia.
From there, Sherman split his
forces and marched them in a
parallel route southeast to
the Atlantic Ocean and then
through South Carolina.
 Along the way, Sherman’s
troops destroyed everything
in their path, including civilian
property that could be of use
to the Confederates.

19. William Tecumseh Sherman
 One of the Union’s best
generals during the
American Civil War
(1861-1865), William T.
Sherman marched an
army through the South,
destroying the last of the
South’s economic
resources.
 Because he waged an
economic war against
civilians, he has been
called the first modern
general.

20. Siege of Petersburg
 In 1864, Northern
troops tried to capture
Petersburg, Virginia,
during the American
Civil War.
 After being defeated in
battle, they surrounded
the city, blocking food
and supplies from
entering. Almost a year
later, the city
surrendered in April
1865. Here, Northern
soldiers sit in the
trenches surrounding
Petersburg.

21. Andersonville Prison, Georgia
 Prisoners of war of
both sides suffered
greatly.
 In the Confederate
prison at
Andersonville,
more than 13,700
Union soldiers died
of starvation and
disease out of
almost 50,000 men.

22. Company E:
4th U.S. Colored Infantry
 Virtually all black
soldiers fought on the
side of the Union
during the American
Civil War (1861-1865).
 They served in
segregated all-black
units, like the one
pictured here, and
fought in nearly 500
engagements.

23. Surrender at
Appomattox Court House
 On April 9, both
generals met at a
private home in the
small town of
Appomattox Court
House.
 Grant offered
generous terms, which
Lee graciously
accepted. With that,
the American Civil War
ended.

24. Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
 President Abraham
Lincoln was shot in Ford’s
Theater, Washington DC,
on April 14, 1865 by John
Wilkes Booth, a Southern
sympathizer.
 Lincoln was taken to a
boarding house across
the street. Doctors
worked on him
throughout the night but
Lincoln died the next
morning.