The Civil War 1860 – 1865 

1860: On November 6, Abraham Lincoln is elected president.

1860: On December 20, South Carolina secedes from the Union

1861: Congress passes the First Confiscation Act which prevents Confederate slave owners from re-enslaving runaways

1861: On May 2, black men in New Orleans organize the First Louisiana Native Guard of the Confederate Army. In doing so they create the first and only military unit of black officers and enlisted men to pledge to fight for Southern independence.

1861: By February, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas secede. They form the Confederate States of America on March 4. After firing on Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the Confederacy.

1862: The Port Royal (South Carolina) Reconstruction Experiment begins in March. The Port Royal Experiment was a program begun during the American Civil War in which the formerly enslaved successfully worked on the land abandoned by their oppressors. In 1861 the Union Army captured the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and their main harbor, Port Royal. All of the white residents fled, leaving behind 10,000 enslaved men and women. Several private Northern charity organizations stepped in to help these now formerly enslaved become self-sufficient. The Black Americans worked the land efficiently. They lived and thrived independently of white control.

1862: Slavery is abolished in Washington D.C.

1862: In May an enslaved man named Robert Smalls escapes from Charleston, South Carolina alongside 16 others by piloting a Confederate vessel, The Planter to the Union blockade.

1862: On July 17th Congress authorizes the enlistment of black soldiers into the U.S. Army. During the American Civil War approximately 200,000 blacks (mostly formerly enslaved) serve in Union armed forces and over 20,000 are killed in combat.

1862: With the southern states absent from Congress, the body recognizes Haiti and Liberia, marking the first time diplomatic relations are established with a predominately black nation.

1862: On September 22nd President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation (officially known as Proclamation 95) was an Executive Order that declared that all persons held as slaves in the rebel states shall be free. However, the enslaved in the slave states that remained in the Union (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri) remained in bondage.

1862: Educator Mary Jane Patterson is generally recognized as the first black American woman to receive a B.A. degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. Lucy Stanton Day Sessions graduated from Oberlin twelve years earlier but was not in a program that offered a B.A. degree.

1863: Proclamation 95, more commonly known as the Emancipation Proclamation takes effect on January 1, freeing the enslaved in areas of the South still in rebellion against the United States. The enslaved in the states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri remained in bondage.

1863: On July 18, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, the first officially recognized all black military unit in the Union army, assaults Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina in an unsuccessful effort to take the fortification. Sergeant William H. Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor for his brave actions in the battle. When the color guard was killed in the fighting, Sergeant Carney retrieved the U.S. flag and continue marching forward despite several serious wounds. After his troops were forced to retreat, he eventually returned to his own camp and turned the flag over to another survivor. When asked about his actions he stated, “Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground!”. Due to the serious wounds, he was honorably discharged in June 1864.

1863: Robert Smalls, who about a year earlier escaped Charleston, South Carolina by piloting a Confederate vessel, is the first and only African American to be commissioned a captain in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.

1863: Susie King Taylor of Savannah is the first black Army nurse in U.S. history

1864: On April 12th, The Fort Pillow Massacre takes place in Tennessee. Approximately 300 of 585 soldiers were killed. Most of them most killed after the Union forces surrendered. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest commanded his men to shoot or bayonet the surrendering Union troops. Many of the Union killed at Fort Pillow were black.

1864: In June Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler of Boston is the first African American woman to earn a medical degree when she graduates from the New England Female Medical College in Boston.

1864: On June 15, Congress passed a bill authorizing equal pay, equipment, arms, and health care for black American troops in the Union Army.

1864: On October 4, La Tribune de la Nouvelle Orleans (the New Orleans Tribune) begins publication. The Tribune is the first black-owned daily newspaper.

1865: On January 16, General William Tecumseh Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15 which gives 400,000 acres of abandoned coastal land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to formerly enslaved people. This order becomes the basis for, "40 acres and a mule.”

1865: On February 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 13th Amendment states in part, “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.” The exception in this amendment will be exploited against black Americans until the present day.

1865: In February, Martin R. Delany's appointment as Major by President Abraham Lincoln makes him the highest-ranking black officer during the Civil War.

1865: On March 3, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to provide health care, education, and technical assistance to the emancipated. Congress also charters the Freedman's Bank to promote savings and thrift among formerly enslaved.

1865: Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

1865: On April 15th, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, D.C. The murder is apart of a larger conspiracy to assassinate not only Lincoln but also Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. However, only Lincoln was killed.

1865: On June 19th, enslaved black Americans in Texas finally receive news of their emancipation. From that point they commemorate that day as Juneteenth.