Abraham Lincoln Papers

1860 | 1861 | 1862 | 1863 | 1864 | 1865

1860
November 6 Lincoln elected President

1861
March 4 Lincoln inaugurated
April 12 Firing on Fort Sumter, S.C., initiated the Civil War
July 21 1st Battle of Bull Run

1862
June-September 2nd Bull Run Campaign
July 13 Lincoln read initial draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to Secretaries Seward and Welles
July 22 Lincoln discussed Draft of the Emancipation Proclamation at a Cabinet Meeting.
September Antietam Campaign
September 22 Cabinet discussion of Emancipation
First printing of preliminary version of Emancipation Proclamation

1863
January 1 Lincoln signed the Final Draft of the Emancipation Proclamation
April-May Chancellorsville Campaign
June-July Gettysburg Campaign
November 19 The Gettysburg Address

1864
April 4 Lincoln explained his choices related to emancipation
May-December The March Toward Richmond
May 5-7 Grant's Wilderness Campaign
May 7-20 Battle of Spotsylvania
June '64-May '65 Petersburg Campaign
September 1 Fall of Atlanta
November 8 Lincoln Re-Elected

1865
April 9 General Lee surrendered
April 14 Lincoln assassinated. (Further details in Lincoln assassination timeline.)

John Sellers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division Historian.


Abraham Lincoln Papers