April 12 -- Confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina fire on Fort Sumter in the city's harbor.
April 15 -- Secretary of War Cameron makes a call upon Kentucky for four regiments to join the Union army. Governor Magoffin refuses the request.
May 28 -- Governor Beriah Magoffin issues a proclamation declaring Kentucky's neutrality.
June 20 -- Election is held for members of Congress from Kentucky in response to President Lincoln's call for a special meeting of the U.S. Congress.
August 5 - Election is held to select the Kentucky legislature for the next two years. The legislature has a majority of Unionist candidates elected and the margin between Unionists and States Rights candidates is increased.
August -- U.S. Navy Lt. William "Bull" Nelson (later brigadier general) gathers Kentucky men to Camp Dick Robinson outside Lancaster in Garrard County to organize and train them in support of Unionist efforts in the state. -- Camp Dick Robinson is established by William "Bull" Nelson in Garrard County, the first Union training camp in the state.
September 3 -- Confederate forces under General Leonidas Polk move into Kentucky and occupy Columbus and Hickman.
September 5 -- Union forces under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant move into Paducah, Kentucky.
October 8, 1861 -- Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell replaces General William T. Sherman as commander of the Department of the Cumberland, responsible for the military in Kentucky.
October 14 -- General W.T. Sherman takes over responsibility for military preparations and operations in Kentucky from Gen. Robert Anderson.
October 21 - Battle of Camp Wildcat in Laurel County
October 26 -- Battle of Saratoga Springs (Lyon County).
November 8 -- Battle of Ivy Mountain fought in eastern Kentucky between Union forces under Col. James Garfield against Confederate forces under Colonel John S. Williams.
November 18 -- A Sovereignty Convention meets in Russellville and establishes the Provisional Government of Kentucky. George W. Johnson is elected the governor.
December 10 -- Kentucky is admitted into the Confederate States of America by vote of the Confederate Congress.
December 28 -- The battle of Sacramento fought between the forces of Confederate Nathan Bedford Forrest and Union cavalry troops. Largest cavalry battle fought in Kentucky during the war.
1862
January 10 - Battle of Middle Creek fought between forces under Union Colonel James A. Garfield and Gen. Humphrey Marshall.
January 19 -- Battle of Mill Springs fought in Pulaski County under Union General George H. Thomas and Confederate General George B. Crittenden.
July 8 -- John Hunt Morgan starts his first raid into Kentucky.
August -- Morgan begins second raid into Kentucky.
August 16 -- Governor Beriah Magoffin resigns from office and is replaced by James F. Robinson as the governor. Robinson serves out the remainder of Magoffin's term of office.
August 17 -- Battle of Richmond fought between forces under Union Gen. William B. Nelson and CSA Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. Union forces suffer disastrous defeat.
October 4 -- Confederate General Braxton Bragg orchestrates the inauguration of Richard Hawes as the provisional governor of Kentucky in the occupied state capitol of Frankfort. Ceremonies are interrupted by the approach of Union cavalry and artillery.
September 27 -- Battle of Augusta, Kentucky fought in the time of that name between Morgan's forces under Basil Duke and Home Guard troops.
October 8 - The battle of Perryville (Chaplin Hills) is fought between the Army of Tennessee (C.S.A.) and the Union Army of the Ohio in Boyle County near the village of Perryville.
October 1862 -- Confederate forces under both Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith retreat from Kentucky back into Tennessee.
Late October -- General Don Carlos Buell replaced in command of the Army of the Ohio by Gen. William Rosecrans.
1863
January 1 - President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect in the states in rebellion against the United States. This does not include Kentucky.
March 30 - Battle of Dutton Hill, 1 1/2 miles from Somerset (Pulaski County) between forces of CSA Brig Gen John Pegram and Union forces under Brigadier General Quincy A. Gillmore.
July 4 - Battle of Tebb's Bend between Morgan's forces and Union Michigan troops in Taylor County.
July -- Morgan's long raid over into Ohio and Indiana.
August 3 - Election of Thomas Bramlette as governor of Kentucky to replace Governor James F. Robinson, who served out Beriah Magoffin's unexpired term.
1864
September 4 -- General John Hunt Morgan is killed by Union forces in Greenville, Tennessee.
November 8 -- Presidential election results in Kentucky casting its electoral votes for George B. McClellan for President of the United States. In Kentucky, Lincoln gains 27,786 votes to McClellan's 64,301. Lincoln is re-elected for a second term. Kentucky and New Jersey are the only two states going for McClellan.
December 6 through January 15, 1865 -- Confederate campaign through Tennessee and western Kentucky counties under command of Confederate Brigadier General Hylan B. Lyon.
1865
January 11 - James Guthrie elected by the Kentucky legislature to a 6-year term in the U.S. Senate.
April 9 - General Robert E. Lee surrenders his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean house in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.
April 14 -- President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.