BATTLES AND EVENTS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

1861
February 4: Seceding states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a government.
February 18: Jefferson Davis is inaugurated in Montgomery, Alabama, as provisional president of the Confederate States.
March 4: Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as president of the United States.
May 23: Virginia voters ratify succession.
July 21: South wins at First Manassas (Bull Run); Rebel General T. J. Jackson gains reputation as a "Stonewall."

1862
February 16: First meeting in Richmond of Confederate Congress.
February 22: Davis inaugurated in Richmond as president of the permanent Confederate States.
March 8: Inclad CSS Virginia sinks USS Cumberland and USS Congress at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
March 9: Drawn battle between CSS virginia and Union ironclad USS Monitor.
March 17: Troops under General George McClellan begin arriving at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Rain and mud delay, McClellan faked by Quaker guns.
April 6-7: South loses at Battle of Shiloh.
April 20: New Orleans formally surrenders to Union forces.
May 5: Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia--Rebels fall back toward Richmond; eight days later Davis sends his family to safety in North Carolina.
May 31: Confederates under J. E. Johnston attack Federal troops at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Johnston is wounded; General Robert E. Lee takes command the next day.
June 6-July 1: The Seven Days' Battles. Generally Confederate victories and McClellan retreats.
September 17: Drawn Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg); Lee returns to Virginia, but McClellan fails to follow up for a decisive victory; Lincoln will relieve McClellan.
December 13: Lee wins major victory at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

1863
January 1: Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, freeing all slaves in captivity, in areas not controlled by the United States.
January 2: Drawn battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee (Stones River).
April 2: Richmond, Virginia Bread Riot.
April 29--May3: Lee wins at Chancellorsville; Stonewall Jackson is wounded, and dies eight days later.
June 9: General Jeb Stuart wins Battle of Brandy Station, but it's the first time he's had difficulty with a rapidly improving Union cavalry. Largest calvary battle on the American continent.
June 15: Lee wins at Winchester, Virginia, then heads for Pennsylvania.
July 1--3: Union under General George Meade wins Battle of Gettysburg, Lee returns to Virginia.
July 4: General Ulysses S. Grant takes Vicksburg, butting the South in half.
September 19--20: South wins at Battle of Chickamauga, Tennessee.
November 25: Grant wins Battle of Chattanooga.

1864
February 9: Union prisoners escape from Libby Prison in Richmond; 48 recaptured and two drown.
March 9: Grant assumes command of all Union forces.
May 4--7: Grant goes into the Wilderness to face Lee; widespread confusion, but Lee wins.
May 8--18: Grant and Lee face each other again, this time in the Battle of Spotsylvania; on May 11, at Yellow Tavern outside Richmond, Stuart is killed.
June 3: Lee wins defensive Battle of Cold Harbor against Grant; 7,000 killed in the first seven minutes of the battle.
June 18: After crossing the James River, Grant loses Battle of Petersburg, Virginia; begins siege.
July 30: The fiasco known as the Battle of the Crater is fought at Petersburg; the South wins.
August 5: Confederate navy loses to Admiral David Farragut at Mobile Bay: "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead."
September 2: General William T. Sherman takes Atlanta, Georgia.
November 8: Lincoln is elected to a second term.
November 16: Sherman burns Atlanta, then begins his March to the Sea.
November 19: Gettysburg Battlefield dedicated, Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address.
November 30: Sherman defeats Confederate general Hood at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
December 21: Sherman captures Savannah, Georgia--Lincoln's "Christmas present."

1865
January 30: Lee is appointed commander-in-chief of all Confederate forces.
February 3: Peace commission led by Confederate Vice President Stevens meets with President Lincoln on a yacht in Hampton Roads, with no result.
February 17: Charleston, South Carolina, falls to Sherman, that same day, Sherman's army burns Columbia, South Carolina.
March 18: Last Confederate Congress Adjourns in Richmond, Virginia.
March 25: Lee fails in his attempt to take Fort Stedman at Petersburg, Virginia, it's his last attack of the war.
April 1: General Philip Sheridans' cavalry overwhelms Confederates at the Battle of Five Forks.
April 2: Grant breaks through Lee's forces outside of Petersburg; that night, Lee abandons Petersburg; Confederate set fire to Richmond.
April 3: Richmond falls to Federal troops.
April 4: Lincoln visits Richmond, sits in Davis's chair at the Confederate White House.
April 9: Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.
April 14: President Lincoln is assissinated in Washington, D.C.
April 26: General Johnston surrenders to General Sherman.
May 8: General Taylor surrenders to General Edward Canty at Citronell, Alabama.
August 23: Confederate surgeon Major Aaron Brown surrenders wounded in Upson County, Georgia, the last Rebel ground forces to surrender.
November 6: Confederate Captain James Waddell of the CSS Shenandoah surrenders to the British in Liverpool, England, preferring not to hand over his ship to the United States, It's the final surrender of the war.

There were many more battles, skirmishes and other events then listed here, I just took the most important, in my hunble opinion.

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