Civil War began as Confederates fired on Ft. Sumter in Charleston, SC, on April 12. They captured the fort on April 14. By April 15 there was a new president in office. He was Abraham Lincoln. He asked for 75,000 volunteers to block southern ports on April 19, cutting off exports and aid. The Confederates turned against Union forces at the first Battle of Bull Run July 21. That same year the First transcontinental telegraph was put in operation. In 1862, the Homestead Act was approved on May 20. This granted free family farms to settlers. The Land Grant Act approved July 7, providing for public land sale to benefit agricultural education. This eventually led to the establishment of state university systems. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, freeing ?all slaves in areas still in rebellion.? The entire Mississippi River was in Union hands by July 4. The Union forces won a major victory at Gettysburg, PA, on July 1-3. Lincoln read his famous Gettysburg Address November 19. Later that year draft riots in New York City killed or wounded about 1,000 men. Rioters protested provision allowing money payment in place of service. Such payments were ended in 1864. In 1864, General Sherman marched through Georgia, taking Atlanta, September 1 and Savannah, December 22. In the last year of the war, General Robert E. Lee surrendered 27,800 Confederate troops to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA, April 9, 1865. J. E. Johnston surrendered 31,200 to General Sherman at Durham Station, NC, April 18, 1865. The Last rebel troops surrendered May 26. President Lincoln was shot April 14, by John Wilkes Booth, in Ford?s Theater, Washington, DC. He died the following morning. Booth was reported dead April 26. The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified December 6. Ending the Civil War....
