Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Colonel Robert E. Lee resigns from the U.S. Army to follow his home state of Virginia out of the Union.
Virginians react to President Lincoln’s militia proclamation by voting to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
The fall of Fort Sumter and Abraham Lincoln’s militia proclamation spark mass mobilizations in both North and South.
President Lincoln issues a proclamation calling on 75,000 volunteers to join their state militias to help force the Confederate states back into the Union.
Major Robert Anderson’s Federal garrison formally surrenders and evacuates Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The war has begun.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter ends when Major Robert Anderson agrees to surrender his Federal garrison and evacuate.