Major Events of Presidency:
- Process of secession begins with South Carolina
- Following the secession of 10 more states, Confederate States of America formed with Jefferson Davis as president
- Conflict at Fort Sumter (April 12-14) begins Civil War
- Trent affair threatens U.S. relations with Britain
- Homestead Act and Morrill Land Grant Act passed as part of nationalistic program to boost Union economy
- U.S. Sanitary Commission, a corps or volunteer nurses
- Union Pacific Railroad chartered
- Emancipation Proclamation issued on January 1st, 1863
- Central Pacific Railroad chartered
- 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, ratified
- Lincoln introduces preliminary Reconstruction plan, the 10% plan under which Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee readmitted to Union
- Wade-Davis Bill, a Reconstruction plan proposed by radical Republicans, passed
- The Freedman's Bureau, established to provide support and education for former slaves, established