Four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg, a crowd converges to dedicate the Soldiers' National Cemetery, which will be the final resting place for thousands of Union soldiers killed in the battle.
Major General Joseph Hooker, who replaced Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac after the Battle of Fredericksburg, leads Union forces back across the Rappahannock River, this time near Chancellorsville, Virginia.
Five days after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which, when it takes effect on January 1, 1863, will declare all slaves in rebellious states to be freed.
The first major battle to take place in the North (and the deadliest single day of battle in American history), begins with Union Major General George B. McClellan attacking the Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
After weeks spent at his home in Springfield, Illinois, during which he received news of Southern states seceding from the Union, President-elect Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated president of the United States.
After considering a large number of candidates, the representatives to the Republican Convention eventually settle on Abraham Lincoln as the party's nominee for president of the United States.
