1860
December 20: The legislature of South Carolina proclaims that the union between the state and the United States of America is formally dissolved.

1861
January 9–February 1: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas secede from the Union.

February 8: Southern politicians establish the Confederate States of America and elect Jefferson Davis as the Confederate president at a convention in Montgomery, Alabama.

March 4: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as president of the United States.

April 12: Shore batteries belonging to South Carolina's militia open fire on Fort Sumter, a U.S. installation in Charleston harbor.

April 17: A Virginia convention passes an ordinance of secession; eight days later Virginia joins the Confederate States of America.

May 21: The Confederate government moves its capital to Richmond, Virginia.

July 21: Southern forces win the first major victory of the Civil War at the Battle of First Manassas, or Bull Run.

1862
February 13: Fort Donelson, Tennessee, falls to Union forces under...