Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War This timeline of events leading up to the American Civil War describes and links to narrative articles and references about many of the events and issues which historians recognize as origins and causes of the Civil War. The pre-Civil War events can be roughly divided into a period encompassing the long-term build-up over many decades and a period encompassing the five-month build-up to war immediately after the election of Abraham Lincoln as President in the Election of 1860, which culminated in the Fall of Fort Sumter (April 1861). Since the early
Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps and during many decades thereafter, sporadic U. S. definitive issues appeared in honor of Civil War-related statesmen and military leaders—exclusively those, however, who had supported the Union cause. Their Confederate counterparts remained unrecognized on American stamps until 1937, when Lee and Jackson were included among the Civil War generals and admirals pictured in the commemorative Army-Navy issues, a series promoted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (himself a stamp enthusiast). Even then, however, with the war some seven decades in the past, this inclusion of a stamp honoring Confederate generals proved controversial. After the issue was announced in May 1936, a