1860
November: Abraham Lincoln elected President.
December: South Carolina votes to secede.
1861
9 February: Jefferson Davis elected President of the Confederate States of America.
12 April: Southern artillery opens fire on Fort Sumter.
1862
6-7 April: Battle of Shiloh.
18 June: Buell begins first campaign against Chattanooga.
27 June: Bragg assumes command of Army of Tennessee.
28 August: Bragg marches from Chattanooga to invade Kentucky.
8 October: Surprise Confederate assault initiates Battle of Perryville. McCook’s corps routed while Sheridan holds his ground.
18 October: Bragg decides to retreat; the invasion ends in failure.
30 October: Rosecrans relieves Buell as commander of Army of the Cumberland.
31 December: Surprise Confederate assault initiates Battle of Murfreesboro (Stones River).
1863
3-4 January: When Rosecrans refuses to retreat, Bragg withdraws his army from the field.
24-6 June: Rosecrans advances from Murfreesboro. Wilder’s ‘Lightning Brigade’ captures Hoover’s Gap, opening route around Bragg’s flank.
30 June: Bragg withdraws over Tennessee River. In nine-day campaign, costing only 560 casualties, Rosecrans captures central Tennessee.
1-3 July: Battle of Gettysburg, high-water mark of Confederate ‘eastern’ strategy.
4 July: Vicksburg surrenders. Bragg withdraws to Chattanooga.
15 August: After securing line of communications, Rosecrans advances again.
4 September: Walker’s division en route to Bragg from Mississippi.
9 September: Rosecrans occupies Chattanooga. Longstreet begins rail transfer west. Buckner joins Bragg.
10 September: Rosecrans scatters his army in pursuit. Bragg orders attack against Negley’s isolated division.
11 September: Hindman’s excessive caution foils Bragg’s plan.
12 September: Rosecrans comprehends his danger and begins to concentrate army.
13 September: Polk’s blunder foils Bragg’s planned attack against another isolated Federal force.
17 September: Rosecrans’ concentration partially complete, the rival armies face off across Chickamauga Creek. Bragg plans his attack.
18 September, a.m. Hood’s three brigades arrive. Bragg’s army closes on Chickamauga Creek.
18 September, p.m. Hood forces Reed’s Bridge; Walker fails at Alexander’s Bridge.
19-20 September: Battle of Chickamauga
19 September, a.m. Brannon and Baird attack Forrest and Walker.
19 September, p.m. Fighting escalates as battle line extends southwards; three CSA assaults rock Union line.
11 p.m. Bragg reorganizes army into two wings.
20 September, 5.30 a.m. Hill receives his attack orders.
9.30 a.m. Breckinridge attacks.
10 a.m. Gist supports Breckinridge; Cleburne attacks.
10.45 a.m. Rosecrans mistakenly learns that Brannon is ‘out of line’.
10.55 a.m. Wood receives order to close on Reynolds.
11 a.m. Stewart attacks.
11.30 a.m. Balance of Longstreet’s wing attacks.
12-1 p.m. Union right collapses; Thomas stands alone.
1 p.m. Longstreet reorientates his wing against Thomas.
2 p.m. Longstreet’s wing begins piecemeal assaults against Horseshoe Ridge.
2.30 p.m. Steedman reinforces Thomas.
3.30 p.m. Rosecrans reaches Chattanooga.
4 p.m. Longstreet launches final effort.
4.30 p.m. Thomas prepares to retreat; Polk renews assault.
5-5.30 p.m. Thomas withdraws from field.
20 September: Bragg initiates dilatory pursuit.
21 September: Army of the Cumberland retreats into Chattanooga; Bragg invests city.
23 September: Lincoln decides to send two corps from Army of the Potomac to reinforce Rosecrans.
26 September: Anti-Bragg cabal meets to try to remove Bragg.
30 September: Wheeler begins raid against Rosecrans’ communications.
31 September: Bragg relieves Polk, blaming him together with Hindman and Hill for failed campaign.
9 October: Jefferson Davis visits army and decides to keep Bragg in command.
17 October: Grant takes command of all forces west of the Alleghenies to the Mississippi; decides to relieve Rosecrans and replace him with Thomas.
23 October: Grant arrives in Chattanooga.
27 October: Grant launches successful manoeuvre to open up supply line to Chattanooga.
5 November: Bragg detaches Longstreet’s corps to Knoxville, fatally weakening his own army.
23 November: Sherman’s divisions from Vicksburg prepare to attack Bragg’s right.
25 November: Grant’s double envelopment falters. Army of the Cumberland storms Missionary Ridge and routs Bragg’s army.
28 November: Bragg asks to be relieved of command.
16 December: Davis appoints Joseph Johnson to command Army of Tennessee.
1864
30 January: Rosecrans assumes backwater assignment as commander of Department of Missouri.
7 May: Sherman, commanding army group based on Chattanooga that includes Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland, begins Atlanta campaign.
17 July: Hood replaces Johnson and begins bloody counter-offensive.
2 September: Atlanta falls, securing Lincoln’s reelection.
30 November: Hood’s invasion of Tennessee leads to Battle of Franklin where the Confederate army is slaughtered. Its losses include many general officers who had fought at Chickamauga.
9 December: Following election, Rosecrans shelved for good.
15-16 December: Thomas routs Hood at Battle of Nashville.