== Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War == 

 I submitted the article in the caption for B class assessment, noting that you and I had contributed to it, just before I left for a week's vacation. I certainly concur in your reply to the assessment comments that there is no original research or synthesis in this article. In fact, I included every item I could find that appeared in a secondary source and seemed to be at all relevant without any interpretation or argument. Your items also are written as facts so I am not sure how the original research and synthesis conclusions could be reached. I do note that these tags were first added by a bot. As a source, Long's book is in some respects just a lengthy and detailed timeline. Of course, it starts with November 1860 so it does not support the earlier items. I am inclined to add sources that I can add easily, add a little to the introduction and prepare an infobox although it seems rather superfluous in an article that is a list of events. If that is not enough, someone else will need to bring it up to B. Other rather complete articles remain as start class so that does not always mean the article is very deficient.   

 Although I would prefer to see this article rated as B after the work we and those who started the article have put into it, I do not want to spend a considerable amount of additional time on it. As the 150th anniversary of events preliminary to the Civil War has nearly passed and the 150th anniversary of Civil War events approaches, there are many other articles related to the Civil War that need attention and can be raised to B class. These articles may attract more readers as the anniversary dates come up. I have worked on the minor early engagements of Battle of Sewell's Point and Battle of Aquia Creek and these are now rated B. While there are not a large number of such engagements in 1861, there are some others such as the Big Bethel, the West Virginia campaign actions and Dranesville at the end of the year. The bigger battles are already covered in articles with more detail and will receive some more attention from others but there is much interesting history to be added to some of the articles on smaller engagements and some biographies.