American Civil War

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by <a href="/facts/Names_of_the_American_Civil_War/JxwgxYjm">other names</a>) was a <a href="/facts/Civil_war/bMhgxnxC">civil war</a> in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> between the <a href="/facts/Union_(American_Civil_War)/KW6wJt7J">Union</a> ("the North") and the <a href="/facts/Confederate_States_of_America/jMSDM4q3">Confederacy</a> ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by <a href="/facts/U.S._state/PFwcRIYQ">states</a> that had <a href="/facts/Secession_in_the_United_States/qVSHN6L4">seceded</a> from the Union. The <a href="/facts/Origins_of_the_American_Civil_War/4cmEN1LF">central conflict leading to war</a> was a dispute over whether <a href="/facts/Slavery_in_the_United_States/CduIa8do">slavery</a> should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more <a href="/facts/Slave_states/rbILY8hr">slave states</a>, or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.
<a href="/facts/Timeline_of_events_leading_to_the_American_Civil_War/UEhRfLwP">Decades of controversy</a> over slavery came to a head when <a href="/facts/Abraham_Lincoln/F8VqYAsA">Abraham Lincoln</a>, who opposed slavery's expansion, won the <a href="/facts/1860_presidential_election/DxVYAjwj">1860 presidential election</a>. Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded <a href="/facts/Fort_Sumter/haPaTXwD">Fort Sumter</a> in <a href="/facts/South_Carolina/lQQX84IS">South Carolina</a>. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, <a href="/facts/Jefferson_Davis/CK3RQyI0">Jefferson Davis</a>, the Confederacy asserted control over a third of the U.S. population in eleven states. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued.
During 1861–1862 in the <a href="/facts/Western_theater_of_the_American_Civil_War/fV0IEInK">Western theater</a>, the Union made permanent gains—though in the <a href="/facts/Eastern_theater_of_the_American_Civil_War/Y4Nlqzl6">Eastern theater</a> the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the <a href="/facts/Emancipation_Proclamation/Ng2vXzgd">Emancipation Proclamation</a>, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and <a href="/facts/Capture_of_New_Orleans/FVLzW7M6">seized New Orleans</a>. The successful 1863 Union <a href="/facts/Siege_of_Vicksburg/sLlVbsbd">siege of Vicksburg</a> split the Confederacy in two at the <a href="/facts/Mississippi_River/RduarPzj">Mississippi River</a>, while Confederate general <a href="/facts/Robert_E._Lee/6ooHzprY">Robert E. Lee</a>'s incursion north failed at the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Gettysburg/wx9evLcK">Battle of Gettysburg</a>. Western successes led to General <a href="/facts/Ulysses_S._Grant/htCzhMtb">Ulysses S. Grant</a>'s command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening <a href="/facts/Union_blockade/B2WEqELQ">naval blockade</a> of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the <a href="/facts/Fall_of_Atlanta/kjYH35r0">fall of Atlanta</a> in 1864 to Union general <a href="/facts/William_Tecumseh_Sherman/cDbr9QS4">William Tecumseh Sherman</a>, followed by his <a href="/facts/Sherman%2527s_March_to_the_Sea/QfcWgsHC">March to the Sea</a>, which culminated in his taking <a href="/facts/Savannah%2c_Georgia/korPDPf2">Savannah</a>. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month <a href="/facts/Siege_of_Petersburg/N4yQdHeM">Siege of Petersburg</a>, gateway to the Confederate capital of <a href="/facts/Richmond%2c_Virginia/RPT22L8B">Richmond</a>. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House/8LLY01Rm">Battle of Appomattox Court House</a>, setting in motion the <a href="/facts/Conclusion_of_the_American_Civil_War/gjIIXFcv">end of the war</a>. Lincoln lived to see this victory but <a href="/facts/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln/NeECoE1I">was shot by an assassin</a> on April 14, dying the next day.
By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the <a href="/facts/Reconstruction_era/W6lgbxvn">Reconstruction era</a> in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant <a href="/facts/Civil_rights/DBK7m6s2">civil rights</a> to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and <a href="/facts/Bibliography_of_the_American_Civil_War/yzdVGQHe">written about</a> episodes in the <a href="/facts/History_of_the_United_States/meTQsrYe">history of the United States</a>. It remains the subject of cultural and <a href="/facts/Historiographic_issues_about_the_American_Civil_War/zJV32X8A">historiographical debate</a>. Of continuing interest is the myth of the <a href="/facts/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy/PmMJXwzW">Lost Cause of the Confederacy</a>. The war was among the first to use <a href="/facts/Industrial_warfare/B7f5o6r3">industrial warfare</a>. Railroads, the <a href="/facts/Electrical_telegraph/yrFhbvM8">electrical telegraph</a>, steamships, the <a href="/facts/Ironclad_warship/woAQJfj3">ironclad warship</a>, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 698,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties, making the Civil War the deadliest military conflict in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming <a href="/facts/World_war/pEzjDFFs">world wars</a>.

American Civil War open-in-new

American Civil War