The American Civil War
The deadliest conflict in American history, fought over slavery, the survival of the Union, and what kind of country America would become. More than 620,000 soldiers died. Slavery was abolished. And then the peace was only half-kept.
Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861. The Civil War had begun.
Road to War
1619–1861
The Civil War didn't start in 1861. It had been building for more than 40 years. Almost every major political crisis from 1820 onward was really about one thing: slavery, whether it would expand into new territories, whether free and slave states could keep coexisting, and whether the slaveholding South's power could survive in a modernizing nation. By the time the first cannon fired on Fort Sumter, the country had already been tearing apart at the seams for a generation.
Key Topics
Abraham Lincoln was elected president in November 1860 without a single electoral vote from the South, triggering the secession crisis.