American Civil War

1861-04-12 - 1865-04-09

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865) was fought in the United States between the Union (the North) and the Confederacy (the South), which was formed in 1861 by states that seceded from the Union to preserve slavery. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election; the war began when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.