The American Civil War (1861-1865)

Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate who opposed the expansion of slavery into Western territories, won the presidential election with 40% of the popular vote and a majority of electoral votes. His victory triggered a political crisis in the South, where leaders viewed it as an existential threat to slavery. Lincoln's name did not even appear on ballots in most Southern states.

South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, passing a unanimous vote by state convention. By February 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. The seceding states declared their intention to preserve slavery, which they described as their "greatest material interest." Outgoing President James Buchanan took no military action.

Delegates from the seven seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to form the Confederate States of America. They adopted a provisional constitution, elected Jefferson Davis as president, and named Montgomery the provisional capital. The Confederate constitution closely resembled the US Constitution but explicitly protected slavery.

At 4:30 AM, Confederate forces under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. After 34 hours of bombardment, the Union garrison surrendered. No one was killed on either side during the bombardment itself, but the attack unified the North behind war. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion.

The first major battle of the war took place near Manassas, Virginia. Union troops under General Irvin McDowell attacked Confederate forces under General P.G.T. Beauregard. Initially successful, the Union advance was halted by Confederate reinforcements under Thomas J. Jackson, who earned the nickname "Stonewall." The Confederates counterattacked and routed the Union army, which fled back to Washington. Both sides realized the war would be longer and bloodier than anticipated.

In the single bloodiest day in American military history, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army clashed with Union forces under General George McClellan near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle ended inconclusively, with nearly 23,000 casualties. Lee withdrew to Virginia, and the narrow Union strategic victory gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves in states still in rebellion against the United States "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The proclamation specifically exempted border states and Union-occupied Confederate territory. It transformed the war's purpose from preserving the Union to also ending slavery, and formally authorized the recruitment of African American soldiers into the Union Army.

The largest battle ever fought in North America began when Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee encountered Union troops under General George Meade at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Over three days, the armies fought a series of brutal engagements culminating in Pickett's Charge — a frontal assault on the Union center that was repulsed with massive Confederate losses. Lee withdrew, having lost over 28,000 men. The battle ended Lee's second invasion of the North and marked the war's turning point.

After a six-week siege, Union General Ulysses S. Grant accepted the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. The victory split the Confederacy in two, cutting off Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana from the rest of the South. Combined with the Gettysburg victory, July 1863 marked the strategic turning point of the entire war.

President Lincoln delivered a two-minute speech at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 272 words, Lincoln redefined the war as a struggle not merely for the Union, but for the principle of human equality — "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

President Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed him General-in-Chief of all Union armies. Grant devised a coordinated strategy of simultaneous offensives across all theaters, applying relentless pressure on the Confederacy. He personally accompanied the Army of the Potomac in its overland campaign against Lee in Virginia, accepting enormous casualties but refusing to retreat.

After capturing Atlanta on September 2, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman began his "March to the Sea" — a military campaign from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. Sherman's army cut a path of destruction 60 miles wide, destroying railroads, factories, plantations, and supplies essential to the Confederate war effort. The psychological and economic damage was devastating. Sherman captured Savannah on December 21 and presented it as a Christmas gift to Lincoln.

General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at the home of Wilmer McLean in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Grant offered generous terms: Confederate officers could keep their sidearms, and soldiers were paroled and allowed to return home. Lee's surrender effectively ended the Civil War, though smaller Confederate forces continued to surrender over the following weeks.

Just days after the Confederate surrender, President Lincoln was shot by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died the following morning. His assassination plunged the nation into mourning and removed the leader most capable of guiding a moderate Reconstruction. Booth was killed twelve days later when Union soldiers trapped him in a Virginia barn.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, permanently abolishing slavery throughout the United States. It was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments. Over four million enslaved African Americans were freed. The amendment's ratification completed the legal transformation of the war's outcome, though the struggle for civil rights would continue for more than a century.