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American Civil WarThe American Civil War, also known as the War between the States or simply the Civil War (see naming), was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States (the Union or the North) and several Southern slave states that had declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy or the South). The war had its origin in the fractious issue of slavery, and, after four years of bloody combat (mostly in the South), the Confederacy was defeated, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began.In the presidential election of 1860, Republicans led by Abraham Lincoln opposed expanding slavery into the territories. Lincoln won but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven cotton-based slave states formed the Confederacy. Outgoing Democrat James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected the legality of secession. Lincoln’s inaugural address insisted his administration would not initiate civil war, leading eight remaining slave states to reject immediate calls for secession. A Peace Conference failed to find a compromise. Both sides prepared for war. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton for its industry that they would intervene; none did and none recognized the new Confederate States of America.Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, a key fort held by Union troops in South Carolina. Lincoln called for the creation of an army to retake it; meanwhile, four border slave states joined the Confederacy, bringing their total to eleven. The Union soon controlled the border states and established a naval blockade that crippled the southern economy. The Eastern Theater was inconclusive in 1861–62. The Fall 1862 Confederate campaign into Maryland ended at the Battle of Antietam, dissuading British intervention.[3] Lincoln issued the Emancipa