April 1861 – May 1865
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln as US president in 1860 and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the national abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.
April 1861
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina, by the South Carolina militia. It ended with the surrender of the fort by the United States Army, beginning the American Civil War.