The Civil War

 

 

The Civil War lasted from 1861-1865. It was fought between the Union, which included the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio,  West Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oregon, and California, and the Confederacy, which included the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Growing tensions over slavery between the north and south made this war inevitable. The war officially began on April 12, 1861 when Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Single Battles brought up massive amounts of casualties on both sides. On September 22, 1862 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves within the Confederate states. This greatly weakened the Confederate force and gave the Union a huge advantage. The Confederacy eventually surrendered and the Union won the war. After the war had ended, Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment which formally abolished slavery in the United States.