The American Civil War Begins

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, beginning the American Civil War. The conflict, which would last four years and kill an estimated 750,000 soldiers (more than all other American wars combined until Vietnam), was fought over the fundamental question that the Constitution had left unresolved: could a nation founded on the principle that "all men are created equal" continue to hold millions of people in bondage? Eleven Southern states seceded from the Union to preserve the institution of slavery. President Abraham Lincoln initially framed the war as a fight to preserve the Union, but the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 transformed it into a war of liberation. The war ended with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Six days later, Lincoln was assassinated. The war preserved the Union, abolished slavery, and established federal supremacy — but the unfinished work of racial equality would define American politics for the next 160 years.