Introduction to the Civil War (1861–1865)

For decades, the issue of slavery threatened to push the fledgling United States into violent internal conflict. As the country’s boundaries expanded, tensions increased. Each new territorial addition to the nation brought with it the question: Will slavery be allowed here, or forbidden? Legal compromises kept the controversy from boiling over for a time, but by the late 1850s, passions ran high on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Still, a wary peace held. The country seemed to be holding its breath.

In 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown decided that the time had come for decisive action to end the institution of slavery. With a handful of followers, including his sons, Brown staged a raid on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, hoping to begin an armed slave insurrection. He was captured in the attempt by forces led by future Confederate war hero Robert E. Lee, then serving in the U.S. Army. Reactions to John Brown’s exploit split along geographic lines, further dividing the country. Those in the North, though concerned about Brown’s violent tactics, were inclined to think of him as a hero with a noble cause. The slaves exalted him as a martyr and a liberator. White southerners, on the other hand, viewed the raid as an act of northern aggression.

Though Brown was tried and hanged, Southerners worried that the federal government would fail to protect them from further aggression by abolitionists—or, worse, might tacitly support the abolitionists’ cause. Within a year of John Brown’s capture, Abraham Lincoln was elected president, and southern states began seceding from the Union. On January 9, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. By February 1861, the Confederate States of America was formed, with Jefferson Davis as its president.

The American Civil War went on to claim more than 600,000 lives, killing more Americans than all other American wars combined to that date. The South was doomed almost from the start: It was significantly outnumbered by the North, and the northern states were home to the industrial might of the nation. The South did have the benefit of excellent officers who managed a series of boldly executed victories in the first years of the war. Yet as the fighting wore on and control of the Union army was placed in the capable hands of General Ulysses S. Grant, the North’s numerical advantage and industrial power prevailed. General Lee surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865. All fighting ended soon thereafter.

The turmoil, however, was far from over. The country was reunited, but the South was in ruins. The slaves were free, but their status was uncertain. An assassin’s bullet claimed the life of President Lincoln just days after Lee’s surrender, robbing the nation of his wise and generous leadership. Thus hobbled, the United States began to grope its way through a painful and tumultuous period known as Reconstruction.