The following is from Yahoo Answers:
the Civil War was a civil war in the United States of America. 11
Southern slave states declared their secession from the U.S. and formed
the Confederate States of America. led by Jefferson Davis, they fought
against the U.S. federal government (the "Union"), which was supported
by all the free states and the five border slave states in the north.
in the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by
Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond
the states in which it already existed. the Republican victory in that
election resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession
from the Union even before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. both
the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations rejected secession,
regarding it as rebellion.
hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a
U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln
responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state, leading to
declarations of secession by four more Southern slave states. both sides
raised armies as the Union assumed control of the border states early
in the war and established a naval blockade. in September 1862,
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a
war goal, and dissuaded the British from intervening. Confederate
commander Robert E. Lee won battles in the east, but in 1863 his
northward advance was turned back at Gettysburg and, in the west, the
Union gained control of the Mississippi River at the Battle of
Vicksburg, thereby splitting the Confederacy. long-term Union advantages
in men and material were realized in 1864 when Ulysses Grant fought
battles of attrition against Lee, while Union general William Sherman
captured Atlanta, Georgia, and marched to the sea. Confederate
resistance collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court
House on April 9, 1865.
the Civil War was the deadliest war in U.S. history, causing 620,000
soldier deaths, and an undetermined number of civilian casualties,
ending slavery in the United States, restoring the Union, and
strengthening the role of the federal government. the social, political,
economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the
reconstruction era that lasted to 1877, and brought changes that helped
make the country a united superpower.
