The Civil War

The Civil War began after Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election. He and his fellow Republicans openly opposed the expansion of slavery into non-slave states.

Slave Auction house

President Abraham Lincoln with Allan Pinkerton and Major General John A. McClernand at Antietam, Maryland, USA.

In early 1861, shortly before Lincoln’s inauguration, seven slave states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy. Despite calls for compromise, both sides were unable to agree on a deal and finally Confederate forces seized Fort Sumter, formerly held by the Union’s South Carolina.

Young soldier

This was the beginning of four years of a deadly war that left over 600,000 soldiers dead by its end. Eventually, by destroying the Confederate infrastructure and fighting a tragic battle of attrition, the Confederate army collapsed and the secession was officially over by the summer of 1865.

Ruins of the Richmond & Petersburg Virginia Railroad depot.