Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued.ĭuring 1861–1862 in the war's Western Theater, the Union made significant permanent gains-though in the war's Eastern Theater the conflict was inconclusive. Led by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy asserted control over about a third of the U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. An initial seven southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and, in February 1861, forming the Confederacy. presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion into the western territories. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.ĭecades of political controversy over slavery were brought to a head by the victory in the 1860 U.S. It was fought between the Union ('the North') and the Confederacy ('the South'), the latter formed by states that had seceded.

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States.

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