The Civil War

The year 1861 marked the start of something that would change the United States forever, and it would end after a gruesome 4 years in 1865. This was the era when the United States would have turmoil within itself and cause many conflicts due to political reasons and mainly the issue of slavery. This would lead into the split of the US. becoming the Union and the Confederacy. The Union were the northern part where they were against slavery because it was against the principles of humanity and wanted to merge with the Confederacy to become the United States once again. The Confederacy actually supported slavery as it helped their economy in agriculture and refused to abolish slavery. The trigger of the Civil War was when a group of soldiers that decided to attack Fort Sumter in South Carolina. This is believed that that it is where the first shots were taken place and marked the beginning of the war. Fast forward to 1863 to the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania where the South led by General Robert E. Lee tried to take over Gettysburg, only to be stopped by Ulysses S. Grant. The battle went on for 3 days when there was 75,000 Union soldiers vs. 95,000 Confederate soldiers. This was also where the soldiers that died in the battle got a national cemetery attended by Lincoln himself who also delivered one of his famous speeches. The war ended on April 9, 1865 when General Lee surrendered after the capture of Richmond, Virginia. The last known casualty of the war was on April 14 when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a southerner named James Wilkes Booth. The Union won the war and this marked a great turning point in American history with slavery abolished and a new era in the United States.