Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, 1861.

Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, 1861.

One of the origins of the Civil War is the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, the U.S. Constitution prohibited slavery north of the 36th parallel. During the creation of Kansas, its people wanted their own choosing in a referendum if one were to engage in slavery or not. There were clashes between slaveholders and abolitionists, but many lawyers with a Lincoln, a former politician, then became interested in this matter and file complaints. Lincoln later founded the Republican Party and intends to abolish slavery.

                      Abraham Lincoln and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

The Civil War is rooted in the differences in development and economy between the north and south: north industrializing and urbanizing, welcomed European immigrants and imposes taxes on British goods. The southern states of benefit instead of British imports of cotton and the slave system. In response to the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860, most Southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Lincoln promised to put them back in the union, even by force s' I must. The union has priority over slavery. American Civil War followed, so it's a war against secession and not for the liberation of slaves. Southern Command, followed by economic policies operating in the conquered territories after the war caused a persistent bitterness among southerners in the government of the United States. The federal government's failure to unite the country contributed to its failure for decades to enforce the civil rights of African-American former slaves in the South.


The war began April 12, 1861, when the Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter, and take in South Carolina. The U.S. military is tiny (16,000 men), confined to the west in wars against the Indians. The Union and the Confederates are forced to issue a call for volunteers. The officers of the U.S. military simply just train and mentor them. The year 1862 was marked by the defeats of the Union to the east but also by the success of General Grant on the Mississippi River (surrender of New Orleans). In July 1863, the Yankee victory of Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) is an important setback to the advance of Southerners. The number of Southern soldiers mobilized is such that the overwhelming majority of slaves left unattended fled, Lincoln took the opportunity to launch when the Emancipation Proclamation is to say to officially ban slavery. The war changed data, it is also a war against slavery. This increases the number of volunteers northerners, ready to fight for a beautiful ideal, and escaped slaves as soldiers are also involved. On 1 September 1864, Atlanta was taken by General William Tecumseh Sherman. After the surrender of Robert Lee in April 1865, the armies of the South quickly stopped the fight.

                                          General William Tecumseh Sherman