The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a nationwide conflict in the United States sparked by the secession of eleven Southern states following Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860. The Confederacy, founded on the preservation of slavery, clashed with the Union over secession, federal authority, and emancipation. The war opened with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861 and quickly spread across multiple theaters, from Virginia to the Mississippi Valley.
Marked by bloody battles and campaigns, including Antietam (1862), Gettysburg (1863), and Sherman’s March to the Sea (1864), the conflict combined industrial-scale warfare with deep social transformation. The Union blockade strangled Southern trade, while Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation redefined the war as a struggle against slavery. Confederate offensives into the North collapsed, and Union victories at Vicksburg and Atlanta shifted the balance irreversibly. The war effectively ended with Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, paving the way for the abolition of slavery and the turbulent era of Reconstruction.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Netchev, S. (2025, September 29). Map of the American Civil War, 1861-1865. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/21119/map-of-the-american-civil-war-1861-1865/
Chicago Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the American Civil War, 1861-1865." World History Encyclopedia, September 29, 2025. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/21119/map-of-the-american-civil-war-1861-1865/.
MLA Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the American Civil War, 1861-1865." World History Encyclopedia, 29 Sep 2025, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/21119/map-of-the-american-civil-war-1861-1865/.
