home

= =

Students must provide an overall summary/introduction to the Civl War on this page. You must supply at least one picture

= = = = = =

= **To Northerners it was the Civil War or the War of the Rebellion.** = = =

= = = To Southerners it was the War of Southern Independence. = = = = =

= The North fought to save the Union, the South to create a new nation. =

** I n 1861, most americans did not know what war was. They had lived in peace so long that the wars and battles they heard about seemed like adventure stories. That changed after Confederates in South Carolina fired at Fort Sumter on April 12. **

** F or years there had been conflict in the land. Northern states were growing in industry and population, gaining power in congress. The rural South depended on African-American slavery, which many Northerners despised and wanted to abolish. Southerners demanded more power for the individual states and called for the expansion of slavery into new territories. **

= N ewly elected President Abraham Lincoln was a Northerner. Southerners believed he was an enemy. Their states seceded from the Union to create an independent nation; The Confederate States of America. The North and Lincoln swore to preserve the union, and the stage was set for civil war. Neither side imagined the other would fight so relentlessly. Neither guessed the immense price in human life. In four years of conflict more than 622,000 Americans died in this "War between the states". =