Key Facts
- Duration
- 4 years (April 1861 – May 1865)
- Estimated soldier deaths
- ~700,000
- Enslaved people freed
- ~4 million
- Confederate states
- 11
- Emancipation Proclamation
- January 1, 1863
Strategic Narrative Overview
The war began with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Union forces made steady gains in the western theater through 1862, destroying Confederate river forces and seizing New Orleans. The 1863 siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy at the Mississippi River, while Lee's northern invasion failed at Gettysburg. Grant, promoted to command all Union armies in 1864, coordinated a relentless multi-front offensive including Sherman's March to the Sea.
01 / The Origins
Decades of sectional conflict over slavery culminated when Republican Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven Southern slave states, viewing Lincoln's victory as a threat to their slaveholding society, seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. Four more states joined after fighting began. The Confederacy seized federal forts and assets across the South, setting the stage for armed conflict.
03 / The Outcome
Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the war. The Confederacy dissolved, and slavery was abolished throughout the United States. Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. The nation entered the Reconstruction era to reintegrate former Confederate states and extend civil rights to the approximately four million formerly enslaved African Americans.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee.
Side B
1 belligerent
Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.