The Civil War was the most terrible war in the history of the United States. It caused a lot of death and destruction and left many towns and cities in ruins. More than 620,000 Americans lost their lives during the Civil War. More Americans died in that war than in all other wars combined in which the US fought.

When the war began each side was sure that it could easily win. Each indeed had certain advantages. The North was better equipped to fight a long war, it had a much greater population, factories which could produce as many rifles, bullets, uniforms and other supplies as its army needed. It also had the navy and a network of railroads.

The Confederacy had some advantages too. It had talented military leaders and a stronger military tradition. It fought a defensive war and families helped Southerners maintain their fighting spirit. However, the South had few factories and could not produce enough supplies. It depended on foreign support in decent guns and ammunition. The population of the South was only 9 million, including 4 million slaves, compared to 22 million living in the north.

President Lincoln had wisely let the south fire the first shot. The news of the Confederates firing on federal troops in Fort Sumter (South Carolina) angered most Northerners. They wanted to punish the South for trying to destroy the union.

Winfield Scott, the first commanding general of the Union Army, devised a careful strategy, hoping to force the South’s surrender. He proposed that the navy blocade Southern ports so that essential supplies from Europe could not be delivered. His strategy became known as the Anaconda Plan since, like a snake, it sought to choke its victim.

Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President during the war, also adopted a conservative plan. Believing that England and France would help the South, he resisted attacking the North.

Northerners were very enthusiastic in the beginning. But the two battles at Bull Run (Virginia), which took place quite near Washington D.C. and were won by the Confederacy, showed the war was not a picnic.

After those victories the Confederate  Commander-in-Chief Robert E. Lee wanted a truly great one, which would bring diplomatic recognition from Great Britain and France and would give Southerners a chance to finish the war in the autumn of 1862. In September Confederate troops crossed the Potomac River only 30 miles away from Washington D.C. General George McClellan, the leader of the Union’s army on the Potomac, caught up with Lee at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg (Maryland) on September 17, 1862. The battle continued all day long. The Confederate troops were greatly outnumbered by the Northerners.  The casualties were great, each side lost almost 12,000 dead and wounded. It was called the bloodiest single day of the war. The next day Lee retreated across the Potomac. It was a key victory for the North as the European powers did not support the South.

Following this victory, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In it he informed the Confederates that they could keep their slaves, if they surrendered before January 1, 1863. If not, all the slaves would become free after his signing the Proclamation. But none of the rebel states surrendered.

On January 1, 1863 Lincoln signed the Proclamation in the White House. He had a number of reasons for doing it. Firstly, Lincoln was pressed by the radical Republicans, who saw slavery as the cause of the war and wanted to see it abolished forever. Secondly, slave labor enabled the South to keep fighting. If slaves were freed, they could leave plantations. More than that, they could help the Union by joining its army and navy. It actually happened that way. During the war 29,500 blacks served in the Union navy and 178,000 – in the US Colored Troops.

But the significance of the Proclamation went far beyond the war. It provided freedom for an entire group of people.

By the summer of 1863 the tide of the war shifted.  The Union navy had blocked the mouth of the Mississippi River and took control of New Orleans, the largest port of the South. The troops advanced and captured Memphis. In July the town of Vicksburg (Mississippi) surrendered to General U.S. Grant. The North now controlled the entire Mississippi River. The supply line, over which men, munitions and food came to Confederates from Texas, was closed.

In July 1863 the Confederacy lost another important battle. It took place at Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) and became the largest battle of the war.

The summer victories of the North marked the turning point of the war. In 1864 Union armies marched through the South. Especially damaging was the army of General William T. Sherman, whose troops destroyed everything in their path. Sherman believed that they were destroying the fighting spirit of the South that way. By Christmas he had reached Savannah (Georgia) and by February 1865 had taken Charleston (South Carolina), where the war had started.

On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee of the Confederates and General Ulysses S. Grant met in Appomatox (Virginia) and ended the war. "The rebels are our countrymen again”, said Grant.

Having proved a brilliant leader of the nation, Lincoln was reelected president in 1864. But on the 14-th of April 1865 he was shot in Ford’s Theatre by an actor from Virginia John Wilkes Booth, embittered by the South’s defeat. Lincoln died the following day.

As a result of the war, the unity of the nation was preserved. Slavery was abolished by the 13-th amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in December 1865. The economy of the country could develop more rapidly and freely, having got thousands of working hands of blacks. In July 1866, Congress passed the 14-th amendment, giving former slaves their right to citizenship.