Civil War, American

The American Civil War started on April 12, 1861, when Confederate guns under the command of General P. G. T. Beauregard opened fire on Union forces stationed in Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The war lasted 4 years with major combat ending on April 9, 1865, when the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The conflict was the nation’s bloodiest war with a cost of about 620,000 lives—more than all other American wars combined. In the North, more than 1 million men were in uniform at any given time during the war, while in the South, as many as 850,000 served. There were approximately 10,000 different battles in places stretching from Virginia to New Mexico on land, and from the coast ...