American Civil War History

The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. After a long standing controversy over slavery and state's rights, war broke out in April 1861, when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected. The nationalists of the Union proclaimed loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States of America advocating states’ rights to perpetual slavery and its expansion in the Americas.

Among the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy grew to include eleven states; it claimed two more border states (Kentucky and Missouri), the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the Union's western territories of Arizona and New Mexico, which was organized and incorporated into the Confederacy as Confederate Arizona. The Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by the United States government, nor was it recognized by any foreign country (although Britain and France granted it belligerent status). The states that remained loyal, including the border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North.

The North and South quickly raised volunteer and conscription armies that fought mostly in the South over four years. During this time many innovations in warfare occurred, including the development and use of iron-clad ships, ultimately changing naval strategy around the world. The Union finally won the war when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the battle of Appomattox, which triggered a series of surrenders by Confederate generals throughout the southern states. Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers dead, a higher number than the number of American military deaths in World War I and World War II combined, and much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and 4 million slaves were freed. The Reconstruction Era (1863–1877) overlapped and followed the war, with the process of restoring national unity, strengthening the national government, and granting civil rights to freed slaves throughout the country. The Civil War is arguably the most studied and written about episode in American history.

美国南北战争在美国打了1861年至1865年在奴隶制和国家的权利长期存在的争议之后，战争1861年4月爆发了，当同盟军在南卡罗来纳州袭击了萨姆特堡，亚伯拉罕·林肯当选后不久。欧盟的民族主义者宣布效忠于美国宪法。他们面临着美利坚联盟国的分裂主义主张各国对永久奴役的权利及其在美洲扩展。

在二月1861年34个美国州，七个南方蓄奴州单独声明从美国民族分裂，形成美利坚联盟国。南部邦联成长为包括十个一个州;它声称两个边境各州（肯塔基州和密苏里州），印度领土，联盟的西部亚利桑那州和新墨西哥州的领土，这是有组织的，并纳入联邦为邦联亚利桑那州南部的部分。南部邦联从未外交由美国政府的承认，也没有被任何外国（虽然英国和法国授予其好战的状态）的认可。即保持忠诚，包括边境各州奴隶制是合法的状态，被称为联盟或北方。

北方和南方的迅速上升是战斗主要集中在南方四年多的志愿者和征兵军队。在此期间，在运动战中的许多创新出现，其中包括铁一般船舶的开发和利用，最终改变了世界各地的海军战略。欧盟终于赢得了这场战争时，罗伯特·李将军投降的将军尤利西斯·S·格兰特在阿波马托克斯的战斗，由此引发的邦联将领整个南部各州的一系列退保。四年激烈的战斗中留下62万75万士兵死亡，更高的数量比在第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战中美军死亡人数的总和的数量，和许多南方的基础设施被摧毁。南部邦联崩溃，奴隶制被废除，400万和奴隶获得了自由。重建时期（1863年至1877年）重叠，其次战争，以恢复国家统一，加强国家政府，并在全国各地获得自由的奴隶赋予公民权利的过程。南北战争可以说是最研究和写在美国历史插曲。