Why was the Civil War?

John C. Calhoun: He Started the Civil War If one person could be called the instigator of the Civil War, it was John C. Calhoun -- genius pragmatist, and racist. Abraham Lincoln: Tyrant, Hypocrite or Consummate Statesman The key to understanding Abraham Lincoln's philosophy of statesmanship is that he always sought the meeting point between what was right in theory and what could be achieved in practice. read more

The American Civil War (also known by other names) was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. As a result of the long-standing controversy over slavery, war broke out in April 1861, when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, shortly after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. read more

The War Between the States, as the Civil War was also known, ended in Confederate surrender in 1865. The conflict was the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin. read more