WHO
The Civil War pinned the Union of the North against the Confederacy in the South. In some states it was brother against brother, family against family, etc.
WHAT
The Civil War was a defining battle in American History. It was a battle that put family members against each other. The South still refers to the war as the War of the Northern Aggression. The American Civil War was one of the most devastating events in the nation’s history.
WHEN
The American Civil War officially began on April 15, 1961, when Lincoln called for volunteers to fight against the South after they bombarded union soldiers at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The war ended when General Lee surrendered to Ulysses Grant on April 9, 1965 at the Appomattox courthouse.
WHERE
The Civil War was fought from South Pennsylvania to Texas, from New Mexico to the Florida Coast. The majority of the fighting took place in the states of Virginia and Tennessee. The war was also contested in the Atlantic Ocean as far as the coast of France, the Gulf of Mexico, the brown water of the Mississippi River, and its tributaries.
WHY
Some believe the Civil War was about slavery, but it was a battle for States Rights. Certain states wanted to control what they could do. Many of them needed slavery for their economy. The South needed slavery for their economy because they were not as industrialized as the North was. The South would collapse without slavery, so the Civil War did involve slavery in a way, but the war was fought to keep the country together. The end of slavery was a byproduct of that.