West's Encyclopedia of American Law | U.S. Civil War

The U.S. Civil War, also called the War between the States, was waged from April 1861 until April 1865. The war was precipitated by the secession of eleven Southern states during 1860 and 1861 and their formation of the Confederate States of America under President Jefferson Davis. The Southern states had feared that the new president, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, who had been elected in 1860, and Northern politicians would block the expansion of SLAVERY and endanger the existing slaveholding system. Though Lincoln did free Southern slaves during the war by issuing the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, he fought primarily to restore the Union.

The war began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. In the ten weeks between the fall of Fort...