The
American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by
other names) was a
civil war in the
United States between the
Union ("the North") and the
Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by
states that had
seceded from the Union to preserve
African American slavery, which they saw as threatened because of the election of
Abraham Lincoln and the growing
abolitionist movement in the North.