The war began on April 12, 1861 and ended during May of 1865. There was never a formal declaration of war, and there wasn't an armistice or a treaty saying that it was over. More deaths occurred during those four years than in any other war in the history of the United States. It was all about the issues of the states rights and Negro slavery. With non-slave territories entering the Union as states, the South was worried that they would lose protection for slavery in the Senate and their power would steadily deflate with the admission of more and more non-slave territories. They believed it was in their best interest to secede from the Union. In all actuality, in the beginning Lincoln and the Republicans had made a pledge that they wouldn't try to end slavery. They just didn't want it spreading from the 11 states that it was already in.
Although the war didn't begin until 1861, it became well known in 1850 that a peaceful solution to the slavery issue was impossible. …
