Civil War and Post-War Reconstruction

The American Civil War started in April 1861. President Lincoln led the Northern states. He was determined to stop the rebellion and keep the country united.

September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day of the war. The two armies met at Antietam Creek in  Maryland. Gen. Robert E.
The battle was not decisive, but it was politically important. Britain and France had planned to recognize the Confederacy, but they delayed. The South never received the help it desperately needed.  Later in 1862, President Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in the Confederate states.

 In Virginia in April 1865, Gen. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War was over. More Americans died in the Civil War than in any other U.S. conflict.
Vice President Andrew Johnson became president with the job of uniting the country. Johnson was a Southerner. He gave pardons to many Southerners, giving them back their political rights.

By the end of 1865, most of the former Confederate states canceled the acts of secession but refused to abolish slavery.

 President Johnson tried to stop many of these policies. The House of Representatives impeached Johnson, but the Senate was one vote short of the two-thirds majority required to remove Johnson from office.
The Southern states were not allowed to send representatives to Congress until they passed constitutional amendments barring slavery, granting all citizens “equal protection of the laws,” and allowing all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race.