The American Civil War was triggered by a long-running dispute among northern and southern states, mainly over the issue of slavery. Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 after declaring that the nation could not exist permanently half slave and half free. On Feb. 9, 1861, the Confederate States of America was formed with Jefferson Davis as president.

The war itself began when Confederate forces began firing on Fort Sumpter in Charleston, S.C., on April 12. Lincoln responded by calling for a federal militia of 76,000 men. By May, 11 Southern states had seceded from the union and, in July, Northern troops were beaten at the First Battle of Bull Run. After many months of limited fighting, northern troops moved slowly south in Virginia early in 1862. Both sides lost heavily during battles that spring and summer before the Confederates again beat Northern forces at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August. Southern troops were later stopped at Antietam, the bloodiest day of fighting ever for American soldiers.

Gen. Robert E. Lee led his troops into the North in the 1863 campaign and faced Union troops at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The July 1-3 battle turned the tide of war against the South. Troops under Ulysses S. Grant also scored important victories in the West. Grant was put in charge of all Union forces and, aided by Gen. William T. Sherman’s march across the South in 1864, Northern forces prevailed and Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. More than 500,000 Americans died during the war. Only about 2,500 of those were from the new state of Minnesota and just one – Lauson Dawley of the area that would become Duluth – is believed to have been from Northeastern Minnesota.

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