Events that lead to the Civil War: 1860 & 1861

The Election of 1860: 4 Candidates for Pres.The Republicans picked Abe Lincoln as their candidateDemocrats split over the issue of slavery in the West: Southerners wanted the party to support it while Northerners refused.Southern Democrats chose John Breckinridge Northern Democrats chose Stephen DouglasSome Americans tried to heal this split by creating a new political party The Constitutional Union Party, and they picked John Bell.Lincoln won the North and the ElectionNortherners outnumbered & outvoted southerners

• With Lincoln’s election many southerners felt that they no longer had a voice in the national government.

• Believed that the entire govt. was set against their interests, and their only choice was to secede.

• 1st state to secede was South Carolina: Dec. 1860• 6 more will join them and in Feb. 1861 they form

the Confederate States of America• Lincoln opposed secession• Warns that there will be no war unless the South

starts it

• Confederates began taking over federal property: forts, post offices, etc.

• Lincoln’s problem: should he let Confederates take over federal property?

• If he did he was admitting they had the right leave while sending troops might start a war.

• By April the Confederates had control of nearly all of the forts in the South.

• The Union held only 3 forts in Florida and Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which guarded Charleston harbor

• On April 12th the Confederates asked for

Fort Sumter’s surrender.

• The Union commander refused and the Confederates opened fire on the fort

• On April 13th having run out of ammunition the Union forces surrender the fort.

• No one was killed, but this event marked the beginning of the Civil War