American Civil War

American Civil War toy soldiers.

The American Civil War (1861–65) was a civil war in the United States fought between the Union (states that remained loyal to the federal union, or “the North”) and the Confederacy (states that voted to secede, or “the South”). The central cause of the war was the status of slavery, especially the expansion of slavery into territories acquired as a result of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican–American War. The American Civil War is one of the main (and bloody) episodes in American history.