Compromises attempting to resolve differences.

o       Missouri Compromise (1820): Missouri was a slave state; Maine, a free state.

o       Compromise of 1850: California was a free state.  Southwest territories would decide about slavery.

o       Kansas-Nebraska Act: People decided the slavery issue (“popular sovereignty”)

 Compromises don't always work....

• Southern secession

Following Lincoln’s election, the southern states seceded from the Union.  Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, in South Carolina, marking the beginning of the Civil War.

Major battles and events

• The firing on Fort Sumter, S.C. began the war.
• The first Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) was the first major battle.
• The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation made “freeing the slaves” the new focus of the war.  Many freed slaves joined the Union army.
• The Battle of Vicksburg divided the South; the North controlled the Mississippi River.
• The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the war; the North repelled Lee’s invasion.
• Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House in 1865 ended the war.