The war fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865, in which the Union’s victory ended slavery in America and settled the question of whether states could secede — at a cost of approximately 620,000 soldiers’ lives, the deadliest conflict in American history.
The American Civil War killed more Americans than every other war the United States has ever fought combined. It was fought, at its core, over slavery — a fact its participants understood clearly even when later generations preferred not to. Understanding what it was actually about is still contested, still politically charged, and still unsettled.