ARTICLES

After the Civil War, the United States faced the difficult task of rebuilding the South and defining freedom for millions of formerly enslaved people. Explore Reconstruction's constitutional changes, political advances, resistance, and unfinished legacy.

On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. Discover how the final campaign unfolded, what Grant's surrender terms meant, and why Appomattox became the enduring symbol of the Civil War's end.

Sherman's March to the Sea carried Union forces from Atlanta to Savannah in late 1864. Explore the strategy behind the campaign, the destruction it caused, and the controversy that still surrounds its legacy.

The Emancipation Proclamation changed the course of the Civil War, but it did not immediately free every enslaved person in the United States. Learn what Lincoln's 1863 proclamation did, where it applied, and why its limitations matter.

Before sunrise on April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Learn how the attack transformed a national political crisis into the opening battle of the American Civil War.

Bleeding Kansas turned the national debate over slavery into armed conflict. Learn how disputed elections, rival governments, the Sack of Lawrence, and retaliatory violence pushed the country closer to Civil War.

The Compromise of 1850 temporarily eased a national crisis over slavery and western expansion. Learn what its five measures did, why the Fugitive Slave Act caused outrage, and why the settlement could not prevent the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg brought Union and Confederate armies together for three days of intense fighting in July 1863. From the opening clashes to Pickett's Charge, the Union victory stopped Lee's invasion of the North and helped change the direction of the Civil War.