The 47-day siege gave control of the Mississippi River to the Union, a critical supply line, and was part of the Union's Anaconda Plan to cut off outside trade to the Confederacy.

The attack on Fort Sumter marked the official beginning of the American Civil War. A war that lasted four years, cost the lives of more than 620,000 Americans, and freed 3.9 million enslaved people from bondage.

The outcome was significant because it shocked many people, including Northern politicians, who believed the conflict between the North and South would be short-lived. It also provided Southern forces with confidence they could hold their own with the Northern army.

The Emancipation Proclamation was the necessary legislation that gave slaves their opportunity to free life in the United States

This battle was significant because it allowed for Lincoln to release the Gettysburg Address

Fort Wagner would provide the U.S. an opportunity to bombard Fort Sumter and provide access into Charleston harbor itself, an important step in securing the city that many saw as the birthplace of the Civil War.

Most importantly, Union victory at Antietam provided President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he had wanted to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, making the Battle of Antietam one of the key turning points of the American Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln's assassination was an untimely event that slowed down the process of reconstruction after the Civil War

General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union general Ulysses S. Grant, precipitating the capitulation of other Confederate forces and leading to the end of the bloodiest conflict in American history.

Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union.

The primary purpose was to demonstrate to the people of the Confederacy that their government could not protect them. Secondly, Savannah was an important cotton warehousing city, as well as an ammunition stockpile.

Fredericksburg was one of the largest and deadliest battles of the Civil War. It featured the first opposed river crossing in American military history as well as the Civil War's first instance of urban combat.