Historical Background

After only 72 years in existence as an independent country, the United States succumbed to a civil war in 1861. President James Buchanan did very little to stem the tensions leading to the conflict, and the task fell to President Abraham Lincoln to save the Union from destruction.

Confederacy and War

President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy of seceded states fought an unsuccessful war against the Union based on maintaining states rights.

End of the Civil War

When President Abraham Lincoln was murdered at the war's end in 1865, President Andrew Johnson inherited the job of readmitting the states involved in the rebellion back into the Union.