The Civil War fighting started at Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12th, 1861 and ended on April 9th, 1865. Most of the fighting happened in Virginia and Tennessee. The Northern States and the Southern States had completely different opinions, and that was the main cause of the war. It all started when, the Northern states wanted slaves to be free, if they move to one of their states, but the South didn't agree with them. They wanted to fight to own slaves and to preserve their regional character, wealth and "Southern Honor". Abraham Lincoln pledged to keep slavery out of the territories, and seven slave states seceded and formed a new area called the Confederate States of America. With much devastation, 600,000 soldiers died in the war. The Northern armies ended up to be victorious and the rebellious states returned to the Union. After the war, the Constitution was amended to free the slaves and to grant the wish of treating people with equality.