Most important facts about the Civil War and Reconstruction?

Question: Most important facts about the Civil War and Reconstruction!?
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The coexistence of a slave-owning South with an increasingly anti-slavery North made conflict inevitable!. Lincoln did not propose federal laws against slavery where it already existed, but he had, in his 1858 House Divided Speech, expressed a desire to "arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction"!. Much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories!. All of the organized territories were likely to become free-soil states, which increased the Southern movement toward secession!. Both North and South assumed that if slavery could not expand it would wither and die!.
Southern fears of losing control of the federal government to antislavery forces, and Northern fears that the slave power already controlled the government, brought the crisis to a head in the late 1850s!. Sectional disagreements over the morality of slavery, the scope of democracy and the economic merits of free labor vs!. slave plantations caused the Whig and "Know-Nothing" parties to collapse, and new ones to arise (the Free Soil Party in 1848, the Republicans in 1854, the Constitutional Union in 1860)!. In 1860, the last remaining national political party, the Democratic Party, split along sectional lines!.
Both North and South were influenced by the ideas of Thomas Jefferson!. Southerners emphasized, in connection with slavery, the states' rights ideas mentioned in Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions!. Northerners ranging from the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to the moderate Republican leader Abraham Lincoln[13] emphasized Jefferson's declaration that all men are created equal!. Lincoln mentioned this proposition in his Gettysburg Address!.
Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens said that slavery was "the cornerstone of the Confederacy" after Southern states seceded!. After Southern defeat, Stephens said that the war was not about slavery but states' rights, and became one of the most ardent defenders of the Lost Cause!.
All but one inter-regional crisis involved slavery, starting with debates on the three-fifths clause and a twenty year extension of the African Slave Trade in the Constitutional Convention of 1787!. There was controversy over adding the slave state of Missouri to the Union that led to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Nullification Crisis over the Tariff of 1828 (although the tariff was low after 1846), the Gag rule that prevented discussion in Congress of petitions for ending slavery from 1835–1844, the acquisition of Texas as a slave state in 1845 and Manifest Destiny as an argument for gaining new territories where slavery would become an issue after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), which resulted in the Compromise of 1850!. The Wilmot Proviso was an attempt by Northern politicians to exclude slavery from the territories conquered from Mexico!. The extremely popular antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe greatly increased Northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850!.
The 1854 Ostend Manifesto was a Southern attempt to take over Cuba as a slave state!. Even rival plans for Northern vs!. Southern routes for a transcontinental railroad became entangled in the Bleeding Kansas controversy over slavery!. The Second Party System broke down after passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, which replaced the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery with popular sovereignty!. In 1856 Congressional arguments over slavery became violent when Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina attacked Radical Republican Senator Charles Sumner with a cane after Sumner's "Crime against Kansas" speech!.[19] The Dred Scott Decision and Lecompton Constitution of 1857 were Southern attempts to admit Kansas to the Union as a slave state!. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, John Brown's raid in 1859 and the split in the Democratic Party in 1860 polarized the nation between North and South!. The election of Lincoln in 1860 was the final trigger for secession!. During the secession crisis, many sought compromise!. Two of these attempts were the "Corwin Amendment" and the "Crittenden Compromise!." All attempts at compromise failed!.
Other factors include sectionalism (caused by the growth of slavery in the deep South while slavery was gradually phased out in Northern states) and economic differences between North and South, although most modern historians disagree with the extreme economic determinism of historian Charles Beard!. There was the polarizing effect of slavery that split the largest religious denominations (the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches) and controversy caused by the worst cruelties of slavery (whippings, mutilations and families split apart)!. The fact that seven immigrants out of eight settled in the North, plus the fact that twice as many whites left the South for the North as vice versa, contributed to the South's defensive-aggressive political behavior!.
Southern secession was triggered by the election of Republican Abraham Lincol because regional leaders feared that he would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction!. Many Southerners thought either Lincoln or another Northerner would abolish slavery, and that it was time to secede!. The slave states, which had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, were now facing a future as a perpetual minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North!.

South Carolina adopted the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union" on December 24, 1860!. It argued for states' rights for slave owners in the South, but contained a complaint about states' rights in the North in the form of opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act, claiming that Northern states were not fulfilling their federal obligations under the Constitution!. At issue were:

The refusal of Northern states to enforce the fugitive slave code, violating Southern personal property rights;
Agitation against slavery, which "denied the rights of property"!.
Assisting "thousands of slaves to leave their homes" through the Underground Railroad!.
The election of Lincoln "because he has declared that 'Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,' and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction"!.
"!.!.!.elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens"!. Most Northerners opposed the Dred Scott decision, although only a few New England states allowed blacks an equal right to vote!.
Over 10,000 military engagements took place during the war, 40% of them in Virginia and Tennessee!. Since separate articles deal with every major battle and many minor ones, this article only gives the broadest outline!. For more information see List of American Civil War battles and Military leadership in the American Civil War!.

Anaconda Plan and blockade, 1861

1861 cartoon of Scott's "Anaconda Plan"Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the U!.S!. Army, devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with as little bloodshed as possible!. His idea was that a Union blockade of the main ports would weaken the Confederate economy; then the capture of the Mississippi River would split the South!. Lincoln adopted the plan, but overruled Scott's warnings against an immediate attack on Richmond!.

In May 1861, Lincoln enacted the Union blockade of all Southern ports, ending most international shipments to the Confederacy!. Violators' ships and cargos could be seized and were often not covered by insurance!. By late 1861, the blockade stopped most local port-to-port traffic!. The blockade shut down King Cotton, ruining the Southern economy!. British investors built small, fast "blockade runners" that traded arms and luxuries from Bermuda, Cuba and the Bahamas in return for high-priced cotton and tobacco!. When captured, the blockade runners and cargo were sold and the proceeds given to the Union sailors, but the British crews were released!. Shortages of food and other goods triggered by the blockade, foraging by Northern armies, and the impressment of crops by Confederate armies combined to cause hyperinflation and bread riots in the South!.On March 8, 1862, the Confederate Navy waged a fight against the Union Navy when the ironclad CSS Virginia attacked the blockade; it seemed unstoppable but the next day it had to fight the new Union warship USS Monitor in the Battle of the Ironclads!. The battle ended in a draw, which was a strategic victory for the Union in that the blockade was sustained!. The Confederacy lost the CSS Virginia when the ship was scuttled to prevent capture, and the Union built many copies of the USS Monitor!. Lacking the technology to build effective warships, the Confederacy attempted to obtain warships from Britain!. The Union victory at the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in January 1865 closed the last useful Southern port and virtually ended blockade running!.
Northern leaders agreed that victory would require more than the end of fighting!. It had to encompass the two war goals: Secession had to be totally repudiated, and all forms of slavery had to be eliminated!. They disagreed sharply on the criteria for these goals!. They also disagreed on the degree of federal control that should be imposed on the South, and the process by which Southern states should be reintegrated into the Union!.
Reconstruction, which began early in the war and ended in 1877, involved a complex and rapidly changing series of federal and state policies!. The long-term result came in the threWww@QuestionHome@Com

i would say the fact that the union won!.
lincoln was assasinated a few days later!.
the kkk broke out!.

thats the main things!.!.!. to go into detail i could also say that the civil war was a white mans war, and although they were fighting for blacks rights, at first the blacks werent allowed to fight!.
then when the war did end, everyone got to bring home their guns, including the south!.
when the kkk broke out the union gave the blacks guns (for those who didnt already have them) and told them to protect themselves instead of helping!.
the kkk terrorized schools where blacks were taught, and pretty much tried to kill them and get rid of them!.

they also hated anyone who was symathetic to them, or involved in helping them!. such as teachers, who the kkk would whip!.

there is alot more, but i cant really pin point in at the moment!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

please click this link and you will find the info you want to know
http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/American_Ci!.!.!. hope this will be helpfulWww@QuestionHome@Com