The Civil War was a brutal war that lasted from 1861 to 1865. It left the south economically devastated, and resulted in the criminalization of slavery in the United States. Confederate General Lee surrendered to Union General Grant in the spring of 1865 officially ending the war. The Confederacy dissolved and the country was reunited

In the wake of the United States Civil War's deadliest battle, President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln tied the current struggle to the days of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, speaking of the principles that the nation was conceived in: liberty and the proposition that all men are created equal. Moreover, he tied both to the abolition of slavery—a new birth of freedom—and the maintenance of representative government.