President Abraham Lincoln was shot dead in a theatre on 14 April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, a fanatical supporter of the Confederate (Southern) army. This took place five days after the Confederacy surrendered to the Union or Northern States at Appomattox courthouse. Having been elected in 1856, Lincoln was President throughout the whole of the Civil War.
The war originally arose when the Southern states wished to maintain their "states' rights", mainly the right to own slaves, against the law of the country as a whole; eventually they seceded from (formally left) the Union and war was declared in 1861. At first the North's chief purpose in the war was to preserve the Union; later, the goal was to emancipate (free) the Southern slaves. In 1863 all slaves were officially freed when Lincoln issued the Declaration of Emancipation, though Southern slaves would not be free in reality until the war ended.
The war originally arose when the Southern states wished to maintain their "states' rights", mainly the right to own slaves, against the law of the country as a whole; eventually they seceded from (formally left) the Union and war was declared in 1861. At first the North's chief purpose in the war was to preserve the Union; later, the goal was to emancipate (free) the Southern slaves. In 1863 all slaves were officially freed when Lincoln issued the Declaration of Emancipation, though Southern slaves would not be free in reality until the war ended.
