The American Civil War, more commonly known as the Civil War, raged from 1861 to 1865. This bloody conflict was conducted to maintain the Union of the United States and prevent the formation of an independent country known as the Confederate States of America. In 1861 the United States consisted of 34 states. Seven Southern slave states seceded from the United States to form the Confederacy. Eventually the Confederacy included eleven states, but they claimed thirteen, plus additional western territories. The primary issue behind the southern states seceding from the Union was that of slavery....