Chapter One A Leader’s Death It was early morning on April 15 1865 Americans nervously wondered what would happen to the United States now that the president Abraham Lincoln was dead The night before John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln during a play in Washington D C The Civil War ended only days before The North called the Union fought the South called the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865 After Lincoln was elected president in 1860 several southern states seceded from the Union They decided to become their own country These states were in favor of slavery while Lincoln wanted to limit slavery They feared that Lincoln would not allow them to own slaves Lincoln ordered war to force the southern states to come back to the Union During the war in January 1863 he issued his Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation was the first big step toward ending slavery ﱚ5ﱚ
Surrender The Civil War ended less than a week before Lincoln was murdered On April 9 1865 general Robert E Lee surrendered his Confederate forces to Union Commander Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in central Virginia Though several small battles occurred in the following weeks Lee controlled most of the Confederate troops His surrender in early April ended the major fighting This document promised to free the slaves in the Confederacy which made the South fight even harder They knew their loss would mean the end of slavery On April 15 1865 the country was at peace but it faced many problems Southern cities were destroyed The states that seceded had to rejoin the Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14 1865 ﱚ6ﱚ
Abraham Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War and worked to free the slaves The Civil War ended when General Robert E Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox Courthouse United States Northerners did not agree on how this should be done Many people wanted the South to be punished for starting the long and expensive war Finally the end of the war freed millions of slaves in the South as Lincoln had promised Everyone wondered what roles and rights these men and women would have They seemed not to know what was to be their fate since their great benefactor helper was dead and their hopeless grief affected me more than almost anything else though strong and brave men wept when I met them U S Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles describing a group of former slaves mourning Lincoln’s death These questions troubled everyone southerners and northerners blacks and ﱚ7ﱚ
