When Abraham Lincoln was elected to president March 4, 1861, no one knew that a war would begin just about one month later. On the very day after his election the situation changed. Lincoln then got a request of military help from Major Robert Anderson, who was the commanding officer at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. South Carolina demanded to takeover the fort as the property of the state and had cut off all supplies to the crew in the fortress.

If Lincoln held fast to that all fortresses belonged to the Union, he had to move and supply Fort Sumter with the help of the navy. Lincoln decided to send help, the shipment of supplies was not taken kindly upon by the Confederacy; they saw it as a threat to the sovereignty of the State of South Carolina. Military forces were sent to Charleston.

At 4.30 a.m. April 12, 1861, canons from the beach opened fire against Fort Sumter. At noon April 13 the confederate's canons had bombarded the fortress with 4,000 shells. The Fort was a mess but there were no casualties. At 2.30 p.m. Major Anderson finally gave up, but he insisted that a 100-canon salute had to be fired to his honor when he left the fortress.

About halfway through the salute a one of the canons blew up and caused the only casualty during this entire episode. This started one of the worst wars in the United States history. About 620,000 soldiers lost their lives during this outrageous war.

Under the course of war many lives were lost on both sides. But the Union still hadn't drafted the African-Americans that they had in their army. Despite the fact that both the will and courage to fight existed within the African-Americans hearts, there were still prejudices against them and they were denied to take service in the army. Most people, either from the North or South had the same opinion, that the African-Americans was inferior as humans, despite the fact that one of the causes for the war was the liberty for the slaves.

However, the war turned for the worse and things didn't go too well for the Union, so President Lincoln put forward a proposal about using African-Americans in the Union army in 1862. In the summer 1862 the first African-American regiments began to form, the first one was First Kansas Colored, in September the Louisiana Native Guards formed and in October the First South Carolina formed as well. Then the time came for 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry to form.

In an effort to placate the slave-holding border states, Lincoln resisted the demands of radical Republicans for complete abolition. Yet some Union generals, such as General B. F. Butler, declared slaves escaping to their lines "contraband of war", not to be returned to their masters. Other generals decreed that the slaves of men rebelling against the Union were to be considered free.

Congress, too, had been moving toward abolition. In 1861, Congress had passed an act stating that all slaves employed against the Union were to be considered free. In 1862, another act stated that all slaves of men who supported the Confederacy were to be considered free. Lincoln, aware of the public's growing support of abolition, issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring that all slaves in areas still in rebellion were, in the eyes of the federal government, free. From this act sprang the possibility to recruit African-Americans to the Union Army.