The fire on that fort will usher in a civil war greater than any the world has ever seen... you will lose all our friends in the North. You will arbitrarily hit a hornet's nest that stretches from the mountains to the ocean. The now quiet legions will swarm out and hang us to death. It is not needed. He put us in the wrong. It's fatal. –Robert Toombs. (Boerner paragraph 2). The Civil War has forever influenced the course of history. But it all had to start somewhere, and the Battle of Fort Sumter marked the beginning. The Battle of Fort Sumter had various causes and effects. Before the start of the Civil War, a conflict had occurred between the Northern and Southern states. The election of Abraham Lincoln did not improve the situation at all. Lincoln was a well-known abolitionist and wanted to reduce the expansion of slavery into the Western states. Southern states viewed it as an infringement on their way of life by controlling their economy. How could Northern states regulate Southern states? The economy of the North was very different from that of the South. Especially because slavery was vital to farmers in planting and harvesting crops. Secession was on the horizon, and Lincoln knew he had to do something to prevent it. To help build the Union Army, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 90 days. Each state was asked to fill a quota based on its population. This did not help Lincoln and only hurt the Union cause. This only infuriated the Southern state even more, and secession for the Union was becoming a reality. Fort Sumter was one of many forts during the Civil War in the United States and was named after General Thomas Sumter who was a hero in the Revolutionary War. Plans for the fort were originally developed... middle of paper...l The war officially ended on April 18, 1865. Was it by chance that the initial battle began at Fort Sumter? Did President Lincoln use the situation at the fort to gain support in the North? Or was the battle started by the Confederates to gain supporters in the South, knowing they had an advantage in this battle? The historian will discuss this topic for years to come. One thing is certain: the outcome of the Civil War led to the reunification of the United States. Unfortunately, it took a war to reunite the nation, and that war began with the Battle of Fort Sumter. Works Cited Atlas of the Civil War, Book All About the Civil War, www.boerner.net/jboerner/?p=10867 Fort Sumter: How The Civil War Began with a Bloodless Battle An Illustrated History of the Civil War Pictures of a Trade American Civil War, www.civilwar.org/battlefields/fort-sumter/html?tabfacts