10-day forecast. 1  Weather News. 2  Dangerous surf will threaten some beachgoers this weekend AccuWeather. 3  Big Sur usually canât keep people away.  Several states at risk of hail, floods during stormy Easter weekend AccuWeather.
Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught Illinois lawyer, legislator and opponent of slavery, was elected president in November 1860âbut by the time of his inauguration in March 1861, seven Southern states had seceded, and the Civil War began a few weeks later.
1 The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the attack on Fort Sumter in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. 2  The killing of Col. Elmer Ellsworth, a friend of President Lincoln, in late May 1861 galvanized public opinion. 3  He was considered a martyr to the Union cause.