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.
Lincoln could not declare war on the Confederacy, because Congress did not recognise it as a sovereign nation. The first shots were fired by the Confederates at the US Army garrison on the island of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour on April 12th 1861, and Lincoln called for volunteer troops. The war was on.