美国南北战争(1861～1865年)
American Civil War，亦称Civil War或War Between the States。
美国联邦政府和宣布脱离联邦的南方十一个州之间的战争。这场战争的起因在於双方在蓄奴、贸易、关税和州权等问题上的争议。1840年代和1850年代，北部各州反对在西部地区蓄奴，造成南方各州害怕威胁到他们持有奴隶的权益，而蓄奴是维持其庞大的棉花种植园的经济基础。到1850年代，废奴主义在北方逐渐成长，当1860年反对蓄奴的共和党候选人林肯当选总统後，南方各州便脱离联邦以保护他们蓄奴的权利。他们组成以戴维斯（Jefferson Davis）为首的美利坚邦联（Confederate States of America），北部各州则由林肯领导。1861年4月12日美利坚邦联军队在萨姆特堡（Fort Sumter）开火，战争於是在南卡罗来纳州的查理斯敦展开。双方迅速招募军队。1861年7月约三万名联邦军向美利坚邦联的首都维吉尼亚州的里奇蒙挺进，但在布尔渊战役（Battle of Bull Run）受到美利坚邦联军队的阻截，被迫撤退到华盛顿特区。这场败战震惊了北方，再次招募了五十万大军。1862年2月首场重要战役开打，格兰特（Ulysses S. Grant）率领的联邦军占领了田纳西州西部美利坚邦联的要塞。联邦军接连在塞罗（Shiloh）和纽奥良（New Orleans）传捷报。在东线的战区，李（Robert E. Lee）将军也为美利坚邦联赢得数场战役：七天战役（Seven Day's Battles）以及在安提坦战役（Battle of Antietam）取胜後的弗雷德里克斯堡战役（Battle of Fredericksburg，1862年12月）。美利坚邦联军队在钱瑟勒斯维尔战役（Battle of Chancellorsville）胜利後，李将军挥军北上，与米德率领的联邦军在盖茨堡战役（Battle of Gettysburg）遭遇。战争的转捩点发生在1863年7月的西部战区，格兰特在维克斯堡战役（Vicksburg Campuign）的成功使得整个密西西比河流域都落入联邦军之手。在奇克莫加战役（Battle of Chickamauga）战胜後，格兰特的权力又上一层楼，1864年3月格兰特被林肯任命为联邦军最高统帅。格兰特开始实行消耗战略，他无视联邦军在莽原战役（Battle of the Wilderness）和斯波特瑟尔韦尼亚县府战役（Battle of Spotsylvania）中的惨重伤亡，开始包围李将军在维吉尼亚州彼得斯堡的军队（参阅Petersburg Campaign）。同时，雪曼（William T. Sherman）於9月占领亚特兰大（参阅Atlanta Campaign）後，开始了通过乔治亚州的破坏性行军，不久又夺占了塞芬拿。1865年4月3日格兰特占领里奇蒙，4月9日在阿波麦托克斯县府（Appomattox Court House）接受李将军的投降。4月26日雪曼接受约翰斯顿（Joseph Johnston）的投降，从而结束了这场战争。死伤人数颇为惨重，总共两百四十万士兵中约有六十二万人死亡。南方受到严重破坏。但北方维持原状，奴隶制被废除。
English version：
1861～1865年
American Civil War
orWar Between the StatesConflict between the U.S. federal government and 11 Southern states that fought to secede from the Union. It arose out of disputes over the issues of slavery, trade and tariffs, and the doctrine of states' rights. In the 1840s and '50s, Northern opposition to slavery in the western territories caused the Southern states to fear a threat to their slaveholdings, which formed the economic base of their large cotton plantations. By the 1850s abolitionism was growing in the North, and when the antislavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the Southern states seceded to protect their right to keep slaves. They were organized as the Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis, while the Northern states were led by Lincoln. The war began in Charleston, S.C., when Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Both sides quickly raised armies. In July 1861, 30,000 Union troops marched toward the Confederate capital at Richmond, Va., but were stopped by Confederate forces in the Battle of Bull Run and forced to retreat to Washington, D.C. The defeat shocked the Union, which called for 500,000 more recruits. The war's first major campaign began in February 1862, when Union troops under Ulysses S. Grant captured Confederate forts in western Tennessee. Union victories at the Battles of Shiloh and New Orleans followed. In the East, Robert E. Lee won several Confederate victories in the Seven Days' Battles and, after defeat at the Battle of Antietam, in the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862). After the Confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lee invaded the North and engaged Union forces under George Meade at the momentous Battle of Gettysburg. The war's turning point in the West occurred in July 1863 with Grant's success in the Vicksburg Campaign, which brought the entire Mississippi River under Union control. Grant's command was expanded after the Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, and in March 1864 Lincoln gave him supreme command of the Union armies. He began a strategy of attrition and, despite heavy Union casualties at the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, began to surround Lee's troops in Petersburg, Va. (see Petersburg Campaign). Meanwhile William T. Sherman captured Atlanta in September (see Atlanta Campaign), set out on a destructive march through Georgia, and soon captured Savannah. Grant captured Richmond on April 3, 1865, and accepted Lee's surrender on April 9 at Appomattox Court House. On April 26 Sherman received the surrender of Joseph Johnston, thereby ending the war. The mortality numbers were staggering—about 620,000 deaths out of a total of 2.4 million soldiers. The South was devastated. But the Union was preserved, and slavery was abolished.