On the twelfth of April, 1861, Confederate guns opened fire on Fort
Sumter in Charleston Harbor, thus beginning the bloodiest conflict in
American History--620,000 dead---more than all other American wars
combined.
The Civil War remains this nation's single most defining experience,
ultimately giving new meaning to the word Freedom.
Walt Whitman, a young newspaperman destined to become America's
greatest poet wrote :
"Future years will never know the seething hell
and the black infernal background of this war -- and it is best they
should not -- the real war will never get in the books."

On the twelfth of April, 1861, Confederate guns opened fire on Fort
Sumter in Charleston Harbor, thus beginning the bloodiest conflict in
American History--620,000 dead---more than all other American wars
combined.
The Civil War remains this nation's single most defining experience,
ultimately giving new meaning to the word Freedom.
Walt Whitman, a young newspaperman destined to become America's
greatest poet wrote :
"Future years will never know the seething hell
and the black infernal background of this war -- and it is best they
should not -- the real war will never get in the books."