what year did the Civil war start
As Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861 the crisis intensified and more slave states left the Union. 1  The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the attack on Fort Sumter in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina.hen the Civil War began most Americans expected it to be a crisis that would come to a fast end. But when the Union and Confederate Armies began shooting in the summer of 1861, that perception quickly changed. The fighting escalated and the war became a very costly struggle lasting four years.