President Lincoln's election angered the Southern State and seven of them announced they would leave the U.S. and form their own goverment. In 1861, South Carolina troops fired artillery at Fort Samter, a U.S. military fort. This began the Civil War. The war would be the central feature of Lincoln's presidency.
Lincoln's goal through the war was to reunite the North, known as the Union, with the South, known as the Confederacy. As commander in chief, he selected the Union generals to lead the Army. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which signaled freedom for the slaves.