The Civil War, which began in April 1861, was a war that many saw as over by the end of the year: no one expected it to turn into a long, drawn-out massacre which he became. It was a war originally born because of the secession of the Southern states from the Union in the belief that the election of Abraham Lincoln as president would make emancipation inevitable. Only white soldiers fought against each other at the start of the war, but by mid-July 1862 Henry Wilson – a Massachusetts senator who staunchly opposed slavery – had passed a bill allowing the president to bring African Americans on active duty in the country. of the Union Army and following the Emancipation Proclamation the president finally allowed the raising of colored regiments. With the creation of a position for African Americans in the military, the status of these men in Northern society was increasingly called into question. This reflects a recognition that when slavery became the primary issue of the war something had to be done about the position of these men in Northern society. However, the changes that occurred could not go unnoticed by the South and the whites of the North and gave the definitive start to the sectoral division. The institution of slavery and the growing tension it entailed between North and South raised questions about the position of African Americans. increasingly prominent in society among both whites and blacks. Since they had been removed from their domestic environment and branded as slaves, a process that began in 1619, the status of blacks had remained one of inferiority compared to white Americans. Although Lincoln originally argued that the Civil War was about keeping the Union together, a change would have to occur if the N...... middle of document ......ntry, 1863-1865. Boston: Boston Book Co., 1894. Fitzgerald, Michael. Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007.Glatthaar, Joseph. Forged in Battle: Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers. New York: Free Press, 1990. Greenberg, Kenneth. Masters and Statesmen: The Political Culture of American Slavery. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985. Hapgood and Adams, eds. Chronicle of the Western Reserve. May 20, 1863, image 2.Smith, John. “We are all grateful to have black troops who will fight.” In Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era, edited by John Smith, 1-78. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.Williams, George. A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888.