In the first two years, conflict in the more densely populated Eastern Theater was relatively even, although the Union gained a stronger foothold in the East, taking the South's largest city, New Orleans, by sea in April 1962. After South Carolina's secession, the Union Army forces in Charleston refused to abandon their post, and eventually took refuge in Fort Sumter on December 26 - after declining an invitation to surrender in the early hours of April 12, Confederate forces besieged the fort, marking the beginning of the American Civil War (although there were no fatalities during this battle). The war began within a month of Lincoln's inauguration, on April 12, 1861, but the crisis leading up to it started in December of 1860. Abraham Lincoln's victory in the 1860 election was seen as a major step toward nationwide abolition, and was followed by the secession of eleven states from the Union, and the formation of the Confederate States of America. ![]() While slavery was gradually abolished in the North, nationwide abolition threatened the elites' livelihoods in the predominantly agricultural South, where slave labor was essential for maintaining economic output. ![]() As migration and industrialization along the eastern seaboard increased, the North grew less dependent on slave labor the issue of slavery then changed from an economic to a moral issue. Most historians accept that the primary cause of the war was the issue of slavery, particularly whether slavery should be extended into new states.
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