This is the official National Park Service Civil War Web Site. The approaching Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War (2011-2015) offers the current generation of Americans a most important opportunity to know, discuss, and commemorate this country's greatest national crisis, while at the same time exploring its enduring relevance in the 21st century.

In preparation for the Sesquicentennial, the National Park Service-through the collective efforts of the superintendents at Civil War-related parks-proposes to undertake a multi-faceted, multi-year, integrated program that will simultaneously transform and improve interpretation of the Civil War in our national parks while providing a national forum for the observance of the Sesquicentennial of America's greatest national crisis.

During the preparatory period (2005-2011), this web site will present information on the events leading up to the Civil War, so that the Sesquicentennial can be experienced as the 150th anniversary of major military events, but also of social, political, economic and cultural transformations that have changed the nation forever.