What major event is widely considered the start of the American Civil War?

The bombing of Fort Sumter is widely regarded as the event that marked the beginning of the American Civil War because it was the first military engagement between the Confederate forces and the Union. On April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter, located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, after the fort's commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused to surrender to the Confederates. This attack prompted President Abraham Lincoln to call for troops to suppress the rebellion, which solidified the divide between Northern and Southern states and led to the widespread outbreak of war.

In contrast, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred later in the war, in July 1863, and was a significant turning point but not the starting point. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 certainly escalated tensions between North and South, leading to the secession of several Southern states, but the actual conflict began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The Boston Tea Party, a protest against British taxation in 1773, is unrelated to the Civil War and pertains to earlier revolutionary sentiments in American history.