The War
Hostilities began in April of 1861 with the Confederate artillery attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Over the following four years, major land battles were fought throughout the South and on battlefields as far as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the North and Galveston, Texas in the West. With the advent of ironclad ships, the Union Navy was also instrumental in the ultimate victory by gaining superiority over the make-shift Confederate Navy on the Mississippi and southern rivers, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic coastline.
Surrender
By April 1865, the Civil War had reduced the Confederate army to mere shadows of their former glory. With no food to eat, grossly outnumbered, and surrounded by Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant, the last fighting contingent of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Monetary Costs
In monetary terms, what was the direct cost of this conflict? The direct costs relates to the expenditures of the governments, the losses from 
property destruction, and the loss of human capital from the casualties. While estimates have varied for years, the most comprehensive study on the costs of the Civil War was done in 1975 and 1978. Keep in mind, however, that because of the fragmented data available from those times and even the uncertainty of that data, no matter which study or figures are presented, they are at best only rough estimates. According to the work done by Claudia Goldin and Frank Lewis, the direct costs include the following estimations in 1860 dollars:
- Government Expenditures - $2.3 Billion for the North and $1 Billion for the South
- Property Destruction - $0 for the North and $1.5 Billion for the South
- Loss of Human Capital - $1.1 Billion for the North and $767 million for the South
Since the population of the South was much less than that of the North, on a per capita basis, the Civil War cost the South about $375 per person while in the North it was approximately $150 per person.
Human Costs: estimated deaths from all causes:
- Union - 370,000 lives
- Confederate - 258,000 lives
Note: The Civil War holds the dubious distinction of having the highest costs in total American deaths of any war in American history including World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War combined.