On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. This marked the beginning of the bloody Civil War. Confederate soldiers volunteered and were later drafted to fight the war against the Union. An estimated 800,000 Southern men served in the Confederate Army. Their lives were difficult, as they faced brutal combat, disease, starvation, loneliness, and lack of proper shelter and clothing. The four long years of war changed their lives forever.