WASHINGTON With the wounds of a hard-fought political campaign still raw, the country was sharply divided by the time the election was finished.

It was 150 years ago Saturday: President Abraham Lincoln was elected amid the rising tensions that led to the Civil War.

The anniversary of Lincoln’s election kicks off nearly five years of events by the National Park Service and others across the nation marking the Sesquicentennial of the war between North and South.

“We’re trying to say it’s more than battles,” Park Service tourism chief Dean Reeder said of the Civil War commemorations. Lincoln’s election helps frame the context of what would come, he said.

Coming on the heels of this year’s polarizing elections, the anniversary echoes the nation’s fractious mood back then.

“I think a lot of people will notice it was a contentious election in 2010, and it was a way contentious election in 1860,” Reeder said.

A century and a half ago, in a nation already torn by disputes over states’ rights and the expansion of slavery, the Democratic Party split into Southern and Northern factions. Lincoln, a Republican, won without a taking single Southern state. Within a month, Southern states began declaring secession.

In the months ahead, the Park Service will recreate Lincoln’s journey from Illinois to the nation’s capital and his inauguration in March 1861. Lincoln’s route to Washington led through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.

“By the time he gets to Maryland, he’s in enemy territory,” Reeder said. “And he’s the president of the United States.”

Plans are well under way for many events next year: the recreation of Lincoln’s inaugural in March, the war’s first bloodshed in Baltimore when a Massachusetts regiment was attacked, the first battle at Fort Sumter in South Carolina and the first major land battle at Manassas, Va., in July 1861.

As many as 15,000 historical reenactors are slated to perform in the Manassas recreation for 25,000 spectators, organizers said. Later events will mark the battles at Antietam, Gettysburg and beyond.

The Park Service is working with dozens of partners to coordinate the many Civil War events planned through 2015 at more than 75 different battlefields and historic sites, as well as at museums and other privately operated sites.

Washington’s tourism bureau, Destination DC, announced its promotion with the Park Service and others called “Civil War to Civil Rights.” It will include exhibits at the city’s museums, the opening of a new African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, the opening of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and other shows and attractions.

City leaders said they hope to showcase the capital’s unique history of being surrounded by the Confederacy and give visitors a chance to see sites beyond the National Mall.