In 1861 a war broke out in the United States between Southern states and Northern states. The conflict was known as the American Civil War because it pitted citizens of the same nation against one another. The war lasted until 1865, when the South surrendered to the North. Events leading to warFor decades before the start of the war, tensions existed between the North and the South. One of the biggest differences between the two was over how much power the federal government should have. The North favored a loose interpretation of the United States Constitution, while the South wanted the individual states to have power over anything that was not defined in the Constitution. The two sides were particularly concerned about the issue of slavery. The Southern economy was based on agriculture, and plantations (large farms) relied on slave labor. By contrast, the economy of the North relied more on manufacturing, and its small farms used free labor. The South was afraid that the federal government would try to impose laws that would do away with slavery. Both sides were concerned about the developing Western territories of the United States. This concern was both moral and political. Many Northerners felt slavery was wrong and did not want the practice to spread. Neither side wanted the other to gain a political advantage: The North feared slavery in the West would make the area side with the South on issues, and the South feared that Western states without slaves would side with the North. The South claimed the federal government did not have a right to decide whether or not slavery was allowed in an area. They feared the next step would be the government trying to stop slavery in places where it already existed. Missouri CompromiseThe issue was first addressed as a nation when Missouri began the process towards statehood in 1819. Because the United States already had 11 states in favor of slavery and 11 states against slavery, people became very interested in what the new state would be. Finally another territory, Maine, applied for statehood, and the United States Congress decided on a measure known as the Missouri Compromise. Maine would enter the Union as a free state, and Missouri would enter as a slave state. This action would keep the balance of power between North and South equal in the Senate. Kansas-Nebraska ActAs part of the Missouri Compromise, government officials also came up with dividing lines so that the question of whether or not slaves were allowed in an area would not come up again. In 1854, however, the issue did come up again when the Kansas and Nebraska territories were organized. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which overturned the Missouri Compromise. The act allowed the people of the new territories to choose whether or not to allow slavery in those territories. This led to the first armed conflict between supporters of each side. It also led the nation closer to war. SecessionBy the 1850s, some Northerners had begun calling for the end of all slavery in the nation. This action led several Southern states to threaten to secede (withdraw) from the Union as a way of protecting their right to keep slaves. When Abraham Lincoln—the candidate of the antislavery Republican Party—was elected president in late 1860, the Southern states began to carry out their threat. Over the next several months South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee all left the Union. They formed a new government called the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as president. War begins - Interior view of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, under the Confederate flag, April 14, 1861.
The American Civil War, also known as the War Between the States, began on April 12, 1861. The first fight took place in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, when Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter, which was held by the United States Army. Both sides quickly began raising and organizing armies. On July 21, some 30,000 Union troops marched toward the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. They were stopped at Bull Run (Manassas) and then driven back to Washington, D.C., by the Confederate troops of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and General P.G.T. Beauregard. The defeat shocked the Union, which quickly called for 500,000 more new soldiers. Lincoln sent ships to block the entire Southern coastline. This action made it hard for the Confederacy to trade with foreign countries. Early in the war, the South believed that European nations were so dependent on Southern cotton for their industries that they would be willing to help fight the North to get it. The belief proved wrong, as nations did not want to become involved in a war, found new sources of cotton, and profited from trading as neutrals. The North had many things in its favor. The population of the loyal states was about double that of the seceding states. The North also was capable of producing more supplies because it had many more industries, and the North had a larger and better railway system. The South depended a great deal on foreign countries for supplies, which were difficult to get because of the blockade. Early battlesFour states located between the North and the South—Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware—were known as border states. The border states remained in the Union even though some of the residents held slaves. Throughout the rest of 1861, much of the fighting took place in border states. Military leader George B. McClellan helped clear Confederate forces from western counties in Virginia that wanted to stay in the Union. The area later joined the Union as the state of West Virginia. Some notable conflicts in 1862 included the battle of Shiloh (a bloody battle in Tennessee that resulted in many deaths on both sides) and the second battle of Bull Run (in which a Union army was defeated). Although most of the American Civil War took place on land, the conflict between the Confederacy's Merrimack and the Union's Monitor that year was important because it began a new era in naval fighting. These new iron-covered warships made wooden vessels useless, forcing navies throughout the world to rebuild. Emancipation ProclamationAt the start of the war, the North fought only to preserve the Union. The South fought to win recognition as an independent nation. Things changed, however, in September 1862. After the Union's encouraging performance at Antietam, Maryland, President Lincoln issued a statement promising freedom for slaves held in any of the Confederate states that did not return to the Union by the end of the year. The Confederate states ignored Lincoln's warning, so Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Thus, starting in 1863 the Northern armies gave slaves their freedom when they captured an area. Many of these former slaves then joined the Union army. This action gave a new moral aim to the war and helped to stop foreign countries from becoming involved. More conflictsFredericksburg and ChancellorsvilleThe south dealt a Union army under A.E. Burnside a heavy defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862. Burnside was replaced in the East by General Joseph Hooker. In May 1863, Hooker attempted to surround troops under the command of General Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville, Virginia, but Lee's troops forced the Union army to retreat. The battle of Chancellorsville was one of the Confederacy's greatest victories, but it was also one of the costliest in terms of lives lost. Vicksburg and GettysburgOne of the main goals of the Union forces was to cut the Confederacy in two by winning control of the Mississippi River. To do this it was necessary to take the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. As long as the South held Vicksburg, Union ships could not operate freely on the river. The city also served as an important transportation point for the Confederacy: Supplies, arms, and men from the southwestern states were assembled at Vicksburg and then transported eastward by rail. Union General Ulysses S. Grant was put in charge of the Army of the West in early 1863, with orders to capture Vicksburg. It was not an easy task, and Grant had to try out many strategies. On July 4, 1863, however, Confederate troops there surrendered. At nearly this same time, Lee suffered his first stinging defeat when Union forces drove attacking Confederates out of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was one of the most important battles of the war. Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address on the site when he dedicated a national cemetery there in November 1863. ChattanoogaAfter a Union army was defeated at Chickamauga Creek, Georgia, in October 1863, Grant was called to the region. With the help of General William Tecumseh Sherman and General George Thomas, Grant drove Confederate general Braxton Bragg out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Sherman then secured Knoxville, Tennessee. End of the warAfter Lincoln gave Grant supreme command of the Union armies in March 1864, Grant plotted a strategy for defeating Confederate forces in Virginia. While Grant battled in Virginia, Sherman went to Georgia to deal with the only other major Confederate force left. Sherman captured Atlanta in September and then went on a long march through Georgia in which his troops did great damage to the state. He reached Savannah in December and soon captured that city. By March 1865, Lee had lost many men to injuries, deaths, and desertions, and he was very short of supplies. Grant began his final advance on April 1, captured Richmond on April 3, and accepted Lee's surrender at nearby Appomattox Court House on April 9. Sherman had moved into North Carolina, and on April 26 he received the surrender of J.E. Johnston. The North's victory in the American Civil War put an end to slavery and preserved the Union. Federal troops remained in the South for more than a decade after the war. The defeated states were gradually readmitted to the Union after agreeing to terms set by the federal government. A great deal of physical damage had been done to buildings and property in the South, and the region also had to work on restructuring its economy to survive without slave labor. This period in which the nation set out to rebuild itself was known as Reconstruction. It lasted until the final federal troops withdrew from the South in April 1877. |