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American Civil WarU.S. history Native America Colonial America 1776–1789 1789–1861 Origins of the Civil War (1, 2, 3, 4) The Civil War 1865–1918 1918–1945 1945–1964 1964–1980 1980–1988 1988–present The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the northern states, popularly referred to as the USA, the Union, the North, or the Yankees; and the seceding southern states, commonly referred to as the Confederate States of America, the CSA, the Confederacy, the South, the Rebels, or Dixie. Soldiers who fought for the North were referred to as Johnny Yanks and those who fought for the South were called Johnny Rebs Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Naming Conventions 2 The coming of the Civil War 3 Historical summary 4 Major battles 5 Military Developments in the War 6 Civil War leaders 7 Aftermath 8 See also 9 External links Naming Conventions The war was also known in the South as The War Between the States, The War of Southern Independence, Mr. Lincoln's War or, simply, as The War. However, these names are seldom heard openly today, except among Southern nationalist, historical and cultural groups such as the League of the South (LS) and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). The preferred usage of "War Between the States" (WBTS) as used by the SCV and many modern reenactors is based upon a Congressional resolution of the 1920's declaring this the proper designation for the war, in deference to those who asserted that the generic category of "civil war" did not apply to the events of 1861-65 in the United States. More obscure names for the war include The Second American Revolution and The War in Defense of Virginia. In the period following the war, it was also known as The Late Unpleasantness. Northerners were known to refer to this conflict as The War of the Rebellion or The War of Southern Rebellion, The War to Save the Union and The War for Abolition; Southerners have referred to it as The War of Northern Aggression. In some other countries, it is referred to as the War of Secession. Military history of the United States ConflictAmerican Civil War Date1861–1865 PlaceCentral and southern USA ResultDefeat of seceding CSA Battles of the American Civil War Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Strength 2,803,300 1,064,200 Casualties KIA: 110,070Total dead: 359,528Wounded: 275,175 KIA: 74,524Total dead: 198,524Wounded: 137,000+ The coming of the Civil War For details see the main article The coming of the Civil War. While there is considerable debate about the influence of individual events that led the states to this civil war: abolitionist sentiment, the ongoing free state-slave state battles in Congress and elsewhere, the rise of the Republican Party, states' rights and economic issues are most often cited. Widening abolitionist sentiment in the North had been influenced by Uncle Tom's Cabin published in 1852, the Dred Scott case of 1857, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, and William Lloyd Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society. The issue of whether new states would be slave states or free states came up over and over again, notably in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The increasing power of the Republican Party began when it was first established in the free states of the Midwest in 1854 as a reaction to the expansion of slavery territory. It was composed of former Conscience Whigs, Anti-Nebraska Democrats, Free Soilers, Know-Nothings and Nativists. The Republican cause was advanced by the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860—Lincoln earned no electoral votes from the South. The war is viewed as a key battle in the continuing struggle for states' rights which had seen earlier expression in such revolts against federal authority as the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, which supported the doctrine of nullification and preceded the doctrine of secession. Although Southern planters of the Democratic Party had run most branches of the Federal Government for 60 years, by leveraging the three-fifths compromise to disproportionately leverage their popular support, they rebelled at the idea of being led by a Midwestern anti-slavery politician, and during the war and for the following hundred years adopted the minority argument of preserving the sovereign rights of states. This ironic turn of argument followed the antebellum years when Northerners would threaten secession (in New England) over slavery or Midwestern Governors would assert state's rights as did Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, who refused Federal officers the right to pursue refugee fugitives from slavery crossing the Ohio River. The Dred Scott decision inflamed the Midwest since Chief Justice Taney, a slaveholder himself, was definitively deciding for the nation that slaves could be transported into the free Midwest and West in direct violation of state Constitutions prohibitting slavery, and that slaveholders' property transported there would protected by the Federal Government. Effectively, the South demanded slavery be protected everywhere. This violation of freedom, in conjunction with the border wars of Kansas where democracy was perverted in self-determination battles to enshrine slavery, outraged Northerners, and the Republicans swept into office across the Midwest and Northeast. By winning the war, Lincoln and the Republican north effectively, if unintentionally, unified the federation of states into more of an unbreakable union, contributing to a flowering of nationalism and a substantial growth of the federal government. Economic issues separating the North and South include taxation and imbalance of trade. There is little question that the salient issue in the minds of the public and popular press of the time, and the histories written since, was the issue of slavery. Slavery had been prohibited in the Midwest since before the Constitution was ratified under the Northwest Ordinance, and had later been abolished in most Northeastern states, but slavery remained legal and important to the economy of the Confederacy, which depended on cheap agricultural labor. State sovereignty (for the South) and preservation of the Union (for the North) have both also been cited as issues, but both were reflections of the slavery issue, i.e., could the Federal government force southern states to end slavery or could the southern states leave the Union to preserve slavery? 7 states seceded right after the Election of 1860. They were Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. After the attack on Fort Sumter 4 more states seceded. They were Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Three "slave states" did not secede: Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. Although Kentucky did not secede, it declared itself neutral in the conflict. Delaware and Maryland were garrisoned by Union forces throughout the war to prevent their secession. Missouri's government split, with a Unionist government in the capitol and a secessionist government-in-exile run from Camden, Arkansas and Marshall, Texas. The state of West Virginia was created by the secession from Virginia of its northwestern counties, and added to the Union in 1863. The unaligned or undecided states were known as the "border states." The Confederacy elected Jefferson Davis to be their president. Historical summary Confederate Battle Flag, used from May 1863 to the end of the war. (compare Stars and Bars) It started with Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860, which triggered South Carolina's secession from the Union. Leaders in the state had long been waiting for an event that might unite the South against the antislavery forces. Once the election returns were certain, a special South Carolina convention declared "that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the 'United States of America' is hereby dissolved." By February 1, 1861, six more Southern states had seceded. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama. The remaining southern states as yet remained in the Union. Less than a month later, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he refused to recognize the secession, considering it "legally void". His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. The South, particularly South Carolina, ignored the plea, and on April 12, the South fired upon the Federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina until the troops surrendered. Lincoln called for all of the states in the Union to send troops to defend the country against the secessionist forces. Most Northerners believed that a quick brutal victory for the Union would put out the rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days. This was an impetus for the rest of the Southern states to vote for secession. Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia. Even though the Southern states had seceded, there was considerable anti-secessionist sentiment within several of the seceding states. Eastern Tennessee, in particular, was a hotbed for pro-Unionism. Winston County, Alabama issued a resolution of secession from the state of Alabama. Winfield Scott created the Anaconda Plan as the Union's main plan of attack during the war. Abraham Lincoln16th President(1861-1865) As a Confederate force was built up by July 1861 at Manassas, Virginia, a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there, was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, whereupon they were forced back to Washington, DC by Confederate troops under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the United States Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. Major General George McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26 (he was briefly given supreme command of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862. Ulysses S. Grant gave the Union its first victory of the war, by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee on February 6 of that year. McClellan reached the gates of Richmond in the spring of 1862, but when Robert E. Lee defeated him in the Seven Days Campaign, he was relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac. His successor, John Pope, was beaten spectacularly by Lee at Second Bull Run in August. Emboldened, the Confederacy's made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River at White's Ford near Leesburg, Virginia into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored McClellan, who won a bloody, almost Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia. When McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside suffered near-immediate defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and was in his turn replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army, and was relieved after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George Meade, who stopped Lee's invasion of Union-held territory at what is sometimes considered the war's turning point, the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), inflicting 28,000 casualties on Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and again forcing it to retreat to its namesake state. While the Confederate forces had some success in the Eastern theater holding on to their capital, fortune did not smile upon them in the West. Confederate forces were driven from Missouri early in the war as result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Jefferson DavisFirst and only President of the Confederate States of America Nashville, Tennessee fell to the Union early in 1862. The Mississippi was opened, at least to Vicksburg, with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri and then Memphis, Tennessee. New Orleans, Louisiana was captured in January, 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well. The Union's key strategist and tactician was Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Fort Donelson, Battle of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee. Grant understood the concept of total war and realized, along with Lincoln, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces would bring an end to the war. At the beginning of 1864, Grant was given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac although Meade remained the actual commander of that army. Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase of the Eastern campaign: the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. An attempt to outflank Lee from the South failed under Generals Butler and Smith, who were 'corked' into the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Grant was tenacious and kept pressing the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of Robert E. Lee. He extended the Confederate army, pinning it down in the Siege of Petersburg and, after two failed attempts (under Siegel and Hunter), finally found a commander, Philip Sheridan, who could clear the threat to Washington DC from the Shenandoah Valley. Meanwhile General William Tecumseh Sherman marched from Chattanoga on Atlanta and laid waste to much of the rest of Georgia after he left Atlanta and marched to the sea at Savannnah. Burning towns and plantations as they went, Sherman's armies hauled off crops and killed livestock to retaliate and to demonstrate Union power. When Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and his men, and for the Confederacy. Advantages widely believed to have contributed to the Union's success include:
This article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Confederates in the Attic : Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation : The End of Slavery in America by Allen C. Guelzo Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States, 6) by James M. McPherson Hidden in Plain View : A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad by Raymond G. Dobard Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War by James M. McPherson LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG: THE WORDS THAT REMADE AMERICA by Garry Wills Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War by Newt Gingrich Last Chance for Victory by Scott Bowden Nothing Like It In the World : The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen E. Ambrose American Massacre : The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857 by Sally Denton Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American History) by James M. McPherson Paradise Alley : A Novel by Kevin Baker Recent American_Civil_War related patents From USPTO: 6561513: Role and war game playing system 6487545: Methods and apparatus for classifying terminology utilizing a knowledge catalog 6388206: Microcircuit shielded, controlled impedance "Gatling gun"via 6209873: Role and war game playing system 6199034: Methods and apparatus for determining theme for discourse 6120213: Modular diver's buoyancy control device 6114382: Methods for treating inflammatory bowel disease 6026396: Knowledge-based moderator for electronic mail help lists 5980160: Apparatus and method for a modular lifting and shoring system 5909679: Knowledge-based moderator for electronic mail help lists 5445225: Choke for enhanced gas and oil well production 5383341: Refrigeration, heating and air conditioning system for vehicles 5306017: Civil war chess 5231849: Dual-temperature vehicular absorption refrigeration system 5115997: Surveillance balloon 5002046: Balanced skeletal traction apparatus 4981646: Corrosion resistant alloy 4889246: Rotating clothes tree 4877140: Rotating clothes tree 4244272: Dispersion-controlled multibarrel gun system 4232468: Combination breech-loading to muzzle-loading firearm converting device and projectile casing 4227330: Breech-loading to muzzle-loading firearm converting device |
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