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The American Civil War (1861 - 1865)

The Civil War was one of the most important wars in our country's history. It was a war fought between states, Northern against Southern, over several major differences. The economy of Southern states was mostly based on production of crops such as cotton and tobacco, which required based on slave labor. Northern states were primarily industrial and not longer required slave labor. The country's expansion into the west created a conflict between North and South over whether the new states should allow slavery. Southern states believed that the United States should not have a strong federal government, but instead each state should be allowed to create laws and govern its own people, while Northern states felt the need for a strong federal government to unite their growing industrial cities. Seeing Lincoln's election as a threat to their states' rights and to the institution of slavery, Southern states opted to secede from the Union to preserve their ways of life. .

The war began on April 12, 1861 when the Confederate Army (from the South) fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, a fort still held by the Union Army (from the North). This act of aggression began a Civil War that would last four years, cost the United States more than 600,000 lives and free over 4 million slaves.

After Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, South Carolina decided that it no longer wanted to be part of the United States. Within the next few months, seven states seceded from the United States to form the Confederate States of America, under their president, Jefferson Davis. Robert E. Lee resigned from the United States Army and joined the Confederacy, becoming General of the Army of Northern Virginia, an advisor to President Davis, and one of the most well known men in the Civil War. In April 1861, following the fall of Fort Sumter to the Confederate Army, Lincoln called for 75,000 men to join the militia. Lincoln soon called for a blockade of the South, and for 42,000 men to enlist in the Union Army for three years. Lincoln knew that the war would not be finished overnight.

The next two years were filled with significant battles fought on two "theaters," or fronts, eastern and western. In the West, the Union had many victories, including that at the Battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee in April 1862, and the capture of New Orleans, Louisiana, the main Confederate port, in late April 1862. In the Eastern theater, the Confederacy was victorious in keeping the Union from taking over their capital in the bloody Seven Days' Battle outside Richmond, Virginia, fought in June of 1862. However, the Union was able to push back the Confederacy's invasion of the North in what is known as the bloodiest battle of the war, the Battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland, in September of 1862.

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves only in the rebellious states. Lincoln felt that the preservation of the Union depended on the abolition of slavery. Under the laws of war, Lincoln was able to free the slaves in the rebelling states because of the government's right to seize enemy property. Those slaves who escaped came to fight for the Union, and their freedom.

Northern victories continued in both the eastern and western theaters. Jefferson Davis felt that a Confederate victory on Union soil would help morale as well as cause foreign governments to recognize the Confederate rebellion and give them much needed help. The battle did not go according to plan when the advance units from the Union and Confederacy, sent to scout the battle site and the enemy, ran into each other at Gettysburg. The Union army held the best location for the fight, and the Confederate army was forced to retreat. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg is famous because it reaffirmed his desire to reunite the States. The battle began the fall of the Confederacy. In 1864, Union armies took control of Mobile, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia. Over the next year, the Confederacy was slowly forced out of its own cities. On March 29, 1865, the Confederate government abandoned its capital city of Richmond, Virginia.

On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Lincoln was happy to see the end of the war so close at hand. On April 14, 1865, only a few months after he was re-elected as President of the United States, Lincoln and his wife attended a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington. During the performance, President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. He died before seeing the rest of the Confederate Army surrender and Jefferson Davis' capture on May 10, 1865.

Links:

Battles By State

Two Communities

Music and Poetry

Women soldiers

African American History

A Civil War Song