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Civil War Dbq

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The political turmoils of nineteenth century America gave way to a massive Civil War which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The United States were divided geographically and ideologically. The North was an industrial powerhouse based on (relatively) free labor that focused on factories and manufactures. In its economy it had no need for slaves and was dead set against the very institution of slavery. On the other hand, the south was the agricultural center of the U.S.A. and relied heavily on a large slave population to do most of the manual labor. The election of 1860 pitted these two different world views against each other. The pro slavery Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge and the abolitionist Republican Abraham Lincoln were …show more content…

The Confederates has forty-seven guns at their disposal and pummeled the fort for thirty-four hours. It took some time for the Northerners to fire back and some Southerners grew concerned they would not have a proper battle, but their fears dissipated when Abner Doubleday fired the Unions first shot of the war a few hours later. The Union would fire back occasionally but they tried to conserve their ammo and not waste it idly firing back, due to lack of munitions in the garrison. Despite the hours of bombardment from the Confederate guns Fort Sumter was taking little damage because of its twelve-foot thick …show more content…

Each sided started asking for volunteer forces from the different states within their jurisdiction. Jefferson Davis in the South asked for one-hundred thousand volunteers to be raised. After the first few battles and with the high casualties rates the confederates soon realized that they would need more men. By August 8, 1861 they requested four-hundred thousand more volunteers for up to three years and even those numbers were not enough. The next year in April the Confederate States of America would enact the first ever conscription bill in American

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