The American Civil War By Harriet Beecher Stowe

James M. McPherson sets out to discover what motivated the Confederate and Union soldiers to continue fighting in the Civil War in his book What They Fought For. McPherson analyses nearly a thousand letters, journals, and diary of Union and Confederate soldiers to determine what urged them to fight is this defining American Conflict. McPherson reads and groups together the common thoughts of the everyday soldier, from their letters and journals that none of which had been subjected to any sort of censorship, in that time period. He then generalizes the motivations that they used to fight for their country. Whether it be for slavery or for the Union, the author views both sides of the fighting to analysis their ideological issues, how deep their belief coursed through their veins to continue fighting, and how the soldiers held their convictions close to heart in the time of war.

After the Fort Sumter battle, both the North and the South began preparing for war by raising armies. This was done quickly and neither side spent much time training the troops. Both sides also did not know what a long and terrible war was ahead.

Abraham Lincoln once told Harriet Beecher Stowe,”So you’re the little lady who wrote the book that made this great war”(Hillstrom and Baker 431). Harriet Beecher Stowe, in a way, did start the Civil War, one of the bloodiest battles in American history. She tried her hardest to abolish slavery and never gave up on the slaves no matter what obstacles there were along the road. Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, helped release slaves during the Civil War, and also worked to abolish slavery in her life.

By the start of the Civil War, the North and the South had developed into two extremely different sections. There were opposing economic points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. Each one tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though the Union was kept together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The different paths taken in the economic development of the North and South combined with the South’s slave based economy being threatened by the North contributed heavily to the development of the Civil War.

     After the Fort Sumter battle, both the North and the South began preparing for war by raising armies. This was done quickly and neither side spent much time training the troops. Both sides also did not know what a long and terrible war was ahead.

On March 5, 1861 the day after President Lincoln inauguration of the United States, The president received a message (Beringer, Why the South lost the Civil War). In attempt by the confederate government to settle differences with the union were sponged by Lincoln and the confederate felt it could no longer tolerate a foreign force in its territory (Goldfield, 2002). Lincoln ingeniously devised a plan that would case the Confederates to fire the first shot and hoped to inspire the states that had not yet seceded to unite in effort to restore the union (Goldfield, 2002). Major Robert Anderson, who commanded the United States forces at Charleston, made the decision to withdraw from the land and forts surrounding Charleston to the harbor fortress of Fort Sumter because of the dangerous situations (Davis, 1958). He commanded almost 100 troops and desperately needed reinforcements with supplies of both food and ammunition (Schweikart, 2004).

The southern states wanted to secede from the union due to the fear that north would restrict and outlawed the slavery. With Lincoln presidency the south states started their separation of the union. Lincoln made it very clear to the southern states that secede from the nation was illegal during a recite of his oath in Washington D.C. It was until Lincoln became president that the south finally exploded and decided to secede. They knew Lincoln was in favor of the north and will try harder to free slaves from the south states. The south didn’t listen and stand up against the north and made their first moves and attack the Fort Sumter. Due to this event Lincoln send military forces to enter in war with South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. This event marked the start of the Civil War; Lincoln mobilized his military forces to defend the U.S from confederates that were consider enemy. Therefore, due to the fact the southern were afraid that the north

The book What They Fought for, is about the Civil war and the two sides involved. The two sides are Union and Confederate Armies. The Union is the north and the Confederate is the south. The union simply wanted to preserve the nation that the founding fathers bequeathed. The Confederate army was fighting for their independence. They believed the government was trying to take over and place too many rules on them. The Confederacy believed they should not have any restrictions. The Union wanted the country to be equal and whole. The ironic fact is that both sides were fighting for what the forefathers established, yet interpreted it in two completely different ways. The forefathers fought to be independent from British rule just as the Confederacy thought they were fighting. The forefathers also said “We the people of the united states…,” they wanted the nation to be united in their territories as a whole, just like the union believed. James McPherson does a great job of explaining both sides equally. Gerald Linderman and Reid Mitchell explained that soldiers at that time were not concerned with why they were fighting and only fought for their

Leading up to the American Civil War was an era of change in the labor systems of the North and South. The question of whether slavery would expand to the territories of the United States, or whether it would be restricted to the South dominated politics. The North, with its free labor system, feared the expansion of slavery to the territories—which would effectively make them the political minority, as well as going against their desire for the territories to be all white. The South, however, saw the North’s attempts to limit slavery in the territories as an attack on these new territory’s rights. The question of whether the causes of the Civil War have been resolved has been questioned by scholars since its completion. The regional changes

When the southern states had two representatives that really helped Lincoln’s chances of winning. After Lincoln’s win that was when 7 of the lower southern states decided to seceded from the north and it caused a lot of turmoil. The war began on April 12th, 1861 when Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard led a bombardment on Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina after Anderson refused to surrender Sumter. This lasted two days and ended with Anderson surrendering it to the Confederates. After this battle Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined the confederacy (Brinkley

President Lincoln became president in 1860, causing the secession of South Carolina and many other states from the Union. They didn’t believe in the same rights as President Lincoln was going to put into action. Fort Sumter of South Carolina (a confederate state) was still held down by the union and their troops because the confederate states were such a new dynamic. Because of this, South Carolina decided to bombard and fire on Fort Sumter, which began a thirty-four hour battle. The confederates just wanted their land filled with people that shared the same belief system as everyone else. They wanted the union out of their harbor and they believed the way to do that when denied their wish, was to attack. Sydmonds explains my view on this issue very well, “Lincoln did not seek or expect a military solution. He had no intention of forcing the issue, believing as he did that the majority of Southerners retained some latent loyalty to the old flag and that they had simply been swept up by the emotion of the moment. He hoped that a period of quiet resolve would bring most of them to their senses and allows a national reunification without the shedding of blood. Time, he hoped, would be the great healer.”2 This all happened out of a sort of emotional

The southern states of the United States of America were outraged when Abraham Lincoln was elected the President. South Carolina was the first state to secede and six more states – Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana - followed shortly afterwards, creating the Confederate States. In one of Lincoln’s addresses, which outlined that his main priority was to maintain the Union, did not impress the Confederacy and on April 12, the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter, a federal stronghold in Charleston, South Carolina. The Federal troops returned the fire, thus starting the Civil War. As the Civil War continued on, African Americans were biding their time, waiting for the perfect moment to flee their masters. Many did, making

The American Civil War, which began in 1861 to 1865, has gone down in history as the one of the most significant events to have ever occurred in the United States of America, thus far. At that time, questions had arose wondering how the United States ever got so close to hitting rock bottom, especially being that it was a conflict within the country itself. Hostility steadily grew through the years dividing the nation further and further, and finally leading to the twelfth day in April 1861 in Fort Sumter, North Carolina. The American Civil War was an irrepressible battle and aside from the obvious physical effects of the war, the disagreement over states rights, the act of slavery, and the raising of tariffs played crucial roles in the

When Abraham Lincoln the candidate of antislavery Republican Party won the presidential election in 1860, the southern states seceded organizing as the Confederates States of America. On April 12, 1861, they opened fire on Fort Sumter at South Carolina. Lincoln called militia to suppress the rebels. Four more states joined the rebels and by the end of 1861, several battles had taken place. (Nicholas Greenwood Onuf, 2006)

The second factor that led to the American Civil War is the fight over new land. With obtaining new states let it be from buying them, negotiating for it, or full out taking over land from other countries, there was always the question of whether those states would be entered into the country as free states or slave states? The new land had been distributed equally between the free states and the slave states, but there was still fighting over the territories west of the Mississippi. Northern Mexico and California had been taken over by the United States kin 1848, and any states that were proslavery states wanted to expand their land and have more that were slaveholding states. The North did not want more slave holding states, they wanted to limit the increase of territory that was proslavery and to also limit the power proslavery states possessed.