Civil War Paper
Jennifer Ayala
HIS/115
October 21, 2012
Kathy Buhe
Civil War Paper
The mid-19th century is a historic period in the history of the United States, one that shaped the nation we now know. In the year 1861, the tension that had long been brewing between the north and south exploded and led the nation to war. The catalyst was Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election. As an anti-slavery Republican, the southern states feared his agenda and chose to secede from the Union. The Confederate States of America was formed and the refusal of said states to rejoin the Union led to a Civil War, neighbor against neighbor, each fighting for what they believed to be right. The four years of the war were costly, both in
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Of course not every northerner was in agreement as to the abolishment of slavery, but the state of the Union and bringing it back together was important to most. So although the south was more unified and fighting to maintain what they believed was right in regards to slavery, the north was fighting to maintain their nation as a whole, with the issue of slavery being secondary.
The Civil War is a fascinating time in the history of the United States. A time where the nation was so divided that no compromise could be reached and that nation no longer felt as if it was one united front. The issue of slavery was one that many were extremely passionate about, while others were passionate about keeping the Union together. Although the south was fighting for what they believed was right and had talented generals on their side, they were unable to conquer the northern forces and, ultimately, the issue of slavery was settled and abolished within the nation. However, this did not grant automatic rights to the former slaves. Instead, they would spend the next century working towards claiming equal status as American citizens and the basic civil rights promised within the nations Constitution.
References
Alexander, B. (2012). How the south could have won the civil war. Retrieved
Soldiers of the American Civil War were overwhelmed by a time where weaponry and technological developments were thriving. This brutal war changed the soldiers, both mentally and physically, and continued to have an impact throughout their entire lives. There were not only many deaths during the war, but also prior to the war as many soldiers took their own life. They would experience disturbing thoughts and events in their mind that could not be explained until they became known as mental illnesses. The exploration of psychological disorders following the Civil War improved medical diagnostic tools and the way patients were treated which transformed the treatment of mental illness by creating new ways of discovering illnesses, treating patients, and developing the foundation for the future of psychology throughout America.
The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties, including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease, and 50,000 civilians. The war accounted for roughly as many American deaths as all American deaths in other U.S. wars combined.
During the 1860s there were many issues and that the Southern and Northern states needed to work on. In 1861 hundreds of thousands of Americans volunteered to fight in the Civil War, also known as the First Modern War. The main causes of this war were the economic and social differences between the North and the South. These differences led to other fundamental issues such as slavery and its abolition. In addition to that as the war was coming to its end, federal authorities found themselves presiding over the transition from slavery to freedom.After the war, there was a 12-year period best known as the Reconstruction and the main goals that it had were to get the Confederate States back into the Union, to rebuilt the Southern economy
In the 1800s the Civil War, a war between the northern and southern states, erupted into a massive conflict after President Lincoln was elected and after eleven states seceded from the Union. Following the secession from the Union, The Ft. Sumer conflict erupted, and this four-year tragedy between the northern and southern United States began causing an innumerable amount of casualties. This immense number of casualties, reaching approximately 600,000, resulted from economic and social differences of the North and South, the Dred Scott Case, and the election of President Abraham Lincoln. These causes of the Civil War were all created on conflict rather than intervention. They led to the creation of the Confederacy, a league of confederate states that embodied various disadvantages: the creation of weapons manually, the lack of railroads, the small population, as well as various advantages: tough fighting, devastating the Union 's army and unity that brought people of the Southern states together. Alongside these advantages came devastation, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves, and led to the Confederacy 's defeat in 1865.
The civil war is by far the bloodiest war in American history. In the four deadly years of war, over six-hundred thousand Americans were killed. Many disputes that led to the civil war. These conflicts started under President James Buchanan who was a Democrat elected in the election of 1856. The issue of slavery, states’ rights, the abolitionist movement, the Southern secession, the raid on Harper’s Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln all contributed to the start of the civil war. The civil war and its aftermath transformed the entire nation by unifying the United States, abolishing slavery, and led to the American Industrial Revolution.
president after Lincoln 's death and immediately set the tone for the rest of his
It is quite obvious that there were many goals to achieve during the Civil War. But discovering the true meaning and vision of the Civil War is the concept that is still researched today by the people of America. In the prologue of Blight’s Race and Reunion he states: (Three overall visions of the Civil War memory collided and combined over time: one, the reconciliationist vision … two, the white supremacist vision … and three, the emancipationist vision…) All three of these visions are extremely important, however, I mainly want to stress the importance of the white supremacist vision and the emancipationist vision. An obvious form of the change for the meaning of the Civil War through the period of Reconstruction is through the eyes of emancipationists. Emancipationist’s visions are mainly seen through African American’s eyes as they remember their freedom through the Civil War and Reconstruction. They see the Civil War as a new construction for the liberation of blacks through citizenship and Constitutional equality. It seems quite obvious that the Blacks did indeed earn more rights as Reconstruction progressed but, there were disagreements of the rights for Blacks. The white supremacist vision did not want the Civil War to be seen as a war fought for the freedom of Blacks and Blacks rights. They wanted the Civil War to be envisioned as a defense of Southern rights as their “property” (slaves) was soon to be taken. Both of these ideas and interpretations still live on in
In the year 1864 the American Civil War was drawing to an end. The Confederate States of America was slowly running out of able bodied men and supplies to supply the army needed to ward off the Union’s invasion of the South. At this point in time the leader of the Union Army was Ulysses S. Grant. He devised a plan to escalate the process in which the Confederate Army was running out of supplies. Grant’s plan was to send Union troops to the West of the main conflict for them to loop around and cut off railroad lines, and burn farm lands. The greatest of these was the Army that burned thousands of acres in Georgia, yet another army led by General David Hunter might have been more decisive if it had not been stopped at the Battle of Lynchburg. General David Hunter was ordered by General Grant to make his way down the Shenandoah Valley and destroy as much farm land as possible along the way. On top of this General Hunter terrorized towns by pillaging stores and homes. The Southerners knew that a similar fate would become Lynchburg if they did not do anything to prevent Hunter’s advance. The people of Lynchburg worked hard at building up defenses protecting Lynchburg. They had to resort to using mostly young boys and elderly men since most able bodies men had already died in the War or were still fighting under General E. Lee. The boys and elderly men that maned the defenses did not have a good chance of warding of the large army led by General David Hunter; as a result, General
The American Civil War, also known as the Civil War, lasted from 1861 to 1865. The war was to determine the survival of the union, or independence for the confederate states. Some would argue that slavery was the principle cause of the war. After much research, I believe the war started because of the misunderstandings, and conflicts between the North and South. Slavery, however, was one of the main purposes. The North and South had economic and social differences causing many disagreements. They argued about state and federal rights, expansion of slave states, the Abolition Movement, and the election of Abraham Lincoln.
The North was blessed with an abundance of natural resources and a growing population which led to industrialization. This caused an increase in immigrants and no more demand for slavery. In the South the fertile soil and the hot temperature made it ideal for farming and growing crops like cotton and tobacco. Since agriculture was so profitable Southerners didn’t really see a need for industrial development. This meant that their whole society was completely based on farming and on slaves doing the work. The North and South differences didn’t just involve slavery but it also included cultural, economic, political, and power differences. A major disputation between the two sides was whether the new territories and states should have legalized slavery. Northerners worried that if slavery crept northward, slaves would take jobs that white workers might otherwise be hired to do. In contrast, Southerners had a lifestyle and economy supported by slave labor, and they worried that free states and territories abutting slave states might harbor fugitive slaves and negatively influence the institution of slavery. Both sides were concerned about the balance of power and that Congress might lean towards the other
The Civil War, often referred to as The War of the Southern Rebellion, was one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the United States, causing over 600,000 deaths. Although there were several causes which led up to this brutal war, one of the major causes was due to conflict between the northern and southern states over the expansion of slavery and sectionalism. Both of these geographical locations had drifted apart in their ideal views and ways of life. The south felt slavery was justifiable, and their agrarian economy depended upon slave labor. Meanwhile, the north forbade slavery and relied more upon machine age economy. Nonetheless, massive American casualties occurred over this four year battle, which eventually led to the abolishment
Guns fired, smoke lingering in the air, people dying. The American Civil War had a huge impact on the United States. Two compromises took place before the start of the Civil War. These compromises include the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The Missouri Compromise dealt with the crisis in 1819 over Missouri entering the Union as a slave state. The compromise was “the first major crisis over slavery, and it shattered a tacit agreement between the two regions that had been in place since the constitution. Under the terms of the agreement, the North would not interfere with slavery in the Southern States, and the South would recognize slavery as an evil that should be discouraged and eventually abolished whenever it was safe and feasible to do so” (Stauffer). The compromise showed the belief that was shared by most of the Founding Fathers and the framers of the Constitution: that slavery was wrong. Thirty-one years later, the Compromise of 1850 was created. This compromise “consisted of five basic parts, the most onerous of which was a stringent fugitive slave law that denied suspected fugitives the right to a jury by trial and virtually legislated slave stealing.The Fugitive Slave law converted countless northerners to the antislavery cause” (Stauffer). Although the Fugitive Slave law, one of the five parts of the Compromise of 1850, caused many northerners to start believing the antislavery cause, the compromise itself achieved the opposite of its intentions.
The American civil war was the second most important war to Americans. The war was about a lot of things but mostly the end slavery. It was also called the War Between the States. It war between the southern and the northern states. Slavery was use for a lot of things it was use in the industrial revolution it was used for farming in the south. In the north were trade and import and export good. African’s were the most of the population of slaves. People thought slavery was a good thing. The masters would whip them if they didn’t do what they were told nor did a bad job at it. The master would tell the slaves they have it better the Jesus did when he was tortured. People would bring religion to everything. The president during the time was the great Abraham Lincoln. He was born in Kentucky. There was to teams the confederation and the union. The confederation was the south. The union was the north. The union had many people because there was draft and the slave were free in the north and would be able to join the army so they did in the north and the south. In New York there was a riot caused by the draft. Many people didn’t like that they could join that wasn’t part of the compromise. Every state in the north seceded and four states didn’t join the union or the confederation. One fact that is every surprising Kentucky never voted for President Lincoln for both terms. The greatest battle of the civil war was the battle of Bull Run. The most famous battle was the battle
In 1861, a horrific war began. Nobody had any idea that this war would become the deadliest war in American history. It wasn’t a regular war, it was a civil war opposing the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South.. The Civil War cost many people’s lives on the battlefield and beyond. In addition it cost an extreme amount of money for the nation which possibly could have been avoided if the war had turned to happen a little differently.
Northerners demanded for collective bargaining to develop goals such as free education, better salaries and working conditions for workers, and better rights for woman. Northerners said that slavery revoked the rights of a human to be a free person. The subject of slavery left, and the North headed for war and eventually defeated the South in the Civil War. Without this war I sorely would have to say that we could have been in a much more segregated society than we already are. This war was needed in order to produce a stronger and more stable country for everyone.