Historians continue to debate the balance of causes underlying the origins of the Civil War, but the issue of slavery remains central in any explanation of the great disunion which almost destroyed the United States. It is almost impossible to imagine the Civil War erupting without the passions aroused among Northern abolitionists and those in the South who saw slave-holding as central to their way of life.
The abolition of slavery itself was never a direct Union war aim until when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation , declaring freedom for over three million slaves in the South. While the Civil War did give the country, as Lincoln said, a 'new birth of freedom', it cast a long shadow on the history of the South and its legacy shaped much of the subsequent development of the American nation.
The origins of the Civil War remain a matter of great debate, with a strand of Southern collective memory emphasising the belligerence of the North and states rights, rather than the issue of slavery. The majority of professional historians, in contrast, point to the centrality of slavery as the main origin of the War, arguing that the issue was at the centre of national political debate in the years and decades before shots were fired at Fort Sumter in April Log in Register Welcome Log out.
If you are not please log in or register. Update your account Welcome. If you are not Please Login or Register. Notable outcomes of the wars included the When Southern rebels bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April , it was the start of a war between the Union and the secessionist Confederate States of America that would stretch on for four bloody years.
The war took a brutal toll. According to statistics compiled by One-third of the soldiers who fought for the Union Army were immigrants, and nearly one in 10 was African American.
The Union Army was a multicultural force—even a multinational one. We often hear about Irish soldiers 7. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland. Union Military Leaders. Fort Sumter. Confederate Leaders. Battles of Bull Run. Battle of Antietam.
Civil War Artifacts. Civil War Sketchbook. Civil War Technology. At the beginning of the Civil War, 22 million people lived in the North and 9 million people nearly 4 million of whom were slaves lived in the South. The North also had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more farmland.
On paper, these advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States. However, the Confederates were fighting defensively on territory that they knew well.
They also had the advantage of the sheer size of the Southern Confederacy. Which meant that the northern armies would have to capture and hold vast quantities of land across the south. Thus, the Confederacy was able to mount a stubborn resistance.
The Civil War devastated the Confederate states. The presence of vast armies throughout the countryside meant that livestock, crops, and other staples were consumed very quickly. In an effort to gather fresh supplies and relieve the pressure on the Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched a daring invasion of the North in the summer of He was defeated by Union General George G. Meade in a three-day battle near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that left nearly 51, men killed, wounded, or missing in action.
While Lee's men were able to gather the vital supplies, they did little to draw Union forces away from Vicksburg, which fell to Federal troops on July 4, In November of , President Lincoln traveled to the small Pennsylvania town and delivered the Gettysburg Address, which expressed firm commitment to preserving the Union and became one of the most iconic speeches in American history. Fact 7: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee did not meet on the field of battle until May of Grant , and Virginia born Robert E.
The two men had very little in common. Lee was from a well respected First Family of Virginia, with ties to the Continental Army and the founding fathers of the nation. While Grant was from a middle-class family with no martial or family political ties. Lee was offered command of the federal army amassing in Washington, in , but he declined the command and threw his hat in with the Confederacy.
Lee's early war career got off to a rocky start, but he found his stride in June of after he assumed command of what he dubbed the Army of Northern Virginia. Grant, on the other hand, found early success in the war but was haunted by rumors of alcoholism.
By , the two men were by far the best generals on their respective sides. In March of , Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and brought to the Eastern Theater of the war, where he and Lee engaged in a relentless campaign from May of to Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House eleven months later.
The war bankrupted much of the South, left its roads, farms, and factories in ruins, and all but wiped out an entire generation of men who wore the blue and the gray.
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