American Civil War (1861-1865).

American Civil War (1861-1865)

It was the bloodiest war in United States history, pitting brother against brother, dividing families and splitting an emerging nation. From April 1861 to May 1865, hundreds of thousands of Americans died defending their way of life and their principles and in the end, an American President had been assassinated, and the slaves freed.

States rights and the overriding question of slavery were the chief reasons for the war. When Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States in 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, soon after it was joined by six other southern states. Another four states joined them on the outbreak of war in April 1861.

1861

War was declared in America on April 12th, 1861 but trouble had been brewing for quite some time. In January 1861, Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery was elected president. The South Carolina legislature immediately perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the Union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six states- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas- and the threat of secession by four more- Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. These eleven states formed the Confederate States of America.

In February, at a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, the seceding states created a Government of their own- the Confederate Constitution elected Jefferson Davis as provisional president until elections could be held. At Lincoln's inauguration on March 4th, the new president said, "I have no plans to end slavery in those states where it already exists, but I will not accept secession. I hope to resolve the national crisis without warfare." Famous last words.

In April, when President Lincoln planned to send supplies to Fort Sumter, South Carolina, he alerted the state in advance in an attempt to avoid hostilities. South Carolina, however, feared a trick; the commander of the fort, Robert Anderson, was asked to surrender immediately. Anderson offered to surrender but only after he had exhausted all of his supplies. His offer was rejected and on April 12th, the American Civil War began with shots fired on the fort. Fort Sumter eventually surrended to South Carolina.

And so the war began. In June, residents of the Western counties of Virginia decided they did not want to secede along with the rest of the state. This section of Virginia was admitted into the Union as the state of West Virginia on June 20th. Despite their admittance of slavery, in June, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri decided not to join the confederacy. Although divided in their loyalties, a combination of political manoeuvring and Union military pressure kept these states from seceding.

The first attack was made on the South by General Irvin McDowell and his untried troops. They attacked the Confederate troops stationed at Manassas Junction, Virginia on July 21st and were initially successful but the introduction of Confederate reinforcements resulted in a Southern victory and a chaotic retreat toward Washington by Federal troops. In July, General Irvin McDowell was replaced. Suddenly aware of the threat of a protracted war and the army's need for organization and training, President Lincoln replaced McDowell with General George B. McClellan.

The war wore on. September, October, November and December went by with more battles happening every day. Men were being killed and spirits were running low.

1862

The new year began and 1862 started with Abraham Lincoln taking action. On January 27th, President Lincoln issued a war order authorizing the Union to launch a unified aggressive action against the Confederacy. General McClellan ignored the order. On March 8th, President Lincoln- impatient with General McClellan's inactivity- issued an order reorganising the Army of Virginia and relieving McClellan of Supreme command. McClellan was given command of the Army of Potomac and ordered to attack Richmond. This marked the beginning of the Peninsular Campaign.

On April 6th, Confederate forces attacked Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh, Tennessee. By the end of the day, the federal troops were almost defeated. Yet, during the night, reinforcements arrived, and by the next morning, the Union commanded the field. When Confederate forces retreated, the exhausted federal forces did not follow. Casualties were heavy- 13,000 out of 63,000 Union soldiers died and 11,000 of 40,000 Confederate troops were killed.

On May 31st, the Confederate army attacked federal forces at Seven Pines, almost defeating them; last minute reinforcements saved the Union from a serious defeat. Confederate commander Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded and command of the Army of Northern Virginia fell to Robert E. Lee.

Between June 26 and July 2, Union and Confederate forces fought a series a battles: Mechanicsville (June 26-27), Gaines's Mill (June 27), Savage’s Station (June 29), Fraser’s Farm (June 30), and Malvern Hill (July 1). On July 2, the Confederates withdrew to Richmond, ending the Peninsular Campaign.

Union General John Pope suffered defeated at the second battle of Bulls Run on August 29-30. General Fitz John Porter was held responsible for the defeat because he had failed to commit his troops to battle quickly enough: he was forced out of the army by 1863.

On September 17, Confederate forces under ...

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On September 17, Confederate forces under General Lee were caught by General McClellan hear Sharpsburg, Maryland. This battle proved to be the bloodiest day in the wars history; 2,108 Union soldiers were killed and 9,549 wounded- 2,700 Confederates were killed and 9,029 wounded. The battle had no clear winner but because General Lee withdrew to Virginia, McClellan was considered the victor. The battle convinced the British and French- who were contemplating official recognition of the confederacy- to reserve action and gave Lincoln the opportunity to announce his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (September 22), which would free all slaves in areas rebelling against the United States, effective January 1, 1863.

1863

In January, in an effort to placate the slave-holding border states, Lincoln resisted the demands of radical republicans for complete abolition. Yet some Union generals, such as General B.F. Butler, declared slaves escaping to their lines "contraband of the war" not to be returned to their masters. Other generals decreed that the slaves of men rebelling against the Union were to be considered free. Congress, too, had been moving towards abolition. In 1861, Congress had passed an act stating that all slaves employed against the Union were to be considered free. In 1862, another act stated that all slaves of men who supported the Confederacy were to be considered free. Lincoln, aware of the public's growing support of abolition, issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring that all slaves in areas still in rebellion were, in the eyes of the federal government, free.

In March, because of recruiting difficulties, an act was passed making all men between the ages of 20 and 45 liable to be called for military service. Paying a fee or finding a substitute could avoid Service.

On April 27, Union General Hooker crossed the Rappahannock River to attack General Lee's forces. Lee split his army, attacking a surprised Union army in three places and almost completely defeated them. Hooker withdrew across the Rappahannock River, giving the South a victory, but it was the Confederates' most costly victory in terms of casualties.

In June-July the Gettysburg campaign began. Confederate General Lee decided to take the war to the enemy. On June 13th, he defeated Union forces at Winchester, Virginia and continued north to Pennsylvania. General Hooker, who had been planning to attack Richmond, was instead forced to follow Lee and his troops. Hooker, never comfortable with his commander, General Halleck, resigned on June 28, and General George Meade replaced him as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

On July 1, a chance encounter between Union and Confederate forces began the Battle of Gettysburg. In the fighting that followed, Meade had greater numbers and better defensive positions. He won the battle, but failed to follow Lee as he retreated back to Virginia. Militarily, the battle of Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the Confederacy; it is also significant because it ended the Confederates hopes of formal recognition of foreign governments. On November 19, President Lincoln dedicated a portion of the Gettysburg battlefield as a national cemetery and delivered his memorable "Gettysburg Address."

After the battle of Gettysburg, General Meade engaged in some cautious and inconclusive operations, at Bealeton, southwest of Warrenton, in August and at Culpeper, before the Mine Run campaign. On November 23-25, Union forces pushed Confederate troops away from Chattanooga. The victory set the stage for General Sherman's Atlanta campaign.

1864

On January 26, Confederate forces failed in their attempt to take Athens, Alabama. Confederate Calvary, numbering about 600 men, attacked Athens, held by about 100 Union troops, around 4:00AM on the morning of January 26, 1864. After a two-hour battle, the Confederates retreated. Union forces, although greatly outnumbered and without fortifications, repulsed the attacks.

In May, General Grant, promoted to commander of the Union armies, planned to engage Lee's forces in Virginia until they were destroyed. North and South met and fought in an inconclusive three-day battle in the Wilderness. Lee inflicted more casualties on the Union forces then his own army incurred. General Grant continued to attack Lee. At Spotsylvania Court House, he fought for five days, vowing to fight all summer if necessary.

In June, Grant again attacked Confederate forces at Cold Harbour, losing over 7,000 men in twenty minutes. Although Lee suffered fewer casualties, his army never fully recovered from Grant's continual attacks. This was Lee's last clear victory of the war. In late June, Grant decided to take Petersburg, below Richmond, and then approach the Confederate Capital (Richmond) from the south. The attempt failed, resulting in a ten-month siege and the loss of thousands of lives on both sides.

In August, Union General Sherman departed Chattanooga and was soon met by Confederate General Joseph Johnston. Skilful strategy enabled Johnston to hold of Sherman's force- almost twice the size as Johnston’s. However, Johnston's tactics caused his superiors to replace him with General John Bell Hood, who was soon defeated. Hood surrended Atlanta, Georgia, on September 1; Sherman occupied the city the next day. The fall of Atlanta greatly boosted northern morale.

After three and a half months of incessant manoeuvring and much hard fighting, in November Sherman forced Hood to abandon Atlanta, the munitions centre of the Confederacy. Sherman remained there, resting his war-worn men and maculating supplies, for nearly two and a half months. General Sherman continued his march through Georgia to the sea. In the course of the march, he cut himself off from the source of his supplies, planning for his troops to live off the land. His men cut a path 300 miles in length and 60 miles wide as they passed through Georgia, destroying factories, bridges, railroads, and public buildings.

After marching through Georgia for a month, Sherman stormed Fort McAllister on December 13 and captured Savannah itself eight days later.

Continuing his policy of taking the offensive at any cost, General John Hood bought his reduced army before the defences of Nashville, where General George B. Thomas repulsed it on December 15-16, in the most complete victory of the war.

1865

January marked the beginning of the fall of the Confederacy. Transportation problems and successful blockades caused severe shortages of food and supplies in the South. Starving soldiers began to desert Lee's forces and although President Jefferson Davis approved the arming of slaves as a means of augmenting the shrinking army, the measure was never put into effect. In February, General Sherman moved from Georgia through South Carolina, destroying almost everything in his path.

In late February, Confederate President Jefferson Davis agreed to send delegates to a peace conference with President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Stewart but insisted on Lincoln's recognition of the South's independence as a prerequisite. Lincoln refused, and the peace conference never occurred.

On March 25, General lee attacked General Grant's forces near Petersburg but was defeated- attacking and losing again on April 1. On April 2, Lee evacuated Richmond, the Confederate capital and headed west to join with other forces.

General Lee's troops were soon surrended and on April 7, Grant called upon Lee to surrender. On April 9, the two commanders met at Appomattox Courthouse and agreed on the terms of surrender. Lee's men were sent home on parole - soldiers with their horses and officers with their side arms. All other equipment was surrendered.

On April 14, as President Lincoln was watching a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford Theatre in Washington D.C., he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor from Maryland who was obsessed with avenging the confederate defeat. Lincoln died the next morning. Booth escaped to Virginia. Eleven days later, cornered in a burning barn, Booth was fatally shot by a Union soldier. Nine other people were involved in the assassination: four were hanged, four imprisoned and one acquitted.

In April-May, the final surrenders among remaining Confederate troops happened. The remaining Confederate troops were defeated between the end of April and the end of May. Jefferson Davis was captured in Georgia on May 10.

On December 18, after four hard, long years, the war was finally declared over and the Thirteenth Amendment to Constitution ratified, abolishing slavery. After the war, many people adapted very quickly from killing rebels to the genocide of Native Americans. The South was "reconstructed" for the next 87 years. Southerners formed brotherhoods that featured white robes, lynchings, and unanimous support for Democratic candidates in the south and the west. Confederate General John B. Gordon, reputed leader of the Klu Klux Klan, was elected governor of Georgia. Blacks struggled for nearly one hundred years to gain legal and economic equality.

I researched two famous Civil War Generals- Robert E. Lee (the Confederacy) and Ulysses S. Grant (the Union).

General Robert E. Lee (1807-1870)

Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general, born in Stratford, VA. He trained at West Point, and in the Mexican War became chief engineer of the central army in Mexico (1846). He commanded the US Military Academy (1852--5), was a cavalry officer on the Texan border (1855--9), and in 1861 was made commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces. He was in charge of the defences at Richmond, and defeated Federal forces in the Seven Days' Battles (1862). His strategy in opposing General Pope, his invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and other achievements are central to the history of the war. In 1865, he surrendered his army to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. After the war, he became President of Washington College at Lexington.

The son of a Revolutionary War hero, Robert E. Lee was a model cadet. So much so, in fact, that he was dubbed the "Marble Statue" for his nearly perfect record while at the academy. He was always ranked first or second in his class and never earned a single demerit during his four years at West Point. After serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War, he went on to distinction in his native Virginia. At the onset of the Civil War, he resigned his commission in the US Army and took command of the Army of Northern Virginia. His string of victories throughout that war earned him praise on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line and he has since earned a well-earned reputation for excellence in the art of war. Lee's surrender to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Court House ended the Civil War and President Jimmy Carter finally pardoned him of all wrongdoing.

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)

Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarrelled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868. When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigour nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms." Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War, he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861, he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers.

He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donnellson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers.

At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, "I can't spare this man--he fights."

For his next major objective, Grant manoeuvred and fought skilfully to win Vicksburg, the essential city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. This was the culmination of one of the most brilliant military campaigns of the war. With the loss of Pemberton's army and this vital stronghold on the Mississippi, the Confederacy was effectively split in half. Grant's successes in the West boosted his reputation, leading ultimately to his appointment as General-in-Chief of the Union armies. Then he broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga.

Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials.

As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. Indeed, he brought part of his Army staff to the White House.

Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business.

During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Liberal Republican reformers attacked Grant. He called them "narrow-headed men," their eyes so close together that "they can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican Party came to be known proudly as "the Old Guard." Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force.

After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started writing his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly $450,000. Soon after completing the last page, in 1885, he died.

The Origins of the Civil War Conflict

After the Constitution was adopted by all of the States in 1789, uniting the States into one nation, differences between the States had been worked out through compromises. By 1861 these differences between the Northern States (which included the Mid-Western and Western States) and the Southern States had become so great that compromise would no longer work. Thus, a conflict started within our nation that was called the Civil War.

For more than 30 years arguments between the North and South had been growing. One of these quarrels was about taxes paid on goods brought into this country from foreign countries. This kind of tax is called a tariff. In 1828 Northern businessmen helped get the "Tariff Act" passed. It raised the prices of manufactured products from Europe, which were sold mainly in the South. The purpose of the law was to encourage the South to buy the North's products. It angered the Southern people to have to pay more for the goods they wanted from Europe or pay more to get goods from the North. Either way the Southern people were forced to pay more because of the efforts of northern businessmen. Though most of tariff laws had been changed by the time of the Civil War, the Southern people still remembered how the northern people treated them.

In the years before the Civil War, the political power in the Federal Government, centered in Washington D.C., was changing. The Northern and Mid-Western States were becoming increasingly powerful as the populations increased. The Southern States were losing political power. Just as the original thirteen colonies fought for their independence almost 100 years earlier, the Southern States felt a growing need for freedom from the central Federal authority in Washington D.C. They felt that each State should make its own laws. This issue was called "State's Rights." Some Southern States wanted to secede, or break away from the United States of America and govern themselves.

Another quarrel between the North and South, and perhaps the most emotional one, was over the issue of slavery. Farming was the South's main industry and cotton was the primary farm product. Not having the use of machines, it took a great amount of human labour to pick cotton. A large number of slaves were used in the South to provide the labour. Many slaves were also used to provide labour for the various household chores that needed to be done. Many Northerners thought that owning slaves was wrong, for any reason. Some of those Northerners loudly disagreed with the South's laws and beliefs concerning slavery. Yet slavery had been a part of the Southern way of life for well over 200 years. The Constitution of the United States guaranteed the right to own property and protected against seizure of property. A slave was property. The people of the Southern States did not like the northern people telling them that owning slaves was a great wrong. A person either believes that slavery is right or that slavery is wrong, so how can two people arguing over such an issue compromise?

Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. He vowed to keep the country united and the new western territories free from slavery. Many Southerners were afraid that he was not sympathetic to their way of life and would not treat them fairly. South Carolina was the first State to secede from the United States soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Six other Southern States quickly followed and also seceded. These States joined together and formed a new nation that they named the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was elected their first president. On April 12, 1861, the Confederate States of America attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was held by Federal (Union) troops and flew the United States flag. As open conflict increased, other United States seceded and joined the Confederacy. The fighting of the Civil War would take four long years to end.

This country would remain united and slavery would come to an end.