The American Civil War: A tale of two Americas

The American Civil War was caused by a number of factors, including slavery, states’ rights, and economic differences between the North and South.

These factors all contributed to the outbreak of war in 1861. However, it was slavery that was perhaps the most important factor in causing the Civil War.

The issue of slavery had been polarising the country for decades. In the 1857 Dred Scott Decision, the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and had no standing to sue in federal court.

This ruling angered many people in the North, who believed that all men should be treated equally.

In November 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th US president on a platform that opposed slavery.

This election led to southern states seceding from the Union, in order to protect their right to keep slaves.

The reason for their separation was due to important economic factors. In the south, many states depended on slave labor for their economy.

This was because most of the money was made on large-scale farming operations, known as 'plantations'.

Agriculture required a large workforce that used manual labour to plant, harvest, and transport crops such as cotton. 

By 1860, an estimated three-quarters of the world’s cotton was produced in the southern states.

To maximise their profits, southern landowners preferred free labour that came with slaves.

Any attempt to outlaw the ownership of slaves would mean a dramatic increase in operational costs and significantly reduce their profits.

Therefore, the south was willing to fight to preserve their profits.

In comparison, in the north, most states had industrialised and the majority of their profits came from businesses that made and sold products.

They did not rely upon slaves to achieve this, but upon large factories and cheap labour from paid employees.

Therefore, they stood to suffer less economic downturn with the removal of a slave system.

Due to the lack of dependence on slavery for their economy, some northern states had already banned the practice during the America Revolution.

The state of Vermont was one of the first, which had abolished slavery in 1777.

So, when Lincoln won the election of 1860, and then took the oath of office in March 1861, promising to remove slavery, seven southern states declared that they were leaving the union and creating the Confederate States of America.

South Carolina seceded first in December 1860, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

Interestingly, a number of border states like Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Delaware remained loyal to the Union despite being slave states.

Jefferson Davis, a former US Senator and Secretary of War, was eventually elected as the President of the Confederate States of America in 1861, and he would lead the Confederate government throughout the Civil War.

At the beginning of the American Civil War, the northern states appeared to be in a much stronger position.

It included 23 states compared to the 11 in the Confederacy. Its total population was also larger, at around 21 million people, compared to 9 million in the south.

A larger population meant that they could theoretically form larger armies.

Also, the north had the potential of producing more resources for a war, as most of the factories in America were in the northern states.

In addition, the north possessed around 70% of all of the railroads built in the US, which meant that they could potentially move their troops and resources to where they were needed quicker.

However, the Confederacy had a much stronger military tradition, and it had some armies ready to attack at the start of the war.

Also, the important international trade links the southern states had formed through the sale of their agricultural goods meant that they could raise more money quicker without having to trade with the northern states.

As a result, it was not immediately clear at the beginning of hostilities, which side would ultimately win the conflict.

Each American had to decide which side they supported, and many people made this decision based upon ideological beliefs, even if this was the opposite of what their friends and families believed.

Many stories were told of brothers who fought against each other in Civil War battles because the felt strongly about which side was 'in the right'.

The American Civil War was a truly massive conflict for the age. Hundreds of thousands of people fought in countless battles, both large and small, across vast stretches of land.

In this overview, it is impossible to cover every event, person, and battle. Instead, the following summary will touch on some important battles and people and highlight some turning points that should allow you to get a feel for how the war was won.

The first major battle of the war was the Battle of Fort Sumter, which took place on the 12th of April 1861, when Confederate General Beauregard opened fire on a military fort at Charleston, South Carolina.

The Union forces, which were only around 85 soldiers, were forced to surrender.

This early victory boosted morale for the Confederacy and weeks after, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the Confederacy as well.

The next major battle was the First Battle of Bull Run on the 21st of July 1861, which was only 25 miles outside of Washington.

The conflict occurred when Confederate forces attacked a Union army that was attempting to march on the Confederate capital of Richmond.

Around 28,000 Union troops and 32,000 Confederate soldiers were engaged in the fighting, which was hard fought.

The Confederate commander, Thomas Jackson, gained a reputation for his strong defense, "like a stone wall".

As a result, he became known as 'Stonewall Jackson'. However, at the conclusion of the battle, the Union forces were routed, and this victory boosted the confidence of the Confederacy.

These two early Confederate victories showed that the Union forces were not fully prepared for the war.

In early 1862, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, which opened up the Confederacy to Union advances.

During this time, the Union had been busy raising and training a new army, and on the 17th of September 1862, they had their first major victory at the Battle of Antietam.

This battle remains the deadliest single-day battle in American history with over 22,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in one day.

This effectively stopped the Confederate forces under General Lee marching north into Maryland.

This was followed by the Emancipation Proclamation on the 1st of January 1863, which declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were now free.

Inspired by this announcement, an estimated 180,000 former slaves would sign up to fight for the Union during the course of the war.

The war then shifted to the Eastern Theater, where the Union and Confederate armies fought several major battles.

The Confederate forces fought under a new commander, called Robert E. Lee, who took command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862.

He would be a key figure in the next series of battles. As a result, 1862 became an important year for Confederate victories.

At the Second Battle of Bull Run, which occurred between the 28th and the 30th of August 1862, there were over 24,000 casualties, and it led to another Confederate victory.

The Confederate forces won another series of key victories at the Battle of Fredericksburg on the 13th of December 1862, and the Battle of Chancellorsville on the 30th and 31st of May 1863. 

Then, from May 7 to September 2, 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman led a successful campaign against the Confederacy, culminating in the capture of Atlanta.

This victory helped Abraham Lincoln win reelection in 1864. Following this, Lincoln managed to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution through Congress, which officially abolished slavery forever.

However, Lincoln would die before it was fully ratified in all states in December 1865.

The war in the Western Theatre was also largely a series of Confederate victories.

The Union did have some success, such as at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee on the 6th-7th of April 1862, but they were unable to gain control of the region.

On the 18th-20th of September 1863, the Confederacy won a major victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, which stopped a Union advance into Tennessee.

The Union turned the tide of the war in 1863 with two major victories. The first was the Battle of Gettysburg on the 1st to 3rd of July 1863, which was considered to be the turning point of the war.

The Confederates, under the command of General Lee, advanced into Pennsylvania and attacked the Union forces at Gettysburg for two consecutive days without a clear breakthrough. 

Then, on day three, Lee sent Major General George Pickett to attack the middle of Union line, convinced that success was close.

The Confederate forces suffered heavy casualties and were forced to retreat. An estimated 50,000 men died in the battle. 

The Union army was able to hold off a Confederate advance into Pennsylvania and this was the last time Confederate forces invaded the north.

Control of the Mississippi River was a key strategic objective for the Union, as it would split the Confederacy in two and cut off supply lines.

By Spring of 1863, the Union had gained control of most of the Mississippi, except the crucial town of Vicksburg.

The Union had success at the Battle of Vicksburg, which took place from the 18th of May to the 4th of July 1863, during which the Union forces starved the town into submission.

This victory resulted in the Union gaining full control of the Mississippi River. This cut off supplies to the Confederacy and made it difficult for them to move troops around.

In 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant was appointed as the commander of all Union armies.

Grant launched a series of repeated attacks against the Confederates, resulting in heavy casualties for both sides.

On December 15-16, at the Battle of Nashville, there was a decisive Union victory which ended in the destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman advanced his forces into Georgia, causing devastation to farmland that was supplying food to the Confederate soldiers.

The Union also began a naval blockade of the South, which prevented supplies from reaching Confederate troops.

On April 3, 1865, Richmond, the capital of the Confederate States, fell to Union forces after a prolonged siege.

Only a few days later, on the 9th of April 1865, Ulysses Grant trapped the last Confederate army near the village of Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Facing certain defeat, Confederate General Robert E. Lee finally surrendered.

Then, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his Confederate army to General Sherman on April 26, 1865, in North Carolina.

Almost four years to the day after the Civil War began, it was over.

The American Civil War resulted in the death of over 600,000 soldiers and civilians, which was roughly 2% of the entire American population of the time.

Following their defeat and readmission into the Union, the southern states had to abandon the slavery.

The Civil War devastated the Southern economy, destroying infrastructure and leading to a significant decline in agricultural output, while the Northern economy experienced a boost from increased industrial production and war-related industries.

Unfortunately for Abraham Lincoln, he would only live a few days General Lee surrendered. 

On the 14th of April 14, 1865, which was Good Friday, the president attended a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. 

While Lincoln was seated, a Confederate sympathiser and actor, called John Wilkes Booth, crept into the president’s box where he shot Lincoln from behind.

Lincoln was rushed to a private home across the street from Ford's theatre, but died on the morning of the 15th of April 1865. 

Booth had managed to escape but was later shot and killed in a Virginian tobacco barn on April 26, 1865, when he refused to surrender. 

Following the devastation of both their states and their economy, with an estimated $20 billion spent on the war, a period of Reconstruction began immediately, which lasted for 12 years.

During this time, the Union attempted to rebuild the South and ensure that African Americans had civil rights.

The Reconstruction Era was a difficult time for both the North and South, but it laid the foundation for the United States as we know it today.