American Civil War

American Civil War
Date	1861–1865
Place	Principally in the Southern United States; also in Eastern, Central and Southwestern regions
Result	Union victory; United States preserved in its entirety; slavery abolished
Combatants United States of America Image:Us flag large 34 stars.png (Flag of the USA) Confederate States of America Image:3rdnational.png (Flag of the CSA) Leaders Abraham Lincoln Jefferson Davis Strength 1,556,678 (of whom many signed multiple enlistment contracts) 1,064,200 Casualties KIA: 110,100 Total dead: 359,500 Wounded: 275,200 KIA: 74,500 Total dead: 198,500 Wounded: 137,000+ See also: Battles of the American Civil War

The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a civil war between the United States of America, called the Union, and the Confederate States of America, a new country formed by eleven Southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the Union. The Union, led by President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant won a decisive victory, followed by a period of Reconstruction. The war produced over 970,000 casualties (3.09 percent of population), including approximately 560,300 deaths (1.78 percent ), a loss of more American lives than any other conflict in U.S. history. The causes of the war, and even the name of the war itself, are still debated.

Contents 1 The Division of the Country 1.1 The Union States 1.2 The Confederacy 1.3 Border States 2 Origins of the conflict 2.1 Economic Interpretations 2.2 Failure to Compromise 2.3 Southern Nationalism: Psychological nationhood 2.4 Slavery as a cause of the War 2.5 Southern fears of Modernity 2.6 Secession 3 Narrative summary: 1861 to Ft Sumter 3.1 Eastern Theater 1861–1863 3.2 Western Theater 1861–1863 3.3 Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861–1865 3.4 The End of the War 1864–1865 3.5 Naval War 4 Analysis of why the North won 5 Major land battles 6 Naval action 7 Civil War leaders and soldiers 8 The Question of Slavery 9 Foreign diplomacy 10 Aftermath 11 References 11.1 Overviews 11.2 Reference Books and Bibliographies 11.3 Biographies 11.4 Soldiers 11.5 Special Studies 11.6 Primary Sources 11.7 Novels about the war 11.8 Films about the war 11.9 Documentaries about the war 12 See also 13 External links

The Division of the Country

The Union States

Main article: Union (American Civil War)

There were 23 Union States: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The Union counted Virginia as well, and added Nevada and West Virginia. It added Tennessee, Louisiana and other rebel states as soon as they were reconquered.

The territories of Colorado, Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington also fought on the Union side. There was a civil war inside Oklahoma territory.

The Confederacy

Main article: Confederate States of America

Seven states seceded shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 – even before he was inaugurated:

• South Carolina (December 21 1860),
• Mississippi (January 9 1861),
• Florida (January 10 1861),
• Alabama (January 11 1861),
• Georgia (January 19 1861),
• Louisiana (January 26 1861), and
• Texas (February 1 1861).

These States of the Deep South, where slavery and cotton plantation agriculture were most dominant, formed the Confederate States of America (February 4 1861), with Jefferson Davis as President, and a governmental structure closely modeled on the U.S. Constitution (see also: Confederate States Constitution).

After Confederate forces carried out an artillery barrage on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, causing its surrender, Lincoln called for troops from all remaining states to recover the forts, resulting in the secession of four more states:

• Virginia (April 17 1861),
• Arkansas (May 6 1861),
• North Carolina (May 20 1861), and
• Tennessee (June 8 1861).

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Border States

Main article: Border states (Civil War)

Along with the northwestern counties of Virginia (whose residents did not wish to secede and eventually entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia), four of the five northernmost "slave states" (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky) did not secede, and became known as the Border States.

Maryland had numerous pro-Confederate officials, but after rioting in Baltimore and other events had prompted a Federal declaration of martial law, Union troops moved in, and arrested the disloyal elements. Both Missouri and Kentucky remained in the Union, but factions within each state organized governments in exile that were recognized by the CSA.

In Missouri, effective secession was prevented by military intervention by the Union, while the State government under Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, a southern sympathizer, evacuated the state capital of Jefferson City and met in-exile at the town of Neosho, Missouri, adopting a secession ordinance that was recognized by the Confederacy on October 30 1861, while the Union organized a competing State government by calling a constitutional convention that had originally been convened to vote on secession (Missouri also formed Confederate units). (See also: Missouri secession).

Image:Map of CSA 3.png

Although Kentucky did not secede, for a time it declared itself neutral. During a brief occupation by the Confederate Army, Southern sympathizers organized a secession convention, inaugurated a Confederate Governor, and gained recognition from the Confederacy. However, that military occupation turned general popular opinion in Kentucky against the Confederacy, and the state subsequently reaffirmed its loyal status and expelled the Confederate government.

Residents of the northwestern counties of Virginia organized a secession from Virginia, with a plan for gradual emancipation, and entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia. Similar secessions were supported in some other areas of the Confederacy (such as eastern Tennessee), but were suppressed by declarations of martial law by the Confederacy.

Origins of the conflict

Main articles: Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events

Although there is no disagreement among historians on the events that led to war, there is disagreement on exactly what caused what.

Economic Interpretations

Historian Charles Beard in the 1920s argued that the conflict resulted when the agrarian Midwest joined the industrial Northeast against the plantation South. Beard's interpretation fell out of favor in the 1950s. On the eve of the Civil War, the United States was a nation composed of three quite distinct regions: the fast-growing industrial Northeast, the agrarian Northwest (or Midwest), with no slavery; and the South, with an export economy built on slave plantations that grew cotton, as well as tobacco and sugar. The entire country was growing rapidly; on a per-capita basis among whites, the South was a little richer than Northeast or Midwest.

Failure to Compromise

Historians in the 1930s such as James G. Randall argued that the rise of mass democracy, the breakdown of the old two-party system, and increasingly virulent and hostile sectional rhetoric made it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to bring about the gentlemanly compromises of the past (such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850) necessary to avoid crisis.

Southern Nationalism: Psychological nationhood

Other historians of the 1930s, such as Ulrich B. Phillips and Avery Craven argued that the South had grown apart from the North psychologically. One by one the common elements that bound the nation together were broken. For example the major Protestant denominations split along North-South lines. Fewer travellers or students or businessmen went from one region to the other. The last common elements were the Constitution (which was in dispute after the Dred Scott of 1857); the political parties (which split along regional lines in 1860), and Congress, which was in constant turmoil after 1856.

Slavery as a cause of the War

In recent years, historians have given special emphasis to differences over slavery as a major cause of the war. Specifically, they note that the South insisted on protecting it and the North insisted on weakening it. The cotton-growing export business or "King Cotton," as it was touted, was so important to the world economy, southerners argued, that they could stand alone. Indeed being tied to the North was a hindrance and an economic burden. The South would do better by trading directly with Europe and avoiding extortionate Yankee middlemen.

In the view of many northern Republicans, the Slave Power group ruled the South, not democracy. This "Slave Power" was a small group of very wealthy slave owners, especially cotton planters, who dominated the politics and society of the South. However, historians more recently have emphasized that the South was much more democratic than the Republicans of North believed.

There is general agreement among historians that the actions and political support of abolitionists and others morally opposed to the institution of slavery add weight to the historical basis of slavery as a major cause. Image:Lincolnhead.jpg

Southern fears of Modernity

Southern secession was triggered by the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln because it was feared that he would make good on his promise to stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. If not Lincoln, then sooner or later another Yankee, many Southerners said; it was time to quit the Union. The slave states had lost the balance of power in the Electoral College and the Senate, and were facing a future as a perpetual minority. In a broader sense the North was rapidly modernizing its economy and its world view; slavery had no role in modern America. Historian James McPherson (1983 p 283) explains:

"When secessionists protested in 1861 that they were acting to preserve traditional rights and values, they were correct. They fought to preserve their constitutional liberties against the perceived Northern threat to overthrow them. The South's concept of republicanism had not changed in three-quarters of a century; the North's had.... The ascension to power of the Republican Party, with its ideology of competitive, egalitarian free-labor capitalism, was a signal to the South that the Northern majority had turned irrevocably towards this frightening, revolutionary future."

James McPherson, "Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question," Civil War History 29 (Sept. 1983)

Secession

Before Lincoln took office, seven states seceded from the union, and established an independent Southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. They took control of federal forts and property within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan. By seceding, the rebel states gave up any claim to the Western territories that were in dispute, canceled any obligation for the North to return fugitive slaves to the Confederacy, and assured easy passage in Congress of many bills and amendments they had long opposed.

The Civil War began when, under orders from President Jefferson Davis Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. There were no casualties from enemy fire in this battle.

Narrative summary: 1861 to Ft Sumter

Image:American Civil War Battles by Theater, Year.png Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's secession from the Union. Lincoln was not even on the ballot in nine states in the South. Leaders in South Carolina had long been waiting for an event that might unite the South against the anti-slavery forces. Once the election returns were certain, a special South Carolina convention declared "that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the 'United States of America' is hereby dissolved." By February 1, 1861, six more Southern states had seceded. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama. The pre-war February peace conference of 1861 met in Washington, D.C. as one last attempt to avoid war; it failed. The remaining southern states as yet remained in the Union. Several seceding states seized federal forts within their boundaries; President Buchanan made no military response.

Less than a fortnight later, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called the secession "legally void". He stated he had no intent to invade southern states, but would use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union.

The South did send delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties, but they were turned down. On April 12, the South fired upon the federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina until the troops surrendered. Lincoln called for all of the states in the Union to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. Most Northerners hoped that a quick victory for the Union would crush the nascent rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days. This resulted in four more states voting to secede. Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia.

Even though the Southern states had seceded, there was considerable anti-secessionist sentiment within several of the seceding states. Eastern Tennessee, in particular, was a hotbed for pro-Unionism. Winston County, Alabama issued a resolution of secession from the state of Alabama. The Red Strings were a prominent Southern anti-secession group.

Winfield Scott created the Anaconda Plan as the Union's main plan of attack during the war.

Eastern Theater 1861–1863

Lincoln proclaimed the Union blockade of all southern ports, which shut down nearly all international traffic and most local port-to-port traffic. Although few battles were fought and few men were killed, the blockade shut down King Cotton and ruined the southern economy.

Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, whereupon they were forced back to Washington, D.C., by Confederate troops under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General Thomas Jackson received the name of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

Major General George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26 (he was briefly general-in-chief of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862.

Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan invaded Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River, southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, Joseph E. Johnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, then Robert E. Lee defeated him in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat. McClellan was stripped of many of his troops to reinforce John Pope's Union Army of Virginia. Pope was beaten spectacularly by Lee in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run in August.

Image:Conf dead chancellorsville.jpg

Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17 1862, the bloodiest single day in American history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided justification for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation.

When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside suffered near-immediate defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 1862, when over ten thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. Meade defeated Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), the largest battle in North American history, which is sometimes considered the war's turning point. Lee's army suffered 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000), again forcing it to retreat to Virginia, never to launch a full-scale invasion of the North again. Lincoln was angry that Meade failed to intercept Lee's retreat, and decided to turn to the Western Theater for new leadership.

Western Theater 1861–1863

For more details on this topic, see Western Theater of the American Civil War.

While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern theater, they crucially failed in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Leonidas Polk's invasion of Kentucky enraged the citizens there who previously had declared neutrality in the war, turning that state against the Confederacy.

Nashville, Tennessee, fell to the Union early in 1862. Most of the Mississippi was opened with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee. New Orleans, Louisiana, was captured in May 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well. Only the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, prevented unchallenged Union control of the entire river.

Braxton Bragg's second Confederate invasion of Kentucky was repulsed by Don Carlos Buell at the confused and bloody Battle of Perryville and he was narrowly defeated by William S. Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee.

The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, near the Tennessee border, where Bragg, reinforced by the corps of James Longstreet (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of George Henry Thomas, and forced him to retreat to Chattanooga, which Bragg then besieged.

The Union's key strategist and tactician in the west was Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at: Forts Henry and Donelson, by which the Union seized control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; Shiloh; the Battle of Vicksburg, cementing Union control of the Mississippi River and considered one of the turning points of the war; and the Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening an invasion route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.

Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861–1865

Though geographically isolated from the battles to the east, a number of military actions took place in the Trans-Mississippi theater, a region encompassing states and territories to the west of the Mississippi River. In 1861 Confederates launched a successful campaign into the territory of present day Arizona and New Mexico. Residents in the southern portions of this territory adopted a secession ordinance of their own and requested that Confederate forces stationed in nearby Texas assist them in removing Union forces still stationed there. The Confederate territory of Arizona was proclaimed by Col. John Baylor after victories in the Battle of Mesilla at Mesilla, New Mexico, and the capture of several Union forces. Confederate troops were unsuccessful in attempts to press northward in the territory and withdrew from Arizona completely in 1862 as Union reinforcements arrived from California.

The Battle of Glorieta Pass was a small skirmish in terms of both numbers involved and losses (140 Federal, 190 Confederate). Yet the issues were large, and the battle decisive in resolving them. The Confederates might well have taken Fort Union and Denver had they not been stopped at Glorieta. As one Texan put it, "if it had not been for those devils from Pike's Peak, this country would have been ours".

This small battle smashed any possibility of the Confederacy taking New Mexico and the far west territories. In April, Union volunteers from California pushed the remaining Confederates out of present-day Arizona at the Battle of Picacho Pass. In the eastern part of the United States, the fighting dragged on for three more years, but in the Southwest the war was over. [1]

The Union mounted several attempts to capture the trans-Mississippi regions of Texas and Louisiana from 1862 until the war's end. With ports to the east under blockade or capture, Texas in particular became a blockade-running haven. Referred to as the "back door" of the Confederacy, Texas and western Louisiana continued to provide cotton crops that were transferred overland to Matamoros, Mexico, and shipped to Europe in exchange for supplies. Determined to close this trade, the Union mounted several invasion attempts of Texas, each of them unsuccessful. Confederate victories at Galveston, Texas, and the Battle of Sabine Pass repulsed invasion forces. The Union's disastrous Red River Campaign in western Louisiana, including a defeat at the Battle of Mansfield, effectively ended the Union's final invasion attempt of the region until the final fall of the Confederacy. Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several months after Robert E. Lee's surrender. The last battle of the war occurred at Palmito Ranch in southern Texas—ironically a Confederate victory.

The End of the War 1864–1865

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At the beginning of 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, although Meade remained the actual commander of that army. He left Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war. Therefore, scorched earth tactics would be required in some important theaters. He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of Confederacy from multiple directions: Generals Grant, Meade, and Benjamin Butler would move against Lee near Richmond; General Franz Sigel (and later Philip Sheridan) would invade the Shenandoah Valley; General Sherman would invade Georgia, defeat Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; Generals George Crook and William W. Averell would operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and General Nathaniel Banks would capture Mobile, Alabama.

Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase ("Grant's Overland Campaign") of the Eastern campaign. An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Grant was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 66,000 casualties in six weeks), kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He pinned down the Confederate army in the Siege of Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months.

After two failed attempts (under Sigel and David Hunter) to seize key points in the Shenandoah Valley, Grant finally found a commander, General Philip Sheridan, aggressive enough to prevail in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Sheridan was sent in response to a raid by the aggressive General Jubal Early, whose corps reached the outer defenses of Washington before withdrawing back to the Valley. Sheridan proved to be more than a match for Early, and defeated him in a series of battles, including a final decisive defeat at Cedar Creek, Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural and industrial base of the Valley, a strategy similar to the scorched-earth tactics Sherman would later employ in Georgia.

Meanwhile, Sherman marched from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia, defeating Confedrate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. The fall of Atlanta, on September 2, 1864, was a significant factor in the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, as President of the Union. Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched with an unclear destination, laying waste to much of the rest of Georgia in his celebrated "March to the Sea", and reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864. Burning towns and plantations as they went, Sherman's armies hauled off crops, killed livestock and freed slaves to retaliate against the rebels and to deny use of these economic assets to the Confederacy, a consequence of Grant's scorched earth doctrine. When Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and his men, and for the Confederacy.

Lee attempted to escape from the besieged Petersburg and link up with Johnston in North Carolina, but he was overtaken by Grant. He surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Johnston surrendered his troops to Sherman shortly thereafter at a local family's farmhouse in Durham, North Carolina. The Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought on May 13, 1865, in the far south of Texas, was the last Civil War land battle and ended, ironically, with a Confederate victory. All Confederate land forces surrendered by June 1865.

Naval War

• see Union blockade and Confederate States Navy

Confederate naval units surrendered as late as November 1865, with the last actions being attacks on private New England whaling ships by the CSS Shenandoah in the Bering Strait through June 28, 1865.

Analysis of why the North won

Why the Union prevailed (or why the Confederacy was defeated) in the Civil War has been a subject of extensive analysis and debate. Could the South have won, somehow? Southern historian Shelby Foote told the audience of Ken Burns's video series on the Civil War: "I think that the North fought that war with one hand behind its back.... If there had been more Southern victories, and a lot more, the North simply would have brought that other hand out from behind its back. I don't think the South ever had a chance to win that War." [Ward 1990 p 272]

Advantages widely credited by historians to have contributed to the Union's success include:

• The more industrialized economy of the North, which aided in the production of arms, munitions and supplies, as well as finances, and transportation.
• A party system that enabled the Republicans to mobilize soldiers and support at the grass roots, even when the war became unpopular. The Confederacy deliberately did not use parties.
• The Union significantly outnumbered the Confederacy, both in civilian and military population.
• Strong compatible railroad links between Union cities, which allowed for the relatively quick movement of troops. The South was unable to augment its system or repair damage, or even perform routine maintenance.
• The Union's possession of the U.S. merchant marine fleet and ability to build hundreds of naval ships, which led to its successful blockade of Confederate ports.
• The Union's more established government, particularly a mature executive branch which accumulated even greater power during wartime, may have resulted in less regional infighting and a more streamlined conduct of the war. Failure of the Confederate executive to maintain positive and productive relationships with state governors damaged the Confederate president's ability to draw on regional resources.
• The Confederacy's possible squandering of resources on early audacious conventional offensives and its failure to fully use its advantages in guerrilla warfare against Union communication and transportation infrastructure.
• Despite the Union's many tactical blunders like the Seven Days Battle, those commited by Confederate generals, such as Lee's miscalculations at the Battle of Gettysburg and Battle of Antietam, were far more serious — if for no other reason than that the Confederates could so little afford the losses.
• Strategically the location of the capital Richmond tied Lee to a a highly exposed position at the end of supply lines. (Loss of Richmond, everyone realized, meant loss of the war.)
• The Confederacy never had an overall strategy. It never had a plan to deal with the blockade. In 1863 Richmond did not realize the disaster shaping up as four uncoordinated armies faced Grant at Vicksburg, and he defeated each in turn. Instead Lee gambled in a high risk venture into Pennsylvania that could prove a disaster and yet could never be a strategic success. Both Gettysburg and Vicksburg were lost. The worst Union folly was the Red River campaign in 1864, a minor affair by contrast.
• The Confederacy's failure to win diplomatic or military support from any foreign powers. Its King Cotton misperception of the world ecocomy led to bad diplomacy, such as the refusal to ship cotton before the blockade started.
• Most importantly, the Union had the will to win, and leaders like Lincoln, Seward, Stanton, Grant and Sherman would do whatever it took to win. The Confederacy, as Beringer et al (1986) demonstrate, lacked the total commitment needed to win. Too many governors protected their states rather than sacrifice everything to the national cause. Once the Union had taken control of a territory they found plenty of collaborators who would, for example, sell their cotton for high prices to the USA rather than burn it, or sell their horses to the USA for a huge gold premium rather than sell them to the CSA for worthless bonds. The Confederate soldiers were very good fighters; only toward the end did they desert in large numbers.
• On the other hand, the South had a vast territory that required very large numbers of Union occupation troops, a highly mobilized population accustomed to outdoor hardships, a large stock of experienced officers, and a disease environment that sickened northern soldiers.

Major land battles

For more details on this topic, see Battles of the American Civil War.

The ten costliest land battles, measured by casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) were:

Battle (State)	Dates	Confederate Commander	Union Commander	Conf. Forces	Union Forces	Victor	Casualties
Battle of Gettysburg (Pennsylvania)	July 1–3, 1863	Robert E. Lee	George G. Meade	75,000	82,289	Union	51,112 U: 23,049 C: 28,063
Battle of Chickamauga (Georgia)	September 19–20, 1863	Braxton Bragg	William Rosecrans	66,326	58,222	Conf.	34,624 U: 16,170 C: 18,454
Battle of Chancellorsville (Virginia)	May 1–4, 1863	Robert E. Lee	Joseph Hooker	60,892	133,868	Conf.	30,099 U: 17,278 C: 12,821
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (Virginia)	May 8–19, 1864	Robert E. Lee	Ulysses S. Grant	50,000	83,000	Draw	27,399 U: 18,399 C: 9,000
Battle of Antietam (Maryland)	September 17, 1862	Robert E. Lee	George B. McClellan	51,844	75,316	Draw	26,134 U: 12,410 C: 13,724
Battle of the Wilderness (Virginia)	May 5–7, 1864	Robert E. Lee	Ulysses S. Grant	61,025	101,895	Draw	25,416 U: 17,666 C: 7,750
Second Battle of Manassas (Virginia)	August 29–30, 1862	Robert E. Lee	John Pope	48,527	75,696	Conf.	25,251 U: 16,054 C: 9,197
Battle of Stones River (Tennessee)	December 31, 1862	Braxton Bragg	William S. Rosecrans	37,739	41,400	Union	24,645 U: 12,906 C: 11,739
Battle of Shiloh (Tennessee)	April 6–7, 1862	Albert Sidney Johnston P.G.T. Beauregard	Ulysses S. Grant	40,335	62,682	Union	23,741 U: 13,047 C: 10,694
Battle of Fort Donelson (Tennessee)	February 13–16, 1862	John B. Floyd Simon B. Buckner	Ulysses S. Grant	21,000	27,000	Union	19,455 U: 2,832 C: 16,623

Image:Bodies on the battlefield at antietam.jpg Other major land battles included First Bull Run, The Seven Days, Perryville, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Siege of Petersburg, and the battles of Franklin and Nashville. There was also Jackson's Valley Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, Red River Campaign, Missouri Secession, Valley Campaigns of 1864, and many coastal and river battles.

Naval action

For more details on this topic, see Naval Battles of the American Civil War.

The major naval action of the war was the Union blockade of Confederate ports throughout the war which denied deny supplies to the CSA, and prevented it from exporting most of its cotton. Major naval battles included Battle of Island Number Ten, Battle of Hampton Roads, Battle of Memphis, Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Battle of Fort Hindman, and Battle of Mobile Bay.

Civil War leaders and soldiers

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One of the reasons that the US Civil War wore on as long as it did and the battles were so fierce was that most important generals on both sides had formerly served in the United States Army — some, including Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, during the Mexican-American War between 1846 and 1848. Most were graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Southern miltary commanders and strategists included Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, P.G.T. Beauregard, John Mosby, Braxton Bragg, John Bell Hood, James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, William Mahone, Judah P. Benjamin, Jubal Early, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Northern miltary commanders and strategists included Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George H. Thomas, George B. McClellan, Henry W. Halleck, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Irvin McDowell, Winfield Scott, Philip Sheridan, George Crook, George Armstrong Custer, George G. Meade, and Winfield Hancock

After 1980 scholarly attention turned to ordinary soldiers, and to women and African Americans involved with the War. As James McPherson observed "The profound irony of the Civil War was that Confederate and Union soldiers ... interpreted the heritage of 1776 in opposite ways. Confederates fought for liberty and independence from what they regarded as a tyrannical government; Unionists fought to preserve the nation created by the founders from dismemberment and destruction."(McPherson 1994 p 24)

The Question of Slavery

As slavery and constitutional questions concerning states' rights were widely viewed as the major causes of the war, the victorious Union government sought to end slavery and to guarantee a perpetual union that could never be broken.

During the early part of the war, Lincoln, to hold together his war coalition of Republicans and War Democrats, emphasized preservation of the Union as the sole Union objective of the war. With the Emancipation Proclamation, announced in September 1862 and put into effect four months later, Lincoln adopted the abolition of slavery as a second mission.

The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves held in territory then under Confederate control to be "then, thenceforth, and forever free", but did not affect slaves in areas under Union control. One goal was to destroy the economic basis of the Confederate leadership class, and another goal was to actually liberate the 4 million slaves, which was accomplished by 1865.

Foreign diplomacy

Because of the Confederacy's attempt to create a new state, recognition and support from the European powers were critical to its prospects. The Union, under Secretary of State William Henry Seward attempted to block the Confederacy's efforts in this sphere. The Confederates hoped that the importance of the cotton trade to Europe (the idea of cotton diplomacy) and shortages caused by the war, along with early military victories, would enable them to gather increasing European support and force a turn away from neutrality.

President Lincoln's decision to announce a blockade of the Confederacy, a clear act of war, enabled Britain, followed by other European powers, to announce their neutrality in the dispute. This enabled the Confederacy to begin to attempt to gain support and funds in Europe. President Jefferson Davis had picked Robert Toombs of Georgia as his first Secretary of State. Toombs, having little knowledge in foreign affairs, was replaced several months later by Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, another choice with little suitability. Ultimately, on March 17, 1862, Davis selected Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana as Secretary of State, who although having more international knowledge and legal experience with international slavery disputes still failed in the end to create a dynamic foreign policy for the Confederacy.

The first attempts to achieve European recognition of the Confederacy were dispatched on February 25, 1861 and led by William Lowndes Yancey, Pierre A. Rost, and Ambrose Dudley Mann. The British foreign minister Lord John Russell met with them, and the French foreign minister Edouard Thouvenel received the group unofficially. However, at this point, the two countries had agreed to coordinate and cooperate and would not make any rash moves.

Charles Francis Adams proved particularly adept as ambassador to Britain for the Union, and Britain was reluctant to boldly challenge the Union's blockade. The Confederacy also attempted to initiate propaganda in Europe through journalists Henry Hotze and Edwin De Leon in Paris and London. However, public opinion against slavery created a political liability for European politicians, especially in Britain. A significant challenge in Anglo-Union relations was also created by the Trent Affair, involving the Union boarding of a British mail steamer to seize James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate diplomats sent to Europe. However, the Union was able to smooth over the problem to some degree.

As the war continued, in late 1862, the British considered initiating an attempt to mediate the conflict. However, the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam caused them to delay this decision. Additionally, the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation further reinforced the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. As the war continued, the Confederacy's chances with Britain grew more hopeless, and they focused increasingly on France. Napoléon III proposed to offer mediation in January 1863, but this was dismissed by Seward. Despite some sympathy for the Confederacy, France's own concerns in Mexico ultimately deterred them from substantially antagonizing the Union. As the Confederacy's situation grew more and more tenuous and their pleas increasingly ignored, President Davis sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe, in November 1864, to test whether a promised Confederate emancipation of its slaves could lead to possible recognition. The proposal was strictly rejected by both Britain and France.

Aftermath

Main article: Reconstruction

Image:Peace Monument Chattanooga.jpg Northern leaders agreed that the war would be over when Confederate nationalism was dead, and slavery was dead. They disagreed sharply on how to identify these goals. They also disagreed on the degree of vengeance that should be exacted on the South for its war. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United States was ratified by the end of 1865. The question became whether the Freedmen had enough rights, and enough political power to protect those rights. In 1868, the 14th Amendment, defining citizenship and giving the Federal government broad power to require the States to provide equal protection of the laws, was adopted. The 15th Amendment, saying that race itself could not be a disqualification for voting, was ratified in 1870. The 14th and 15th Amendments reversed the effects of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision of 1857 and empowered the Freedmen as full citizens and (for a while) as voters.

Many Northerners wanted vengence for the loss of life, especially the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Down to the 1880s, some Republican politicians stirred up hatreds from the war in order to attack their Democratic opponents (this tactic was ridiculed by Democrats as "waving the bloody shirt").

Ghosts of the conflict still persist in America. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s had its neoabolitionist roots in the unresolved issues left by the war. Controversy and debate surrounding the legacy of the war continue, especially regarding memorials and celebrations of Confederate heroes and battle flags.

References

Overviews

• Beringer, Richard E., Archer Jones, and Herman Hattaway, Why the South Lost the Civil War (1986) analysis of factors
• Catton, Bruce, The Civil War, American Heritage, 1960, ISBN 0-8281-0305-4, illustrated narrative
• Donald, David ed. Why the North Won the Civil War (1977) (ISBN: 0020316607), short interpretive essays
• Donald, David et al. The Civil War and Reconstruction (latest edition 2001); 700 page survey
• Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
• Fellman, Michael et al. This Terible War: The Civil War and its Aftermath (2003), 400 page survey
• Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars (1959), these maps are online
• Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative (3 volumes), Random House, 1974, ISBN 0-394-74913-8. Highly detailed narrative covering all fronts
• McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988), survey; Pulitzer prize
• Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union, an 8-volume set (1947-1971). the most detailed narrative
  • 1. Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852; 2. A House Dividing, 1852-1857; 3. Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857-1859; 4. Prologue to Civil War, 1859-1861; 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865
• Rhodes, James Ford. History of the Civil War, 1861-1865 (1918), Pulitzer Prize; a short version of his 5-volume history
• Ward, Geoffrey C. The Civil War (Alfred Knopf, 1990), based on PBS series by Ken Burns; visual emphasis
• Weigley, Russell Frank. A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865 (2004); primarily military

Reference Books and Bibliographies

• Blair, Jayne E. The Essential Civil War: A Handbook to the Battles, Armies, Navies And Commanders (2006)
• Carter, Alice E. and Richard Jensen. The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites- 2nd ed. (2003)
• Current, Richard N., et al eds. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 Volume set; also 1 vol abridged version) (ISBN: 0132759918)
• Faust, Patricia L. (ed.) Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War (1986) (ISBN: 0061812617) 2000 short entries
• Eicher, David J., The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography, University of Illinois, 1997, ISBN 0-252-02273-4
• Heidler, David Stephen. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2002), 1600 entries in 2700 pages in 5 vol or 1-vol editions
• Wagner, Margaret E. Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman, eds. The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference (2002)
• Woodworth, Steven E. ed. American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1996) (ISBN: 0313290199), 750 pages of historiography and bibliography

Biographies

• Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
• Freeman, Douglas S., R. E. Lee, A Biography (4 volumes), Scribners, 1934
• Freeman, Douglas S., Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 volumes), Scribners, 1946, ISBN 0-684-85979-3
• Smith, Jean Edward, Grant, Simon and Shuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84927-5
• Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0882-7
• Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5

Soldiers

• Hess, Earl J. The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat (1997)
• McPherson, James. What They Fought For, 1861-1865 (Louisiana State University Press, 1994)
• McPherson, James. For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (1998)
• Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (1962) (ISBN: 0807104752)
• Wiley, Bell Irvin. Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (1952) (ISBN: 0807104760)

Special Studies

• Coombe, Jack D., Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic: First Naval Actions of the Civil War, Bantam Books, 2002, ISBN 0-553-38073-7
• Davis, Burke, The Civil War: Strange & Fascinating Facts, Wings Books, 1960, ISBN 0-517-371510
• Fisher, Garry, Rebel Cornbread and Yankee Coffee: Authentic Civil War Cooking and Camaraderie, Crane Hill, 2001, ISBN 1-57587-175-0
• Garrison, Webb, True Tales of the Civil War, Gramercy Books, 1988, ISBN 0-517-16266-0
• Garrison, Webb, Civil War Schemes and Plots, Gramercy Books, 1997, ISBN 0-517-16287-3
• Ragan, Mark K., Submarine Warfare in the Civil War, Da Capo Press, 1999, ISBN 0-306-81197-9
• Van Doren Stern, Philip, Secret Missions of the Civil War, Random House Publishing, 1959, ISBN 0-517-00002-4
• Varhola, Michael J., Everyday Life During the Civil War, Writer's Digest Books, 1999, ISBN 0898799228

Primary Sources

• U.S. War Dept., The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. 90 large columes of letters and reports written by both armies.
• Bedwell, Randall, War is All Hell: A Collection of Civil War Quotations, Cumberland House Publishing, 1999, ISBN 1-58182-419-X
• Commager, Henry Steele (ed.). The Blue and the Gray. The Story of the Civil War as Told by Participants. (1950), often reprinted
• Duncan, Russel, editor, Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Leters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, The University of Georgia Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8203-2174-5
• Eisenschiml, Otto; Ralph Newman; eds. The American Iliad: The Epic Story of the Civil War as Narrated by Eyewitnesses and Contemporaries (1947)
• Hesseltine, William B. ed.; The Tragic Conflict: The Civil War and Reconstruction (1962)
• Woodword, C. Vann, Ed., Mary Chesnut's Civil War, Yale University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-300-02979-9 Pulitzer Prize

Novels about the war

• Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage
• Doctorow, E.L., The March
• Frazier, Charles, Cold Mountain
• Mitchell, Margaret, Gone with the Wind
• Reed, Ishmael, Flight to Canada
• Shaara, Jeffrey, Gods and Generals
• Shaara, Jeffrey, The Last Full Measure
• Shaara, Michael, The Killer Angels
• Street, James, By Valour and Arms
• Verne, Jules, North against South (Nord Contre Sud)
• Vidal, Gore, Lincoln

Films about the war

• The Birth of a Nation (1915)
• Gone With the Wind (1939)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
• Glory (1989)
• Gettysburg (1993)
• Gods and Generals (2003)
• Cold Mountain (2003)

Documentaries about the war

• The Civil War, directed by Ken Burns

See also

• African Americans in the Civil War
• Canada and the American Civil War
• Casualties of the American Civil War
• Illinois in the Civil War
• Military history of the Confederate States
• Military history of the United States
• National Civil War Museum
• Naming the American Civil War
• List of American Civil War topics
• List of people associated with the American Civil War
• Official Records of the American Civil War
• Origins of the American Civil War
• Photography and photographers of the American Civil War
• Rail transport in the American Civil War
• U.S. Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
• Union blockade

External links

• The American Civil War Homepage
• Civil War photos at the National Archives
• Civil War in Virginia
• Civil War Research & Discussion Group - Fields Of Conflict - Containing 1500+ Links And 400+ Articles.
• Civil War Pictures Database
• Online texts of Civil War books at the National Park Service
• Religion and the American Civil War
• University of Tennessee: U.S. Civil War Generals
• Shotgun's Home of the American Civil War
• American Civil War
• American Civil War Detailed Chronology
• The Civil War, a PBS documentary by Ken Burns
• Individual state's contributions to the Civil War: California, Florida, Illinois #1, Illinois #2, Ohio, Pennsylvania
• State declarations of the causes of secession: Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, South Carolina
• Ordinances of Secession for all CSA states
• Alexander Hamilton Stephens' Cornerstone Speech
• Civil War Trails — A project to map out sites related to the Civil War in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina
• Civil War Audio Resources
• Hoard Historical Museum in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
• The Handbook of Texas Online: Civil War
• The Brothers War
• Civil War Band Collection: 1st Brigade Band of Brodhead, Wisconsin A digital collection of first person narrative accounts from Wisconsin soldiers and citizens, documenting their wartime experiences.
• Wisconsin Goes to War: Our Civil War Experience

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