Civil War Turning Point Essay

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By 1860, the bonds that had held the nation together unraveled. In the mid 1800’s, tensions mounted as the nation moved westward and regional differences became more pronounced. Cotton emerged as the nation’s leading export and slavery became more deeply embedded in the South. A complex set of factors converged in the late 1850’s that ultimately led to the Civil War. During the war, military turning points impacted political actions. When the conflict ended, the legacies of the war were a mix of significant changes along with social stagnation. Historians often disagree on the primary causes and impact of war, but almost all historians agree that the Civil War was one of the most critical and transformative events in U.S. history. The spread …show more content…

When Lincoln was inaugurated into office, the South saw Lincoln as a threat to slavery and state’s rights, so the deep South decided to secede from the Union. A couple of months later, in April of 1861, the Confederate States of America fired upon Fort Sumter, which officially started the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. After Over a year later, The Union and the Confederacy met at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of the war. After the Union made the Confederacy retreat back in Virginia, Lincoln took advantage of the Union’s momentum and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Also, this battle sent a message to the European nations to not join the war on the side of the Confederacy. The biggest turning point of the war came in early July of 1863. On July 3rd, 1863, The Confederacy retreated from Gettysburg, PA, which ended the bloodiest battle of the war. A day later, John Pemberton surrendered his troops in Vicksburg, MS to Ulysses S. Grant, which capped off the 47-day siege of the town. This victory gave the Union control of the Mississippi River, and it cut the Confederacy in half. After these two battles, the South was never really able to recover. Later on that year, Abraham Lincoln introduced an amendment to Congress, an amendment to abolish slavery. In 1864, In William Sherman’s “March to the Sea” left the South in utter and total …show more content…

Civil War, one of the most devastating and violent events in American history, still leaves effects on our country today. The war ended debates over secession, slavery, and it led to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment, which gave all United States citizens equal rights, regardless of their race. Even thought there were positive impacts that came out of this war, there were negative impacts too. The South was left devastated after the war, the economy was in ruins and the population was beaten. Reconstruction was time-consuming and it was expensive. The federal government’s power increased over the states, and there was a new legislation in place in America. Even though the country was on the brink of a new era, a number of things stayed the same. Racism was still deeply embedded in the minds of U.S. citizens, and resentments between the North and the South were worse than ever before. The south’s economy still remained agrarian despite the abolition of slavery, but a new system called “sharecropping” emerged, and African-Americans continued to work in conditions almost identical as when they were

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