Civil War

1362 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Events that led to the start of the civil war

Alpha

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alpha
The first Greek alphabet alpha symbolizes the beginning of an event. Here, of course, we are talking about the beginning of the Civil War. Conventional history claims that the American Civil War started on April 12, 1861 at the bombing of Fort Sumter. Is it true? We CW buffs probably would not quite satisfy with this answer, and we know there were armed hostile incidents happening long before Ft. Sumter, and we shall examine them here.

Carl Von Clausewitz, author of "On War", said that war is the extension of politic. The South had long making threat that they would secede if the country elected the Lincoln as President. The North dismissed them. After all, the Southerners had been "talking" secession for the last 40 years since the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Too many cry wolves. Meanwhile, the South thought that the North wouldn't fight. "I could wipe all the blood with my handkerchief" proclaimed Leroy Walker, who later served as the first Confederate Secretary of War. "They are shopkeepers and factory workers. What do they know about soldiering?" The South believed that one southerner could easily beat 10 Yankees. So both sides underestimated the other's determination.

The drumming of war cry were beating slowly in the background. In the month of November 1860, events began to heat up. Lincoln got elected on the 6th. South Carolina called for a Convention. New York stock market dropped its price. Maj. Anderson was ordered to Ft. Moultrie. Georgia voted a million dollars to arm the State. In December, South Carolina seceded on 20th. Anderson secretly moved the Federal garrison to Ft. Sumter at night on 26th. US Revenue Cutter William Aiken surrendered to S. Carolina State force on demand. Please notice that President Buchanan took the "do nothing" policy. Taking a ship is clearly an act of war, according to the Northern viewpoint, but the same act would become the defense of a new Country from the Southern viewpoint. But if the Federal chose not to fight back, there would be no "conflict." So you could see that a series of "incidents" happened, but the Federal under Buchanan did not respond.

The tempo of war drum increased in January 1861. South Carolina prepared for war / defense, organizing troops and guarding the wharfs and ships, and seized Ft. Johnson in Charleston Harbor. Federal organized militia to defend the D.C. Capital.

Show More
Related

  • American History: Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War in South Carolina

    1186 Words  | 3 Pages

    South Carolina seceded from the Union on December of 1860, General Robert Anderson and his troops were stationed out at Fort Moultrie. They did not think Fort Moultrie was safe enough so then he had a plan to move his troops to Fort Sumter. The Commander of the Union was Robert Anderson, and the Confederate commander was P.G.T. Beauregard. Anderson had moved his troops from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. Soon after coming to the fort Anderson realized he only had a couple week’s supply of food left. The confederate soldiers came and surrounded the fort and demanded Anderson had over the fort to them. Anderson was starting to run out of supplies for fighting and food. General Beauregard thought the Union would leave the South Carolina fort but Anderson refused. Beauregard threatened the Union to surrender but they would not, then the firing began. Anderson eventually realized there was no hope for them winning this battle, he then surrender the Southern for...

    Read More

  • The Killer Angels Analysis

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    A numerous amount of generals and soldiers of the south had a predisposed idea regarding what every person was fighting for, and from the looks of it, they were more so on the same page. When referring to what the war was being fought over, Englishmen Pickett used an analogy that gives reference to a “gentlemen’s club”, and not being able to maneuver out of it (Shaara 88). The men believed that the war conceived out of the misinterpretation of the constitution in regards to what or what not they had the right to do. In all, a large number of those fighting believed that the confederate army fought to protect the southern society, and slavery as an integral part of

    Read More

  • Why the North Won the American Civil War

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    In addition to a crumbling national identity, the necessities of war diminished morale among citizens of the Confederacy. Early on, the South believed that Europe would a...

    Read More

  • Battle of Fort Sumter

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    It all began with the secession of South Carolina. After this an understanding was established between the authorities in Washington and the members of Congress from South Carolina. They both agreed that the forts, Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, would not be attacked, or seized as an act of war, until proper negotiations for their cession to the state. At the time of this Fort Sumter was in an unfinished state and did not have a garrison. (www.civilwarhome.com/CMHsumter.htm)

    Read More

  • Battle of Port Royal

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    In terms of war-making resources, the Union marginally outnumbered the Confederacy; the Union had more soldiers, bank capital, manufacturing output, iron, coal, fire arm production, warships, and naval officers. The Civil War thus looked as if it would be a joke because the many predicted that the war would only last one month due to the marginal differences in resources. However, after the First Battle at Bull Run, it was quickly discovered that the Confederacy would not submit so easily. In fact, they showed that they were very capable of victory, by successfully countering on the Union flank and giving them the upper hand in the battle . The Union was forced to retreat and at the same time, change up their strategy. Prior to the start of the war, the Secretary of the Navy felt that the best approach to the war was a blockade of Confederate ports. The Union defeat at Bull Run made his previous skeptics his supporters. Thus, the Anaconda Plan, to “suffocate Southern imports” was put into effect. One of the battles to establish the blockade was the Battle at Port Royal. Port Royal is the most significant battle of the war because it served as a moral victory, it changed the Confederate strategy, and it ultimately gave the Union control of the Atlantic coast which had a tremendous effect on the war.

    Read More

  • Why The North Won the Civil War

    1524 Words  | 4 Pages

    The American Civil War was fought between the North (The Union) and the South (The Confederates), because of the South wanting to secede from the North. Lincoln's election as president in 1860, triggered southerners' decision to secede believing Lincoln would restrict their rights to own slaves. Lincoln stated that secession was "legally void" and had no intentions of invading the Southern states, but would use force to maintain possession of federal property. Despite his pleas for the restorations of the bonds of union, the South fired upon the federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter, in Charlestown, Virginia. This was the event that decided the eventual beginning of the Civil War. Despite the advantages of Northerners, their victory in the ...

    Read More

  • The Breakup of the Union

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...iduals plotting conspiracy and selling out their promises for a considerable length of time before 1860, and that they were not going to stop short of their objectives. The main thing that might have avoided war might be the acknowledgement of bondage by the United States or the surrender of the United States of every last one of states and regions it held that called itself the Confederacy. Since that might not have finished subjugation, then the response is that there was no elective however to have a clash, a war. Subjugation was the issue, it was the reason. It was an ascertained arrangement by the individuals who decided to ensure servitude by selling out their kinsmen and turning rebellious--to secure subjugation, and not a legendary thought of "state's rights" on the grounds that the main right they thought about was the right to subjugate an alternate race.

    Read More

  • Civil War and The South's Loss

    1824 Words  | 4 Pages

    First, the South couldn’t have won the civil war because state’s rights prevented unification of the South. The very issue that created the Confederacy helped to destroy it. In waging war, the South faced problems of politics and government that greatly complicated its problem of economic mobilization. No one would deny the troublesome effect of the conflict generated by differing ideas of how best to protect liberty and to organize southern society for the war effort. Southern people insisted upon retaining their democratic liberties in wartime, which proved fatal for the South. They had to struggle with a “confederacy formed by particularistic politicians [that] could hardly be expected to adopt promptly those centralists polices which victory demanded” (Donald, p. 26). Individual state governors fought bitterly with Jefferson Davis to prevent him from consolidating power to fight the war. They withheld troops and supplies while the Confederate Congress spent its time arguing over the rights of the states instead of prosecuting a war of national survival. Many internal conflicts within the South were acquiring and weakening the South’s unity. Internal conflicts caused confederate officials to choose between moving troops from the coasts and strengthening their armies, or leaving the...

    Read More

  • The Civil War Was Inevitable

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor when the Confederate army attacked Union soldier and ended on May 9, 1865 with a Union Victory. There are many events, laws, and people that provoked the Civil War. The two most important causes are slavery and the expansion of the United States causing an unbalance of free and slave states. This essay examines major events that initiated the war starting from the Compromise of 1820 to the election of 1860 and proves how the Civil War was inevitable.

    Read More

  • James Buchanan

    621 Words  | 2 Pages

    Buchanan’s presidency was characterized by the state’s rights and slavery issues, which tore our country apart. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln, and by the time Buchanan left office, six states had seceded from the union. When seven of the fifteen stated seceded from the union, in 1860-1861, Buchanan did not force them to stay in the union. He felt that violence would only make more states leave. His policy delayed the Civil War until after Abraham Lincoln took office. So, therefore, Buchanan actually was president during the very beginnings of the Civil War

    Read More

  • civil war

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    Albert Gallatin Brown, U.S. Senator from Mississippi, speaking with regard to the several filibuster expeditions to Central America: "I want Cuba . . . I want Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican States; and I want them all for the same reason -- for the planting and spreading of slavery." [Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 106.]

    Read More

  • Events Leading To The Civil War

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    This quote is just another way of saying that the Civil War was going to occur no matter what either side, the North or South, did to try to stop it.

    Read More

  • Causes of The American Civil War

    2128 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...om’s Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of the Presidential Election of 1860—created conditions where Southerners felt the need to secede from the United States (they felt that their “way of life” was being threatened), as well as created conditions where the Northerners decided to go to war against the Southern Confederacy in order to maintain the Union. It is not surprising, however, that the Civil War occurred; since the Industrial Revolution, the Industrial North had always been different than the Agricultural South. If each region paid more attention to resolving the issues that separated them, instead of trying to prove themselves right, they could have stopped the bloodiest battle in American history (even though this is using hindsight knowledge).

    Read More

  • Civil War: Inevitable or Avoidable

    1841 Words  | 4 Pages

    After thoroughly assessing past readings and additional research on the Civil War between the North and South, it was quite apparent that the war was inevitable. Opposed views on this would have probably argued that slavery was the only reason for the Civil War. Therefore suggesting it could have been avoided if a resolution was reached on the issue of slavery. Although there is accuracy in stating slavery led to the war, it wasn’t the only factor. Along with slavery, political issues with territorial expansion, there were also economic and social differences between North and South. These differences, being more than just one or two, gradually led to a war that was bound to happened one way or another.

    Read More

  • The Sweet Smell Of Childhood: The Sweet Smell Of Childhood

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    At least once a week we would visit my grandparent’s for Sunday dinner and quality family time. They were an intricate part of my life to help me grow and understand how to be a good person. They babysat me when my parents needed them to for date nights or vacations. We had Sunday dinner at my grandparent’s house every week with my cousins, aunts, and uncles. Through these times I grew a stronger bond with my family as a whole. I also spent more time with my intermediate family without distractions or obligations.

    Read More

More about Civil War

Open Document