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.
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of slavery, the preservation of the Union, the economical differences between the North and the South, and the defense of state’s rights were all primary causes that led to the Civil War. When the United States decided to move westward, and territories started to apply for statehood, a problem arose in Congress. The status of slavery in the west led to opposing views by the North and the South. This would eventually lead to the division of the states. The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act tried to resolve this issue, but this problem remained a debatable question leading up to the war. Another topic debated in Congress leading up to the war was state’s rights. The North’s attempt to outlaw the expansion of slavery in the West was unconstitutional according to the 5th Amendment (right to own and move property). Also, the Southern states believed that they had the right to regulate local issues within the state according to the Constitution. The economical differences between the North and the South were also a major cause of the Civil War. The industrial North had more factories, more well-developed transportation, and it depended on free labor. On the other hand, the agrarian South was built around slave labor, and a majority of the world’s cotton came from the South. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, in both of his inaugural addresses he stated that he entered the war in order to preserve the Union. After his first inaugural address, 11 states seceded from the Union which severed the Union. The Civil War started unofficially when Abraham Lincoln, the Republican, was elected for president in 1860.
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…
destruction, and in the fall of Atlanta in 1864, Abraham Lincoln was reelected. He also used this battle to pass the 13th Amendment through the House in early 1865. Months later, Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and Lincoln was assassinated in Ford’s Theatre. The U.S.
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
slaves. The Civil War, even through the five years of fighting and the many sacrifices made from the Confederacy and the Union, is one of the most important and significant events in our nation’s country. Without the legacies that came out of the war, our country would be a different place today.
Some of the causes from the civil war were that the North was more experienced than the South, they also had more resources to fight in battle. The civil war started when Southern states seceded from the Union after the election with Abraham Lincoln. The battle of Gettysburg had a huge impact on the civil war because it was a three-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle from the American Civil War. Also, the south’s Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania enetered in late June 1863.
On April 12, 1861, Abraham Lincoln declared to the South that, the only reason that separate the country is the idea of slavery, if people could solve that problem then there will be no war. Was that the main reason that started the Civil war? or it was just a small goal that hides the real big reason to start the war behind it. Yet, until this day, people are still debating whether slavery is the main reason of the Civil war. However, there are a lot of facts that help to state the fact that slavery was the main reason of the war. These evidences can relate to many things in history, but they all connect to the idea of slavery.
The Civil war was possibly the greatest tragedy that this country had ever faced. Years of constant arguing, compromises and cynical ideas about slavery pushed this so called "United Nation" into an atrocious collision between the Northern abolitionists and the Southern proslavery farmers and plantation owners. The nation suffered enormous losses economically and went into a downward spiral. The reconstruction period began with many leaders stepping up to try and fix this crippled country, but it didn't turn out like everyone hoped. Slavery was still the largest issue and the reconstruction halted because of the disagreements the people faced. After many years of working, compromising and passing laws, the task proved itself to be impossible, as the country remained to be separated. The lack of unity was present because most of the amendments, laws and rules passed during reconstruction were created to protect and ensure the rights of African Americans. However the South continued to promote slavery and "putting blacks in their place" until the 1950's.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States of America, the repercussions of which led to civil war. However it was not only Lincoln’s election that led to civil war but also the slavery debate between the northern and southern states and the state of the economy in the United States. Together with the election of Lincoln these caused a split, both politically and ideologically, between the North and South states which manifested into what is now refereed to as the American Civil War.
In the words of President Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address (Doc. A), the Civil War itself, gave to our Nation, “a new birth of freedom”. The Civil War had ended and the South was in rack and ruin. Bodies of Confederate soldiers lay lifeless on the grounds they fought so hard to protect. Entire plantations that once graced the South were merely smoldering ash. The end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, stirred together issues and dilemmas that Americans, in the North and South, had to process, in hopes of finding the true meaning of freedom.
September 16-18, 1862, outside of the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, between the Potomac River and Antietam Creek, was the location of the bloodiest battle in American history. Confederate Colonel Stephen D. Lee described it as “Artillery Hell” because of the frightful toll on his gunners and horses from Federal counter battery and infantry fire. (AotW, 2014) The battle of Antietam, or the Battle of Sharpsburg, would collect an estimated 23,100 total casualties (Luvaas and Nelson, 1987). The body count far exceeded any of the other three battles waged in the Maryland Campaign (Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Shepherdstown). This battle was a contributing factor in the outcome of our country and the rest of the world. The Union Army desperately needed a victory at Antietam; however, a victory for the Confederate rebels may have very well gained them international recognition as a sovereign country in the eyes of the rest of the world. The Federal Army, which belonged to the Union States, consisted of an all-volunteer army and was a larger army than the Confederate States. Even though the Battle of Antietam was inconclusive, President Lincoln went on to read the Emancipation Proclamation to the country, effectively ending slavery, and ensuring that no foreign nation would intervene on the Confederates behave.
Four and a half months after the Union defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. He gave the Union soldiers a new perspective on the war and something to fight for. Before the address, the Civil War was based solely on states’ rights. Lincoln’s speech has the essence of America and the ideals that were put into the Declaration of Independence by the founders. The sixteenth president of the United States was capable of using his speech to turn a war on states rights to a war on slavery and upholding the principles that America was founded upon. By turning the Civil War into a war that was about slavery he was able to ensure that no foreign country would recognize the south as an independent nation, thus ensuring Union success in the war. In his speech, Lincoln used the rhetorical devices of juxtaposition, repetition, and parallelism.
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as president in the United State. But, the United States had been divided in the 1850s, due to the question about expansion of slavery and the rights of the slave owner. The issue of slavery had heated the nation to the boiling point. Fourth Months later, after Abraham presidential election, the seven states in the deep southern part of the United States, like South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia. Louisiana, and Texas, had seceded and seized many federal facilities. Although President Lincoln is the president of the United State, he still had no official powers to do anything about the Southern forming a new nation. On April 15, Lincoln called 75,000 volunteers to put down the Southern rebellion, and to reverse the seven states to vote in favor of session. After the nation drifted toward conclusion, Abraham Lincoln traveled all over the North, so he can make campaign speeches for the Republicans party. Abram Lincoln used his influence, as the leader of the Republican Party, by reaching out to the political leader of the Republican party, writing privately letters, demanded that the Republican party needs to hold firm to its opposition to the extension of slavery and to also reassure the southern that the Republicans composed no threats. When Civil War begins, Abr...
For generations students have been taught an over-simplified version of the civil war and even now I am just coming to a full understanding of the truth. The civil war was a terrible rift in our nation, fought between the northern states (known as the union) and the southern states (the Confederate States of America). The people’s opinions were so divided over the issues of the civil war that, in some families, brother was pit against brother. Eventually, the south succumbed to the north and surrendered on April 9th, 1865 but not before the war had caused 618,000 deaths, more than any other war in U.S. history.(1) In truth, many believe this horrible war was fought purely over the issue of slavery. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not denying that slavery was a major cause and issue of the civil war, but social and economic differences as well as states’ rights were just as important issues and I will be discussing all three.
Following the American Civil War, the whole nation was forever changed and was the result of many good and bad things. Although it was a very costly war and was So, the Civil War did define us and made us the good and the bad things we are and led to an extremely significant change because slavery was abolished once and for all and African American rights followed many years later, the Federal Government imposed more power over the states, our country was divided for a while, and it left the nation in debt due to the fact that we fought each other.
When Lincoln was reelected he ensured that all slaves were freed and that their owners were not compensated. “On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, and by the end of year, enough Union states had ratified the amendment to make it a part of the Constitution, abolishing slavery from the United States forever.” (Schultz, n.d.). This is where General Sherman began his March of the Sea which was sixty miles wide and hundreds and hundreds of miles long. The March of the Sea is where a path of destruction was lad in late 1864 from Atlanta to the Atlantic and anyone they came across was pillaged. This was also served to prove to the Confederate states that their government did not have the ability to be ability to protect
This battle was the turning point of the Civil War, it also proved that Robert E. Lee was not invincible as most northerners thought.The battle lasted three days and there were 46,000-51,000 deaths.The death tolls were pretty much even which was remarkable due to the South having two armies to the Norths one. The South retreated on July 4th, 1863. This battle was important because if the South would have won the battle they would have won the war. The North eventually won the war because this battle turned the tides. Abraham Lincoln 's Gettysburg address was the most famous speech of all time. Astonishingly it only lasted two minutes. It showed the new birth of our freedom, which was huge to our country. It was about how the North could win the war, and how they would win the war. The war ended on April 9th, 1865. Blacks soon got the same rights as all other human beings. Abraham Lincoln decided to let Louisiana back into the nation. This was the first state back into the Union after they had seceded. Five days after the war Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed. His killer was John Wilkes Booth, an actor in the Forbes Theatre. His motive to kill was that the south had lost the war. after shooting the president, Mr. Booth jumped off the balcony and out the back entrance onto a horse. He went missing for 12 days. Few people helped Mr. Booth but one did and let him stay in
The American Civil War, also known as the War Between the States, or simply the Civil War in the United States, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865, after seven Southern slave states declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America . The states that remained in the Union were known as the "Union" or the "North". The war had its origin in the fractious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. Foreign powers did not intervene. After four years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 soldiers dead and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began.
The Civil War was meant to end slavery in the United States, but the victory could not keep prejudiced feelings and beliefs away. The newly freed African Americans who lived in the South ...
The American Civil War is a conflict that started in the years of 1861 through 1865, during the times Northern & Southern states seceded from the Union. In the South dealing with the war throughout the states was also labelled as War of the Rebellion, the war of secession also the war for southern independence. During the time of Civil War, although it had much criticized as inexact they most widely accepted. Not only that the economy of the American civil war was also not a class struggle as many thought. Also throughout the civil war soldiers were dropping like fly and other needed some type of help due to their injury. There was an totally amount of 644,000 soldiers in different types of conflict.