The American Civil War Introduction War and Industrialization This book is a short comparative history. It is a survey of three wars, the Crimean war (1854-6), the American Civil War (1861-5) and the German Wars of Unification (1864,1866,1870-71). As all levels of human intercourse are mainly about power, the influence of politics on war will be an important theme in the pages that follow. Sir Herbert Butterfield, in his book Man on His Past (1955), quotes Schlozer, a German eighteenth-century historian, who was of the opinion that ‘History without politics is mere monkish chronicles’. These three wars (or groups of wars ) were fought more than 4,000 miles apart ; yet the first and third were brought about by changes in the …show more content…
Without the issue of slavery there would have been no war. It threw into doubt the very meaning of American freedom. To Southerners the greatest freedom they could enjoy was taking their property- their slaves – into every corner of the country, even where slavery had previously been outlawed. The Southern emphasis on ‘states’ rights’ was essentially a coded phase for the defence of slavery – the South’s ‘peculiar institution’. The South did not go to war in defence of the right of its state governments to charter banks. During the 1840s a pro-slavery ideology grew up arguing that, by comparison with the brutality of industrial urban civilization, paternal rural slavery was a positive good. After the Compromise of 1850, slavery had made some advances and Southerners demanded not only that they should have the right to take their slaves into the domain of territory seized from Mexico after the war of 1846-8, but that Kansas should enter the Union as a slave state. The desultory violence that accompanied these demands provoked the growth of the anti-slavery Republican Party, which sought to restrict slavery to its existing limits. The depression of 1857, which hit the more industrial North harder, inspired the South with an exaggerated idea of the economic strength of ‘King Cotton’ grown by its system of slave-based plantations. When the Crimean War came to an end in 1857 the loss of new European markets for Northern cereals, previously supplied by Russia, added to the economic depression and darkened and atmosphere already marred by a sense of domestic
interpretation of the views from both the North and South concerning the events and causes leading up to the Civil War. Pressly reveals how the North saw the Southern’s succession as a treasonous rebellion, however, did not place the blame on the entire population but instead on the work of tyrannical Southern politicians. They saw slavery to be the reason for secession and not anything they had done, therefore through their “lust of power” the Confederates alone were guilty of the blood shed and the war which they began when they fired on Fort Sumter. Moreover, the South believed their secession to be their constitutional right as free, sovereign states and
In the month of February 1861, seven states had already left the Union to form the Confederacy. After the bombardment of Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln took action and ordered his troops to save the Union. By doing this, however, he caused four more states to join the Confederacy.
The 22nd and 28th Iowa Regiments left Hamburg in June of 1865. Their war was over.
The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century was written by Catherine Clinton. Catherine Clinton is the Denman Professor of American History at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Clinton grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and later studied sociology and African American History at Harvard University, graduating in 1973. Clinton maintains strong research interest in US history, specifically women’s history. She had published many popular books that examine different perspectives toward women’s contribution during the nineteenth century, how African-American women played a major role during the American Revolution. As we speak for women, Catherine Clinton pointed out that women were left out entirely in US’s history, their
The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties, including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease, and 50,000 civilians. The war accounted for roughly as many American deaths as all American deaths in other U.S. wars combined.
Soldiers of the American Civil War were overwhelmed by a time where weaponry and technological developments were thriving. This brutal war changed the soldiers, both mentally and physically, and continued to have an impact throughout their entire lives. There were not only many deaths during the war, but also prior to the war as many soldiers took their own life. They would experience disturbing thoughts and events in their mind that could not be explained until they became known as mental illnesses. The exploration of psychological disorders following the Civil War improved medical diagnostic tools and the way patients were treated which transformed the treatment of mental illness by creating new ways of discovering illnesses, treating patients, and developing the foundation for the future of psychology throughout America.
A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.
The Civil War brought the United States down to its knees. This blood-soaked conflict became one of the most brutal wars that this country has taken arms to and the destruction from the result of the war validates this view. Thus a period coined as Reconstruction started where the main objectives of the national government were to rebuild the southern confederate states and to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves. Throughout this tumultuous period, three significant court cases, US v. Cruikshank, US v. Reese, and US v. Anthony, used race and gender in the United States to shape and limit what it means to be a citizen with alleged “privileges and immunities.”
When the American Civil War began in the spring of 1861, those flocking to enlistment stations in states both north and south chiefly defined their cause as one of preservation. From Maine to Minnesota, young men joined up to preserve the Union. From Virginia to Texas, their future foes on the battlefield enlisted to preserve a social order, a social order at its core built on the institution of slavery and racial superiority . Secession had not been framed by prominent Southerners like Robert Toombs as a defensive measure to retain the fruits of the revolution against King George, a fight against those who sought to “intrique insurrection with all its nameless horrors.” (Toombs Speech) On January 1, 1863, when Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect the war became a revolution. The Union, the soldiers in blue fought to preserve could no longer exist. On every mile of soil, they would return to the Stars and Stripes from that moment on, the fabric of society would be irrevocably changed. In May of 1865, with the abolition of slavery engrained into the Constitution with the passage of the 13th Amendment, the Confederate armies of Lee and Johnston disbanded, and Lincoln dead of an assassin’s bullet; this change was the only certainty the torn fabric of the newly reunited states was left to be resown. Andrew Johnson and Southern Democrats believed the revolution of 1863 had gone far enough. Radical Republicans and African-Americans sought instead to bring it to
The civil war is by far the bloodiest war in American history. In the four deadly years of war, over six-hundred thousand Americans were killed. Many disputes that led to the civil war. These conflicts started under President James Buchanan who was a Democrat elected in the election of 1856. The issue of slavery, states’ rights, the abolitionist movement, the Southern secession, the raid on Harper’s Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln all contributed to the start of the civil war. The civil war and its aftermath transformed the entire nation by unifying the United States, abolishing slavery, and led to the American Industrial Revolution.
In the year 1864 the American Civil War was drawing to an end. The Confederate States of America was slowly running out of able bodied men and supplies to supply the army needed to ward off the Union’s invasion of the South. At this point in time the leader of the Union Army was Ulysses S. Grant. He devised a plan to escalate the process in which the Confederate Army was running out of supplies. Grant’s plan was to send Union troops to the West of the main conflict for them to loop around and cut off railroad lines, and burn farm lands. The greatest of these was the Army that burned thousands of acres in Georgia, yet another army led by General David Hunter might have been more decisive if it had not been stopped at the Battle of Lynchburg. General David Hunter was ordered by General Grant to make his way down the Shenandoah Valley and destroy as much farm land as possible along the way. On top of this General Hunter terrorized towns by pillaging stores and homes. The Southerners knew that a similar fate would become Lynchburg if they did not do anything to prevent Hunter’s advance. The people of Lynchburg worked hard at building up defenses protecting Lynchburg. They had to resort to using mostly young boys and elderly men since most able bodies men had already died in the War or were still fighting under General E. Lee. The boys and elderly men that maned the defenses did not have a good chance of warding of the large army led by General David Hunter; as a result, General
The American civil war was the second most important war to Americans. The war was about a lot of things but mostly the end slavery. It was also called the War Between the States. It war between the southern and the northern states. Slavery was use for a lot of things it was use in the industrial revolution it was used for farming in the south. In the north were trade and import and export good. African’s were the most of the population of slaves. People thought slavery was a good thing. The masters would whip them if they didn’t do what they were told nor did a bad job at it. The master would tell the slaves they have it better the Jesus did when he was tortured. People would bring religion to everything. The president during the time was the great Abraham Lincoln. He was born in Kentucky. There was to teams the confederation and the union. The confederation was the south. The union was the north. The union had many people because there was draft and the slave were free in the north and would be able to join the army so they did in the north and the south. In New York there was a riot caused by the draft. Many people didn’t like that they could join that wasn’t part of the compromise. Every state in the north seceded and four states didn’t join the union or the confederation. One fact that is every surprising Kentucky never voted for President Lincoln for both terms. The greatest battle of the civil war was the battle of Bull Run. The most famous battle was the battle
In 1861, a horrific war began. Nobody had any idea that this war would become the deadliest war in American history. It wasn’t a regular war, it was a civil war opposing the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South.. The Civil War cost many people’s lives on the battlefield and beyond. In addition it cost an extreme amount of money for the nation which possibly could have been avoided if the war had turned to happen a little differently.
Abraham Lincoln once stated “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln is a hero for the citizens of America because his determination and courage to ending slavery even if it meant war caused peace in this nation. Slavery was the vital cause of the American Civil War. The north and the south both had their differences on how to run the country. People in the North believed in unity and that slavery should not exist because “all men are created equally.” On the other hand, the South believed in continuing slavery. People tried to talk it out and come to a middle ground after both sides compromising, however that didn’t work and caused war. Ideological differences were a vital role to making the American Civil War an inevitable event.
In 1861, the American Civil War commenced after many years of tension building between the Northern and Southern states. The main reason of the tension was said to be the debate of slavery between the North and South, and although some documents support this claim, it is false. The war had been brewing since 1607, before slavery was even introduced to the colonies that would become the United States of America. The debate of slavery did play a major part in the civil war; however it did so in supporting the true cause of the civil war. The main cause of the American Civil War was not the debate of slavery, but rather Europe’s role in the American economy.