American Civil War Ytests and Quizzes
The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states' rights and westward expansion. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede and form the Confederate States of America; four more states shortly joined them. The War Between u.s., as the Civil State of war was as well known, concluded in Amalgamated surrender in 1865. The conflict was the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.four million soldiers killed, millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin.
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Causes of the Civil State of war
In the mid-19th century, while the The states was experiencing an era of tremendous growth, a fundamental economic difference existed between the country'due south northern and southern regions.
In the North, manufacturing and manufacture was well established, and agriculture was mostly limited to small-scale farms, while the South's economic system was based on a arrangement of large-calibration farming that depended on the labor of Black enslaved people to grow certain crops, particularly cotton and tobacco.
Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and northern opposition to slavery's extension into the new western territories led many southerners to fright that the beingness of slavery in America—and thus the backbone of their economic system—was in danger.
In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which substantially opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict. Pro- and anti-slavery forces struggled violently in "Bleeding Kansas," while opposition to the act in the Northward led to the formation of the Republican Party, a new political entity based on the principle of opposing slavery's extension into the western territories. Afterwards the Supreme Court'southward ruling in the Dred Scott example (1857) confirmed the legality of slavery in the territories, the abolitionist John Dark-brown'southward raid at Harper'due south Ferry in 1859 convinced more and more southerners that their northern neighbors were bent on the destruction of the "peculiar institution" that sustained them. Abraham Lincoln'south election in November 1860 was the terminal harbinger, and inside three months seven southern states–Due south Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas–had seceded from the U.s..
EXPLORE: Ulysses Southward. Grant: An Interactive Map of His Cardinal Civil State of war Battles
Outbreak of the Civil War (1861)
Even equally Lincoln took office in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the federal-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, Due south Carolina. On April 12, after Lincoln ordered a fleet to resupply Sumter, Confederate arms fired the beginning shots of the Ceremonious War. Sumter's commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered after less than ii days of battery, leaving the fort in the hands of Confederate forces under Pierre G.T. Beauregard. Iv more southern states–Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee –joined the Confederacy afterwards Fort Sumter. Border slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not secede, but there was much Confederate sympathy amongst their citizens.
Though on the surface the Ceremonious War may take seemed a lopsided conflict, with the 23 states of the Union enjoying an enormous advantage in population, manufacturing (including artillery product) and railroad construction, the Confederates had a strong military machine tradition, forth with some of the best soldiers and commanders in the nation. They besides had a cause they believed in: preserving their long-held traditions and institutions, chief amid these being slavery.
Gyre to Go along
In the First Battle of Bull Run (known in the South as First Manassas) on July 21, 1861, 35,000 Confederate soldiers under the control of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson forced a greater number of Spousal relationship forces (or Federals) to retreat towards Washington, D.C., dashing whatever hopes of a quick Spousal relationship victory and leading Lincoln to call for 500,000 more recruits. In fact, both sides' initial call for troops had to be widened afterward information technology became clear that the war would not be a express or brusk conflict.
The Ceremonious State of war in Virginia (1862)
George B. McClellan–who replaced the aging Full general Winfield Scott as supreme commander of the Union Army after the first months of the state of war–was beloved by his troops, but his reluctance to accelerate frustrated Lincoln. In the jump of 1862, McClellan finally led his Army of the Potomac up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, capturing Yorktown on May 4. The combined forces of Robert East. Lee and Jackson successfully collection back McClellan's army in the Seven Days' Battles (June 25-July ane), and a cautious McClellan called for yet more reinforcements in order to movement against Richmond. Lincoln refused, and instead withdrew the Ground forces of the Potomac to Washington. By mid-1862, McClellan had been replaced every bit Union general-in-chief by Henry W. Halleck, though he remained in command of the Regular army of the Potomac.
Lee then moved his troops northwards and split his men, sending Jackson to see Pope'due south forces near Manassas, while Lee himself moved separately with the 2nd half of the army. On Baronial 29, Union troops led by John Pope struck Jackson's forces in the 2nd Battle of Balderdash Run (Second Manassas). The next day, Lee hit the Federal left flank with a massive set on, driving Pope's men back towards Washington. On the heels of his victory at Manassas, Lee began the commencement Confederate invasion of the N. Despite contradictory orders from Lincoln and Halleck, McClellan was able to reorganize his army and strike at Lee on September 14 in Maryland, driving the Confederates back to a defensive position forth Antietam Creek, about Sharpsburg.
On September 17, the Army of the Potomac striking Lee's forces (reinforced by Jackson's) in what became the war's bloodiest single mean solar day of fighting. Total casualties at the Boxing of Antietam (also known every bit the Battle of Sharpsburg) numbered 12,410 of some 69,000 troops on the Union side, and 13,724 of around 52,000 for the Confederates. The Union victory at Antietam would evidence decisive, every bit it halted the Amalgamated advance in Maryland and forced Lee to retreat into Virginia. Still, McClellan's failure to pursue his reward earned him the scorn of Lincoln and Halleck, who removed him from control in favor of Ambrose E. Burnside. Burnside'south assault on Lee's troops about Fredericksburg on December 13 concluded in heavy Union casualties and a Confederate victory; he was promptly replaced by Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, and both armies settled into winter quarters beyond the Rappahannock River from each other.
Subsequently the Emancipation Proclamation (1863-4)
Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union victory at Antietam to consequence a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all enslaved people in the rebellious states later on January 1, 1863. He justified his determination as a wartime measure, and did non go and then far as to free the enslaved people in the border states loyal to the Marriage. Still, the Emancipation Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces and put international public opinion strongly on the Spousal relationship side. Some 186,000 Blackness Civil War soldiers would bring together the Union Ground forces by the time the war concluded in 1865, and 38,000 lost their lives.
In the spring of 1863, Hooker's plans for a Matrimony offensive were thwarted by a surprise assail by the bulk of Lee'south forces on May ane, whereupon Hooker pulled his men back to Chancellorsville. The Confederates gained a costly victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville, suffering 13,000 casualties (around 22 percent of their troops); the Union lost 17,000 men (15 percent). Lee launched another invasion of the North in June, attacking Union forces commanded by General George Meade on July 1 well-nigh Gettysburg, in southern Pennsylvania. Over three days of tearing fighting, the Confederates were unable to push through the Matrimony center, and suffered casualties of close to 60 percent.
Meade failed to counterattack, however, and Lee's remaining forces were able to escape into Virginia, ending the last Amalgamated invasion of the Northward. Likewise in July 1863, Wedlock forces under Ulysses S. Grant took Vicksburg (Mississippi) in the Siege of Vicksburg, a victory that would evidence to exist the turning point of the state of war in the western theater. After a Amalgamated victory at Chickamauga Creek, Georgia, simply south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in September, Lincoln expanded Grant's command, and he led a reinforced Federal army (including two corps from the Army of the Potomac) to victory in the Battle of Chattanooga in late November.
Toward a Union Victory (1864-65)
In March 1864, Lincoln put Grant in supreme command of the Union armies, replacing Halleck. Leaving William Tecumseh Sherman in control in the West, Grant headed to Washington, where he led the Regular army of the Potomac towards Lee's troops in northern Virginia. Despite heavy Union casualties in the Battle of the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania (both May 1864), at Cold Harbor (early June) and the key rail center of Petersburg (June), Grant pursued a strategy of compunction, putting Petersburg under siege for the next 9 months.
Sherman outmaneuvered Confederate forces to take Atlanta by September, after which he and some 60,000 Union troops began the famous "March to the Sea," devastating Georgia on the way to capturing Savannah on December 21. Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, cruel to Sherman'south men by mid-Feb, and Jefferson Davis belatedly handed over the supreme command to Lee, with the Confederate state of war effort on its last legs. Sherman pressed on through North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville, Bentonville, Goldsboro and Raleigh by mid-April.
Meanwhile, exhausted by the Spousal relationship siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee's forces fabricated a concluding attempt at resistance, attacking and captured the Federal-controlled Fort Stedman on March 25. An immediate counterattack reversed the victory, nonetheless, and on the night of Apr 2-three Lee'southward forces evacuated Richmond. For near of the side by side week, Grant and Meade pursued the Confederates along the Appomattox River, finally exhausting their possibilities for escape. Grant accepted Lee's give up at Appomattox Court House on Apr ix. On the eve of victory, the Union lost its bully leader: The histrion and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Berth assassinated President Lincoln at Ford'south Theatre in Washington on Apr 14. Sherman received Johnston's surrender at Durham Station, Northward Carolina on April 26, effectively ending the Civil War.
PHOTO GALLERIES
Fort Sumter
Gettysburg
Battles of Bull Run
Battle of Antietam
Civil War Artifacts
Source: https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history
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