The Civil War

The Civil War was the bloodiest war that was ever waged on American soil. It began with the dispute over whether America would be a slave country or a free country and whether the union would be reunited after certain states seceded, before the war broke out the states temporarily solved the problem by being pro or anti slavery states, this was done in the Missouri Compromise, but it was doomed from the start because the slave states were placed in unfertile areas like Texas, the reason that this would not work was because at that time, slaves worked on plantations, mostly farming cotton, but crops like cotton could not be grown in these dry conditions, so slaves could not be used here. The Missouri Compromise was later replaced by the Compromise of 1850, which was five different bills established by Henry Clay, the reason that there were five separate bills was to make it very difficult to change, for example, if someone did not agree with one bill he would be up against all four remaining bills, so people received both the good and the bad in this compromise. There were special conditions to this compromise, they were as follows: 1.California was admitted as a free state. 2. The trading of slaves was ended in the district of Columbia, not to say that slavery was ended there. 3. The territories of Utah and New Mexico were placed under the rule of popular sovereignty. 4. A harsher Fugitive Slave Act was passed. 5. Texas gave up much of its western land that it had claimed and received a compensation of 10 million dollars to pay off previous debts. In the third condition, popular sovereignty was mentioned, Popular sovereignty allowed the states under it to vote whether to be pro or anti slavery, people gathered in these places in great numbers so that they could be heard and make sure that these states were supporting their side of the issue, popular sovereignty was all throughout the areas of Kansas and Nebraska. It was around this time that a staunch abolitionist named John Brown came into the picture, he and his men were responsible for killing many pro-slavery settlers, he believed in using violence to end slavery, and after killing five farmers in the Pottawatomie Massacre, there was great tension and violence all around the area, this situation would later be known as “bleeding Kansas.” Brown helped slaves by enabling them to escape into Canada and he had plans to make a safe place to house them so that he could continually bring slaves to safety. He also devised a plot to attack a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, on October 16, 1859, but he failed and was captured after a number of his men, including two of his sons were killed. John Brown was placed on trial and on the 2^nd of November he received a death sentence.

It was around this time that Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States. He was born in Hardin County Kentucky, and lived his young life in a cabin with his parents, he was the only surviving child of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. He was known for his height and strength which he gained during the labor that he did in his youth. He was elected president on March 4, 1861, and was a unique president because he came out of a life on the frontier to be in politics and the vast majority of people had never heard of him before. During his presidency, Lincoln spoke of reuniting the union, and in his House Divided Speech he declared that the states could not continue with the slavery disagreement and that sooner or later one side would win out. As far as we know he was not for or against slavery, he simply wanted there to be only one view towards it among the states. The presidents before Lincoln were all afraid to have a civil war, but he welcomed it, and learned battle strategy to prepare. Most people think of Lincoln as the president who ‘freed’ the slaves, which he did, but he was only on the side of abolition because he figured that it was more likely to win the war, not because he was passionate about slave rights, and he would just as soon have gone against them if it gave him the upper hand. Another thing that is often mistaken is that Lincoln went to war to free the slaves, he really only went to war because the states had seceded and he wanted to put an end to the rebellion and reunite the union.

The first battle that broke out in the civil war was the Battle of Fort Sumter which was a fort on an island in Charleston Harbor. The battle began in April 1863, when the Union led by the Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, attacked Charleston by water with nine iron coated warships. Du Pont had not planned the attack very well however, because he was met with bad weather and was being fired upon by the Confederate Artillery from the fort, and on top of it all they had to steer their ships carefully so as not to hit any water mines. These elements caused Du Pont to retreat after taking over 500 hits, the next day one of his ships sunk, likely from heavy damage. Despite the danger though, only one Union man was killed in the battle. Later in July, Union troops laid siege on Fort Wagner, a post located on Morris Island just outside of Charleston Harbor. Following some devastating artillery hits coming from Fort Sumter, a Union general named Quincy Adams Gillmore decided to turn the guns towards Sumter and take the fort. They fired on the fort for seven days, on the 8^th of September almost 400 union soldiers planned to land near fort Sumter and attack, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren suspected that the fort was being operated by a skeleton crew, and this was a grave mistake on his part because as they landed more than 300 Confederate men rushed out to meet them and fought them back. After this unfruitful excursion, the Union on Morris Island continued their bombing attack, and for 15 months they blasted fort Sumter, and in that, time the establishment itself was leveled. This caused more than 300 deaths to the Confederates, but they held on to the remains of the fort until February 1865, in which the Confederates finally came out, because Union General William T. Sherman took over Charleston and the fort, the Confederates had held onto Fort Sumter for five years, almost the entirety of the war. After the battles, Fort Sumter was rebuilt but it did not serve much purpose in the war after the prior battles.

The next battle in the war was the Battle of Manassass, also known as the Battle of Bull Run, which was fought on July 21, 1861. It was in this battle that the two sides realized just how serious the war was, that many lives were in danger and that they would have to fight hard to win. The Generals on both sides were as follows: General McDowell on the Union side and General Beauregard leading the Confederates. McDowell had an ambitious plan that did not work very well in this battle, however, on the Confederate side, a fearless General named Thomas Jackson was strategically leading his men, it was in this battle that he earned the name “Stone Wall Jackson” because he remained unmoved in the battle. After the Confederate reinforcements arrived, the Union soldiers hastily retreated, giving the Confederates the victory in the Battle of Bull Run. The next battle in the war was the Battle of Fort Henry. It was fought on February 6, 1862, in Stewart County and Henry County, Tennessee and in Calloway County, Kentucky. In this battle, the Union soldiers and Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant had the victory. Following Fort Henry, the Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 11-16, 1862, at Fort Donelson in Steward County, Tennessee and once again the Union took hold of the victory. After the Battle of Fort Donelson, Abraham Lincoln replaced General George B. McClellan with General Henry Halleck. Next up was the Battle of Shiloh, it was fought on April 6-7, 1862, in Hardin County, Tennessee, and once again the Union won. The Union army was led by General Grant, who bravely invaded Tennessee and met Confederate Generals Johnston and Beauregard, resulting in the Bloodiest battle in American history. After the Battle of Shiloh, was the Second Battle of Bull Run, this battle was won by the Confederates on August 30, 1862, it was fought in Prince William County, Virginia. The battles continued to the end of 1862 and as 1863 began, the first battle of the year was the battle of Chancellorsville won by the Confederates. One of the most important battles of 1863 was the Battle of Gettysburg, this time the Union won ending the Confederate offence and their attacks in the North. The Confederates might have won the battle if General Jeb Stuart had not met a surprise attack that hindered him from bringing aid to General Robert E. Lee. After the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln came out and gave the Gettysburg Address. The year of 1863 did not have nearly as many battles as1862 and there would be fewer and fewer battles as the war raged on. 1864 was set off by the Battle of Cold Harbor, lasting from May 31 to June 12, fought in Hanover County, Virginia, resulting with a Confederate victory. Following Cold Harbor was the Atlanta Campaign led by General William T. Sherman, he planned to operate well inside enemy territory without even using supply lines, this strategy surprisingly worked and it disabled the Confederates. Throughout his campaign he took special care to sabotage anything that could bring benefit to the enemy, he ruined the railroad tracks and used a technique called “scorched earth” wherein he would burn the ground so that there would be no food to harvest easily. Once Sherman finally reached Atlanta, he besieged the city and once captured it was burned, after he was finished with the city of Atlanta he continued on to capture a southern state Capital, after which he continued all the way to the costal city of Savanna. The campaign was so successful that it was called “Sherman’s March to the Sea,” it effectively ruined the confederates in both power and reputation. 1865 was the final year of the war and at this time there was a series of battles occurring called the Siege of Petersburg. Both General Lee and General Grant’s men were exhausted in this trench fighting, finally though, Lee retreated and the Siege of Petersburg was won by the Union. The final battle of Appomattox Courthouse began on April 9, 1865, it resulted in a decided Union victory. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met after the battle to arrange the terms of surrender, both men were respected deeply by one another, Grant provided very generous terms, the Confederates would not be hung for treason, they were allowed to bring the mules and horses with them to go home as harvest time was approaching, and the officers were permitted to keep their pistols, in addition to this the Confederates were supplied with meal rations since the army was literally starving. As Grant rode away the Union soldiers began cheering, but Grant quickly silenced them saying “We were now on one side, we did not want to cheer at the downfall of our countryman.”(1) The death count at the end of the war was at least 1,000,000, this was in both soldiers and civilians. No other war in the entire United States history was so costly as far as lives. The Civil War was a time of great disruption, however, out of it came the freedom of the slaves, but the cost was great.

(1) Information gathered from the Ron Paul curriculum 8^th grade history class.