Civil War, American

War (1861–65) between the Southern or Confederate States of America (see Confederacy) and the Northern or Union states. The former wished to maintain certain ‘states' rights’, in particular the right to determine state law on the institution of slavery, and claimed the right to secede from the Union; the latter fought primarily to maintain the Union, with slave emancipation (proclaimed in 1863) a secondary issue.

The issue of slavery had brought to a head long‐standing social and economic differences between the two oldest sections of the country. A series of political crises was caused by the task of determining whether newly admitted states, such as California, should permit or prohibit slavery in their state constitutions; the resulting Compromise of 1850 made various concessions to the slave states. The political parties in the late 1850s came to represent only sectional interests – Democrats in the South, Republicans in the North. In the presidential campaign of 1860, the Democrats divided among themselves, while the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln on an antislavery platform that denied the right of Congress to give legality to slavery in any territory. Lincoln swept the North, but the threats of secession made by southern orators for 40 years were soon realized. The breakdown of an underlying national political consensus (which had previously sustained national parties) led to the outbreak of hostilities, only a few weeks after Lincoln's inauguration.

The war, and in particular its aftermath, when the South was occupied by northern troops in the period known as Reconstruction, left behind much bitterness. Industry prospered in the North, while the economy of the South, which had been based on slavery, stagnated for some time.

Outbreak of war
Upon Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as president in March 1861, he affirmed that he did not propose to interfere with slavery where it already existed but he also asserted that no state could withdraw from the Union, and that he regarded it at his duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Union. Rebel Confederate forces began bombarding the federal garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on 12 April and 34 hours later the fort was surrendered. With the fall of Fort Sumter the Civil War began.

Balance of power
The North had certain advantages in the forthcoming war which were ultimately to weigh decisively in the balance. Its white population, and hence its fighting strength, was four times as large as that of the South – if there was to be a lengthy war, the North's numerical superiority would enable it to sustain casualties far better. It was also far more advanced industrially and could meet all its own needs and those of its armies, whereas the Southern states were mainly agricultural and dependent for most non‐agricultural produce on purchases from the North and Europe. The Union states also had the stronger navy and soon had command of the sea, enabling them to blockade Confederate ports.

Two days after the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to join a militia to fight for the Union; the Confederate commander Jefferson Davis asked for 100,000. In the South, Virginia, which had at first been against secession, now joined South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas in the Confederacy, together with Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia. There were four border slave states – Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri – and the Confederates put much effort in trying to win over Missouri and Kentucky, but although their governors favoured secession, their legislatures overruled them.

Loyalties were also divided within states. Arkansas, a slave state, voted to remain in the Union in March 1861, then chose to secede after the Civil War broke out. After Little Rock was captured by Union troops in 1863, the Confederates moved their capital to the town of Washington in southern Arkansas. The state had both a Union and a Confederate government until the end of the war. The border state of Kentucky, with strong ties to both North and South, tried to stay neutral, but it was invaded by Confederate troops in 1861. When state troops drove out the Confederates, Kentucky found itself allied with the Union. However many Kentuckians felt a strong allegiance to the South and fought for the Confederacy.

There was dismay in the North when Britain issued a declaration of neutrality in May 1861, which recognized that the Confederacy was entitled to the belligerent rights of a sovereign nation; most European nations soon followed suit. However, the Union army was beginning to gather strength, with nearly half a million recruits compared to only about half that number who had responded in the South.

1861–62
The first real clash of arms came at the Battle of Bull Run on 21 July 1861 between the Union army under Irvin McDowell and the Confederates under P G T Beauregard and Joseph E Johnston. The Union forces were routed, retreating as far as Washington. Federal strength first began to show in 1862. In the West, Ulysses S Grant captured Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River on 15 February 1862; the Confederate general Simon Buckner was forced to accept Grant's stipulation of unconditional surrender, and surrendered an army of 14,000. The two armies next met in battle at Shiloh on 6 April. The first day's fighting favoured the Confederates, but Albert S Johnston, one of the best of the Confederate commanders, was killed. In the second day's fighting the Union forces won and the Confederates retreated to Corinth. The Confederates suffered a further blow with the Union capture of New Orleans.

The principal Union advance against Richmond began in March 1862 as George McClellan led the Army of the Potomac up the Virginia Peninsula, first coming upon the Confederates at Yorktown. His army had been weakened by the sudden withdrawal of 25,000 troops to defend Washington, and he settled down for a siege, only to find that the enemy had retreated. He met them in battle at Williamsburg, where once more the enemy retreated toward Richmond. McClellan was unable to pursue as he was then ordered to march on Thomas ‘Stonewall’Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. Davis sent reinforcements to Jackson, who defeated Banks at Winchester, evaded the other two Union armies which were seeking him, and triumphantly led his troops back to join the forces in line near Richmond.

In the meantime McClellan's army fought a great battle at Fair Oaks, a railway station in West Virginia, 31 May–1 June. At first it seemed as if the Union force had lost the day but the timely arrival of a new corps put the Confederates to flight. Davis now appointed General Robert E Lee as commander‐in‐chief of the Southern armies. Lee was quick to take advantage of the pause in McClellan's movement. He rushed up reinforcements from all over the South until he had an effective fighting force of 90,000 troops against his enemy's 100,000 and drove the Union forces back in the Seven Days' campaign of 25 June–1 July.

McClellan was soon ready to attempt the capture of Richmond again, but the Union government ordered him to return with his army to cover Washington. Henry Halleck was appointed commander‐in‐chief of the Union forces and General John Pope was given the best part of McClellan's army. The Union defeat at the second Battle of Bull Run on 29 August and at Chantilly shortly after completely destroyed Pope's reputation as a general; Lincoln called on McClellan to resume command of the Army of the Potomac once more.

Lee had moved into Maryland, hoping to win the state to the Confederacy, capture Baltimore, and then advance into Pennsylvania, carrying the war into Union territory. McClellan met him in the great struggle at Antietam on 17 September. Lee was forced to retreat across the Potomac and McClellan did not follow his victory through; he was then relieved of his command for good.

Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln now took a bold step. He had until this point merely struggled to preserve the Union intact, holding the issue of slavery in abeyance for fear of alienating the Democrats in the North and the border states. But on 22 September 1862, he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that the slaves in all states in rebellion against the government should be free as from 1 January 1863. In Europe, the declaration was well received as most nations were already abolitionist. But the reaction in the USA itself was mixed. The Democrats made big gains in the elections held in November, and it was only New England and the border states that kept the House of Representatives Republican.

In the autumn of 1862, Union victories at Corinth and Murfreesboro left most of Tennessee held by General William Rosecrans while in the East Lee severely defeated Ambrose Burnside in the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13 December 1862.

1863
The Confederates won a great victory at Chancellorsville 1–5 May 1863 but at the cost of Stonewall Jackson, who was accidentally shot by one of his soldiers and died. In the West, Grant took Vicksburg on 4 July 1863 after a siege lasting six weeks. While this siege was still in progress, the Confederates were decisively defeated 1–3 July 1863 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in probably the greatest battle of the war, and Lee retreated into Virginia. This victory, the turning point of the war, was followed by success in the West. Initially, Braxton Bragg beat Union forces under Rosecrans at Chickamauga, Tennessee, in September 1863 but the Confederates suffered heavily at the subsequent battle of Chattanooga in November, forcing them back into Georgia. This was one of the most important actions in the war, ensuring ultimate Federal success in the West.

1864
Ulysses S Grant's success as commander‐in‐chief in late 1863 led Lincoln to appoint him lieutenant general in charge of all the armies in February 1864. Grant now planned to end the war. He set out to face Lee in Virginia, intending to destroy his army and take Richmond. At the same time he dispatched Sherman to face General J E Johnston in Georgia. After the indecisive Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864 there was a further clash at Spotsylvania, Virginia, with similar results. At the Battle of Cold Harbor on 3 June 1864, over 12,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded in less than an hour. Grant had lost 60,000 troops in his campaign by this time, compared with Confederate losses of 40,000. However, he knew that the South could not replace its losses as easily as the North could.

The Confederate fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864 and in the early autumn Sheridan won victories at Winchester and Cedar Creek and then laid waste the entire Shenandoah Valley. Sherman entered Atlanta on 2 September 1864 and in November set out on a march to the sea from Atlanta with an army of 62,000 leaving destruction in its wake. He entered Savannah unopposed on 21 December 1864. Meanwhile in Kansas, General Alfred Pleasonton had led his Union forces in a decisive victory at the Battle of Mine Creek on 25 October. In Tennessee, General George Thomas defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864, driving them out of the state.

1865
With the capture of Wilmington, North Carolina, in January 1865, the last remaining port of the Confederacy was closed and Sherman began his march back from the sea. Columbia was burned down, and Charleston was deserted by the Confederates. Union forces captured Petersburg in April 1865 and entered Richmond on 3 April. Lee was completely surrounded and he surrendered at Appomattox Court House on 9 April. Johnston surrendered to Sherman on 26 April, and by the end of May all organized Confederate forces in the South had laid down their arms. Five days after Lee's surrender, Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer, the actor John Wilkes Booth.

Economic effects of war
Despite high inflation, the northern economy boomed both during and after the Civil War. Both industrial and agrarian production increased to meet the demands of the war and to provide exports to Europe. Congress passed a series of acts bolstering economic and agricultural development. It was during this time that a national banking system was created with a uniform currency. The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged people to settle in the west by offering plots of land at very low cost or even free. The Morrill, or Land‐Grant, Act of 1862 helped states establish agricultural and technical colleges.

The Southern economy suffered greatly. Soaring inflation caused great poverty and the restriction of imports resulted in shortages of basic food, clothing, and other essentials. Conditions for civilians deteriorated further with the Impressment Act of 1863, which permitted the government to seize food and supplies from civilians for the war effort. Altogether the Confederacy lost two‐thirds of its wealth during the war.

In both North and South, women assumed greater work responsibilities. They worked in hospitals, government offices, and factories, and in the South, especially, they took over the day‐to‐day running of the family farms. These roles had been traditionally reserved for men.

Participation of black Americans
When the Civil War broke out many black Americans wanted to join the Union Army to fight against slavery, but Union leaders believed black conscription might alienate Northern whites and the border slave states loyal to the Union, and so did not allow blacks to fight for the Union side. Later they joined the war effort in support roles such as cooks, labourers, and nurses. After Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, black Americans began to fight in the war. Around 180,000 black Americans served in the Union army and 20,000 in the Union navy, and around 35,000 black troops died during the Civil War. Black soldiers served in all‐black regiments, almost always under white officers. They were typically paid around half the wages of their white counterparts and were often barred from combat roles.

In 1863 the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, the first free black regiment, attacked Fort Wagner at Charleston, South Carolina. Their heroism helped change public opinion about the skill and courage of black soldiers.

Reconstruction
The Civil War is known as the first modern war because of its use of modern weapons and tactics, and because of the devastation it caused. The war introduced repeating and breechloading rifles, mines, and submarines, as well as the use of trenches for battle. These advances helped cause mass destruction: over 620,000 lives were lost, and tens of thousands of soldiers returned with their health permanently impaired. The Union's debt had risen to nearly $3,000 million; the cost to the Confederacy has never been definitely estimated. Despite all this, the North was stronger than ever; the South, on the other hand, was ruined. The victory of the Union did not bring real reconciliation between the sections. Reconstruction was finally achieved only at tremendous social and political cost, and many of the problems of 20th‐century USA stem from the post–Civil War period.