Civil WarEssay Preview: Civil WarReport this essayEarly registration for Wikimania 2008 is now open.American Civil WarFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia• Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia •Jump to: navigation, searchAmerican Civil WarTop left: Rosecrans at Stones River, Tennessee; top right: Confederate prisoners at Gettysburg; bottom: Battle of Fort Hindman, ArkansasDate April 12, 1861 — April 9, 1865Location Principally in the Southern United StatesResult Union victory; Reconstruction; slavery abolishedBelligerentsUnited States of America (“Union”)Confederate States of America (“Confederacy”)CommandersAbraham Lincoln,Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis,Robert E. LeeStrength2,200,000 1,064,000Casualties and losses110,000 killed in action,360,000 total dead,275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action,258,000 total dead,137,000+ wounded[show]v • d • eTheaters of theAmerican Civil WarUnion blockade — Eastern — Western — Lower Seaboard — Trans-Mississippi — Pacific CoastThe American Civil War (1861—1865), also known by several other names, was a civil war between the United States of America (the “Union”) and the Southern slave states of the newly formed Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis. The Union included all of the free states and the five slaveholding border states and was led by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party. Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States, and their victory in the presidential election of 1860 resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office.[1] The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion.
Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a large volunteer army, causing four more Southern states to secede. In the wars first year, the Union assumed control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides massed armies and resources. In 1862, battles such as Shiloh and Antietam caused massive casualties unprecedented in U.S. military history. In September 1862, Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, which complicated the Confederacys manpower shortages.
In the East, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won a series of victories over Union armies, but Lees loss at Gettysburg in early July, 1863 proved the turning point. The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson by Ulysses S. Grant completed Union control of the Mississippi River. Grant fought bloody battles of attrition with Lee in 1864, forcing Lee to defend the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Union general William Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, and began his famous March to the Sea, devastating a hundred-mile-wide swath of Georgia. Confederate resistance collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
The war, the deadliest in American history, caused 620,000 soldier deaths[2] and an undetermined number of civilian casualties, ended slavery in the United States, restored the Union by settling the issues of nullification and secession and strengthened the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war continue to shape contemporary American thought.
Contents [hide]1 Causes of the war1.1 Slavery2 Secession begins2.1 Secession of South Carolina2.2 Secession winter2.3 The Confederacy2.4 The Union states2.5 Border states3 Overview3.1 The war begins3.2 Anaconda Plan and blockade, 18613.3 Eastern Theater 1861—18633.4 Western Theater 1861—18633.5 Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861—18653.6 End of the war 1864—18654 Slavery during the war5 Threat of international intervention6 Aftermath6.1 Reconstruction6.2 Results7 See also7.1 Cinema and Television7.1.1 Films about the war7.1.2 Documentaries about the war7.2 Games7.2.1 Board Games7.2.2 Computer Games7.2.3 Miniatures Games8 Notes9 References10 External links
References:
In the year 1864, the General’s Council of the Confederate States (CSDS)—The General’s Council of South Carolina—re-established the Georgia-Alabama Conference, which had been founded during the Great War. This was a critical time for the CSDS as a counterweight to the National Association of Black Veterans (NAVA), which had dominated the organization throughout the 1860s.
The CSDS, or National Association of Black Veterans, was founded by two of the founders of the Confederacy, Thomas Sowell and Josephine Roberts. As a result of these four men’s leadership, the CSDS became the first black state to participate in the Virginia-Eugene Battle, which was considered an important victory for the Confederacy—and for the future state of the Southern states.
In 1867, the CSDS established the Texas State Museum, a major exhibit of Confederate War Flags, as part of a $3 million project to honor the men known as the “Fifty-Five and a Half Year’s War of Independence.”
During a visit to Jackson State University in January 1869, Sowell described the success of the Georgia-Alabama War: “The Georgia Department of the Southern States has provided ample and well-organized machinery as evidence of the immense strength of the Southern movement to secure the independence of Georgia and the Southern States against the secession of some of our most powerful enemies….[T]he Governor’s Office has provided, among other things:
— a complete exhibit featuring the historic period in which the Confederates fought all kinds of fighting and victories of men, and also to show how many people in the States who have been killed or wounded are in the Union Army or Confederate Army at the present time….” Sowell also described the number and type of arms of the Confederate armies, which the Army had to display during the Battle:
The Confederate Army carried a total of more than 6,000 men in battle, including over 1,100 fighting horsemen, over 2,000 cavalrymen, and over 2,000 artillerymen to the Western States in 1836, 1839, and 1841….”
At the time the war was at its pinnacle, the Southern Confederacy was the only state to openly