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True reason for civil war
True reason for civil war
Political impacts of the civil war
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Today we have mind blowing news with the Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard began bombarding Fort Sumter at exactly 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861. Heavy Confederate guns, rang around Charleston Harbor, shattered Fort Sumter with bullets for approximately 34 hours, before Major Robert Anderson of the Union, the commander of Sumter, surrendered the fort to the Confederates.This will brand the beginning of a civil war that will divide the nation, between the Union (North) and Confederate (South). President Abraham Lincoln is now calling for 75,000 militiamen from Union states to put down the Southern rebellion, anybody who is willing to fight and die for their cause must report to the nearby post office.
Tensions between the North and South were already beginning about 50 years ago, however they have really catapulted, creating a war. Some things that caused this were the Election of 1860, the Compromise of 1850, and the secession of southern states. The election of Abraham Lincoln as the Union’s new president in 1860 caused much fury in the South. Many southern states believed they were losing political power, so, beginning with South Carolina, 11 total states have now
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He lives in Concord, Massachusetts, and has recently joined the Massachusetts 3rd Regiment. In order to become a soldier, he had to leave behind his wife, Margaret, who he found out is now pregnant.
Q: Why did you decide to become a soldier in the Civil War?
A: As a Northerner, I feel that the South committed a terrible sin by leaving the Union. I feel justified in fighting the South to preserve the Union and Abraham Lincoln’s wishes. Although I also signed up to have a bit of an adventure, I am disappointed to now realize that life as a soldier is very different from what I had imagined.
Q: What exactly is camp life
Though morale became very low toward the end of the war, Watkins recounts the passion the privates felt for both the war and for their beloved South. He believed that the Confederate Army were “…trying to protect their homes and families, their property, their constitution and their laws, that had been guaranteed to them as a heritage forever by their forefathers.” Though slavery was an issue, it was not the primary concern and was rarely mentioned in the memoir. However, Watkins did write that any man who owned twenty or more slaves back home was allowed to leave the army, and he notes the war “…was a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight”. The South and its inhabitants especially believed that they were fighting for the faith that each state was a separate sovereign government, as laid down by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Many southerners felt that the North was invading their country and doing despicable things all under the name of the “Union”, and that the war was a necessary last resort after all efforts to conciliate the North had already been made.
A numerous amount of generals and soldiers of the south had a predisposed idea regarding what every person was fighting for, and from the looks of it, they were more so on the same page. When referring to what the war was being fought over, Englishmen Pickett used an analogy that gives reference to a “gentlemen’s club”, and not being able to maneuver out of it (Shaara 88). The men believed that the war conceived out of the misinterpretation of the constitution in regards to what or what not they had the right to do. In all, a large number of those fighting believed that the confederate army fought to protect the southern society, and slavery as an integral part of
In James McPherson’s novel, What They Fought For, a variety of Civil War soldier documents are examined to show the diverse personal beliefs and motives for being involved in the war. McPherson’s sample, “is biased toward genuine fighting soldiers” (McPherson, 17) meaning he discusses what the ordinary soldier fought for. The Confederacy was often viewed as the favorable side because their life style relied on the war; Confederates surrounded their lives with practices like slavery and agriculture, and these practices were at stake during the war. On the other hand, Northerners fought to keep the country together. Although the Civil War was brutal, McPherson presents his research to show the dedication and patriotism of the soldiers that fought and died for a cause.
The North was based on industrialism and the South on agriculture. Perhaps one of the greatest issues ever faced by the United States was that of slavery. The South had become extremely content with their way of life with slaves and the North were very against it. This caused many disagreements between the two regions and ultimately was one of the main causes of the Civil War. They also had different views on tariffs due to the difference in the economies. The North was booming with industrialization and they didn’t like competing with the goods being imported. The tariffs provided protection for the northern industries and in turn had a negative impact they had on the southern economy. This only amplified the uneasy feeling that the South felt about the Union. They feared the Union would grow too powerful and the people would eventually lose their voice. It was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that opened the door and unleashed the beast that was sectionalism in the nation. After the compromise the North and South had a hard time agreeing on anything.
Thousands of men died in November 1863. Within in a couple of days bodies laid scattered across the battle fields while tens of thousands men sat in a hospital. All of these men participated in one thing, the Civil War. Fighting for the rights of the people and what our constitution stood for. Families and friends had to pick a side, South or the North. Each had their reasoning for why they stood to fight, but surprisingly their reasoning was similar. Each state was proud they live in a country that had broken away from British. They marveled at the idea that all men are created and equal and have certain rights. Americans were proud. Proud to the point that they never stopped pay attention to all that they did. Proud because they put laws on humans and threw them into bondage. In 1861 people started to take sides. In some ways it was unconstitutional, but in others they were fighting for the people. The Civil War had begun. The fate of our country was in the hands of the people. On opposite sides of the war, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee wrote The Gettysburg Address and Letter to His Son there were three astonishingly similarities and differences in the two works: the people are one, acts were unconstitutional and the nation is on shaky ground.
The South was fighting against a government that they thought was treating them unfairly. They believed the Federal Government was overtaxing them, with tariffs and property taxes making their life styles even more expensive than they already had been. The North was fighting the Civil War for two reasons, first to keep the Nation unified, and second to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the commander and chief of the Union or Northern forces along with many other Northerners believed that slavery was not only completely wrong, but it was a great humiliation to America. Once can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout. One did and after three bloody and costly years for both sides we come to the date of July 1, 1863.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States of America, the repercussions of which led to civil war. However it was not only Lincoln’s election that led to civil war but also the slavery debate between the northern and southern states and the state of the economy in the United States. Together with the election of Lincoln these caused a split, both politically and ideologically, between the North and South states which manifested into what is now refereed to as the American Civil War.
September 16-18, 1862, outside of the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, between the Potomac River and Antietam Creek, was the location of the bloodiest battle in American history. Confederate Colonel Stephen D. Lee described it as “Artillery Hell” because of the frightful toll on his gunners and horses from Federal counter battery and infantry fire. (AotW, 2014) The battle of Antietam, or the Battle of Sharpsburg, would collect an estimated 23,100 total casualties (Luvaas and Nelson, 1987). The body count far exceeded any of the other three battles waged in the Maryland Campaign (Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Shepherdstown). This battle was a contributing factor in the outcome of our country and the rest of the world. The Union Army desperately needed a victory at Antietam; however, a victory for the Confederate rebels may have very well gained them international recognition as a sovereign country in the eyes of the rest of the world. The Federal Army, which belonged to the Union States, consisted of an all-volunteer army and was a larger army than the Confederate States. Even though the Battle of Antietam was inconclusive, President Lincoln went on to read the Emancipation Proclamation to the country, effectively ending slavery, and ensuring that no foreign nation would intervene on the Confederates behave.
For that reason, my perspective on the events that took place during the war is honestly irrelevant. However, throughout my entire life, I have been an advocate for slavery and have pushed for it every year of my political career, which is why I like to think that my words influenced the secession of the south. According to PBS I argued passionately that slaveholders could take their enslaved people into free states and still own them. This debate over states' rights and slavery would eventually lead to the Civil War. Based on the ideas that I value, one could easily argue that my perspective, or attitude toward the war would be in favor of the confederate
...ld not protect the interest of the Southern states. Coupled with the hostilities, lack of votes for Lincoln from the South and disregard for the constitutional protection of slavery is a justifiable reason from the Southern leaders to secede from the Union.
The 1850's were a turbulent time in American history. The North and South were seeing total different views on the issue of slavery. The North saw slavery as immoral and that it was unconstitutional. The south on the other hand saw slavery as their right. The South viewed African Americans as lower human beings which justified slavery. "The 1850's was a time of attempted compromise when compromise was no longer possible." This quote best describes this time period, because Americans were trying to compromise their views to prevent a large conflict, but there were many events which made a compromise impossible.
By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.
To understand the importance of the debate on if the Civil War was preventable or not, it is crucial to note how influential this event was on the nation as a whole. At Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the Confederate artillery fired the first shots that begun the Civil War. There were numerous battles, like the Battle of Gettsburg and Chickamauga that resulted in millions of causalities. In fact, according to civilwar.org, “The Battle of Antictam (September 17, 1862) remains American’s single bloodiest day” with 3,652 deaths. This four years war from 1861 to 1865 was “proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and the population and territory of the South devastated” (“American Civil War”). Interestingly enough, war was never in the plans of either of the leaders at the time.
D. W. Griffith's film "Birth of a Nation" shows that the South fought the war not only to protect slavery, but also to preserve a whole culture, a way of life. Their wealth and identity belonged to the land they lived on. Southerners fought to protect sovereignty, pride, identity, and their decision to secede which was under attack by a despot - President Lincoln. Few of the southerners could give up their culture without a fight.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, there was great conflict throughout the United States. The North and South had come to a crossroads at which there was no turning back. The Secession Crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and the South disagreed on slavery and what states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and rose up in revolt by forming the Confederate States of America.