The Beginning of Something Terrible

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In the spring of 1861 tensions exploded in America, the tension was started over slavery, westward expansion, and states rights. Abraham Lincoln became president angering the south because Lincoln was a republican who opposed slavery. 7 states in the south chose to leave the north and form the Confederate states of America. After the first shots of the Civil War were fired four more southern states joined the Confederate forces, the Confederate forces all together formed the Confederate States of America. The biggest battles of the Civil War were the battles of Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Bull Run, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. The Civil War was known as The war between the States, because it put father against son, brother against brother, friend against friend and even slave against slave. The Civil War was the deadliest war that was ever fought on American soil. About 620,000 soldiers were killed, millions more were injured and in the south the population went down by a ton. The War ended in Confederate surrender in 1865. The war wasn’t only just about slavery it was also about economics. In the mid 19th century there was trouble brewing between the north and the south over farms, the farms in the north were smaller then the huge slave driven plantations in the south. The number of abolitionist in the north was expanding at a rapid rate. Whenever slavery went into a more western state the north fought it hard. The growing number of abolitionists and the fight over westward expansion of slavery led the south to be worried that slavery was close to being outlawed, which would destroy the South’s way of life. When the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed in 1854 it allowed the territories that America was gaining to become slave states. ... ... middle of paper ... ...Halleck, they got so angry at him that they fired him and replaced him with Ambrose E. Burnside. When Burnside attacked the Confederates on December 13th heavy union casualties and minimal Confederate casualties were taken. Because the union lost the battle Burnside was also fired; he was replaced with Joseph Hooker. Both armies then set up camp for the winter. Lincoln chose to use the Union victory at Antietam to take time to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all the slaves in the states that had rebelled after January 1st 1863. This decision was a wartime measure; he didn’t free the slaves in the Border States. Because of this decision 186,000 black soldiers decided to fight on the union side. By the end of the war 38,000 black troops would have died. Works Cited ("American Civil War." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.)

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