"War is the unfolding of miscalculations." - Barbara Tuchman
Lasting from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War is considered the bloodiest war in American history. However, the Civil War had seemingly been a long time coming. There were many events that took place within the fifteen years leading up to the Civil War that foreshadowed the eventual secession of seven “cotton states” from the Union.
America's bloodiest and most deadly battle was The American Civil War. America was never the same after the civil war. America changed and became a different nation. The civil war is noted as one of the most meaningful, impacting, and important events in America’s history. The Civil War was fought between the northern and the southern states. However, its impact was felt by the entire nation politically, economically, and socially. This war cost over 600,000 lives and divided the nation.
When citizens of America look upon their country, they see unity, liberty, and freedom. To achieve what is seen through the eyes of American citizens, countless struggles and many wars were fought over political and social issues, including the Civil War. In the 1800’s tensions between the North, a manufacturing region, and the South, an agrarian region, grew stronger. In the years leading up to the 1860s, numerous compromises were constructed to preserve the Union. By 1860, the North and the South reached a crossroad; both sides were incapable of further compromise over the idea of slavery. The Northern abolitionists, who were against slavery, gained extensive political power which threatened the economic livelihood of the South, who needed their slaves to work cash crop plantations. On the other hand, Southerners inched towards secession in order to preserve slavery and the prosperity this exploitative system provided. The Civil War would not have occurred if not for prominent social and political causes that instigated conflict between the North and South.
...ears later when General Lee surrendered to General Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. One benefit of the war was the end of all slavery in the United States. On the downside, the South faced economic, financial, and total devastation of lands since most of the battles were fought in the South. A period of reconstruction followed which was necessary for the healing process to begin re-admittance of the Southern states into the Union.
The United States was a divided country long before the Civil War, while some people would argue that slavery was the only cause of the Civil War, it is much more complicated than that. There are many other factors involved, such as irreconcilable differences in terms of their economic, political, and social beliefs on a national scale. Many people including myself had a primitive and unsophisticated view of what caused the Civil War, post war propaganda and moral righteousness have caused many people to believe that the Civil War was simply a thing of moral impurity on the part of the South, however it is much more complicated than that. Although slavery played a major role in the Civil War it was not the only cause of it.
Evidently, the American Civil War has had a tremendous impact on modern society. Medical innovations, for instance, have drastically changed American life. The Reconstruction Amendments and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, both results of the war, are also relevant to the nation. In short, the Civil War was an essential event in American history and will continue to serve as an example for years to come.
The Civil War in America is known to this day for being the pivotal turning point for slavery. But all the events in American politics that took place in the years prior to the war are just as crucial. Slavery was the solid foundation to America’s Political history because tremendous impact that the compromise of 1850, abolitionist/proslavery incidents, and the election of 1860 had. It is interesting to think about how different America would’ve been were it not for these exciting times in history. How much longer would America have been divided over the battle involving slavery? Although that will never be known, it is undeniably true that these events defined and changed our nation in a time of crisis.
...il War affects the United States of America in the modern era, the twenty-first century, and there is no way to change that fact. It was a devastating war, and old hates and anger last for generations. The South still feels they should have won the war, but the defeat they, as a nation, suffered in the Western Theater made it impossible to win; the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi turned the war for the Union. Vicksburg was the turning point of the war, and the Union was going to win the war from this point. The Eastern Theater was where the most intense fighting in the war occurred, but the Western Theater was where the Civil War was determined; Vicksburg proved this fact. Gettysburg may have been the biggest battle in the war, but Vicksburg was the turning point, and if the city had never been taken, then the American Civil War could have had a different outcome.
There have been many lasting symbols and remnants of the national conflict. The Civil War, both its causes and legacies have had an enormous impact on American families and culture across the country. From the major impact of the Emancipation Proclamation and the resulting Thirteenth Amendment to the more mundane, these issues are forever associated with this war.
In the words of President Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address (Doc. A), the Civil War itself, gave to our Nation, “a new birth of freedom”. The Civil War had ended and the South was in rack and ruin. Bodies of Confederate soldiers lay lifeless on the grounds they fought so hard to protect. Entire plantations that once graced the South were merely smoldering ash. The end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, stirred together issues and dilemmas that Americans, in the North and South, had to process, in hopes of finding the true meaning of freedom.