Civil War

CIVIL WAR What is the Civil War do you ask? The Civil War was the culmination of four decades of intense sectional conflict and reflected deep-seated economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. The South, overwhelmingly agricultural, produced cash crops —cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane—for export to the North or to Europe, but it depended on the North for manufactures and for the financial and commercial services essential to trade. Underscoring sectional differences, the labor force in the South included nearly 4 million enslaved blacks. Although the slaveholding planter class formed a small minority of the population, it dominated Southern politics and society. Slaves were the largest single investment in the South, and the fear of slave unrest ensured the loyalty of non-slaveholders to the economic and social system.

North and South During the first part of the 1800's the North and the South grew in different ways. In the North, cities were centers of wealth and manufacturing. There were many skilled workers. In the South there was not much manufacturing. There were not many skilled workers. Most of the people were farmers. Money came from plantation crops, like cotton, rice, sugar cane and tobacco. Slaves did most of the work on the plantations. During the Civil War the North and the South had some advantages that were helpful to their part of the country.

The North produced three-fourths of the nation's wealth. They had a bigger army including thousands of black soldiers. The North also had better equipment and supplies to fight the war. The South had some advantages too. Most of the war was fought on Southern territory so soldiers did not have to travel so far. The South had better generals. Like Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The South also grew cotton, which Europe needed.

The War In 1860 Abe Lincoln Became President. Then because of Abe Lincoln was against having slaves in 1861 the Civil War Begin North against South. Because Abe Lincoln and the North had more people than the South they were most likely to win. The North had more than 1,500,000 than the South. In later that year the South attacked Fort Sumter at Charleston, North Carolina. Then in 1862 North and South battled in Antietam. During the Civil War, African Americans tried to join the Union army of the north. They were told, "Keep out of this; this is a white man's war." At first President Lincoln said that the war was to save the Union, not to end slavery. But after a year he changed his mind. That is when he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in secret. To emancipate means to set free. A proclamation is an order to do something. The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in all the states that had left the Union. President Lincoln thought the freed slaves would join the Union army. Many African American troops in the Union army wanted to fight in the war. Then the North and South had monitor and Merrimack Naval battle in 1862. In 1862 Lincoln warned the Confederate States about Emancipation Proclamation. He told them he would free their slaves if they did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. The Confederates ignored him.

So on New Year's Day in 1863, President Lincoln put his Emancipation Proclamation to work. He declared the slaves in all Confederate areas to be "forever free." And had a speech Gettysburg battlefield. Cities and towns in the South were Destroyed. In 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Over 600,000 soldiers were killed and 1,100,000 where injured. THE WAR WAS OVER.

South Confederate

North The Union