what are some events that led up to the civil war

April 03, 2022 Post a Comment

The Ceremonious State of war in the United states began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions betwixt northern and southern states over slavery, states' rights and westward expansion. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused vii southern states to secede and form the Amalgamated States of America; four more states presently joined them. The War Betwixt the States, every bit the Ceremonious War was also known, ended in Confederate surrender in 1865. The conflict was the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.iv meg soldiers killed, millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin.

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Causes of the Civil War

In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth, a key economical difference existed between the state'south northern and southern regions.

In the North, manufacturing and industry was well established, and agriculture was generally limited to small-calibration farms, while the Southward's economic system was based on a system of large-scale farming that depended on the labor of Black enslaved people to grow certain crops, especially cotton and tobacco.

Growing abolitionist sentiment in the Due north afterward the 1830s and northern opposition to slavery'due south extension into the new western territories led many southerners to fear that the existence of slavery in America—and thus the backbone of their economy—was in danger.

In 1854, the U.South. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which essentially opened all new territories to slavery past asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict. Pro- and anti-slavery forces struggled violently in "Haemorrhage Kansas," while opposition to the act in the North led to the germination of the Republican Party, a new political entity based on the principle of opposing slavery's extension into the western territories. Afterward the Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott case (1857) confirmed the legality of slavery in the territories, the abolitionist John Dark-brown's raid at Harper'due south Ferry in 1859 convinced more and more southerners that their northern neighbors were bent on the destruction of the "peculiar institution" that sustained them. Abraham Lincoln'southward election in November 1860 was the final straw, and within three months vii southern states–South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas–had seceded from the United States.

EXPLORE: Ulysses S. Grant: An Interactive Map of His Cardinal Civil State of war Battles

Outbreak of the Civil War (1861)

Fifty-fifty as Lincoln took part in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the federal-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12, subsequently Lincoln ordered a armada to resupply Sumter, Amalgamated artillery fired the first shots of the Civil War. Sumter'south commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered after less than ii days of bombardment, leaving the fort in the easily of Confederate forces under Pierre Grand.T. Beauregard. Four more southern states–Virginia, Arkansas, Northward Carolina and Tennessee –joined the Confederacy later Fort Sumter. Border slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not secede, but there was much Confederate sympathy among their citizens.

Though on the surface the Civil State of war may have seemed a lopsided conflict, with the 23 states of the Union enjoying an enormous reward in population, manufacturing (including arms production) and railroad construction, the Confederates had a strong military tradition, along with some of the best soldiers and commanders in the nation. They also had a crusade they believed in: preserving their long-held traditions and institutions, principal amidst these being slavery.

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In the First Battle of Bull Run (known in the South as First Manassas) on July 21, 1861, 35,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson forced a greater number of Union forces (or Federals) to retreat towards Washington, D.C., dashing whatsoever hopes of a quick Union victory and leading Lincoln to telephone call for 500,000 more recruits. In fact, both sides' initial call for troops had to be widened afterwards it became clear that the state of war would non exist a express or short disharmonize.

The Ceremonious War in Virginia (1862)

George B. McClellan–who replaced the aging General Winfield Scott as supreme commander of the Matrimony Army after the offset months of the war–was beloved past his troops, but his reluctance to advance frustrated Lincoln. In the leap of 1862, McClellan finally led his Army of the Potomac up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, capturing Yorktown on May 4. The combined forces of Robert East. Lee and Jackson successfully drove back McClellan's army in the Seven Days' Battles (June 25-July 1), and a cautious McClellan called for yet more reinforcements in order to move against Richmond. Lincoln refused, and instead withdrew the Army of the Potomac to Washington. By mid-1862, McClellan had been replaced as Union general-in-chief by Henry W. Halleck, though he remained in command of the Army of the Potomac.

Lee then moved his troops northwards and separate his men, sending Jackson to meet Pope's forces near Manassas, while Lee himself moved separately with the second one-half of the army. On August 29, Matrimony troops led past John Pope struck Jackson's forces in the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas). The next day, Lee hit the Federal left flank with a massive assault, driving Pope's men back towards Washington. On the heels of his victory at Manassas, Lee began the showtime Amalgamated invasion of the North. Despite contradictory orders from Lincoln and Halleck, McClellan was able to reorganize his army and strike at Lee on September fourteen in Maryland, driving the Confederates back to a defensive position along Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg.

On September 17, the Army of the Potomac hit Lee's forces (reinforced by Jackson's) in what became the state of war'south bloodiest single solar day of fighting. Total casualties at the Battle of Antietam (also known as the Boxing of Sharpsburg) numbered 12,410 of some 69,000 troops on the Union side, and thirteen,724 of around 52,000 for the Confederates. The Spousal relationship victory at Antietam would prove decisive, every bit it halted the Amalgamated advance in Maryland and forced Lee to retreat into Virginia. Yet, McClellan's failure to pursue his reward earned him the scorn of Lincoln and Halleck, who removed him from control in favor of Ambrose East. Burnside. Burnside'south assault on Lee's troops near Fredericksburg on December 13 ended in heavy Union casualties and a Confederate victory; he was promptly replaced by Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, and both armies settled into winter quarters across the Rappahannock River from each other.

After the Emancipation Declaration (1863-4)

Lincoln had used the occasion of the Matrimony victory at Antietam to issue a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all enslaved people in the rebellious states after Jan i, 1863. He justified his decision as a wartime measure out, and did not go so far as to free the enslaved people in the border states loyal to the Union. Still, the Emancipation Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces and put international public stance strongly on the Spousal relationship side. Some 186,000 Black Civil War soldiers would join the Union Army past the fourth dimension the war ended in 1865, and 38,000 lost their lives.

In the spring of 1863, Hooker's plans for a Union offensive were thwarted by a surprise assail by the bulk of Lee's forces on May ane, whereupon Hooker pulled his men back to Chancellorsville. The Confederates gained a plush victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville, suffering 13,000 casualties (around 22 percent of their troops); the Spousal relationship lost 17,000 men (15 pct). Lee launched another invasion of the Due north in June, attacking Union forces commanded past General George Meade on July 1 near Gettysburg, in southern Pennsylvania. Over three days of vehement fighting, the Confederates were unable to push through the Matrimony middle, and suffered casualties of close to 60 percent.

Meade failed to counterattack, however, and Lee's remaining forces were able to escape into Virginia, ending the concluding Confederate invasion of the North. Also in July 1863, Spousal relationship forces under Ulysses S. Grant took Vicksburg (Mississippi) in the Siege of Vicksburg, a victory that would prove to be the turning point of the war in the western theater. Later a Amalgamated victory at Chickamauga Creek, Georgia, just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in September, Lincoln expanded Grant's command, and he led a reinforced Federal army (including two corps from the Ground forces of the Potomac) to victory in the Boxing of Chattanooga in tardily November.

Toward a Union Victory (1864-65)

In March 1864, Lincoln put Grant in supreme command of the Union armies, replacing Halleck. Leaving William Tecumseh Sherman in command in the West, Grant headed to Washington, where he led the Army of the Potomac towards Lee's troops in northern Virginia. Despite heavy Union casualties in the Battle of the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania (both May 1864), at Cold Harbor (early June) and the key rail center of Petersburg (June), Grant pursued a strategy of compunction, putting Petersburg under siege for the adjacent nine months.

Sherman outmaneuvered Confederate forces to take Atlanta by September, after which he and some 60,000 Wedlock troops began the famous "March to the Sea," devastating Georgia on the fashion to capturing Savannah on December 21. Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, fell to Sherman'southward men by mid-Feb, and Jefferson Davis tardily handed over the supreme command to Lee, with the Confederate war effort on its last legs. Sherman pressed on through North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville, Bentonville, Goldsboro and Raleigh by mid-April.

Meanwhile, exhausted past the Union siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee'southward forces made a terminal effort at resistance, attacking and captured the Federal-controlled Fort Stedman on March 25. An firsthand counterattack reversed the victory, however, and on the night of April 2-three Lee's forces evacuated Richmond. For most of the next week, Grant and Meade pursued the Confederates forth the Appomattox River, finally exhausting their possibilities for escape. Grant accustomed Lee'south surrender at Appomattox Court House on April ix. On the eve of victory, the Union lost its great leader: The actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Berth assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington on April 14. Sherman received Johnston's surrender at Durham Station, North Carolina on April 26, finer catastrophe the Civil War.