American Civil War



American Civil War

Introduction

The Civil War marked one of the great important moments in U.S. history. Long-simmering sectional tensions had a critical stage in 1860-61 when eleven slaveholding states separated and formed the Confederate States of America. Political disagreement led towards a war situation in April 1861, as Confederates affirmed their commitment towards the right of leaving the Union and the loyal states did not give them permission to go. There was a not a single factor in nations' history that prepared Americans for the high scale of military fury and social disruption that continued for a certain period of time. Four years of fighting claimed more than one million military casualties of whom at least 620,000 died, which directly created an impact on lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and freed 4 million enslaved African Americans. The social and economic system was based on chattel slavery that the seceding states had sought to protect lay in ruins. The Union had been preserved, and the supremacy of the national government over the individual states had been confirmed. In the longer term, the North's victory made possible the American economic and political colossus that figured so prominently in 20th-century history. Therefore, all the issues related to Civil War in USA will be discussed in detail.

Discussion

Also known as the "War of the Rebellion," "War Between the States," "War for Southern Independence," and "brothers' war," the conflict continues to fascinate professional historians, novelists, filmmakers, and millions of Americans interested in history. The drama and tragedy of many Civil War battles have been commemorated in a number of national military parks, such as the ones at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Antietam, Maryland; and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Many of the major issues of the era, slavery, states' rights, racial equality, the duties and rights of citizenship, and the limits of national authority continue to provoke debate and dissension. Before the sectional disruption, the American republic had survived diplomatic and military crises and internal stresses. It weathered tensions with France in the late 1790s, a second war with Britain in 1812-15, and disputes regarding international boundaries. Political debates over economic issues such as the tariff, a national bank, and government-supported public works provoked dissension but posed no serious threat to the integrity of the Union. Despite divisions along ethnic and class lines, the majority of Americans had much in common. They were white, Christian, spoke English, and celebrated a shared heritage forged in the crucible of the Revolutionary War (Buhaug, 2002, 433).

Questions relating to the institution of slavery led to the sectional strife that eventually erupted in war. Most men and women at the time would have agreed with Abraham Lincoln's assertion in his second inaugural address that slavery was, somehow, the cause of the war. Earlier, Alexander H. Stephens, the Confederacy's vice president, had proclaimed that slavery was the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution to establish Southern independence. The framers of the ...