American Civil War 1861-1865

American Civil War, also called War Between

the States is four-year war (1861–65) between
the United States and 11 Southern states that
seceded from the Union and formed the
Confederate States of America.
 WHAT LED TO THE CONFLICT
NORTH STATES SOUTH STATES

industry and the tensions over slavery, agrarian

bourgeoisie states’ rights and regions and
westward expansion slave-owning

•In the mid-19th century, while the United States was

experiencing an era of tremendous growth, a fundamental
economic difference existed between the country’s northern
and southern regions
1) The northern and southern territories had
different levels of import taxes, which
complicated trade. In the capitalist north, tax
was much higher, as people sought to maintain
their own industry, but the south did not think
so.
2) The new Republican president, Abraham
Lincoln, promoted the adoption of the so-
called Homestead Act, a law according to which
all migrants from the east receive Western lands
as property for free. This prevented the
southerners from freely expanding their wealth.
There was simply no other way for them to
develop.
1) The northerners were against the slave
system (it was officially banned by state laws)
and insisted on the development of the
country at the expense of technology, while
the southerners produced a sufficient
amount of raw materials only at the expense
of slaves.
2) Each new state of the United States was
between two fires - the southerners needed
territory, but the government was more
willing to include the states in the social and
economic policy of the north.
 Significant events
• In 1861, 11 agrarian southern states, one after
another, left the country and formed a
confederation. They established their own
constitution and even elected a leader -
Jefferson Davis, senator from Mississippi. The
sovereignty of the CSA (Confederate States of
America) was not recognized by the US
authorities.
• On April 12, 1861,
Southerners attacked
Charleston Bay and
shelled it for more
than a day.
• Lincoln declared the
blockade of the
southern states
rebellion, gathered a
volunteer (and later
regular) army and
launched large-scale
hostilities. The main
goal, he meant
the preservation of
the integrity of the
United States and the
abolition of slavery.
• Though on the surface the Civil War may have
seemed a lopsided conflict, with the 23 states
of the Union enjoying an enormous advantage
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
cause they believed in: preserving their long-
held traditions and institutions, chief among
these being slavery.
• 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.
• September 17became the war’s
bloodiest single day of fighting. Total
casualties at the Battle of Antietam (also
known as the Battle of Sharpsburg)
numbered 12,410 of some 69,000 troops
on the Union side, and 13,724 of around
52,000 for the Confederates. The Union
victory at Antietam would prove decisive,
as it halted the Confederate advance in
Maryland and forced Lee to retreat into
Virginia.
• Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union
victory at Antietam to issue a
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,
which freed all enslaved people in the
rebellious states after January 1, 1863. He
justified his decision as a wartime measure,
and did not go so far as to free the enslaved
people in the border states loyal to the Union.
From the beginning of
1863, they had the right
to leave usurpers
without any ransom,
but also without
property. As an
alternative for earnings,
they could enter the
service in the US Army.
The main event of the Civil War is the
liberation of oppressed people. In 1865, the
famous 13th Amendment to the US
Constitution was adopted, completely
prohibiting slavery and any forced labor.
April 9, 1865, President
Abraham Lincoln was
assassinated. A headshot
was made by a supporter
of Southerner politics,
actor John Wilkes Booth.
The funeral train with the
body of Lincoln walked
around America for 2.5
weeks. Abraham
Lincoln remained in
history as the national
hero, liberator and unifier
of America.
 Abraham Lincoln and slavery
As early as the 1850s, Lincoln was attacked as an abolitionist.
But while many abolitionists emphasized the sinfulness of
individual owners, Lincoln did not, although he did publicly
condemn the institution of slavery.

Lincoln was married to Mary Todd Lincoln, the daughter of a

slave owner from Kentucky. While Wm. Lloyd Garrison, in The
Liberator newspaper, and a small but growing group of other
abolitionists, called for total, immediate abolition of slavery
("immediatism"), Lincoln focused on the more practical goal of
preventing the creation of new slave states and specifically
blocking the expansion of slavery into the new Western
territories
 Reconstruction
Reconstruction, in U.S.
history, the period (1865–
77) that followed
the American Civil War and
during which attempts were
made to redress the
inequities of slavery and its
political, social, and
economic legacy and to
solve the problems arising
from the readmission to the
Union of the 11 states that
had seceded at or before
the outbreak of war.
 Origins Of Reconstruction
The national debate over
Reconstruction began
during the Civil War.
In December 1863, less Under it, when one-tenth of a
than a year after he issued state’s prewar voters took an
the Emancipation oath of loyalty, they could
Proclamation, establish a new state
Pres. Abraham
Lincoln announced the government.
first comprehensive progra To Lincoln, the plan was an
m for Reconstruction, the attempt to weaken the
Ten Percent Plan. Confederacy rather than a
blueprint for the postwar
South
In 1864 Congress enacted (and
Lincoln pocket vetoed) the Wade-
Davis Bill, which proposed to delay
the formation of new Southern
governments until a majority of
voters had taken a loyalty oath.
In his last speech, on April 11, 1865,
Lincoln, referring to Reconstruction
in Louisiana, expressed the view
that some Blacks—the “very
intelligent” and those who had
served in the Union army—ought
to enjoy the right to vote.

Following Lincoln’s assassination in

April 1865, Andrew
Johnson became president and
inaugurated the period of
Presidential Reconstruction (1865–
67).
In 1865 and 1866 the Southern states enacted restrictive and
discriminatory Black Codes—laws intended to control the
behavior and labor of Black Americans.

the replacement of Johnson’s so-called Presidential

Reconstruction approach with that of the more radical wing
of the Republican Party.

The ensuing period known as Radical Reconstruction resulted

in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which for the
first time in American history gave Black people a voice in
government.
By the mid-1870s, however, extremist forces—such as the Ku
Klux Klan—succeeded in restoring many aspects of white
supremacy in the South.
 Civil Rights Bill of 1866 and Freedmen’s Bureau
Enacted by Congress on April 9, 1866, over President Johnson’s veto, the Civil Rights Bill of
1866 became America’s first civil rights legislation.
The bill mandated:
• all male persons born in the United States, except for American Indians;
• regardless of their “race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude”;

were “declared to be citizens of the United States” in every state and territory;

The bill thus granted all citizens the “full and equal benefit of all laws
and proceedings for the security of person and property.”
Taking a more anti-federalist stance, however, President Johnson vetoed the bill,
calling it “another step, or rather a stride, toward centralization and the
concentration of all legislative power in the national Government.” In overriding
Johnson’s veto, lawmakers set the stage for a showdown between Congress and
the president over the future of the former Confederacy and the civil rights of
Black Americans.
In March 1865, Congress, at the recommendation of
President Abraham Lincoln, enacted the
Freedmen’s Bureau Act creating a U.S. government
agency to oversee the end of slavery in the South by
providing food, clothing, fuel, and temporary
housing to newly freed enslaved persons and their
families.