The Civil War Emily Cirigliano 7K

Introduction To The War The Civil War was fought between the years 1861-1865. The sides involved in this war were the United States, and the Confederate States of America. The United States was the free North side, and the Confederate States was the slave South side. The resolution of this war was the United States gained victory and brought many changes to life in the South.

Major Causes of the War The major cause of the Civil War was between the free North and the slaveholding South. They erupted into a conflict after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860. Eleven southern states separated from the Union, and turned their back on the idea of a single American nation. Abraham Lincoln declared these acts of separation illegal, and asked Congress for over 500,000 soldiers to crush what threatened to be an aggressive rebellion. In April 1861, the first shots were fired and what followed became a national tragedy. More than 600,000 soldiers were killed and millions more wounded; large sections of the South were destroyed by violent battles; and the Union nearly collapsed under determined Confederate forces.

The Free North Side A significant person from this side was president Abraham Lincoln. He believed the U.S was one nation, and wanted slavery to end. Another significant person was Ulysses S. Grant, the general of the Union army that defeated General Robert E. Lee from the South side. The final influential person on the North side was Frederick Douglass, a former slave who escaped to the North and became an abolitionist

The Slave South Side There were many significant people from this side during the war. One of them was Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States. Another significant person was Robert E. Lee, the leader of the Army in Northern Virginia. He supported Southerners to accept defeat and reunite. The final influential person on the south side was Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, one of the most skilled Confederate generals, from Virginia.

Turning Point The Battle of Gettysburg (July, 1863) proved to be the turning point of the Civil war. It marked the last major Confederate effort to shift the war northward onto Union soil. This battle ended General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North. It also convinced Britain and France that the North would win the war.

Life on the Home Front In the south, women were often left to run farms and plantations alone while the men were away. Many women also got upset and started food riots, attacking merchants and army agents, raiding grain warehouses, mills, and stores. In areas where the farms were small and people never owned many slaves to begin with, interest for the war burned out quickly, and wives hurried their husbands to come home and help feed their families. In the North, nursing was a very popular occupation for woman. Others took over the men's jobs.

Final Resolution The civil war finally ended on April 19th, 1865, and the United States had won victory. Over 620,000 Americans had died in the war. Thousands had been injured. The southern landscape was devastated. It abolished slavery in the United States, and now, with the end of the war, four million African Americans were free. Thousands of former slaves travelled throughout the south, visiting or searching for loved ones from when they had become separated. Men and woman from the North and South began the period of Reconstruction, and started rebuilding the shattered Union.

Major Effects on the War The Civil War tore families apart from each other. Men, as well as boys, were forced to fight to defend their side. Many families were separated because of their beliefs on slavery. Loved ones were killed in battle. Women, men, and children were forced to deal with with the deaths of friends and family. Effects of the Civil War were not just economically but personal too. The Civil War, as other wars, was a time of depression that affected many people and families.

Resources http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3105.html http://www.shmoop.com/civil-war/summary.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/index.html http://americancivilwar.com/south/lee.html http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/cwnorth.htm http://www.civil-war.ws/summary/