Civil_War

Chapter 1 : what was the cause of the American civil war' After the end of the American Revolution, the north grew to a industrial part of the country. Here were all the factories placed, metal factories, weapon factories and it was the central point of the science. This made the north very rich and powerful. The south was poor and the main population existed of farmers. With the product of the farms the farmers could get around with the money, this was not case for the normal civilians. They had not much choice concerning their way of living and the most could barley provide their own food and life supplies. Because the south was much less populated than the north they lost all their political power. The civilians therefore felt overwhelmed by the superior government of the north, a fear that stayed with them after the American revolution. These tensions were kept in control by a few southern leaders in the senate. {draw:frame} In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was chosen the new president of the united states and his election caused the tensions between the states grow even more. His election is a big reason for the cause of the war. Even though he was very neutral about slavery during his campaign, although it was known he wasn’t pro slavery. According to Lincoln he just wanted to prevent that the slavery would expand to the west. With his election The southern states saw their way of living in great danger, and not two months later several southern states started to separate from the united states. South Carolina separated first from the united states on 20 December 1860, within a short time Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana en Texas followed them. Not all the states in the south agreed with the separation and it would take a while before they would separate to and become a part of a nation that now is called the confederate states of America. At the end of May 1861 was this new piece of America complete with the addition of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee en North Carolina. The state Virginia was even separated in two parts seen that some counties in the west were against the separation. They named them self West Virginia and added them self’s to the united states, from now on also known as the union. On the 9thof February 1861, the confederate states of America chose their own president, the former army officer Jefferson Davis, and made their own constitution. Of course slavery was protected in this new constitution. Battle of Fort Sumter : The first battle The Battle *of Gettysburg* : a memorable battle On June 24, 1863, General Robert E. Lee marched the Confederate Army across the Potomac River and headed towards Pennsylvania. As Lee's troops poured into Pennsylvania, the Union Army went north from Washington. The unions effort was randomly helped by Lee's cavalry commander, Jeb Stuart, had gone off on a attack deep in the Union rear. This action left Lee blind to the Union's position. When a scout reported the Union approach, Lee ordered his troops to move west of the small village of Gettysburg. {draw:frame} The rest of the armies arrived that first night. The Union army made a defensive position that looked like a fish hook. Lee decided to attack both flanks the next day. On his right flank, Union troops shifted out of position, leaving the Little Round Top undefended. At the last moment a Union general send troops in front of the charging Confederates. After a long day of fighting, they barely held their position. The union was pushed back. the assault failed due to poor leadership of the union. On May 13, 1865, the last Battle of the Civil War took place , a month after Lee's surrender. The Confederates forces knew of the surrender since May 1, when a New Orleans newspaper was tossed from a boat on its way to Brownsville to soldiers at Palmito Ranch. On May 11th, at Boca Chica Pass, 300 Union troops marched to the mainland in an attempt to take over Brownsville. When they reached White's Ranch they tried to hide themselves for some rest. However it didn’t work. With the element of surprise gone, the troops openly marched toward Brownsville but they didn't got far. At Palmito Ranch they were confronted by a Confederate force of 190 members. Both forces cleared. with the Union force camping for the night. The Confederates attacked at 3 a.m., forcing the Union troops to go back to White's Ranch. On May 13, 200 reinforcements arrived, bringing the Union strength up to 500. This larger force moved on Palmito Ranch where the major battle took place. The outnumbered Confederate received defeat late that afternoon. The flat, open land gave the advantage to the Confederate mounted cavalry and the Union troops were routed. A seven-mile running fight to Brazos Island ensued - and there the Federal troops were met by reinforcements, now causing the Confederates to retreat. {draw:frame} Chapter 3 : what impact had the war on the American society ' The Civil War was more than just a series of battles. It was a nationwide catastrophe that had a profound impact on all aspects of American society. Men were taken from farms, factories and plantations and sent to fight one another leaving women and children to tend to the home front. Huge casualties on both sides meant that everyone was directly affected by the carnage, even those living far from the scene of battle. In the areas where battles did occur, homes, farms, schools, and bridges were leveled. War led to the dislocation of American society on an unprecedented scale. As millions of men made their way to the front those they left behind faced a difficult situation. Farms were without men to till the soil and factories were left with few workers. However, demands for food and goods increased as the armies ate their way through the war. Women bore the brunt of the home-front hardships. Many were forced to manage small farms themselves. Though women were excluded from the military and from factory work, they found ways to serve the northern cause. For instance, women made bandages from lint, nursed wounded men back to health, and worried about their loved ones on the fighting front. In the Midwest, thousands of women did the best they could to keep their lives together while men were away, and all dreaded the fateful telegrams with the lists of the dead. Outward manifestations of wealth continued to characterize high society during the war. For those attending lavish parties, grand balls, and elaborate marriage celebrations, the war, at times, seemed far away. But funerals tempered the enjoyment. Despite the common claim that it was "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight," elites, as well as middle and lower-class citizens, fought in the war. In poorer areas, the hardships were, of course, greatest, and many moved to cities or to the homes of nearby relatives to make ends meet. Uncertainty, too, plagued the North during the war years. Casualty lists notified communities of the names of soldiers who had died in battle, but families also had to wait for letters from their loved ones with up to date information about their well-being. Many families were frustrated to learn that someone they knew had been classified as "missing" or had been taken by southern forces as a "prisoner of war." On the other hand, the war brought greater economic opportunities to northern citizens. Factories producing firearms, shells, bullets, blankets, tents, and shells proliferated. Work was easy to come by for most young white men and immigrant men in the North, although inflation during the war made it difficult for workers to earn much money. When the draft pulled white men away from their jobs, immigrants—primarily German and Irish—filled in. With increased immigration, and greater competition for jobs, northern whites, especially men returning from the battlefield, grew to resent the newcomers. In this way the war sparked xenophobia in the North. Southern society had long been more insular than northern society, but the war changed this. In addition to the difficulties of producing food and industrial goods—with which the South struggled far more than the North—the majority of the fighting took place in the South and the ravages of war took years to heal. In Virginia and Tennessee, not to mention the areas of Georgia and South Carolina destroyed during Sherman's marches, the war caused incredible damage to homes, farms, bridges, and roads. Much of the southern railway system was destroyed during the war making it difficult to bring food from one area to another. Even more damaging to southern society during the war was the drain on its population. Nearly half of military-aged white males fought during the war. Farms, factories, and plantations were emptied of fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands. Southern society was less able to adapt to these changes due to its chivalric ideals and insistence that slaves not take any meaningful role in the army, other than forced labor. The rich in the South, like those in the North, tried to go on as if nothing was happening, but even that became impossible as the war dragged on. Part of Union General Sherman's plan for his March to the Sea was to bring the difficulties of the war home to many of the elite segments of society that had not borne the brunt of the fighting. Political power also shifted from the landed aristocracy of the Virginia Tidewater and the cotton plantations of the Deep South to small farmers who demanded more political influence in return for their sacrifices in the war. This was to be a short-lived change, however, because after the war their new power was compromised by the enfranchisement of former slaves and, later, by the resurgence of the aristocracy following Radical Reconstruction. By far the largest changes to southern society were due to the changing role of slaves. As Union armies advanced, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves were freed. In places where the Union Army did not reach, blacks were still kept as slaves, but with white male overseers away, slaves were able to exert more power over their everyday lives. Toward the end of the war, the Union government created the Freedman's Bureau to assist freed slaves in the South. New communities of freed slaves blossomed throughout the South, and post-war Radical Reconstruction allowed blacks, for a time, to enjoy some political power in the South. The impact of the emancipation of millions of slaves changed the power dynamics in the South considerably, but the determination of the white South to end Radical Reconstruction undid these. The Civil War upended southern society, ending forever the planter-dominated social hierarchy that was a hallmark of the antebellum South.