U.S. Civil War the American Civil War

U.S. Civil War

The American Civil War is the bloodiest conflict that the United States has ever been involved in. The conflict between the Union and the Confederacy lasted from 1861 until 1865. The conflict between the Union and the Confederacy was centered on issues of states' rights vs. federal authority, westward expansion, and the most prominent issue, slavery.

The Union was comprised of 23 states and was led by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln with the aid of military leaders that included Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Meade, Ambrose Burnside, and George McClellan ("Civil War: Union Military Leaders Photo Gallery"). The Confederacy was comprised of 11 states, which seceded from the Union in 1860 and 1861. The first Confederate states to secede from the Union were located in the Deep South and included Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia seceded from the Union after the Civil War began ("Confederate States of America"). The Confederate states were led by President Jefferson Davis and Vice-President Alexander Stevens, and Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, and Braxton Briggs ("Civil War: Confederate Leaders Photo Gallery").

The U.S. Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861 after Confederate forces fired upon Ft. Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Of all the battles fought during the U.S. Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg is considered to be the most important. The Battle of Gettysburg lasted from July 1 to July 3, 1863. The battle began on July 1 as Lee prepared to assemble his Confederate forces in Gettysburg after being informed that the Army of the Potomac was on its way south. Concurrently, Confederate divisions in A.P. Hill's command had been approaching Gettysburg in search of supplies only to find that "two Union cavalry brigades had arrived the previous day" ("Battle of Gettysburg"). As both armies marched onto Gettysburg, Confederate forces were able to drive the "outnumbered Federal defenders back through town to Cemetery Hill, located a half mile to the south" ("Battle of Gettysburg"). Lee subsequently gave orders to Richard Ewell to attack Cemetery Hill, however, Ewell was hesitant to attack a Union army that he felt outnumbered his Confederate forces. By July 2, the Union Army "had established strong positions from Culp's Hill to Cemetery Ridge," however, "against the advice of his defensively minded second-in-command," Lee ordered Confederate troops to attack Union forces ("Battle of Gettysburg"). By the end of the day, both Union and Confederate armies has lost more than 9,000 men each. "The combined casualty total from two days of fighting came to nearly 35,000, the largest two-day toll of the war" ("Battle of Gettysburg"). On July 3, Union forces pushed back the Confederate threat to Culp's Hill after seven hours of fighting and successfully regained their original position. Falsely believing that his army was on the brink of victory, Lee ordered three divisions to march on Cemetery Ridge. The attack, later known as Pickett's Charge, commenced at around 3 p.m. "after an artillery bombardment by some 150 Confederate guns" ("Battle of Gettysburg"). "Caught from all sides, barely half of the Confederates survived, and Pickett's division lost two-thirds of its men" ("Battle of Gettysburg"). Lee's failure to advance on the North left him demoralized and he subsequently tendered his resignation to President Jefferson, which was subsequently refused. The Battle of Gettysburg, in conjunction with General Grant's victory at Vicksburg, turned the tide of the Civil War in the Union's favor ("Battle of Gettysburg").