American Civil War Essays (Examples)

American Civil War transformed the country's policies and culture, and its wide-ranging ramifications are still being felt to this day, offering an ideal case study in the multi-faceted phenomenon of war. Although the ostensible reasons for the war are generally clear to anyone with a grade school education in American history, assigning the outbreak of the war to any one factor unnecessarily disguises the myriad political, economic, and social forces which intersect in order to justify and catalyze the use of violence to achieve political objectives. By examining these distinct but not unrelated factors, one is able to intelligibly discuss not only the relationship between war and statecraft, but also the way in which war, like a state, has aspects of continuity and change as a result of evolving conditions and unforeseen events. Investigating the American Civil War in light of its political, social, and economic context reveals how the…

Civil War
Between 1861 and 1865, the United States was engaged in a Civil War between the states in the North, and the Southern states who seceded from the Union to form the Confederacy. The war, also known as the War between the States, the War of the Rebellion, the War of Secession, and the War for Southern Independence, is widely believed to have been fought due to differences in the treatment of slaves, and the legal issues of those slaves. In reality, the Civil War was a result of a combination of causes, including political unrest, economic hardships, and social issues ("The American Civil War," 1993). The end result was a situation that was unable to be resolved through traditional means.

One of the causes for the Civil War was the economic properties of both the North and the South. In the years before the war, both the Northern States and…

In fact McClellan insists that notwithstanding all of Grant's capabilities and resources, Grant was not able to maneuver successfully against Lee until "Lee's field transportation gave out" (Hagerman, 66).
Hagerman makes many assertions about the Civil ar's generals that a reader of his book cannot immediately verify, but must take at face value. Deep in his book, for example, Hagerman claims that General Lee's cavalry battle at Yellow Tavern (May, 1864) "…was the only truly mounted engagement" for Lee's cavalry. These cannot be taken as flaws, however, and even though there are some typographical errors that editors allowed to get into the final published copies, and some of his writing is a little slow and even awkward, all-in-all the narrative is smooth and it reads very well.

He spells out how the federal government (the Union, under Lincoln) experimented with the "flying column concept"; how the government had problems with getting…

It was indeed a time of severe misery for the black community that was deprived of all its rights-even the most basic ones. These were the conditions in the South. In North, things looked different. Slavery was not rampant and progressive nature of this part had led to better treatment of minorities. North was essentially industrialized and blacks were employed in factories instead of plantations. This was a better option since they were given wages and couldn't be denied their fair share. South was not only actively violating human rights; it was also endangering the future of American Federation by threatening secession. Southern states wanted to withdraw from the Federation on some grounds and this was unacceptable to the country especially the North since it could severely hurt the future of America. Abraham Lincoln took the courageous step of launching military attack against South, which triggered the Civil war.
It…

Civil Death
Death and the American Civil War: Disruptions of Decency and a New Awareness of Reality

Victorian notions of the body and its functions were complex given the combination of the rise in biological and medical knowledge that occurred during the nineteenth century and the prudery that gained such traction during the same era. These two trajectories were likely not in simple conflict as they might appear, but rather the increasing awareness of the body as an almost mechanical entity rather than the soul-filled object of majesty it had long been appreciated as likely fueled the reluctance to admit to bodily functions and certainly to bodily decay. In the United States, the Victorian Era brought with it a stark and unavoidable reminder of the body's frailties and ultimate lack of majesty with the onset and prolonged casualties of the Civil War. The half-decade of conflict is famously the bloodiest of American…

In many ways, the how of the evolution of the Civil War is a pseudo-chicken-and-egg question; which issue supported the other? Did the slave labor of the South spawn the abolition rampant throughout Union ideology or did the economics of one-sided success and agricultural threat pose a fundamental insecurity system? New Jersey highlighted the road in between. "Let the south be protected in all her rights but let the rights of the North also be respected." (Gillette, 27.)
The country stood divided, and while the North stood strong knowing its military capabilities were powerful and comforted by the nobility and justice in its ideals, the economic tensions between the North and South were irreparably compromised. The plantation system that defined the structure of Southern Society posited the white, land-and-slave owning men at the top of the system, with the slaves at the bottoms and the "plain folk" making up the…

American Civil War/Sioux ndians
Cowboys and ndians in Hollywood:

The Treatment of Quotidian Life of the Sioux People

in Dances With Wolves

The old Hollywood Westerns that depicted the heroic cowboy and the evil ndian have past; they no longer sell out the movie theaters and are inundated with critique instead of cinematic favor. n the last thirty years, new Hollywood has attempted to correct this revisionist history, as embodied by Kevin Costner's "Dances with Wolves" (1990), a film sensitive to cultural differences and committed to reflecting the accurate lifestyle of the Sioux it portrays. While the technological prowess of the last century has given way to the planet-busting, Armageddon struggles between good and evil, Earth and Stars, many successful films of the recent past are carefully situation in precise time. Unforgiven (1992) chronicled the1881 assassination of President Garfield, The Patriot (2001) depicted the strife of revolutionary America in gory detail.

However, the films that…

CIVIL WA
UNDESTANDING THE AMEICAN CIVIL WA

The American Civil War represented the largest loss of life in the West during the 100-year period between the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and World War I in 1914 (McPherson, 2013). The number of Americans who lost their lives in this war is equivalent to the total American lives lost in all other conflicts in this nation's history. Any conflict of that magnitude is bound to reveal the worst and the best traits of its country's citizens.

The two main issues that led to the Civil War was states rights and slavery, with the latter representing the dominant issue by far (Holzer, 2011; Finkelman, 2011). At risk was whether the United States would remain an undivided nation or be broken up into different countries. The issue creating the conflict between states and the national government was the ability to legally engage in human bondage. At the…

Much is written about the influence on the Southern plantations and cotton and tobacco industries. However, the northern industries were also influenced. The Civil War's effect on Northern industry was inconsistent. Many materials from this time report to evidence that the North's industrial capacity was greatly expanded by the conflict. On the other hand, other significant statistical information suggests that the war exercised no major influence on Northern industry and may have even reduced its growth. Several historians have been studying this topic, including Faust (2002).
Faust (2002) states that one considerable economic result of the war was that it helped change the nation from a country with a primarily agricultural society to one reliant on mechanization and a national market system. Prior to the war, only the North had an industrial base, although quite small. During the fiscal year ending in June of 1860, the country possessed some 128,300…

A year later, May 8-19, 1864, Lee was again in Virginia at the Battle of Spotsylvania, leading 50,000 men against Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces of 83,000. Again Lee won the battle which resulted in 27, 399 casualties, 18, 399 Union and 9,000 Confederate. The Battle of Antietam in Maryland, on September 17,1862 was commanded by Lee with 51, 844 troops and George B. McClellan with 75,316 Union troops. The Union won with 12,410 casualties, against the 13,724 Confederate casualties.
The Battle of the ilderness, in Virginia, May 5-7, 1864, was decided 'inconclusive,' although Lee, with 61,025 men was up against Grant's 101,895 troops, moreover, the Union suffered 17,666 casualties while the Confederates, only 7,750 casualties. Lee won another Virginia battle, the Battle of Second Manassas, August 29-30, 1862, with 48,527 men against John Pope's 75,527 men, resulting in Union casualties of 16,054 and 9,197 Confederate. On December 31, 1862,…

U.S. Civil ar
The American Civil ar 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, illiam Tecumseh Sherman, George Meade, Ambrose Burnside, and George McClellan ("Civil ar: 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…

Such developments were the product of new types of social organization brought about by the late industrial age. High commands developed new types of organization as individual commanders became less of a factor and teams of staff became more important working together. While still informal, good staff work became more and more important in and of itself.
As Hagerman points out, it was not really von Clausewitz, but Henri Jomini that largely influenced Civil War officers. Jomini was better know in America and was the tactician that American officers wanted to follow. Von Clausewitz would become more widely know only after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. In the chapter on Jomini, Hagerman notes this "French Connection" fully that "Jomini's writings set the dominant trend in Continental and American strategic thought until German victories in 1870 pushed Karl von Clausewitz's interpreters to the center…"

To sum up, Hagerman…

Page
updated June 1, 2002. April 23, 2009. http://www.civilwarhome.com/gordoncauses.htm

Leidner, Gordon. "Causes of the Civil ar: A Balanced Answer." Great American History.

April 23, 2009. http://www.greatamericanhistory.net/causes.htm

Litwak, Leon. "Results of the Civil ar." Funk & agnalls® New Encyclopedia. 2005 orld

Almanac Education Group. April 23, 2009.

http://www.history.com/content/civilwar/major-events-of-the-civil-war/results-of-the-war

"The Secession Crisis: Bleeding Kansas." The Civil ar. April 23, 2009.

http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/bleedingkansas.html

"The Secession Crisis: Dred Scott." The Civil ar. April 23, 2009.

http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/dredscott.html

"The Secession Crisis: The Missouri Compromise." The Civil ar. April 23, 2009.

http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/200303.html

John B. Gordon, "Causes of the Civil ar," Reminiscences of the Civil ar, page updated June 1, 2002, April 23, 2009, http://www.civilwarhome.com/gordoncauses.htm

"Causes of the Civil ar," KET, 2009, April 23, 2009, http://www.ket.org/civilwar/causes.html

Gordon Leidner, "Causes of the Civil ar: A Balanced Answer," Great American History. April 23, 2009. http://www.greatamericanhistory.net/causes.htm

Leidner, 2009

"The Secession Crisis: The Missouri Compromise," The Civil ar, April 23, 2009, http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/200303.html

"The Secession Crisis: Bleeding Kansas," The Civil ar, April 23, 2009, http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/bleedingkansas.html

The Secession Crisis: Dred Scott," The Civil…

The differences between the Northern and Southern states regarding states' rights issues and industrialization also affected federal policies toward new territories acquired during Westward Expansion. Before the Civil War, the federal government had issued a series of "compromises" designed to appease both northern and southern interests. The Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill were both issued in response to Southern interests but they reflected weakness in the federal government. The Compromise of 1850, for instance, sparked controversy over admitting California to the nation as a free state. Southerners had hoped that new states would at least be able to choose their own policies regarding slavery: to have "the power to choose whether it entered the United States as a slave or free state," ("Causes of the Civil War").

Finally, the issue of slavery itself became a major cause of the Civil War. Southern states prospered as a result of slavery,…

The war and the years that preceded it led to the creation of social classes in our country. These classes consisted of the rich upper-class down to the poor immigrants; and each class had its own rules and regulations by which it lived. To this day, a large part of our society is based on classes. Socially, the war divided races and started what would lead to racism, bigotry, and the separation of black and whites. The war had served as a pathway to change but it would be several decades before the racial views of whites would change and allow for blacks to be treated fairly. Another thing that changed shortly after the war was women's rights. This movement paved the way for women to be considered equal and treated fairly (Ferland, 2009).

Ever since the Civil ar ended there has been great discussion over whether or not the crisis…

Civil War in Alabama
The American civil war was a political turmoil that took place during the later years of the 18th Century, particularly between 1775 to 1783, where 13 British colonies joined together to liberate themselves from the British Empire and unite to from the United States of America (American evolutionary War, 2011). It all began with the rejection of the Parliament of the Great Britain as governing body from overseas without their representation and consequently rejecting and sending away all the royal officials and representatives. In turn they formed Provincial Congress in 1774 which made up the self-governing state. This prompted the British to send troops to America to reinstate the direct rule and in return, the Second Continental Congress was formed in 1775 to wade off the British troops and also to defend their decision towards self-governance. This was what was and still is famously know as the…

The belief was that eventually the North would have to give up, as long as the South could maintain a unified defense (McPherson). The Confederate Army was not well organized in the beginning, however, and the widespread and largely independent militias defending the Confederate borders were stretched too thin in places, allowing the Union Army to break through (McPherson). Technological advancements had large effects on the strategies of both the Union and Confederate armies as well.
The railroad was one of the most important advancements of the time; it was used to ship troops and supplies, and the destruction of railroad lines was common practice by both armies.

eferences

McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. Accessed 10 May 2009. http://www.civilwarhome.com/confederatestrategy.htm

Smith, Page. Trial By Fire, A People's History of the Civil War and econstruction. Accessed 10 May 2009. http://www.civilwarhome.com/unionstrategy.htm

hen a northern imposition of tariffs, ratified in Pennsylvania in 1828, began to damage southern income, the 'abomination,' as this legislation was labeled, became a flashpoint for Southern identification with anti-federalist principles. This spoke to one of the strengthening ideological holdings in the South as it pertained to maintaining a slave-labor system in spite of the nation's prevailing cultural, ethical and economical trends.
The South would generally hold that the Constitution was conflictive to the independence of states.

In the unfolding dispute between the regions, South Carolina would be a leader for the concept of nullification, which as explicated in a doctrine anonymously written by southern leader John C. Calhoun, would entitle states to undermine Federal laws that were inconsistent the individual states' constitutions. An act which elicited a military response against South Carolina from then president, Andrew Jackson, this underscored the extremity of distinction in economic interest which had become…

Civil War Freedmen: Freedmen's Bureau ecords In The Aftermath
In the years following the American Civil war, fought between 1961 and1965, many freedmen lost their homes, got separated from their families, and lost all claim to the little property they had. Although nearly four million slaves were freed, towns and cities in the region lay in ruins and the economy was destroyed. Faced with the challenge of restoring social order and providing assistance to the distressed freedmen, the U.S. government came up with the Freedmen's Bureau, also known as the Bureau of efugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. Established in March 1965 by President Abraham Lincoln, the main aim of this Bureau was to provide relief effort to the former slaves from the south; and to facilitate the social reconstruction that would make the freedmen full citizens. The Bureau also helped them reunite with families, purchase land, establish schools, and even legalize…

Texas in the Civil War
The American Civil War was a monumental conflict in American history. The conflict was brewing for a long time, as southern and northern states argued over the role of the federal government and the extent of state rights. The debate erupted into an outright war with the election of Abraham Lincoln. Seven southern states formed the Confederacy as before the inauguration of President Lincoln. The issue of states' rights originates with the debate of slavery. unaway slaves would escape the south and head to northern states where they would be deemed free, however, Southern states argued that they were still slaves and wanted a return of their property (Baum 1998). The main issue at hand is what rights extended beyond a state. Southern states naturally supported the stance that citizens of every state could take their property anywhere within the United States, in this case slaves,…

American Civil ar [...] Civil ar event I would most like to eyewitness, and answer the questions: hy? hat would I have seen? ould participating in or seeing that event have made you a different person from the one you are today? If so, how? The Civil ar event I have chosen is the surrender at Appomattox courthouse.
The Civil ar ended nearly where it began, at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, on April 9, 1865. I have chosen this event not because of the defeat of the South, but because it was the meeting of two great generals, and marked the end of a war that had torn the country apart. I believe the occasion was not only historically important, but also important in that it was an end to the bloodshed, and a stepping-stone to peace. hile a few Confederate forces continued to fight after the surrender, the war…

In 1834, the British Empire abolished slavery (the Civil War Home Page, 2009). Great Britain had remained one of the United States' largest trading partners and was, at that time, still the most influential nation in the world. Moreover, Great Britain had retained slavery after many other countries ended the practice. The end of slavery in Great Britain also meant that those in the North who wanted the abolition of slavery could support their assertions that the world viewed the United States as backwards and barbarous because of the practice of slavery. Moreover, it certainly changed the potential for allies in the Civil War. Though not a monarchy, the South was an aristocracy and both Britain and France were then-ruled by monarchies. As long as the struggle was about a states-right government rebellion, the root cause of that rebellion, slavery, could be ignored and European countries could provide aid…

Firstly secession could not be allowed as it would divide the country politically, morally and economically. This aspect tended to highlight the differences between North and South. The differences in terms of labor and ethics presented two almost diametrically opposed systems.
With two fundamentally different labor systems at their base, the economic and social changes across the nation's geographical regions - based on wage labor in the North and on slavery in the South - underlay distinct visions of society that had emerged by the mid-nineteenth century in the North and in the South.

American_Civil_War: Wikipedia)

Secondly, the war was inevitable due to one word - slavery. While there are many complex issues, such as independence and economics that can be debated, yet the importance of the slavery issue was a factor that was morally and ethically the main element that made the civil war inevitable and a factor that could not…

civil war on the American economics, military and diplomatic ties. The paper will discuss the effects of the victory of the Unions and the defeat of the Confederates.
Civil War

The victory of the North in the American Civil War put an end to slavery and to the South's effort to secede from the Union. The years during which the Civil War settlement continued to be contested are known as the econstruction period. econstruction lasted roughly from the end of the war in April 1865 to the withdrawal of the last federal troops from the South in April 1877.

Effects of Civil War

The most important result of the Civil War was the liberation of nearly 4 million Southern slaves. The sudden release of so many people would have been a tremendous problem even in an atmosphere free from the bitterness that had been created by a civil war. Postwar demobilization of the…

When more territories were acquired by the U.S. As a result of the Mexican Wars, another uneasy 'Compromise Measure of 1850' was reached that admitted California as a 'free state' and allowed the rest of the states, i.e., Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery or not. The tensions between the North and the South went up another notch when the Senate passed the 'Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854' which repealed the prohibition of slavery in the territories north of 36° 30' latitude previously agreed in the 'Missouri Compromise.' In reaction to the repealing of the Missouri Compromise, antislavery groups formed a new party (called the epublican Party) that was committed to containing slavery (Gallagher, 2006).
Other Causes of the Civil War: Apart from slavery, the American Civil War was also fought over the issue of preservation of the rights of the individual states. The…

Civil War in American history [...] why the North won the Civil War, considering how the North and South developed during the 19th century, how the political, economic, and cultural development of the nation placed the North at an advantage and the South at a disadvantage, and finally, how the North ultimately prevailed over the South militarily. The North prevailed in the Civil War for a variety of reasons, from economic to industrial. The South simply did not have the resources the North enjoyed, and they were at a disadvantage from the start of the war. The end was inevitable, but the South resisted much longer than most people had believed, thus dragging the war on and accumulating the losses.
The North won the Civil War not because of wily generals and greater manpower, although that helped. The North won the Civil War for a wide variety of reasons, and…

Economic and political differences among the North and the South eventually turned into cultural differences as well. Due to faster modernization in the North, many northerners began to view their southern counterparts as backward in their outlook. These differences were further exacerbated with the rise of penny press. Local press in each region, trying to generate greater readership, depicted cultural and social institutions of the other region in highly negative terms, with little regard to accuracy and objectivity. "There is no doubt," Niven writes, "that after a quarter of a century of such constant editorial bashing, the southern and northern publics could believe the worst of each other" (p. 12). Nowhere was such inflammatory rhetoric condemning each other as divisive as it was in the discussion of slavery. And finally the "virus of slavery that had infected the colonies in 1619 was finally incapacitating the Union," while "the triumph of…

Certainly, Lincoln was extremely upset with the notion that while some Americans were free to pursue their own personal agendas, others were not free in any respect whatsoever, these being African-American slaves. Thus, in order to end this situation, Lincoln dedicated his life to seeing the institution of slavery eradicated from the face of the earth which he accomplished in some small measure in 1863 with his Emancipation Proclamation.
Furthermore, in 1860, the editor for the Charleston Mercury, a staunch advocate of slavery, wrote an editorial called "The Terrors of Submission," a reference to the South falling under the control of the abolitionists who wished to see slavery destroyed and the slaves given their freedom. This unidentified editor points out that if Abraham Lincoln becomes President in 1861, then an "immediate danger will be brought to slavery. . . all slave property will be weakened. . . And all the…

John rown's Raid And The Secession Crisis
The American Civil War is considered as an event that was the culmination of several confrontations regarding the institution of slavery. The series of confrontations involved several people including John rown and Abraham Lincoln. John rown was an abolitionist who led a group of 21 men to capture the federal armory of Harpers Ferry (which is currently known as West Virginia). Together with these men, rown's ultimate plan was to provoke an uprising against slavery across the nation. During the planning stage, rown and his group disguised themselves as farmers and collected weapons. The group of 21 men comprised fugitive slaves, factory workers, farmers, and rown's family members or relatives.

Even though rown and his men ultimately seized the guard on the bridge to this town, the event was relatively unsuccessful. This is largely because the raid didn't last long as several raiders were killed…

Her involvement finally earned her the Medal of Honor, and enduring gratitude for her contribution as a physician to the war effort.
Probably one of the most famous women who worked during the Civil War was Clara Harlowe Barton. Barton was a nurse during the war, who at first simply stockpiled medical supplies and food that she knew the soldiers would need, and later took her supplies into the field where they were most needed. One historian wrote of her right after the war ended, "Her devotion to her work has been remarkable, and her organizing abilities are unsurpassed among her own sex and equaled by very few among the other" (Brockett and Bellows 132). Later, her work in the field and her stockpiling of supplies in warehouses became known as the "Sanitary Commission," which eventually evolved into the worldwide humanitarian organization known as the ed Cross. Clara Barton worked…

Northerners saw this as a deliberate effort to bring more slave states into the Union, while Southerners felt it did not go far enough in stating what states would enter free and what would enter as slave states. The debate in the House and Senate was so emotional, that fights broke out on the floors. Eventually, the bill, with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise passed, and the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska came into the Union. It forced an even deeper wedge between Northern and Southern legislators, and many people were so disgusted with the agreement that they split off from both parties. They began to form a new political party, the epublican Party, which would come together to nominate Abraham Lincoln, who had spoken out against slavery during his campaign, but as McPherson notes, "He had condemned slavery as a moral evil but deprecated radical action…

Civil ar and Sectionalism
Even after the creation of the United States of America in 1776, sectionalism guided economic and political realities throughout the union. The United States developed regional economies, regional philosophies, and regional politics. Slavery, its economics and its politics, was the most contentious issue that divided the nation along northern and southern lines, and would eventually cause the Civil ar. As early as the 1790s, the northern states abolished slavery within their borders while the Southern states held on strong to the institution. Sectionalism would become the key cause of the Civil ar, the bloody manifestation of sectionalist issues within the United States.

Early signs of sectionalism became evident as early as the ar of 1812. The New England states still held strong economic ties with Great Britain, so those states generally opposed the war for financial reasons. Clearly, the economies of the north and south were evolving differently.…

Civil ar
After the last shots of Civil ar were heard, and following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln, the South had been humiliated and devastated. The repercussions of war included loss of life, land, and livelihood. Patriarchy and racism remained entrenched, but the emancipation of slaves significantly transformed the social landscape of the South. Liberated slaves started from scratch without access to cultural or social capital, and many eventually migrated North. African-American culture was able to emerge, and in many cases, to flourish. Meanwhile, the white power structures in the South resigned themselves to ignorance, causing the South to remain the most backwards, uneducated, and poor region of the United States for over a century. Far from inspiring the South to transform its social, cultural, economic, and political institutions, the entrenched plantation society and Confederate identity took deep root there. Jim Crow symbolizes the extent to which…

American Civil War
Give a brief overview of the causes of the Civil War.

From April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865; America became engrossed in a bloody civil war. It was fought for many reasons, which came together to create increased hostilities and carnage. First, the influx of immigration in the 1850s brought a new labor force to the Northern states. This offered them with an alternative pool of cheap labor. While the South still believed, that slavery was an ethical practice and did not want to end it. (Kennedy, 2012)

A second cause was the Supreme Court case Dred Scott vs. Stanford. Dred Scott was a slave who wanted to seek citizenship through the American legal system. His case was denied in 1857. It was based the legal interpretation that anyone who descended from Africa could not become American citizens. It also overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This did not…

Civil War Field Artillery Introduction
In many ways, the Civil War was the first modern war. The scorched earth policy implemented during Sherman’s March to the Sea introduced “total war” to the world (Cummings, 2012). And it involved the use of weaponry that would come to define the modern age of war: advanced, technological and devastating. As Gen. Hunt put it, artillery should be “a separate arm”—a specialized force of the army that could be used to maximum advantage (Hazlett, Olmstead & Parks, 2004). Field artillery weapons included the 6-pounder gun made of bronze which shot a 6 lb. projectile at a speed of 1,400 feet per second with a range of 1,500 yards; the M1857 12-pound “Napoleon” made of bronze, which weighed 1,227 lbs. and shot the 12-lb. ball at a speed of 1,440 feet per second with a range 1,600 yards; the 24-pounder Howitzer made of bronze, which shot the…

American History
The American Civil War (1861-1865)

The American Civil War was the war between the southern and northern regions of the country, wherein the main conflict that was contested were the continued practice and legalization of black slavery. As the war broke out, the two factions that were created for the war were the United States of America or Union and the Confederate States of America or the Confederacy.

The war had numerous battles in various areas of the country; the first was the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee 1862. In this battle, the Confederates carried an offensive attack against the Union forces, headed by General A. Johnston. However, Johnston's death during battle halted the war, as the command of the forces was transferred to General Beauregard. This short period of ceasefire allowed the Union to effectively create a defense strategy, eventually driving out the Confederates to Mississippi. Another battle that won…

American Way of War
The history of the American Way of War is a transitional one, as Weigley shows in his landmark work of the same name. The strategy of war went from, under Washington, a small scale, elude and survive set of tactics practiced by what seem today to be relatively "quaint" militias, to -- in the 20th century -- a full-scale operation known as "total war." True, "total war" was not a concept invented by the Americans in the 20th century. The North eventually practiced "total war" against the Confederates when Sherman's campaign left utter destruction of civilian territory in its wake. The ancient Romans practiced it when, under the direction of Cato, they destroyed Carthage because its mere existence, they felt, posed a threat to their prosperity. In the 20th century, however, "total war" received an enormous boost of technical support when the inventors of the atom bomb…

Civil War Tensions
The American Civil War was not the culmination of one specific issue, which tore North and South, but rather the culmination of a perfect storm of issues and incidents that formed together to make war between the states "inevitable" (Foote, 1958, p. 29). The issues were various and complex: among them was the primacy of "states' rights" in the Constitution, and the usurpation of those rights (so it was felt by many a Southerner) by the Central government. This feeling was directly tied to the outcome of the Mexican-American War, which resulted in the annexing of large territories to the West. Would they be slave states or free states? If one followed the Missouri Compromise line, there should be no question. Slave states were below, free above. But with John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry and the frenzy of the abolitionist caused at fever pitch, the issue of…

Civil War
A Fight for Democracy

There are many forms of government that exist in the world. From dictatorships to monarchies to democracies. However, the most challenging form of government by far is democracy. This is because it involves participation by the government and the people.

The word democracy has origins in the Greek language with the meaning 'rule by the people' (Patrick, 2006). ome and Athens represented the precursors to modern democracies and served as the first 'democracies' of antiquity. Democracies were made in order to control the abuse of power people witnessed see from rulers. While democracy has ancient roots, modern democracy was only formulated during the age of Enlightenment, specifically the 17th and 18th centuries.

In this age, philosophers designated fundamental elements of democracy. These are: basic human and civil rights, separation of powers, religious freedom, and separation of church and state (Ostrom, 1997). Modern democracies have political officials elected by…

In the North, however, abolitionists groups began to see slavery another way. Finally, when Lincoln -- who was perceived as anti-slavery -- was elected, the South fought to exercise what it believed were its states rights by seceding.
After the war concluded, these cultural and economic differences were not gone with the wind. Instead, they were prominent during reconstruction and continue to characterize the culture of the North and South today. McElrath's timeline of reconstruction shows several attempts at making the South racially equal, which can be defined as one of the goals of reconstruction. The Civil Rights Bill and 14th amendment were methods by which this was accomplished. However, Civil ar era culture has left such an impact on the region as to make race relations in the American South still stereotypically tenacious.

orks Cited

Kelly, Martin. "Top Five Causes of the Civil ar." About.com 2009. 26 July 2009.



McElrath, Jessica. "Timeline…

Civil ar
The ar

Economic and social differences between the North and the South, states' rights verses federal rights, the fight between the proponents of slavery and abolitionists, and the election of Abraham Lincoln all contributed to the Civil ar. However, all of these causes can trace their roots in the institution of slavery. The major reason the southern states succeed was to maintain slavery, the conflict over western lands was about slavery, Lincoln couldn't maintain the union because of slavery, and the production of cotton demanded slavery.

Ultimately, though both sides claimed to want to achieve their objectives peacefully, the South viewed the North as a threat to its way of life, while the North preferred war rather than let the nation perish.

Slavery

It seems incredible today that the institution of slavery was only abolished less than a century and a half ago. The idea that one person could own another is morally…

Lee decided to run even before Sherman was able to come, and escaped from Petersburg. Grant was able to catch him at Appomattox, and then was the surrendered. There were 360,000 dead on the Union side and 260,000 dead on the Confederate side, but the union continued. This war made United States as a nation and a state. Earlier secession and state veto power had been disturbing the government from the beginning. (United States (History): The South Secedes) From here started econstruction, but that is another story.
eferences

Coming of the Civil War: An Overview. etrieved at (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741500823_16/United_States_(History).html. Accessed on 26 May, 2005

Encyclopedia: Bleeding Kansas. etrieved at http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Bleeding-KansasAccessed on 26 May, 2005

Encyclopedia: Missouri Compromise. etrieved at http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Missouri-CompromiseAccessed on 26 May, 2005

The Compromise of 1850. etrieved at (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741500823_16/United_States_(History).html. Accessed on 26 May, 2005

United States (History): Bleeding Kansas. etrieved at (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741500823_16/United_States_(History).html#s85Accessed on 26 May, 2005

United States (History): Changes in Slavery. etrieved from: (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741500823_14/United_States_(History).html#s74Accessed…

California was particularly problematic. Taken from Mexico after the war, California was geographically cut in half along the 36°30, and was therefore legally and politically cut in half. However, residents applied for statehood as a free state in 1850. Congress responded with a set of complicated compromises: California would be admitted as a free state in exchange for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required that citizens residing in free states hand over runaway slaves, who would not be afforded any legal rights. Additionally, the District of Columbia would cease trading slaves, but the institution itself would not be abolished; slaves would not be emancipated. The admission of California as a free state upset the balance of power in Congress. The Fugitive Slave Law fueled the Underground Railroad and underscored the deepening divisions between North and South.
The Missouri Compromise was shot to pieces in 1854, when Kansas and Nebraska were…

Civil ars
It is estimated that between 1900 and 1967, there were 526 civil wars called throughout the world (Civil pp). Today, there are literally dozens of wars going on around the globe, and dozens more that have ended during recent years, such as the civil wars in Guatemala and Tajikistan.

According to Christopher Cramer, most literature concerning civil wars has highlighted the role of political instability in the relationship between growth and inequality (Cramer pp). Although there are interlinkages between distribution, conflict and growth, these interlinkages are complex and cannot be read off or predicted from any convincing repeated empirical relationship between variables that are often loaded with too much and unclear meaning (Cramer pp). Cramer takes the title to his article, "Civil ar is Not a Stupid Thing: Exploring Growth, Distribution and Conflict Linkages" from a short story by Sicilian writer, Leonardo Sciascia, about a Sicilian dragooned into fighting on…

American Civil Liberties Union
(Friend or Foe)

America was founded on the astute principles of democracy and the potential benefits of freedom it derives. America, unlike many of its foreign counterparts has long recognized the benefits of individual rights, freedoms and privileges and has fought to the death to protect them. Currently, America aims to spread these principles of democracy around the globe in an effort to create a better quality of life for all mankind. Even with these lofty and ambitious goals, America, on occasion fails to uphold these principles within its own borders. Too often, America has overlooked the problems prevalent within its own country while criticizing other nations about their own circumstances. Many of these overlooked issues including slavery, discrimination, women's rights and others have left an unfavorable image in American history. In such instances, the American Civil Liberties Union has become the beacon of hope for the American…

He encounters this fascination with the war throughout the South, and as his book shows, it colors how the South views the North, blacks, and perhaps worst of all, it colors how the rest of the country views the South.
As the South continues to cling to their Confederacy, it adds to misunderstandings, stereotypes, and unflattering assessments of the people that make up the South. Many of Horwitz's descriptions sound as if they could be stereotypes, (such as "Tony Cool"), and another writer notes, "And, like it or not, many Americans accept that the trailer-park-trash types are usually Southern. It is an extremely unfortunate stereotype, but it exists" (Begone). By re-creating the Civil War and the South's devastating loss, southerners are simply perpetuating the worst of their society, and these authors all agree on that point.

eferences

Begone, Jonah. "Advancing the Southern Cause." WesClark.com. 2006. 12 Aug. 2006. http://www.wesclark.com/jw/southern_cause.html

Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in…

Aytch: A Confederate's Memoir of the Civil War
The Civil War was one of the bloodiest periods in American History. In contemporary times it has also proved to be one of the most glamorized periods of American History. Films such as Gone with the Wind and Birth of the Nation both attest to this fact. However, for serious students of the period, there remains a wealth of real life testimony from battlefield, the words of individuals who suffered and died in the service of both Union and Confederate armies. The memoir Co. Aytch: A Confederate's Memoir of the Civil War, is a Civil War battlefield account that is neither beautiful nor romanticized. It is a real life dramatization of the despair often faced by members of the 'losing' army in that particular conflict.

Aytch began his Civil War experience as a relatively idealistic young defender of the new Confederacy. Early in…

If those seats were held by politicians from free states, the pro-slavery senators would gradually be silenced. Pro-slavery legislation would be impossible to pass in a senate dominated by anti-slavery politicians.
Thus, Westward expansion exacerbated the division between north and south. As pro-slavery Southerners felt increasingly threatened by their abolitionist Yankee counterparts, their representatives in Congress helped embed a second Fugitive Slave Law into the Compromise of 1850. Humiliated by the Underground ailroad and other attempts to subvert the first Fugitive Slave Law, pro-slavery politicians tightened the noose on runaway slaves and Americans who aided them. Therefore, Southerners directly used the Fugitive Slave Law as political leverage, as a means to regain some of their dwindling power in the federal government. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Law exposed the deep rift that had already developed between North and South and effectively presaged the Civil War.

eferences

Fugitive Slave Laws." Infoplease.…

American History
Deaths in American ars

The latest death toll of American troops in Iraq (as of June 12, 2005), was 1,701. That is a very tiny number in comparison with the total deaths from the Civil ar (633,000), II (407,000), I (117,000) or even the Vietnam (58,000) and Korean (33,500) wars. But though the small number of deaths in the American war on Iraq pales in comparison to the Civil ar and others, it should be noted that many deaths were expected in the Civil ar, and the Iraq war was not a war which the U.S. Government expected to see many deaths at all. In fact, most of the fatalities in Iraq occurred after the President of the United States, in May, 2003, flew onto the landing strip of an aircraft carrier, and under a huge sign reading, "Mission Accomplished," declared major hostilities over with. The "new war" in Iraq…

Unlike the more committed New England settlers who were fueled by a desire to practice their faith and farm and to create a 'shining city on a hill,' settlements in the southern regions of North America were made up of single men, unused to labor and farming as well as taking orders. Despite certain famous incidents from this period of history, such as the friendship established between Powhatan and Pocahontas with Captain illiam Smith, settlements like Jamestown floundered (Davis & Mintz 52). The Puritans, for all of the criticism leveled upon them, fared better, perhaps because they brought a form of government and a structured ideology to sustain them as a people, although the struggles that beset this community (not the least of which was the Salem 'witch scare') in terms of tilling unfamiliar soil and surviving a harsh climate cannot be underestimated.

Eventually, all of the colonies began prosper. But…

Instead of being a source of "organized social power" (Elkins 28) the church had "undergone a relentless process of fragmentation." People were religious, but Elkins asserts that people were seeking "individual satisfaction" rather than building "institutional needs." Elkins (150) delves into the Transcendentalists' view of the church, which was very cynical; "the church as an institution was corrupt..." The two author views are radically different one from the other.
SLAVES & MASTERS: Elkins explains that Southerners had "...a paternal affection of the good master for his blacks" and there were "warm sentiments" in southern Society for "faithful slave" (Elkins 61). However, on page 57 Elkins reports a case where a Virginia Judge in 1827 declined to punish the master who had cruelly battered his slave. Slaves had no legal rights and hence masters could take total control over their lives. Elkins does assert that a master could not kill his…

A stronger Navy allowed the North to enforce the blockade more effectively than the Confederacy could overcome it. The second significant part of the Anaconda Plan was similar in scope and strategic significance: to take control of the Mississippi. When the Union Army eventually did gain control of the mighty Mississippi, the South was effectively split in two. The Anaconda Plan was fulfilled. Not only did the Union have the means by which to enforce their strategies: the Confederacy also lacked as clear a military plan.
While the blockade was nearly automatic and put into place toward the beginning of the war, control over the Mississippi was harder-fought. It meant encroachment deep into Southern territory, where most of the war was fought. Not until 1863 and the Union victory at the Battle of Vicksburg did the Union manage to infiltrate the iver and successfully set up its second major and…

Civil War in the United States can be considered as the darkest moment in its relatively young history. (Donovan, 2002) To this day, arguments abound about the relative strengths of the positions of the secessionists vs. those that wanted to maintain the integrity of the country. ut despite the death and destruction -- several hundred thousand lost their lives and millions more became casualties in one way or the other -- two beautiful outcomes resulted. The adage: "One Nation under God" was preserved as a truism for all time; and the Emancipation Proclamation declared that all men were equal and could not be differently treated solely on the basis of color of skin. esides being arguably on the right side of the War the North also won because it was economically stronger and also embraced the rise technological advances that came from the Industrial Revolution.
The Confederate South was militarily…

Even "Porter Alexander, Lee's ordnance chief and one of the most perceptive contemporary observers of Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, called his decision to stand at Antietam 'the greatest military blunder that Gen. Lee ever made'" (Owens 2004). Historians are divided as to the real purpose behind the Maryland campaign, which seems like an "isolated maneuver, another manifestation of Lee's innate aggressiveness as a commander. Some have gone so far as to suggest that Lee's forays into Union territory were undertaken primarily to maintain his claim on scarce Confederate resources that might have been used to greater strategic purpose in the est" (Owens 2004).
hether a demoralization strategy or an effort merely to show Confederate aggression, the focus on Lee in most historians' analysis shows how Lee dominated this conflict, and defined the terms of the battle. Thus, even if Lee acted unwisely, he was clearly 'in control,'…

inning the Civil ar
The American Civil ar is considered the most costly of all the wars fought by this nation in terms of the human lives that were lost and the casualties which left young men mutilated, amputated, and barely able to carry on. Approximately 750,000 young men died by the war's end either from wounds inflicted in battle or from infection and lack of sanitation in hospitals.[footnoteRef:1] At the end, to warring sides were once again united as a single nation rather than two countries torn apart by ideological differences. Four years of bloodshed and violence officially ended at Appomattox Court House in Northern Virginia when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. It is believed that the Union won the war because the nation was reunified; however this assumption is based on the belief that there can ever be a winner in warfare.…

Abraham Lincoln expanded the presidential powers at the time of the American Civil War.
This paper will examine how Abraham Lincoln expanded the presidential powers at the time of the American Civil War (Writer Thoughts, n.d).

Civil War Background

A key event in the historical consciousness of USA is its Civil War that took place between 1861 and 1865. While the 1776-1783 revolution led to the nation's creation, its Civil War determined the type of nation America would be. It resolved a couple of important issues that the revolution failed to settle, namely: 1) whether America was to remain a dissolvable confederacy of numerous free, independent States or become an indivisible country having a sovereign federal government; and 2) whether America, whose fundamental declaration was that all of mankind has been created with equal rights to freedom, would remain the world's largest slaveholding nation (McPherson, n.d). By spring 1865, every principal Confederate…

Industrialization After the Civil War
The United States economy grew to unprecedented levels and very quickly, after the American Civil War. This economic and industrial growth comprised of a number of causative factors such as technological innovation, westward expansion, and immigration to the United States that have witnessed tremendous development over the years. American economic and industrial growth was a kind of mixed blessing; but at the same time, it raised the living standard of some Americans, made certain goods easily accessible, and equally helped the United States become world military and economic power. These same forces, on the other hand and at the same time, increased the gap between the rich and the poor, enhanced and reduced political corruption at different levels of government, and also created some lasting legacy for environmental destruction (Shultz, 2014).

This paper contends to most effect, that industrialization was nothing more than a mere abolition of…

Nursing & omen's Roles Pre-and-Post Civil ar
The student focusing on 19th century history in the United States in most cases studies the Civil ar and the causes that led to the war. But there are a number of very important aspects to 19th century American history that relate to women's roles, including nursing and volunteering to help the war wounded and others in need of care. This paper delves into the role nurses played in the Civil ar (both Caucasian and Black nurses), the way in which the Civil ar changed the woman's work roles, the role women (both Black and Caucasian) played before, during, and after the war, and the terrible injustices thrust on women of color in a number of instances throughout the 19th century.

The oman's role in America prior to the Civil ar

"A woman's work is never done," is an old maxim but it has never become…

Civil War
orn in 1826, George . McClellan served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He was also a politician who became a major general at the time of the Civil War from 1861-1865 as well as a railroad president. In 1861, he was in command of the Army of Potomac, which he organized. McClellan also served the Union Army as the general-in-chief for a short time. He was very popular among his men, but was reluctant to make strong attacks on the Confederacy, despite having an advantage due to the number of men in his army. This brought differences between him and President Abraham Lincoln[footnoteRef:1]. When the Seven Days attle came to an end in 1862, McClellan's Peninsula Campaign fell apart. He was unable to defeat the Confederate Army of Robert E at the attle of Antietam at a later time of the same year. His extremely cautious…

Women of the South During the Civil War
Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. (New York: Vintage Books, 1997).

Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War is a book about women in the South during the Civil War. The broader issue of this book is how women can empower themselves even in the face of hardship and - although the word is strong - the oppressions that society puts on them.

The preface to Faust's book contains a quote which Faust attributes to her mother:

I am sure that the origins of this book lie somewhere in that youthful experience, and in the continued confrontations with my mother, until the very eve of her death, when I was 19, about the requirements of what she usually called femininity. It's a man's world, sweetie, and the sooner you learn that, the better…