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Civil War!

Another way to get to the heart of the Civil War is to study the documents of the time. By reading the government documents, the diaries and the letters, we can see the nationalism that both sides deeply felt.

There is an infinite amount of information available on the internet in regards to the Civil War. This website could not possibly attempt to encompass every aspect of this great war, nor go into as great of depth as other smaller websites can.

April 12 - At 4:30 AM Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War begins.

Below is an Entry from the Grolier Encyclopedia about the Civil War.

The Civil War, in U.S. history, was a conflict that pitted the Northern states of the American Union against the Southern states. The war raged for 4 years (1861Ð65) and was marked by some of the fiercest military campaigns of modern history. Large armies were involved in large movements, and entire populations were engaged in supporting the war efforts of both sides. The war had international impact, not only because of the growing international stature of the United States, but also because war threatened world access to the South's cotton. Britain and France had particular interest in the war's outcome, but other nations were also affected by it.

Historians still argue over causes and effects of the war. A few have looked at the Civil War in a hemispheric and even world context. This perspective is enlightening, for the American Civil War fits into a general pattern of Western Hemispheric conflict in the 19th century that brought new political alignments to South America and new unity to Canada. The war's main effects, however, were felt in the United States, which entered the war as a nation on the threshold of industrial revolution and finished it as a world power. The South entered as a loose collection of agrarian states devoted to almost feudal protocols and lost everything. It is possible to view the Civil War as the war of American unification, because it forged a modern nation and wrought vast social and economic change.

ORIGINS

Although historians commonly trace the coming of the Civil War through the 1850s, some roots of separation were present as early as the colonial period. Troubles between Tidewater (coastal region) and Piedmont (the interior) settlers often reflected differences in philosophies of government: the Tidewater was an older, more settled region, and its citizens wanted little government interference; Piedmont people, on the other hand, looked to government for protection along the frontier, for ready money and light taxation. Those differences shifted with time. Under the Articles of Confederation, adopted while the American Revolution was still being fought, the "pluribus" theory of government prevailed. Sovereignty rested with the states, and they gave limited powers to a weak central administration. With the adoption (1787) and ratification of the federal Constitution, however, the "unum" theory came to the fore, and strong national government began in America.

Lincoln's Position

Davis had no monopoly on problems. In the months following his election Lincoln juggled office-seekers, party promises, and the doings of the lame-duck incumbent, James Buchanan. Sympathetic to Southern views, Buchanan suffered a paralyzing view of the Constitution and secessionÑhe thought secession unconstitutional, but he believed that the constitution gave him no power to prevent it. By doing nothing, he permitted secession to run its course. He gave no help to the Peace Convention that assembled in Washington during February 1861 and no leadership to a Congress struggling with various schemes to prevent disruption, including the Crittenden Compromise, which proposed a constitutional amendment to divide the whole continent into slave and free zones along 36¡ 30« north latitude.

Lincoln also played a part in the failure of compromise. Trying to avoid committing himself to anything before gaining power, he nonetheless let others "attribute" ideas to him, including opposition to compromises that might result in extending slavery. Republican leaders in Congress adopted his apparent intransigence and steadily opposed compromise. In fact, Lincoln was willing to protect slavery where it existed, even by constitutional amendment, and thought the Fugitive Slave Act should be enforced. Neither he nor his spokesmen made his views clear, however, and the South came to see him as being against compromise of any kind.

In some ways Lincoln's problems were worse than those of Davis. The president was not the strongest man in his partyÑThurlow Weed and William H. Seward were far more powerfulÑand Lincoln was an outsider to Washington ways. He had to learn to be president against entrenched forces. Like Davis, he had to judge the temper of his country. Did the North want compromise? Were Northerners willing to force war over the slave issue? He did not know; nor did he know, for some time, exactly what he felt himself.

Other Activity in 1861

Major military activity centered in Virginia throughout the rest of 1861. McClellan built an enormous army to hurl against Richmond. Davis, advised by Robert E. Lee of Virginia's army, concentrated increased forces to defend that city, which became the Confederacy's new capital in May 1861. The sheer mass of troops numbed commanders. So much was needed to support so many that traditional organization simply could not sustain demand. With no time for innovative theorizing, offices and officers proliferated on both sides.

Distances too unnerved old army hands. While the heaviest preparations for battle continued in Virginia, conflict flickered along the border. In Missouri, where the secessionists had taken up arms against the Unionist majority, the Confederate militia defeated the Unionists at Wilson's Creek on Aug. 10, 1861. Union control of Missouri was not assured until Confederate forces were defeated at Pea Ridge, Ark., in March 1862 (see Pea Ridge, Battle of).

Grant in the West, Spring 1862

The Union general Ulysses S. Grant opened the 1862 campaign west of the Appalachian Mountains by capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in February. Grant then began to advance southward toward Corinth, Miss., while part of the Union army under John Pope undertook to expel the Confederates from the upper Mississippi. Supported by a naval flotilla under Andrew Foote, Pope besieged and captured Island No. 10 in the Mississippi (March 16ÐApril 7). In the meantime, however, the Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston concentrated his forces near Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., and on April 6 he launched a surprise attack against Grant's army at Shiloh Church (see Shiloh, Battle of). One of the worst battles of any American war, Shiloh raged for two days.

Although the Confederates were initially successful, Johnston was mortally wounded on the first day, and command passed to Beauregard. Confusion and exhaustion sapped Confederate strength, and on April 7, Grant, reinforced by Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army, counterattacked with great success. Beauregard withdrew, and the Union Army followed slowly, taking Corinth in May. The fall (April 26) of New Orleans to a U.S. fleet under David G. Farragut was a third major blow to Confederates in the West. However, the war then stabilized in this theater.

Peninsular Campaign
In the east, McClellan had at last begun to move his vast army in March 1862. He planned a giant amphibious operation aimed at capturing Yorktown and moving on Richmond from the south. The water route to Richmond up the James River was closed by the presence of the Confederate ironclad Virginia (formerly the U.S.S. Merrimack, which survived a 4-hour engagement with the U.S.S. Monitor on March 9; see Monitor and Merrimack). However, McClellan intended to advance up the peninsula between the York and James rivers. By early April his forces had been transported by sea to the end of the peninsula and were massed to take Yorktown.

For the Confederates, grand tactics demanded some kind of diversion to fend the Yankees from Richmond. Lee, serving as military advisor to Davis, encouraged Stonewall Jackson to conduct such a campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, where his activities would threaten Washington. In a brilliant series of actions from March to June 1862, Jackson, with never more than 16,000 men, confused and stalled some 50,000 Union troops in the valley. As a result, McClellan, who had hoped for aid from a force under McDowell at Fredericksburg, did not receive any reinforcements for his campaign.

Having occupied Yorktown on May 4, McClellan began his cautious advance up the peninsula with more than 100,000 men. After a rear-guard action at Williamsburg (May 5), the Confederates, under Joseph E. Johnston, withdrew slowly until McClellan reached Seven Pines, about 14 km (9 mi) from Richmond. There on May 31ÐJune 1, Johnston checked McClellan's advance in a pitched battle. Johnston, however, was severely wounded, and command of what would soon be known as the Army of Northern Virginia passed to Lee.

Applying Napoleonic tactics of flanking and fighting, Lee called Jackson to Richmond and planned a great wheeling turn of 95,000 men to flank McClellan's right and pin part of his army against the Chickahominy River. The plans were formulated on the basis of information from J. E. B. "Jeb" Stuart, who had made a complete circuit of the Union positions. Inexperienced staff officers, unexpected delays, and stiff Union resistance prevented the total envelopment Lee had hoped for, but the Seven Days Battles (June 26ÐJuly 1) forced McClellan to retreat from the peninsula, removing the threat against Richmond, and gave the Confederacy new hope. (See Peninsular Campaign.)

Grant in the West, Spring 1862
The Union general Ulysses S. Grant opened the 1862 campaign west of the Appalachian Mountains by capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in February. Grant then began to advance southward toward Corinth, Miss., while part of the Union army under John Pope undertook to expel the Confederates from the upper Mississippi. Supported by a naval flotilla under Andrew Foote, Pope besieged and captured Island No. 10 in the Mississippi (March 16ÐApril 7). In the meantime, however, the Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston concentrated his forces near Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., and on April 6 he launched a surprise attack against Grant's army at Shiloh Church (see Shiloh, Battle of). One of the worst battles of any American war, Shiloh raged for two days.

Although the Confederates were initially successful, Johnston was mortally wounded on the first day, and command passed to Beauregard. Confusion and exhaustion sapped Confederate strength, and on April 7, Grant, reinforced by Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army, counterattacked with great success. Beauregard withdrew, and the Union Army followed slowly, taking Corinth in May. The fall (April 26) of New Orleans to a U.S. fleet under David G. Farragut was a third major blow to Confederates in the West. However, the war then stabilized in this theater.

Peninsular Campaign
In the east, McClellan had at last begun to move his vast army in March 1862. He planned a giant amphibious operation aimed at capturing Yorktown and moving on Richmond from the south. The water route to Richmond up the James River was closed by the presence of the Confederate ironclad Virginia (formerly the U.S.S. Merrimack, which survived a 4-hour engagement with the U.S.S. Monitor on March 9; see Monitor and Merrimack). However, McClellan intended to advance up the peninsula between the York and James rivers. By early April his forces had been transported by sea to the end of the peninsula and were massed to take Yorktown.

For the Confederates, grand tactics demanded some kind of diversion to fend the Yankees from Richmond. Lee, serving as military advisor to Davis, encouraged Stonewall Jackson to conduct such a campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, where his activities would threaten Washington. In a brilliant series of actions from March to June 1862, Jackson, with never more than 16,000 men, confused and stalled some 50,000 Union troops in the valley. As a result, McClellan, who had hoped for aid from a force under McDowell at Fredericksburg, did not receive any reinforcements for his campaign.

Having occupied Yorktown on May 4, McClellan began his cautious advance up the peninsula with more than 100,000 men. After a rear-guard action at Williamsburg (May 5), the Confederates, under Joseph E. Johnston, withdrew slowly until McClellan reached Seven Pines, about 14 km (9 mi) from Richmond. There on May 31ÐJune 1, Johnston checked McClellan's advance in a pitched battle. Johnston, however, was severely wounded, and command of what would soon be known as the Army of Northern Virginia passed to Lee.

Applying Napoleonic tactics of flanking and fighting, Lee called Jackson to Richmond and planned a great wheeling turn of 95,000 men to flank McClellan's right and pin part of his army against the Chickahominy River. The plans were formulated on the basis of information from J. E. B. "Jeb" Stuart, who had made a complete circuit of the Union positions. Inexperienced staff officers, unexpected delays, and stiff Union resistance prevented the total envelopment Lee had hoped for, but the Seven Days Battles (June 26ÐJuly 1) forced McClellan to retreat from the peninsula, removing the threat against Richmond, and gave the Confederacy new hope. (See Peninsular Campaign.)

Second Bull Run
Almost in despair of finding a winning general or combination, Lincoln appointed Henry W. Halleck commanding general on July 11. Halleck put another Union army into Virginia under John Pope. As Pope advanced from Washington, Lee detached Jackson with more than half the Army of Northern Virginia to meet him. At Cedead again to flank Pope and outmarch him to Manassas. There ar Mountain on August 9, Jackson drove Pope back toward Manassas Junction. Having moved up to join Jackson, Lee sent him ahJackson destroyed the Union supply depot and took position near the old Bull Run battlefield. While Pope moved to attack Jackson on August 29, Lee sent forward James Longstreet's wing of the army, which hit Pope's left flank on August 30. Pope was smashed back across the Potomac. With McClellan's force already withdrawn from Virginia, that Confederate state was now virtually free from invaders. Davis and Lee pondered how to e

The South's Double Offensive of 1862

Lee was an apt student of Napoleonic teachings, including the French general's call for constant audacity in small powers fighting large ones. In September 1862 the Confederacy seemed to have a unique chance for a double offensive. In the west Gen. Braxton Bragg, with the army that Albert Sidney Johnston and Beauregard had commanded (now known as the Army of Tennessee), was about to move north from Chattanooga, Tenn., into Kentucky. If Lee and Bragg moved in concert, the South might exploit its inner lines and concentrate more troops at crucial points than the enemy. Invasions of Maryland and Kentucky could be defended to the outside world: both were considered Confederate states, and the South would simply be seeking natural boundaries.

Moreover, such a combined offensive conformed to Davis's evolving strategy of the "offensive-defensive," which would permit the South to hoard its thin resources on the defensive and use them for attacks when special opportunities offered. Bragg moved north in late August, and Lee crossed the Potomac in early September.

Everywhere Union forces were on the defensive. The Army of the Potomac, once more under McClellan, reorganized near Washington. Buell's army retreated in confusion ahead of Bragg and was soon in what appeared to be a losing race for Louisville, Ky. If Louisville fell, all of Indiana and Ohio would be open to rebels, the Baltimore & Ohio rail link would break, and the Confederate flag might wave over the Great Lakes. If McClellan failed to halt Lee, Washington might fall. McClellan and Buell could lose the war.