History of the Civil War - Essay Example

History of the Civil War Order No: 182204 No: of pages: 6 Premium – 6530 Introduction: The American Civil War that took place between 1861 and1865 is considered to be the worst war ever fought on American soil. It was fought by Americans who were split into two factions. On one hand there was “The Union” comprising of Free and Border states, and on the other hand there were the “Confederates” which was made up of eleven Southern slave states, who felt they had a right to secession. The Union was headed by President Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party and the Confederates had President Jefferson Davis as their head. This was one of the bloodiest of wars in which thousands of people lost their lives. The Defeat of the Confederates: While the Confederates were fighting for secession, the Republicans opposed it and hence on April 12th 1861, fighting commenced with the Confederates attacking a United States military installation in Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Both parties raised large armies and fought many wars at Antietam and Shiloh, but what gave a major turn to the events was Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation”. The freeing of the slaves in the South lent a moral goal to the war and allowed the Union to recruit African Americans to their army for reinforcements. Event European immigrants joined the Union in large numbers. Robert E. Lee, Confederate General gained many victories in the East with the Battle of Potomac, but he had lost his best general Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson in the Battle of Chancellorville in May 1863. There after, General Lee lost the Battle of Gettysburg and fled to Virginia. The Union Navy, under the leadership of Ulysses S. Grant captured the Mississippi River thus splitting the Confederacy. The third reason for the defeat of the Confederates was because they could not replace their causalities lost in the war against the Union and had to retreat into trenches. The Union grew in strength with manpower, political organizations, finance, industry and transportation. As a result of all this, the Confederacy collapsed in 1865, after Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. Reconstruction: A success or failure: The post – war era was called the period of “Reconstruction”. It was during this time that the whole restoration of the Union took place. The approximate figures of soldier deaths amounted to around 620,000 and the war’s casualties were about 970,000 which were more than all the U.S wars combined. Even today, the causes and the outcome of this war remains a controversy among Historians. The first and foremost goal of the war was to end secession and slavery and this brought about positive restoration and strengthening of the Union. In 1865, around four million black slaves were set free. Reconstruction had to satisfy two major goals. The first one was to put an end to secession and the other was to put an end to slavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation played a major role in fulfilling these criteria. This period marked a series of policy changes in relation to both the Federal and State. The other long term goals in the Reconstruction satisfied three major outcomes in relation to “three Civil War Amendments”, i.e. XIII – abolition of slavery; XIV – extension of Federal legal protection to all people regardless of race and XV – abolishment of restrictions on Voting Rights. In 1877, Reconstruction of the Union came to an end. Struggle between the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary: The era of Reconstruction after the Civil War gave rise to a lot of party politics. The Civil war years, Legislative activism reached a new peak and by passing laws on finance, banking, industry and trade paved the path for the dynamic era after the war. The period of Reconstruction not only brought periods of great achievement but it also brought great tension. It was the Southern States who had started the Civil war, but by the end of the war, they were almost in ruins. When the war came to an end, the Southern States organized conventions in order to form new governments. Very soon, all the Southern States had their own legislatures except three of them. Many of the new State officials were dishonest and started making use of their power to become rich. Economy and Industrialization: After the Civil War, the Southern Economy was in ruins and hence the U.S Economy underwent a sea of change during the period of Reconstruction. One important change that took place was “Share Cropping” which allowed blacks to use and work on the land themselves for the first time in their lives. White farmers separated their big farms into smaller ones and rented them to the blacks. They also gave them enough supplies, seeds and tools to carry on their work. After harvesting the owner got a large share of the produce from the tenant farmer. Economic Independence of the American workers was threatened by mechanization and mass production. Labor unions were not so significant before the Civil War, but after the war in 1865, more and more laborers joined unions and began conducting strikes and challenging the growing power of the American capitalists. By the late 1860’s, the Southerners were looking for a more diversified economy and people began shifting from farm to factory. A majority of the people encouraged capital investments in the economy from sources outside and encouraged industrialization in the South. Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant: General Ulysses S. Grant is considered as the most victorious Civil War general in American history who saved the Union as well as the 18th President of the United States. He was the first Union General who initiated coordinated offences between multiple theatres during the war. In 1864, Grant personally supervised the campaign against General Robert E. Lee’s army at Virginia. He conducted a number of battles using attrition warfare and incurred very high casualties that attracted negative public opinion. Even then, Lincoln gave him full support by sending him reinenforcements. Finally General Lee and his dwindling army had to retreat into trenches in Richmond. Grant never gave up and in April 1865 he cut through and captured Richmond and at Appomattox Court House General Lee was forced to surrender. There after he followed a policy of peace and in 1868 he was elected President for the second time. He was responsible for the Radical Reconstruction and controlled violence from the Ku Klux Klan. Grant himself was an honest man but his tolerance of corruption by his other officers earned him a bad reputation. He supported the civil rights of African Americans and rendered a lot of support. He did not succeed in winning the election for the third time and so had to give up office. He went deep into bankruptcy and also suffered a lot from throat cancer. He and his family lived in poverty after he lost all his money in investing. Mark Twain offered him an attractive contract to publish his memoirs written by him and which became an instant success with the public and sold around 300,000 copies. On 23rd July 1885 Grant breathed his last. References: Reconstruction after the Civil War www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa4.cfm American History www.us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/html/notes.html Ulysses S. Grant www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant General Grant/ National Memorial www.nps.gov/gegr/ Read More