The American Civil War

Introduction:

    The American Civil War was contributed to by many inmportant factors, mainly the debate between North and South on the issue of slavery. The South was starting to see that it would be beneficial, if not essential to it's agricultural economy to retain the institution of slavery. The North occupied South Carolina, attempting to stop the secession at its root. At Fort Sumpter, the confederates fought against the Northern occupation, effectively beginning the civil war.

    By all means, the North, with the rise of industry should have crushed the South quickly and easily.  The battle at Gettysburg was the first time that the North really demonstrated their military superiority over the South.  It could be said that it was not the Northern soldiers and generals were not the ones to win the war for the union, but rather the northern guns and ammunition.  Lincoln's sanctions on the South at the beginning of the war hurt their chances of defending themselves very much. 

Conclusion:

    It could be said, that the slave's fight for emancipation was won by the slaves themselves.  Escaped slaves often ran to the North and joined the Union army.  Lincoln's Second Confiscation act and the Militia act of 1862 helped greatly to crack down on rebel slave holders and to encourage the employment of Blacks in the Union army.  These escaped slaves fought both on the line and in behind the scenes labor tasks.

Robert E. Lee was offered the duty of commander of Union Forces, yet declined President Abraham Lincoln's offer.  It appeard as though Lee would stay loyal to his home state of Virginia, and support their decision to seceed.  Lee it seemed, could not turn against his home state to fight for the union, it did not seem right to him to fight against his own neighbors in a war like this.  So lee became the Union Commander in 1864, fighting against the same army that he had been recruited to lead.  His victories over the superior forces were staggering, but in time the North wore his army down, most noteably at the Battle at Gettysburg. 

    While many factors can be said to have contributed to the onset of Civil war in America, there are a few that stand above the rest.  Abraham Lincoln declared that "Government cannot endure, half slave, half free."  He was right, it was impossible to take a government divided over a huge issue and try and patch it into one cohesive piece.  This issue eventually led to a deep enough rift between North and South that seven states seceeded in two months.  The Union rejected these secessions, regarding them as rebellion, and tried to curb any future rebellions, and forceably pull the Union back together. 

    While the Civil War was most notably a war caused by the issue of slavery, and worsened by secession, it seems as though there were underlying causes of nationality involved.  Loyalty played a huge part in this war.  While most of the country was in fact, against slavery, it didn't seem practical to go against their friends and neighbors to show it.  Therefore we became a nation divided in two, and the only way out was nothing short of Civil War. 

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