Map of the division of the states during the Civil War. Blue represents Union states, including those admitted during the war; light blue represents Union states which permitted slavery (border states); red represents Confederate states. White or unshaded areas were territories before or during the Civil War.

The flag of the United States from 1861-1863. The southern states were still represented in the number of stars in the flag, since their secession from the Union was considered illegal in the north. In 1863, a star was added to represent the new state of West Virginia.

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the 20 free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the Confederacy. Although the Union states included the Western states of California, Oregon, and (after 1864) Nevada, as well as states of the Midwest, the Union has often been referred to as "the North", both then and now.^[1]

Terminology[link]

Legally, the term originated in the Perpetual Union of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Also, then and now, in the public dialogue of the United States, new states have been "admitted to the Union", and the President's annual address to Congress and to the people has been referred to as the "State of the Union address". Even before the war started, the phrase "preserve the Union" was commonplace and a "union of states" had been used to refer to the entire United States. Using the term "Union" to apply to the non-secessionist side carried a connotation of legitimacy as the continuation of the pre-existing political entity.^[2]

Size and strength[link]

In comparison to the Confederacy, the Union was heavily industrialized and far more urbanized than the rural South. The Union states had nearly five times the white population of the Confederate states (23 million to 5 million). The Union's great advantages in population and industry would prove to be vital long-term factors in its victory over the Confederacy.

Presidency[link]

Lincoln, an ungainly giant, did not look the part of a president, but historians have overwhelmingly praised the "political genius" of his performance in the role.^[3] His first priority was military victory, and that required that he master entirely new skills as a master strategist and diplomat. He supervised not only the supplies and finances, but as well the manpower, the selection of generals, and the course of overall strategy. Working closely with state and local politicians he rallied public opinion and (at Gettysburg) articulated a national mission that has defined America ever since. Lincoln's charm and willingness to cooperate with political and personal enemies made Washington work much more smoothly than Richmond. His wit smoothed many rough edges. Lincoln's cabinet proved much stronger and more efficient than Davis's, as Lincoln channeled personal rivalries into a competition for excellence rather than mutual destruction. With William Seward at State, Salmon P. Chase at the Treasury, and (from 1862) Edwin Stanton at the War Department, Lincoln had a powerful cabinet of determined men; except for monitoring major appointments, Lincoln gave them full rein to destroy the Confederacy.^[4]

Congress[link]

The Republican Congress passed many major laws that reshaped the nation's economy, financial system, tax system, land system, and higher education system, including the Morrill tariff, the Homestead Act, the Pacific Railroad Act, and the National Banking Act.^[5] Lincoln paid relatively little attention to this legislation as he focused on war issues, but he worked smoothly with powerful Congressional leaders such as Thaddeus Stevens (on taxation and spending), Charles Sumner (on foreign affairs), Lyman Trumbull (on legal issues), Justin Smith Morrill (on land grants and tariffs) and William Pitt Fessenden (on finances).^[6]

Military and Reconstruction issues were another matter, and Lincoln as the leader of the moderate and conservative factions of the Republican Party often crossed swords with the Radical Republicans, led by Stevens and Sumner. Tap shows that Congress challenged Lincoln's role as commander-in-chief through the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. It was a joint committee of both houses that was dominated by Radicals who took a hard line against the Confederacy. During the 37th and 38th Congresses, it investigated every aspect of Union military operations, with special attention to finding the men guilt of military defeats. They assumed an inevitable Union victory, and failure seemed to them to indicate evil motivations or personal failures. They were skeptical of military science and especially the graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point, many of alumni of which were leaders of the enemy army. They much preferred political generals with a known political record. Some committee suggested that West Pointers who engaged in strategic maneuver were cowardly or even disloyal. It ended up endorsing incompetent but politically correct generals.^[7]

Politics[link]

Opposition[link]

An anti-Lincoln Copperhead pamphlet from 1864

The main opposition came from Copperheads, who were Southern sympathizers in the Midwest. Irish Catholics after 1862 opposed the war, and rioted in the New York Draft Riots of 1863. The Democratic Party was deeply split. In 1861 most Democrats supported the war, but with the growth of the Copperhead movement, the party increasingly split down the middle. It scored major gains in the 1862 elections, including the election of moderate Horatio Seymour as governor of New York. They gained 28 seats in the House, but remained a minority. Indiana was especially hard-fought, but when the Democrats gained control of the legislature in the 1862 election they were unable to impede the war effort, which was controlled by governor Oliver P. Morton with federal help.^[8]

The Democrats nominated George McClellan a War Democrat in 1864 but gave him an anti-war platform. In terms of Congress the opposition was nearly powerless--and indeed in most states. In Indiana and Illinois pro-war governors circumvented anti-war legislatures elected in 1862. For 30 years after the war the Democrats carried the burden of having opposed the martyred Lincoln, the salvation of the Union and the destruction of slavery.^[9]

Copperheads[link]

The Copperheads were a large faction of northern Democrats who opposed the war, demanding an immediate peace settlement. The said they wanted to restore "the Union as it was" (that is, with the South and with slavery), but they realized that the Confederacy would never voluntarily rejoin the U.S. The most prominent Copperhead was Ohio's Clement L. Vallandigham, a Congressman and leader of the Democratic Party in Ohio. He was defeated in an intense election for governor in 1863. In Republican prosecutors in the Midwest accused some Copperhead activists of treason in a series of trials in 1864.^[10]

Copperheadism was a grassroots movement, strongest in the area just north of the Ohio River, as well as some urban ethnic wards. Some historians have argued that it represented a traditionalistic element alarmed at the rapid modernization of society sponsored by the Republican Party. It looked back to Jacksonian Democracy for inspiration. Weber (2006) argues that the Copperheads damaged the Union war effort by fighting the draft, encouraging desertion, and forming conspiracies.^[11] However other historians say the Copperheads were a legitimate opposition force unfairly treated by the government, adding that the draft was in disrepute and that the Republicans greatly exaggerated the conspiracies for partisan reasons.^[12] Copperheadism was a major issue in the 1864 presidential election; its strength waxed when Union armies were doing poorly, and waned when they won great victories. After the fall of Atlanta in September 1864 military success seemed assured, and Copperheadism collapsed.

Soldiers[link]

Recruiting volunteers[link]

There was no shortage of enthusiasm as young men clamored to join the army in 1861. That was where the excitement was, and they were all volunteers. The decision was made to keep the small regular army intact; its officers could however join the temporary new volunteer army that was formed, expecting their experience would lead to rapid promotions. The problem with volunteering was a serious lack of planning, leadership and organization at the highest levels. Washington called on the states for troops and every northern governor set about raising and equipping regiments, with the bills sent to the War Department. The men could elect the junior officers, while the governor appointed the senior officers, and Lincoln appointed the generals. Typically politicians used their local organizations to raise troops, and were in line (if healthy enough) to become colonel. The problem was that the War Department, under the disorganized leadership of Simon Cameron also authorized local and private groups to raise regiments. The result was widespread confusion and delay.

Pennsylvania for example had acute problems. When Washington called for ten more regiments, enough men volunteered to form thirty. However they were scattered among seventy different new units, none of which was a complete regiment. Not until Washington approved gubernatorial control of all new units was the problem resolved. Allan Nevins is particularly scathing in his analysis: "A President more exact, systematic and vigilant than Lincoln, a Secretary more alert and clearheaded than Cameron, would have prevented these difficulties."^[13]

By the end of 1861 700,000 soldiers were drilling in Union camps. The first wave in spring was called up for only 90 days, then went home or reenlisted. Later waves enlisted for three years. They spent their time drilling. The combat in the first year, though strategically important, involved relatively small forces and few casualties. Sickness was a much more serious cause of hospitalization or death. In the first few months men wore low quality uniforms made of "shoddy" but by fall sturdy wool uniforms--in blue--were standard. The nation's factories were converted to produce the rifles, cannon, wagons, tents, telegraph sets and the myriad other special items the army needed. While business had been slow or depressed in spring 1861 because of war fears and Southern boycotts, by fall business was hiring again, offering young men jobs that were an alternative way to help win the war. Nonpartisanship was the rule in the first year, but by summer 1862 many Democrats had stopped supporting the war effort and volunteering fell off sharply in their strongholds. The calls for more and more soldiers continued, so states and localities responded by offering cash bonuses. By 1863 a draft law was in effect, but few men actually were drafted and served, since it was designed to get them to volunteer or hire a substitute. Others hid away or left the country. With the Emancipation proclamation taking effect in January 1863, localities could meet their draft quota by sponsoring regiments of ex-slaves organized in the South.^[14]

Medical conditions[link]

More soldiers died of disease than in battle, and even larger numbers were temporarily incapacitated by wounds, disease and accidents. The Union responded by building army hospitals in every state. The hygiene of the camps was poor, especially at the beginning of the war when men who had seldom been far from home were brought together for training with thousands of strangers. First came epidemics of the childhood diseases of chicken pox, mumps, whooping cough, and, especially, measles. Operations in the South meant a dangerous and new disease environment, bringing diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid fever, and malaria. There were no antibiotics, so the surgeons prescribed coffee, whiskey, and quinine. Harsh weather; bad water; inadequate shelter in winter quarters; poor policing of camps; and dirty camp hospitals took their toll.^[15] This was a common scenario in wars from time immemorial, and conditions faced by the Confederate army were even worse. What was different in the Union was the emergence of skilled, well-funded medical organizers who rook proactive action, especially in the much enlarged United States Army Medical Department^[16], and the United States Sanitary Commission, a new private agency.^[17] Numerous other new agencies also targeted the medical and morale needs of soldiers, including the United States Christian Commission as well as smaller private agencies such as the Women's Central Association of Relief for Sick and Wounded in the Army (WCAR) founded in 1861 by Henry Whitney Bellows, a Unitarian minister, and social reformer Dorothea Dix. Systematic funding appeals raised public consciousness, as well as millions of dollars. Many thousands of volunteers worked in the hospitals and rest homes, most famously poet Walt Whitman. Frederick Law Olmstead, a famous landscape architect, was the highly efficient executive director of the Sanitary Commission.^[18]

States could use their own tax money to support their troops as Ohio did. Under the energetic leadership of Governor David Tod, a War Democrat who won office on a coalition "Union Party" ticket with Republicans, Ohio acted vigorously. Following the unexpected carnage at the battle of Shiloh in April 1862, it send 3 steamboats to the scene as floating hospitals with doctors, nurses and medical supplies. The state fleet expanded to eleven hospital ships. The state also set up 12 local offices in main transportation nodes to help Ohio soldiers moving back and forth.^[19]

The Christian Commission comprised 6000 volunteers who aided chaplains in many ways.^[20] For example, its agents distributed Bibles, delivered sermons, helped with letters home, taught men to read and write, and set up camp libraries.^[21]

The Army learned many lessons and in 1886, it established the Hospital Corps. In the long run the wartime experiences of the numerous commissions modernized public welfare, and set the stage for large--scale community philanthropy in America based on fund raising campaigns and private donations.^[22] Women gained new public roles. For example, Mary Livermore (1820-1905). the manager of the Chicago branch of the US Sanitary Commission, used her newfound organizational skills to mobilize support for women's suffrage after the war. She argued that women needed more education and job opportunities to help them fulfill their role of serving others.^[23] The Sanitary Commission collected enormous amounts of statistical data, and opened up the problems of storing information for fast access and mechanically searching for data patterns.^[24] The pioneer was John Shaw Billings (1838-1913). A senior surgeon in the war, Billings built two of the world's most important libraries, Library of the Surgeon General's Office (now the National Library of Medicine and the New York Public Library; he also figured out how to mechanically analyze data by turning it into numbers and punching onto the computer punch card as developed by his student Herman Hollerith.

Draft riots[link]

Discontent with the 1863 draft law led to riots in several cities and in rural areas as well, By far the most important were the New York City draft riots of July 13 to July 16, 1863.^[25] Irish Catholic and other workers fought police, militia and regular army units until the Army used artillery to sweep the streets. Initially focused on the draft, the protests quickly expanded into violent attacks on blacks in New York City, with many killed on the streets.^[26]

Small-scale riots broke out in ethnic German and Irish districts, and in areas along the Ohio River with many Copperheads. Holmes County, Ohio was an isolated localistic areas dominated by Pennsylvania Dutch and some recent German immigrants. It was a Democratic stronghold and few men dared speak out in favor of conscription. Local politicians denounced Lincoln and Congress as despotic, seeing the draft law as a violation of their local autonomy. In June 1863, small scale disturbance broke out; they ended when the Army send in armed units.^[27]

Economy[link]

The Union economy grew and prospered during the war while fielding a very large army and navy. The Republicans in Washington had a Whiggish vision of an industrial nation, with great cities, efficient factories, productive farms, national banks, and high speed rail links. The South had resisted policies such as tariffs to promote industry and homestead laws to promote farming because slavery would not benefit; with the South gone, and Northern Democrats very weak in Congress, the Republicans enacted their legislation. At the same time they passed new taxes to pay for part of the war, and issued large amounts of bonds to pay for the most of the rest. (The remainder can be charged to inflation.) They wrote an elaborate program of economic modernization that had the dual purpose of winning the war and permanently transforming the economy.^[28]

Financing the war[link]

In 1860 the Treasury was a small operation that funded the small-scale operations of the government through the low tariff and land sales.^[29] Revenues were trivial in comparison with the cost of a full-scale war, but the Treasury Department under Secretary Salmon P. Chase showed unusual ingenuity in financing the war without crippling the economy.^[30] Many new taxes were imposed, and always with a patriotic theme comparing the financial sacrifice to the sacrifices of life and limb. The government paid for supplies in real money, which encouraged people to sell to the government regardless of their politics. By contrast the Confederacy gave paper promissory notes when it seized property, so that even loyal Confederates would hide their horses and mules rather than sell them for dubious paper. Overall the Northern financial system was highly successful in raising money and turning patriotism into profit, while the Confederate system impoverished its patriots.^[31]

The United States needed $3.1 billion to pay for the immense armies and fleets raised to fight the Civil War — over $400 million just in 1862.^[32] Apart from tariffs, the largest new tax revenue by far came from new excise taxes--a sort of value added tax--that was imposed on every sort of manufactured item. Second came much higher tariffs, through several Morrill tariff laws. Third came the nation's first income tax; only the wealthy paid and it was repealed at war's end.

Apart from taxes, the second major source was government bonds. For the first time bonds in small denominations were sold directly to the people, with publicity and patriotism as key factors, as designed by banker Jay Cooke. State banks lost their power to issue banknotes. Only national banks could do that, and Chase made it easy to become a national bank; it involved buying and holding federal bonds and financiers rushed to open these banks. Chase numbered them, so that the first one in each city was the "First National Bank."^[33] Fourth the government printed "greenbacks"--paper money--which led to endless controversy because they caused inflation^[34].

The North's most important war measure was perhaps the creation of a system of national banks that provided a sound currency for the industrial expansion. Even more important, the hundreds of new banks that were allowed to open were required to purchase government bonds. Thereby the nation monetized the potential wealth represented by farms, urban buildings, factories, and businesses, and immediately turned that money over to the Treasury for war needs.

Tariffs[link]

Secretary Chase, though a long-time free-trader, worked with Morrill to pass a second tariff bill in summer 1861, raising rates another 10 points in order to generate more revenues.^[35] These subsequent bills were primarily revenue driven to meet the war's needs, though they enjoyed the support of protectionists such as Carey, who again assisted Morrill in the bill's drafting. The Morrill Tariff of 1861 was designed to raise revenue. The tariff act of 1862 served not only to raise revenue, but also to encourage the establishment of factories free from British competition by taxing British imports. Furthermore, it protected American factory workers from low paid European workers, and as a major bonus attracted tens of thousands of those Europeans to immigrate to America for high wage factory and craftsman jobs.^[36]

Customs revenue from tariffs totaled $345 million from 1861 through 1865, or 43% of all federal tax revenue.

Land grants[link]

The U.S. government owned vast amounts of good land (mostly from the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the Oregon Treaty with Britain in 1846). The challenge was to make the land useful to people and to provide the economic basis for the wealth that would pay off the war debt. Land grants went to railroad construction companies to open up the western plains and link up to California. Together with the free lands provided farmers by the Homestead Law the low-cost farm lands provided by the land grants speeded up the expansion of commercial agriculture.

The 1862 Homestead Act opened up the public domain lands for free. Land grants to the railroads meant they could sell tracts for family farms (80 to 200 acres) at low prices with extended credit. In addition the government sponsored fresh information, scientific methods and the latest techniques through the newly established Department of Agriculture and the Morrill Land Grant College Act.

Agriculture[link]

Agriculture was the largest single industry and it prospered during the war.^[37][38] Prices were high, pulled up by a strong demand from the army and from Britain (which depended on American wheat for a fourth of its food imports.) The war acted as a catalyst which encouraged the rapid adoption of horse-drawn machinery and other implements. The rapid spread of recent inventions such as the reaper and mower made the work force efficient, even as hundreds of thousands of farmers were in the army. Many wives took their place, and often consulted by mail on what to do; increasingly they relied on community and extended kin for advice and help.^[39]

The Union used hundreds of thousands of animals. The Army had plenty of cash to purchase them from farmers and breeders, but especially in the early months the quality was mixed^[40]. Horses were needed for cavalry and artillery^[41]. Mules pulled the wagons. The supply held up, despite an unprecedented epidemic of glanders, a fatal disease that baffled veterinarians.^[42] In the South, the Union army shot all the horses it did not need to keep them out of Confederate hands.

Cotton trade[link]

The Treasury started buying cotton during the war, for shipment to Europe and northern mills. The sellers were Southern planters who needed the cash, regardless of their patriotism. The Northern buyers could make heavy profits, which annoyed soldiers like Ulysses Grant. He blamed Jewish traders and expelled them from his lines in 1862, but Lincoln quickly overruled this show of anti-semitism. Critics said the cotton trade helped the South, prolonged the war and fostered corruption. Washington decided to continue the trade for fear that Britain might intervene if its textile manufacturers were denied raw material. Another goal was to foster latent Unionism in Southern border states. Northern textile manufacturers needed cotton to remain in business and to make uniforms, while cotton exports to Europe provided an important source of gold to finance the war.^[43]

Society[link]

Religion[link]

Methodists[link]

Many Northerners had only recently become religious (following the Second Great Awakening) and religion was a powerful force in their lives. No denomination was more active in supporting the Union than the Methodist Episcopal Church. Carwardine^[44] argues that for many Methodists, the victory of Lincoln in 1860 heralded the arrival of the kingdom of God in America. They were moved into action by a vision of freedom for slaves, freedom from the persecutions of godly abolitionists, release from the Slave Power's evil grip on the American government, and the promise of a new direction for the Union.^[44] Methodists formed a major element of the popular support for the Radical Republicans with their hard line toward the white South. Dissident Methodists left the church.^[45] During Reconstruction the Methodists took the lead in helping form Methodist churches for Freedmen, and moving into Southern cities even to the point of taking control, with Army help, of buildings that had belonged to the southern branch of the church.^[46][47]

The Methodist family magazine Ladies' Repository promoted Christian family activism. Its articles provided moral uplift to women and children. It portrayed the War as a great moral crusade against a decadent Southern civilization corrupted by slavery. It recommended activities that family members could perform in order to aid the Union cause.^[48]

Family[link]

Frank reports that what it meant to be a father varied with status and age, but most men demonstrated dual commitments as providers and nurturers and also believed that husband and wife had mutual obligations toward their children. The war privileged masculinity, dramatizing and exaggerating, father-son bonds. Especially at five critical five stages in the soldier's career (enlistment, blooding, mustering out, wounding, and death) letters from absent fathers articulated a distinctive set of 19th-century ideals of manliness.^[49]

Children[link]

There were numerous children's magazines such as Merry's Museum, The Student and Schoolmate, Our Young Folks, The Little Pilgrim, Forrester's Palymate, and The Little Corporal. They showed a Protestant religious tone and "promoted the principles of hard work, obedience, generosity, humility, and piety; trumpeted the benefits of family cohesion; and furnished mild adventure stories, innocent entertainment, and instruction."^[50] Their pages featured factual information and anecdotes about the war along with related quizzes, games, poems and songs, short oratorical pieces for "declamation," short stories, and very short plays that children could stage. They promoted patriotism and the Union war aims, fostered kindly attitudes toward freed slaves, blackened the Confederates cause, encouraged readers to raise money for war-related humanitarian funds, and dealt with the death of family members.^[51] By 1866, the Milton Bradley Company was selling "The Myriopticon: A Historical Panorama of the Rebellion" that allowed children to stage a neighborhood show that would explain the war. It comprised colorful drawings that were turned on wheels and included pre-printed tickets, poster advertisements, and narration that could be read aloud at the show.^[52]

Caring for war orphans was an important function for local organizations as well as state and local government.^[53] A typical state was Iowa, where the private "Iowa Soldiers Orphans Home Association" operated with funding from the legislature and public donations. It set up orphanages in Davenport, Glenwood and Cedar Falls. The state government funded pensions for the widows and children of soldiers.^[54]

All the northern states had free public school systems before the war, but not the border states. West Virginia set up its system in 1863. Over bitter opposition it established an almost-equal education for black children, most of whom were ex-slaves.^[55] Thousands of black refugees poured into St. Louis, where the Freedmen's Relief Society, the Ladies Union Aid Society, the Western Sanitary Commission, and the American Missionary Association (AMA) set up schools for their children.^[56]

Unionists in South and Border states[link]

People loyal to the federal government and opposed to secession living in the border states (where slavery was legal in 1861) and Confederate states were termed Unionists. Confederates sometimes styled them "Homemade Yankees". However, Southern Unionists were not necessarily northern sympathizers and many of them – although opposing secession – supported the Confederacy once it was a fact. East Tennessee never supported the Confederacy, and Unionists there became powerful state leaders, including governors Andrew Johnson and William G. Brownlow. Likewise, large pockets of eastern Kentucky were Unionist and helped keep the state from seceding.^[57] Western Virginia, with few slaves and some industry, was so strongly Unionist that it broke away and formed the new state of West Virginia.^[58]

Still, nearly 120,000 Southern Unionists served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and Unionist regiments were raised in every Southern state. Southern Unionists were extensively used as anti-guerrilla paramilitary forces.^[59] During Reconstruction many Unionists in the ex-Confederacy became Scalawags who supported the Republican Party.^[60]

Guerrilla warfare[link]

Besides organized military conflict, the border states were beset by guerrilla warfare. In such a bitterly divided state, neighbors frequently used the excuse of war to settle personal grudges and took up arms against neighbors.

Missouri[link]

Missouri was the scene of over 1000 engagements between Union and Confederate forces, and uncounted numbers of guerrilla attacks and raids by informal pro-Confederate bands.^[61] Western Missouri was the scene of brutal guerrilla warfare during the Civil War. Roving insurgent bands such as Quantrill's Raiders and the men of Bloody Bill Anderson terrorized the countryside, striking both military installations and civilian settlements. Because of the widespread attacks and the protection offered by Confederate sympathizers, Federal leaders issued General Order No. 11 in 1863, and evacuated areas of Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties. They forced the residents out to reduce support for the guerrillas. Union cavalry could sweep through and track down Confederate guerrillas, who no longer had places to hide and people and infrastructure to support them. On short notice, the army forced almost 20,000 people, mostly women, children, and the elderly, to leave their homes. Many never returned, and the affected counties were economically devastated for years after the end of the war.^[62] Families passed along stories of their bitter experiences down through several generations--Harry Truman's grandparents were caught up in the raids and he tells how they were kept in concentration camps.^[63]

Some marauding units became organized criminal gangs after the war. In 1882, the bank robber and ex-Confederate guerrilla Jesse James was killed in Saint Joseph. Vigilante groups appeared in remote areas where law enforcement was weak, to deal with the lawlessness left over from the guerrilla warfare phase. For example, the Bald Knobbers were the term for several law-and-order vigilante groups in the Ozarks. In some cases, they too turned to illegal gang activity.^[64]

Kentucky[link]

In response to the growing problem of locally organized guerrilla campaigns throughout 1863 and 1864, in June 1864, Maj. Gen. Stephen G. Burbridge was given command over the state of Kentucky. This began an extended period of military control that would last through early 1865, beginning with martial law authorized by President Abraham Lincoln. To pacify Kentucky, Burbridge rigorously suppressed disloyalty and used economic pressure as coercion. His guerrilla policy, which included public execution of four guerrillas for the death of each unarmed Union citizen, caused the most controversy. After a falling out with Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, Burbridge was dismissed in February 1865. Confederates remembered him as the "Butcher of Kentucky".^[65]

Union states[link]

The Union states (all with their separate articles, and some cities):

* Border states with slavery in 1861: In Kentucky and Missouri, pro-secession "governments" declared for the South but never had significant control of the states.

West Virginia separated from Virginia and became part of the Union during the war, on June 20, 1863. Nevada also joined the Union during the war, becoming a state on October 31, 1864.

Union Territories[link]

The Union controlled territories in April, 1861 were:^[66]

• Colorado Territory
• Dakota Territory
• Indian Territory (disputed with the Confederacy)
• Nebraska Territory
• Nevada Territory (became a state in 1864)
• New Mexico Territory
  • Arizona Territory (split off in 1863)
• Utah Territory
• Washington Territory
  • Idaho Territory (split off in 1863)
    • Montana Territory (split off in 1864)

The Indian Territory saw its own civil war, as the major tribes held slaves and endorsed the Confederacy.^[67]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

Surveys[link]

• Cashin, Joan E. ed. The War Was You and Me: Civilians in the American Civil War (2001),
• Fellman, Michael et al. This Terrible War: The Civil War and its Aftermath (2nd ed. 2007), 544 page university textbook
• Flaherty, Jane. "'The Exhausted Condition of the Treasury' on the Eve of the Civil War," Civil War History, Volume 55, Number 2, June 2009, pp. 244-277 in Project MUSE
• Ford, Lacy K., ed. A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction. (2005). 518 pp. 23 essays by scholars excerpt and text search
• Gallman, J. Matthew. The North Fights the Civil War: The Home Front (1994), survey
• Gallman, J. Matthew. Northerners at War: Reflections on the Civil War Home Front (2010), essays on specialized issues
• McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988), 900 page survey; Pulitzer prize
• Nevins, Allan. War for the Union, an 8-volume set (1947-1971). the most detailed political, economic and military narrative; by Pulitzer Prize winner; vol 1-4 cover 1848-61; vol 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865
• Resch, John P. et al., Americans at War: Society, Culture and the Homefront vol 2: 1816-1900 (2005)

Politics[link]

• Bogue, Allan G. The Congressman's Civil War (1989)
• Carman, Harry J., and Reinhard H. Luthin. Lincoln and the Patronage (1943), details on each state
• Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln (1999) the best biography; excerpt and text search
• Fish, Carl Russell. "Lincoln and the Patronage," American Historical Review (1902) 8#1 pp. 53-69 in JSTOR
• Gallagher, Gary W. The Union War (2011), emphasizes that the North fought primarily for nationalism and preservation of the Union
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) excerpts and text search, on Lincoln's cabinet
• Green, Michael S. Freedom, Union, and Power: Lincoln and His Party during the Civil War. (2004). 400 pp.
• Hesseltine, William B. Lincoln and the War Governors (1948)
• Kleppner, Paul. The Third Electoral System, 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Culture (1979), statistical study of voting patterns
• Luthin
• Neely, Mark. The Divided Union: Party Conflict in the Civil War North (2002)
• Paludan, Philip S. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1994), thorough treatment of Lincoln's administration
• Rawley, James A. The Politics of Union: Northern Politics during the Civil War (1974).
• Richardson, Heather Cox. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (1997) online edition
• Silbey, Joel. A Respectable Minority: The Democratic Party in the Civil War Era (1977).
• Smith, By Adam I. P. No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War North (Oxford University Press, 2006)
• Weber, Jennifer L. Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North (2006) excerpt and text search

Constitutional and legal[link]

• Hyman Harold. "A More Perfect Union ": The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the Constitution (1973)
• Neely; Mark E., Jr. The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (1991).
• Neely, Jr., Mark E. Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation: Constitutional Conflict in the American Civil War (U of North Carolina Press; 2011); 408 covers the U.S. and the Confederate constitutions and their role in the conflict.
• Paludan, Phillip S. "The American Civil War Considered as a Crisis in Law and Order," American Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 4 (Oct., 1972), pp. 1013-1034 in JSTOR

Economic[link]

• Brandes, Stuart. Warhogs: A History of War Profits in America (1997), pp 67-88; a scholarly history of the munitions industry; concludes profits were not excessive
• Clark, Jr., John E. Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat (2004)
• Fite, Emerson David. Social and industrial conditions in the North during the Civil War (1910) online edition, old but still quite useful
• Hammond, Bray. "The North's Empty Purse, 1861-1862," American Historical Review, Oct 1961, Vol. 67 Issue 1, pp 1-18 in JSTOR
• Hill, Joseph A. "The Civil War Income Tax," Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 8, No. 4 (Jul., 1894), pp. 416-452 in JSTOR; appendix in JSTOR
• Merk, Frederick. Economic history of Wisconsin during the Civil War decade (1916) online edition
• Smith, Michael Thomas. The Enemy Within: Fears of Corruption in the Civil War North (2011) details on Treasury Department, government contracting, and the cotton trade
• Weber, Thomas. The northern railroads in the Civil War, 1861-1865 (1999)
• Wilson, Mark R. The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861-1865. (2006). 306 pp. excerpt and text search

Intellectual[link]

• Aaron, Daniel. The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War (2nd ed. 1987)
• Fredrickson, George M. The inner Civil War: Northern intellectuals and the crisis of the Union (1993)
• Stevenson, Louise A. The Victorian Homefront: American Thought and Culture, 1860-1880 (1991).

Medical[link]

• Maxwell, William Quentin. Lincoln's Fifth Wheel: The Political History of the U.S. Sanitary Commission (1956) online edition

Race[link]

• McPherson, James M. Marching Toward Freedom: The Negro's Civil War (1982); first edition was The Negro's Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War for the Union (1965),
• Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War (1953), standard history excerpt and text search
• Voegeli, V. Jacque. Free But Not Equal: The Midwest and the Negro during the Civil War (1967).

Religion and ethnicity[link]

• Kamphoefner, Walter D. "German-Americans and Civil War Politics: A Reconsideration of the Ethnocultural Thesis." Civil War History 37 (1991): 232-246.
• Kleppner, Paul. The Third Electoral System, 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Culture (1979).
• Miller, Randall M., Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds. Religion and the American Civil War (1998) online edition
• Miller, Robert J. Both Prayed to the Same God: Religion and Faith in the American Civil War. (2007). 260pp
• Moorhead, James. American Apocalypse: Yankee Protestants and the Civil War, 1860-1869 (1978).
• Noll, Mark A. The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. (2006). 199 pp.
• Stout, Harry S. Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War. (2006). 544 pp.

Social and demographic history[link]

• Vinovskis, Maris A., ed. Toward a Social History of the American Civil War: Exploratory Essays (1991), new social history; quantitative studies
• Vinovskis, Maris A., ed. "Have Social Historians Lost the Civil War? Some Preliminary Demographic Speculations," Journal of American History Vol. 76, No. 1 (Jun., 1989), pp. 34-58 in JSTOR

Soldiers[link]

• Geary James W. We Need Men: The Union Draft in the Civil War (1991).
• Geary James W. "Civil War Conscription in the North: A Historiographical Review." Civil War History 32 (September 1986): 208-228.
• Hams, Emily J. "Sons and Soldiers: Deerfield, Massachusetts, and the Civil War," Civil War History 30 (June 1984): 157-71
• Hess, Earl J. "The 12th Missouri Infantry: A Socio-Military Profile of a Union Regiment," Missouri Historical Review 76 (October 1981): 53-77.
• Cimbala, Paul A., and Randall M. Miller, eds. Union Soldiers and the Northern Home Front: Wartime Experiences, Postwar Adjustments. (2002)
• Current, Richard N. (1994). Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508465-9. 
• McPherson, James. For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (1998), based on letters and diaries
• Mitchell; Reid. The Vacant Chair. The Northern Soldier Leaves Home (1993).
• Rorabaugh, William J. "Who Fought for the North in the Civil War? Concord, Massachusetts, Enlistments," Journal of American History 73 (December 1986): 695-701 in JSTOR
• Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era, 1850-1873 (1944), Ohio
• Scott, Sean A. "'Earth Has No Sorrow That Heaven Cannot Cure': Northern Civilian Perspectives on Death and Eternity during the Civil War," Journal of Social History (2008) 41:843-866
• Wiley, Bell I. The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (1952)

State and local[link]

• Bak, Richard. A Distant Thunder: Michigan in the Civil War. (2004). 239 pp.
• Baker, Jean H. The Politics of Continuity: Maryland Political Parties from 1858 to 1870 (1973)
• Baum, Dale. The Civil War Party System: The Case of Massachusetts, 1848-1876 (1984)
• Bradley, Erwin S. The Triumph of Militant Republicanism: A Study of Pennsylvania and Presidential Politics, 1860-1872 (1964)
• Castel, Albert. A Frontier State at War: Kansas, 1861-1865 (1958)
• Cole, Arthur Charles. The Era of the Civil War 1848-1870 (1919) on Illinois
• Coulter, E. Merton. The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky (1926),
• Current, Richard N. The History of Wisconsin: The Civil War Era, 1848-1873 (1976).
• Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio's war: the Civil War in documents (2006), primary sources
• Gallman, Matthew J. Mastering Wartime: A Social History of Philadelphia During the Civil War. (1990)
• Hall, Susan G. Appalachian Ohio and the Civil War, 1862-1863 (2008)
• Karamanski, Theodore J. Rally 'Round the Flag: Chicago and the Civil War (1993).
• Lane, Jarlath R. A Political History of Connecticut during the Civil War (1941)
• Leech, Margaret. Reveille in Washington, 1860-1865 (1941), Pulitzer Prize
• McKay Ernest A. The Civil War and New York City (1990)
• O'Connor, Thomas H. Civil War Boston (1999)
• Parrish, William E. A History of Missouri, Volume III: 1860 to 1875 (1973) (ISBN 0-8262-0148-2)
• Pierce, Bessie. A History of Chicago, Volume II: From Town to City 1848-1871 (1940)
• Schouler, William (1868). A History of Massachusetts in the Civil War. Boston: E.P. Dutton & Co. OCLC 2662693. http://books.google.com/books?id=Y3EFAAAAQAAJ. 
• Thornbrough, Emma Lou. Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850-1880 (1965)
• Ware, Edith E. Political Opinion in Massachusetts during the Civil War and Reconstruction, (1916).

Women and family[link]

• Anderson, J. L. "The Vacant Chair on the Farm: Soldier Husbands, Farm Wives, and the Iowa Home Front, 1861-1865," Annals of Iowa (2007) 66: 241-265
• Attie, Jeanie. Patriotic Toil: Northern Women and the American Civil War (1998). 294 pp.
• Bahde, Thomas. "'I never wood git tired of wrighting to you.'" Journal of Illinois History (2009). 12:129-55
• Giesberg, Judith. Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Home Front (2009) excerpt and text search
• Giesberg, Judith Ann. "From Harvest Field to Battlefield: Rural Pennsylvania Women and the U.S. Civil War," Pennsylvania History (2005). 72: 159-191
• Harper, Judith E. Women during the Civil War: An Encyclopedia. (2004). 472 pp.
• Marten, James. Children for the Union: The War Spirit on the Northern Home Front. Ivan R. Dee, 2004. 209 pp.
• Massey, Mary. Bonnet Brigades: American Women and the Civil War (1966), excellent overview North and South; reissued as Women in the Civil War (1994)
• Rodgers, Thomas E. Hoosier Women and the Civil War Home Front," Indiana Magazine of History Vol. 97, No. 2 (June 2001), pp. 105-128 in JSTOR
• Silber, Nina. Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War. Harvard U. Press, 2005. 332 pp.
• Venet, Wendy Hamand. A Strong-Minded Woman: The Life of Mary Livermore. U. of Massachusetts Press, 2005. 322 pp.

Primary sources[link]

• American Annual Cyclopaedia for 1861 (N.Y.: Appleton's, 1864), an extensive collection of reports on each state, Congress, and military activities, and many other topics; annual issues from 1861 to 1901
• Appletons' annual cyclopedia and register of important events: Embracing political, military, and ecclesiastical affairs; public documents; biography, statistics, commerce, finance, literature, science, agriculture, and mechanical industry, Volume 3 1863 (1864), thorough coverage of the events of 1863
• Angle, Paul M. , and Earl Schenck Miers, eds. Tragic Years, 1860-1865: A Documentary History of the American Civil War - Vol. 1 1960 online edition
• Carter, Susan B., ed. The Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition (5 vols), 2006; online at many universities
• Commager, Henry Steele, ed. The Blue and the Gray. The Story of the Civil War as Told by Participants. (1950), excerpts from primary sources
• Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio's War: The Civil War in Documents. (2007). 244 pp.
• Freidel Frank, ed. Union Pamphlets of the Civil War, 1861-1865 (2 vol. 1967)
• Hesseltine, William B. ed.; The Tragic Conflict: The Civil War and Reconstruction (1962), excerpts from primary sources online edition
• Marten, James, ed.. Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front. (2003). 346 pp.
• Risley, Ford, ed. The Civil War: Primary Documents on Events from 1860 to 1865. (2004). 320 pp.
• Siddali, Silvana R. Missouri's War: The Civil War in Documents (2009), 256pp excerpt and text search
• Sizer, Lyde Cullen and Jim Cullen, ed. The Civil War Era: An Anthology of Sources. (2005). 434 pp.
• Smith, Charles Winston, and Charles Judah, eds. Life in the North during the Civil War: A Source History (1966)
• diaries, journals. reminiscences

External links[link]

• Lincoln Administration links
• Abraham Lincoln online, texts
• "Financial Measures," by Nicolay and Hay (1889)
• "Lincoln Reelected," by Nicolay and Hay (1889)
• "First Plans for Emancipation," by Nicolay and Hay (1889)
• "Emancipation Announced," by Nicolay and Hay (1889)

v t e American Civil War   (outline)   Origins Origins / Issues Timeline leading to the War Antebellum era Bleeding Kansas Border states Dred Scott v. Sandford Missouri Compromise Secession States' rights Slavery African-Americans Emancipation Proclamation Fugitive slave laws Slave power Uncle Tom's Cabin Abolitionism John Brown Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison Lysander Spooner Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad   Combatants Theaters Campaigns Battles States Combatants Union (USA) Army Navy Revenue Cutter Service Confederacy (CSA) Army Navy Marine Corps Theaters Eastern Western Lower Seaboard Trans-Mississippi Pacific Coast Union naval blockade Campaigns Anaconda Plan New Mexico Jackson's Valley Peninsula Northern Virginia Maryland Stones River Vicksburg Tullahoma Gettysburg Morgan's Raid Bristoe Knoxville Red River Overland Atlanta Valley 1864 Bermuda Hundred Richmond-Petersburg Franklin-Nashville Price's Raid Sherman's March Carolinas Appomattox Major battles Fort Sumter 1st Bull Run Wilson's Creek Fort Donelson Pea Ridge Hampton Roads Shiloh New Orleans Corinth Seven Pines Seven Days 2nd Bull Run Antietam Perryville Fredericksburg Stones River Chancellorsville Gettysburg Vicksburg Chickamauga Chattanooga Wilderness Spotsylvania Cold Harbor Atlanta Mobile Bay Franklin Nashville Five Forks Involvement by state or territory AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NV NE NH NJ NM NY NC OH OK OR PA RI SC TN TX UT VT VA WV WI   Leaders Confederate Military R.H. Anderson Beauregard Bragg Cooper Early Ewell Forrest Gorgas Hill Hood Jackson A.S. Johnston J.E. Johnston Lee Longstreet Morgan Mosby Price Quantrill Semmes E.K. Smith Stuart Taylor Wheeler Civilian Benjamin Breckinridge Bocock Davis Mallory Memminger Seddon Stephens Union Military Anderson Buell Butler Burnside Du Pont Farragut Foote Fremont Grant Halleck Hooker Hunt McClellan McDowell Meade Meigs Pope D.D. Porter Rosecrans Scott Sheridan Sherman Thomas Civilian Adams Chase Ericsson Lincoln Pinkerton Seward Stanton Stevens Wade Welles   Aftermath U.S. Constitution 13th Amendment 14th Amendment 15th Amendment Reconstruction Alabama Claims Carpetbaggers Freedman's Bank Freedmen's Bureau Jim Crow laws Redeemers Southern Claims Commission Cemeteries Confederate memorials and cemeteries National cemeteries U.S. memorials and cemeteries Veterans Grand Army of the Republic Old soldiers' homes United Confederate Veterans Other topics Ku Klux Klan Lost Cause   Related topics Categories Related topics Military Balloons Bushwhacker Cavalry Field artillery Military leadership Naval battles Official Records Signal Corps Turning points Political Committee on the Conduct of the War Copperheads Political General Radical Republicans Trent Affair War Democrats Confederate war finance Other topics Bibliography Draft Riots Music Naming the War National cemeteries Native Americans Photography Rail transport Supreme Court cases U.S. Sanitary Commission Historical reenactment Categories American Civil War People Battles Union Army generals Union armies Union Army corps Confederate States of America (CSA) Confederate Army generals Confederate armies Spies National Battlefields Veterans' organizations Medicine Museums Forts Old soldiers' homes Prisons Reconstruction U.S. memorials and cemeteries Confederate memorials and cemeteries   American Civil War at sister projects     American Civil War at Wiktionary Source texts at Wikisource Textbooks at Wikibooks Images and media at the Commons Quotations at Wikiquote News stories at Wikinews  American Civil War portal  Military History: American Civil War  Special Project: Brothers at War

Look up union in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Union may refer to:

• Trade union or labor union, an organization of workers that have banded together, often for the purpose of getting better working conditions or pay
• Credit union
• Taxpayer groups (Taxpayers union), an organization of taxpayers, for the purpose of getting better budget responsibility from government
• Union (set theory), a mathematical set composed of all of the distinct elements of a collection of sets
• Union (computer science), a type of data
• Union (plumbing), a pipe fitting
• Union (American Civil War), a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States and loyal states during the American Civil War

It may also refer to:

Education[link]

• Union College (disambiguation)
• Union Institute & University, a college specializing in distance learning
• Union Public Schools, a school district in Oklahoma
• Union Theological College, in Northern Ireland
• Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
• Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education, in Virginia
• Union University, a Baptist college in Tennessee
• Union University (New York), a federation of New York state institutions
• Union University (Serbia)

History and politics[link]

• Act of Union (1800), the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
• Acts of Union 1707, the formation of Great Britain
• Dynastic union
• European Union
• Personal union
• Political union
• Soviet Union
• The Union, a term sometimes used to refer to the United States
• The Brazilian federal government (Portuguese: União)
• Union councils of Pakistan
• Union of India
• Union of South Africa, the predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa
• Union State, the entity combining the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus

Computer science[link]

• Union (SQL)
• Union mount, a concept in file storage

Media[link]

• Union (Dark Horse Comics), a Star Wars miniseries
• Union (comics), a Wildstorm character
• The Union: The Business Behind Getting High, a 2007 documentary film

[edit] Music

• Union (band)
• Union (The Boxer Rebellion album)
• Union (Chara album)
• Union (Toni Childs album)
• Union (Puya album)
• Union (Rasa album), by Rasa
• Union (Union album)
• Union (Yes album)
• "Union" (Black Eyed Peas song)
• "Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)", a song by Sabaton on the The Art of War (album)

Places[link]

Canada

• Union, Elgin County, Ontario
• Union, Leeds and Grenville County, Ontario
• Union, Nova Scotia

Paraguay

• Unión, Paraguay

Philippines

• La Union
• Union, Surigao del Norte
• Union, Ubay

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

• Union Island

United States

• Union, Alabama
• Arcata, California (Union, Humboldt County, California)
• Union, Merced County, California
• Union, Napa County, California
• Union, Connecticut
• Union, Illinois
• Union, Iowa
• Union, Nevada
• Union, Kentucky
• Union Parish, Louisiana
• Union, Maine
• Union, Mississippi
• Union, Missouri
• Union, Nebraska
• Union, New Hampshire
• Union, New York
• Union, Ohio
• Union, Oregon
• Union, South Carolina
• Union, Virginia
• Union, West Virginia
• Union, Wisconsin (disambiguation)

Sports[link]

• Philadelphia Union, a soccer team
• Rugby union, a sport
• The Union (professional wrestling)
• Unión de Santa Fe, an Argentine football (soccer) club
• Club Atlético Unión de Sunchales, an Argentine football (soccer) club

Transport[link]

• Union (TTC), a subway station in Toronto, named for the adjacent railway station
• HMS Union, the name of several British Royal Navy ships
• USS Union, the name of several United States Navy ships
• Union (ship), a snow sunk in Fiji in 1804

Other uses[link]

• Gabrielle Union, American actress
• Half-union, a coin

See also[link]

• Alliance
• La Unión (disambiguation)
• The Union
• Mount Union (disambiguation)
• Soyuz (disambiguation)
• Union City (disambiguation)
• Union County (disambiguation)
• Union Railroad (disambiguation)
• Union Station (disambiguation)
• Union Springs (disambiguation)
• Union Township (disambiguation)
• Uniondale
• Uniontown (disambiguation)
• Unionville (disambiguation)
• West Union (disambiguation)
• Unionism (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

American Civil War
The Battle of Gettysburg
Date April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865 (last shot fired June 22, 1865) Location Southern United States, Northeastern United States, Western United States, Atlantic Ocean Result Union victory Territorial integrity preserved Reconstruction Slavery abolished
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Abraham Lincoln Winfield Scott George B. McClellan Henry Wager Halleck Ulysses S. Grant Gideon Welles and others	Jefferson Davis P. G. T. Beauregard Joseph E. Johnston Robert E. Lee Stephen Mallory and others
Strength
2,100,000	1,064,000
Casualties and losses
140,414 killed in action[1] ~ 365,000 total dead[1] 275,200 wounded	72,524 killed in action[1] ~ 260,000 total dead 137,000+ wounded

The American Civil War (1861–1865), often referred to as The Civil War in the United States, was a civil war fought over the secession of the Confederate States. In response to the election of an anti-slavery Republican as President, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy"); the other 25 states supported the federal government ("the Union"). After four years of warfare, mostly within the Southern states, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. Issues that led to war were partially resolved in the Reconstruction Era that followed, though others remained unresolved.

In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against expanding slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. The Republicans strongly advocated nationalism, and in their 1860 platform they denounced threats of disunion as avowals of treason. After a Republican victory, but before the new administration took office on March 4, 1861, seven cotton states declared their secession and joined to form the Confederate States of America. Both the outgoing administration of President James Buchanan and the incoming administration rejected the legality of secession, considering it rebellion. The other eight slave states rejected calls for secession at this point. No country in the world recognized the Confederacy.

Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state to recapture federal property, which led to declarations of secession by four more slave states. Both sides raised armies as the Union seized control of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade. Land warfare in the East was inconclusive in 1861–62, as the Confederacy beat back Union efforts to capture its capital, Richmond, Virginia, notably during the Peninsular Campaign. In September 1862, the Confederate campaign in Maryland ended in defeat at the Battle of Antietam, which dissuaded the British from intervening.^[2] Days after that battle, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal.^[3]

In 1863, Confederate general Robert E. Lee's northward advance ended in defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg. To the west, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River after the Battle of Shiloh and Siege of Vicksburg, splitting the Confederacy in two and destroying much of their western army. Due to his western successes, Ulysses S. Grant was given command of the eastern army in 1864, and organized the armies of William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan and others to attack the Confederacy from all directions, increasing the North's advantage in manpower. Grant restructured the union army, and put other generals in command of divisions of the army that were to support his push into Virginia. He fought several battles of attrition against Lee through the Overland Campaign to seize Richmond, though in the face of fierce resistance he altered his plans and led the Siege of Petersburg which nearly finished off the rest of Lee's army. Meanwhile, Sherman captured Atlanta and marched to the sea, destroying Confederate infrastructure along the way. When the Confederate attempt to defend Petersburg failed, the Confederate army retreated but was pursued and defeated, which resulted in Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. The practices of total war, developed by Sherman in Georgia, and of trench warfare around Petersburg foreshadowed World War I in Europe. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 750,000 soldiers^[4] and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Historian John Huddleston estimates the death toll at ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40.^[5] Victory for the North meant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the reconstruction era that lasted to 1877.

Causes of secession[link]

History of the United States
This article is part of a series
Timeline
Pre-Colonial period
Colonial period
1776–1789
1789–1849
1849–1865
1865–1918
1918–1945
1945–1964
1964–1980
1980–1991
1991–present
Topic
Civil Rights (1896–1954)
Civil Rights (1955–1968)
Civil War
Cultural history
Demographic history
Diplomatic history
Economic history
Historiography
Military history
Southern history
Frontier and Western history
Technological and industrial history
Territorial evolution
Women's history
United States Portal v t e