Also called War Between the States War
1861-65 between the Southern or Confederate
States of America and the Northern or Union
states. The former wished to maintain certain
`states' rights', in particular the right to
determine state law on the institution of
slavery, and claimed the right to secede from
the Union; the latter fought primarily to
maintain the Union, with slave emancipation
(1863) a secondary issue. The war, and in
particular its aftermath, when the South was
occupied by Northern troops in the period
known as Reconstruction, left behind
bitterness that lasts to the present day.
Industry prospered in the North, while the
economy of the South, which had been based on
slavery, declined. chronology 1861 Seven
Southern states set up the Confederate States
of America (president Jefferson Davis) 8 Feb;
Fort Sumter, Charleston, captured 12-14 Apr;
Pierre Beauregard (Confederate) was
victorious at the 1st Battle of Bull Run 21
July. 1862 Battle of Shiloh 6-7 Apr was
indecisive. General Grant (Union) captured
New Orleans in May, but the Confederates,
under Robert E Lee were again victorious at
the 2nd Battle of Bull Run 29-30 Aug. Lee's
northward advance was then checked by General
McClellan at Antietam 17 Sept. 1863 The
Emancipation Proclamation was issued by
President Lincoln 1 Jan, freeing the slaves
and assuring British and French neutrality;
Battle of Gettysburg (Union victory) 1-4 July
marked the turning point of the war; Grant
overran the Mississippi states, capturing
Vicksburg 4 July. 1864 In the Battle of Cold
Harbor near Richmond, Virginia, 1-12 June,
Lee delayed Grant in his advance on Richmond.
General Sherman (Union) marched through
Georgia to the sea, taking Atlanta 1 Sept and
Savannah 22 Dec, destroying much of the
infrastructure as he went. 1865 Lee
surrendered to Grant at Appomattox courthouse
9 Apr; Lincoln was assassinated 14 Apr; last
Confederate troops surrendered 26 May. There
were 359,528 Union and 258,000 Confederate
dead. The period of Reconstruction began. The
issue of slavery had brought to a head
long-standing social and economic differences
between the two oldest sections of the
country. A series of political crises was
caused by the task of determining whether
newly admitted states, such as California,
should permit or prohibit slavery in their
state constitutions. The political parties in
the late 1850s came to represent only
sectional interests - Democrats in the South,
Republicans in the North. This breakdown of
an underlying national political consensus
(which had previously sustained national
parties) led to the outbreak of hostilities,
only a few weeks after the inauguration of
the first
Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.