We have another quiz program on this issue, and as with our Astronomy Quizzer from issue #84 we have included a text file that you can read before taking the quiz itself. You can either activate the "Run" button from the bottom of this window now, or you can read the Civil War essay which follows first. We hope you read it, of course, but if you feel up to it, take the quiz!
No period in American history has received as much scrutiny as the years leading up to, during, and after the American Civil War. Even when compared against the global conflicts of the twentieth century, the Civil War stands out as the most destructive and deadly period of the "United" States. Even so, there is a remarkable lack of general knowledge about the Civil War, and an even more remarkable tendency to treat it as a footnote in history.
Here are some sobering statistics on American casualties from military actions in which the U.S. has been involved. The total population of the U.S. is included to give some idea of the actual impact of the casualties on the nation as a whole.
Military Action Length Casualties Population
--------------- ------ ---------- ----------
Civil War 4 yrs 620,000 32 million
(North) - (360,000) (22 million)
(South) - (260,000) (10 million)
World War II 4 yrs 300,000 132 million
World War I 2 yrs 115,000 106 million
Vietnam 11 yrs 58,000 200 million
Revolution 5 yrs <5,000 3 million
The causes of the Civil War have been hotly debated by historians since the beginning of Reconstruction. It is clear that southern States wanted to retain an economic system that was based on slavery. It was evident to southern leaders that the northern States were gaining power in Congress and would eventually try to impose an end to slavery. Without the use of slave labor the lucrative cotton and tobacco trade would become much less profitable. Southern leaders wanted to assert the power of individual states over the central government of Washington. Many southern citizens were afraid that a powerful central government would eventually subjugate states' rights completely.
So, to many Southerners, the only solution was to leave the United States and form a country where states had the power to decide issues such as slavery for themselves. It is clear that individual southern citizens felt strongly enough about either slavery or states' rights that they were willing to fight, but it is less clear why citizens of the northern states were willing to fight a war over the issues. In plain terms, the South had nothing to lose and everything to gain, while the North had nothing to gain and everything to lose. So why did citizens of northern states feel compelled to fight and die in the war?
Once again it is evident that slavery was central to the issue. Many Northerners had been openly agitating for an end to slavery for decades. Because the economy of the North relied more on industry than that of the South, slavery had been abolished in most northern states for decades. Many people of the North felt they had a moral imperative to end slavery. Other Northerners truly believed in the sanctity of the "union" of states and did not feel that states should be allowed to leave the Union over internal disagreements. So while the South wanted to champion states' rights and preserve a "way of life," the North wanted to preserve the "Union" and put an end to the "peculiar institution" of slavery.
The Confederate States of America elected their first and only President, Jefferson Davis, shortly after Abraham Lincoln won the U.S. Presidency. The war officially began just weeks after Lincoln's inauguration on April 12, 1861, when Southern General P. T. Beauregard began a bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. President Lincoln backed the Confederacy into a corner by sending a contingent of Federal troops to oversee the "resupply" of Union forces stationed at Fort Sumter. Had the Confederacy allowed the fort to be resupplied, it is probable that the insurrection would have dissipated as the civilian population lost faith in the Confederate government to stand up to the Union.
In 1861 there was only one major battle in the east, on July 21 at {Manassas, Virginia} (or "Bull Run") about 30 miles southwest of Washington. In the first {Battle of Bull Run}, Confederate troops routed a Union army and sent them fleeing back to Washington. The Confederate troops celebrated their victory with such gusto that their officers could not regain control in time for a possible attack on Washington itself.
It was in 1862 that the true nature of this conflict became apparent. The {Battle of Shiloh} was the first truly bloody encounter of the war. This battle was closely scrutinized by President Lincoln and brought General Ulysses S. Grant into national prominence for the first time. Although Grant made some critical mistakes in the battle, his determination to win the battle at all costs was something that Lincoln felt was missing from his other generals.
In June of 1862 General Robert E. Lee took over command of the Army of Northern Virginia. General Lee took the offensive against his Union counterpart, General George B. McClellan. In a series of engagements, now known as the {Battle of Seven Days}, Lee harassed the Union forces and nearly succeeded in isolating them from reinforcements. McClellan managed to fight his way back to Union lines and secured the safety of Washington. Of course this secured the safety of Richmond, the Confederate capital, as well.
Lee sensed that the Union commanders were unnerved by the unexpectedly violent battles and decided to invade Maryland. General McClellan obtained a copy of Lee's orders and advanced to meet Lee. McClellan was not aggressive enough in his march and Lee managed to repel the Union attack. The {Battle of Antietam} exceeded Shiloh in its bloody intensity. Both armies needed time to recover from the battle.
Although technically a draw and tactically a Confederate victory, the battle was a bitter strategic loss for the Confederate cause. Bloody and exhausted, Lee's army retreated back into Virginia, abandoning the invasion of the North that could have secured European allies for the South. Lincoln used the occasion to announce the {Emancipation Proclamation}, freeing all slaves in rebellious territory (but not freeing slaves in either occupied rebel territory or in Union territory). Although the Emancipation Proclamation was a bold political move and a propaganda victory, the proclamation did not actually free a single slave.
Lincoln replaced McClellan with General Ambrose E. Burnside (whose singular hairstyle has placed his name forever in American slang) a more aggressive, if less capable man than McClellan. On December 13 Burnside attempted to cross the Rappahannock river at the town of {Fredericksburg}. Burnside sent wave after wave of troops into a withering Confederate fire. Confederate soldiers were reported to have been unable to continue to shoot, the slaughter was so one-sided and incomprehensible. Burnside resigned from command soon after.
1863 was a year of hope for the Confederacy. The Union had thrown its full force against General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia time after time. General Lee had consistently defeated armies up to twice the size of his own. The Union command was in disarray and Lincoln had lost all confidence in his generals. The new Union general, Joseph Hooker, decided to take the battle to Lee and advanced into Virginia. Instead of engaging Lee directly, Hooker took up defensive positions in an area known as "the Wilderness" and awaited Lee. Hooker's force was twice as large as Lee's and Lee knew he had to engage them or else other Union forces would flank his army while he pinned Hooker down. In a remarkable move Lee divided his smaller army and attacked Hooker from the front and the flank in the {Battle of Chancellorsville}. Hooker was unprepared for this unorthodox attack and was unable to defend his flank. Hooker barely managed to escape a crushing defeat and retreated to the Rappahannock. Although Lee won the battle, he lost his best lieutenant, General Stonewall Jackson. After the battle Lee was heard to mutter "I have lost my right arm."
General Ulysses Grant continued to win battles in the western theater. The Confederate stronghold of {Vicksburg}, on the coast of the Mississippi, was considered to be unassailable. The high bluffs of the Mississippi on one side and the dense and tangled underbrush on the other, gave defending forces a decided edge over attacking forces. Grant tried two frontal attacks on the fort before deciding it would have to be taken by siege. After a siege of six weeks, on July 4, Vicksburg fell, neatly dividing the Confederacy into two parts, each unable to help the other.
Emboldened by his repeated successes, Lee felt that he could win a decisive battle in Pennsylvania or even New York. Such a victory could gain European support for the Confederacy. Lee marched into Pennsylvania while Union General Hooker kept his numerically superior army between Lee and Washington. Lincoln grew weary of this tentative posture and replaced Hooker with General George C. Meade. Meade decided to engage Lee and marched into Pennsylvania. The two armies stumbled into each other at the Pennsylvania town of {Gettysburg}.
Gettysburg has become a symbol of the war and is generally considered to be its turning point. The battle raged for three days before Lee was forced into retreat. General Meade allowed Lee to retreat to Virginia, an act that so infuriated President Lincoln that he immediately replaced Meade with Ulysses S. Grant. Grant immediately began an invasion of Virginia with the capture of Richmond as his immediate goal.
In battle after battle Lee's Army of Northern Virginia repulsed attacks by Grant's Army of the Potomac. In every battle Lee was outnumbered and outgunned. His troops were battle-weary and low on food and ammunition. Yet he was able to counter every move Grant made towards Richmond. But Grant was playing a grander strategy. While his army bottled up the South's greatest general, Grant sent General William T. Sherman down through the heart of the Confederacy, where Sherman met little resistance and cut a swath of destruction that the citizens of the Confederacy began to refer to as the "Wind that raged through Georgia."
Grant continued to receive reinforcements while Lee could not replace his losses. In military terms this is known as a "battle of attrition." Eventually Lee's army dwindled from its original 90,000 men to a bare 25,000 after months of bitter fighting. In the same time Grant's army maintained a size of near 120,000 men, in spite of his heavy losses. In the face of these odds, Lee eventually surrendered at {Appomattox Court House} in Virginia. Lee's resistance was the heart and soul of the Confederacy. With Lee's surrender the rest of the Confederate troops soon collapsed. The entire eastern section of the Confederacy was in Union hands, and the capital was moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where the Confederate flag was finally lowered for the last time in early summer 1865.
{Could the South have won the war?}
Probably not. Although General Lee maintained a powerful army virtually on Lincoln's doorstep, The Union controlled the seas and no Confederate army seriously threatened Washington. The South had limited industry and was unable to maintain an arms production that equaled that of the North. The population of the North was much larger than the South and the North's economy could survive a loss of manpower better than the agricultural Southern economy.
{Why were the casualties in this war so high?}
The Civil War marked a turning point in warfare. The following innovations were first used in battle during the Civil War:
Rifled guns, accurate up to 200 yards.
Railroad mounted artillery.
Railroad transportation of troops and supplies.
Aerial observation (balloons).
Ironclad warships.
Machine guns.
Trench warfare.
Telegraph communications.
Unfortunately for the soldiers, the strategy and tactics of most of the military commanders were thirty years out of date. Although some generals (particularly Robert E. Lee) adapted quickly to the new technology, others were confused and frightened by war's newly destructive face. Pitched battles between ranks of men fifty yards apart were survivable with flintlocks and muskets, but with the new rifles, accurate up to 200 yards, these tactics were disastrous.
The Civil War was studied by military leaders around the world, and much of World War I was fought using tactics that Robert E. Lee and U. S. Grant created out of sheer necessity.
{Why did the South think that the European powers would intervene on their behalf?}
There are two major reasons for this hope. First is "King cotton," the major export of virtually all of the southern states (tobacco was also important). Europe received the majority of both products from southern ports. Second, many European powers could have benefitted greatly from a divided United States. Before the Civil War the Union had begun to flex international muscle in a manner that caused great concern for Europe, particularly England and France. The Civil War itself proved that the United States had become one of the most powerful countries in the world, and France, particularly, wanted a weaker force in the Americas, so France could proceed with her own plans to create a colonial system similar to England's.
