"The American Civil War 1861-1865: causes, course, results"

Causes of the war

The victory of the first bourgeois Revolution, which was American War of Independence against England in late XVIII century, created the conditions for the capitalist development of the United States. The rapid economic growth was also facilitated by natural conditions: mild climate, wealth of minerals.

However, in the United States, capitalist relations developed unevenly. If in northern states bourgeois order, farming agriculture were quickly established, capitalist industry grew, then in southern states dominated by the slave system.

The main brake on the path of capitalist development throughout the country was slavery . The planters of the South were farming by extensive methods, constantly in need of new lands and striving to seize the fertile lands in the West. But these lands were also claimed by the North American bourgeoisie, farmers and settlers. These factors led to contradictions between the capitalist North and the slave-owning South.

The need to abolish slavery became inevitable. In the course of the armed struggle directed against slavery, in the state of Kansas, a Republican Party, which united in its ranks the bourgeoisie, farmers - opponents of slavery.

The course of the war

Reason for war between North and South was the election in 1860 to the presidency of the United States Abraham Lincoln- supporter of the abolition of slavery. The planters at their congress decided to separate the slave states from the Union and began preparations for war. In 1861 these states created confederation, whose troops mutinied in April and captured the forts and arsenals in the south of the country.

Started Civil War was the result exacerbation of economic and socio-political contradictions between two social systems: the system wage labor and system slavery. The nature of the war was bourgeois democratic revolution , the second revolution in the United States.

After a series of military failures, the government of A. Lincoln, at the request of workers, farmers, and the bourgeoisie, turned to revolutionary methods waging war. The army was replenished with thousands of volunteers and Negroes who fled to the North, then was introduced conscription . Now the northerners waged war not only to restore the unity of the country and prevent the spread of slavery, but also the abolition of the system of slavery, free allocation of land , i.e. the tasks of the war became revolutionary.

Great importance for the success of the northerners had homestead law adopted in 1862. 1862 was signed by the government statement on the emancipation of slaves. Tens of thousands of former slaves volunteered for the army. The military initiative passed to the northerners.

Northern victory in the Civil War provided:

1. elimination of the economic and political disunity of the country,
2. the abolition of slavery
3. democratic solution of the agrarian question in the West of the country,
4. the victory of the farmer (American) way of developing agriculture in most of the United States,
5. creation of a single national market,
6. expansion of democratic rights of citizens.

American Civil War 1861-1865 years was first stage second bourgeois-democratic revolution.

Reconstruction of the South.

years Reconstructions of the South (1865-1877 ) become second stage second bourgeois-democratic revolution . The purpose of Reconstruction was to carry out bourgeois-democratic transformations in the southern states and to limit the power of former slave owners. All power was temporarily transferred federal troops .

December 1865 d. Congress approved the emancipation of the Negroes, and in 1866 G. 14th amendment to the Constitution of the country recognized the right to vote for blacks . However, the Negroes did not receive land. With the withdrawal of federal troops from the southern states, power again passed to the planters. This was a betrayal by the northern bourgeoisie of their Negro allies, it meant the end of Reconstruction.

Despite the restoration of the power of the planters, Reconstruction had importance in the historical process of the United States. Her chief result creation of conditions for the development of capitalist relations in the south of the country, completion of the process of creating a single national market. The years of Reconstruction were the descending stage of the second bourgeois-democratic revolution in the USA.

Lesson summary

April 12 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, also known as the North-South War.

The main reason for the Civil War (1861-1865) was the sharpest contradictions between different socio-economic systems that existed in one state - the bourgeois north and the slave-owning south.

In 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. His victory became a danger signal for the slave owners of the south and led to secession - the withdrawal of the southern states from the Union. South Carolina was the first to leave the United States at the end of December 1860, followed in January 1861 by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and in April-May - Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina. These 11 states formed the Confederate States of America (Confederation), adopted a constitution, and elected former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis as their president.

Richmond, Virginia became the capital of the Confederation. The withdrawn states occupied 40% of the entire territory of the United States with a population of 9.1 million people, including over 3.6 million blacks. The Union was left with 23 states. The population of the northern states exceeded 22 million people, almost the entire industry of the country was located on its territory, 70% railways, 81% bank deposits.

First stage of the war (1861-1962)

The fighting began on April 12, 1861 with the attack of the southerners on Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, which, after a 34-hour shelling, was forced to surrender. In response, Lincoln declared the southern states rebellious, proclaimed a naval blockade of their coasts, drafted volunteers into the army, and later introduced conscription.

The main goal of the northerners in the war was proclaimed the preservation of the Union and the integrity of the country, the southerners - the recognition of the independence and sovereignty of the Confederation. The strategic plans of the parties were similar: an attack on the capital of the enemy and the dismemberment of its territory.

The fighting of the main forces unfolded in the direction of Washington-Richmond.

The first major battle took place in Virginia at the Manassas railway station on July 21, 1861. 33,000 soldiers of Northern General Irwin McDowell opposed 32,000 Confederates led by Pierre Beauregard and Joseph Johnston. The troops of the northerners, having crossed the Bull Run stream, attacked the southerners, but were forced to start a retreat that turned into a flight.

The defeat at Manassas forced the Lincoln government to take vigorous measures to deploy and strengthen units and formations, mobilize the economic resources of the North, and build defensive structures. A new strategic plan ("Anaconda Plan") was developed, which provided for the creation by the forces of the army and navy of a ring around the southern states, which was supposed to be gradually compressed until the final suppression of the rebels.

McDowell was replaced by General George McClellan, who had previously commanded the Army of West Virginia.

In April 1862, a 100,000-strong army of northerners under the command of General McClellan again made an attempt to capture Richmond, but on the outskirts of the capital of the southern states they met a well-prepared system of engineering fortifications. In the battle of June 26 - July 2 on the Chicahomini River (east of Richmond) with an 80,000-strong army of southerners, the northerners were defeated and retreated to Washington.

In September 1862, the commander-in-chief of the rebel army, General Lee, made an attempt to capture Washington, but could not achieve victory and was forced to withdraw. An attempt by the northerners to launch a new offensive on Richmond was also unsuccessful.

To the west and south in the Mississippi Valley, hostilities were sporadic. Northern troops under General Ulysses Grant occupied Memphis, Corinth, and New Orleans.

Influenced by failures at the front, the threat to Washington and the demands of the population of the northern states, Congress in 1862 carried out a series of measures in order to change the methods of warfare. At the same time, a law was issued on the confiscation of the property of the rebels.

Of particular importance were the law on homesteads (land plots) adopted on May 20, 1862, which gave the right to a US citizen who did not fight on the side of the South, to receive a piece of land, as well as the Lincoln Proclamation of September 22, 1862 on emancipation from January 1, 1863 Negro slaves in the rebellious states (slavery was prohibited by law in the northern states). Negroes were freed without ransom, but also without land. They could serve in the army and navy.

The second stage of the war (1863-1865) was characterized by important changes in the political life of the country, in the strategy and tactics of the federal army.

On March 3, 1863, for the first time in the history of the United States, conscription was introduced. In the northern states, the army was replenished with new formations, about 190 thousand blacks joined it (72% of them came from the southern states), 250 thousand blacks served in the rear.

The beginning of May 1863 was marked by the Battle of Chancellorville, during which the 130,000-strong Northern army was defeated by General Lee's 60,000-strong army. The losses of the parties amounted to: among the northerners 17,275, and among the southerners 12,821 people were killed and wounded. The northerners again retreated, and Lee, bypassing Washington from the north, entered Pennsylvania. In this situation great value acquired the outcome of the three-day battle for Gettysburg in early July. As a result of bloody battles, Lee's troops were forced to retreat to Virginia, to clear the territory of the Union.

On the western theater, after a multi-day siege and two unsuccessful assaults, Grant's army captured the fortress of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. On July 8, General Nathaniel Banks' soldiers took Port Hudson in Louisiana. Thus, control was established over the Mississippi River Valley, and the Confederacy was divided into two parts. The year ended with a landslide victory at Chattanooga, the gateway to the East.

In the early spring of 1864, under the general leadership of Ulysses Grant, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the northerners in March, a new strategic plan was developed that provided for three main attacks: and take possession of Richmond; The 100,000-strong army of General William Sherman had the task of advancing from west to east, bypassing the Allegheny Mountains from the south, capturing the main economic regions of the southerners in Georgia, reaching the Atlantic Ocean and then attacking the main forces of the army of General Joseph Johnston from the south; Butler's army of 36,000 was to advance on Richmond from the east.

The offensive of the federal troops began in early May 1864. The "march to the sea" of General Sherman's army from the city of Chattanooga (Tennessee) through the city of Atlanta was of great importance. Overcoming the resistance of the southerners, Sherman's troops occupied Atlanta on September 2, captured the city of Savannah on December 21 and reached the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Then Sherman led his troops north, occupied the city of Columbia (February 18, 1865) and went to the rear of the main body of Lee's army, whose situation had become hopeless.

In the spring of 1865, federal troops under Grant resumed their offensive and occupied Richmond on April 3. The troops of the southerners withdrew, but were overtaken by Grant and surrounded. On April 9, Lee's army capitulated at Appomattox. The rest of the Confederate troops ceased resistance by June 2, 1865. Shortly after the victory, on April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was mortally wounded by a Confederate agent and died the next day.

The results of the war

The Civil War was the bloodiest in US history. The losses of the northerners amounted to almost 360 thousand people killed and died from wounds and more than 275 thousand wounded. The Confederates lost 258,000 killed and about 100,000 wounded. The military spending of the US government alone has reached $3 billion.

In the United States, during the Civil War, for the first time in American history a massive regular army of the modern type was created. The experience and military traditions acquired in 1861-865 were used during the formation american army half a century later, during the First World War.

As a result of the Civil War, at the cost of great losses, the unity of the United States was preserved and slavery was abolished. Slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which took effect on December 18, 1865.

Conditions were created in the country for the accelerated development of industrial and agricultural production, the development of western lands, and the strengthening of the domestic market.

(Additional

One of the few wars that took place on the territory of the United States is the Civil War. It flared up 150 years ago between the northern and southern states for determining the future fate of the institution of slavery in the young state.

Preconditions for war

Despite the apparent unity of the country, the attitude towards immigrants from Africa in the northern states was more severe, they lived separately from their white masters.

The southern states were focused on agricultural products, while the industry was more developed in the north. Complementing each other, both parts of the country were in symbiosis, but there were contradictions. The South wanted world trade, the North wanted to raise taxes on imports to protect industry.

There was no consensus on the fate of the new states joining the Union. There was no single point of view on the issues of slaves and their freedom, about whether the new state would be slave or free.

The Republican Party was formed in 1854 and Abraham Lincoln came to power in 1860.

Rice. 1. Portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

His main task was the fight against slavery and the adoption of all new states in the status of free. In response, the five states of the South announced their secession from the Union in January 1861. And shortly before that, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina announced the creation of a new state - the Confederation of the States of America (CSA), which also included the states that had recently left the Union. Eternal slavery was declared on this territory, and the President new country became Jefferson Davis. Later, 5 more states will join the CSA (total 11).

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The North could not accept this state of affairs. It was decided to force the CSA to return to the Union by force of arms. This was the beginning of the Civil War

American Civil War 1861-1865

Let us summarize the entire chronology of the main events of the Civil War in a general table.

Dates of the civil war		Events
	day, month
		Confederate capture of Fort Sumter
		US Army Defeat at Manassas Station in Northern Virginia
		Defeat of the US Army at the Battle of Balls Bluff
		Defeat of the KSA at Shiloh. Occupation of Tennessee
		Capture of New Orleans by Union amphibious assault
	March-June	Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley
		seven day battle
		Battle of Antietam
		Battle of Fredericksburg
		Battle of Chaneselorsville. 130 thousand northerners were defeated by 60 thousand southerners
		The victory of the northerners at Gettysburg divided the territory of the CSA into two parts
	May - September	The advance of the army of northerners to Atlanta
		Battle in the Wilderness
		Battle of Cold Harbor
		Capture of Charleston
		Defeat of the KSA Army at Five Fox
		Moving the CSA capital from Richmond to Danville
		Arrest of CSA President Davis
		Surrender of the last CSA general Stand Waity

Rice. 2. Map of the American Civil War.

On December 30, 1862, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1, 1863, all slaves in the southern states were declared free.

It should be noted that the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indian tribes also spoke on the side of the CSA. They even had their representatives in the CSA Senate, who had the right to listen, but not to speak.

Speaking about the results of the American Civil War, it should be noted that the southerners were initially successful, however, thanks to the decrees of Abraham Lincoln, the northerners managed to win supporters in the south, which made a turning point in the war. As a result of the hostilities, the losses on both sides amounted to more than 600 thousand people, and 3 million dollars were spent on the purchase of weapons.

Rice. 3. Battle of Five Fox.

It should also be mentioned that on January 1, 1863, the Homestead Act signed by Lincoln came into force, according to which US citizens could receive ownership of unoccupied lands in the west of the country.

On December 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution officially banned slavery. Immediately after the war, industry and the agricultural sector began to develop rapidly in the United States, and the domestic market strengthened. Power in the country was concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie of the northeastern states. By the way, many problems remain unresolved. The most striking of them is the preservation of the unequal rights of the black and white population.

What have we learned?

Speaking briefly about the American Civil War, it should be noted that it went on for quite a long time. Having turned the tide of the war, the northerners won it, establishing a new order in the young American state, realizing the tasks that confronted them in the conflict with the South.

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American Civil War(War of the North and South) 1861 - 1865 - war between the abolitionist states of the North and the eleven slave states of the South.

The fighting began with the shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and ended with the surrender of the remnants of the army of the southerners under the command of General C. Smith on May 26, 1865. During the war there were about 2,000 battles. More US citizens died in this war than in any other of the wars in which the United States participated.

Causes of the American Civil War

In the first half of the 19th century, two systems developed in the United States - slavery in the south of the country and capitalism in the north. These were two completely different socio-economic systems that coexisted in one state. The situation was aggravated by the fact that despite the stable population growth and the growth of economic development, the United States was a federal country. Each state lived its own political and economic life, integration processes proceeded slowly. Therefore, the South, where slavery and the agrarian economic system were widespread, and the industrial North became two separate economic regions.

Entrepreneurs and the bulk of emigrants aspired to the North of the USA. Machine-building, metalworking, and light industry enterprises were concentrated in this region. Here, the main labor force was numerous emigrants from other countries who worked in factories, plants and other enterprises. There were enough workers in the North, the demographic situation here was stable and the standard of living was high. The situation is quite the opposite in the South. The United States during the Mexican-American War received vast territories in the south, where it was a large number of free lands. Planters settled on these lands, having received huge land plots. That is why, unlike the North, the South became an agrarian region. However, there was one big problem in the South - there were not enough workers. For the most part, emigrants went to the North, therefore, starting from the 17th century, Negro slaves were imported from Africa. By the beginning of the secession, 1/4 of the white population of the South were slave owners.

The South was an agrarian "appendage" of the United States, growing tobacco, sugar cane, cotton and rice. The North needed raw materials from the South, especially cotton, and the South needed the machines of the North. Therefore, for a long time, two different economic regions coexisted in one country.

Despite all the differences between the regions, the same social changes were carried out in the South as in the North. In the North, a flexible tax policy was pursued, money from the state budgets was allocated to charity, the government, to a certain extent, tried to improve the living conditions of the white population. However, in the conservative and closed South, no measures were taken to emancipate women and equalize the rights of blacks with whites. An important role in the outlook of the southerners was played by the so-called "top" - wealthy slave owners who privately owned large land plots. This "top" played a certain role in the politics of the southern states, as it was interested in maintaining its dominant position.

The collapse of the Union

Political and public organizations opposing slavery formed the Republican Party in 1854. The victory in the 1860 presidential election of the candidate of this party, Abraham Lincoln, became a signal of danger for the slave owners and led to secession, secession from the Union. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina set the example, followed by:

• Mississippi (January 9, 1861)
• Florida (January 10, 1861)
• Alabama (January 11, 1861)
• Georgia (January 19, 1861)
• Louisiana (January 26, 1861).

The legal justification for such actions was the absence in the US Constitution of a direct ban on the exit of individual states from the United States (although there was also no permission for this). These 6 states in February 1861 formed a new state - the Confederation of the States of America. On March 1, Texas declared independence, which joined the Confederation the very next day, and in April-May its example was followed by:

These 11 states adopted a constitution and elected former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis as their president, who, along with other leaders of the country, declared that slavery would exist “forever” in their territory.

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.

The Alabama city of Montgomery became the capital of the Confederation, and after the annexation of Virginia, Richmond. These states occupied 40% of the entire US territory with a population of 9.1 million people, including over 3.6 million blacks. On October 7, the Indian Territory became part of the Confederation, the population of which was not loyal either to the Confederation (most Indians were expelled from the territories where the slave states were formed), or to the US government, which actually authorized the deportation of Indians from Georgia and other southern states. However, the Indians did not want to give up slavery and became part of the Confederation. The CSA Senate was formed by two representatives from each state, as well as one representative from each Indian republic (there were 5 republics in the Indian Territory according to the number of Indian tribes: the Cherokee - the most slaves - Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole). Indian representatives in the Senate did not have the right to vote.

The Union was left with 23 states, including slave-owning Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, which, not without a struggle, chose to remain loyal to the federal Union. Row residents western districts Virginia refused to abide by the decision to secede from the Union, formed its own government and in June 1863 was admitted to the United States as a new state. The population of the Union exceeded 22 million people, almost the entire industry of the country was located on its territory - 70% of railways, 81% of bank deposits, etc.

First period of the war (April 1861 - April 1863)

Battles of 1861

The fighting began on April 12, 1861, with the battle for Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, which, after a 34-hour bombardment, was forced to surrender. In response, Lincoln declared the southern states in a state of rebellion, proclaimed a naval blockade of their coasts, drafted volunteers into the army, and later introduced conscription. At first, the advantage was on the side of the South. Even before the inauguration of Lincoln, a lot of weapons and ammunition were brought here, seizures of federal arsenals and warehouses were organized. The most combat-ready units were located here, which were replenished by hundreds of officers who left the federal army, including T. J. Jackson, J. I. Johnston, R. E. Lee and others. The main goal of the northerners in the war was proclaimed the preservation of the Union and the integrity of the country , southerners - recognition of the independence and sovereignty of the Confederation. The strategic plans of the parties were similar - an attack on the capital of the enemy and the dismemberment of its territory.

The first serious battle took place in Virginia at the Manassas railroad station on July 21, 1861, when poorly trained Northern troops crossed the Bull Run and attacked the Southerners, but were forced to start a retreat that turned into a rout. By autumn, in the eastern theater of operations, the Union had a well-armed army under the command of General J. B. McClellan, who became commander in chief of all armies on November 1. McClellan turned out to be a mediocre military leader, often avoiding active action. On October 21, its units were defeated at Balls Bluff near the American capital. The blockade of the sea coast of the Confederation was much more successful. One of its consequences was the capture on November 8, 1861, of the British steamship Trent, on board of which were emissaries of the southerners, which brought the United States to the brink of war with Great Britain.

Battles of 1862

In 1862, the northerners achieved the greatest success in the western theater of operations. In February-April, the army of General W.S. Grant, having captured a number of forts, drove the southerners out of Kentucky, and after a hard-won victory at Shilo, cleared Tennessee of them. By the summer, Missouri was liberated, and Grant's troops entered northern Mississippi and Alabama.

April 12, 1862 went down in the history of the war thanks to the famous episode with the hijacking of the General locomotive by a group of northern volunteers, known as the Great Locomotive Race.

Of great importance was the capture on April 25, 1862 (during a joint landing operation of General B. F. Butler's units and Captain D. Farragut's ships) of New Orleans, an important commercial and strategic center. In the east, McClellan, nicknamed by Lincoln "slower", was removed from his post as commander-in-chief and sent at the head of one of the armies to attack Richmond. The so-called "Peninsula Campaign" began. McDowell hoped to use superior numbers and heavy artillery to win the war in one campaign without harming civilians and without bringing the matter to the liberation of the Negroes.

While McDowell planned to advance on Richmond from the east, other elements of the Union army were to move on Richmond from the north. These units were about 60,000, but General Jackson, with a detachment of 17,000 people, managed to detain them in the Campaign in the Valley, defeat them in several battles and prevent them from reaching Richmond.

Meanwhile, in early April, more than 100,000 federal soldiers landed on the Virginia coast, but instead of a frontal attack, McClellan preferred a gradual advance in order to hit the flanks and rear of the enemy. The southerners were slowly retreating, Richmond was preparing to evacuate. In the Battle of Seven Pines, General Johnston was wounded and Robert E. Lee took command.

Also, this battle was marked by the first experience of using machine guns in the history of military conflicts. Then, due to the imperfection of the design, they could not somehow significantly affect the course of the battle. But in the army of both northerners and southerners, machine guns of various designers began to appear. Of course, they were not familiar to us models with an automatic reloading system and relative compactness. Early machine guns in terms of dimensions and characteristics were closer to the mitrailleuse and the Gatling machine gun.

General Li managed to stop the army of northerners in a series of clashes of the Seven Days Battle, and then completely oust it from the peninsula.

McClellan was removed and General Pope was appointed in his place. However, the new commander was defeated at the second battle of Bull Run on August 29-30. Lee entered Maryland with the intention of cutting off federal communications and isolating Washington. On September 15, Confederate troops under T. J. Jackson occupied Harper's Ferry, capturing its 11,000-strong garrison and substantial supplies of equipment. On September 17, at Sharpsburg, Lee's army of 40,000 was attacked by McClellan's army of 70,000. During this "bloodiest day" of the war (known as the Battle of Antietam), both sides lost 4,808 killed and 18,578 wounded. The battle ended in a draw, but Lee chose to retreat. The indecision of McClellan, who refused to pursue the enemy, saved the southerners from defeat. McClellan was removed and replaced by Ambrose Burnside.

England and France, who were going to officially recognize the Confederation and intervene in the war on its side, abandoned their intention. Russia during the war years took a benevolent position towards the Union, the visit in the autumn of 1863 and in the spring of 1864 of Russian squadrons to San Francisco and New York became an example of the diplomatic use of naval power.

The end of the year was unfortunate for the northerners. Burnside launched a new offensive against Richmond, but was stopped by General Lee's army at the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13 December. The superior forces of the federal army were utterly defeated, losing twice as many as the enemy in killed and wounded. Burnside performed another botched maneuver, known as the "Mud March", after which he was removed from command.

Second period of the war (May 1863 - April 1865)

Battles of 1863

In January 1863, Joseph Hooker was appointed commander of the federal army. He resumed his advance on Richmond, this time adopting maneuvering tactics. The beginning of May 1863 was marked by the Battle of Chancellorsville, during which the 130,000-strong army of northerners was defeated by the 60,000-strong army of General Lee. In this battle, the southerners successfully used the tactics of attack in loose formation for the first time. The losses of the parties amounted to: among the northerners 17,275, and among the southerners 12,821 people were killed and wounded. In this battle, General T. J. Jackson was mortally wounded, who received the nickname "Stonewall" for his steadfastness in battle. The northerners again retreated, and Lee, bypassing Washington from the north, entered Pennsylvania.

In this situation, the outcome of the three-day battle for Gettysburg in early July acquired enormous significance. After bloody fighting, Lee's troops were stopped and pushed back into Virginia, clearing Union territory. On the same day, in the western theater, Grant's army, after a siege of many days and two unsuccessful assaults, captured the fortress of Viksberg (July 4). On July 8, General N. Banks' soldiers took Port Hudson in Louisiana. Thus, control was established over the Mississippi River Valley, and the Confederacy was divided into two parts.

Despite two terrible defeats, the southerners were not yet broken. In September, General Braxten Bragg's army defeated Admiral Rosenkrans' Ohio Army at the Battle of Chickamuga and surrounded its remnants in Chattanooga. However, General Ulysses Grant managed to relieve the city and then defeat Bragg's army at the Battle of Chattanooga. In the battles for Chattanooga, the northerners for the first time in history used barbed wire.

Battles of 1864

During the war there was a strategic turning point. The plan for the 1864 campaign was developed by Grant, who was in charge of the Union armed forces. The 100,000-strong army of General W. T. Sherman, who launched the invasion of Georgia in May, dealt the main blow. Suffering heavy losses and destroying everything in its path, she moved forward and entered Atlanta on September 2. Grant himself led the army against Lee's formations in the Eastern theater. On May 4, 1864, Grant's 118,000-strong army entered the Wilderness forest, met the 60,000-strong army of the southerners, and the bloody Battle of the Wilderness began. Grant lost 18,000 men in the battle, and the Confederates 8,000, but Grant pressed on and made an attempt to occupy Spotsylvany to cut off the Army of North Virginia from Richmond. The Battle of Spotsylvany followed on May 8–19, in which Grant lost 18,000 men but failed to break the Confederate defenses. Two weeks later, the Battle of Cold Harbor followed, which turned into a kind of trench warfare. Unable to take the fortified positions of the southerners, Grant made a detour and went to Pittersburg, starting his siege, which took almost a year.

Regrouping his units, on November 15, Sherman began the famous "march to the sea", which led him to Savannah, which was taken on December 22, 1864. Military successes affected the outcome of the 1864 presidential election. Lincoln, who favored the conclusion of peace on the terms of the restoration of the Union and the abolition of slavery, was re-elected for a second term.

Campaign of 1865

On February 1, Sherman's army marched north from Savannah to link up with Grant's main force. The advance through South Carolina, accompanied by significant damage to it, ended with the capture of Charleston on February 18. A month later, the Union armies met in North Carolina. By the spring of 1865, Grant had an army of 115,000 men. Lee had only 54,000 men left, and after the unsuccessful Battle of Five Fox (April 1), he decided to abandon Pittersburg and evacuate Richmond on April 2. On April 9, 1865, the remnants of the Confederate Army surrendered to Grant at Appomatox. The surrender of the remaining parts of the Confederate army continued until the end of May. After the arrest of Jefferson Davis and members of his government, the Confederation ceased to exist. The life of President Lincoln was also offered on the altar of victory. On April 14, 1865, he was assassinated. Lincoln was mortally wounded and, without regaining consciousness, died the next morning.

American Civil War statistics

Warring countries	Population 1861	Mobilized
KSHA
TOTAL

The results of the war

The Civil War remained the bloodiest in US history (on all fronts of World War II, despite its global scale and the destructiveness of weapons of the 20th century, American losses were less).

The losses of the northerners amounted to almost 360,000 people killed and died of wounds and more than 275,000 wounded. The Confederates lost 258,000 and about 137,000 respectively.

The military spending of the US government alone has reached $3 billion. The war showed new possibilities military equipment, influenced the development of military art.

The prohibition of slavery was enshrined in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which entered into force on December 18, 1865 (slavery in the rebel states was abolished as early as 1863 by presidential decree).

Conditions were created in the country for the accelerated development of industrial and agricultural production, the development of western lands, and the strengthening of the domestic market. Power in the country passed to the bourgeoisie of the northeastern states. The war did not solve all the problems facing the country. Some of them found a solution during the Reconstruction of the South, which lasted until 1877. Other issues, including giving blacks equal rights with whites, remained unresolved for many decades.

There is no more controversial moment in the history of the United States than the Civil War. The two halves of the country tried to resolve their fundamental differences in political, economic and social issues with the help of weapons. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Southerners shelled Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

At first, the southerners inflicted a number of painful defeats on the northerners, but with the delay in hostilities, the northerners managed to realize their economic and human potential. After the battle at Appomatox in April 1865, the southerners began to surrender en masse, but some units fought until May-June. US President Abraham Lincoln never lived to see the complete surrender of the enemy.

For 5 years of fierce hostilities, 625 thousand people died. The Americans lost a little more in World War II. The Civil War is a cornerstone of American culture. A number of stereotypes have developed about her, her causes and heroes, which historians are trying to debunk.

The southern states withdrew from the state due to the violation of their rights. The Confederation declared its right to secede, but not a single state seceded from the Union. The disagreement was that the southern states opposed the decision of the northern neighbors not to support slavery. On December 24, 1860, a meeting was held in South Carolina to discuss possible secession from the Federal Union. The delegates adopted a declaration outlining the reasons justifying the move. In particular, there was a growing hostility on the part of non-slave-owning states to the institution of slavery. The delegates protested to their neighbors to the north, who were not fulfilling their constitutional obligations by hiding runaway slaves. So the causes of the conflict lie not in the rights of the states, but in fundamental disagreements on the issue of slavery.

In South Carolina, they were unhappy that New York refused to return the fugitives. In New England, in general, they gave blacks the right to vote, there appeared societies to combat such inequality. In fact, in South Carolina they spoke out against the rights of citizens and freedom of speech in those states that opposed slavery. Declarations passed in other southern states were similar.

The southern states seceded from the state due to tax policy. To this day, Confederate supporters argue that tax policy was the cause of the Civil War. Allegedly high duties on goods from the southern states helped the northerners to raise their industry. But such claims are fictitious. Due to high duties, the Nullification Crisis of 1831-1833 developed. Then South Carolina demanded to remove some federal laws, threatening to secede from the Union in case of refusal. But then other states did not support these demands, and they were withdrawn. Fiscal policy did not cause secession at all; the declarations of other states do not mention this. The duties of the 1857 model, applied throughout America, were invented precisely by southerners. And these taxes were the lowest since 1816.

Most southerners did not have slaves, and they were not going to defend this institution. Indeed, in the south, slaves were owned by a minority. In Mississippi, less than half of the farmers owned human property. And in Virginia and Tennessee, the ratio was even smaller. In areas where slavery was poorly developed, the majority did not support secession from the United States. West Virginia chose to remain in the Union. Confederate forces then had to occupy eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama to keep those states from going over to the Northerners. Southerners, even those who did not have slaves, were convinced by ideological factors. For Americans, social optimism is important. They look up to the rich and hope to achieve the same status someday. Financially constrained, farmers hoped to win fortune, status, and slaves through war.

Another factor lay in the idea that the superiority of white people over black people is justified and just. Even in the north, many thought so, and in the south, almost everyone. Southerners urged neighbors to stand up for the institution of slavery, drawing the horrors of a possible racial war. It seemed that the Americans would be destroyed or expelled. Thus, the conflict also lay in the postulate of the superiority of one race over another.

Abraham Lincoln went to war to end slavery. The result of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery. Many people think that this was Lincoln's original goal. In fact, the North began to fight in order to maintain the unity of the country. On August 22, 1862, the president wrote a famous letter to the New York Tribune. There he bluntly stated that if he could save the Union without freeing the slaves, he would do it. Lincoln was going to keep the state, even if it was necessary to free all or part of the slaves. Any action in relation to slavery, the president committed in the name of saving the Union. But much more famous are Lincoln's personal statements against slavery. He believed that every person has the right to freedom. The official position and personal point of view converged in the preliminary "Proclamation for the Emancipation of the Slaves."

Southerners did not cling to slavery. By 1860, Southerners generated 75 percent of America's total export product. The cost of slaves was greater than all manufacturing plants, factories and railroads in the United States. No one wanted to give away such wealth without a fight. Yes, and the Confederation planned to expand its possessions towards Cuba and Mexico. Only war could stop these plans. By 1860, in the south of the country, slavery had become a stable system that brought a good income. The elite grew rich rapidly. The further, the less likely was the emancipation of slaves in the South and in the North. The firm position of the slave-owners could only be ended by military means.

The war is called the Civil War. Often in the literature there is also the term Civil War of the North and South. But this kind of hostilities implies a struggle for power in the state between social groups. But the South was not at all seeking to overthrow the Lincoln government. It is correct to call those events the War between the States, the War of Independence of the South. So the term Civil War is incorrect. The South was more backward from an economic point of view. For some reason, the undeveloped and backward part lasted for four whole years. If we evaluate the facts about the south

America, an interesting picture emerges. A third of all America's railroads were in this region. And although the transport network of the North was more developed, among the southerners it still overtook other countries. By the 1860s, per capita income in the South was 10% higher than in all states west of New York and Pennsylvania.

At the beginning of the war, all the best federal officers went over to the side of the southerners. This myth is generated by individual bright stories. The most revealing is the biography of General Robert E. Lee. Initially, he commanded the Texas district and opposed the secession of the southern states. After the secession of his state, Lee left office and returned to his family in the District of Columbia. On March 28, 1861, Lincoln appointed him commander of a cavalry regiment. On April 18, Robert Lee was offered the position of commander in chief. But he refused, and after a few days he agreed to lead the army of southerners in Virginia.

Grant has always been considered a hero. On April 16, 1861, just four days after the attack on Fort Sumter, Ulysses Grant volunteered for the army under the command of General Henry Halleck. These two warlords had different styles of command. Halleck began to complain frequently about Grant's insubordination. And although Grant won important battles in February 1862, Halleck took advantage of the lack of communication and complained about Grant to General McClellan in Washington. He replied that for the future success of the case against such as Grant, a trial is required. The higher authorities allowed the recalcitrant general to be arrested. Luckily for everyone, Halleck had cooled off by the time he got his permission. He only removed Grant from command and kept him in reserve. This continued until Halleck himself went to Washington for a promotion. Grant's rise began after Lincoln refused to fire the general, explaining that "he's fighting."

The Battle of Glory saw African Americans fight for the first time. First African American military unit, created in the North, became the 54 Volunteer Volunteer Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He appeared in 1863 and in the same year took part in the assault on Fort Wagner. This battle was called the "Battle of Glory", in which the regiment lost half of its personnel. A famous painting about those events was created. But even before the Emancipation Proclamation in October 1862, the First Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment fought the Confederate cavalry and drove them back near Island Mound in Missouri. This unit was created by the local authorities of the Union in August 1862, while the regular US Army refused to accept blacks into its ranks. In late October, about 240 African Americans were sent to Bates, Missouri, to defeat the Confederate guerrillas. Outnumbered, the northerners took over the local farm and named it Fort Africa. After two days of fighting, reinforcements arrived and the southerners retreated. The skirmish was insignificant on the scale of the war, but became famous. It was she who helped African-American regular units to take place, one of which was the 54 Volunteer Volunteer Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

The first land battle is the Battle of the Bull Run River. Another name for this battle is the Battle of Manassas. And the Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the shelling of Fort Sumter. It is believed that the first major battle was the battle of Manassas. Southerners nicknamed him "The Great Draper". On July 21, the army of the North faced a comparable force of the southerners, but was put to shameful flight. But even earlier, in June 1861, Union troops surprised the Confederates at Philippi, Virginia. The northern press called the enemy's undignified retreat the "Race at Philippi". That little skirmish resulted in no casualties, but had some interesting consequences. The U.S. Army's victory helped support the secession movement in West Virginia. George McClellan received the coveted position of general in Washington. And Federation soldier James Edward Hanger lost his leg in that battle, which is why he invented the world's first realistic and flexible prosthesis.

The war ended at Appomattox. On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered with the remnants of his Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant near Appomattox. But fighting continued elsewhere. General Joseph Johnston surrendered with the Army of Tennessee, the second largest in the Confederacy, to General Sherman. On May 4, General Richard Taylor laid down his arms with 12,000 soldiers. And on May 12-13, a battle took place at the Palmito ranch, won by the southerners. This battle was the last in that war. General Kirby Smith wanted to continue the war, but his opponent, General Simon Buckner, surrendered on 26 May. The rest of the Confederate army surrendered until the end of June. The last to lay down his arms was Stand Wayty, in Indian territory. And the war at sea generally continued until November, when the raiders, the former Confederates, surrendered.

The Civil War was going on in the United States. Private Confederate ships (legalized pirates) and merchant raiders on the high seas made life miserable for American carriers. Pirates blocked the path to the Union, sailing around Bermuda, stationed in the Bahamas and Cuba. Merchant ships, sailboats and steamships were subjected to capture, for the release of which and their crew a ransom was required. The Union tried to resist this. So, USS Wachusett attacked CSS Florida in Bahia Harbor, Brazil. This led to an international scandal. USS Wyoming pursued CSS Alabama throughout the Far East without ever catching it. Even Japanese troops took part in the dismantling of the Americans. The CSS Shenandoah began patrolling the sea lanes between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia in October 1864, terrorizing American whalers. The ship continued to attack even after the surrender of the Confederate ground forces. During this time, the southerners captured 21 ships, including 11 in just seven hours in pacific ocean in polar waters. The raider surrendered with his crew only on November 6, 1865 in Liverpool, England.

Soldiers were constantly involved in battles. In the 19th century, due to dirt roads and the inability to move in any weather, the army had to plan its actions according to the seasons. Almost all the events of the Civil War, up to the last desperate months in late 1864 and early 1865, took place in seasonal campaigns. Armies fought in late spring, summer and autumn-winter. That is why the average soldier of that war actually fought one day a month. The rest of the time he was walking somewhere, digging, or just being in a camp where his life was in danger. Primitive field conditions and a rudimentary level of medicine ensured that each soldier had a 25% chance of not surviving the war, even without participating in combat. Less than a third of the 360,000 Allied deaths were directly related to combat. The rest died from diseases, mainly from dysentery.

The northerners had no problems with funding. A common myth is that the poor South was opposed by the wealthy North. Meanwhile, there were also serious financial problems - the war turned out to be a very costly affair. The Union was not ready to allocate funds for the army. Lincoln's election as president in 1860 shocked Wall Street. Worse, back in the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson did away with centralized banking, calling it undermining the rights of the state and dangerous to the freedom of the people. The US government did not have a quick and easy way find funds to finance the war economy. The situation was aggravated by the fact that there were more than 10 thousand different types of paper money in circulation. With the help of the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase, Lincoln was able to restore at least some order in business. This made it possible to wage war. However, some parts, especially African Americans, sometimes went months without receiving their salaries. One result of this was the first federal income tax in the United States, passed in 1862. The Confederation introduced its own similar tax in 1863.

The war was fought with primitive firearms. Modern warfare is unthinkable without missiles and electricity. Prohibited chemical and biological weapons are also sometimes used. It's hard to believe, but all these technologies were used during the Civil War. Floating explosive containers designed to sink ships have been used since the American Revolution. But the Confederates took weapons to the next level by adding electric detonators. The world's first electric minefield appeared on the Mississippi. The wires went to the shore, from where a signal for an explosion could be sent. The same weapon was used in the Eastern theater of the war, where the USS Commodore Jones was sunk in this way in May 1864. Powder rockets were used as early as the Mexican-American Civil War in 1840. In the Civil War, such weapons were used by both sides. The Union even had a Rocket Battalion of 160 people. Southerners tried to wage bacteriological warfare by infecting clothes with yellow fever (unsuccessfully) and smallpox (partially successful). During the retreat, water sources, as well as animal carcasses, were poisoned.

The Confederates managed to create a two-stage rocket by launching it from Richmond to Washington. There is a legend that the winged weapon was able to fly 190 kilometers. This myth decided to test the "MythBusters". They created a rocket in two days using only materials that existed during the Civil War. True, the rocket was single-stage. She was able to fly only 450 meters.

There were no slave owners among the northerners. John Sixkiller was a Cherokee who served in the First Kansas Colored Infantry. He fought and died in that famous battle at the Island Mound. Ironically, he himself was a slave owner, leading his men into battle with him. For the Cherokee, African American slaves were common. From the frontier territories of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, people marched into the American military. The example of Kentucky is especially illustrative. There, a quarter of the families that owned slaves at the beginning of the war sent 90 combat units to fight for the Union. General Grant's wife had slaves in her service. They received freedom only as a result of the XIII amendment in 1865. Grant honestly said that he did not release the slaves to freedom earlier, as they helped well with the housework. Yes, and the famous "Declaration of Emancipation" declared free only the slaves of states in a state of rebellion. Lincoln did not seek to free all slaves, this could cause discontent among his own supporters. He wanted to undermine the strength of the southerners by promising their slaves freedom.

Presidents Lincoln and Davis waged war in cabinets. It seems that the heads of the parties were playing a gigantic chess game, directing the war from their offices. In fact, both men were in the fields during the battles. So, in 1862, Jefferson Davis watched the course of the bloody battle of Seven Pines, changing the commander during it. It was Robert Lee. Abraham Lincoln in 1864 visited Fort Stevens outside of Washington, even falling under enemy fire. Then the famous phrase of General of the Southerners Early was born: "We did not take Washington, but we scared the hell out of Abe Lincoln." The President also visited General Grant's headquarters on March 24, 1865, at a key moment in the siege of Richmond. Lincoln was on the ship, close enough to the front line to hear the gunfire as the city was taken. Immediately after the battle, the president entered the city and symbolically sat in the chair of the escaped Jefferson Davis.