From election to war
Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won the presidency in 1860 without carrying a single Southern state. Before he took office, seven Southern states had seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, with four more joining after fighting began at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in April 1861. Lincoln's stated aim was to preserve the Union; the seceding states' own declarations placed the protection of slavery at the centre of their reasons.
Comparing the sides
The Union had about 22 million people, most of the factories, and most of the railroads and ships. The Confederacy had about 9 million people, of whom about 3.5 million were enslaved, and fought mostly on defensive ground with talented generals such as Robert E. Lee. The Confederacy hoped for help from Britain and France, which did not come, partly because cotton diplomacy failed and partly because of emancipation.
Turning points
- Antietam (September 1862): the bloodiest single day of the war, a narrow Union success that gave Lincoln the chance to announce the Emancipation Proclamation.
- Emancipation Proclamation (effective January 1, 1863): declared enslaved people free in areas still in rebellion. It did not free those in border states loyal to the Union, but it made ending slavery a war aim and allowed Black men to join the Union army; about 180,000 did.
- Gettysburg and Vicksburg (July 1863): a Union victory in Pennsylvania ended Lee's invasion of the North, and the fall of Vicksburg gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.
- Sherman's march (1864) and Grant's pressure in Virginia wore down the Confederacy. Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. The 13th Amendment (ratified December 1865) abolished slavery everywhere in the United States.
About 620,000 soldiers died, more than in any other American war.
Worked example: why was Vicksburg decisive?
- The Mississippi River was the main trade route of the interior.
- Vicksburg, on a high bluff, let the Confederacy control the river.
- After a long siege, the city surrendered on July 4, 1863, the day after Gettysburg ended.
- The Union now controlled the whole river and split the Confederacy in two.
- Supplies and troops from Texas and Arkansas could no longer reach the east.
When judging a battle, ask what it let one side do next. Here, geography, not casualties, made it decisive.