Civil War By Will Downs

The Civil War started in 1861. It started because slaves were an issue for the country. The Union didn’t have slaves and they wanted them out of the whole United States. Many of the Southern the states said they would secede from the Union if Lincoln became President. The Union had more men and supplies. 11 states in all seceded from the United States of America, beginning with South Carolina in 1861.

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The war started in Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Luckily only one person was killed. But during the surrender to the Conferdates, A cannon accidently shot and killed Private Daniel Hough. This was the beginning of a very long war.

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Although the war started in Fort Sumter, there were many other places the civil war happened. Three of the bloodiest battles were Battle of Gettysburg, Battle of Chickamauga, and the Battle of Antietam. The battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single day in American history. It was worse than 9/11 and D-Day in 1944.

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The Civil War lasted much longer than expected. Many people thought it would last shorter than a year. But, It lasted from 1861 to 1865. Why did the Civil War last so long?

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At the beginning of the Civil War, 22 million people lived in the North and 9 million people (4 million of whom were slaves) lived in the South. The North also had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more food. These advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States. However, the Confederates were fighting defensively and their soldiers and generals frequently proved to be more skilled than their northern counterparts, allowing them to mount a stubborn resistance to the United States.

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It wasn’t very hard to choose a side for the Civil War. If you were from the South, you usually fought for the South. If you were from the North, you usually fought for the North. If you were African American you fought for the North. 10% of the Union army by wars end was made up of African Americans.

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Why are there alternate names for the battles? There are alternate names for the battles because the northern commanders named it after the nearest landmark like a river and the southern commanders named it after the nearest city or town. For example, the North would call the battle Shiloh and the South would call it Pittsburg Landing. This battle occurred in April of 1862.

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The Union Army was a force made up of different countries. We often hear about Irish Soldiers, but the Union ranks included Germans, such as the Steuben Volunteers. Other immigrant soldiers were, French, Italian, Polish, English, Scottish. In fact, one in four regiments contained a majority of foreigners.

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There was around 3 million that fought in the Civil War and 620,000 total died. Most of the people died from disease. Like dysentery and typhoid. Farm boys were more likely to die from disease. They were not used to being crowded together like city people. 350,000 people died from disease during the war. Accidents were the least amount of deaths.

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The lives of the soldiers during the Civil War were really bad. They had to eat bacon, stale biscuits and hardtack most of the time and had to cook their own food. Their uniforms were raggedy after being in camp for a long time. They didn’t bathe very much either.

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Civil War medicine was not advanced compared to the 21st century. If you got shot in the arm or leg, you usually got that limb amputated. They amputated it because they didn’t want the limb to get infected and kill you. If you were wounded in the chest or stomach, you usually died. Below is a bone saw for amputating limbs. Video

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Gettysburg was one of the bloodiest battles in American history. It was General Lee vs. General George Meade. The Union army of the Potomac defeated Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and he fled back across Potomac River, In July of 1863.

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Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches ever by a President. It was only two minutes long and some people thought it was poor at first but turned out to be one of the best speeches best speeches ever.

http://www.civilwar.com/resources/government/148338-gettysburg-address.html

Gettysburg Address

After four years of conflict, Confederate armies surrendered to the United States in April of 1865. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant in Appomattox, Virginia. The war bankrupted the South, left its roads, farms, and factories destroyed, and all but wiped out an entire generation of men. More men died in the Civil War, more than any other war in American history. The southern states were occupied by Union soldiers, rebuilt, and eventually re-admitted to the United States over the course of twenty years known as Reconstruction.

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/end-of-war/

Abraham Lincoln was a very successful war time President who led the country through the Civil War. Fun Fact- Grace Bedell wrote to Lincoln telling him to grow a beard. She was 12 years old.

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm