Early Battles

Fort Sumter

Date: April, 1861Winner: SouthPeople/Details: Union- Major Robert Anderson

-Confederates bombarded the Fort for 2 days until the Union surrendered.Significance: First battle of the Civil War

Bull Run (Manassas)

Date: July, 1861Winner: SouthPeople/Details:Confederacy- Stonewall Jackson-Spectators came to watch the Union crush the Confederacy in a quick battle.-The Confederates stood their ground and the Union Significance: Signaled that the war would not be short like both sides thought.

AntietamDate: September, 1862

Winner: NorthPeople/Details:Confederacy- Lee Union- McClellan-Lee planned to move troops to Maryland and win on Union soil.-A messenger lost Lee's plans which were found by Union soldiers. (Special Order 191: told how Lee was splitting his army into 3 parts and where each part was going)-McClellan was prepared and a very bloody battle took place.

Significance:-Moral victory for the North.-Over 23,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.

23,000 soldiers lost their lives that day. Some quotes from soldiers tell that story:

The whole landscape for an instant turned red.

The cornfield was so full of bodies that a man could have walked through it without stepping on the ground.

Struggles in the North:Many people in the North disliked the war because in the beginning, the Union had very little success. As fewer people signed up to fight, the North had no choice but to start a draft. This is where any male between the ages of 20 and 45 can be called to serve in the military. In some cities, people got so angry over the draft that they started to riot.

The Northern economy suffered because of the war as well. In order to pay for the war, Congress had to pass the first income tax. They also printed too much money, which caused inflation to occur.

Struggles in the South:President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy experienced problems too. The South also had to pass a draft to fill the ranks of the army. Many small farmers and poor southerners resented this draft because it did not require men who owned or supervised more than 20 slaves to serve. In both the North and the South, soldiers felt like the Civil War was a “rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

Confederate President

Jefferson Davis

The Southern economy suffered a great deal during the war. The government had to pass a tax-in-kind, which required farmers to turn over one-tenth of their crops to the government. The Confederacy also printed too much money, causing inflation.

The South tried to use its supply of cotton as a weapon. In order to convince Great Britain to join the war as a Southern ally, all shipments of cotton were stopped. This plan backfired, because Britain began buying more cotton from Egypt instead. Britain was unlikely to join the South because many people in Britain were abolitionists.

The Union blockade also caused there to be many shortages in South. Since the South had few factories, they relied on importing most of what they needed. They experienced shortages in guns, ammunition, food, and clothing. Even the wealthy were not spared from hunger by the food shortages.