We studied the American Civil War this week. I’m going to talk about my favorite parts and the parts I found most interesting. I’m going to talk about parts of the war such as military tactics that I found interesting (and a few that I found laughable), the causes for the war, the origin story of West Virginia, and how Lincoln kept Europe from being involved in the Civil War in any way.
The American Civil War had one main cause: the ever-persistent issue of slavery. Even before the war, there was a clear-cut difference between the abolitionists in the North and the plantation owners in the South. Slavery was only allowed in some states, as well, which further increased the difference between the two groups. Several presidents before Lincoln had delayed solving slavery with acts like the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska act, but nobody was ready to face the problem head-on until Lincoln was elected and states began to succeed from the Union. South Carolina succeeded, and was shortly followed by Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. After the battle of Fort Sumter, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia joined the Confederacy as well.
West Virginia was formed when half of Virginia wanted to be a slave state and succeed, but the other, more northern half wanted to remain a part of the Union. West Virginia separated itself and organized a State government, joining the United States as the thirty fifth state in the Union. The very creative and original name of West Virginia was selected for the new state. It is just laughable that somebody actually thought naming the state West Virginia was a good idea. I mean, imagine if the South had won, and Virginia was part of the Confederate States of America and West Virginia was part of the (somewhat) United States of America. That would have put West Virginia in a bit of a bad spot, and it’s quite possible a whole other small conflict could have occurred over just Virginia.
There were several military tactics that were employed during the Civil War. Lincoln, when he realized war was a possibility of war, read up on war strategies. Every other major leader was already a veteran of the Mexican-American war, and so they already had some good experience. Most of them had also been to military school, and had learned a lot from there.
The north had some really smart strategies for the transportation of goods. They gained control of the Mississippi River, and so they were able to split the South into two. Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas were completely cut off of supply lines from the rest of the South, which weakened the Confederacy immensely. The north also had an abundance of railroads with which to move troops and supplies around their states.
George B. McClellan was Lincoln’s first general in the east (Grant was doing miraculous work in the west). McClellan had some questionable tactics when it came to war. Lincoln wanted McClellan to go attack the Confederate forces at Antietam. McClellan said he thought the Confederate forces were much larger than his, and so Lincoln supplied him with a massive army. McClellan finally marched to Antietam, only to go on the defensive. He moved his forces slowly toward the fort occupied by Robert E. Lee. Lee eventually retreated south into confederate territory, but McClellan was unwilling to chase him. Lincoln disapproved of this maneuver, and this helped lead to Lincoln firing McClellan. Funnily enough, McClellan ran against Lincoln in 1864. Lincoln won by a landslide for obvious reasons.
Up until January of 1863, Lincoln had been fighting for the sole purpose of keeping the Union together. Multiple things happened that caused Lincoln to change the cause of the Union to freeing slaves. One of these were Lincolns morals on slavery. He had always hated slavery, and he realized that this was his chance to end it in America for good. Another influence was that Europe had been threatening to join the war on the side of the Confederacy, simply because Europe (England in particular) did not like the United States, and having it split into two would make it weaker and theoretically easier to re-conqueror. It hadn’t been long since Britain had fought the War of 1812, and it wouldn’t be unhappy to split the States. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and it stated that any territory belonging to the Union would be free of slavery. Suddenly, if Europe fought for the Confederacy, that would mean that they were fighting to keep slavery in existence. Not only would they people in Europe themselves not want that, it would also make the leaders look like they support slavery even if they really don’t, and don’t allow it in their own country. So the Emancipation Proclamation kept Europe out of the war.
The American Civil War was one of the most interesting conflicts in American History. I found some of the strategies used in the war quite fascinating, such as the control of supply lines used by the North, as well as the way George McClellan’s mind operated. The causes for the war are fascinating, as well as the interaction with Europe. I also found the origin of West Virginia’s separation from Virginia to be fascinating, but I really don’t like the fact that they called the new state “West Virginiaâ€. Overall, I really enjoyed learning the civil war, and I am looking forward to the study of the famous figures and generals from the war next week.