U.S Civil War
The American Civil War took place between 1861 and 1865, which led to wide sectional differences and questions that were never addressed during the ratification of the U.S Constitution in 1798. The war had lasting effects especially with the defeat of the Southern Confederacy and the passage of the XIII, XIV and XV amendments, which followed. Some of the effects of the War was to abolish slavery across the nation and redefined the U.S as a single unitary and indivisible state and not a loose collection of independent states.
The U.S Civil war was one of its kind. It had several “firsts”. Some of these milestones included, the first income tax in America, the first extensive use of black soldiers, the first fight between ironclad ships, the first adoption of quinine in treating typhoid fever, among others. The U.S also made advances in the fields of medicine, the chaplain, and military. It was during the Civil war that American women assumed new roles in the society. For instance, they were in charge of plantations and spying. Others even disguised as men and joined the battlefield. Every ethnic group present in the U.S participated in the war, including Germans, Indians, Jews, Irish, Hispanics, and Chinese among others.
The American Civil War further saw military expansion and high number of casualties. Between 1861 and 1865, more
than 1.5 million troops supported the Union in the war while about 1.2 joined the Confederate Service. According to estimates, 600,000 people died in the battlefield or suffered from various diseases at that time. Importantly, more than twice the fatalities survived. It is not possible to give exact figures of causalities of the U.S Civil war because of the absence of records. In addition, it is almost impossible to tell the number of troops who died of drug addition, wounds, and other war-related causes soon or later after leaving the service. Moreover, the number of civilians who died during the war remained unaccounted for, as some towns became hospitals.
The War Between the States is believed to have started on April 10, 1861 during the transportation of resupplies to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter. Following this leakage of information, South Carolina provisional Confederate forces ordered the fort to surrender. However, the commander of the fort, Major Robertson Anderson ignored the order. On April 12, Confederates launched lethal attacks, forcing Major Anderson to surrender the following day. On April 15, President Lincoln ordered 75,000 volunteers to end Southern rebellion, a move that prompted several States to vote for session. Some of these states included Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas. However, the western part of Virginia turned down the session and broke away, leading to the formation of the West Virginia.
It is important to note that U.S maintained a small professional army. Most of the founders feared having a huge army as they thought Napoleon could rise, use the army, and overthrow the government. Lincoln relied on volunteers because most of the military graduates resigned and joined forces to fight for the South.
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Retrieved from:
http://www.historynet.com/civil-war
http://www.ducksters.com/history/civilwartimeline.php
http://www.nps.gov/gett/historyculture/civil-war-timeline.htm
