American Civil War The American Civil War is a very misunderstood war. It is known for the war that ended slavery. What most people don’t know is the war was not originally fought for the abolition of slavery. The South, or the Confederate, wanted to exercise their rights as states and split from the north. Well Abraham Lincoln thought that would be the downfall of the United States. The Civil War was fought to between the Union and the
Confederacy on the issue of splitting up the United States. The country was divided between two philosophies, either they thought the country could only survive and prosper as a whole, or they believed the south had the right to split from the union.
The country was divided between two different philosophies. The North believed if the South seceded from the North the country would crumble. While the South believed they had the right as states to separate themselves from the Union. (Malvasi)
Abraham Lincoln was the head of the Unions thinking. He had a great sense of political knowledge. He realized if the south did secede the Union wouldn’t stand a chance against attack because half of the country essentially would have been gone. Lincoln originally had no plans of abolishing slavery all his focus was on keeping the country together in one strong unit. (Malvasi) The South on the other hand felt they had been mistreated by the Union and were being taken advantage of. Soon the idea of secession came around and South Carolina was the first to make the threat. They were quickly followed by states like Georgia and Mississippi. They were in fact threatening to leave because they believed the Union wanted to abolish slavery. They thought the plan was to do so by admitting more free states than slave states so congress would be one sided. (The Civil
War) This however was not the Unions intention. The only intentions the North had was to ensure the country stays together, the problem was the way they went about it looked like a threat to slavery. This scared the South into action, their threat to leave.
The cause of the Civil War was the South wanting to secede. “The existence of
African servitude was in no wise the cause of the conflict, but only an incident.“(Civil
War: Cause of the Civil War) This is a common misconception, slavery being the cause of the Civil War. The only reason this a belief is because the South thought the North was trying to abolish slavery. When all the North was doing was trying to gain control so the
South could not secede. The main importance of the North was keeping the country together. The goal is clear to see when you look at the compromise of 1850 and the
Missouri Compromise. The point of these deals is to keep the south happy with the power they have in congress. The compromise of 1850 was to stop the growth of Slavery so power didn’t spread too far so the South could take over the North. The Missouri
Compromise stated states had to enter the union in pairs, one slave state and one free

state. Which is good strategy because it would make the South calm because the power in the Senate would remain equal. Which is exactly what they wanted because they assumed the goal of the North is to gain all power, which involved getting rid of the most important industry of the South, which is slavery. This prompted the south to exercise what it thought to be its states rights and try and secede. Only the Union would not allow this to happen which is where the war started.
For anything to be successful you need leaders. Both sides in the Civil War had just that. The Union had Abraham Lincoln as President and Ulysses S. Grant as their
General. While the South had Jefferson Davis as there appointed President and Robert E.
Lee as their General. Abraham Lincoln was the Unions best weapon the for wartime. His main goal was to preserve the Union at all cost. He realized very early War would take place and it was his job to raise an army. So when the day came and rebellion started in
South Carolina. Lincoln sent 75,000 troops to stop the rebellion. (The Civil War) Early on in the war he made it well known the war was not about slavery. Which will be important later on because of what Lincoln did. It was stated earlier that it was Lincoln’s job to raise an army; it was also his job to find a good commander for the army. He tried numerous commanders before finding one that lived up to his standards and his name was Ulysses
S. Grant. These standards mentioned were developed during his teaching of military strategy to himself. (The Civil War) He read numerous books and absorbed the information about military strengths and weaknesses to learn what he needed to prevent a loss to the South. With Lincolns newly acquired military knowledge and his instincts about how the war was going he knew it was time to make a change. He wanted to change the focus of the war to slavery. He did so by declaring the Emancipation
Proclamation. It said all slaves in rebellion states were now free. This was a genius move politically because it separated the Confederate states from European powers. Europe wouldn’t acknowledge the Confederate states until they freed all their slaves; also it deprived the south of its greatest resource, the slaves.
Jefferson Davis was Lincoln’s southern counterpart. He was the President of the
Confederate states. He actually wanted to be a battlefield General not a President, and that showed and hurt him later on. Davis did do a good job with some things however. He built a functioning wartime society. The main parts of which were the government, the army and the economy. Davis also had many more obstacles to deal with than Lincoln.
One of the biggest ones being that the South had 40 percent of the population the North had. Which is why he tried to pass a bill towards the end of the war saying slaves could enlist in the army. (The Civil War) He could see defeat in sight and was desperate for a victory He also had less to work with as far as supplies went, he was known for having his men steal what they needed from the southern population. Most would say Davis did a good job considering what he had to work with going up against the North. But he clearly had downfalls too. It was stated early Davis wanted to be a Battlefield General; this hurt him immensely at war. He got way to involved with the battles and would end up interfering. He provided no actual plan he just wanted to attack. Also he let his temper and other emotions get in the way of putting his best guys at battle. Many times he forced a more skilled or talented general to sit out battles because he was not happy with them.

He just never learned his boundaries as a President not a general.
Both the South and North had one General they both relied on; the South’s was
Robert E. Lee. “As commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, he masterminded many of the South's greatest military victories”(Robert E. Lee) He was the South’s bread and butter when it came to battle. Most people don’t even know he almost became a general for the Union. It wasn’t until Virginia seceded that he was on the South’s side. Proof of this is he had freed his slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation was ever even a thought. The South was an enormous underdog in every aspect except when they were fighting on their own turf. The general in which the North put their faith in was Ulysses
S. Grant. He was appointed the position merely because of the lack of trained officers in the union army, and because of his experience having came from West Point Military
Academy. (The Civil War) He was the front runner for the job because he had destroyed two confederate armies while leading his own troops. Simply put the union rode him out all the way to victory in the war. This was by far his high point of his career because almost everything else he had attempted in history was considered a failure.
When it comes to the outcome of the war you look to factors to see why and how the North won. Looking at how the North is astonishing when you consider the disadvantages they had. The biggest factor was the conditions under which the war was fought. The south was fighting on their turf with the understanding is all they have to do is survive the war. The north had to win the war outright to be victorious. All the south had to do was try and hold them off. Then when you throw in home field advantage for the south the advantages start to pile up. The south also had more trained military experience and the better military minds, but somehow the north was still able to win this war. What the North had was the man History would call the political genius in this war,
Abraham Lincoln. He understood that based on just the premise of stopping the succeeding he would probably fail. Being the genius he is he brought slavery into the equation with the emancipation proclamation. He used the escaped slaves in slaveholding states to his advantage. The emancipation proclamation made it legal to now use them to help fight in battle. Lincoln himself said in times of war the enemy often destroys or takes an enemies property, or even uses it against them. (Lincoln) Not only did this add numbers to the North’s army, but it dwindled down the home field advantage for the
South. All the slaves who now fought for the North were familiar with the south because that is where they were worked as slaves. The souths old property was now being used against them. (Lincoln) This also ties into the 54 t regiment. The 54 th regiment was one of the first official all black units in the Northern army. (Carney) This was a sign of the times and of the changing attitude of the nation. The civil war may not have started out with a focus on slavery, but it is certainly known for the event that ended slavery in the
United States of America.
The first thing a person thinks of when the Civil War is mentioned is the

abolition of slavery. The abolition of slavery was a great defining moment for this country, but it was not the focus of the war. The focus was doing whatever possible to keep the Union together. This war was what some would call a big upset, on paper the
South should have won the war. But with a little bit of luck in Ulysses S. Grant fighting for the Union instead of the south, and Abraham Lincoln’s political knowledge, the North came out with a victory.
Works Cited
6
Patterson
"William H. Carney." Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 104. Detroit: Gale,
2013. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
"The Civil War (1861–1865)." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History: War. Vol. 1.
Detroit: Gale, 2008. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Civil War: Causes of the War." Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Ed. Richard
Nelson Current. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. U.S. History in
Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
"Robert E. Lee." American Civil War Reference Library. Kevin Hillstrom and
Laurie Collier Hillstrom. Ed. Lawrence W. Baker. Vol. 2: Biographies.
Detroit: UXL, 2000. 251­263. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct.
2014.
Lincoln, Abraham. "A Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Illinois Republican James
Conkling." The African­American Experience. Woodbridge, CT: Primary
Source Media, 1999. American Journey. U.S. History in Context. Web.
20 Oct. 2014.
Malvasi, Mark G., and Carey M. Roberts. "U. S. Civil War: Did Slavery Cause the
Civil War?" History in Dispute. Ed. Mark G. Malvasi. Vol. 13: Slavery in the Western Hemisphere, circa 1500­1888. Detroit: St. James Press,
2003. 276­284. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
7

civil war.docx 7
1
/
●
● Patterson
● Alex Patterson
● Professor Jackson
● History 17A
● 21 September 2014
● American Civil War
● The American Civil War is a very misunderstood war. It is known for the war
● that ended slavery. What most people don’t know is the war was not originally fought for
● the abolition of slavery. The South, or the Confederate, wanted to exercise their rights as
● states and split from the north. Well Abraham Lincoln thought that would be the downfall
● of the United States. The Civil War was fought to between the Union and the

●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●

Confederacy on the issue of splitting up the United States. The country was divided between two philosophies, either they thought the country could only survive and prosper as a whole, or they believed the south had the right to split from the union.
The country was divided between two different philosophies. The North believed if the South seceded from the North the country would crumble. While the
South
believed they had the right as states to separate themselves from the Union. (Malvasi)
Abraham Lincoln was the head of the Unions thinking. He had a great sense of political knowledge. He realized if the south did secede the Union wouldn’t stand a chance against attack because half of the country essentially would have been gone. Lincoln originally had no plans of abolishing slavery all his focus was on keeping the country together in one strong unit. (Malvasi) The South on the other hand felt they had been mistreated by the Union and were being taken advantage of. Soon the idea of secession came around and South Carolina was the first to make the threat. They were quickly followed by states
1
Patterson like Georgia and Mississippi. They were in fact threatening to leave because they believed the Union wanted to abolish slavery. They thought the plan was to do so by admitting more free states than slave states so congress would be one sided. (The Civil
War) This however was not the Unions intention. The only intentions the North had was to ensure the country stays together, the problem was the way they went about it looked like a threat to slavery. This scared the South into action, their threat to leave.
The cause of the Civil War was the South wanting to secede. “The existence of
African servitude was in no wise the cause of the conflict, but only an incident.“(Civil
War: Cause of the Civil War) This is a common misconception, slavery being the cause of the Civil War. The only reason this a belief is because the South thought the North was trying to abolish slavery. When all the North was doing was trying to gain control so the
South could not secede. The main importance of the North was keeping the country together. The goal is clear to see when you look at the compromise of 1850 and the
Missouri Compromise. The point of these deals is to keep the south happy with the power they have in congress. The compromise of 1850 was to stop the growth of Slavery so power didn’t spread too far so the South could take over the North. The Missouri
Compromise stated states had to enter the union in pairs, one slave state and one free state. Which is good strategy because it would make the South calm because the power in the Senate would remain equal. Which is exactly what they wanted because they assumed the goal of the North is to gain all power, which involved getting rid of the most important industry of the South, which is slavery. This prompted the south to exercise

●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●

what it thought to be its states rights and try and secede. Only the Union would not allow this to happen which is where the war started.
2
Patterson
For anything to be successful you need leaders. Both sides in the Civil War had just that. The Union had Abraham Lincoln as President and Ulysses S. Grant as their
General. While the South had Jefferson Davis as there appointed President and Robert
E.
Lee as their General. Abraham Lincoln was the Unions best weapon the for wartime. His main goal was to preserve the Union at all cost. He realized very early War would take place and it was his job to raise an army. So when the day came and rebellion started in
South Carolina. Lincoln sent 75,000 troops to stop the rebellion. (The Civil War) Early on in the war he made it well known the war was not about slavery. Which will be important later on because of what Lincoln did. It was stated earlier that it was Lincoln’s job to raise an army; it was also his job to find a good commander for the army. He tried numerous commanders before finding one that lived up to his standards and his name was Ulysses
S. Grant. These standards mentioned were developed during his teaching of military strategy to himself. (The Civil War) He read numerous books and absorbed the information about military strengths and weaknesses to learn what he needed to prevent a loss to the South. With Lincolns newly acquired military knowledge and his instincts about how the war was going he knew it was time to make a change. He wanted to change the focus of the war to slavery. He did so by declaring the Emancipation
Proclamation. It said all slaves in rebellion states were now free. This was a genius move politically because it separated the Confederate states from European powers. Europe wouldn’t acknowledge the Confederate states until they freed all their slaves; also it deprived the south of its greatest resource, the slaves.
Jefferson Davis was Lincoln’s southern counterpart. He was the President of the
Confederate states. He actually wanted to be a battlefield General not a President, and
3
Patterson that showed and hurt him later on. Davis did do a good job with some things however.
He
built a functioning wartime society. The main parts of which were the government, the army and the economy. Davis also had many more obstacles to deal with than Lincoln.
One of the biggest ones being that the South had 40 percent of the population the North had. Which is why he tried to pass a bill towards the end of the war saying slaves could enlist in the army. (The Civil War) He could see defeat in sight and was desperate for a victory He also had less to work with as far as supplies went, he was known for having his men steal what they needed from the southern population. Most would say Davis did a good job considering what he had to work with going up against the North. But he clearly had downfalls too. It was stated early Davis wanted to be a Battlefield General;

●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●

this hurt him immensely at war. He got way to involved with the battles and would end up interfering. He provided no actual plan he just wanted to attack. Also he let his temper and other emotions get in the way of putting his best guys at battle. Many times he forced a more skilled or talented general to sit out battles because he was not happy with them.
He just never learned his boundaries as a President not a general.
Both the South and North had one General they both relied on; the South’s was
Robert E. Lee. “As commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, he masterminded many of the South's greatest military victories”(Robert E. Lee) He was the South’s bread and butter when it came to battle. Most people don’t even know he almost became a general for the Union. It wasn’t until Virginia seceded that he was on the South’s side. Proof of this is he had freed his slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation was ever even a thought. The South was an enormous underdog in every aspect except when they were fighting on their own turf. The general in which the North put their faith in was Ulysses
4
Patterson
S. Grant. He was appointed the position merely because of the lack of trained officers in the union army, and because of his experience having came from West Point Military
Academy. (The Civil War) He was the front runner for the job because he had destroyed two confederate armies while leading his own troops. Simply put the union rode him out all the way to victory in the war. This was by far his high point of his career because almost everything else he had attempted in history was considered a failure.
When it comes to the outcome of the war you look to factors to see why and how the North won. Looking at how the North is astonishing when you consider the disadvantages they had. The biggest factor was the conditions under which the war was fought. The south was fighting on their turf with the understanding is all they have to do is survive the war. The north had to win the war outright to be victorious. All the south had to do was try and hold them off. Then when you throw in home field advantage for the south the advantages start to pile up. The south also had more trained military experience and the better military minds, but somehow the north was still able to win this war. What the North had was the man History would call the political genius in this war,
Abraham Lincoln. He understood that based on just the premise of stopping the succeeding he would probably fail. Being the genius he is he brought slavery into the equation with the emancipation proclamation. He used the escaped slaves in slaveholding states to his advantage. The emancipation proclamation made it legal to now use them to help fight in battle. Lincoln himself said in times of war the enemy often destroys or takes an enemies property, or even uses it against them. (Lincoln) Not only did this add numbers to the North’s army, but it dwindled down the home field advantage for the
South. All the slaves who now fought for the North were familiar with the south because
5
Patterson

●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●

that is where they were worked as slaves. The souths old property was now being used against them. (Lincoln) This also ties into the 54 th regiment. The 54 th regiment was one of the first official all black units in the Northern army. (Carney) This was a sign of the times and of the changing attitude of the nation. The civil war may not have started out with a focus on slavery, but it is certainly known for the event that ended slavery in the
United States of America.
The first thing a person thinks of when the Civil War is mentioned is the abolition of slavery. The abolition of slavery was a great defining moment for this country, but it was not the focus of the war. The focus was doing whatever possible to keep the Union together. This war was what some would call a big upset, on paper the
South should have won the war. But with a little bit of luck in Ulysses S. Grant fighting for the Union instead of the south, and Abraham Lincoln’s political knowledge, the North came out with a victory.
Works Cited
6
Patterson
"William H. Carney." Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 104. Detroit: Gale,
2013. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
"The Civil War (1861–1865)." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History: War. Vol. 1.
Detroit: Gale, 2008. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Civil War: Causes of the War." Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Ed. Richard
Nelson Current. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. U.S. History in
Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
"Robert E. Lee." American Civil War Reference Library. Kevin Hillstrom and
Laurie Collier Hillstrom. Ed. Lawrence W. Baker. Vol. 2: Biographies.
Detroit: UXL, 2000. 251­263. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct.
2014.
Lincoln, Abraham. "A Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Illinois Republican James
Conkling." The African­American Experience. Woodbridge, CT: Primary
Source Media, 1999. American Journey. U.S. History in Context. Web.
20 Oct. 2014.
Malvasi, Mark G., and Carey M. Roberts. "U. S. Civil War: Did Slavery Cause the
Civil War?" History in Dispute. Ed. Mark G. Malvasi. Vol. 13: Slavery in the Western Hemisphere, circa 1500­1888. Detroit: St. James Press,
2003. 276­284. U.S. History in Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
7