The Civil War was a major war in United States history. This was a war between the North and the South. This war effected everybody women, slaves, but most importantly Leaders.Even though Leaders did not actually fight in the civil War, the Leaders played a very important role in the Civil War. Firstly, the Leaders made decisions that impacted the war. Secondly, the Leaders led the armies in battle. Finally, Leaders made sure the army had what was necessary and made sure they did not loose essential items that would have led to a serious lose.
The Union Leaders made decisions that impacted the war. The main Leaders in the war were Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, General Grant, Winfield Scott, General Sherman, and Robert E. Lee. Lincoln made many decisons that impacted the war. Abraham Lincoln became president in 1860 with 40 percent of the popular vote and 60 percentof the electoral vote.(Basker 16). On december 20, 1860 South Carolina and six other southern states seceded from the Union along with six other southern states forming the Confederate states of America (Basker 25). The constitution of the new confederacy would sanction the unrestricted right to hold slaves. (Basker and Ahlsrtom 17). The remaining states were Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, and Maryland. Maryland was essential to keep because it surrounded the white house (Hart 122). To keep Maryland in the Union Lincoln suspended Habeus Corpus. Habeus Corpus is the right of a person to appear in court so a judge can determine whether the person is being imprisoned lawfully. Suspending this right allowed the Union to jail suspected opponents without charge and to hold them infinitely (Hart 122).
Lincoln made decisions that affected the army. In 1863 congress enacted a military draft. The draft was made because the union army was lacking men to fight and had insufficent number of volunteers. This draft said all white men from the ages of 20 to 45 to report for military duty. If a man did not want to fight he could pay 300 dollars to buy his way out or find a replacement. This meant that most northerners could avoid fighting while the poor went to war.This draft made people in large cities such as New York. A riot broke out were people directed their anger at African Americans. Estimates of deaths was as high as 1,000 killed and wounded (Hart 122, 123).
Lincoln made another major decision when he delievered his Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. This proclamation came not lon after the Battle of Antietam. The Battle of Antietam was bloodiest one day batlle. This battle took place at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Mayland (Hart 119). As many 23,000 people were killed and wounded (Gilderlehrman.org ). In the Emancipation Proclamation Abraham Lincoln said “all persons held as slaves within any state or desginated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free; (Basker and Ahlsrtom 21). As a result of the Emancipation Proclamation Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists joined together to get African American men to enlist in the Union Army. Recruiting poster were posted in northern states such as Pennslyvania. By the end of the war the Union army had more than 200,000 African American soliders in its army (Basker 31).
Jefferson Davis became the first and only president of the Confederate States of America in 1861. Jefferson Davis had problems raising a army. In 1862 the south passed a similar draft law that also had a loophole for rich plantation owners could avoid military service. Southerners also got angry calling the war “a rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight” (Hart 123). Davis and other southern leaders had problems paying for the war. Before the war the south relied on cotton exports for most of its income. When the war commenced the south placed an embargo on cotton exports to get the British to supply them with money and weapons but it failed when the british found new sources of supply (History.com). The economy was terrible durin the war. Prices had gone up bacon went from 12 cents to 1.50 a pound. In 1865 Jefferson Davis was arrested, threatened with trial for treason and held in prison for two years but never went to trial. He appointed Robert E. Lee as commander of the army in Virgina (history.com).
General Ulysses S. Grant led the union army to its victory in the war. At the start of the Civil War, Grant was appointed colonel, and soon afterward brigadier general of the Illinois Volunteers. In September 1861 he seized Paducah, Kentucky. He gained fame when in February 1862, in conjunction with the navy; he succeeded in reducing Forts Henry and Donelson, Tennessee forcing Gen. Simon B. Buckner to accept unconditional surrender (history.com). In April of 1865 the Confederates surprised Grant at Shiloh but he held his ground and then moved on to Corinth. In 1863 he established his reputation as a strategist in the brilliant campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi, which capitulated on July 4. In November of 1863 after being appointed commander in the West, he defeated Braxton Bragg at Chattanooga. Grant's victories made him so prominent that he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and in February 1864 was given command of all Union armies (history.com).
General Winfield Scott made the military strategy known as the anaconda plan. The anaconda plan was devised to crush the confederacy. His plan had three parts that would lead to the south’s demise. The first part was setting up a naval blockade around the Confederacy to prevent the importation of supplies from Europe. The next step was to gain control of the mississippi river. The final part was to invade and gain control of Richmond, Virgina the confederate capital (civilwarhome.com).
General William T. Sherman helped the union army. In 1861, he offered his services to the Union army and was put in command of a volunteer infantry regiment, becoming a brigadier general of volunteers after the first Battle of Bull Run (history.com). In 1864 Sherman was made supreme commander of the armies in the West and was ordered to move against Atlanta, Georgia (history.com). Sherman with about 60,000 picked men marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia on the Atlantic coast (history.com). Along the way the men lay waste the intervening territory and severed the Confederate government at Richmond, Virgina; from its western states. Sherman subsequently set out to join forces with Grant, who was moving southward toward Richmond. After three months of fighting, Sherman managed to reach Raleigh, North Carolina, where he was in a position to complete the encirclement of Richmond and the city's defending forces, which were led by the Confederate commander in chief Robert E. Lee. Following Lee's surrender on April 9, the Confederate army confronting Sherman surrendered to him at Raleigh, on April 17 (history.com). Along with Ulysses S. Grant, Sherman devised a plan known as total war. They thought it was necessary to break the South’s will to fight. General Sherman said "We are not only fighting hostile armies," he declared in 1864, "but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war." (digitalhistory.uh.edu). Union soliders got a general order was issued that declared that military necessity "allows of all destruction of property" and "appropriation of whatever an enemy's country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the Army." (digitalhistory.uh.edu).
Robert E Lee was the key general in the confederate army. Lee’s military genius was probably the greatest single factor in keeping the Confederacy able to fight through the four years of the Civil War (history.com).President Abraham Lincoln offered him the field command of the Union forces, but Lee declined. On April 20, three days after Virginia seceded from the Union, he submitted his resignation from the U.S. Army (history.com). On April 23 he became commander in chief of the military and naval forces of Virginia. For a year he was military adviser to Jefferson Davis, and was then placed in command of the army in northern Virginia. In February 1865 Lee was made commander in chief of all Confederate armies (history.com). Grant's army had cut off Lee's supply lines, forcing Confederate forces to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond. Lee and his men retreated westward, but Grant's troops overtook him about a hundred miles west of Richmond (digitalhistory.uh.edu). On April 9, 1865 the civil war ended when Lee surrendered to Grant at the Appomattox Court House, Virgina.
The American Civil War started in 1861 and ended in 1865. This war was between the North and The South. The war iumpacted the lives of everyone from women, slaves to soliders and leaders. leaders did not fight in most of the war, they played a very important role. Leaders made important decisions that affected the war and its outcome. Leaders led their armies to its victories in battles and Union leaders led their armies to win the war. Leaders made sure that armies had essential supplies and made sure they did not loose necessary items like battles and states.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources:
1. Basker, James, ed., Why Documents Matter. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2007.
2. Basker, James and Justine Ahlsrtom, ed. I Take Up My Pen. New
York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2008.
3. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC02745.01 accessed march 13, 09
4. http://www.civilwarhome.com/scottmcclellananaconda.htmacessed march 15, 09
Secondary Sources:
1. Hart, Diane. Pursuing American Ideals. Palo Alto: Teachers Curriculum Institute, 2008.
2. http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=210813 accessed march 13, 09
3. http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=214533 accessed march 13, 09
4. http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=222221 accessed march 13, 09
5. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=95 march 13, 09
6. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=119 march 13, 09
