Amerikanischer Bürgerkrieg Goldmünze Medaille Ende der Sklaverei Präsident Geschichte Armee Waffen USA

EUR 0,01 1 Gebot 3d 6h 26m 31s, EUR 6,93 Versand, 30-Tag Rücknahmen, eBay-Käuferschutz
Verkäufer: lasvegasormonaco ✉️ (3.238) 99.7%, Artikelstandort: Manchester, Take a look at my other items, GB, Versand nach: WORLDWIDE, Artikelnummer: 266732658625 Amerikanischer Bürgerkrieg Goldmünze Medaille Ende der Sklaverei Präsident Geschichte Armee Waffen USA. American Civil War 1861 - 1865 This is an Uncirculated Gold Plated Coin to Commemoration The American Civil War The main side has Images of the two Generals  Commanders Ulysses S. Grant & Robert E. Lee In the background are the two flags the US Stars and Stripes of the North and the Flag of the South There is also an image of the Great Abraham Lincoln with his famous quote around the outside "The Second Bourgeois Revolution in America History" Abraham Lincoln The other side crossed army rifles guns with the caps of the north and the south and their flags it has the words "Abolition of Slavery" & "1861 - 1865 American Civil War" The coin is 40mm in diameter, weighs about  1 oz The coin you will receive would have never been taken out of air-tight acrylic coin holder Deluxe Coin Jewel Case. In Excellent Condition Would make an Excellent Gift or Collectable Keepsake to Remember a Historic Conflict Like all my auctions bidding starts at 1p with no reserve Click Here to Check out my other Military & Historical Items!

Bid with Confidence please read my 100% Positive feedback from over 2,000 satisfied customer

Read how quickly they receive their items -  I post all my items within 24 hours of receiving payment I am a UK Based Seller with over 10 years of eBay Selling Experience I am Highly Rated Seller by Ebay and  My selling Performance is Rated  Premium Service

International customers are welcome.  I have shipped items to over 120 countries and I will ship anywhere worldwide UK Buyers can expect their items in a few days sometimes they arrive the next day Items sent to Europe usually take about a week and outside Europe take around 2 weeks International orders may require longer handling time if held up at customs. A small percentage do get held up at customs if they do they can take up to 6 weeks to arrive Returns Accepted Why not treat yourself? I always combine multiple items and send an invoice with discounted postage I leave instant feedback upon receiving yours All payment methods accepted from all countries in all currencies Are you looking for a Interesting conversation piece?  A birthday present for the person who has everything? A comical gift to cheer someone up? or a special unique gift just to say thank you? You now know where to look for a bargain! All Items Dispatched within 24 hours of Receiving Payment. 

Thanks for Looking and Good Luck with the Bidding!! 

I have sold items to coutries such as Afghanistan * Albania * Algeria * American Samoa (US) * Andorra * Angola * Anguilla (GB) * Antigua and Barbuda * Argentina * Armenia * Aruba (NL) * Australia * Austria * Azerbaijan * Bahamas * Bahrain * Bangladesh * Barbados * Belarus * Belgium * Belize * Benin * Bermuda (GB) * Bhutan * Bolivia * Bonaire (NL)  * Bosnia and Herzegovina * Botswana * Bouvet Island (NO) * Brazil * British Indian Ocean Territory (GB) * British Virgin Islands (GB) * Brunei * Bulgaria * Burkina Faso * Burundi * Cambodia * Cameroon * Canada * Cape Verde * Cayman Islands (GB) * Central African Republic * Chad * Chile * China * Christmas Island (AU) * Cocos Islands (AU) * Colombia * Comoros * Congo * Democratic Republic of the Congo * Cook Islands (NZ) * Coral Sea Islands Territory (AU) * Costa Rica * Croatia * Cuba * Curaçao (NL)  * Cyprus * Czech Republic * Denmark * Djibouti * Dominica * Dominican Republic * East Timor * Ecuador * Egypt * El Salvador * Equatorial Guinea * Eritrea * Estonia * Ethiopia * Falkland Islands (GB) * Faroe Islands (DK) * Fiji Islands * Finland * France * French Guiana (FR) * French Polynesia (FR) * French Southern Lands (FR) * Gabon * Gambia * Georgia * Germany * Ghana * Gibraltar (GB) * Greece * Greenland (DK) * Grenada * Guadeloupe (FR) * Guam (US) * Guatemala * Guernsey (GB) * Guinea * Guinea-Bissau * Guyana * Haiti * Heard and McDonald Islands (AU) * Honduras * Hong Kong (CN) * Hungary * Iceland * India * Indonesia * Iran * Iraq * Ireland * Isle of Man (GB) * Israel * Italy * Ivory Coast * Jamaica * Jan Mayen (NO) * Japan * Jersey (GB) * Jordan * Kazakhstan * Kenya * Kiribati * Kosovo * Kuwait * Kyrgyzstan * Laos * Latvia * Lebanon * Lesotho * Liberia * Libya * Liechtenstein * Lithuania * Luxembourg * Macau (CN) * Macedonia * Madagascar * Malawi * Malaysia * Maldives * Mali * Malta * Marshall Islands * Martinique (FR) * Mauritania * Mauritius * Mayotte (FR) * Mexico * Micronesia * Moldova * Monaco * Mongolia * Montenegro * Montserrat (GB) * Morocco * Mozambique * Myanmar * Namibia * Nauru * Navassa (US) * Nepal * Netherlands * New Caledonia (FR) * New Zealand * Nicaragua * Niger * Nigeria * Niue (NZ) * Norfolk Island (AU) * North Korea * Northern Cyprus * Northern Mariana Islands (US) * Norway * Oman * Pakistan * Palau * Palestinian Authority * Panama * Papua New Guinea * Paraguay * Peru * Philippines * Pitcairn Island (GB) * Poland * Portugal * Puerto Rico (US) * Qatar * Reunion (FR) * Romania * Russia * Rwanda * Saba (NL)  * Saint Barthelemy (FR) * Saint Helena (GB) * Saint Kitts and Nevis * Saint Lucia * Saint Martin (FR) * Saint Pierre and Miquelon (FR) * Saint Vincent and the Grenadines * Samoa * San Marino * Sao Tome and Principe * Saudi Arabia * Senegal * Serbia * Seychelles * Sierra Leone * Singapore * Sint Eustatius (NL)  * Sint Maarten (NL)  * Slovakia * Slovenia * Solomon Islands * Somalia * South Africa * South Georgia (GB) * South Korea * South Sudan * Spain * Sri Lanka * Sudan * Suriname * Svalbard (NO) * Swaziland * Sweden * Switzerland * Syria * Taiwan * Tajikistan * Tanzania * Thailand * Togo * Tokelau (NZ) * Tonga * Trinidad and Tobago * Tunisia * Turkey * Turkmenistan * Turks and Caicos Islands (GB) * Tuvalu * U.S. Minor Pacific Islands (US) * U.S. Virgin Islands (US) * Uganda * Ukraine * United Arab Emirates * United Kingdom * United States * Uruguay * Uzbekistan * Vanuatu * Vatican City * Venezuela * Vietnam * Wallis and Futuna (FR) * Yemen * Zambia * Zimbabwe and major cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, New York City, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Mexico City, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Manila, Mumbai, Delhi, Jakarta, Lagos, Kolkata, Cairo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Shanghai, Karachi, Paris, Istanbul, Nagoya, Beijing, Chicago, London, Shenzhen, Essen, Düsseldorf, Tehran, Bogota, Lima, Bangkok, Johannesburg, East Rand, Chennai, Taipei, Baghdad, Santiago, Bangalore, Hyderabad, St Petersburg, Philadelphia, Lahore, Kinshasa, Miami, Ho Chi Minh City, Madrid, Tianjin, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, Milan, Shenyang, Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Belo Horizonte, Khartoum, Riyadh, Singapore, Washington, Detroit, Barcelona,, Houston, Athens, Berlin, Sydney, Atlanta, Guadalajara, San Francisco, Oakland, Montreal, Monterey, Melbourne, Ankara, Recife, Phoenix/Mesa, Durban, Porto Alegre, Dalian, Jeddah, Seattle, Cape Town, San Diego, Fortaleza, Curitiba, Rome, Naples, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Tel Aviv, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Manchester, San Juan, Katowice, Tashkent, Fukuoka, Baku, Sumqayit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Sapporo, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Taichung, Warsaw, Denver, Cologne, Bonn, Hamburg, Dubai, Pretoria, Vancouver, Beirut, Budapest, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Campinas, Harare, Brasilia, Kuwait, Munich, Portland, Brussels, Vienna, San Jose, Damman , Copenhagen, Brisbane, Riverside, San Bernardino, Cincinnati and Accra

American Civil War

United States history

    

Category: History & Society

Date: April 12, 1861 - April 26, 1865

Location: United States

Participants: Confederate States of America United States

Major Events: Battle of Antietam Fort Pillow Massacre Battle of Gettysburg Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack Battle of Monocacy

Key People: James Buchanan Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee Abraham Lincoln Richard S. Ewell

Top Questions

What caused the American Civil War?

Who won the American Civil War?

How many people died during the Civil War?

Who were the most important figures in the American Civil War?

Why are Confederate symbols controversial?

American Civil War, also called War Between the States, four-year war (1861–65) between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.

Prelude to war

How a tax increase helped spark the Civil War

How a tax increase helped spark the Civil WarSee all videos for this article

The secession of the Southern states (in chronological order, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) in 1860–61 and the ensuing outbreak of armed hostilities were the culmination of decades of growing sectional friction over slavery. Between 1815 and 1861 the economy of the Northern states was rapidly modernizing and diversifying. Although agriculture—mostly smaller farms that relied on free labour—remained the dominant sector in the North, industrialization had taken root there. Moreover, Northerners had invested heavily in an expansive and varied transportation system that included canals, roads, steamboats, and railroads; in financial industries such as  communications network that featured inexpensive, widely available newspapers, magazines, and books, along with the telegraph.

Inspection and Sale of a Negro

Inspection and Sale of a Negro

By contrast, the Southern economy was based principally on large farms (plantations) that produced commercial crops such as cotton and that relied on slaves as the main labour force. Rather than invest in factories or railroads as Northerners had done, Southerners invested their money in slaves—even more than in land; by 1860, 84 percent of the capital invested in manufacturing was invested in the free (nonslaveholding) states. Yet, to Southerners, as late as 1860, this appeared to be a sound business decision. The price of cotton, the South’s defining crop, had skyrocketed in the 1850s, and the value of slaves—who were, after all, property—rose commensurately. By 1860 the per capita wealth of Southern whites was twice that of Northerners, and three-fifths of the wealthiest individuals in the country were Southerners.

1860 presidential campaign

1860 presidential campaign

The extension of slavery into new territories and states had been an issue as far back as the Northwest Ordinance of 1784. When the slave territory of Missouri sought statehood in 1818, Congress debated for two years before arriving upon the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This was the first of a series of political deals that resulted from arguments between pro-slavery and antislavery forces over the expansion of the “peculiar institution,” as it was known, into the West. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 and the roughly 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square km) of new territory that the United States gained as a result of it added a new sense of urgency to the dispute. More and more Northerners, driven by a sense of morality or an interest in protecting free labour, came to believe, in the 1850s, that bondage needed to be eradicated. White Southerners feared that limiting the expansion of slavery would consign the institution to certain death. Over the course of the decade, the two sides became increasingly polarized and politicians less able to contain the dispute through compromise. When Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the explicitly antislavery Republican Party, won the 1860 presidential election, seven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) carried out their threat and seceded, organizing as the Confederate States of America.

"The Fifteenth Amendment. Celebrated May 19th, 1870" color lithograph created by Thomas Kelly, 1870. (Reconstruction) At center, a depiction of a parade in celebration of the passing of the 15th Amendment. Framing it are portraits and vignettes...

Britannica Quiz

Reconstruction Era Quiz

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter, at the entrance to the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina. Curiously, this first encounter of what would be the bloodiest war in the history of the United States claimed no victims. After a 34-hour bombardment, Maj. Robert Anderson surrendered his command of about 85 soldiers to some 5,500 besieging Confederate troops under P.G.T. Beauregard. Within weeks, four more Southern states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) left the Union to join the Confederacy.

American Civil War: Union army volunteer

American Civil War: Union army volunteer

With war upon the land, President Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve for three months. He proclaimed a naval blockade of the Confederate states, although he insisted that they did not legally constitute a sovereign country but were instead states in rebellion. He also directed the secretary of the treasury to advance $2 million to assist in the raising of troops, and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, first along the East Coast and ultimately throughout the country. The Confederate government had previously authorized a call for 100,000 soldiers for at least six months’ service, and this figure was soon increased to 400,000.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.

Jennifer L. Weber

The military background of the war

Comparison of North and South

Confederate States of America

Confederate States of America

At first glance it seemed that the 23 states that remained in the Union after secession were more than a match for the 11 Southern states. Approximately 21 million people lived in the North, compared with some nine million in the South of whom about four million were slaves. In addition, the North was the site of more than 100,000 manufacturing plants, against 18,000 south of the Potomac River, and more than 70 percent of the railroads were in the Union. Furthermore, the Federals had at their command a 30-to-1 superiority in arms production, a 2-to-1 edge in available manpower, and a great preponderance of commercial and financial resources. The Union also had a functioning government and a small but efficient regular army and navy.

The Confederacy was not predestined to defeat, however. The Southern armies had the advantage of fighting on interior lines, and their military tradition had bulked large in the history of the United States before 1860. Moreover, the long Confederate coastline of 3,500 miles (5,600 km) seemed to defy blockade, and the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, hoped to receive decisive foreign aid and intervention. Confederate soldiers were fighting to achieve a separate and independent country based on what they called “Southern institutions,” the chief of which was the institution of slavery. So the Southern cause was not a lost one; indeed, other countries—most notably the United States itself in the American Revolution against Britain—had won independence against equally heavy odds.

The high commands

Command problems plagued both sides. Of the two rival commanders in chief, most people in 1861 thought Davis to be abler than Lincoln. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, a hero of the Mexican-American War, a capable secretary of war under Pres. Franklin Pierce, and a U.S. representative and senator from Mississippi. Lincoln—who had served in the Illinois state legislature and as an undistinguished one-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives—could boast of only a brief period of military service in the Black Hawk War, in which he saw no action.

Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis

Learn about the personal and political life of Jefferson Davis from his great-great-grandson Bertram Hayes-Davis

Learn about the personal and political life of Jefferson Davis from his great-great-grandson Bertram Hayes-DavisSee all videos for this article

As president and commander in chief of the Confederate forces, Davis revealed many fine qualities, including dignity, firmness, determination, and honesty, but he was flawed by his excessive pride, hypersensitivity to criticism, poor political skills, and tendency to micromanage. He engaged in extended petty quarrels with generals and cabinet members. He also suffered from ill health throughout the conflict. Davis’s effectiveness was further hampered by a political system that limited him to a single six-year term—thereby making him a lame duck immediately upon his election—and that frowned on organized political parties, which Southerners accused of having been at least partly responsible for the coming of the Civil War. The lack of political parties meant that Davis could command no loyalty from a broad group of people such as governors or political appointees when he came under heavy criticism.

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR EVENTS

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

To a large extent and by his own preference, Davis was his own secretary of war, although five different men served in that post during the lifetime of the Confederacy. Davis himself also filled the position of general in chief of the Confederate armies until he named Robert E. Lee to that position on February 6, 1865, when the Confederacy was near collapse. In naval affairs—an area about which he knew little—the Confederate president seldom intervened directly, allowing the competent secretary of the navy, Stephen Mallory, to handle the Southern naval buildup and operations on the water. Although his position was onerous and quite likely could not have been filled as well by any other Southern political leader—most of them having come to prominence in a period of growing disinclination to compromise—Davis’s overall performance in office left something to be desired.

Discover more about Copperhead opposition to Abraham Lincoln during the U.S. presidential election of 1864

Discover more about Copperhead opposition to Abraham Lincoln during the U.S. presidential election of 1864See all videos for this article

To the astonishment of many, Lincoln grew in stature with time and experience, and by 1864 he had become a consummate politician and war director. Lincoln matured into a remarkably effective president because of his great intelligence, communication skills, humility, sense of purpose, sense of humour, fundamentally moderate nature, and ability to remain focused on the big picture. But he had much to learn at first, especially in strategic and tactical matters and in his choices of army commanders. With an ineffective first secretary of war—Simon Cameron—Lincoln unhesitatingly insinuated himself directly into the planning of military movements. Edwin M. Stanton, a well-known lawyer appointed to the secretaryship on January 20, 1862, was equally untutored in military affairs, but he was fully as active a participant as his superior.

George McClellan

George McClellan

Winfield Scott was the Federal general in chief when Lincoln took office. The 75-year-old Scott—a hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War—was a magnificent and distinguished soldier whose mind was still keen, but he was physically incapacitated and had to be retired from the service on November 1, 1861. Scott was replaced by young George B. McClellan, who was an excellent organizer. McClellan, however, lacked tenacity, persistently overestimated the Confederates’ strength (and therefore stalled his attacks), and was openly disdainful of the president. Because he wanted McClellan to focus his attentions on the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln relieved McClellan as general in chief on March 11, 1862. Henry W. Halleck, who proved to be a strong administrator but did little in the way of strategic planning, succeeded McClellan on July 11 and held the position until he was replaced by Ulysses S. Grant on March 9, 1864. Halleck then became chief of staff under Grant in a long-needed streamlining of the Federal high command. Grant served efficaciously as general in chief throughout the remainder of the war.

After the initial call by Lincoln and Davis for troops, and as the war lengthened indeterminately, both sides turned to raising massive armies of volunteers. Local citizens of prominence and means would organize regiments that were uniformed and accoutred at first under the aegis of the states and then mustered into the service of the Union and Confederate governments. On each side, the presidents appointed so-called “political generals,” men who had little or no military training or experience but had important political connections (for example, Northern Democrats) or had ties to immigrant communities. Although successful politically, most of these appointments did not yield happy military results. As the war dragged on, the two governments had to resort to conscription to fill the ranks being so swiftly thinned by battle casualties.

Strategic plans

Anaconda Plan

Anaconda Plan

In the area of grand strategy, Davis persistently adhered to the defensive, permitting only occasional “spoiling” forays into Northern territory. Perhaps the Confederates’ best chance of winning would have been an early grand offensive into the Union states before the Lincoln administration could find its ablest generals and bring the preponderant resources of the North to bear against the South. On the other hand, protecting the territory the Confederacy already controlled was of paramount importance, and a defensive position allowed the rebels to husband their resources somewhat better. To crush the rebellion and reestablish the authority of the Federal government, Lincoln had to direct his blue-clad armies to invade, capture, and hold most of the vital areas of the Confederacy. His grand strategy was based on Scott’s so-called Anaconda Plan, a design that evolved from strategic ideas discussed in messages between Scott and McClellan on April 27, May 3, and May 21, 1861. It called for a Union blockade of the Confederacy’s coastline as well as a decisive thrust down the Mississippi River and an ensuing strangulation of the South by Federal land and naval forces. But it was to take four years of grim, unrelenting warfare and enormous casualties and devastation before the Confederates could be defeated and the Union preserved.

The land war

The war in 1861

Learn about Civil War battle-ridden Virginia, home of top generals and the Confederate capital, and the state's split with West Virginia

Learn about Civil War battle-ridden Virginia, home of top generals and the Confederate capital, and the state's split with West VirginiaSee all videos for this article

Learn about the battles that took place in West Virginia after the state seceded from Virginia to join the Union

Learn about the battles that took place in West Virginia after the state seceded from Virginia to join the UnionSee all videos for this article

The first military operations took place in northwestern Virginia, where nonslaveholding pro-Union Virginians sought to secede from the Confederacy. McClellan, in command of Federal forces in southern Ohio, advanced on his own initiative in the early summer of 1861 into western Virginia with about 20,000 men. He encountered smaller forces sent there by Lee, who was then in Richmond in command of all Virginia troops. Although showing signs of occasional hesitation, McClellan quickly won three small but significant battles: on June 3 at Philippi, on July 11 at Rich Mountain, and on July 13 at Carrick’s (or Corrick’s) Ford (all now in West Virginia). McClellan’s casualties were light, and his victories went far toward eliminating Confederate resistance in northwestern Virginia, which had refused to recognize secession, and toward paving the way for the admittance into the Union of the new state of West Virginia in 1863.

Explore the differences between the Union and the Confederate armies that fought in the American Civil War

Explore the differences between the Union and the Confederate armies that fought in the American Civil WarSee all videos for this article

Meanwhile, sizable armies were gathering around the Federal capital of Washington, D.C., and the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, which was about 100 miles (160 km) south of Washington. Federal forces abandoned positions in Virginia, including, on April 18, Harpers Ferry (now in West Virginia), which was quickly occupied by Southern forces, who held it for a time, and the naval base at Norfolk, which was prematurely abandoned to the Confederacy on April 20. On May 6 Lee ordered a Confederate force—soon to be commanded by P.G.T. Beauregard—northward to hold the rail hub of Manassas Junction, Virginia, some 26 miles (42 km) southwest of Washington. With Lincoln’s approval, Scott appointed Irvin McDowell to command the main Federal army that was being hastily collected near Washington. But political pressure and Northern public opinion impelled Lincoln, against Scott’s advice, to order McDowell’s still-untrained army to push the Confederates back from Manassas. Meanwhile, Federal forces were to hold Confederate soldiers under Joseph E. Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester, Virginia, thus preventing them from reinforcing Beauregard along the Bull Run near Manassas.

Bull Run, Virginia

Bull Run, Virginia

Learn through an animated map about the First Battle of Bull Run

Learn through an animated map about the First Battle of Bull RunSee all videos for this article

McDowell advanced from Washington on July 16 with some 28,000 men and moved slowly toward Bull Run. Two days later a reconnaissance in force (an attack by a large force to determine the size and strength of the enemy) was repulsed by the Confederates at Mitchell’s Ford and Blackburn’s Ford. When McDowell attacked on July 21 in the First Battle of Bull Run, he discovered that Johnston had escaped the Federals in the valley and had joined Beauregard near Manassas just in time, bringing the total Confederate force to about 32,000. (The battle came to be known in the South as the Battle of First Manassas. Civil War battles often had one name in North, which was usually associated with a prominent nearby physical feature, and another name in the South, usually derived from the town or city closest to the battlefield.) McDowell’s sharp attacks with green troops forced the equally untrained Southerners back a bit, but a strong defensive stand by Thomas Jonathan Jackson (who thereby gained the nickname “Stonewall”) enabled the Confederates to check and finally throw back the Federals in the afternoon. The Federal retreat to Washington soon became a rout. McDowell lost 2,896 men—killed, wounded, and missing (including prisoners)—against a Southern loss of 1,982. Both sides now settled down to a long war, but the First Battle of Bull Run left a lasting impression on both the Confederacy and the Union. Confederates took their victory as confirmation of their belief that a single rebel soldier was worth 10 Yankees, an overconfident and dangerously unrealistic mindset. On the Union side, the loss seems to have infected the high command of the Army of the Potomac with both an inferiority complex and a wary fear of Southern military proficiency. This attitude was in evidence until Grant became the general in charge of all the armies in the spring of 1864.

The war in 1862

The year 1862 marked a major turning point in the war, especially the war in the East, as Lee took command of the Confederate army, which he promptly renamed the Army of Northern Virginia. With Lee’s ascent the Army of the Potomac found itself repeatedly battered. While the Army of the Potomac was beleaguered by less-than-visionary leadership, Union forces in the West experienced far greater success under more-aggressive generals. Paradoxically, Lee kept the Confederate war effort going long enough for Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which struck at the very institution the South had gone to war to protect.

The war in the East

Fresh from his victories in western Virginia, McClellan was called to Washington to replace Scott. There he began to mold the Army of the Potomac into a resolute, effective shield and sword of the Union. But personality clashes and unrelenting opposition to McClellan from the Radical Republicans in Congress hampered the sometimes tactless general, who was a Democrat. It took time to drill, discipline, and equip this force of considerably more than 100,000 men, but, as fall blended into winter, loud demands arose that McClellan advance against Johnston’s Confederate forces at Centreville and Manassas in Virginia. McClellan fell seriously ill with typhoid fever in December, and when he had recovered weeks later he found that Lincoln, desperately eager for action, had ordered him to advance on February 22, 1862. Long debates ensued between president and commander. These disagreements led the obstreperous and balky McClellan to make statements and take actions that would have been—and indeed were—considered insubordinate by almost anyone other than the extremely patient Lincoln. When in March McClellan finally began his Peninsular Campaign, he discovered that Lincoln and Stanton had withheld large numbers of his command in front of Washington for the defense of the capital—forces that actually were not needed there. Upon taking command of the army in the field, McClellan was relieved of his duties as general in chief.

The Peninsular Campaign

American Civil War: Peninsular Campaign

American Civil War: Peninsular Campaign

American Civil War: Peninsular Campaign

American Civil War: Peninsular Campaign

Advancing up the historic peninsula between the York and James rivers in Virginia, McClellan began a monthlong siege of Yorktown and captured that stronghold on May 4, 1862. A Confederate rearguard action at Williamsburg the next day delayed the blue-clads, who then slowly moved up through heavy rain to within 4 miles (6 km) of Richmond. Striving to seize the initiative, Johnston attacked McClellan’s left wing at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) on May 31 and, after scoring initial gains, was checked. Johnston was severely wounded, and, in a major though often overlooked development of the war, Lee, who had been serving as Davis’s military adviser, succeeded him. Lee promptly renamed the command the Army of Northern Virginia. McClellan counterattacked on June 1 and forced the Southerners back into the environs of Richmond. The Federals suffered a total of 5,031 casualties out of a force of nearly 100,000, while the Confederates lost 6,134 of about 74,000 men.

Battles of Cold Harbor: Gaines's Mill

Battles of Cold Harbor: Gaines's Mill

Seven Days' Battles: Union field hospital

Seven Days' Battles: Union field hospital

As McClellan inched forward toward Richmond in June, Lee prepared a counterstroke. He recalled from the Shenandoah Valley Jackson’s forces—which had threatened Harpers Ferry and had brilliantly defeated several scattered Federal armies—and, with about 90,000 soldiers, attacked McClellan on June 26 to begin the fighting of the Seven Days’ Battles (usually dated June 25–July 1). In the ensuing days at Mechanicsville, Gaines’s Mill, Savage’s Station, Frayser’s Farm (Glendale), and Malvern Hill, Lee tried unsuccessfully to crush the Army of the Potomac, which McClellan was moving to another base on the James River, but the Confederate commander had at least saved Richmond. McClellan inflicted 20,614 casualties on Lee while suffering 15,849 himself. McClellan felt that he could not move upon Richmond without considerable reinforcement, and his estimates of the men he needed went up and up and up. Against his protests his army was withdrawn from the peninsula to Washington by Lincoln and the new general in chief, Halleck—a man McClellan scornfully considered to be his inferior. Many of McClellan’s units were given to a new Federal army commander, John Pope, who was directed to move overland against Richmond.

A group of fugitive African Americans crossing the Rappahannock River in Virginia, 1862, during the United States Civil War. Fugitive slaves, escaped slaves, runaway slaves. Photographer Timothy O'Sullivan.

More From Britannica

What Were Contraband Camps?

Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) and Antietam

Watch this description of the Second Battle of Bull Run

Watch this description of the Second Battle of Bull RunSee all videos for this article

Pope advanced confidently toward the Rappahannock River with his Army of Virginia while Lee, once McClellan had been pulled back from near Richmond, moved northward to confront Pope before he could be joined by all of McClellan’s troops. Daringly splitting his army, Lee sent Jackson to destroy Pope’s base at Manassas, while he himself advanced via another route with James Longstreet’s half of the army. Pope opened the Second Battle of Bull Run (in the South, the Battle of Second Manassas) on August 29 with heavy but futile attacks on Jackson. The next day Lee arrived and crushed the Federal left with a massive flank assault by Longstreet, which, combined with Jackson’s counterattacks, drove the Northerners back in rout upon Washington. Pope lost 13,824 men out of a force of about 70,000, while Lee lost 8,353 out of about 55,000. With the Federal soldiers now lacking confidence in Pope, Lincoln relieved him and merged his forces into McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.

Battle of Antietam: Confederate dead

Battle of Antietam: Confederate dead

Learn how the Battle of Antietam became the deadliest one-day battle during the American Civil War

Learn how the Battle of Antietam became the deadliest one-day battle during the American Civil WarSee all videos for this article

Battle of Antietam: casualties

Battle of Antietam: casualties

Lee followed up his advantage with his first invasion of the North, pushing as far as Frederick, Maryland. His hope was to bring Maryland (a slave state that had remained in the Union) into the Confederacy. He also felt that if he could continue to grind down civilian will on the Union side, the North would grant the Confederacy its independence. McClellan had to reorganize his army on the march, a task that he performed capably. But McClellan could not overcome his own worst impulses. He overestimated the size of Lee’s army by a factor of about two and a half. Worse, he failed to capitalize on an astonishing stroke of luck: the capture of Lee’s orders, discovered on the ground wrapped around three cigars. Rather than striking immediately against Lee’s scattered forces, McClellan waited 18 hours before moving. Finally, McClellan pressed forward and wrested the initiative from Lee by attacking and defeating a Confederate force at three gaps of the South Mountain between Frederick and Hagerstown on September 14. Lee fell back into a cramped defensive position along Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, where he was reinforced by Jackson, who had just captured about 12,000 Federals at Harpers Ferry. After yet another delay, McClellan struck the Confederates on September 17 in the bloodiest day of the war. Although gaining some ground, the Federals were unable to drive the Confederate army into the Potomac, but Lee was compelled to retreat back into Virginia. At Antietam, McClellan lost 12,401 of some 87,000 engaged, while Lee lost 10,316 of perhaps 45,000. When McClellan did not pursue Lee as quickly as Lincoln and Halleck thought he should, he was replaced in command by Ambrose E. Burnside, an acolyte of McClellan who had been an ineffective corps commander at Antietam.

Fredericksburg

Battle of Fredericksburg

Battle of Fredericksburg

Burnside delayed for a number of weeks before marching his reinforced army of 120,281 men to a point across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia. On December 13 he ordered a series of 16 hopeless, piecemeal frontal assaults across open ground against Lee’s army of 78,513 troops, drawn up in an impregnable position atop high ground and behind a stone wall. The Federals were repelled with staggering losses: Burnside lost 12,653 men, compared with Lee’s 5,309. “If there is a worse place than hell, I am in it,” Lincoln reportedly said. Morale in the Army of the Potomac fell further in January, when Burnside ordered a flanking maneuver against rebel forces. After an auspicious start to the march on January 20, 1863, a driving rain began that night. The Yankees quickly bogged down in what became known as the “Mud March.” Burnside turned back on January 23. As Federal confidence plunged, desertions rose. On January 25, 1863, Lincoln replaced Burnside with a proficient corps commander, Joseph (“Fighting Joe”) Hooker, who was a harsh critic of other generals and even of the president. Both armies went into winter quarters near Fredericksburg.

Warren W. Hassler

Jennifer L. Weber

The Emancipation Proclamation

Despite its shocking casualty figures, the most important consequence of Antietam was off the field. From the outset of the war, slaves had been pouring into Federal camps seeking safety and freedom. Early in the war, Lincoln had slapped the wrists of commanders who tried to issue emancipation edicts in areas under their control. Trying to balance political and military necessity against moral imperatives, Lincoln believed that keeping the slave-owning border states—Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and particularly Kentucky—in the Union was critical and that making any move toward freeing slaves could incite those states to secede. Moreover, the Constitution protected slavery in several ways, most importantly through its defense of property rights. Finally, Lincoln believed for the first year or so of the war that a significant number of Unionists existed in the seceded states and that, given time, those people would rise up and revolt against the Confederate government.

political cartoon: Abraham Lincoln as Don Quixote

political cartoon: Abraham Lincoln as Don Quixote

As early as August 1861, though, slaveholders’ claims to property rights had begun to erode when Congress passed its First Confiscation Act, which allowed Union troops to seize rebels’ property, including slaves who fought with or worked for the Confederate military. One Union general, Benjamin Butler, a prominent attorney and politician in civilian life, read up on military law and used confiscation laws to the Union’s benefit by turning the slave owner’s claim to property rights on its head. Armies had always been able to confiscate property of military value, Butler argued, and slaves were instrumental in supporting the Confederate cause. With so many slaves manning factories and working fields, about 80 percent of eligible white Southern men wound up serving in the military. Butler declared slaves who came into his lines to be “contrabands” of war and therefore not liable for return to their masters. The name contrabands was used for the remainder of the war to describe slaves who ran from their masters to the Union army.

In April 1862 Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and paid owners in the district about $300 on average for each slave. Three months later Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act, which mandated that any Confederate civilian or military official who did not surrender within 60 days would have his slaves freed. Two days after that, Congress banned slavery from the territories.

Lincoln, meanwhile, was meeting with men from the border states, especially Kentucky, hoping to persuade them to agree to a compensated emancipation. Over the course of these encounters, it became clear to him that the broad Unionist sentiment he thought existed in the South was a chimera. When talks with the Kentucky delegates broke off in July, Lincoln immediately sat down and drafted the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. In its final form, the Emancipation Proclamation would free the slaves in areas that were not under Union control as of January 1, 1863, when it went into effect. This meant it did not apply in the border states or places such as New Orleans, which were already under Union military occupation by that time. Lincoln realized that such a move would strike a serious blow militarily to the Confederates, who relied on bondsmen for the bulk of their labour during the war, by both demoralizing white Southerners and giving additional incentive to slaves to run away.

However, the summer of 1862 had been a bleak one for Federal forces, and Lincoln did not want to issue the proclamation when the North appeared to be losing. He did not want other countries to consider it an act of desperation. So he put the document in his desk drawer and waited for a victory. Antietam, while technically a draw, was close enough that Lincoln claimed it as a Union win and announced the proclamation. This was an important turning point. The war was now a contest not just about saving the Union but also about freeing four million bondsmen and bondswomen. This new moral element to the war persuaded the British and French to stay out of the conflict and to never offer the Confederates the diplomatic recognition they desperately sought.

African American troops

Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

Examine African American soldiers' involvement in the American Civil War

Examine African American soldiers' involvement in the American Civil WarSee all videos for this article

The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed Black men to serve in the Union army. This had been illegal under a federal law enacted in 1792 (although African Americans had served in the army in the War of 1812 and the law had never applied to the navy). With their stake in the Civil War now patently obvious, African Americans joined the service in significant numbers. By the end of the war, about 180,000 African Americans were in the army, which amounted to about 10 percent of the troops in that branch, and another 20,000 were serving in the navy.

Still, military service did not erase the bigotry that characterized Northern society at the time. African American soldiers were placed in segregated units, few of which saw action in battle, and their regiments were commanded by white men (see Robert Gould Shaw). Only a handful of African Americans achieved an officer’s rank. Most Black troops were put on guard duty or asked to build forts. (The U.S. armed forces would not be integrated until 1948.) Because they tended to be in camps, these men were at far greater risk of contracting a disease than were troops on the march. As a result, nearly three-fourths of the 40,000 African American soldiers who died in the war succumbed to either disease or infection rather than battle wounds. Initially, Black troops were paid significantly less than their white counterparts. White privates made $13 a month, and their uniforms were paid for. Blacks earned $10 a month, with $3 deducted each month for uniform costs. By June 1864 this had become enough of an embarrassment that Congress deemed that white and Black troops should be paid equally and made the action retroactive. African American soldiers were routinely issued equipment that was much older or poorly made in comparison with the equipment their white comrades received. Black soldiers also faced a threat that no white troops faced: when they were captured by the rebels, Black troops could be put into slavery, whether they had been free or slaves before the proclamation. They also suffered much harsher treatment if they were held as prisoners of war.

American Civil War: 54th Massachusetts regiment

American Civil War: 54th Massachusetts regiment

Despite the many disadvantages under which they laboured, Black troops who saw battle performed admirably. African Americans participated directly in fights at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana; Port Hudson, Louisiana; Fort Wagner, South Carolina, where the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment lost two-thirds of its officers and nearly half its enlisted men; Petersburg, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee. Twenty-five Black men were awarded the Medal of Honor for their bravery during the war.

Jennifer L. Weber

The war in the west

Military events, meanwhile, were transpiring in other arenas.

Trans-Mississippi theatre and Missouri

In the Trans-Mississippi theatre covetous Confederate eyes were cast on California, where ports for privateers could be seized, as could gold and silver to buttress a sagging treasury. Led by Henry Sibley, a Confederate force of some 2,600 invaded the Union’s Department of New Mexico, where the Federal commander, Edward Canby, had but 3,810 men to defend the entire vast territory. Although plagued by pneumonia and smallpox, Sibley battered a Federal force at Valverde on February 21, 1862, and captured Albuquerque and Santa Fe on March 23. But at the crucial engagement of La Glorieta Pass (known also as Apache Canyon, Johnson’s Ranch, or Pigeon’s Ranch) a few days later, Sibley was checked and lost most of his wagon train. He had to retreat into Texas, where he reached safety in April but with only 900 men and 7 of 337 supply wagons left.

Battle of Wilson's Creek

Battle of Wilson's Creek

Farther eastward, in the more vital Mississippi valley, operations were unfolding as large and as important as those on the Atlantic seaboard. Missouri and Kentucky were key border states that Lincoln had to retain within the Union orbit. Commanders there—especially on the Federal side—had greater autonomy than those in Virginia. Affairs began inauspiciously for the Federals in Missouri when Nathaniel Lyon’s 5,000 Union troops were defeated at Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861, by a Confederate force of more than 10,000 under Sterling Price and Benjamin McCulloch, each side losing some 1,200 men. But the Federals under Samuel Curtis decisively set back a gray-clad army under Earl Van Dorn at Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), Arkansas, on March 7–8, 1862, saving Missouri for the Union and threatening Arkansas.

Operations in Kentucky and Tennessee

Albert Sidney Johnston

Albert Sidney Johnston

Learn about the soldiers from Confederate-aligned Tennessee and the largely Union-won battles there

Learn about the soldiers from Confederate-aligned Tennessee and the largely Union-won battles thereSee all videos for this article

The Confederates to the east of Missouri had established a unified command under Albert Sidney Johnston, who manned, with only 40,000 men, a long line in Kentucky running from near Cumberland Gap on the east through Bowling Green to Columbus on the Mississippi River. Numerically superior Federal forces cracked this line in early 1862. First, George H. Thomas broke Johnston’s right flank at Mill Springs (Somerset), Kentucky, on January 19. Then, in February, Grant, assisted by Federal gunboats commanded by Andrew H. Foote and acting under Halleck’s orders, ruptured the centre of the Southern line in Kentucky by capturing Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson, 11 miles (18 km) to the east, on the Cumberland River (both forts located in Tennessee). The Confederates suffered more than 16,000 casualties at the latter stronghold—most of them taken prisoner—against Federal losses of fewer than 3,000, and Grant’s victories at Forts Henry and Donelson marked the first real successes for the Union in the war. Johnston’s left anchor fell when Pope seized New Madrid, Missouri, and Island Number Ten in the Mississippi River in March and April. This forced Johnston to withdraw his remnants quickly from Kentucky through Tennessee and to reorganize them for a counterstroke. This seemingly impossible task he performed splendidly.

The Battle of Shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh

See the animated map and learn about the Battle of Shiloh

See the animated map and learn about the Battle of ShilohSee all videos for this article

The war in 1864–65

Finally dissatisfied with Halleck as general in chief and impressed with Grant’s victories, Lincoln appointed Grant to supersede Halleck and to assume the rank of lieutenant general, which Congress had re-created. Leaving Sherman in command in the west, Grant arrived in Washington on March 8, 1864. He was given largely a free hand in developing his grand strategy. He retained Meade in technical command of the Army of the Potomac but in effect assumed direct control by establishing his own headquarters with it. He sought to move this army against Lee in northern Virginia while Sherman marched against Johnston and Atlanta. Several lesser Federal armies were also to advance in May.

Grant’s Overland Campaign

American Civil War: Spotsylvania Court House

American Civil War: Spotsylvania Court House

Discover the historical significance of the Battle of the Wilderness

Discover the historical significance of the Battle of the WildernessSee all videos for this article

Grant surged across the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers in Virginia on May 4, hoping to get through the tangled Wilderness before Lee could move. But the Confederate leader reacted instantly and, on May 5, attacked Grant from the west in the Battle of the Wilderness. Two days of bitter, indecisive combat ensued. Although Grant had 115,000 men available against Lee’s 62,000, he found both Federal flanks endangered. Moreover, Grant lost 17,666 soldiers, compared with a probable Southern loss of about 8,000. Pulling away from the Wilderness battlefield, Grant tried to hasten southeastward to the crossroads point of Spotsylvania Court House, only to have the Confederates get there first. In savage action (May 8–19), including hand-to-hand fighting at the famous “Bloody Angle,” Grant, although gaining a little ground, was essentially thrown back. He had lost 18,399 men at Spotsylvania. Lee’s combined losses at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania were an estimated 17,250.

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Again Grant withdrew, only to move forward in another series of attempts to get past Lee’s right flank. Again, at the North Anna River and at Totopotomoy Creek, he found Lee confronting him. Finally, at Cold Harbor, just northeast of Richmond, Grant launched several heavy attacks, including a frontal, nearly suicidal one on June 3, only to be repelled with grievous total losses of 12,737. Lee’s casualties are unknown but were much lighter.

Grant, with the vital rail centre of Petersburg—the southern key to Richmond—as his objective, made one final effort to swing around Lee’s right and finally outguessed his opponent and stole a march on him. But several blunders by Federal officers, swift action by Beauregard, and Lee’s belated though rapid reaction enabled the Confederates to hold Petersburg. Grant attacked on June 15 and 18, hoping to break through before Lee could consolidate the Confederate lines east of the city, but he was contained with 8,150 losses.

American Civil War: Union soldiers in trenches

American Civil War: Union soldiers in trenches

Unable to admit defeat but having failed to destroy Lee’s army and capture Richmond, Grant settled down to a nine-month active siege of Petersburg. The summer and fall of 1864 were highlighted by the Federal failure with a mine explosion under the gray lines at Petersburg on July 30 (the Battle of the Crater), the near capture of Washington by the Confederate Jubal Early in July, and Early’s later setbacks in the Shenandoah Valley at the hands of Philip H. Sheridan.

Sherman’s Georgia campaigns and total war

American Civil War: eastern campaigns

American Civil War: eastern campaigns

Meanwhile, Sherman was pushing off toward Atlanta from Dalton, Georgia, on May 7, 1864, with 110,123 men against Johnston’s 55,000. This masterly campaign comprised a series of cat-and-mouse moves by the rival commanders. Nine successive defensive positions were taken up by Johnston. Trying to outguess his opponent, Sherman attempted to swing around the Confederate right flank twice and around the left flank the other times, but each time Johnston divined which way Sherman was moving and each time pulled back in time to thwart him. At one point Sherman’s patience snapped, and he frontally assaulted the Southerners at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, on June 27; Johnston threw him back with heavy losses. All the while Sherman’s lines of communication in his rear were being menaced by audacious Confederate cavalry raids conducted by Nathan Bedford Forrest and Joseph Wheeler. Forrest administered a crushing defeat to Federal troops under Samuel D. Sturgis at Brice’s Cross Roads, Mississippi, on June 10. But these Confederate forays were more annoying than decisive, and Sherman pressed forward.

When Johnston finally informed Davis that he could not realistically hope to annihilate Sherman’s mighty army, the Confederate president replaced him with John B. Hood, who had already lost two limbs in the war. Hood inaugurated a series of premature offensive battles at Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church, and Jonesboro, but he was repulsed in each of them. With his communications threatened, Hood evacuated Atlanta on the night of August 31–September 1. Sherman pursued only at first. Then, on November 15, he commenced his great March to the Sea with 62,000 men, laying waste to the economic resources of Georgia in a 50-mile- (80-km-) wide swath of destruction. He captured Savannah, 285 miles (460 km) from Atlanta, on December 21.

Sherman’s March to the Sea marked a new development in the war. To this point, Union armies had generally avoided targeting civilians and their property other than slaves. Sherman had decided, though, that he had to crush the will of white Southern civilians if the Union were to bring the rebels to heel. He promised to “make Georgia howl,” and he did. His men destroyed everything of military value that they encountered, including railroads, telegraph lines, and warehouses. They were trailed by foragers, stragglers, deserters, Georgia militiamen, local ne’er-do-wells, and some Confederate cavalry who committed a variety of depredations on the population, including pillaging and burning civilian property. Sherman became the bête noire of the South not only for his own actions but also because he was blamed for the actions of others not necessarily under his control. Nevertheless, Sherman himself reported that his men had racked up $100 million in damage to Georgia, 80 percent of which was “simple waste and destruction” and the remainder being straightforward military targets. Because civilians were not killed, historians have debated whether this was an instance of “total war” (other examples being the bombing of Dresden, Tokyo, or Hiroshima during World War II) or one of “hard war.”

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Hood had sought unsuccessfully to lure Sherman out of Georgia and back into Tennessee by marching northwestward with nearly 40,000 men toward the key city of Nashville, the defense of which had been entrusted by Sherman to George H. Thomas. At Franklin, Hood was checked for a day with severe casualties by a Federal holding force under John M. Schofield. This helped Thomas to retain Nashville, where on December 15–16 he delivered a crushing counterstroke against Hood’s besieging army, cutting it up so badly that it was of little use thereafter.

Western campaigns

American Civil War: western and Carolina campaigns

American Civil War: western and Carolina campaigns

Sherman’s force might have been larger and his Atlanta-Savannah Campaign consummated much sooner had not Lincoln approved the Red River Campaign in Louisiana led by Banks in the spring of 1864. Accompanied by Porter’s warships, Banks moved up the Red River with some 40,000 men. He had two objectives: to capture cotton and to defeat Southern forces under Kirby Smith and Richard Taylor. Not only did he fail to net much cotton but also he was checked with loss on April 8 at Sabine Cross Roads, Louisiana, and forced to retreat. Porter lost several gunboats, and the campaign amounted to a costly debacle.

That fall Kirby Smith ordered the reconquest of Missouri. Sterling Price’s Confederate army advanced on a broad front into Missouri but was set back temporarily by Thomas Ewing at Pilot Knob on September 27. Resuming the advance toward St. Louis, Price was forced westward along the south bank of the Missouri River by pursuing Federal troops under A.J. Smith, Alfred Pleasonton, and Samuel Curtis. Finally, on October 23, at Westport, near Kansas City, Price was decisively defeated and forced to retreat along a circuitous route, arriving back in Arkansas on December 2. This ill-fated raid cost Price most of his artillery as well as the greater part of his army, which numbered about 12,000.

Sherman’s Carolina campaigns

On January 10, 1865, with Tennessee and Georgia now securely in Federal hands, Sherman’s 60,000-man force began to march northward into the Carolinas. It was only lightly opposed by much smaller Confederate forces. Sherman’s men blamed South Carolina for bringing on the war and sought to punish them for their actions. What had happened in Georgia paled in comparison with the devastation the Yankees wrought in South Carolina. Once again, civilians were not killed, but the Union troops did everything they could to demoralize the population and undermine their support for the war. Sherman captured Columbia, South Carolina, on February 17 and compelled the Confederates to evacuate Charleston (including Fort Sumter). When Lee was finally named Confederate general in chief, he promptly reinstated Johnston as commander of the small forces striving to oppose the Federal advance. Nonetheless, Sherman pushed on into North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville on March 11 and, after an initial setback, repulsing the counterattacking Johnston at Bentonville on March 19–20. Goldsboro fell to the Federals on March 23 and Raleigh on April 13. Finally, perceiving that he no longer had any reasonable chance of containing the relentless Federal advance, Johnston surrendered to Sherman at the Bennett House near Durham Station on April 18. When Sherman’s generous terms proved unacceptable to Secretary of War Stanton (Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14), the former submitted new terms that Johnston signed on April 26.

The final land operations

Petersburg Campaign: ruins of Richmond

Petersburg Campaign: ruins of Richmond

Grant and Meade were continuing their siege of Petersburg and Richmond early in 1865. For months the Federals had been lengthening their left (southern) flank while operating against several important railroads supplying the two Confederate cities. This stretched Lee’s dwindling forces very thin. The Southern leader briefly threatened to break the siege when he attacked and captured Fort Stedman on March 25. But an immediate Federal counterattack regained the strongpoint, and Lee, when his lines were subsequently pierced, evacuated both Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2–3.

Appomattox Court House surrender

Appomattox Court House surrender

An 88-mile (142-km) pursuit west-southwestward along the Appomattox River in Virginia ensued, with Grant and Meade straining every nerve to bring Lee to bay. The Confederates were detained at Amelia Court House, awaiting delayed food supplies, and were badly cut up at Five Forks and Sayler’s Creek, with their only avenue of escape now cut off by Sheridan and George A. Custer. When Lee’s final attempt to break out failed, he surrendered the remnants of his Army of Northern Virginia at the McLean house at Appomattox Court House on April 9. The lamp of magnanimity was reflected in Grant’s unselfish terms.

Learn about Texan Confederate commanders and the state's legacy of slavery

Learn about Texan Confederate commanders and the state's legacy of slaverySee all videos for this article

On the periphery of the Confederacy, 43,000 gray-clad soldiers in Louisiana under Smith surrendered to Canby on May 26. The port of Galveston, Texas, yielded to the Federals on June 2, and the greatest war on American soil was over.

The naval war

Gideon Welles

Gideon Welles

While the Federal armies actually stamped out Confederate land resistance, the increasingly effective Federal naval effort must not be overlooked. If Union sea power did not win the war, it enabled the war to be won. When hostilities opened, the U.S. Navy numbered 90 warships, of which only 42 were in commission, and many of these were on foreign station. Fortunately for the Federals, Lincoln had, in the person of Gideon Welles, a wise secretary of the navy who was one of his most competent cabinet members. Welles was ably seconded by his assistant, Gustavus Vasa Fox.

By the time of Lee’s surrender, Lincoln’s navy numbered 626 warships, of which 65 were ironclads. From a tiny force of nearly 9,000 seamen in 1861, the Union navy increased by war’s end to about 59,000 sailors, whereas naval appropriations per year leaped from approximately $12 million to perhaps $123 million. The blockade of about 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of Confederate coastline was a factor of incalculable value in the final defeat of the Davis government, although the blockade did not become truly effective before the end of 1863.

The Confederates, on the other hand, had to start from almost nothing in building a navy. That they did so well was largely because of untiring efforts by the capable secretary of the navy, Stephen Mallory. He dispatched agents to Europe to purchase warships, sought to refurbish captured or scuttled Federal vessels, and made every effort to arm and employ Southern-owned ships then in Confederate ports. Mallory’s only major omission was his delay in seeing the advantage of Confederate government control of blockade runners bringing in strategic supplies; not until later in the war did the government begin closer supervision of blockade-running vessels. Eventually, the government commandeered space on all privately owned blockade runners and even built and operated some of its own late in the war.

Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack

Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack

H.L. Hunley

H.L. Hunley

The naval side of the Civil War was a revolutionary one. In addition to their increasing use of steam power, the screw propeller, shell guns, and rifled ordnance, both sides built and employed ironclad warships. The notable clash on March 9, 1862, between the North’s Monitor and the South’s Virginia (formerly the Merrimack) was the first battle ever waged between ironclads. Also, the first sinking of a warship by a submarine occurred on February 17, 1864, when the Confederate submersible Hunley sank the blockader USS Housatonic.

Confederate blockade runner Alabama

Confederate blockade runner Alabama

Daring Confederate sea raiders preyed upon Union commerce. Especially successful were the Sumter, commanded by Raphael Semmes, which captured 18 Northern merchantmen early in the war; the Florida, captained by John Maffit, which in 1863 seized 37 Federal prizes in the North and South Atlantic; and the Shenandoah, with James Waddell as skipper, which took 38 Union merchant ships, mostly in the Pacific. But the most famous of all the Confederate cruisers was the Alabama, commanded by Semmes, which captured 69 Federal ships in two years; not until June 19, 1864, was the Alabama intercepted and sunk off Cherbourg, France, by the Federal warship Kearsarge, captained by John Winslow. A great many other Federal ships were captured, and marine were driven to a prohibitive high by these Southern depredations. This led to a serious deterioration of the American merchant marine, the effects of which lasted into the 20th century.

David Farragut

David Farragut

Besides fighting efficaciously with ironclads on the inland rivers, Lincoln’s navy played an important role in a series of coastal and amphibious operations, some in conjunction with the Federal army. As early as November 7, 1861, a Federal flotilla under Samuel Francis du Pont seized Port Royal, South Carolina, and another squadron under Louis M. Goldsborough assisted Burnside’s army in capturing Roanoke Island and New Bern on the North Carolina littoral in February–March 1862. One month later, Savannah, Georgia, was closed to Confederate blockade runners when the Federal navy reduced Fort Pulaski guarding the city; and on April 25 David Farragut, running the forts near the mouth of the Mississippi, took New Orleans, which was subsequently occupied by Benjamin F. Butler’s army.

Battle of Mobile Bay

Battle of Mobile Bay

But in April 1863 and again in July and August, Federal warships were repelled at Fort Sumter when they descended upon Charleston, and a Federal army under Quincy A. Gillmore fared little better when it tried to assist. Farragut had better luck, however, when he rendered Mobile, Alabama, useless by reducing Fort Morgan and destroying several defending Confederate ships on August 5, 1864, in the hardest-fought naval action of the war. The Confederacy’s last open Atlantic port, Wilmington, North Carolina, successfully withstood a Federal naval attack by Porter on defending Fort Fisher when Butler’s army failed to coordinate its attack properly in December 1864, but it fell one month later to Porter and to an ably conducted army assault led by Alfred H. Terry. Only Galveston remained open to the Confederates in the last months of the war. In short, “Uncle Sam’s web feet,” as Lincoln termed the Union navy, played a decisive role in helping to defeat the Confederacy.

The cost and significance of the Civil War

How the United States changed after the Civil War

How the United States changed after the Civil WarSee all videos for this article

Above and beyond its superior naval forces, numbers, and industrial and financial resources, the triumph of the North was partly due to the statesmanship of Lincoln, who by 1864 had become a masterful political and war leader, as well as to the increasing skill of Federal officers. The victory can also be attributed in part to failures of Confederate transportation, matériel, and political leadership, despite the strategic and tactical dexterity of such generals as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Joseph E. Johnston.

Gettysburg battlefield

Gettysburg battlefield

Cold Harbor, Virginia

Cold Harbor, Virginia

While desertions plagued both sides, the personal valour and the enormous casualties—both in absolute numbers and in percentage of numbers engaged—have not yet ceased to astound scholars and military historians. On the basis of the three-year standard of enlistment, about 1,556,000 soldiers served in the Federal armies, and about 800,000 men probably served in the Confederate forces, though spotty records make it impossible to know for sure. Traditionally, historians have put war deaths at about 360,000 for the Union and 260,000 for the Confederates. In the second decade of the 21st century, however, a demographer used better data and more sophisticated tools to convincingly revise the total death toll upward to 752,000 and indicated that it could be as high as 851,000.

How amputation saved lives during the American Civil War

How amputation saved lives during the American Civil WarSee all videos for this article

The enormous death rate—roughly 2 percent of the 1860 population of the U.S. died in the war—had an enormous impact on American society. Americans were deeply religious, and they struggled to understand how a benevolent God could allow such destruction to go on for so long. Understanding of the nature of the afterlife shifted as Americans, North and South, comforted themselves with the notion that heaven looked like their front parlors. A new mode of dealing with corpses emerged with the advent of embalming, an expensive method of preservation that helped wealthier families to bring their dead sons, brothers, or fathers home. Finally, a network of federal military cemeteries (and private Confederate cemeteries) grew out of the need to bury the men in uniform who had succumbed to wounds or disease.

bridge on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad

bridge on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad

Some have called the American Civil War the last of the old-fashioned wars; others have termed it the first modern war. Actually, it was a transitional war, and it had a profound impact, technologically, on the development of modern weapons and techniques. There were many innovations. It was the first war in history in which ironclad warships clashed; the first in which the telegraph and railroad played significant roles; the first to use, extensively, rifled ordnance and shell guns and to introduce a machine gun (the Gatling gun); the first to have widespread newspaper coverage, voting by servicemen in the field in national elections, and photographic recordings; the first to organize medical care of troops systematically; and the first to use land and water mines and to employ a submarine that could sink a warship. It was also the first war in which armies widely employed aerial reconnaissance (by means of balloons).

Learn about the debate on the legacy of the American Civil War

Learn about the debate on the legacy of the American Civil WarSee all videos for this article

The Civil War has been written about as few other wars in history have. More than 60,000 books and countless articles give eloquent testimony to the accuracy of poet Walt Whitman’s prediction that “a great literature will…arise out of the era of those four years.” The events of the war left a rich heritage for future generations, and that legacy was summed up by the martyred Lincoln as showing that the reunited sections of the United States constituted “the last best hope of earth.”

Confederate States of America

    Article

    Talk

    Read

    View source

    View history

Tools

Page semi-protected

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Confederate States" redirects here. For the system of government, see Confederation. For a list of confederate nation states, see List of confederations.

Confederate States of America

1861–1865

Flag of Confederate States of America

Flag

(1861–1863)

Seal (1863–1865) of Confederate States of America

Seal

(1863–1865)

Motto: Deo vindice

("Under God, our Vindicator")

Anthem: "God Save the South"

1:03

March: "The Bonnie Blue Flag"

0:48

Map of northern hemisphere with Confederate States of America highlighted

      The Confederate States in 1862

      Territorial claims made and under partial control for a time

      Separated West Virginia

      Contested Native American territory

Status Unrecognized state[1]

Capital

    Montgomery, Alabama

    (until May 29, 1861)

    Richmond, Virginia

    (until April 2–3, 1865)[2]

    Danville, Virginia

    (until April 10, 1865)[3]

Largest city New Orleans

(until May 1, 1862)

Common languages English (de facto)

minor languages: French (Louisiana), Indigenous languages (Indian territory)

Demonym(s) Confederate

Government Confederated presidential non-partisan herrenvolk republic[4][5]

President  

• 1861–1865

Jefferson Davis

Vice President  

• 1861–1865

Alexander H. Stephens

Legislature Congress

• Upper house

Senate

• Lower house

House of Representatives

Historical era American Civil War

• Provisional constitution

February 8, 1861

• American Civil War

April 12, 1861

• Permanent constitution

February 22, 1862

• Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia

April 9, 1865

• Military Collapse

April 26, 1865

• Debellation and Dissolution

May 5, 1865

Population

• 18601

9,103,332

• Slaves2

3,521,110

Currency

    Confederate States dollar

    State currencies

Preceded by Succeeded by

South Carolina

Mississippi

Florida

Alabama

Georgia

Louisiana

Texas

Virginia

Arkansas

North Carolina

Tennessee

Arizona Territory

West Virginia

Tennessee

Arkansas

Florida

Alabama

Louisiana

North Carolina

South Carolina

Virginia

Mississippi

Texas

Georgia

Arizona Territory

Today part of United States

    1 Population values do not include Missouri, Kentucky, or the Arizona Territory.

    2 Slaves included in above population (1860 Census).

The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States, the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway[1] confederate republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865.[6] The Confederacy comprised eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War.[6][7] The states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

The Confederacy was formed on February 8, 1861, by seven slave states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.[8] All seven states were in the Deep South region of the United States, whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture, especially cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon enslaved Americans of African descent for labor.[9][10] Convinced that white supremacy and slavery were threatened by the November 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. presidency on a platform that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, the seven slave states seceded from the United States, with the loyal states becoming known as the Union during the ensuing American Civil War.[7][8][11] In the Cornerstone Speech, Confederate Vice President Democrat Alexander H. Stephens described its ideology as centrally based "upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition."[12]

Before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, a provisional Confederate government was established on February 8, 1861. It was considered illegal by the United States government, and Northerners thought of the Confederates as traitors. After war began in April, four slave states of the Upper South—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina—also joined the Confederacy. Four slave states, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, remained in the Union and became known as border states. The Confederacy nevertheless recognized two of them, Missouri and Kentucky, as members, accepting rump state assembly declarations of secession as authorization for full delegations of representatives and senators in the Confederate Congress; In the early part of the Civil War, the Confederacy controlled and governed more than half of Kentucky and the southern portion of Missouri, but they were never substantially controlled by Confederate forces after 1862, despite the efforts of Confederate shadow governments, which were eventually defeated and expelled from both states. The Union rejected the claims of secession as illegitimate, while the Confederacy fully recognized them.

The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter, a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. No foreign government ever recognized the Confederacy as an independent country, although Great Britain and France granted it belligerent status, which allowed Confederate agents to contract with private concerns for weapons and other supplies.[1][13][14] By 1865, the Confederacy's civilian government dissolved into chaos: the Confederate States Congress adjourned sine die, effectively ceasing to exist as a legislative body on March 18. After four years of heavy fighting, nearly all Confederate land and naval forces either surrendered or otherwise ceased hostilities by May 1865.[15][16] The war lacked a clean end date, with Confederate forces surrendering or disbanding sporadically throughout most of 1865. The most significant capitulation was Confederate general Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9, after which any doubt about the war's outcome or the Confederacy's survival was extinguished, although another large army under Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston did not formally surrender to William T. Sherman until April 26. Contemporaneously, President Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth on April 15. Confederate President Jefferson Davis's administration declared the Confederacy dissolved on May 5, and acknowledged in later writings that the Confederacy "disappeared" in 1865.[17][18][19] On May 9, 1865, U.S. President Andrew Johnson officially called an end to the armed resistance in the South.

After the war, during the Reconstruction era, the Confederate states were readmitted to the Congress after each ratified the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery. Lost Cause ideology, an idealized view of the Confederacy valiantly fighting for a just cause, emerged in the decades after the war among former Confederate generals and politicians, as well as organizations such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Intense periods of Lost Cause activity developed around the turn of the 20th century and during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in reaction to growing support for racial equality. Advocates sought to ensure future generations of Southern whites would continue to support white supremacist policies such as the Jim Crow laws through activities such as building Confederate monuments and influencing textbooks to write on Lost Cause ideology.[20] The modern display of the flags primarily started during the 1948 presidential election, when the battle flag was used by the Dixiecrats. During the Civil Rights Movement, segregationists used it for demonstrations.[21][22]

Events leading to

the American Civil War

Economic

    End of Atlantic slave trade

    Panic of 1857

Political

    Northwest Ordinance

    Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

    Missouri Compromise

    Nullification crisis

    Gag rule

    Tariff of 1828

    End of slavery in British colonies

    Texas Revolution

    Texas annexation

    Mexican–American War

    Wilmot Proviso

    Nashville Convention

    Compromise of 1850

    Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

    Kansas–Nebraska Act

    Ostend Manifesto

    Caning of Charles Sumner

    Lincoln–Douglas debates

    1860 presidential election

    Crittenden Compromise

    Secession of Southern states

    Peace Conference of 1861

    Corwin Amendment

Social

    Nat Turner's slave rebellion

    Martyrdom of Elijah Lovejoy

    Burning of Pennsylvania Hall

    American Slavery As It Is

    Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Bleeding Kansas

    The Impending Crisis of the South

    Oberlin–Wellington Rescue

    John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

Judicial

    Trial of Reuben Crandall

    Commonwealth v. Aves

    The Amistad affair

    Prigg v. Pennsylvania

    Recapture of Anthony Burns

    Dred Scott v. Sandford

    Virginia v. John Brown

Military

    Star of the West

    Battle of Fort Sumter

    President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers

    vte

Span of control

Map of the division of the states in the American Civil War (1861–1865). Blue indicates the northern Union states; light blue represents five Union supporting southern slave states (border states) that primarily stayed in Union control though Kentucky and Missouri had dual competing Confederate and Unionist governments. Red represents southern seceded states in rebellion, also known as the Confederate States of America. Uncolored areas were U.S. territories, with the exception of the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma).

On February 22, 1862, the Confederate States Constitution of seven state signatories—Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—replaced the Provisional Constitution of February 8, 1861, with one stating in its preamble a desire for a "permanent federal government". Four additional slave-holding states—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina—declared their secession and joined the Confederacy following a call by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln for troops from each state to recapture Sumter and other seized federal properties in the South.[23]

Missouri and Kentucky were represented by partisan factions adopting the forms of state governments without control of substantial territory or population in either case. The antebellum state governments in both maintained their representation in the Union. Also fighting for the Confederacy were two of the "Five Civilized Tribes"—the Choctaw and the Chickasaw—in Indian Territory, and a new, but uncontrolled, Confederate Territory of Arizona. Efforts by certain factions in Maryland to secede were halted by federal imposition of martial law; Delaware, though of divided loyalty, did not attempt it. A Unionist government was formed in opposition to the secessionist state government in Richmond and administered the western parts of Virginia that had been occupied by Federal troops. The Restored Government of Virginia later recognized the new state of West Virginia, which was admitted to the Union during the war on June 20, 1863, and relocated to Alexandria for the rest of the war.[23]

Confederate control over its claimed territory and population in congressional districts steadily shrank from three-quarters to a third during the American Civil War due to the Union's successful overland campaigns, its control of inland waterways into the South, and its blockade of the southern coast.[24] With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the Union made abolition of slavery a war goal (in addition to reunion). As Union forces moved southward, large numbers of plantation slaves were freed. Many joined the Union lines, enrolling in service as soldiers, teamsters and laborers. The most notable advance was Sherman's "March to the Sea" in late 1864. Much of the Confederacy's infrastructure was destroyed, including telegraphs, railroads, and bridges. Plantations in the path of Sherman's forces were severely damaged. Internal movement within the Confederacy became increasingly difficult, weakening its economy and limiting army mobility.[25]

These losses created an insurmountable disadvantage in men, materiel, and finance. Public support for Confederate President Jefferson Davis's administration eroded over time due to repeated military reverses, economic hardships, and allegations of autocratic government. After four years of campaigning, Richmond was captured by Union forces in April 1865. A few days later General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively signaling the collapse of the Confederacy. President Davis was captured on May 10, 1865, and jailed for treason, but no trial was ever held.[26]

History

Evolution of the Confederate States, December 20, 1860 – July 15, 1870

The Confederacy was established by the Montgomery Convention in February 1861 by seven states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, adding Texas in March before Lincoln's inauguration), expanded in May–July 1861 (with Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina), and disintegrated in April–May 1865. It was formed by delegations from seven slave states of the Lower South that had proclaimed their secession from the Union. After the fighting began in April, four additional slave states seceded and were admitted. Later, two slave states (Missouri and Kentucky) and two territories were given seats in the Confederate Congress.[27]

Southern nationalism was rising and pride supported the new founding.[28][29] Confederate nationalism prepared men to fight for "The Southern Cause". For the duration of its existence, the Confederacy underwent trial by war.[30] The Southern Cause transcended the ideology of states' rights, tariff policy, and internal improvements. This "Cause" supported, or derived from, cultural and financial dependence on the South's slavery-based economy. The convergence of race and slavery, politics, and economics raised almost all South-related policy questions to the status of moral questions over way of life, merging love of things Southern and hatred of things Northern. Not only did political parties split, but national churches and interstate families as well divided along sectional lines as the war approached.[31] According to historian John M. Coski,

    The statesmen who led the secession movement were unashamed to explicitly cite the defense of slavery as their prime motive ... Acknowledging the centrality of slavery to the Confederacy is essential for understanding the Confederate.[32]

Southern Democrats had chosen John Breckinridge as their candidate during the U.S. presidential election of 1860, but in no Southern state (other than South Carolina, where the legislature chose the electors) was support for him unanimous, as all of the other states recorded at least some popular votes for one or more of the other three candidates (Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas and John Bell). Support for these candidates, collectively, ranged from significant to an outright majority, with extremes running from 25% in Texas to 81% in Missouri.[33] There were minority views everywhere, especially in the upland and plateau areas of the South, being particularly concentrated in western Virginia and eastern Tennessee.[34]

Many secessionists were active politically. Governor William Henry Gist of South Carolina corresponded secretly with other Deep South governors, and most southern governors exchanged clandestine commissioners.[70] Charleston's secessionist "1860 Association" published over 200,000 pamphlets to persuade the youth of the South. The most influential were: "The Doom of Slavery" and "The South Alone Should Govern the South", both by John Townsend of South Carolina; and James D. B. De Bow's "The Interest of Slavery of the Southern Non-slaveholder".[71]

Developments in South Carolina started a chain of events. The foreman of a jury refused the legitimacy of federal courts, so Federal Judge Andrew Magrath ruled that U.S. judicial authority in South Carolina was vacated. A mass meeting in Charleston celebrating the Charleston and Savannah railroad and state cooperation led to the South Carolina legislature to call for a Secession Convention. U.S. Senator James Chesnut, Jr. resigned, as did Senator James Henry Hammond.[72]

Elections for Secessionist conventions were heated to "an almost raving pitch, no one dared dissent", according to historian William W. Freehling. Even once–respected voices, including the Chief Justice of South Carolina, John Belton O'Neall, lost election to the Secession Convention on a Cooperationist ticket. Across the South mobs expelled Yankees and (in Texas) executed German-Americans suspected of loyalty to the United States.[73] Generally, seceding conventions which followed did not call for a referendum to ratify, although Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee did, as well as Virginia's second convention. Kentucky declared neutrality, while Missouri had its own civil war until the Unionists took power and drove the Confederate legislators out of the state.[74]

Attempts to thwart secession

In the antebellum months, the Corwin Amendment was an unsuccessful attempt by the Congress to bring the seceding states back to the Union and to convince the border slave states to remain.[75] It was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution by Ohio Congressman Thomas Corwin that would shield "domestic institutions" of the states (which in 1861 included slavery) from the constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress.[76][77]

It was passed by the 36th Congress on March 2, 1861. The House approved it by a vote of 133 to 65 and the United States Senate adopted it, with no changes, on a vote of 24 to 12. It was then submitted to the state legislatures for ratification.[78] In his inaugural address Lincoln endorsed the proposed amendment.

The text was as follows:

    No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.

Had it been ratified by the required number of states prior to 1865, it would have made institutionalized slavery immune to the constitutional amendment procedures and to interference by Congress.[79][80]

Inauguration and response

The inauguration of Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama

The first secession state conventions from the Deep South sent representatives to meet at the Montgomery Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861. There the fundamental documents of government were promulgated, a provisional government was established, and a representative Congress met for the Confederate States of America.[81]

The new 'provisional' Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a call for 100,000 men from the various states' militias to defend the newly formed Confederacy.[81] All Federal property was seized, along with gold bullion and coining dies at the U.S. mints in Charlotte, North Carolina; Dahlonega, Georgia; and New Orleans.[81] The Confederate capital was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia, in May 1861. On February 22, 1862, Davis was inaugurated as president with a term of six years.[82]

The newly inaugurated Confederate administration pursued a policy of national territorial integrity, continuing earlier state efforts in 1860 and early 1861 to remove U.S. government presence from within their boundaries. These efforts included taking possession of U.S. courts, custom houses, post offices, and most notably, arsenals and forts. But after the Confederate attack and capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln called up 75,000 of the states' militia to muster under his command. The stated purpose was to re-occupy U.S. properties throughout the South, as the U.S. Congress had not authorized their abandonment. The resistance at Fort Sumter signaled his change of policy from that of the Buchanan Administration. Lincoln's response ignited a firestorm of emotion. The people of both North and South demanded war, with soldiers rushing to their colors in the hundreds of thousands. Four more states (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas) refused Lincoln's call for troops and declared secession, while Kentucky maintained an uneasy "neutrality".[81]

Secession

Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a contract among sovereign states that could be abandoned at any time without consultation and that each state had a right to secede. After intense debates and statewide votes, seven Deep South cotton states passed secession ordinances by February 1861 (before Abraham Lincoln took office as president), while secession efforts failed in the other eight slave states. Delegates from those seven formed the CSA in February 1861, selecting Jefferson Davis as the provisional president. Unionist talk of reunion failed and Davis began raising a 100,000 man army.[83]

States

Initially, some secessionists may have hoped for a peaceful departure.[84] Moderates in the Confederate Constitutional Convention included a provision against importation of slaves from Africa to appeal to the Upper South. Non-slave states might join, but the radicals secured a two-thirds requirement in both houses of Congress to accept them.[85]

Seven states declared their secession from the United States before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops on April 15, four more states declared their secession:[86]

USA G. Washington stamp

10-cent U.S. 1861

CSA G. Washington stamp

20-cent C.S. 1863

Both sides honored George Washington as a Founding Father (and used the same Gilbert Stuart portrait).

Kentucky declared neutrality but after Confederate troops moved in, the state government asked for Union troops to drive them out. The splinter Confederate state government relocated to accompany western Confederate armies and never controlled the state population. By the end of the war, 90,000 Kentuckians had fought on the side of the Union, compared to 35,000 for the Confederate States.[87]

In Missouri, a constitutional convention was approved and delegates elected by voters. The convention rejected secession 89–1 on March 19, 1861.[88] The governor maneuvered to take control of the St. Louis Arsenal and restrict Federal movements. This led to confrontation, and in June Federal forces drove him and the General Assembly from Jefferson City. The executive committee of the constitutional convention called the members together in July. The convention declared the state offices vacant, and appointed a Unionist interim state government.[89] The exiled governor called a rump session of the former General Assembly together in Neosho and, on October 31, 1861, passed an ordinance of secession.[90][91] It is still a matter of debate as to whether a quorum existed for this vote. The Confederate state government was unable to control very much Missouri territory. It had its capital first at Neosho, then at Cassville, before being driven out of the state. For the remainder of the war, it operated as a government in exile at Marshall, Texas.[92]

Neither Kentucky nor Missouri was declared in rebellion in Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The Confederacy recognized the pro-Confederate claimants in both Kentucky (December 10, 1861) and Missouri (November 28, 1861) and laid claim to those states, granting them Congressional representation and adding two stars to the flag. Voting for the representatives was mostly done by Confederate soldiers from Kentucky and Missouri.[93]

The order of secession resolutions and dates are:

    1. South Carolina (December 20, 1860)[94]

    2. Mississippi (January 9, 1861)[95]

    3. Florida (January 10)[96]

    4. Alabama (January 11)[97]

    5. Georgia (January 19)[98]

    6. Louisiana (January 26)[99]

    7. Texas (February 1; referendum February 23)[100]

        Inauguration of President Lincoln, March 4

        Bombardment of Fort Sumter (April 12) and President Lincoln's call-up (April 15)[101]

    8. Virginia (April 17; referendum May 23, 1861)[102]

    9. Arkansas (May 6)[103]

    10. Tennessee (May 7; referendum June 8)[104]

    11. North Carolina (May 20)[105]

In Virginia, the populous counties along the Ohio and Pennsylvania borders rejected the Confederacy. Unionists held a Convention in Wheeling in June 1861, establishing a "restored government" with a rump legislature, but sentiment in the region remained deeply divided. In the 50 counties that would make up the state of West Virginia, voters from 24 counties had voted for disunion in Virginia's May 23 referendum on the ordinance of secession.[106] In the 1860 Presidential election "Constitutional Democrat" Breckenridge had outpolled "Constitutional Unionist" Bell in the 50 counties by 1,900 votes, 44% to 42%.[107] Regardless of scholarly disputes over election procedures and results county by county, altogether they simultaneously supplied over 20,000 soldiers to each side of the conflict.[108][109] Representatives for most of the counties were seated in both state legislatures at Wheeling and at Richmond for the duration of the war.[110]

Attempts to secede from the Confederacy by some counties in East Tennessee were checked by martial law.[111] Although slave-holding Delaware and Maryland did not secede, citizens from those states exhibited divided loyalties. Regiments of Marylanders fought in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.[112] But overall, 24,000 men from Maryland joined the Confederate armed forces, compared to 63,000 who joined Union forces.[87]

Delaware never produced a full regiment for the Confederacy, but neither did it emancipate slaves as did Missouri and West Virginia. District of Columbia citizens made no attempts to secede and through the war years, referendums sponsored by President Lincoln approved systems of compensated emancipation and slave confiscation from "disloyal citizens".[113]

Territories

Main articles: Confederate Arizona, New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War, and Indian Territory in the American Civil War

Elias Boudinot, Cherokee secessionist, Rep. Indian Territory

Citizens at Mesilla and Tucson in the southern part of New Mexico Territory formed a secession convention, which voted to join the Confederacy on March 16, 1861, and appointed Dr. Lewis S. Owings as the new territorial governor. They won the Battle of Mesilla and established a territorial government with Mesilla serving as its capital.[114] The Confederacy proclaimed the Confederate Arizona Territory on February 14, 1862, north to the 34th parallel. Marcus H. MacWillie served in both Confederate Congresses as Arizona's delegate. In 1862, the Confederate New Mexico Campaign to take the northern half of the U.S. territory failed and the Confederate territorial government in exile relocated to San Antonio, Texas.[115]

Confederate supporters in the trans-Mississippi west also claimed portions of the Indian Territory after the United States evacuated the federal forts and installations. Over half of the American Indian troops participating in the Civil War from the Indian Territory supported the Confederacy; troops and one general were enlisted from each tribe. On July 12, 1861, the Confederate government signed a treaty with both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations. After several battles, Union armies took control of the territory.[116]

By December 1864, Davis considered sacrificing slavery in order to enlist recognition and aid from Paris and London; he secretly sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe with a message that the war was fought solely for "the vindication of our rights to self-government and independence" and that "no sacrifice is too great, save that of honor". The message stated that if the French or British governments made their recognition conditional on anything at all, the Confederacy would consent to such terms.[155] Davis's message could not explicitly acknowledge that slavery was on the bargaining table due to still-strong domestic support for slavery among the wealthy and politically influential. European leaders all saw that the Confederacy was on the verge of total defeat.[156]

Cuba and Brazil

The Confederacy's biggest foreign policy successes were with Cuba and Brazil. Militarily this meant little during the war. Brazil represented the "peoples most identical to us in Institutions",[157] in which slavery remained legal until the 1880s. Cuba was a Spanish colony and the Captain–General of Cuba declared in writing that Confederate ships were welcome, and would be protected in Cuban ports.[157] They were also welcome in Brazilian ports;[158] slavery was legal throughout Brazil, and the abolitionist movement was small. After the end of the war, Brazil was the primary destination of those Southerners who wanted to continue living in a slave society, where, as one immigrant remarked, slaves were cheap (see Confederados). Historians speculate that if the Confederacy had achieved independence, it probably would have tried to acquire Cuba as a base of expansion.[159]

Confederacy at war

Motivations of soldiers

Main article: Confederate States Army § Morale and motivations

Most soldiers who joined Confederate national or state military units joined voluntarily. Perman (2010) says historians are of two minds on why millions of soldiers seemed so eager to fight, suffer and die over four years:

    Some historians emphasize that Civil War soldiers were driven by political ideology, holding firm beliefs about the importance of liberty, Union, or state rights, or about the need to protect or to destroy slavery. Others point to less overtly political reasons to fight, such as the defense of one's home and family, or the honor and brotherhood to be preserved when fighting alongside other men. Most historians agree that, no matter what he thought about when he went into the war, the experience of combat affected him profoundly and sometimes affected his reasons for continuing to fight.[160][161]

Military strategy

Civil War historian E. Merton Coulter wrote that for those who would secure its independence, "The Confederacy was unfortunate in its failure to work out a general strategy for the whole war". Aggressive strategy called for offensive force concentration. Defensive strategy sought dispersal to meet demands of locally minded governors. The controlling philosophy evolved into a combination "dispersal with a defensive concentration around Richmond". The Davis administration considered the war purely defensive, a "simple demand that the people of the United States would cease to war upon us".[162] Historian James M. McPherson is a critic of Lee's offensive strategy: "Lee pursued a faulty military strategy that ensured Confederate defeat".[163]

As the Confederate government lost control of territory in campaign after campaign, it was said that "the vast size of the Confederacy would make its conquest impossible". The enemy would be struck down by the same elements which so often debilitated or destroyed visitors and transplants in the South. Heat exhaustion, sunstroke, endemic diseases such as malaria and typhoid would match the destructive effectiveness of the Moscow winter on the invading armies of Napoleon.[164]

The Seal, symbols of an independent agricultural Confederacy surrounding an equestrian Washington, sword encased[165]

Early in the war both sides believed that one great battle would decide the conflict; the Confederates won a surprise victory at the First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces). It drove the Confederate people "insane with joy"; the public demanded a forward movement to capture Washington, relocate the Confederate capital there, and admit Maryland to the Confederacy.[166] A council of war by the victorious Confederate generals decided not to advance against larger numbers of fresh Federal troops in defensive positions. Davis did not countermand it. Following the Confederate incursion into Maryland halted at the Battle of Antietam in October 1862, generals proposed concentrating forces from state commands to re-invade the north. Nothing came of it.[167] Again in mid-1863 at his incursion into Pennsylvania, Lee requested that Davis Beauregard simultaneously attack Washington with troops taken from the Carolinas. But the troops there remained in place during the Gettysburg Campaign.

The eleven states of the Confederacy were outnumbered by the North about four-to-one in military manpower. It was overmatched far more in military equipment, industrial facilities, railroads for transport, and wagons supplying the front.

Confederates slowed the Yankee invaders, at heavy cost to the Southern infrastructure. The Confederates burned bridges, laid land mines in the roads, and made harbors inlets and inland waterways unusable with sunken mines (called "torpedoes" at the time). Coulter reports:

    Rangers in twenty to fifty-man units were awarded 50% valuation for property destroyed behind Union lines, regardless of location or loyalty. As Federals occupied the South, objections by loyal Confederate concerning Ranger horse-stealing and indiscriminate scorched earth tactics behind Union lines led to Congress abolishing the Ranger service two years later.[168]

The Confederacy relied on external sources for war materials. The first came from trade with the enemy. "Vast amounts of war supplies" came through Kentucky, and thereafter, western armies were "to a very considerable extent" provisioned with illicit trade via Federal agents and northern private traders.[169] But that trade was interrupted in the first year of war by Admiral Porter's river gunboats as they gained dominance along navigable rivers north–south and east–west.[170] Overseas blockade running then came to be of "outstanding importance".[171] On April 17, President Davis called on privateer raiders, the "militia of the sea", to wage war on U.S. seaborne commerce.[172] Despite noteworthy effort, over the course of the war the Confederacy was found unable to match the Union in ships and seamanship, materials and marine construction.[173]

An inescapable obstacle to success in the warfare of mass armies was the Confederacy's lack of manpower, and sufficient numbers of disciplined, equipped troops in the field at the point of contact with the enemy. During the winter of 1862–63, Lee observed that none of his famous victories had resulted in the destruction of the opposing army. He lacked reserve troops to exploit an advantage on the battlefield as Napoleon had done. Lee explained, "More than once have most promising opportunities been lost for want of men to take advantage of them, and victory itself had been made to put on the appearance of defeat, because our diminished and exhausted troops have been unable to renew a successful struggle against fresh numbers of the enemy."[174]

Armed forces

Main article: Military of the Confederate States of America

The military armed forces of the Confederacy comprised three branches: Army, Navy and Marine Corps.

The Confederate military leadership included many veterans from the United States Army and United States Navy who had resigned their Federal commissions and were appointed to senior positions. Many had served in the Mexican–American War (including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis), but some such as Leonidas Polk (who graduated from West Point but did not serve in the Army) had little or no experience.

    Navy Jack – light blue cross; also square canton, white fly

    Navy Jack – light blue cross; also square canton, white fly

    Battle Flag – square

    Battle Flag – square

The Confederate officer corps consisted of men from both slave-owning and non-slave-owning families. The Confederacy appointed junior and field grade officers by election from the enlisted ranks. Although no Army service academy was established for the Confederacy, some colleges (such as The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute) maintained cadet corps that trained Confederate military leadership. A naval academy was established at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia[175] in 1863, but no midshipmen graduated before the Confederacy's end.

Most soldiers were white males aged between 16 and 28. The median year of birth was 1838, so half the soldiers were 23 or older by 1861.[176] In early 1862, the Confederate Army was allowed to disintegrate for two months following expiration of short-term enlistments. Most of those in uniform would not re-enlist following their one-year commitment, so on April 16, 1862, the Confederate Congress enacted the first mass conscription on the North American continent. (The U.S. Congress followed a year later on March 3, 1863, with the Enrollment Act.) Rather than a universal draft, the initial program was a selective service with physical, religious, professional and industrial exemptions. These were narrowed as the war progressed. Initially substitutes were permitted, but by December 1863 these were disallowed. In September 1862 the age limit was increased from 35 to 45 and by February 1864, all men under 18 and over 45 were conscripted to form a reserve for state defense inside state borders. By March 1864, the Superintendent of Conscription reported that all across the Confederacy, every officer in constituted authority, man and woman, "engaged in opposing the enrolling officer in the execution of his duties".[177] Although challenged in the state courts, the Confederate State Supreme Courts routinely rejected legal challenges to conscription.[178]

Many thousands of slaves served as personal servants to their owner, or were hired as laborers, cooks, and pioneers.[179] Some freed blacks and men of color served in local state militia units of the Confederacy, primarily in Louisiana and South Carolina, but their officers deployed them for "local defense, not combat".[180] Depleted by casualties and desertions, the military suffered chronic manpower shortages. In early 1865, the Confederate Congress, influenced by the public support by General Lee, approved the recruitment of black infantry units. Contrary to Lee's and Davis's recommendations, the Congress refused "to guarantee the freedom of black volunteers". No more than two hundred black combat troops were ever raised.[181]

Raising troops

Recruitment poster: "Do not wait to be drafted". Under half re-enlisted.

The immediate onset of war meant that it was fought by the "Provisional" or "Volunteer Army". State governors resisted concentrating a national effort. Several wanted a strong state army for self-defense. Others feared large "Provisional" armies answering only to Davis.[182] When filling the Confederate government's call for 100,000 men, another 200,000 were turned away by accepting only those enlisted "for the duration" or twelve-month volunteers who brought their own arms or horses.[183]

It was important to raise troops; it was just as important to provide capable officers to command them. With few exceptions the Confederacy secured excellent general officers. Efficiency in the lower officers was "greater than could have been reasonably expected". As with the Federals, political appointees could be indifferent. Otherwise, the officer corps was governor-appointed or elected by unit enlisted. Promotion to fill vacancies was made internally regardless of merit, even if better officers were immediately available.[184]

Anticipating the need for more "duration" men, in January 1862 Congress provided for company level recruiters to return home for two months, but their efforts met little success on the heels of Confederate battlefield defeats in February.[185] Congress allowed for Davis to require numbers of recruits from each governor to supply the volunteer shortfall. States responded by passing their own draft laws.[186]

The veteran Confederate army of early 1862 was mostly twelve-month volunteers with terms about to expire. Enlisted reorganization elections disintegrated the army for two months. Officers pleaded with the ranks to re-enlist, but a majority did not. Those remaining elected majors and colonels whose performance led to officer review boards in October. The boards caused a "rapid and widespread" thinning out of 1,700 incompetent officers. Troops thereafter would elect only second lieutenants.[187]

In early 1862, the popular press suggested the Confederacy required a million men under arms. But veteran soldiers were not re-enlisting, and earlier secessionist volunteers did not reappear to serve in war. One Macon, Georgia, newspaper asked how two million brave fighting men of the South were about to be overcome by four million northerners who were said to be cowards.[188]

Conscription

Unionists throughout the Confederate States resisted the 1862 conscription

The Confederacy passed the first American law of national conscription on April 16, 1862. The white males of the Confederate States from 18 to 35 were declared members of the Confederate army for three years, and all men then enlisted were extended to a three-year term. They would serve only in units and under officers of their state. Those under 18 and over 35 could substitute for conscripts, in September those from 35 to 45 became conscripts.[189] The cry of "rich man's war and a poor man's fight" led Congress to abolish the substitute system altogether in December 1863. All principals benefiting earlier were made eligible for service. By February 1864, the age bracket was made 17 to 50, those under eighteen and over forty-five to be limited to in-state duty.[190]

Confederate conscription was not universal; it was a selective service. The First Conscription Act of April 1862 exempted occupations related to transportation, communication, industry, ministers, teaching and physical fitness. The Second Conscription Act of October 1862 expanded exemptions in industry, agriculture and conscientious objection. Exemption fraud proliferated in medical examinations, army furloughs, churches, schools, apothecaries and newspapers.[191]

Rich men's sons were appointed to the socially outcast "overseer" occupation, but the measure was received in the country with "universal odium". The legislative vehicle was the controversial Twenty Negro Law that specifically exempted one white overseer or owner for every plantation with at least 20 slaves. Backpedaling six months later, Congress provided overseers under 45 could be exempted only if they held the occupation before the first Conscription Act.[192] The number of officials under state exemptions appointed by state Governor patronage expanded significantly.[193] By law, substitutes could not be subject to conscription, but instead of adding to Confederate manpower, unit officers in the field reported that over-50 and under-17-year-old substitutes made up to 90% of the desertions.[194]

    Gen. Gabriel J. Rains, Conscription Bureau chief, April 1862 – May 1863

    Gen. Gabriel J. Rains, Conscription Bureau chief, April 1862 – May 1863

    Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, military recruiter under Bragg, then J.E. Johnston[195]

    Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, military recruiter under Bragg, then J.E. Johnston[195]

The Conscription Act of February 1864 "radically changed the whole system" of selection. It abolished industrial exemptions, placing detail authority in President Davis. As the shame of conscription was greater than a felony conviction, the system brought in "about as many volunteers as it did conscripts." Many men in otherwise "bombproof" positions were enlisted in one way or another, nearly 160,000 additional volunteers and conscripts in uniform. Still there was shirking.[196] To administer the draft, a Bureau of Conscription was set up to use state officers, as state Governors would allow. It had a checkered career of "contention, opposition and futility". Armies appointed alternative military "recruiters" to bring in the out-of-uniform 17–50-year-old conscripts and deserters. Nearly 3,000 officers were tasked with the job. By late 1864, Lee was calling for more troops. "Our ranks are constantly diminishing by battle and disease, and few recruits are received; the consequences are inevitable." By March 1865 conscription was to be administered by generals of the state reserves calling out men over 45 and under 18 years old. All exemptions were abolished. These regiments were assigned to recruit conscripts ages 17–50, recover deserters, and repel enemy cavalry raids. The service retained men who had lost but one arm or a leg in home guards. Ultimately, conscription was a failure, and its main value was in goading men to volunteer.[197]

Despite political differences within the Confederacy, no national political parties were formed because they were seen as illegitimate. "Anti-partyism became an article of political faith."[253] Without a system of political parties building alternate sets of national leaders, electoral protests tended to be narrowly state-based, "negative, carping and petty". The 1863 mid-term elections became mere expressions of futile and frustrated dissatisfaction. According to historian David M. Potter, the lack of a functioning two-party system caused "real and direct damage" to the Confederate war effort since it prevented the formulation of any effective alternatives to the conduct of the war by the Davis administration.[254]

"Died of Davis"

The enemies of President Davis proposed that the Confederacy "died of Davis". He was unfavorably compared to George Washington by critics such as Edward Alfred Pollard, editor of the most influential newspaper in the Confederacy, the Richmond (Virginia) Examiner. E. Merton Coulter summarizes, "The American Revolution had its Washington; the Southern Revolution had its Davis ... one succeeded and the other failed." Beyond the early honeymoon period, Davis was never popular. He unwittingly caused much internal dissension from early on. His ill health and temporary bouts of blindness disabled him for days at a time.[255]

Coulter, viewed by today's historians as a Confederate apologist,[256][257][258][259] says Davis was heroic and his will was indomitable. But his "tenacity, determination, and will power" stirred up lasting opposition from enemies that Davis could not shake. He failed to overcome "petty leaders of the states" who made the term "Confederacy" into a label for tyranny and oppression, preventing the "Stars and Bars" from becoming a symbol of larger patriotic service and sacrifice. Instead of campaigning to develop nationalism and gain support for his administration, he rarely courted public opinion, assuming an aloofness, "almost like an Adams".[255]

Escott argues that Davis was unable to mobilize Confederate nationalism in support of his government effectively, and especially failed to appeal to the small farmers who comprised the bulk of the population. In addition to the problems caused by states rights, Escott also emphasizes that the widespread opposition to any strong central government combined with the vast difference in wealth between the slave-owning class and the small farmers created insolvable dilemmas when the Confederate survival presupposed a strong central government backed by a united populace. The prewar claim that white solidarity was necessary to provide a unified Southern voice in Washington no longer held. Davis failed to build a network of supporters who would speak up when he came under criticism, and he repeatedly alienated governors and other state-based leaders by demanding centralized control of the war effort.[260]

According to Coulter, Davis was not an efficient administrator as he attended to too many details, protected his friends after their failures were obvious, and spent too much time on military affairs versus his civic responsibilities. Coulter concludes he was not the ideal leader for the Southern Revolution, but he showed "fewer weaknesses than any other" contemporary character available for the role.[261]

Robert E. Lee's assessment of Davis as president was, "I knew of none that could have done as well."[262]

Government and politics

Political divisions

Main article: List of C.S. states by date of admission to the Confederacy

State flags, statehood and territory dates

(listed alphabetically)

(listed chronologically)

Statehood date is the date of ratifying the permanent constitution (for the first seven) or being admitted to the Confederacy (for subsequent states); territory date is the date the Arizona Territory was organized by the Confederate States

Constitution

Main article: Constitution of the Confederate States

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Constitution of the Confederate States of America

The Southern leaders met in Montgomery, Alabama, to write their constitution. Much of the Confederate States Constitution replicated the United States Constitution verbatim, but it contained several explicit protections of the institution of slavery including provisions for the recognition and protection of slavery in any territory of the Confederacy. It maintained the ban on international slave-trading, though it made the ban's application explicit to "Negroes of the African race" in contrast to the U.S. Constitution's reference to "such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit". It protected the existing internal trade of slaves among slaveholding states.

The Permanent Confederate Congress was elected and began its first session February 18, 1862. The Permanent Congress for the Confederacy followed the United States forms with a bicameral legislature. The Senate had two per state, twenty-six Senators. The House numbered 106 representatives apportioned by free and slave populations within each state. Two Congresses sat in six sessions until March 18, 1865.[269]

The political influences of the civilian, soldier vote and appointed representatives reflected divisions of political geography of a diverse South. These in turn changed over time relative to Union occupation and disruption, the war impact on the local economy, and the course of the war. Without political parties, key candidate identification related to adopting secession before or after Lincoln's call for volunteers to retake Federal property. Previous party affiliation played a part in voter selection, predominantly secessionist Democrat or unionist Whig.[270]

The absence of political parties made individual roll call voting all the more important, as the Confederate "freedom of roll-call voting [was] unprecedented in American legislative history."[271] Key issues throughout the life of the Confederacy related to (1) suspension of habeas corpus, (2) military concerns such as control of state militia, conscription and exemption, (3) economic and fiscal policy including impressment of slaves, goods and scorched earth, and (4) support of the Jefferson Davis administration in its foreign affairs and negotiating peace.[272]

Provisional Congress

For the first year, the unicameral Provisional Confederate Congress functioned as the Confederacy's legislative branch.

President of the Provisional Congress

    Howell Cobb, Sr. of Georgia, February 4, 1861 – February 17, 1862

Presidents pro tempore of the Provisional Congress

    Robert Woodward Barnwell of South Carolina, February 4, 1861

    Thomas Stanhope Bocock of Virginia, December 10–21, 1861 and January 7–8, 1862

    Josiah Abigail Patterson Campbell of Mississippi, December 23–24, 1861 and January 6, 1862

Sessions of the Confederate Congress

    Provisional Congress

    1st Congress

    2nd Congress

Tribal Representatives to Confederate Congress

    Elias Cornelius Boudinot 1862–65, Cherokee

    Samuel Benton Callahan Unknown years, Creek, Seminole

    Burton Allen Holder 1864–65, Chickasaw

    Robert McDonald Jones 1863–65, Choctaw

Judicial

    Jesse J. Finley Florida District

    Jesse J. Finley

    Florida District

    Henry R. Jackson Georgia District

    Henry R. Jackson

    Georgia District

    Asa Biggs North Carolina District

    Asa Biggs

    North Carolina District

    Andrew Magrath South Carolina District

    Andrew Magrath

    South Carolina District

The Confederate Constitution outlined a judicial branch of the government, but the ongoing war and resistance from states-rights advocates, particularly on the question of whether it would have appellate jurisdiction over the state courts, prevented the creation or seating of the "Supreme Court of the Confederate States;" the state courts generally continued to operate as they had done, simply recognizing the Confederate States as the national government.[273]

Confederate district courts were authorized by Article III, Section 1, of the Confederate Constitution,[274] and President Davis appointed judges within the individual states of the Confederate States of America.[275] In many cases, the same US Federal District Judges were appointed as Confederate States District Judges. Confederate district courts began reopening in early 1861, handling many of the same type cases as had been done before. Prize cases, in which Union ships were captured by the Confederate Navy or raiders and sold through court proceedings, were heard until the blockade of southern ports made this impossible. After a Sequestration Act was passed by the Confederate Congress, the Confederate district courts heard many cases in which enemy aliens (typically Northern absentee landlords owning property in the South) had their property sequestered (seized) by Confederate Receivers.

When the matter came before the Confederate court, the property owner could not appear because he was unable to travel across the front lines between Union and Confederate forces. Thus, the District Attorney won the case by default, the property was typically sold, and the money used to further the Southern war effort. Eventually, because there was no Confederate Supreme Court, sharp attorneys like South Carolina's Edward McCrady began filing appeals. This prevented their clients' property from being sold until a supreme court could be constituted to hear the appeal, which never occurred.[275] Where Federal troops gained control over parts of the Confederacy and re-established civilian government, US district courts sometimes resumed jurisdiction.[276]

Supreme Court – not established.

District Courts – judges

    Alabama William Giles Jones 1861–1865

    Arkansas Daniel Ringo 1861–1865

    Florida Jesse J. Finley 1861–1862

    Georgia Henry R. Jackson 1861, Edward J. Harden 1861–1865

    Louisiana Edwin Warren Moise 1861–1865

    Mississippi Alexander Mosby Clayton 1861–1865

    North Carolina Asa Biggs 1861–1865

    South Carolina Andrew G. Magrath 1861–1864, Benjamin F. Perry 1865

    Tennessee West H. Humphreys 1861–1865

    Texas-East William Pinckney Hill 1861–1865

    Texas-West Thomas J. Devine 1861–1865

    Virginia-East James D. Halyburton 1861–1865

    Virginia-West John W. Brockenbrough 1861–1865

Post Office

Further information: Postage stamps and postal history of the Confederate States

    John H. Reagan Postmaster General

    John H. Reagan

    Postmaster General

    Jefferson Davis, 5 cent The first stamp, 1861

    Jefferson Davis, 5 cent

    The first stamp, 1861

    Andrew Jackson 2 cent, 1862

    Andrew Jackson

    2 cent, 1862

    George Washington 20 cent, 1863

    George Washington

    20 cent, 1863

When the Confederacy was formed and its seceding states broke from the Union, it was at once confronted with the arduous task of providing its citizens with a mail delivery system, and, in the midst of the American Civil War, the newly formed Confederacy created and established the Confederate Post Office. One of the first undertakings in establishing the Post Office was the appointment of John H. Reagan to the position of Postmaster General, by Jefferson Davis in 1861, making him the first Postmaster General of the Confederate Post Office as well as a member of Davis' presidential cabinet. Writing in 1906, historian Walter Flavius McCaleb praised Reagan's "energy and intelligence... in a degree scarcely matched by any of his associates."[277]

When the war began, the US Post Office still delivered mail from the secessionist states for a brief period of time. Mail that was postmarked after the date of a state's admission into the Confederacy through May 31, 1861, and bearing US postage was still delivered.[278] After this time, private express companies still managed to carry some of the mail across enemy lines. Later, mail that crossed lines had to be sent by 'Flag of Truce' and was allowed to pass at only two specific points. Mail sent from the Confederacy to the U.S. was received, opened and inspected at Fortress Monroe on the Virginia coast before being passed on into the U.S. mail stream. Mail sent from the North to the South passed at City Point, also in Virginia, where it was also inspected before being sent on.[279][280]

With the chaos of the war, a working postal system was more important than ever for the Confederacy. The Civil War had divided family members and friends and consequently letter writing increased dramatically across the entire divided nation, especially to and from the men who were away serving in an army. Mail delivery was also important for the Confederacy for a myriad of business and military reasons. Because of the Union blockade, basic supplies were always in demand and so getting mailed correspondence out of the country to suppliers was imperative to the successful operation of the Confederacy. Volumes of material have been written about the Blockade runners who evaded Union ships on blockade patrol, usually at night, and who moved cargo and mail in and out of the Confederate States throughout the course of the war. Of particular interest to students and historians of the American Civil War is Prisoner of War mail and Blockade mail as these items were often involved with a variety of military and other war time activities. The postal history of the Confederacy along with surviving Confederate mail has helped historians document the various people, places and events that were involved in the American Civil War as it unfolded.[281]

Civil liberties

The Confederacy actively used the army to arrest people suspected of loyalty to the United States. Historian Mark Neely found 4,108 names of men arrested and estimated a much larger total.[282] The Confederacy arrested pro-Union civilians in the South at about the same rate as the Union arrested pro-Confederate civilians in the North.[283] Neely argues:

    The Confederate citizen was not any freer than the Union citizen – and perhaps no less likely to be arrested by military authorities. In fact, the Confederate citizen may have been in some ways less free than his Northern counterpart. For example, freedom to travel within the Confederate states was severely limited by a domestic passport system.[284]

Further information: Confederate patriotism

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Confederate States of America

Slaves

Across the South, widespread rumors alarmed the whites by predicting the slaves were planning some sort of insurrection. Patrols were stepped up. The slaves did become increasingly independent, and resistant to punishment, but historians agree there were no insurrections. In the invaded areas, insubordination was more the norm than was loyalty to the old master; Bell Wiley says, "It was not disloyalty, but the lure of freedom." Many slaves became spies for the North, and large numbers ran away to federal lines.[285]

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order of the U.S. government on January 1, 1863, changed the legal status of three million slaves in designated areas of the Confederacy from "slave" to "free". The long-term effect was that the Confederacy could not preserve the institution of slavery, and lost the use of the core element of its plantation labor force. Slaves were legally freed by the Proclamation, and became free by escaping to federal lines, or by advances of federal troops. Over 200,000 freed slaves were hired by the federal army as teamsters, cooks, launderers and laborers, and eventually as soldiers.[286][287] Plantation owners, realizing that emancipation would destroy their economic system, sometimes moved their slaves as far as possible out of reach of the Union army.[288] Though the concept was promoted within certain circles of the Union hierarchy during and immediately following the war, no program of reparations for freed slaves was ever attempted. Unlike other Western countries, such as Britain and France, the U.S. government never paid compensation to Southern slave owners for their "lost property".[289][290]

Political economy

Most whites were subsistence farmers who traded their surpluses locally. The plantations of the South, with white ownership and an enslaved labor force, produced substantial wealth from cash crops. It supplied two-thirds of the world's cotton, which was in high demand for textiles, along with tobacco, sugar, and naval stores (such as turpentine). These raw materials were exported to factories in Europe and the Northeast. Planters reinvested their profits in more slaves and fresh land, as cotton and tobacco depleted the soil. There was little manufacturing or mining; shipping was controlled by non-southerners.[291][292]

New Orleans, the South's largest port city and the only pre-war population over 100,000. The port and region's agriculture were lost to the Union in April 1862.

Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond VA. South's largest factory. Ended locomotive production in 1860 to make arms and munitions.

The plantations that enslaved over three million black people were the principal source of wealth. Most were concentrated in "black belt" plantation areas (because few white families in the poor regions owned slaves). For decades, there had been widespread fear of slave revolts. During the war, extra men were assigned to "home guard" patrol duty and governors sought to keep militia units at home for protection. Historian William Barney reports, "no major slave revolts erupted during the Civil War." Nevertheless, slaves took the opportunity to enlarge their sphere of independence, and when union forces were nearby, many ran off to join them.[293][294]

Slave labor was applied in industry in a limited way in the Upper South and in a few port cities. One reason for the regional lag in industrial development was top-heavy income distribution. Mass production requires mass markets, and slaves living in small cabins, using self-made tools and outfitted with one suit of work clothes each year of inferior fabric, did not generate consumer demand to sustain local manufactures of any description in the same way as did a mechanized family farm of free labor in the North. The Southern economy was "pre-capitalist" in that slaves were put to work in the largest revenue-producing enterprises, not free labor markets. That labor system as practiced in the American South encompassed paternalism, whether abusive or indulgent, and that meant labor management considerations apart from productivity.[295]

Approximately 85% of both the North and South white populations lived on family farms, both regions were predominantly agricultural, and mid-century industry in both was mostly domestic. But the Southern economy was pre-capitalist in its overwhelming reliance on the agriculture of cash crops to produce wealth, while the great majority of farmers fed themselves and supplied a small local market. Southern cities and industries grew faster than ever before, but the thrust of the rest of the country's exponential growth elsewhere was toward urban industrial development along transportation systems of canals and railroads. The South was following the dominant currents of the American economic mainstream, but at a "great distance" as it lagged in the all-weather modes of transportation that brought cheaper, speedier freight shipment and forged new, expanding inter-regional markets.[296]

A third count of the pre-capitalist Southern economy relates to the cultural setting. The South and southerners did not adopt a work ethic, nor the habits of thrift that marked the rest of the country. It had access to the tools of capitalism, but it did not adopt its culture. The Southern Cause as a national economy in the Confederacy was grounded in "slavery and race, planters and patricians, plain folk and folk culture, cotton and plantations".[297]

National production

The Union had large advantages in men and resources at the start of the war; the ratio grew steadily in favor of the Union

The Confederacy started its existence as an agrarian economy with exports, to a world market, of cotton, and, to a lesser extent, tobacco and sugarcane. Local food production included grains, hogs, cattle, and gardens. The cash came from exports but the Southern people spontaneously stopped exports in early 1861 to hasten the impact of "King Cotton", a failed strategy to coerce international support for the Confederacy through its cotton exports. When the blockade was announced, commercial shipping practically ended , and only a trickle of supplies came via blockade runners. The cutoff of exports was an economic disaster for the South, rendering useless its most valuable properties, its plantations and their enslaved workers. Many planters kept growing cotton, which piled up everywhere, but most turned to food production. All across the region, the lack of repair and maintenance wasted away the physical assets.

The eleven states had produced $155 million in manufactured goods in 1860, chiefly from local grist-mills, and lumber, processed tobacco, cotton goods and naval stores such as turpentine. The main industrial areas were border cities such as Baltimore, Wheeling, Louisville and St. Louis, that were never under Confederate control. The government did set up munitions factories in the Deep South. Combined with captured munitions and those coming via blockade runners, the armies were kept minimally supplied with weapons. The soldiers suffered from reduced rations, lack of medicines, and the growing shortages of uniforms, shoes and boots. Shortages were much worse for civilians, and the prices of necessities steadily rose.[298]

The Confederacy adopted a tariff or tax on imports of 15%, and imposed it on all imports from other countries, including the United States.[299] The tariff mattered little; the Union blockade minimized commercial traffic through the Confederacy's ports, and very few people paid taxes on goods smuggled from the North. The Confederate government in its entire history collected only $3.5 million in tariff revenue. The lack of adequate financial resources led the Confederacy to finance the war through printing money, which led to high inflation. The Confederacy underwent an economic revolution by centralization and standardization, but it was too little too late as its economy was systematically strangled by blockade and raids.[300]

Transportation systems

Main article: Confederate railroads in the American Civil War

Main railroads of Confederacy, 1861; colors show the different gauges (track width); the top railroad shown in the upper right is the Baltimore and Ohio, which was at all times a Union railroad

Passers-by abusing the bodies of Union supporters near Knoxville, Tennessee. The two were hanged by Confederate authorities near the railroad tracks so passing train passengers could see them.

In peacetime, the South's extensive and connected systems of navigable rivers and coastal access allowed for cheap and easy transportation of agricultural products. The railroad system in the South had developed as a supplement to the navigable rivers to enhance the all-weather shipment of cash crops to market. Railroads tied plantation areas to the nearest river or seaport and so made supply more dependable, lowered costs and increased profits. In the event of invasion, the vast geography of the Confederacy made logistics difficult for the Union. Wherever Union armies invaded, they assigned many of their soldiers to garrison captured areas and to protect rail lines.

At the onset of the Civil War the South had a rail network disjointed and plagued by changes in track gauge as well as lack of interchange. Locomotives and freight cars had fixed axles and could not use tracks of different gauges (widths). Railroads of different gauges leading to the same city required all freight to be off-loaded onto wagons for transport to the connecting railroad station, where it had to await freight cars and a locomotive before proceeding. Centers requiring off-loading included Vicksburg, New Orleans, Montgomery, Wilmington and Richmond.[301] In addition, most rail lines led from coastal or river ports to inland cities, with few lateral railroads. Because of this design limitation, the relatively primitive railroads of the Confederacy were unable to overcome the Union naval blockade of the South's crucial intra-coastal and river routes.

The Confederacy had no plan to expand, protect or encourage its railroads. Southerners' refusal to export the cotton crop in 1861 left railroads bereft of their main source of income.[302] Many lines had to lay off employees; many critical skilled technicians and engineers were permanently lost to military service. In the early years of the war the Confederate government had a hands-off approach to the railroads. Only in mid-1863 did the Confederate government initiate a national policy, and it was confined solely to aiding the war effort.[303] Railroads came under the de facto control of the military. In contrast, the U.S. Congress had authorized military administration of Union-controlled railroad and telegraph systems in January 1862, imposed a standard gauge, and built railroads into the South using that gauge. Confederate armies successfully reoccupying territory could not be resupplied directly by rail as they advanced. The C.S. Congress formally authorized military administration of railroads in February 1865.

In the last year before the end of the war, the Confederate railroad system stood permanently on the verge of collapse. There was no new equipment and raids on both sides systematically destroyed key bridges, as well as locomotives and freight cars. Spare parts were cannibalized; feeder lines were torn up to get replacement rails for trunk lines, and rolling stock wore out through heavy use.[304]

Horses and mules

The Confederate army experienced a persistent shortage of horses and mules, and requisitioned them with dubious promissory notes given to local farmers and breeders. Union forces paid in real money and found ready sellers in the South. Both armies needed horses for cavalry and for artillery.[305] Mules pulled the wagons. The supply was undermined by an unprecedented epidemic of glanders, a fatal disease that baffled veterinarians.[306] After 1863 the invading Union forces had a policy of shooting all the local horses and mules that they did not need, in order to keep them out of Confederate hands. The Confederate armies and farmers experienced a growing shortage of horses and mules, which hurt the Southern economy and the war effort. The South lost half of its 2.5 million horses and mules; many farmers ended the war with none left. Army horses were used up by hard work, malnourishment, disease and battle wounds; they had a life expectancy of about seven months.[307]

Financial instruments

Both the individual Confederate states and later the Confederate government printed Confederate States of America dollars as paper currency in various denominations, with a total face value of $1.5 billion. Much of it was signed by Treasurer Edward C. Elmore. Inflation became rampant as the paper money depreciated and eventually became worthless. The state governments and some localities printed their own paper money, adding to the runaway inflation.[308] Many bills still exist, although in recent years counterfeit copies have proliferated.

1862 $10 CSA note depicting a vignette of Hope flanked by R.M.T. Hunter (left) and C.G. Memminger (right)

The Confederate government initially wanted to finance its war mostly through tariffs on imports, export taxes, and voluntary donations of gold. After the spontaneous imposition of an embargo on cotton sales to Europe in 1861, these sources of revenue dried up and the Confederacy increasingly turned to issuing debt and printing money to pay for war expenses. The Confederate States politicians were worried about angering the general population with hard taxes. A tax increase might disillusion many Southerners, so the Confederacy resorted to printing more money. As a result, inflation increased and remained a problem for the southern states throughout the rest of the war.[309] By April 1863, for example, the cost of flour in Richmond had risen to $100 a barrel and housewives were rioting.[310]

The Confederate government took over the three national mints in its territory: the Charlotte Mint in North Carolina, the Dahlonega Mint in Georgia, and the New Orleans Mint in Louisiana. During 1861 all of these facilities produced small amounts of gold coinage, and the latter half dollars as well. Since the mints used the current dies on hand, all appear to be U.S. issues. However, by comparing slight differences in the dies specialists can distinguish 1861-O half dollars that were minted either under the authority of the U.S. government, the State of Louisiana, or finally the Confederate States. Unlike the gold coins, this issue was produced in significant numbers (over 2.5 million) and is inexpensive in lower grades, although fakes have been made for sale to the public.[311] However, before the New Orleans Mint ceased operation in May, 1861, the Confederate government used its own reverse design to strike four half dollars. This made one of the great rarities of American numismatics. A lack of silver and gold precluded further coinage. The Confederacy apparently also experimented with issuing one cent coins, although only 12 were produced by a jeweler in Philadelphia, who was afraid to send them to the South. Like the half dollars, copies were later made as souvenirs.[312]

US coinage was hoarded and did not have any general circulation. U.S. coinage was admitted as legal tender up to $10, as were British sovereigns, French Napoleons and Spanish and Mexican doubloons at a fixed rate of exchange. Confederate money was paper and postage stamps.[313]

Food shortages and riots

Main article: Southern bread riots

Richmond bread riot, 1863

By mid-1861, the Union naval blockade virtually shut down the export of cotton and the import of manufactured goods. Food that formerly came overland was cut off.

As women were the ones who remained at home, they had to make do with the lack of food and supplies. They cut back on purchases, used old materials, and planted more flax and peas to provide clothing and food. They used ersatz substitutes when possible, but there was no real coffee, only okra and chicory substitutes. The households were severely hurt by inflation in the cost of everyday items like flour, and the shortages of food, fodder for the animals, and medical supplies for the wounded.[314][315]

State governments requested that planters grow less cotton and more food, but most refused. When cotton prices soared in Europe, expectations were that Europe would soon intervene to break the blockade and make them rich, but Europe remained neutral.[316] The Georgia legislature imposed cotton quotas, making it a crime to grow an excess. But food shortages only worsened, especially in the towns.[317]

The overall decline in food supplies, made worse by the inadequate transportation system, led to serious shortages and high prices in urban areas. When bacon reached a dollar a pound in 1863, the poor women of Richmond, Atlanta and many other cities began to riot; they broke into shops and warehouses to seize food, as they were angry at ineffective state relief efforts, speculators, and merchants. As wives and widows of soldiers, they were hurt by the inadequate welfare system.[318][319][320][321]

Devastation by 1865

By the end of the war deterioration of the Southern infrastructure was widespread. The number of civilian deaths is unknown. Every Confederate state was affected, but most of the war was fought in Virginia and Tennessee, while Texas and Florida saw the least military action. Much of the damage was caused by direct military action, but most was caused by lack of repairs and upkeep, and by deliberately using up resources. Historians have recently estimated how much of the devastation was caused by military action. Paul Paskoff calculates that Union military operations were conducted in 56% of 645 counties in nine Confederate states (excluding Texas and Florida). These counties contained 63% of the 1860 white population and 64% of the slaves. By the time the fighting took place, undoubtedly some people had fled to safer areas, so the exact population exposed to war is unknown.[322]

    Potters House, Atlanta GA

    Potters House, Atlanta GA

    Downtown Charleston SC

    Downtown Charleston SC

    Navy Yard, Norfolk VA

    Navy Yard, Norfolk VA

    Rail bridge, Petersburg VA

    Rail bridge, Petersburg VA

The eleven Confederate States in the 1860 United States Census had 297 towns and cities with 835,000 people; of these 162 with 681,000 people were at one point occupied by Union forces. Eleven were destroyed or severely damaged by war action, including Atlanta (with an 1860 population of 9,600), Charleston, Columbia, and Richmond (with prewar populations of 40,500, 8,100, and 37,900, respectively); the eleven contained 115,900 people in the 1860 census, or 14% of the urban South. Historians have not estimated what their actual population was when Union forces arrived. The number of people (as of 1860) who lived in the destroyed towns represented just over 1% of the Confederacy's 1860 population. In addition, 45 court houses were burned (out of 830). The South's agriculture was not highly mechanized. The value of farm implements and machinery in the 1860 Census was $81 million; by 1870, there was 40% less, worth just $48 million. Many old tools had broken through heavy use; new tools were rarely available; even repairs were difficult.[323]

The economic losses affected everyone. Banks  were mostly bankrupt. Confederate currency and bonds were worthless. The billions of dollars invested in slaves vanished. Most debts were also left behind. Most farms were intact but most had lost their horses, mules and cattle; fences and barns were in disrepair. Paskoff shows the loss of farm infrastructure was about the same whether or not fighting took place nearby. The loss of infrastructure and productive capacity meant that rural widows throughout the region faced not only the absence of able-bodied men, but a depleted stock of material resources that they could manage and operate themselves. During four years of warfare, disruption, and blockades, the South used up about half its capital stock. The North, by contrast, absorbed its material losses so effortlessly that it appeared richer at the end of the war than at the beginning.[323]

The rebuilding took years and was hindered by the low price of cotton after the war. Outside investment was essential, especially in railroads. One historian has summarized the collapse of the transportation infrastructure needed for economic recovery:[324]

    One of the greatest calamities which confronted Southerners was the havoc wrought on the transportation system. Roads were impassable or nonexistent, and bridges were destroyed or washed away. The important river traffic was at a standstill: levees were broken, channels were blocked, the few steamboats which had not been captured or destroyed were in a state of disrepair, wharves had decayed or were missing, and trained personnel were dead or dispersed. Horses, mules, oxen, carriages, wagons, and carts had nearly all fallen prey at one time or another to the contending armies. The railroads were paralyzed, with most of the companies bankrupt. These lines had been the special target of the enemy. On one stretch of 114 miles in Alabama, every bridge and trestle was destroyed, cross-ties rotten, buildings burned, water-tanks gone, ditches filled up, and tracks grown up in weeds and bushes ... Communication centers like Columbia and Atlanta were in ruins; shops and foundries were wrecked or in disrepair. Even those areas bypassed by battle had been pirated for equipment needed on the battlefront, and the wear and tear of wartime usage without adequate repairs or replacements reduced all to a state of disintegration.

Effect on women and families

Confederate memorial tombstone at Natchez City Cemetery in Natchez, Mississippi

More than 250,000 Confederate soldiers died during the war. Some widows abandoned their family farms and merged into the households of relatives, or even became refugees living in camps with high rates of disease and death.[325] In the Old South, being an "old maid" was something of an embarrassment to the woman and her family, but after the war, it became almost a norm.[326] Some women welcomed the freedom of not having to marry. Divorce, while never fully accepted, became more common. The concept of the "New Woman" emerged – she was self-sufficient and independent, and stood in sharp contrast to the "Southern Belle" of antebellum lore.[327]

National flags

Main article: Flags of the Confederate States of America

    Flags of the Confederate States of America

    1st National Flag [7-, 9, 11-, 13-stars[328]] "Stars and Bars"

    1st National Flag

    [7-, 9, 11-, 13-stars[328]]

    "Stars and Bars"

    2nd National Flag [Richmond Capitol[329]] "Stainless Banner"

    2nd National Flag

    [Richmond Capitol[329]]

    "Stainless Banner"

    3rd National Flag [never flown[330]] "Blood Stained Banner"

    3rd National Flag

    [never flown[330]]

    "Blood Stained Banner"

    CSA Naval Jack 1863–65[citation needed]

    CSA Naval Jack

    1863–65[citation needed]

    Battle Flag "Southern Cross"[331]

    Battle Flag

    "Southern Cross"[331]

This Confederate Battle Flag pattern is the one most often thought of as the Flag today; it was one of many used by the Confederate armed forces. Variations of this design served as the Battle Flag of the Armies of Northern Virginia and Tennessee, and as the Confederate Naval Jack.

Variant of the first national flag with 13 stars

The first official flag of the Confederate States of America—called the "Stars and Bars"—originally had seven stars, representing the first seven states that initially formed the Confederacy. As more states joined, more stars were added, until the total was 13 (two stars were added for the divided states of Kentucky and Missouri). During the First Battle of Bull Run, (First Manassas) it sometimes proved difficult to distinguish the Stars and Bars from the Union flag.[citation needed] To rectify the situation, a separate "Battle Flag" was designed for use by troops in the field. Also known as the "Southern Cross", many variations sprang from the original square configuration.

Although it was never officially adopted by the Confederate government, the popularity of the Southern Cross among both soldiers and the civilian population was a primary reason why it was made the main color feature when a new national flag was adopted in 1863.[331] This new standard—known as the "Stainless Banner"—consisted of a lengthened white field area with a Battle Flag canton. This flag too had its problems when used in military operations as, on a windless day, it could easily be mistaken for a flag of truce or surrender. Thus, in 1865, a modified version of the Stainless Banner was adopted. This final national flag of the Confederacy kept the Battle Flag canton, but shortened the white field and added a vertical red bar to the fly end.

Because of its depiction in the 20th-century and popular media, many people consider the rectangular battle flag with the dark blue bars as being synonymous with "the Flag", but this flag was never adopted as a Confederate national flag.[331]

The "Flag" has a color scheme similar to that of the most common Battle Flag design, but is rectangular, not square. The "Flag" is a highly recognizable symbol of the South in the United States today, and continues to be a controversial icon.

Southern Unionism

Map of the county secession votes of 1860–1861 in Appalachia within the ARC definition. Virginia and Tennessee show the public votes, while the other states show the vote by county delegates to the conventions.

Unionism—opposition to the Confederacy—was strong in certain areas within the Confederate States. Southern Unionists (white Southerners who were opposed to the Confederacy) were widespread in the mountain regions of Appalachia and the Ozarks.[332] Unionists, led by Parson Brownlow and Senator Andrew Johnson, took control of eastern Tennessee in 1863.[333] Unionists also attempted control over western Virginia, but never effectively held more than half of the counties that formed the new state of West Virginia.[334][335][336] Union forces captured parts of coastal North Carolina, and at first were largely welcomed by local unionists. That view would change for some, as the occupiers became perceived as oppressive, callous, radical and favorable to Freedmen. Occupiers pillaged, freed slaves, and evicted those who refused to swear loyalty oaths to the Union.[337]

Support for the Confederacy was also low in parts of Texas, where Unionism persisted in certain areas. Claude Elliott estimates that only a third of the population actively supported the Confederacy. Many Unionists supported the Confederacy after the war began, but many others clung to their Unionism throughout the war, especially in the northern counties, German districts in the Texas Hill Country, and majority Mexican areas.[338] According to Ernest Wallace: "This account of a dissatisfied Unionist minority, although historically essential, must be kept in its proper perspective, for throughout the war the overwhelming majority of the people zealously supported the Confederacy ..."[339] Randolph B. Campbell states, "In spite of terrible losses and hardships, most Texans continued throughout the war to support the Confederacy as they had supported secession".[340] Dale Baum in his analysis of Texas politics in the era counters: "This idea of a Confederate Texas united politically against northern adversaries was shaped more by nostalgic fantasies than by wartime realities." He characterizes Texas Civil War history as "a morose story of intragovernmental rivalries coupled with wide-ranging disaffection that prevented effective implementation of state wartime policies".[341]

In Texas, local officials harassed and murdered Unionists and Germans during the Civil War. In Cooke County, Texas, 150 suspected Unionists were arrested; 25 were lynched without trial and 40 more were hanged after a summary trial. Draft resistance was widespread especially among Texans of German or Mexican descent; many of the latter leaving to Mexico. Confederate officials would attempt to hunt down and kill potential draftees who had gone into hiding.[338]

Civil liberties were of small concern in both the North and South. Lincoln and Davis both took a hard line against dissent. Neely explores how the Confederacy became a virtual police state with guards and patrols all about, and a domestic passport system whereby everyone needed official permission each time they wanted to travel. Over 4,000 suspected Unionists were imprisoned in the Confederate States without trial.[342]

Southerner Unionists were also known as Union Loyalists or Lincoln's Loyalists. Within the eleven Confederate states, states such as Tennessee (especially East Tennessee), Virginia (which included West Virginia at the time), and North Carolina were home to the largest populations of Unionists. Many areas of Southern Appalachia harbored pro-Union sentiment as well. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control would serve in the Union Army or pro-Union guerilla groups. Although Southern Unionists came from all classes, most differed socially, culturally, and economically from the regions dominant pre-war planter class.[343]

Geography

Region and climate

The Confederate States of America claimed a total of 2,919 miles (4,698 km) of coastline, thus a large part of its territory lay on the seacoast with level and often sandy or marshy ground. Most of the interior portion consisted of arable farmland, though much was also hilly and mountainous, and the far western territories were deserts. The lower reaches of the Mississippi River bisected the country, with the western half often referred to as the Trans-Mississippi. The highest point (excluding Arizona and New Mexico) was Guadalupe Peak in Texas at 8,750 feet (2,670 m).

Map of the states and territories claimed by the Confederate States of America

Climate

Much of the area claimed by the Confederate States of America had a humid subtropical climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. The climate and terrain varied from vast swamps (such as those in Florida and Louisiana) to semi-arid steppes and arid deserts west of longitude 100 degrees west. The subtropical climate made winters mild but allowed infectious diseases to flourish. Consequently, on both sides more soldiers died from disease than were killed in combat,[344] a fact hardly atypical of pre-World War I conflicts.

Demographics

Population

Note – percentages may not total 100% because of rounding.

The United States Census of 1860[345] gives a picture of the overall 1860 population for the areas that had joined the Confederacy. The population numbers exclude non-assimilated Indian tribes.

State Total

population Total

number of

slaves Total

number of

households Total

free

population Total number

slaveholders % of Free

population

owning

slaves[346] % of Free

families

owning

slaves[347] Slaves

as % of

population Total

free

colored

Alabama 964,201 435,080 96,603 529,121 33,730 6% 35% 45% 2,690

Arkansas 435,450 111,115 57,244 324,335 11,481 4% 20% 26% 144

Florida 140,424 61,745 15,090 78,679 5,152 7% 34% 44% 932

Georgia 1,057,286 462,198 109,919 595,088 41,084 7% 37% 44% 3,500

Louisiana 708,002 331,726 74,725 376,276 22,033 6% 29% 47% 18,647

Mississippi 791,305 436,631 63,015 354,674 30,943 9% 49% 55% 773

North Carolina 992,622 331,059 125,090 661,563 34,658 5% 28% 33% 30,463

South Carolina 703,708 402,406 58,642 301,302 26,701 9% 46% 57% 9,914

Tennessee 1,109,801 275,719 149,335 834,082 36,844 4% 25% 25% 7,300

Texas 604,215 182,566 76,781 421,649 21,878 5% 28% 30% 355

Virginia[348] 1,596,318 490,865 201,523 1,105,453 52,128 5% 26% 31% 58,042

Total 9,103,332 3,521,110 1,027,967 5,582,222 316,632 6% 31% 39% 132,760

Age structure 0–14 years 15–59 years 60 years and over

White males 43% 52% 4%

White females 44% 52% 4%

Male slaves 44% 51% 4%

Female slaves 45% 51% 3%

Free black males 45% 50% 5%

Free black females 40% 54% 6%

Total population[349] 44% 52% 4%

In 1860, the areas that later formed the eleven Confederate states (and including the future West Virginia) had 132,760 (2%) free blacks. Males made up 49% of the total population and females 51% (whites: 49% male, 51% female; slaves: 50% male, 50% female; free blacks: 47% male, 53% female).[350]

Rural and urban population

A Home on the Mississippi, Currier and Ives, 1871

The CSA was overwhelmingly rural. Few towns had populations of more than 1,000—the typical county seat had a population of fewer than 500. Cities were rare; of the twenty largest U.S. cities in the 1860 census, only New Orleans lay in Confederate territory[351]—and the Union captured New Orleans in 1862. Only 13 Confederate-controlled cities ranked among the top 100 U.S. cities in 1860, most of them ports whose economic activities vanished or suffered severely in the Union blockade. The population of Richmond swelled after it became the Confederate capital, reaching an estimated 128,000 in 1864.[352] Other Southern cities in the border slave-holding states such as Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Wheeling, Alexandria, Louisville, and St. Louis never came under the control of the Confederate government.

The cities of the Confederacy included most prominently in order of size of population:

# City 1860 population 1860 U.S. rank Return to U.S. control

1. New Orleans, Louisiana 168,675 6 1862

2. Charleston, South Carolina 40,522 22 1865

3. Richmond, Virginia 37,910 25 1865

4. Mobile, Alabama 29,258 27 1865

5. Memphis, Tennessee 22,623 38 1862

6. Savannah, Georgia 22,619 41 1864

7. Petersburg, Virginia 18,266 50 1865

8. Nashville, Tennessee 16,988 54 1862

9. Norfolk, Virginia 14,620 61 1862

10. Alexandria, Virginia 12,652 75 1861

11. Augusta, Georgia 12,493 77 1865

12. Columbus, Georgia 9,621 97 1865

13. Atlanta, Georgia 9,554 99 1864

14. Wilmington, North Carolina 9,553 100 1865

(See also Atlanta in the Civil War, Charleston, South Carolina, in the Civil War, Nashville in the Civil War, New Orleans in the Civil War, Wilmington, North Carolina, in the American Civil War, and Richmond in the Civil War).

Religion

See also: Christian views on slavery

St. John's Episcopal Church, Montgomery. The Secession Convention of Southern Churches was held here in 1861.

The CSA was overwhelmingly Protestant.[353] Both free and enslaved populations identified with evangelical Protestantism. Baptists and Methodists together formed majorities of both the white and the slave population (see Black church). Freedom of religion and separation of church and state were fully ensured by Confederate laws. Church attendance was very high and chaplains played a major role in the Army.[354]

Most large denominations experienced a North–South split in the prewar era on the issue of slavery. The creation of a new country necessitated independent structures. For example, the Presbyterian Church in the United States split, with much of the new leadership provided by Joseph Ruggles Wilson (father of President Woodrow Wilson). In 1861, he organized the meeting that formed the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church and served as its chief executive for 37 years.[355] Baptists and Methodists both broke off from their Northern coreligionists over the slavery issue, forming the Southern Baptist Convention and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, respectively.[356][357] Elites in the southeast favored the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which had reluctantly split from the Episcopal Church in 1861.[358] Other elites were Presbyterians belonging to the 1861-founded Presbyterian Church in the United States. Catholics included an Irish working class element in coastal cities and an old French element in southern Louisiana. Other insignificant and scattered religious populations included Lutherans, the Holiness movement, other Reformed, other Christian fundamentalists, the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, the Churches of Christ, the Latter Day Saint movement, Adventists, Muslims, Jews, Native American animists, deists and irreligious people.[359][360]

The southern churches met the shortage of Army chaplains by sending missionaries. The Southern Baptists started in 1862 and had a total of 78 missionaries. Presbyterians were even more active with 112 missionaries in January 1865. Other missionaries were funded and supported by the Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans. One result was wave after wave of revivals in the Army.[361]

Military leaders

Further information: General officers in the Confederate States Army

Major-General John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War (1865)

General Robert E. Lee, General in Chief (1865)

Military leaders of the Confederacy (with their state or country of birth and highest rank)[362] included:

    Robert E. Lee (Virginia) – General & General in Chief

    P. G. T. Beauregard (Louisiana) – General

    Braxton Bragg (North Carolina) – General

    Samuel Cooper (New York) – General

    Albert Sidney Johnston (Kentucky) – General

    Joseph E. Johnston (Virginia) – General

    Edmund Kirby Smith (Florida) – General

    Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sr. (Kentucky) – Lieutenant General

    Jubal Early (Virginia) – Lieutenant-General

    Richard S. Ewell (Virginia) – Lieutenant-General

    Nathan Bedford Forrest (Tennessee) – Lieutenant-General

    Wade Hampton III (South Carolina) – Lieutenant-General

    William J. Hardee (Georgia) – Lieutenant-General

    A. P. Hill (Virginia) – Lieutenant-General

    Theophilus H. Holmes (North Carolina)  – Lieutenant-General

    John Bell Hood (Kentucky) – Lieutenant-General (temporary General)

    Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (Virginia) – Lieutenant-General

    Stephen D. Lee (South Carolina) – Lieutenant-General

    James Longstreet (South Carolina) – Lieutenant-General

    John C. Pemberton (Pennsylvania) – Lieutenant-General

    Leonidas Polk (North Carolina) – Lieutenant-General

    Alexander P. Stewart (North Carolina) – Lieutenant-General

    Richard Taylor (Kentucky) – Lieutenant-General (son of U.S. President Zachary Taylor)

    Joseph Wheeler (Georgia) – Lieutenant-General

    John C. Breckinridge (Kentucky) – Major-General & Secretary of War

    Richard H. Anderson (South Carolina) – Major-General (temporary Lieutenant-General)

    Patrick Cleburne (County Cork, Ireland) – Major-General

    John Brown Gordon (Georgia) – Major-General

    Henry Heth (Virginia) – Major-General

    Daniel Harvey Hill (South Carolina) – Major-General

    Edward Johnson (Virginia) – Major-General

    Joseph B. Kershaw (South Carolina) – Major-General

    Fitzhugh Lee (Virginia) – Major-General

    George Washington Custis Lee (Virginia) – Major-General

    William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (Virginia) – Major-General

    William Mahone (Virginia) – Major-General

    George Pickett (Virginia) – Major-General

    Camillus J. Polignac (France) – Major-General

    Sterling Price (Missouri) – Major-General

    Stephen Dodson Ramseur (North Carolina) – Major-General

    Thomas L. Rosser (Virginia) – Major-General

    J. E. B. Stuart (Virginia) – Major-General

    Earl Van Dorn (Mississippi) – Major-General

    John A. Wharton (Tennessee) – Major-General

    Edward Porter Alexander (Georgia) – Brigadier-General

    Francis Marion Cockrell (Missouri) – Brigadier-General

    Clement A. Evans (Georgia) – Brigadier-General

    John Hunt Morgan (Kentucky) – Brigadier-General

    William N. Pendleton (Virginia) – Brigadier-General

    Stand Watie (Georgia) – Brigadier-General (last to surrender)

    Lawrence Sullivan Ross (Texas) – Brigadier-General

    John S. Mosby, the "Grey Ghost of the Confederacy" (Virginia) – Colonel

    Franklin Buchanan (Maryland) – Admiral

    Raphael Semmes (Maryland) – Rear Admiral

See also

    American Civil War prison camps

    Cabinet of the Confederate States of America

    Commemoration of the American Civil War

    Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps

    Confederate colonies

    Confederate Patent Office

    Confederate war finance

    C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America

    History of the Southern United States

    Knights of the Golden Circle

    List of Confederate arms manufacturers

    List of Confederate arsenals and armories

    List of Confederate monuments and memorials

    List of treaties of the Confederate States of America

    List of historical separatist movements

    List of civil wars

    National Civil War Naval Museum

Links to related articles

    vte

American Civil War

Origins

    Origins

    Timeline leading to the War Bleeding Kansas Border states Compromise of 1850 John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Kansas-Nebraska Act Lincoln–Douglas debates Missouri Compromise Nullification crisis Origins of the American Civil War Panic of 1857 Popular sovereignty Secession South Carolina Declaration of Secession States' rights President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers

Slavery

    African Americans Cornerstone Speech Crittenden Compromise Dred Scott v. Sandford Emancipation Proclamation Fire-Eaters Fugitive slave laws Plantations in the American South Positive good Slave Power Slavery in the United States Treatment of slaves in the United States Uncle Tom's Cabin

Abolitionism

    Abolitionism in the United States Susan B. Anthony James G. Birney John Brown Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison Lane Debates on Slavery Elijah Parish Lovejoy J. Sella Martin Lysander Spooner George Luther Stearns Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner

        Caning Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad

    CombatantsTheatersCampaignsBattlesStates

Combatants

Union

    Army Navy Marine Corps Revenue Cutter Service

Confederacy

    Army Navy Marine Corps

Theaters

    Eastern Western Lower Seaboard Trans-Mississippi Pacific Coast Union naval blockade

Major campaigns

    Anaconda Plan Blockade runners New Mexico Jackson's Valley Peninsula Northern Virginia Maryland Stones River Vicksburg Tullahoma Gettysburg Morgan's Raid Bristoe Knoxville Red River Overland Atlanta Valley 1864 Bermuda Hundred Richmond-Petersburg Franklin–Nashville Price's Missouri Expedition Sherman's March Carolinas Mobile Appomattox

Major battles

    Fort Sumter 1st Bull Run Wilson's Creek Fort Donelson Pea Ridge Hampton Roads Shiloh New Orleans Corinth Seven Pines Seven Days 2nd Bull Run Antietam Perryville Fredericksburg Stones River Chancellorsville Gettysburg Vicksburg Chickamauga Chattanooga Wilderness Fort Pillow Spotsylvania Cold Harbor Atlanta Crater Mobile Bay Franklin Nashville Five Forks

    Confederate States of America1861 establishments in North America1865 disestablishments in North AmericaFederal constitutional republicsFormer confederationsFormer countries of the United StatesFormer regions and territories of the United StatesFormer unrecognized countriesHistory of the Southern United StatesPolitics of the American Civil WarSeparatism in the United StatesSlavery in the United StatesStates and territories established in 1861States and territories disestablished in 1865

History of the United States

Article

Talk

Read

Edit

View history

Tools

Page protected with pending changes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"American history" redirects here. For the history of the continents, see History of the Americas.

Further information: Economic history of the United States

This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. (April 2023)

This article is part of a series on the

History of the

United States

Timeline and periods

Prehistoric and Pre-colonial until 1607

Colonial period 1607–1765

1776–1789

    American Revolution 1765–1783

    Confederation Period 1783–1788

1789–1849

    Federalist Era 1788–1801

    Jeffersonian Era 1801–1817

    Era of Good Feelings 1817–1825

    Jacksonian Era 1825–1849

1849–1865

    Civil War Era 1849–1865

1865–1918

    Reconstruction Era 1865–1877

    Gilded Age 1877–1896

    Progressive Era 1896–1917

1918–1945

    World War I 1917–1918

    Roaring Twenties 1918–1929

    Great Depression 1929–1941

    World War II 1941–1945

1945–1964

    Post-World War II Era 1945–1964

    Civil Rights Era 1954–1968

1964–1980

    Civil Rights Era 1954–1968

    Vietnam War 1964–1975

1980–1991

    Reagan Era 1981–1991

1991–2008

    Post-Cold War Era 1991–2008

2008–present

    Modern Era 2008–present

Topics

AbortionAgricultureAntisemitismCivil rightsCinemaCultureDemographicsDirect democracyEconomicsEnergyEducationForeign policyFoundingImmigrationLaborMedicineMilitary ArmyMarine CorpsNavyAir ForceSpace ForceCoast GuardMusicReligionSocialismSportsSouthernTechnology and industryTerritoryUnfree labor

By group

African AmericanAsian American Chinese AmericanFilipino AmericanJapanese AmericanHispanic and Latino Americans Mexican AmericanIrish AmericanJewish AmericanNative Americans CherokeeComanchePolish AmericanWomenLGBT Gay menLesbiansTransgender

See also

HistoriographyList of years in the United States

flag United States portal

vte

This article is part of a series on the

Culture of the

United States

Society

HistoryLanguagePeople race and ethnicityReligion

Arts and literature

ArchitectureArtDanceFashionLiterature comicspoetryMusicSculptureTheater

Other

CuisineFestivalsFolkloreMedia newspapersradiocinemaTVInternetAmericanaMythologySports

Symbols

FlagGreat SealMonumentsMottoAnthemBirdWorld Heritage Sites

United States portal

vte

Current territories of the United States after the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was given independence in 1994

The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely populated lifestyles and towards reorganized polities elsewhere. The European colonization of the Americas began in the late 15th century, however most colonies in what would later become the United States were settled after 1600. By the 1760s, the thirteen British colonies contained 2.5 million people and were established along the Atlantic Coast east of the Appalachian Mountains. The Southern Colonies built an agricultural system on slave labor, importing slaves from Africa for this purpose. After defeating France, the British government imposed a series of taxes, including the Stamp Act of 1765, rejecting the colonists' constitutional argument that new taxes needed their approval. Resistance to these taxes, especially the Boston Tea Party in 1773, led to Parliament issuing punitive laws designed to end self-government. Armed conflict began in Massachusetts in 1775.

In 1776, in Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress declared the independence of the colonies as the "United States". Led by General George Washington, it won the Revolutionary War. The peace treaty of 1783 established the borders of the new sovereign state. The Articles of Confederation established a central government, but it was ineffectual at providing stability as it could not collect taxes and had no executive officer. A convention wrote a new Constitution that was adopted in 1789 and a Bill of Rights was added in 1791 to guarantee inalienable rights. With Washington as the first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief adviser, a strong central government was created. Purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 doubled the size of the United States.

Encouraged by the notion of manifest destiny, the United States expanded to the Pacific Coast. While the nation was large in terms of area, its population in 1790 was only four million. Westward expansion was driven by a quest for inexpensive land for yeoman farmers and slave owners. The expansion of slavery was increasingly controversial and fueled political and constitutional battles, which were resolved by compromises. Slavery was abolished in all states north of the Mason–Dixon line by 1804, but states in the south continued the institution, to support the kinds of large scale agriculture that dominated the southern economy. Precipitated by the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860, the Civil War began as the southern states seceded from the Union to form their own pro-slavery country, the Confederate States of America. The defeat of the Confederates in 1865 led to the abolition of slavery. In the Reconstruction era following the war, legal and voting rights were extended to freed male slaves. The national government emerged much stronger, and gained explicit duty to protect individual rights. However, when white southern Democrats regained their political power in the South in 1877, often by paramilitary suppression of voting, they passed Jim Crow laws to maintain white supremacy, as well as new state constitutions that legalized discrimination based on race and prevented most African Americans from participating in public life.

The Japanese crippled American naval power with the attack on Pearl Harbor, destroying many battleships.

Into the Jaws of Death: The Normandy landings began the Allied march toward Germany from the west.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima: Photographed by Joe Rosenthal, depicts six United States Marines raising a US flag atop Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945.

In the Depression years, the United States remained focused on domestic concerns while democracy declined across the world and many countries fell under the control of dictators. Imperial Japan asserted dominance in East Asia and in the Pacific. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy militarized and threatened conquests, while Britain and France attempted appeasement to avert another war in Europe. U.S. legislation in the Neutrality Acts sought to avoid foreign conflicts; however, policy clashed with increasing anti-Nazi feelings following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 that started World War II.[198]

At first, Roosevelt positioned the U.S. as the "Arsenal of Democracy", pledging full-scale financial and munitions support for the Allies and Lend-Lease agreements – but no military personnel.[198] Japan tried to neutralize America's power in the Pacific by attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941, but instead it catalyzed American support to enter the war.[199]

8:42

President Roosevelt's Infamy Speech in aftermath of Pearl Harbor Attack. Congress consequently declared war on the Empire of Japan.

The main contributions of the U.S. to the Allied war effort comprised money, industrial output, food, petroleum, technological innovation, and (especially 1944–1945), military personnel. Much of the focus the U.S. government was in maximizing the national economic output, causing a dramatic increase in GDP, the export of vast quantities of supplies to the Allies and to American forces overseas, the end of unemployment, and a rise in civilian consumption even as 40% of the GDP went to the war effort.[192]

Tens of millions of workers moved from low-productivity occupations to high-efficiency jobs, improving productivity through better technology and management. Students, retired people, housewives, and the unemployed moved into the active labor force. Economic mobilization was managed by the War Production Board and a wartime production boom led to full employment, wiping out this vestige of the Great Depression. Labor shortages encouraged industry to look for new sources of workers, finding new roles for women and Blacks.[192]

Most durable goods became unavailable, and meat, clothing, and gasoline were tightly rationed. In industrial areas housing was in short supply as people doubled up and lived in cramped quarters. Prices and wages were controlled, and Americans saved a high portion of their incomes, which led to renewed growth after the war instead of a return to depression.[200][201] Americans on the home front tolerated the extra work because of patriotism, increased pay, and the confidence that it was only "for the duration," and life would return to normal as soon as the war was won.

The Allies – the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union and other countries – saw Germany as the main threat and gave the highest priority to Europe. The U.S. dominated the war against Japan and stopped Japanese expansion in the Pacific in 1942. After the attack at Pearl Harbor and the loss of the Philippines to Japanese conquests, as well as a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942), the American Navy then inflicted a decisive blow at Midway (June 1942). American ground forces assisted in the North African campaign that eventually concluded with the collapse of Mussolini's fascist government in 1943, as Italy switched to the Allied side. A more significant European front was opened on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in which American and Allied forces invaded Nazi-occupied France from Britain.

War fervor also inspired anti-Japanese sentiment, leading to internment of Japanese Americans.[202] Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 resulted in over 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent being removed from their homes and placed in internment camps. Two-thirds of those interned were American citizens and half of them were children.[203][204][205]

The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.

Military research and development also increase, leading to the Manhattan Project, a secret effort to harness nuclear fission to produce atomic bombs.[206] The first nuclear device ever detonated was conducted July 16, 1945.[207]

The Allies pushed the Germans out of France but the western front stopped short, leaving Berlin to the Soviets as the Nazi regime formally capitulated in May 1945, ending the war in Europe.[208] In the Pacific, the U.S. implemented an island hopping strategy toward Tokyo. The Philippines was eventually reconquered, after Japan and the United States fought in history's largest naval battle, "The Battle of Leyte Gulf".[209] However, the war wiped out all the development the United States invested in the Philippines as cities and towns were completely destroyed.[210] After the devastation of the war, the United States granted its colony, the Philippines, independence.[211]

The United States then established airfields for bombing runs against mainland Japan from the Mariana Islands, achieving hard-fought victories at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945.[212] Bloodied at Okinawa, the U.S. prepared to invade Japan's home islands when B-29s dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compelling Japan to surrender and ending World War II.[213] The U.S. occupied Japan (and part of Germany), and restructured Japan along American lines.[214]

During the war, Roosevelt coined the term "Four Powers" to refer four major Allies of World War II, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China, which later became the foundation of the United Nations Security Council.[215] Though more than 400,000 military personnel and civilians were lost,[216] the U.S. mostly prospered untouched by the physical devastation of war that inflicted a heavy toll on Europe and East Asia.

Participation in postwar foreign affairs marked the end of predominant American isolationism. The threat of nuclear weapons inspired both optimism and fear. Nuclear weapons have not been used since the war ended, and a "long peace" began between the global powers in era of competition that came to be known as the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine characterized this reality on May 22, 1947. Despite the absence of a global war during this period, there were, however, regional wars in Korea and Vietnam.[217]

Contemporary America (1945–present)

Main articles: Cold War, History of the United States (1945–1964), History of the United States (1964–1980), and History of the United States (1980–1991)

Postwar America (1945–1960)

Main articles: Cold War (1947–1953), Cold War (1953–1962), and United States in the 1950s

1:03CC

As TV became commonplace after 1948, presidential campaigns began to promote their causes with widespread coverage across the country. Here a commercial promoting John F. Kennedy from the 1960 Election serves as an example.

Following World War II, the United States emerged as one of the two dominant superpowers, the Soviet Union being the other. The U.S. Senate on a bipartisan vote approved U.S. participation in the United Nations (UN), which marked a turn away from the traditional isolationism of the U.S. and toward increased international involvement.[218]

Cuban Missile Crisis, a reconnaissance photograph of Cuba, showing Soviet nuclear missiles, their transports and tents for fueling and maintenance

The primary American goal of 1945–1948 was to rescue Europe from the devastation of World War II and to contain the expansion of Communism, represented by the Soviet Union. U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was built around the support of Western Europe and Japan along with the policy of containment, stopping the spread of communism. The U.S. joined the wars in Korea and Vietnam and toppled left-wing governments in the third world to try to stop its spread.[219]

The Truman Doctrine of 1947 provided military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to counteract the threat of Communist expansion in the Balkans. In 1948, the United States replaced piecemeal financial aid programs with a comprehensive Marshall Plan, which pumped money into the economy of Western Europe, and removed trade barriers, while modernizing the managerial practices of businesses and governments.[220]

The Plan's $13 billion budget was in the context of a U.S. GDP of $258 billion in 1948 and was in addition to the $12 billion in American aid given to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Marshall Plan. Soviet head of state Joseph Stalin prevented his satellite states from participating, and from that point on, Eastern Europe, with inefficient centralized economies, fell further and further behind Western Europe in terms of economic development and prosperity. In 1949, the United States, rejecting the long-standing policy of no military alliances in peacetime, formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance, which continues into the 21st century. In response the Soviets formed the Warsaw Pact of communist states, leading to the "Iron Curtain".[220]

In August 1949 the Soviets tested their first nuclear weapon, thereby escalating the risk of warfare. The threat of mutually assured destruction however, prevented both powers from nuclear war, and resulted in proxy wars, especially in Korea and Vietnam, in which the two sides did not directly confront each other.[217]

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected in a landslide as the first Republican president since 1932, had a lasting impact on American life and politics.[221] He ended the Korean War, and avoided any other major conflict. He cut military spending by reliance on very high technology, such as nuclear weapons carried by long-range bombers and intercontinental missiles. He gave strong support to the NATO alliance and built other alliances along similar lines, but they never were especially effective.[222]

After Stalin died in 1953, Eisenhower worked to obtain friendlier relationships with the Soviet Union. At home, he ended McCarthyism, expanded the Social Security program and presided over a decade of bipartisan comity. He promoted civil rights cautiously, and sent in the Army when trouble threatened over racial integration in Little Rock, Arkansas.[222]

The unexpected leapfrogging of American technology by the Soviets in 1957 with Sputnik, the first Earth satellite, began the Space Race, won in 1969 by the Americans as Apollo 11 landed astronauts on the Moon. The angst about the weaknesses of American education led to large-scale federal support for science education and research.[223] In the decades after World War II, the United States became a global influence in economic, political, military, cultural, and technological affairs.

14:01

In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President and his administration saw the acceleration of the country's role in the Space Race, escalation of the American role in the Vietnam War, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the jailing of Martin Luther King Jr. during the Birmingham campaign. President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, leaving the nation in profound shock.[224]

U.S. soldiers searching a village for potential Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, 1966

Buzz Aldrin (shown) and Neil Armstrong became the first humans to walk on the Moon during NASA's 1969 Apollo 11 mission.

2:35

Sound of Apollo 11 and its landing on the Moon

Civil unrest and social reforms (1960–1980)

Main articles: Great Society and Modern liberalism in the United States

See also: Civil rights movement and Second-wave feminism

President Lyndon B. Johnson secured congressional passage of his Great Society programs in the mid-1960s.[225] They included civil rights, the end of legal segregation, Medicare, extension of welfare, federal aid to education at all levels, subsidies for the arts and humanities, environmental activism, and a series of programs designed to wipe out poverty.[226][227] As later historians explained:

Gradually, liberal intellectuals crafted a new vision for achieving economic and social justice. The liberalism of the early 1960s contained no hint of radicalism, little disposition to revive new deal era crusades against concentrated economic power, and no intention to redistribute wealth or restructure existing institutions. Internationally it was strongly anti-Communist. It aimed to defend the free world, to encourage economic growth at home, and to ensure that the resulting plenty was fairly distributed. Their agenda-much influenced by Keynesian economic theory-envisioned massive public expenditure that would speed economic growth, thus providing the public resources to fund larger welfare, housing, health, and educational programs.[228]

Johnson was rewarded with an electoral landslide in 1964 against conservative Barry Goldwater, which broke the decades-long control of Congress by the Conservative coalition. However, the Republicans bounced back in 1966 and elected Richard Nixon in 1968. Nixon largely continued the New Deal and Great Society programs he inherited; conservative reaction would come with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.[229] Meanwhile, the American people completed a great migration from farms into the cities and experienced a period of sustained economic expansion.

Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (right) with President Lyndon B. Johnson in the background (left)

Starting in the late 1950s, institutionalized racism across the United States, but especially in the South, was increasingly challenged by the growing Civil Rights Movement. The activism of African-American leaders Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. led to the Montgomery bus boycott, which launched the movement. For years African Americans would struggle with violence against them but would achieve great steps toward equality with Supreme Court decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which ended the Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation between whites and blacks.[230]

10:22

President Lyndon Johnson's speech on the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Duncan West speaking with Cesar Chavez. The Delano UFW rally. Duncan represented the Teamsters who were supporting the UFW and condemning their IBT leadership for working as thugs against a fellow union.

Martin Luther King Jr., who had won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve equality of the races, was assassinated in 1968. Following his death others led the movement, most notably King's widow, Coretta Scott King, who was also active, like her husband, in the Opposition to the Vietnam War, and in the Women's Liberation Movement. There were 164 riots in 128 American cities in the first nine months of 1967.[231] Frustrations with the seemingly slow progress of the integration movement led to the emergence of more radical discourses during the early 1960s, which, in turn, gave rise to the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.[232]

The decade would ultimately bring about positive strides toward integration, especially in government service, sports, and entertainment. Native Americans turned to the federal courts to fight for their land rights. They held protests highlighting the federal government's failure to honor treaties. One of the most outspoken Native American groups was the American Indian Movement (AIM). In the 1960s, Cesar Chavez began organizing poorly paid Mexican-American farm workers in California. He led a five-year-long strike by grape pickers. Then Chávez formed the country's first successful union of farm workers. His United Farm Workers of America (UFW) faltered after a few years but after Chavez died in 1993 he became an iconic "folk saint" in the pantheon of Mexican Americans.[233]

Anti-Vietnam War demonstration, 1967

A new consciousness of the inequality of American women began sweeping the nation, starting with the 1963 publication of Betty Friedan's best-seller, The Feminine Mystique, which explained how many housewives felt trapped and unfulfilled, assaulted American culture for its creation of the notion that women could only find fulfillment through their roles as wives, mothers, and keepers of the home, and argued that women were just as able as men to do every type of job. In 1966 Friedan and others established the National Organization for Women (NOW) to act for women as the NAACP did for African Americans.[177][234]

Two hippies at Woodstock, 1969

Protests began, and the new women's liberation movement grew in size and power, gained much media attention, and, by 1968, had replaced the Civil Rights Movement as the U.S's main social revolution. Marches, parades, rallies, boycotts, and pickets brought out thousands, sometimes millions. There were striking gains for women in medicine, law, and business, while only a few were elected to office.[235][236]

The women's movement was split into factions by political ideology early on, with NOW on the left, the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) on the right, the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) in the center, and more radical groups formed by younger women on the far-left. The proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, passed by Congress in 1972 was defeated by a conservative coalition mobilized by Phyllis Schlafly. They argued that it degraded the position of the housewife and made young women susceptible to the military draft.[235][236]

However, many federal laws (i.e. those equalizing pay, employment, education, employment opportunities, and credit; ending pregnancy discrimination; and requiring NASA, the Military Academies, and other organizations to admit women), state laws (i.e., those ending spousal abuse and marital rape), Supreme Court rulings (i.e. ruling that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to women), and state ERAs established women's equal status under the law, and social custom and consciousness began to change, accepting women's equality. The controversial issue of abortion, deemed by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right in Roe v. Wade (1973), is still a point of debate today.

United States Navy F-4 Phantom II shadows a Soviet Tu-95 Bear D aircraft in the early 1970s.

Amid the Cold War, the United States entered the Vietnam War, whose growing unpopularity fed already existing social movements, including those among women, minorities, and young people. President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society social programs and numerous rulings by the Warren Court added to the wide range of social reform during the 1960s and 1970s. Feminism and the environmental movement became political forces, and progress continued toward civil rights for all Americans. The Counterculture Revolution swept through the nation and much of the western world in the late sixties and early seventies, further dividing Americans in a "culture war" but also bringing forth more liberated social views.[237]

Johnson was succeeded in 1969 by Republican Richard Nixon, who attempted to gradually turn the war over to the South Vietnamese forces. He negotiated the peace treaty in 1973 which secured the release of POWs and led to the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The war had cost the lives of 58,000 American troops. Nixon manipulated the fierce distrust between the Soviet Union and China to the advantage of the United States, achieving détente with both parties.[238]

Richard Nixon departing from the White House, 1974

The Watergate scandal, involving Nixon's cover-up of his operatives' break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex destroyed his political base, sent many aides to prison, and forced Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974. He was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford. The Fall of Saigon, on April 30, 1975, ended the Vietnam War and resulted in North and South Vietnam being reunited. Communist victories in neighboring Cambodia and Laos occurred in the same year, with the fall of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh on April 17 and the taking of Laos's capital, Vientiane on December 2. [238]

The OPEC oil embargo marked a long-term economic transition since, for the first time, energy prices skyrocketed, and American factories faced serious competition from foreign automobiles, clothing, electronics, and consumer goods. By the late 1970s, the economy suffered an energy crisis, slow economic growth, high unemployment, and very high inflation coupled with high-interest rates (the term stagflation was coined). Since economists agreed on the wisdom of deregulation, many of the New Deal era regulations were ended, such as in transportation, banking, and telecommunications.[239]

Jimmy Carter, running as someone who was not a part of the Washington political establishment, was elected president in 1976.[240] On the world stage, Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. In 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage, resulting in the Iran hostage crisis. With the hostage crisis and continuing stagflation, Carter lost the 1980 election to the Republican Ronald Reagan.[241] On January 20, 1981, minutes after Carter's term in office ended, the remaining U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Iran were released, ending the 444-day hostage crisis.[242]

End of the century (1980–2000)

Main articles: Reagan Era, Republican Revolution, Cold War (1979–1985), and Cold War (1985–1991)

Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate challenges Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall in 1987, shortly before the end of the Cold War.

26:34

President Reagan's Brandenburg Gate speech, famous for the phrase 'Tear down this wall'

Ronald Reagan produced a major political realignment with his 1980 and 1984 landslide elections. Reagan's economic policies (dubbed "Reaganomics") and the implementation of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 lowered the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28% over the course of seven years.[243] Reagan continued to downsize government taxation and regulation.[244] The U.S. experienced a recession in 1982, but the negative indicators reversed, with the inflation rate decreasing from 11% to 2%, the unemployment rate decreasing from 10.8% in December 1982 to 7.5% in November 1984,[245] and the economic growth rate increasing from 4.5% to 7.2%.[246]

Reagan ordered a buildup of the U.S. military, incurring additional budget deficits. Reagan introduced a complicated missile defense system known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (dubbed "Star Wars" by opponents) in which, theoretically, the U.S. could shoot down missiles with laser systems in space. The Soviets reacted harshly because they thought it violated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and would upset the balance of power by giving the U.S. a major military advantage. For years Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev argued vehemently against SDI. However, by the late 1980s he decided the system would never work and should not be used to block disarmament deals with the U.S.[247]

Historians argue how great an impact the SDI threat had on the Soviets – whether it was enough to force Gorbachev to initiate radical reforms, or whether the deterioration of the Soviet economy alone forced the reforms. There is agreement that the Soviets realized they were well behind the Americans in military technology, that to try to catch up would be very expensive, and that the military expenses were already a very heavy burden slowing down their economy.[248]

The 1983 Invasion of Grenada and 1986 bombing of Libya were popular in the U.S., though his backing of the Contras rebels was mired in the controversy over the Iran–Contra affair.[249]

Reagan met four times with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ascended to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1985, and their summit conferences led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Gorbachev tried to save Communism in the Soviet Union first by ending the expensive nuclear arms race with America,[250] then by shedding the East European empire in 1989. The Soviet Union collapsed on Christmas Day 1991, ending the U.S–Soviet Cold War.

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty on December 8, 1987

For the remainder of the 20th century, the United States emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower and continued to intervene in international affairs during the 1990s, including the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Following his election in 1992, President Bill Clinton oversaw one of the longest periods of economic expansion and unprecedented gains in securities values. President Clinton worked with the Republican Congress to pass the first balanced federal budget in 30 years.[251]Much of the economic boom was a side effect of the Digital Revolution and new business opportunities created by the internet privatized in 1993. Prior to this time ARPNET a Department of Defense Project had developed the internet for governmental, and research purposes.[252]

In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of lying under oath about (perjury regarding) a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He was acquitted by the Senate. The failure of impeachment and the Democratic gains in the 1998 election forced House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, to resign from Congress.[251]

Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993

The Republican Party expanded its base throughout the South after 1968 (except 1976), largely due to its strength among socially conservative white Evangelical Protestants and traditionalist Roman Catholics, added to its traditional strength in the business community and suburbs. As white Democrats in the South lost dominance of the Democratic Party in the 1990s, the region took on the two-party apparatus which characterized most states. The Republican Party's central leader by 1980 was Ronald Reagan, whose conservative policies called for reduced government spending and regulation, lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet foreign policy.[253]

His iconic status in the party persists into the 21st century, as practically all Republican Party leaders acknowledge his stature. Social scientists Theodore Caplow et al. argue, "The Republican party, nationally, moved from right-center toward the center in the 1940s and 1950s, then moved right again in the 1970s and 1980s." They add: "The Democratic party, nationally, moved from left-center toward the center in the 1940s and 1950s, then moved further toward the right-center in the 1970s and 1980s."[253]

New millennium (2000–2016)

Main articles: History of the United States (1991–2008) and History of the United States (2008–present)

See also: Presidency of George W. Bush and Presidency of Barack Obama

Further information: September 11 attacks, War on terror, and Great Recession in the United States

The close presidential election in 2000 between Governor George W. Bush and Al Gore helped lay the seeds for political polarization to come. The vote in the decisive states of New Mexico and Florida was extremely close and produced a dramatic dispute over the counting of votes.[254] Including 2000, the Democrats outpolled the Republicans in the national vote in every election from 1992 to 2020, except for 2004.[255]

The Nasdaq Composite index swelled with the dot-com bubble in the optimistic "New economy". The bubble burst in 2000.

On September 11, 2001 ("9/11"), the United States was struck by a terrorist attack when 19 al-Qaeda hijackers commandeered four airliners to be used in suicide attacks and intentionally crashed two into both twin towers of the World Trade Center and the third into the Pentagon, killing 2,937 victims—206 aboard the three airliners, 2,606 who were in the World Trade Center and on the ground, and 125 who were in the Pentagon.[256] The fourth plane was re-taken by the passengers and crew of the aircraft. While they were not able to land the plane safely, they were able to re-take control of the aircraft and crash it into an empty field in Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people including the four terrorists on board, thereby saving whatever target the terrorists were aiming for. Within two hours, both Twin Towers of the World Trade Center completely collapsed causing massive damage to the surrounding area and blanketing Lower Manhattan in toxic dust clouds. All in all, a total of 2,977 victims perished in the attacks. In response, President George W. Bush on September 20 announced a "war on terror". On October 7, 2001, the United States and NATO then invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime, which had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.[257]

The former World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan during September 11 attacks in 2001

4:22

President Bush's address in reaction to the 9/11 attacks

The federal government established new domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. The USA PATRIOT Act increased the power of government to monitor communications and removed legal restrictions on information sharing between federal law enforcement and intelligence services. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was created to lead and coordinate federal counter-terrorism activities.[258] Since 2002, the U.S. government's indefinite detention of terrorism suspects captured abroad at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a prison at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, led to allegations of human rights abuses and violations of international law.[259][260][261]

George W. Bush addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 12, 2002, to outline the complaints of the United States government against the Iraqi government.

In 2003, from March 19 to May 1, the United States launched an invasion of Iraq, which led to the collapse of the Iraq government and the eventual capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, with whom the U.S. had long-standing tense relations. The reasons for the invasion cited by the Bush administration included the spreading of democracy, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction[262] (a key demand of the UN as well, though later investigations found parts of the intelligence reports to be inaccurate),[263] and the liberation of the Iraqi people. Despite some initial successes early in the invasion, the continued Iraq War fueled international protests and gradually saw domestic support decline as many people began to question whether or not the invasion was worth the cost.[264][265] In 2007, after years of violence by the Iraqi insurgency, President Bush deployed more troops in a strategy dubbed "the surge". While the death toll decreased, the political stability of Iraq remained in doubt.[266]

U.S. military presence in the world in 2007

In 2008, the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq war, along with the 2008 financial crisis, led to the election of Barack Obama, the first multiracial[267] president, with African-American or Kenyan ancestry.[268] After his election, Obama reluctantly continued the war effort in Iraq until August 31, 2010, when he declared that combat operations had ended. However, 50,000 American soldiers and military personnel were kept in Iraq to assist Iraqi forces, help protect withdrawing forces, and work on counter-terrorism until December 15, 2011, when the war was declared formally over and the last troops left the country.[269] At the same time, Obama increased American involvement in Afghanistan, starting a surge strategy using an additional 30,000 troops, while proposing to begin withdrawing troops sometime in December 2014. In 2009, on his second day in office, Obama issued an executive order banning the use of torture,[270][271] a prohibition codified into law in 2016.[271] Obama also ordered the closure of secret CIA-run prisons overseas ("black sites").[272][273] Obama sought to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp "as soon as practicable" and over his tenure the population of the detention camp declined from 242 inmates to 45 inmates; the Guantanamo Review Task Force cleared many prisoners for release and resettlement abroad.[274][275] Obama's efforts to close the prison entirely were stymied by Congress, which in 2011 enacted a measure blocking Obama from transferring any Guantanamo detainees to U.S. facilities.[274]

In May 2011, after nearly a decade in hiding, the founder and leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, was killed in Pakistan in a raid conducted by U.S. naval special forces acting under President Obama's direct orders. While Al Qaeda was near collapse in Afghanistan, affiliated organizations continued to operate in Yemen and other remote areas as the CIA used drones to hunt down and remove its leadership.[276][277]

The Boston Marathon bombing was a bombing incident, followed by subsequent related shootings, that occurred when two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. The bombs exploded near the marathon's finish line, killing 3 people and injuring an estimated 264 others.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rose to prominence in September 2014. In addition to taking control of much of Western Iraq and Eastern Syria, ISIS also beheaded three journalists, two American and one British. These events lead to a major military offensive by the United States and its allies in the region.

On December 28, 2014, Obama officially ended the combat mission in Afghanistan and promised a withdrawal of all remaining U.S. troops at the end of 2016 with the exception of the embassy guards.[278] The US military mission formally ended on August 30, 2021.[279]

18:58

Barack Obama inauguration speech 2009

Tea Party protesters walk towards the United States Capitol during the Taxpayer March on Washington, September 12, 2009.

In September 2008, the United States and most of Europe entered the longest post–World War II recession, often called the "Great Recession".[280][281] Multiple overlapping crises were involved, especially the housing market crisis, a subprime mortgage crisis, soaring oil prices, an automotive industry crisis, rising unemployment, and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The financial crisis threatened the stability of the entire economy in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers failed and other giant banks were in grave danger.[282] Starting in October the federal government lent $245 billion to financial institutions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program[283] which was passed by bipartisan majorities and signed by Bush.[284]

Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the United States.

Following his election victory by a wide electoral margin in November 2008, Bush's successor – Barack Obama – signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was a $787 billion economic stimulus aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening recession. Obama, like Bush, took steps to rescue the auto industry and prevent future economic meltdowns. These included a bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, putting ownership temporarily in the hands of the government, and the "cash for clunkers" program which temporarily boosted new car sales.[285]

The recession officially ended in June 2009, and the economy slowly began to expand once again.[286] Beginning in December 2007, the unemployment rate steeply rose from around 5% to a peak of 10% before falling as the economy and labor markets experienced a recovery.[287] The economic expansion that followed the Great Recession was the longest in U.S. history;[288][289] strong growth led to the unemployment rate reaching a 50-year low in 2019.[290] Despite the strong economy, increases in the costs of housing, child care, higher education, and out-of-pocket healthcare expenses surpassed increases in wages, a phenomenon some referred to as an affordability crisis.[291][292] The economic expansion came to an end in early 2020 with a sharp economic contraction largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which seriously affected the United States.[288][289]

The White House lit with rainbow colors in celebration of the legalization of gay marriage in 2015

From 2009 to 2010, the 111th Congress passed major legislation such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act[293] and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, which were signed into law by President Obama.[294] Following the 2010 midterm elections, which resulted in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a Democratic-controlled Senate,[295] Congress presided over a period of elevated gridlock and heated debates over whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, extend tax cuts for citizens making over $250,000 annually, and many other key issues.[296] These ongoing debates led to President Obama signing the Budget Control Act of 2011. Following Obama's 2012 re-election, Congressional gridlock continued as Congressional Republicans' call for the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act along with other various demands, resulted in the first government shutdown since the Clinton administration and almost led to the first default on U.S. debt since the 19th century. As a result of growing public frustration with both parties in Congress since the beginning of the decade, Congressional approval ratings fell to record lows.[297]

Recent events also include the rise of new political movements, such as the conservative Tea Party movement and the liberal Occupy movement. The debate over the issue of rights for the LGBT community, including same-sex marriage, began to shift in favor of same-sex couples.[298] In 2012, President Obama became the first president to openly support same-sex marriage, and the Supreme Court provided for federal recognition of same-sex unions and then nationwide legalized gay marriage in 2015.

demonstration organized by Teens For Gun Reform, in the wake of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Political debate has continued over tax reform, immigration reform, income inequality, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly with regards to global terrorism, the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and an accompanying climate of Islamophobia.[299]

The late 2010s were marked by widespread social upheaval and change in the United States. The #MeToo movement gained popularity, exposing alleged sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace.[300] Multiple prominent celebrities were accused of misconduct or rape.[301] During this period, the Black Lives Matter movement also gained support online, exacerbated by the police killings of multiple black Americans.[302] Multiple mass shootings, including the Pulse Nightclub shooting (2016) and the Las Vegas shooting, which claimed the lives of 61 people, led to increased calls for gun control and reform. Following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, gun control advocates organized the March for Our Lives, where millions of students across the country walked out of school to protest gun violence.[303][304] The Women's March protest against Trump's presidency in 2017 was one of the largest protests in American history.[305]

Pandemic and cultural change (2016–present)

See also: Presidency of Donald Trump, China–United States trade war, COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and Presidency of Joe Biden

A man stands on a burned out car following protests over the murder of George Floyd on May 28, 2020.

In 2016, following a contentious election, Republican Donald Trump was elected president.[306] The results of the election were called into question, and U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that associates of the Russian government interfered in the election "to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process". This, along with questions about potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, led to investigations by the FBI and Congress.[307][308]

During Trump's presidency, he espoused an "America First" ideology, placing restrictions on asylum seekers and imposing a widely controversial ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Many of his executive orders and other actions were challenged in court.[309][310] During his presidency he also engaged the United States in a trade war with China, imposing a wide range of tariffs on Chinese products.[311] In 2018, controversy erupted over the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy towards illegal immigrants, which involved the separation of thousands of undocumented children from their parents. After public outcry, Trump rescinded this policy.[312] Trump's term also saw the confirmation of three new justices to the Supreme Court, cementing a conservative majority.

In 2019, a whistleblower complaint alleged that Trump had withheld foreign aid from Ukraine under the demand that they investigate the business dealings of the son of Trump's political opponent.[313] As a result, Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of congress, becoming the third president to have been impeached, but he was acquitted.[314]

A naval officer checks on a patient connected to a ventilator in Baton Rouge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic having arrived in the United States was first confirmed in January 2020. By February 2, the Trump administration restricted travel to and from China.[315] On March 11, the WHO declared the virus to be a pandemic.[316] In March, many state and local governments imposed "stay at home" orders to slow the spread of the virus, with the goal of reducing patient overload in hospitals. By March 26, New York Times data showed the United States to have the highest number of known cases of any country.[317] By March 27, the country had reported over 100,000 cases.[318] On April 2, at President Trump's direction, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and CDC ordered additional preventive guidelines to the long-term care facility industry.[319] On April 11, the U.S. death toll became the highest in the world when the number of deaths reached 20,000, surpassing that of Italy.[320] On April 19, the CMS added new regulations requiring nursing homes to inform residents, their families and representatives, of COVID-19 cases in their facilities.[321] On April 28, the total number of confirmed cases across the country surpassed 1 million.[322] As of May 2022, the U.S. has suffered more official COVID-19 deaths than any other country with the death toll standing at 1 million,[323] with the U.S. death toll surpassing the number of U.S. deaths during the Spanish flu pandemic, although the Spanish flu killed 1 in 150 Americans compared to COVID-19 killing 1 in 500 Americans.[324] As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. life expectancy fell by over a year in 2020 and unemployment rates rose to the worst rates since the Great Depression.[325] In 2021, U.S. life expectancy decreased by around half a year.[326] The May 2020 murder of George Floyd caused mass protests and riots in many major cities over police brutality, with many states calling in the National Guard.[327]

2020 was marked by a rise in domestic terrorist threats and widespread conspiracy theories around mail-in voting and COVID-19.[328][329] The QAnon conspiracy theory, a fringe far-right political movement among some ardent conservatives, gained publicity and multiple major cities were hit by rioting and brawls between far-left antifascist affiliated groups and far right groups such as the Proud Boys.[330][331][332]

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump attempted to stop the counting of electoral votes on January 6, 2021.

Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election, the first defeat of an incumbent president since 1992.[333] The election, with an exceptional amount of voting by mail and early voting due to the danger of contracting COVID-19 at traditional voting booths, had historically high voter turnout.[334] Trump then repeatedly made false claims of massive voter fraud and election rigging, leading to the January 6 United States Capitol attack by supporters of Trump and right-wing militias.[335][336][337][338][339] That storming led to Trump's impeachment, as the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.[340][341][342] The Senate later acquitted Trump despite some members of his own Republican party voting against him.[343][344] After the 2021 inauguration, Biden's running-mate, then-Senator Kamala Harris, became both the first African-American and first woman vice president of the United States.[345]

The biggest mass vaccination campaign in U.S. history kicked off on December 14, 2020, when ICU nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the U.S. to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. As of August 2021, 60% of the U.S. population has received a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Following Biden's election, the date for US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan was moved back from April to August 31, 2021.[346] In Afghanistan, the withdrawal coincided with the 2021 Taliban offensive, culminating in the fall of Kabul. Following a massive airlift of over 120,000 people, the US military mission formally ended on August 30, 2021.

Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021; a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that temporarily established expanded unemployment  and sent $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans in response to continued economic pressure from COVID-19.[347] He signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; a ten-year plan brokered by Biden alongside Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to invest in American roads, bridges, public transit, ports and broadband access.[348] He appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court—the first Black woman to serve the court. Biden proposed a significant expansion of the U.S. social safety net through the Build Back Better Act, but those efforts, along with voting rights legislation, failed in Congress. However, in August 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a domestic appropriations bill that included some of the provisions of the Build Back Better Act after the entire bill failed to pass. It included significant federal investment in climate and domestic clean energy production, tax credits for solar panels, electric cars and other home energy programs as well as a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. From June 2022 Biden went on a string of legislative achievements; with the signing of The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, a massive investment in the Semiconductor industry and manufacturing, Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, expansion of veterans healthcare and the Respect for Marriage Act, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and codifying Same-sex and Interracial marriage.

Protestors outside of the Supreme Court shortly after the announcement of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in 2022

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, determined that abortion is not a protected right under the Constitution.[349] The ruling, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and sparked protests outside of the Supreme Court building and across the country.[350]

Ketanji Brown Jackson succeeded Justice Breyer upon his retirement from the court on June 30, 2022.[351] She became the first black woman and the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court upon her swearing in.[352][353]

In the early-2020s, Republican-led states across the United States began sweeping rollbacks of LGBT rights. These included bans on gender transitions, bans on public performances of drag shows, and other restrictions on LGBT rights.[354]

See also

flag United States portal

American urban history

Bibliography of American history

Colonial history of the United States

Economic history of the United States

History of agriculture in the United States

History of education in the United States

History of United States foreign policy

History of immigration to the United States

History of North America

History of religion in the United States

History of the Southern United States

History of the United States government

History of women in the United States

List of historians by area of study

List of history journals

List of presidents of the United States

Military history of the United States

Outline of United States history

Politics of the United States

Racism in the United States

Territorial evolution of the United States

Territories of the United States

United States factor

Notes

 'In addition, he [i.e., Sweyn Estridsson, king of Denmark (reigned 1047–1076)] named one more island in this ocean, discovered by many, which is called "Vinland", because vines grow wild there, making the best wine. For [that] crops [that are] not sown, abound there, we learn not from fanciful opinion but from the true account of the Danes.'[21]

 Howe argued that, "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity."[110]

 A new way of calculating casualties by looking at the deviation of the death rate of men of fighting age from the norm through analysis of census data found that at least 627,000 and at most 888,000 people, but most likely 761,000 people, died through the war.[132][133]

 The Seneca Falls Convention was preceded by the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in 1837 held in New York City, at which women's rights issues were debated, especially African-American women's rights.[175]

vte

History of the United States by polity

States

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming

Federal district

Washington, D.C.

Insular areas

American SamoaGuamNorthern Mariana IslandsPuerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands

Outlying islands

Baker IslandHowland IslandJarvis IslandJohnston AtollKingman ReefMidway AtollNavassa IslandPalmyra AtollWake Island

vte

History of the United States

Timeline

Geological historyPre-ColumbianColonial1776–17891789–18491849–18651865–19181918–19451945–19641964–19801980–1991 Reagan Era1991–20082008–present

Topics

AbortionAgricultureAmerican CenturyAfrican AmericansCapital punishmentCitiesCorruptionThe ConstitutionDemographyEconomy BankingEducation Higher educationFlagForeign policy DiplomacyImmigrationLaborLaw enforcementLGBTLumberMedicineMerchant MarineMilitary ArmyMarine CorpsNavyAir ForceSpace ForceCoast GuardMusicNative AmericansPolitical violence During the Cold WarPostal serviceRailwayReligionSlavery Sexual slaverySportsTaxationTechnology and industryTerritorial evolution Historic regionsAmerican frontierManifest destinyIndian removalVoting rightsWomen

By region

New EnglandThe SouthThe West The West Coast

 Category Portal

vte

United States articles

History

By period

1776–17891789–18491849–18651865–19181918–19451945–19641964–19801980–19911991–20082008–present

By event

Pre-colonial eraColonial era Stamp Act CongressThirteen ColoniesContinental CongressContinental AssociationUnited Coloniesmilitary historyFounding FathersHalifax ResolvesLee ResolutionDeclaration of IndependenceAmerican Revolution WarTreaty of ParisArticles of Confederation Perpetual UnionConfederation periodAmerican frontierConstitution drafting and ratificationBill of RightsFederalist EraWar of 1812Territorial evolutionMexican–American WarCivil WarReconstruction eraIndian WarsGilded AgeProgressive EraWomen's suffrageCivil rights movement 1865–18961896–19541954–1968Spanish–American WarImperialismWorld War IRoaring TwentiesGreat DepressionWorld War II home frontAmerican CenturyCold WarKorean WarSpace RaceFeminist MovementLGBT MovementVietnam WarPost-Cold War (1991–2008)September 11 attacksWar on Terror War in AfghanistanIraq WarGreat RecessionCOVID-19 pandemic

By topic

Outline of U.S. historyDemographicDiscoveriesEconomic debt ceilingInventions before 18901890–19451946–1991after 1991MilitaryPostalTechnological and industrial

Geography

Territory Contiguous United Statescountiesfederal districtfederal enclavesIndian reservationsinsular zonesminor outlying islandspopulated placesstatesEarthquakesExtreme pointsIslandsMountains peaksrangesAppalachianRockySierra NevadaNational Park Service National ParksRegions East CoastWest CoastGreat PlainsGulfMid-AtlanticMidwesternNew EnglandPacificCentralEasternNorthernNortheasternNorthwesternSouthernSoutheasternSouthwesternWesternLongest rivers ArkansasColoradoColumbiaMississippiMissouriRed (South)Rio GrandeYukonTimeWater supply and sanitationWorld Heritage Sites

Politics

Federal

Executive

CabinetCivil serviceExecutive departmentsExecutive OfficeIndependent agenciesLaw enforcementPresident of the United States powersPublic policy

Legislative

House of Representatives current membersSpeakerSenate current membersPresident pro temporeVice President

Judicial

District courtsCourts of appealsSupreme Court

Law

Bill of Rights civil libertiesCode of Federal RegulationsConstitution federalismpreemptionseparation of powerscivil rightsFederal ReporterUnited States CodeUnited States Reports

Intelligence

Central Intelligence AgencyDefense Intelligence AgencyFederal Bureau of InvestigationNational Geospatial-Intelligence AgencyNational Reconnaissance OfficeNational Security AgencyOffice of the Director of National Intelligence

Uniformed

Armed Forces ArmyMarine CorpsNavyAir ForceSpace ForceCoast GuardNational GuardNOAA CorpsPublic Health Service Corps

51st state Political status of Puerto RicoPuerto Rico statehood movementDistrict of Columbia statehood movementElections Electoral CollegeForeign relations foreign policySecession movements Hawaiian sovereignty movementIdeologies Anti-AmericanismexceptionalismnationalismLocal governmentParties DemocraticRepublicanThird partiesRed states and blue statesScandalsState government governorstate legislaturestate courtImperial presidencyCorruption

Economy

By sector AgricultureBankingCommunicationsCompaniesEnergyManufacturingMiningScience and technologyTourismTradeTransportationby stateCurrencyExportsFederal budgetGreenhouse gas emissions by the United StatesFederal Reserve SystemFinancial positionLabor unionsPublic debtSocial welfare programsTaxationUnemploymentWall Street

Society

Culture

AmericanaArchitectureCinemaCrimeCuisine wineDanceDeath care WomenDemographicsEconomic issues affluenceevictionhome-ownershiphousehold incomeincome inequalitylabor unionsmiddle classpersonal incomepovertystandard of livingwealthEducation attainmentliteracyFamilyFashionFlagFolkloreGreat American NovelHealth healthcarehealth HolidaysHomelessnessHousingHuman rightsLanguages American EnglishIndigenous languagesASL Black American Sign LanguageHSLPlains Sign TalkArabicChineseFrenchGermanItalianRussianSpanishLiteratureMedia journalisminternetnewspapersradiotelevisionMusicNamesNational symbols ColumbiaMount RushmoreStatue of LibertyUncle SamPeoplePhilosophyPolitical ideologiesRaceReligionSexuality adolescentSocial classSocietySportsTheaterTransportationVideo gamesVisual art

Social class

AffluenceAmerican DreamEducational attainmentHomelessnessHome-ownershipHousehold incomeIncome inequalityMiddle classPersonal incomePovertyStandard of living

Issues

Ages of consentCapital punishmentCrime incarcerationCriticism of governmentDiscrimination affirmative actionantisemitismhair textureintersex rightsIslamophobiaLGBT rightsracismsame-sex marriageDrug policyEnergy policyEnvironmental issues Environmental movementClimate changeEnvironmental educationGun politicsHealthcare abortionhealth hungerobesitysmokingHuman rightsImmigration illegalInternational rankingsNational security Mass surveillanceTerrorismSeparation of church and state

OutlineIndex

CategoryPortal

vte

History of North America

Sovereign states

Antigua and BarbudaBahamasBarbadosBelizeCanadaCosta RicaCubaDominicaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorGrenadaGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaMexicoNicaraguaPanamaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesTrinidad and TobagoUnited States

Dependencies and

other territories

AnguillaArubaBermudaBonaireBritish Virgin IslandsCayman IslandsCuraçaoGreenlandGuadeloupeMartiniqueMontserratPuerto RicoSaint BarthélemySaint MartinSaint Pierre and MiquelonSabaSint EustatiusSint MaartenTurks and Caicos IslandsUnited States Virgin Islands

vte

History of the World

AfghanistanAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBhutanBoliviaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBrazilBruneiBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaColombiaComorosCosta RicaCroatiaCubaCyprusCzech RepublicDemocratic Republic of the CongoDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEast TimorEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEswatiniEthiopiaFederated States of MicronesiaFijiFinlandFranceGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGreeceGrenadaGuatemalaGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHondurasHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIranIraqIrelandIsraelItalyIvory CoastJamaicaJapanJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMauritaniaMauritiusMexicoMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNorth KoreaNorth MacedoniaNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPalestinePanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPolandPortugalQatarRepublic of the CongoRomaniaRussiaRwandaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth KoreaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaSão Tomé and PríncipeTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican CityVenezuelaVietnamWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabwe

Authority control: National Edit this at Wikidata

FranceBnF dataIsraelUnited States

Category: History of the United States

  • Condition: In Excellent Condition
  • Composition: Metal
  • Region: World
  • Period: 21st Century
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States

PicClick Insights - Amerikanischer Bürgerkrieg Goldmünze Medaille Ende der Sklaverei Präsident Geschichte Armee Waffen USA PicClick Exklusiv

  •  Popularität - 0 Beobachter, 0.0 neue Beobachter pro Tag, 4 days for sale on eBay. 0 verkauft, 1 verfügbar. 1 gebot.
  •  Bestpreis -
  •  Verkäufer - 3.238+ artikel verkauft. 0.3% negativ bewertungen. Großer Verkäufer mit sehr gutem positivem Rückgespräch und über 50 Bewertungen.

Die Leute Mochten Auch PicClick Exklusiv