History UsefulNotes / TheAmericanCivilWar

* ''VideoGame/WarOfRights'' is a multiplayer first-person shooter being developed by the Danish company Campfire Games. Set during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_campaign Maryland campaign of 1862]], the game is notable for its meticulous attention to detail when it comes to rendering uniforms, weapons, and battlefields based on how they looked during the era. It's also notorious for its [[NintendoHard heavily grounded]] yet competitive gameplay.

One reason the "Lost Cause" narrative persisted was because the Union downplayed its opposition to slavery in its own rhetoric, again for pragmatic and political reasons. Even though the CSA seceded due to Lincoln's opposition to slavery, Lincoln at first refused to make freeing the slaves a Union war aim. Doing so would have made the border slave states that stayed with the Union leave, which he had to avoid for propaganda reasons, military strategy (Kentucky and Missouri were very useful) and the very pragmatic reason that Washington, D.C. was surrounded by Virginia (a Confederate state) and Maryland (a border slave state). When the mood was right, he presented the abolition of slavery (but ''only'' in those states which were in rebellion) as a means of critically undermining the rebel war effort and ensuring that the Confederacy couldn't gain allies among the anti-slavery French and British. Two years before the Emancipation Proclamation, Benjamin Butler, an Abolitionist RulesLawyer-turned-general, had made his major contribution to the war effort by declaring he claimed three slaves who had been used to dig trenches on the grounds they were "contraband of war", expanded that legal concept to encompass any Southern slave, then emancipated them; since even the most diehard racist and pro-slavery Union supporter could see the logic of seizing rebel slaves, the strategy was so widespread that escaped slaves were (and still are) habitually referred to as contraband. The Emancipation Proclamation merely declared it a universal matter; it was ostensibly written as a war measure that only freed slaves in rebel-held areas, where public opinion didn’t matter much.[[note]]It is a common misconception that the Proclamation didn't free anyone--there was plenty of land in rebelling states held by Union forces, and the arrival of Union troops in any place in the rebelling South meant freedom for the slaves in that area. Moreover, it also meant that any slave who escaped and successfully crossed Confederate lines and met up with Union troops would automatically be considered free-— a ''huge'' incentive for slaves who heard about the Proclamation to run away the minute a Union force came anywhere near them. Furthermore, the Union had good practical reasons to welcome them: for instance, they were often a valuable source of intelligence of the local area.[[/note]] By the end of the war, in part due to the military service of thousands of African Americans in the Union Army, the mood in the North on slavery had shifted enough that Republicans could pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which completely ended the institution.\\\

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) a civil war fought between states of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, specifically the northern states that remained loyal to the federal government ("the Union" or "the North") and the southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South") from 1861 to 1865. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an anti-slavery platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December 1860. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America in February 1861. The trigger for actual open war was the Federal occupation of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort Pickens in Florida. When President Lincoln sent ships and men to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter, the decision was made by Confederate President UsefulNotes/JeffersonDavis to attack Sumter and force the surrender of the Federal garriston. Lincoln then called for troops. The states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina refused to send troops to attack their fellow Southern States, and they seceded and joined the Confederacy, and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a Confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various painkillers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either).[[/note]] that attempted to maintain the institution of slavery[[note]]Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]], and was best exemplified in Confederate vice president UsefulNotes/AlexanderStephens's "Cornerstone speech", named as such due to his declaration that "[the new Confederate government's] foundations are laid, [and] its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; [and] that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition."[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the Confederacy, the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

* The ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' episode "A Terrified Terrier" adapts ''Literature/TheRedBadgeOfCourage'' by Stephen Crane, with Wishbone playing Private Henry Fleming of the Union Army. Additionally, "Hot Diggity Dawg" (about ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'') has Joe, Sam, and David dig up a medal for valor awarded to Oakdale's first mayor for service in the war.

Numerous abolitionist groups saw an increase in members, with the American Anti-Slavery Society being the most famous. However, abolition was still not the majority sentiment in the North, with most northerners being more concerned with the spread of slavery to the Western Territories and total abolition still a far-off dream. Numerous proposals for how to deal with expansion floated back and forth. Some parties, such as the Free Soil Party, sought total federal control over the issue, with only Congress able to decide if a state was free or slave. The pro-slavery movement argued for "popular sovreignty", the right of states themselves to choose whether they were free or slave at their own discretion. This is where the revisionist "states rights" explanation for the war comes from, but it is only a half-truth at best: Yes, the South was fighting for "states rights", but almost solely the "right" for white citizens to "own" Black people without their consent. The Constitution of the Confederate States made a few alterations to increase the autonomy of states, mostly restricted to matters of tax and budgetary regulations[[note]]In fact, the Confederate Consitutution actually ''removed'' the right for individual states to set their own tax rates for interstate commerce.[[/note]] and judicial appointments, and did almost nothing in this regard that was relevant to slavery. The Confederates claimed that the state rights in question were already guaranteed by the existing U.S. Constitution's Fugitive Slave Clause[[note]]Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1: "No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due."[[/note]] and that the North was ignoring them. In this sense, the South was actually calling for a much ''stronger'' central government, one that could force all states to recognize slavery regardless of whatever laws they passed within their borders.\\\

* ''The Great Locomotive Chase'' is a decently accurate retelling of a real incident, from the Union side, that had inspired the Buster Keaton film ''The General''.

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) a civil war fought between states of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, specifically the northern states that remained loyal to the federal government ("the Union" or "the North") and the southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South") from 1861 to 1865. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an anti-slavery platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December 1860. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America in February 1861. The trigger for actual open war was the Federal occupation of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort Pickens in Florida. When President Lincoln sent ships and men to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter, the decision was made by Confederate President UsefulNotes/JeffersonDavis to attack Sumter and force the surrender of the Federal garriston. Lincoln then called for troops. The states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina refused to send troops to attack their fellow Southern States, and they seceded and joined the Confederacy, and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a Confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various painkillers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either). Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]], and was best exemplified in Confederate vice president UsefulNotes/AlexanderStephens's "Cornerstone speech", named as such due to his declaration that "[the new Confederate government's] foundations are laid, [and] its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; [and] that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition."[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the Confederacy, the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) fought between the northern states that remained loyal to the federal government ("the Union" or "the North") and the southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South") from 1861 to 1865. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an anti-slavery platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December 1860. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America in February 1861. The trigger for actual open war was the Federal occupation of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort Pickens in Florida. When President Lincoln sent ships and men to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter, the decision was made by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to attack Sumter and force the surrender of the Federal garriston. Lincoln then called for troops. The states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina refused to send troops to attack their fellow Southern States, and they seceded and joined the Confederacy, and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various pain killers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either). Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]].[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the Confederacy, the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) fought between northern states ("the Union" or "the North") and southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South") from 1861 to 1865. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an anti-slavery platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December 1860. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America in February 1861. The trigger for actual open war was the Federal occupation of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort Pickens in Florida. When President Lincoln sent ships and men to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter, the decision was made by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to attack Sumter and force the surrender of the Federal garriston. Lincoln then called for troops. The states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina refused to send troops to attack their fellow Southern States, and they seceded and joined the Confederacy, and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various pain killers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either). Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]].[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the confederacy the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

Much like the contemporary 1850–64 War of the Heavenly Kingdom or Taiping Rebellion along the mid-lower Yangtze, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakumatsu Bakumatsu]] period of {{UsefulNotes/Japan}} that led to the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration, and the later civil wars suffered by 20th-century [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors China]], [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution Mexico]], and [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russia]],[[note]]Except for the Mexican Revolution, all of those were orders of magnitude more savage, bloody, and bitter, at least in absolute numbers, with at least 20 million dead in the Taiping War and several million dead each in the others. The American Civil War "only" killed 700,000. That being said, the American conflict is about as bloody if not more so when you consider that the US had a much smaller population (except for Mexico) and a much shorter war than any of these. The Taiping war killed about 6-7% of the Chinese population of over 300 million, but that took about 14 years (for an average of about 0.43-0.5% per year). The Russian Civil War claimed about 4-5% of the Russian population of about 75-85 million over the course of five and a half years (for an average of 0.73-.91% per year). The Chinese Civil War cost about about 1.5-2% of the Chinese population of 400-500 million over the course of 13 years (interrupted by the much, much bloodier [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar fight against the Japanese]]) (for an average of about 0.12-0.15% per year). The Mexican Revolution killed anywhere from 1.7 to 2.7 million Mexicans of a population of 15.16 million Mexicans at the start of the war for a total of anywhere from 11.2% to 17.8% over 10 years (an average of about 1.2%-1.8% per year). The American Civil War killed 2.3% of the US population of about 31 million over the course of less than four years (an average of about 0.57% per year), so the only ones that surpass it in relative intensity are the Russian and Mexican conflicts--and the Russians and Mexicans had [[MoreDakka machine guns]] to kill each other with.[[/note]] the Civil War was the result of a grand failure of normal politics. Modern historiography — the history of history — tells us that the great failure was over the future of slavery of ethnic Africans in the United States.\\\

The loyal states of the North were also not nearly as unified in their opposition to either slavery or secession as they came to be seen in retrospect. For one thing, while it is certainly true that all of the Northeastern states had abolished slavery well before the War, it is equally true that the wealth of the coastal states (particularly Massachusetts and Rhode Island) was founded on the Atlantic "triangle trade" -- or, less politely, slave ships -- and had continued to rely on Southern cotton for their burgeoning industrial economies. There was also a notable split between the industrialized Northeast and the mostly agricultural Northwest (the name then used for what is now called the Midwest). Many Northwesterners opposed slavery simply because more plantations meant less space for small farms (owned by "homesteaders"), which they believed — as per liberal (i.e. "free-market") ideology — were more economically efficient (as it used free, rather than coerced, labor)[[note]]Morality aside, this is untrue. Slave labor is extremely efficient for the bosses, though slaves have never been used (on a large scale) for anything other than the most basic tasks like plantation and factory work. It’s not as profitable as you might think, though, because even though you pay them no wages you still have to house and feed them (and you might be held liable for any damages they cause to other parties). Some have tried to make the case that people work harder for their own reward than they do to avoid themselves or their loved ones being (sexually) assaulted, tortured, or killed. While it is true that slavery is not incompatible with rewards, Black chattel slavery in the antebellum American South was historically stingy with rewarding slaves--in contrast to, say, ancient Roman and Greek slavery (where slaves were frequently given rewards sufficient to buy their freedom and enjoyed reasonably respectable status after manumission), Black slaves in the American South could expect to be worked to their breaking points for as long as possible.[[/note]] and more desirable as the social-moral bedrock of a new/developing society. Additionally, many Northerners who were against secession or who would never own slaves themselves did not have strong feelings about ending the institution completely, and even most of the most ardent white abolitionists did not believe that African Americans should be granted equal citizenship.[[note]]Many thought that freed Black people should simply be returned to Africa, even though a vast majority of enslaved people were born in the United States; even those who had some traditions and language passed down from their parents had little to no idea where their ancestors had lived in that vast continent.[[/note]] There were therefore sympathizers on both sides, with the mostly Northwestern "Copperheads" supporting the Confederate cause and the "Red Strings" in the South favoring reunification, and keeping them in line without upsetting the constituents they represented was a major challenge for political leaders on both sides.\\\

* ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales'' is set during the final months and immediately after the war, and follows title character Wales in his vendetta against a sadistic Union commander whose men had murdered Wales’ family. The author of a book it was based on was an open and self-admitted segregationist and Klansman, so you might think that’s the reason for the portrayal of the Union as monstrous. Nope! In the original book, for instance, Wales’ compatriots surrender to the Union in exchange for amnesty without incident. In the movie, they are promised amnesty, then betrayed and massacred by the U.S. Army. And in both book and film, the man who killed Wales’ family was a partisan guerrilla rather than an actual Union soldier at the time of the murders.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E19TheSweetestApu The Sweetest Apu]]" features a reenactment of the Civil War battle of Springfield (not to be confused with the actual [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Springfield First]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Springfield Second Battle of Springfield]] in Southern Missouri), a three-cornered match between the forces of the North (blue), the South (gray) and the East (orange plaid).

----

* ''Anime/JeanieWithTheLightBrownHair'' takes place during this era, and anti-black racism is a major topic sondiering one of the main characters is black.

* ''VideoGame/HistoryCivilWarGames'': A series taking place in the Civil War consisting of strategy games and first-person shooters. These games are developed by a variety of developers and are mostly published by Activision and the History Channel.

* ''Series/{{The Outer Limits|1995}}'' episode “Gettysburg” is a TimeTravel plot which is mostly set during the Civil War, as future time traveller Nicholas Prentice sends two Confederate buffs back in time to the Battle of Gettysburg to teach them the evils of racism.

Lee, seeing his position around the capital was indefensible, abandoned Richmond and marched to Appomattox, where his tired, hungry, and undersupplied men would be able to reequip and prepare for another campaign. Grant maneuvered ahead of Lee, however, and totally surrounded his forces. With nowhere left to run and very nearly the entire South open for Union occupation, Lee opted to give up the ghost and surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. Just a few days later, President Lincoln was shot at the Ford's Theater by UsefulNotes/JohnWilkesBooth, a Confederate sympathizer. Lincoln never got to see the end of the war, which came by the end of April with the last few Confederate holdouts surrendering. He did, however, live to see the end of slavery, with Congress passing the Thirteenth Amendment that officially made involuntary servitude illegal [[note]]with prisons being the only exception...[[/note]]. The final Confederate holdouts surrendered in Texas on June 17th, 1865, a date celebrated in the Black Community as Juneteenth. In 2021 it was finally made a Federal holiday.

* The ''[[Franchise/TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "The Sweetest Apu" features a reenactment of the Civil War battle of Springfield (not to be confused with the actual [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Springfield First]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Springfield Second Battle of Springfield]] in Southern Missouri), a three-cornered match between the forces of the North (blue), the South (gray) and the East (orange plaid).

In this chaos, an obscure former Whig Congressman named Abraham Lincoln rose to prominence, advocating for the Republican Party in his home state of Illinois. He attempted to run for the senate in the 1858 midterms but was defeated by his opponent, Stephen Douglas, as at the time senators were still chosen by the state legislature, which was controlled by the Democrats. However, his clear-eyed rhetoric opposing the institution of slavery resonated with many, and Southern Democrats subsequently viewed him as a major threat. Two years later, Lincoln threw his (stovepipe) hat into the ring as the Republican nominee, inciting a major backlash throughout the south as pro-slavery crowds vowed to secede if the Republicans won. Due to a sectional schism within the Democratic Party over how to respond to the crisis, Lincoln won the 1860 election. The response from the southern states was immediate: the South Carolina legislature proclaimed its secession from the Union on December 20th 1860, about three and a half months before Lincoln would assume office in early March. While the (official) opening volleys of the War had yet to be fired, South Carolina's secession had changed the matter of ''if'' there would be a War to a matter of ''when.''

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) fought between northern states ("the Union" or "the North") and southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South") from 1861 to 1865. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an anti-slavery platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December 1860. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America in February 1861. The trigger for actual open war was the Federal occupation of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort Pickens in Florida. When President Lincoln sent ships and men to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter, the decision was made by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to attack Sumter and force the surrender of the Federal garriston. Lincoln then called for troops. The states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina refused to send troops to attack their fellow Southern States, and they seceded and joined the Confederacy, and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various pain killers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either). Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]].[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the confederation, the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) UsefulNotes/UnitedStates fought between northern states ("the Union" or "the North") and southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South") from 1861 to 1865. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an anti-slavery platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December 1860. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America in February 1861. The trigger for actual open war was the Federal occupation of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort Pickens in Florida. When President Lincoln sent ships and men to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter, the decision was made by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to attack Sumter and force the surrender of the Federal garriston. Lincoln then called for troops. The states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina refused to send troops to attack their fellow Southern States, and they seceded and joined the Confederacy, and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various pain killers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either). Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]].[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the confederation, the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) a civil war in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates fought between northern states ("the Union" or "the North") and southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South") in order to preserve the institution of [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery]]. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an anti-slavery platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America. When South Carolina launched an attack on a federal military base, Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for troops; the states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina then joined the Confederacy, and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Rebel attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various pain killers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either). Even these people, however, do not dispute the ''moral'' illegitimacy of forming a country for the express purpose of brutalizing, subjugating, and exploiting other people. Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]].[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the confederation, the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

Both of these compromises seemed to quell things, but only temporarily. As the United States grew and more states were accepted into the Union, tensions flared up again. With the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, the United States nearly doubled in size. These new lands were gradually settled and admitted statehood. With the northern states having already outlawed slavery, many of the new states admitted to the Union in the Midwestern Territory would also become "free states" upon admittance to the Union. Not all new states went this route, however, and by 1819 the United States was divided straight down the middle, with 11 free states and 11 slave states.[[labelnote:Significance]]The number of states is important due to the structure of the legislative branch of the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem US federal government]], i.e. the US Congress: Congress is bicameral (has two "houses"). The representation of each state in the "lower house" of Congress, the House of Representatives, is according to the population of each state, but in the "upper house," the Senate, each state has exactly two members (no matter how heavily or sparsely populated). The setup for the Senate made it impossible for any laws to be made regulating or banning slavery despite the fact that twice as many people lived in "free" as in "slave" states. Moreover, any changes to the federal constitution (e.g. to outlaw owning people as property) required two-thirds or more of both houses to propose an amendment and ratification by three-fourths of the ''state legislatures'' to approve it.[[/labelnote]] It was a delicate balance, as the southerners feared that a majority of free states would hand the senate over to abolitionists, who would abolish slavery wholesale. Northerners feared the opposite, that slavery would be expanded even further. The fears of both sides were not especially warranted, as abolition still wasn't a serious movement as of yet, and the slave states had no pretensions of extending slavery back into the North.[[note]]At least, not at the time. As the decades went by, some slavery supporters began to advocate making slavery legal throughout the country, but even then, they were under no illusions that slavery would ever become widespread in the North; rather, their goal was to ensure that they could take their slaves on long journeys without having to worry about travelling through a free state and thus causing the slaves to be automatically freed.[[/note]] However, the admittance of the new state of Missouri worried both sides. In the end, another compromise was worked out where Maine (part of Massachusetts at the time) was admitted as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and all territory south of Missouri, state or not, would allow slavery while all territory north of Missouri's southern border (36°30'N) would be free soil, barring Missouri itself, of course. The compromise kept the Union from imploding for a few more decades, but it couldn't last.\\\

In early 1862, the Union scored a few victories on the Western Front, gaining control of Missouri. Meanwhile, out east, the Confederates had overhauled a wooden-hull ship into an ironclad, named the CSS ''Virginia'', which attempted to break the Union blockade at Norfolk, Virginia. After sinking two wooden-hull Union frigates, the ''Virginia'' was intercepted by the Union's own ironclad, the USS ''Monitor'', which was novel for its rotating gun turret. The two engaged for several hours, but neither could pierce the thick armor plating and deliver a decisive blow. In the end, the ''Virginia'' retreated back to port and the blockade held, but the engagement proved the strength of ironclads to the world, being the first direct battle between such ships in history. The ''Monitor'' design was copied, but it proved to be unseaworthy, as rough waters could cause its low-profile hull to flood. Near the end of 1862, that exact occurrence sank the original USS ''Monitor''. Meanwhile, the ''Virginia'' was left in port at Norfolk, and the Confederate Army abandoned the ship (and its crew). Advancing Union forces took the town, and the captain decided to light the ship aflame and abandon it.\\\

Both of these compromises seemed to quell things, but only temporarily. As the United States grew and more states were accepted into the Union, tensions flared up again. With the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, the United States nearly doubled in size. These new lands were gradually settled and admitted statehood. With the northern states having already outlawed slavery, many of the new states admitted to the Union in the Midwestern Territory would also become "free states" upon admittance to the Union. Not all new states went this route, however, and by 1819 the United States was divided straight down the middle, with 11 free states and 11 slave states.[[labelnote:Significance]]The number of states is important due to the structure of the legislative branch of the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem US federal government]], i.e. the US Congress: Congress is bicameral (has two "houses"). The representation of each state in the "lower house" of Congress, the House of Representatives, is according to the population of each state, but in the "upper house," the Senate, each state has exactly two members (no matter how heavily or sparsely populated). The setup for the Senate made it impossible for any laws to be made regulating or banning slavery despite the fact that twice as many people lived in "free" as in "slave" states. Moreover, any changes to the federal constitution (e.g. to outlaw owning people as property) required two-thirds or more of both houses to propose an amendment and ratification by three-fourths of the ''state legislatures'' to approve it.[[/labelnote]] It was a delicate balance, as the southerners feared that a majority of free states would hand the senate over to abolitionists, who would abolish slavery wholesale. Northerners feared the opposite, that slavery would be expanded even further. The fears of both sides were not especially warranted, as abolition still wasn't a serious movement as of yet, and the slave states had no pretensions of extending slavery back into the North. However, the admittance of the new state of Missouri worried both sides. In the end, another compromise was worked out where Maine (part of Massachusetts at the time) was admitted as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and all territory south of Missouri, state or not, would allow slavery while all territory north of Missouri's southern border (36°30'N) would be free soil, barring Missouri itself, of course. The compromise kept the Union from imploding for a few more decades, but it couldn't last.\\\

Numerous abolitionist groups saw an increase in members, with the American Anti-Slavery Society being the most famous. However, abolition was still not the majority sentiment in the North, with most northerners being more concerned with the spread of slavery to the Western Territories and total abolition still a far-off dream. Numerous proposals for how to deal with expansion floated back and forth. Some parties, such as the Free Soil Party, sought total federal control over the issue, with only Congress able to decide if a state was free or slave. The pro-slavery movement argued for "popular sovreignty", the right of states themselves to choose whether they were free or slave at their own discretion. This is where the revisionist "states rights" explanation for the war comes from, but it is only a half-truth at best: Yes, the South was fighting for "states rights", but almost solely the "right" for white citizens to "own" Black people without their consent. The Constitution of the Confederate States made a few alterations to increase the autonomy of states, mostly restricted to matters of tax and budgetary regulations[[note]]In fact, the Confederate Consitutution actually ''removed'' the right for individual states to set their own tax rates for interstate commerce.[[/note]] and judicial appointments, and did almost nothing in this regard that was relevant to slavery. The Confederates claimed that the state rights in question were already guaranteed by the existing United States Constitution Fugitive Slave Clause[[note]]Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1: "No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due."[[/note]] and that the North was ignoring them. In this sense, the South was actually calling for a much ''stronger'' central government, one that could prevent force all states to recognize slavery regardless of whatever laws they passed within their borders.\\\

Things really shit the bed after the UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar. The vast new territories acquired from Mexico, most of them south of the Missouri Compromise line, would upset the balance, so that compromise had to be updated. Most of the South was adamant that things remain the way they were, with a few hardliners even arguing that the Missouri Compromise didn't apply, since it predated the acquisition of those territories, thus meaning slavery should be legal in all of them (an interpretation largely dismissed as a fringe viewpoint at the time, but one which would come back in a major way within a few years). While states had threatened to secede for various reasons in the past -- much of New England threatened to do so during the War of 1812, while South Carolina threatened it during the Nullification Crisis, which resulted from the state's belief that it had the right to "nullify" and thereby ignore any federal law it didn't like -- the back-end of the 1840s saw Southern states' threatening to secede over attempts to limit slavery become a regular occurrence. UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, who became President after the conclusion of the Mexican-American War (in which he was the country's commanding general), threatened the slave states with all hell if they tried seceding or blocking the implementation of a new solution, but Taylor suddenly died in July 1850 and was succeeded by his Vice-President, UsefulNotes/MillardFillmore, who decided to try a more diplomatic approach.\\\

The Compromise of 1850 had a few results. On the free soil side, California was admitted as a free state and slave trading was banned in the District of Columbia. However, the Compromise seemed to favor the slave soil side, with states north of the previously established Missouri Compromise line being granted the right to choose whether they were free or slave by popular sovereignty. It also led to the passing of the infamous "Fugitive Slave Act," which was a revision of a much older law. Before, state authorities in free states were not required to aid in the capture and return of fugitive slaves fleeing the South (with some going so far as to legally declare them free once stepping into territory where slavery was outlawed). This act of defiance had long angered many slave states, who pressured the government into passing a much harsher law that forced all law enforcement officers to aid in capturing fugitive slaves or face heavy fines. The Fugitive Slave Act saw heavy condemnation from northerners, who saw it as a major southern overreach that showed how little the South actually cared about "states' rights" and feared that slavery would soon be permitted in the North. This also resulted in the growth of the Underground Railroad, an organization that helped slaves escape further north to UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, then still a British colony that had outlawed slavery outright.\\\

The extremely popular 1852 novel ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' by Northern author Harriet Beecher Stowe helped to expose the conditions of slavery to a wider audience and brought more sympathy to the cause of abolition in the North than ever before. The increasing polarization and division affected both the major political parties of the time, the Democrats and the Whigs, effectively making it so that the only way anyone could get either party's nomination at that year's presidential election was by being someone who was blandly inoffensive and had never expressed any strong views on the slavery issue, with Democrat candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinPierce eventually steaming to [[LandslideElection landslide majorities]] in the presidential and congressional elections largely just because he was younger and better-looking than Whig candidate Winfield Scott. Pierce soon found himself at a loss as to how to deal with the situation, however, and followed in Fillmore's footsteps of just keeping quiet and hoping everyone eventually calmed down. To put it lightly, they didn't. His administration saw some infamous events foreshadowing the war to come, such as Representative Preston Brooks (D-SC) brutally beating Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) in the Senate chamber after Sumner had delivered a speech vilifying slaveholders, including a relative of Brooks.\\\

The Bleeding Kansas issue saw the end of the Whig Party, which became bitterly divided over the issue of slavery. From that division rose the Republican Party, which was staunchly anti-slavery and placed opposition to the expansion of slavery on the top of its policy platform. The Republicans rapidly gained support throughout the North, and it soon became feasible that the party could soon win the presidency and majorities in Congress; down the road, this could lead to anti-slavery Supreme Court justices as well. This outcome was abated for 4 more years when Democrat UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan won the 1856 election. Seeing how Fillmore's attempt at a compromise and Pierce's encouragement of popular sovereignty had both arguably made the situation worse rather than doing anything to help, Buchanan decided that the best course of action... was to do nothing at all. He thus had what most historians consider to be one of the worst Presidential administrations ever, largely sitting on his hands while the country tore itself apart.\\\

In this chaos, an obscure former Whig Congressman named Abraham Lincoln rose to prominence, advocating for the Republican Party in his home state of Illinois. He attempted to run for the senate in the 1858 midterms but was defeated by his opponent, Stephen Douglas, as at the time senators were still chosen by the state legislature, which was controlled by the Democrats. However, his clear-eyed rhetoric opposing the institution of slavery resonated with many, and Southern Democrats subsequently viewed him as a major threat. Two years later, Lincoln threw his (stovepipe) hat into the ring as the Republican nominee, inciting a major backlash throughout the south as pro-slavery crowds vowed to secede if the Republicans won. Due to a schism within the Democratic Party and divisions among the pro-slavery side, Lincoln won the 1860 election. The response from the southern states was immediate: the South Carolina legislature proclaimed its secession from the Union on December 20th 1860, about three and a half months before Lincoln would assume office in early March. While the (official) opening volleys of the War had yet to be fired, South Carolina's secession had changed the matter of ''if'' there would be a War to a matter of ''when.''

The American Civil War was almost fated to happen, as the enduring issue of slavery had only been placated by stopgap measures. However, as far back as the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Declaration of Independence]], Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin agreed that Slavery would probably [[CassandraTruth tear the country apart within about a century]]. Slavery was certainly the primary cause of the war, as shown in the numerous declarations regarding the seceding states, who listed the maintaining of the institution of slavery as their ''raison d'être''. These states' economies were based around the use of slave labor to harvest cotton[[note]]And some other cash crops, particularly tobacco, sugarcane, indigo, and rice, but mostly cotton.[[/note]] for export to Western Europe, and the United States' social order had been built largely on the ideology of white supremacy, with only white males being granted full citizenship. Even still, sentiments regarding the abolition or regulation of slavery had existed since before the nation's founding, with the strongest advocates mostly being Christian groups in New England. Many noted how slavery contradicted both Christian and American ideals of equality (either under God or under the law). \\\

Numerous abolitionist groups saw an increase in members, with the American Anti-Slavery Society being the most famous. However, abolition was still not the majority sentiment in the North, with most northerners being more concerned with the spread of slavery to the Western Territories and total abolition still a far-off dream. Numerous proposals for how to deal with expansion floated back and forth. Some parties, such as the Free Soil Party, sought total federal control over the issue, with only Congress able to decide if a state was free or slave. The pro-slavery movement argued for "States Rights," in this case the right of states themselves to choose whether they were free or slave at their own discretion. This is where the revisionist "states rights" argument falls apart: Yes, the South was fighting for "states rights," but the rights they were fighting for were the rights to own slaves. Notably, while the Constitution of the Confederate States made a few alterations to increase the autonomy of states, mostly they related to matters such as tax and budgetary regulations[[note]]In fact, the Confederate Consitutution actually ''removed'' the right for individual states to set their own tax rates for interstate commerce.[[/note]] and judicial appointments, and did almost nothing in this regard that was relevant to slavery -- though for their part, the Confederates claimed that the state rights in question were already guaranteed by the existing United States Constitution (which the Confederate Constitution was largely copied from, with a few alterations), and that the North was ignoring them.\\\

The American Civil War was (as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the name suggests]]) a civil war in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates fought between northern states ("the Union" or "the North") and southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South"). The central cause of the war was the status of slavery. After UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln won the 1860 presidential election on an [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil anti-slavery]] platform, UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina seceded from the United States in response a month later in December. UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana followed suit in early 1861, with these seven states forming the Confederate States of America. When President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops after the attack on Fort Sumter, the border states of UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}, Arkansas, and UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina left the Union in response and joined the Confederacy. From there, events took on a life of their own and the situation devolved into a full-blown war which lasted almost four years.[[note]]The "official" start of the war, the Rebel attack on Fort Sumter, occurred on the night of April 12, 1861; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. As often happens with civil wars, the "official" dates are somewhat questionable, as the fighting didn't begin in earnest until First Bull Run/Manassas on July 21, 1861, and isolated skirmishes between Union and Confederate units continued well after Lee's surrender, notably including the major battle of Columbus, Georgia, where a confederate soldier named John Pemberton suffered a wound that led to him experimenting with various pain killers, ultimately resulting in the invention of Coca-Cola.[[/note]] The government’s attempts to crush what Abraham Lincoln termed a rebellion[[note]][[InsistentTerminology Rebel sympathizers dispute that term to this day]] [[RulesLawyer on the grounds that the constitution of the USA in its form at the time did not outlaw secession]] (though it didn’t explicitly permit it either). Even these people, however, do not dispute the ''moral'' illegitimacy of forming a country for the express purpose of brutalizing, subjugating, and exploiting other people. Although still denied by a small minority who claim the war was to defend 'states rights' (which they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws_in_the_United_States#1850_Fugitive_Slave_Act actually happily trampled]]), or was even started by the North for economic reasons [[ArtisticLicenseHistory (even though the South fired the first shots)]] most secessionist states [[http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html declared at least indirectly that the maintenance of slavery was a reason for them declaring independence in their actual declarations of independence]].[[/note]] eventually resulted in the defeat of the confederation, the abolition of chattel slavery, and the eventual reintegration of the seceded states into the Union.

Much like the contemporary 1850–64 War of the Heavenly Kingdom or Taiping Rebellion along the mid-lower Yangtze, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakumatsu Bakumatsu]] period of {{UsefulNotes/Japan}} that led to the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration, and the later civil wars suffered by 20th-century [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors China]], [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution Mexico]], and [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russia]],[[note]]Except for the Mexican Revolution, all of those were orders of magnitude more savage, bloody, and bitter, at least in absolute numbers, with at least 20 million dead in the Taiping War and several million dead each in the others. The American Civil War "only" killed 700,000. That being said, the American conflict is about as bloody if not more so when you consider that the US had a much smaller population (except for Mexico) and a much shorter war than any of these. The Taiping war killed about 6-7% of the Chinese population of over 300 million, but that took about 14 years (for an average of about 0.43-0.5% per year). The Russian Civil War claimed about 4-5% of the Russian population of about 75-85 million over the course of five and a half years (for an average of 0.73-.91% per year). The Chinese Civil War cost about about 1.5-2% of the Chinese population of 400-500 million over the course of 13 years (interrupted by the much, much bloodier [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar fight against the Japanese]]) (for an average of about 0.12-0.15% per year). The Mexican Revolution killed anywhere from 1.7 to 2.7 million Mexicans of a population of 15.16 million Mexicans at the start of the war for a total of anywhere from 11.2% to 17.8% over 10 years (an average of about 1.2%-1.8% per year). The American Civil War killed 2.3% of the US population of about 31 million over the course of less than four years (an average of about 0.57% per year), so the only ones that surpass it in relative intensity are the Russian and Mexican conflicts--and the Russians and Mexicans had [[MoreDakka machine guns]] to kill each other with.[[/note]] the Civil War was the result of a grand failure of normal politics. Modern historiography — the history of history — tells us that the great failure was over the future of slavery — of ethnic Africans — in the United States. The Southern "slave states," whose economies were based around the use of slave labor to harvest cotton[[note]]And some other cash crops, particularly tobacco, sugarcane, indigo, and rice, but mostly cotton.[[/note]] for export to Western Europe, feared that the federal government in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC would attempt to outlaw slavery.

Almost every student of American history considers this to be ''the'' seminal event in the history of the United States: while UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution was the war that founded the country, this one was what tested whether or not the initial experiment of its existence had succeeded. It was predicted as far back as the Declaration of Independence and has influenced the country's domestic politics well into the 21st century. It also changed the nation's perception of itself -- before the war, it was typically "''These'' United States", emphasizing the individual states; after the war, it became "''The'' United States", emphasizing the unified nation. As a result of all this, the American Civil War is one of the most thoroughly studied and documented periods in US history: studying the full extent of the causes, events, and effects of the war has kept scholars busy filling bookshelves, creating documentaries, and consulting on films for well over a century and a half. Below is our best attempt at an abridged summation.

The American Civil War was almost fated to happen, as the enduring issue of slavery had only been placated by stopgap measures. However, as far back as the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Declaration of Independence]], Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin agreed that Slavery would probably [[CassandraTruth tear the country apart within about a century]]. Slavery was certainly the primary cause of the war, as shown in the numerous declarations regarding the seceding states, who listed the maintaining of the institution of slavery as their ''raison d'être''. Sentiments regarding the abolition or regulation of slavery had existed since before the nation's founding, with the strongest advocates mostly being Christian groups in New England. Many noted how slavery contradicted both Christian and American ideals of equality (either under God or under the law). \\\