Abraham Lincoln, photograph by Henry F. Warren
The first domino had fallen. True to the promise of intolerance of a president who might outlaw slavery, South Carolina was the first state to opt to secede, to severe ties to the Union and strike out as a country on its own. That was in December 1860. Other states followed, then a ship attempting to resupply Federal forces in Charleston was fired upon and the dominoes began to fall faster. The seceding states held a convention, wrote their own constitution, set up their own provisional government and elected a provisional president. By the time those first fateful shots were fired upon Fort Sumter, the controversy over slavery had already given birth to the Confederate States of America.
Outline of the War
The official beginning of the American Civil War is regarded as 12 April 1861, when Confederate forces fired on the Southern-based Union forces at Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor.
In response, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion. A total of eleven states came to comprise the Confederate States of America – South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. Lincoln invoked the writ of habeas corpus and declared martial law before Missouri and Kentucky could join the Confederacy. Both acts have since been debated as illegal actions on Lincoln’s part. Martial law as also declared in Maryland to prevent any attempt that state might make to join the South and leaving the city of Washington DC geographically cut off from the rest of the North.
First Battle of Bull Run, chromolithograph by Kurz & Allison
In the spring of 1861 the Confederacy moved its capital from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia, just one hundred miles away from Washington DC. Confident of a quick win, Union forces marched on Richmond, but were repulsed at First Battle of Bull Run (also known as the Battle of First Manassas) on 21 July 1861 (pictured above). This was the first major battle of the civil war. The year that followed would see primarily land engagements in the eastern theatre of war, with Union troops attempting to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and being repulsed by Confederate forces.
In November of 1861, General George B. McClellan was named general-in-chief of the Union army by Abraham Lincoln. During his four months in the role, McClellan proved hesitant to act, continuously overestimating the strength of his adversaries, and was constantly at odds with Lincoln, often because McClellan had overstepped his authority. In March of 1862, McClellan was relieved as general-in-chief and resumed his command of the Army of the Potomac, an army McClellan had built and trained for the defence of Washington DC. The post of general-in-chief of the Union army would remain vacant until later that year.
In the western theatre of war, on February 1862, the Union army of Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donelson, and two months later, in April 1862, defeated a Confederate army at Shiloh, Tennessee. That same month, the Union navy captured New Orleans, the Confederacy’s largest port, leaving them only Vicksburg and Port Hudson on the Mississippi in Confederate hands.
In the eastern theatre, the Confederates still had the upper hand. Lee moved north and defeated another Union force at the Second Battle of Bull Run, which ran from 28–30 August 1862. Buoyed by his success, Lee crossed the Potomac into the State of Maryland, taking the war further into the North, and in September 1862, fought McClellan at Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg). Lee lost a quarter of his men and was forced back to Virginia, but McClellan’s victory was far from decisive. Nonetheless, following the win at Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the Confederate States.
In November 1862, Lincoln had finally appointed another general-in-chief, General Ambrose Burnside who, only a month later, in December, lost the Battle of Fredericksburg and was in turn replaced by General Joseph Hooker. In May 1863, Hooker met Lee at Chancellorsville. Although outnumbered two to one, Lee outthought Hooker, forcing the Union forces to retreat. But in winning, Lee lost his most able general, Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, who was accidentally shot by his own men. He died several days later from complications.
In June 1863, Lee invaded the North for the second time, crossing the border into Pennsylvania. Following the defeat at Chancellorsville, Lincoln had replaced Hooker with Major General George Meade. On 1 July, Lee’s army came across Union forces at Gettysburg and the following three days saw the most famous battle of the war, which ended with Lee’s defeat. The following day, 4 July, Major General Ulysses S. Grant finally ended the siege of Vicksburg and captured the town. Port Hudson, the last Confederate port on the Mississippi River, fell within a matter of days. The whole of the length of the Mississippi River from Memphis to the Gulf of Mexico now lay in Union hands and the Confederacy had been cut in two.
In spite of his victory at Vicksburg, Grant was still criticized by his colleagues. Lincoln was still looking for a general who could end the war and sent his own man to investigate Grant’s alleged drinking. In October 1863, the president gave Grant command of the Division of the Mississippi. Grant proved his worth with a victory at Chattanooga and earned a brevet promotion to lieutenant general and command of the Union army. With Generals Phillip Sheridan, William Sherman and George Meade, Grant planned the Overland Campaign, a strategy that would prove to be the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.
The strategy was simple. Keep all the Confederate forces busy so that they were unable to provide one another with reinforcements. Grant would push towards Richmond with the help of Phillip Sheridan while Sherman and Meade took advantage of the opening into Georgia that the victory at Chattanooga had provided.
On 5 May 1864, Grant and Lee clashed at the Battle of the Wilderness, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Grant then moved south, gradually forcing Lee further back, winning battles at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, until the Confederate forces had retreated to Petersburg, south of Richmond. Grant laid siege to Lee’s forces in Richmond (pictured below). With provisions down to nothing, Lee evacuated the city on 2 April 1865, allowing the Confederate capital to fall into Union hands, and the next day President Lincoln visited the city that had been the Confederate capital. Lee retreated westwards but a week later, on 9 April, at the Appomattox Courthouse in southern Virginia, Lee finally surrendered to Grant.
Ruins of Richmond, Virginia, photograph by Mathew Brady
Meanwhile, General William Sherman, also advancing south and destroying everything in his wake, took Atlanta, Georgia on 1 September 1864, and then headed towards Savannah, his ‘March to the Sea’, taking the city on 10 December 1864. Then, having reached the Atlantic, Sherman marched north through the Carolinas, pushing back Confederate forces. Unable to sustain the fight, the Confederate commander, General Joseph Johnston, surrendered at Durham, North Carolina on 26 April 1865. The Confederate States of America was no more.
Now it was time to reunite and rebuild. Lincoln had been making plans for returning the Confederate States to their Union with reunification and rebuilding in mind. Lincoln believed in forgiveness for the South and spent time holding off Radical Republicans in Congress who felt the South should be punished for their insolence. But whatever plans Lincoln had, they would go unfulfilled. On 14 April, whilst attending the theatre in Washington DC, President Lincoln was shot by a Southern sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, and died the following morning. Although isolated skirmishes continued until June 1865, the American Civil War was over. Estimates vary but the conflict had cost about 620,000 lives (517,000 Americans lost their lives in the two world wars). The Union lost over 360,000 lives (250,000 in battle and 110,000 to disease, wounds and other causes); and the Confederacy lost approximately 258,000 (94,000 in battle and 164,000 to disease). It remains one of the the bloodiest conflicts