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VUS.7 a, b, and c – American Civil War
In the 1860 presidential election Abraham Lincoln (Illinois) ran as the Republican candidate. The
Democratic Party split over the issue of slavery. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas (Illinois) as their
candidate, while Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge (Kentucky) to run for president. A fourth
political party, the Constitutional Unionists, nominated John Bell (Tennessee). Because of the split in the
Democratic Party, Abraham Lincoln easily won a majority of electoral votes and became the sixteenth president of
the United States.
Several Southern states refused to accept Lincoln’s election as president, because they feared he would try
to abolish or at least further restrict slavery. In late 1860 and early 1861 South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas voted to secede or withdraw from the Union. In February 1861 these
states established a new nation called the Confederate States of America. They chose as president of the
Confederacy Jefferson Davis, who was serving as one of Mississippi’s two United States senators at the time of the
state’s secession.
In April 1861, President Lincoln refused to evacuate (remove) federal troops from Fort Sumter, an
American fort located in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. When Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter,
the Civil War (1861-1865) began. A civil war is a war between people of the same country. Following the
Confederates’ attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called on the states to provide 75,000 soldiers to put down
the rebellion in the South. While the Northern states immediately responded to Lincoln’s call for troops, the slave
states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas refused to take up arms against their sister Southern
states and instead voted to secede and join the Confederacy.
Mounting sectional tensions and a failure of political will led to the Civil War. The Virginia Standards of
Learning for United States History have identified seven factors as the Civil War’s causes. These causes are: 1)
Sectional debate over tariffs, the extension of slavery in the territories, and the nature of the Union (states’ rights),
2) Northern abolitionists v. southern defenders of slavery, 3) The United States Supreme Court decision in the Dred
Scott case, 4) Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 5) Ineffective presidential leadership in
the 1850s, 6) A history of failed compromises over the expansion of slavery in the territories, 7) President Lincoln’s
call for federal troops in 1861.
The secession of southern states triggered a long and costly war that concluded with Northern victory, a
restoration of the Union, and emancipation (the freeing) of the slaves. The Civil War put constitutional government
to its most important test as the debate over the power of the federal government versus states’ rights reached a
climax. The survival of the United States as one nation was at risk, and the nation’s ability to bring to reality the
ideals of liberty, equality, and justice depended on the outcome of the war. More Americans died in the American
Civil War than in any other war in the nation’s history. Approximately 620,000 Americans died during the four
years of fighting, including 360,000 men who died fighting for the Union and 260,000 Confederates.
The Civil War produced several key leaders. Abraham Lincoln served as President of the United States
during the Civil War. Lincoln opposed secession and insisted that the Union be held together, by force if necessary.
Jefferson Davis served as the Confederate States of America’s only president. Ulysses S. Grant was a Union
military commander, who won victories over the South after several other Union commanders had failed. Robert E.
Lee was a Confederate general and commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Although Lee opposed
secession, he did not believe the Union should be held together by force. At the end of the war, Robert E. Lee
urged Southerners to accept defeat and unite as Americans again, even though some Southerners wanted to
continue the fight. A fourth leader of the Civil War era was Frederick Douglass. Douglass was a former enslaved
African-American who became a prominent or important black abolitionist. During the Civil War, Douglass urged
President Lincoln to recruit former enslaved African-Americans to fight in the Union army.
Three important battles of the Civil War were Antietam, Gettysburg, and Appomattox. General Robert E.
Lee invaded Maryland in 1862, where he fought the Union army at the Battle of Antietam. Although Antietam was
a military stalemate, the Northern press interpreted this battle as a major Union victory, because General Lee and
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his Confederate army retreated into Virginia. Union military success at the Battle of Antietam allowed President
Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Because of this relationship to the Emancipation Proclamation,
historians consider Antietam one of the war’s most important battles. The Union victory at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, in July 1863 proved to be the military turning point of the Civil War. Once again, the Union army
repulsed an attempt by General Lee to invade the North. After Lee withdrew his defeated Confederate army from
Gettysburg and marched back into Virginia, it was only a matter of time before the Union crushed the Confederacy.
The end for the Confederate States came in April 1865, when Confederate forces under the command of General
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Lee’s
surrender to Grant at Appomattox ended the Civil War.
The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 marked a new stage in President Lincoln’s
conduct of the war. On New Year’s Day, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This
document freed all slaves in the “rebelling” states (seceded Southern states) as of January 1, 1863. This call for
emancipation of African-American slaves changed the character of the war. Previously, preservation of the Union
had served as the North’s primary goal. By issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln made the destruction
of slavery a Northern war aim. This proclamation also discouraged any interference of foreign governments in the
war, since neither Great Britain nor France wanted to give the appearance of supporting slavery. Finally, the
Emancipation Proclamation allowed for the enlistment of African-American soldiers in the Union Army.
In November 1863, four months after the North’s great victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, President
Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to dedicate a military cemetery. In the Gettysburg Address Lincoln
eloquently set forth the North’s now dual war aims of preserving the Union and abolishing slavery. In this speech
he said the United States was “one nation,” rather than a collection of sovereign, independent states. In contrast,
Southerners believed that states had freely joined the Union and could freely leave (secede). In Lincoln’s view the
North was fighting the war to preserve the Union as a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. He
also believed the Civil War was fought to fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence and was a “Second
American Revolution.” The president described a different vision for the United States from the one that had
prevailed from the beginning of the Republic up to the Civil War. Lincoln described the Civil War as a struggle to
preserve a nation that was dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal” and that was ruled by a
government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” According to this vision, the institution of AfricanAmerican slavery must not exist in the United States.
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VUS.7 a,b,c QUESTIONS – The American Civil War
1. How many parties nominated candidates for the 1860 Presidential election?
2. What was the major reason that Lincoln won the Presidential election of 1860?
3. How did Lincoln’s election affect some of the Southern states that held slaves?
4. Between 1860 and 1861, which states left the Union, what did they call themselves, and who did they name as their
President?
5. The process of a state leaving the Union was called ____________________.
6. How and where did the Civil War begin?
7. How did Lincoln’s request for troops affect Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas?
8. What were the seven causes of the Civil War according to the narrative?
9. How did the Civil War test the Constitution?
10. What three national ideals were at stake during the Civil War?
11. What were the casualty numbers for the entire was and each side?
12. Copy the table and complete it.
Key Leader
Position held
Their beliefs of ideas (if listed)
Abraham Lincoln
Jefferson Davis
X
Ulysses S. Grant
X
Robert E. Lee
Frederick Douglass
13. Lincoln believed that it was his job to hold the Union together by _______________ if necessary.
14. What was Lee’s feeling on secession and what did he feel southerners should do at the end of the war?
15. In what state did the Battle of Antietam take place?
16. Based on the results of the Battle of Antietam, what was Lincoln able to issue?
17. What was Gettysburg important?
18. What happened at Appomattox?
19. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do and how did it change the focus of the war?
20. Why did Great Britain or France not want to get involved in the War after Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation?
21. How did the Emancipation Proclamation change the face of the Union army?
22. According to the Gettysburg Address, what were Lincoln’s two aims of the war?
23. How did Southern states belief about the Union differ from Lincoln’s?
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