*The+Civil+War

**__The civil war__** The situation was tense in the United States in the 1860s after Lincoln had sworn the president oath. He had campaigned against slavery and when he won the election, he plead to the southern states (which supported the slavery because they needed free labor to work their cotton fields) not to break up the union. They didn’t listen to him however and on the 12th of April 1861 the outbreak southern states who called themselves the Confederate States attacked Fort Sumter a fortress in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina that was controlled by United States soldiers. This was the beginning of the civil war. Jefferson Davis the new president of the Confederate States and Abraham Lincoln both called out for men to fight and thousands of men on both sides answered the calls.

Some people found it difficult and painful to decide which side to support. The decision sometimes split families apart. The son of the commander of the Confederate navy was killed fighting in a Union ship. Two brothers became generals- but on opposite sides.

In both men and material resources the North was much stronger than the south. It had a population of 22 million people. The south had only 9 million people, and 3.5 million of them were slaves. The north grew more food crops than the south. It also had more than five times the manufacturing capacity, including most of the country's weapon factories. So the north not only had more fighting men than the south, it could also keep them better supplied with weapons, clothing, food and everything else they needed.

However, the north faced one big difficulty. The only way it could win the war was to invade the south and occupy its land. The south had no such problem. It did not need to conquer the north to win independence. All it had to do was to hold out until the people of the north grew tired of fighting. The south began the war with a number of advantages: many of the best officers in the pre-war army of the United States were southerners. Now they returned to the Confederacy to organize it's armies. Most of the recruits led by these officers had grown up on farms and were experts riders and marksmen. And the most important advantage - the fact that almost all the war's fighting took place in the south meant that confederate soldiers were defending their own homes. This often made them fight with more spirit than the Union Soldiers.

Southerners denied that they were fighting mainly to preserve slavery. Most were poor farmers who owned no slaves anyway. The south was fighting for it's independence from the North.

By 1863 many northeners were tired of the war. They were sickened by its heavy cost in lives and money.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated five days after the capitulation of the southern by J__ohn Wilkes Booth.__ The American Civil War took approximately 630 000 military victims and therefore one of the bloodiest conflict in American history. The main results of the war were that slavery was lifted in the emancipation of January 1, 1863, (emancipation means that your sets free from minority age)

The Union was preserved and it led to a strengthen government of United States. The loss of war along with the abolition of slavery was an economic and cultural setback to Southern states.

Time immediately after the war is known as reorganization period. North States troops occupied the southern states until the 1877th though slavery was abolished.

Ku Klux Klan was started in Tennessee 24 december 1865.

R  aze d  iscrimination  is still a problem in the U.S., particularly in Southern states.

Sources: [], Booklet

Made by: Pontus Johansson, Sonny Larsson, Kristoffer Elofsson - BPHU08A, Tobias "Fladder" Ottosson - BPHU08D, Hampus "hampestampedampe" Erndin - BPHU08B