US History

U.S. History Study Guide

Chapter 13: The Civil War 1861-1865 This chapter will cover the events, battles, and domestic issues of Southerners and Northerners during the Civil War with special attention to the Lincoln Administration. 13.1 War Was Inevitable Americans, on both fronts, could see that conflict was unavoidable due to the events that unfolded during the Antebellum period, with a large portion of the North wanting to abolish slavery or stop its expansion while a large portion of the South wanted to keep slavery and expand it further. After the South formed the Confederacy and elected Jefferson Davis as president, war seemed inevitable. Both sides waited for the other one to make the first move. Abraham Lincoln did not want to be the one who started the conflict and uneasy tension emerged in the country. Although Lincoln detested slavery, he ran on the platform of ending the expansion of slavery, not abolishing it in all states, but the South did not trust Lincoln. This is why historians point to Lincoln being elected as president to the beginning of the Civil War. Because Buchanan did not act, time passed and by the time Lincoln got into the Whitehouse, there was no reconciling; the South wanted to be an independent nation. Lincoln hoped Americans from the South, who also wanted to preserve the Union, would influence Southerners away from the idea of secession so he waited, but the conflict was unavoidable: the actions at Fort Sumter would take it past the point of reconciliation. 13.2 Union and Confederacy: Advantages/Disadvantages Both sides believed it would be a quick victory. The North seemed favored to win the war due to its larger and better equipped army. The South also had some distinct military advantages as well, including home field advantage and more skilled generals. The Union’s Advantages: • Population size: The North had a population of twenty twomillion (twenty three states) versus the South’s nine million (eleven states). Northern forces totaled two million-one hundred thousand compared to the South’s paltry eight hundred thousand. • Greater wartime funding: Both the North and South sold war bonds, but the North also instituted an income tax and had better tax collection systems. The Northern economy did better during the war, suffering only moderate inflation, but the Southern economy collapsed from severe inflation. • More advanced industry: The North held most of the nation’s industrial plants and could easily produce heavy artillery weapons. The North also had the majority of the nation’s railroad tracks and could effectively transport arms and food to distant troops. The South had to import arms, could not afford supplies, and could not effectively ship food and equipment to its troops. • More food resources: Northern agriculture was geared toward grain, whereas the South specialized in the growing of inedible cash crops like cotton, tobacco, and indigo.

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