The Gathering Storm

The Civil War did not spring from nowhere. It was the boiling point of decades of sectional tension. The Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) tried to balance the number of slave and free states, but only delayed the inevitable.

The situation turned violent in "Bleeding Kansas," where pro- and anti-slavery militias fought a proxy war. Then came the Supreme Court's disastrous Dred Scott decision, ruling that black people were not citizens and that the federal government could not ban slavery in territories. The North was outraged.

When Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860, the South saw the writing on the wall. South Carolina seceded first, followed by six others. They formed the Confederate States of America (CSA) under Jefferson Davis.

Causes

1860 Lincoln Elected

11 Rebel States

The Anaconda Plan & Ironclads

General Winfield Scott proposed the "Anaconda Plan" to strangle the South: blockade their ports and control the Mississippi River. The South, lacking industry, relied on importing weapons and exporting cotton.

The war at sea saw a revolution in naval warfare: the Ironclad. On March 9, 1862, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly Merrimack) fought the world's first duel between iron-armored ships. Cannonballs bounced off their hulls like pebbles. The age of wooden warships was over forever.

The Union navy eventually successfully choked the Confederate economy, causing massive inflation and food shortages in the South.

Naval Revolution

Wood versus Iron.

Ship: USS Monitor
Strategy: Blockade

Bloodiest Day & Emancipation

In 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee invaded Maryland, hoping to win a victory on Union soil that would convince Britain or France to intervene. He was stopped at the Battle of Antietam. It remains the single bloodiest day in American history, with nearly 23,000 casualties.

Although tactically a draw, it was a strategic victory for the Union. It gave Lincoln the political capital to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This document changed the legal status of 4 million enslaved people from "property" to "free."

Crucially, it transformed the war from a political dispute over union into a moral crusade against slavery, making it impossible for European powers to support the Confederacy.

Antietam

September 17, 1862

Result: Strategic Union Victory
Outcome: Emancipation

The United States Colored Troops

The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed Black men to enlist. Frederick Douglass famously argued, "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder... and there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."

Over 180,000 African Americans served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Units like the 54th Massachusetts proved their bravery in suicidal assaults like Fort Wagner. If captured, they faced execution or enslavement by Confederates, yet they fought with ferocious determination.

USCT

180k Soldiers

10% Union Army

Gettysburg & The Home Front

The turning point came in July 1863. Lee invaded the North again but was defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg. It was the largest battle ever fought in the Americas. Simultaneously, Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg, securing the Mississippi.

Back home, women played crucial roles. Clara Barton, the "Angel of the Battlefield," founded the American Red Cross. Spies like Harriet Tubman and Belle Boyd operated behind enemy lines.

But there was dissent. In New York City, poor Irish immigrants, fearing competition for jobs from freed slaves, launched the deadly Draft Riots of 1863, lynching Black citizens and burning orphanages.

Civilian Life

Women, spies, and riots.

Sherman's March & Surrender

In 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman launched his "March to the Sea." He practiced Total War, destroying everything in his path—farms, railroads, factories—to break the Confederate will to fight. "War is hell," he famously said.

On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Grant was generous: Confederates could keep their horses and go home. Five days later, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

Victory

Union restored, slavery abolished.

Hero: U.S. Grant
Tragedy: Lincoln Shot

Reconstruction Betrayed

The post-war era, Reconstruction, saw brief hope. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments abolished slavery and granted citizenship and voting rights. For a time, Black men served in Congress.

But the backlash was brutal. The Ku Klux Klan rose to terrorize freedmen. In 1877, a political compromise pulled federal troops out of the South. The old white power structure returned, enacting "Jim Crow" laws that enforced segregation and disenfranchisement for another century.

The North won the war, but in many ways, the South won the peace.

Jim Crow

The long shadow of the war.