Free Custom «American Civil War Analysis» Essay Paper

This is the greatest conflict that ever happened in America. It occurred between 1861 and 1865. In was a conflict between the federal government and the states from the south who wanted to get away from the union of the American states. The main reason for the conflict was the policy on slavery. The north was against slavery while the south was for slavery. The north was fighting for the emancipation of the slaves while the south wanted to keep using the slaves for their work. Other reasons were the way to conduct trade and other tariffs.

The conflict led to the secession of the southern states, beginning with seven states that formed a southern government. This was before Lincoln took office. The southern members of the senate started resigning (American Civil War, (n.d)). This gave the northern senators an advantage and so the used this opportunity to pass bills that had been blocked by the southern senators. These first seven states are Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Georgina, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. After two months, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee also seceded to join the confederate states of America.

 

Type of service

Type of assignment

Title of your paper *

Academic level

Pages

Timeframe

Spacing

Currency

  Order now

The south formed what was known as the southern confederate states under the leadership of Jefferson Davis. The north remained under the federal authority with Abraham Lincoln leading it. What exacerbated the situation was the election of Abraham Lincoln a republican who was against slave trade (Woodworth, 1996). He swept all the votes of the north and got almost nothing from the southern states.

The northern states remained loyal to the union of the states as before. The victory is primarily based on the huge population of the north. By that time the population of America was 31, 443,321. The south was only 8, 726,644. Furthermore, of these 3, 953, 760 were slaves. This made the population of the south further smaller that of the north. The north supported Lincoln and that is why he had to have victory.

The boarder states are the ones the union and the confederate were fighting for as the war began. These states are Kentucky, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Missouri. The federal government controlled all these state and the confederation did not overtake them. This also gave the union government a chance to fight and win the war over the confederation.

The north was far much developed that the south by that time. It was the industrial part of America and therefore economically stronger than the south. It also had more railway and road network that the south (Catton & McPherson, 2004). Furthermore, as we have earlier mention the north had a larger population than the south. This seemed to give the north an advantage over the south.

On the other hand, the south had some advantage over the north, and made them exude confidence that they would win the war. The first one was the vast expanse, which helped it to hold on to the war for a very long time. The south had significant part of it as primitive wilderness making the northern forces have it difficult to combat the southern forces. The north had to transport military equipment and food by rail from the east to the west to Cairo and Illinois where their operations were to begin. The distance was about 1500 miles. The operation was to go down Mississippi and Tennessee. The other thing was the resignation of the armies from the south from the national forces, and going back to the south to join the confederate militias. This gave the southern forces advantage over the northern in the first year (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

Stay Connected

Live Chat Order now

The war began when militias under the command of Davis Jefferson attacked the northern territory in at fort Sumter prompting the war to begin. The first strategy the north used was the Anaconda blockade. This was to cut off all the costal ports around the south to freeze it economically. They succeeded in doing that but the southern soldiers fought hard from the inland.

The southern soldiers are said to have had an advantage over the northern soldiers primarily because of their upbringing. They were well trained as foot soldiers in their farmlands and in their rural setting. The northern soldiers are thought to have been used to factory work and could not fight in the forests or premieval wilderness. This was the place they were stationed as they defend the union. Their number did not match their results at the beginning of the war. They were more than the soldiers of the south but still did not win the war quickly.

The war went on until April 1865 when the commander of the southern armies Robert Lee surrendered. This followed the capture of his key men, Richard Ewel and Richard Anderson. The north ultimately got the victory because it was more developed and it had many soldiers. The south suffered the greatest casualty. The north also won the war because no country came to give aid to the southern troops. Lincoln and William H. Seward who was the secretary of state then successfully blocked them. They threatened to fight any country that would recognize the southern confederate states as sovereign.

The war centered on the freedom of slaves and so after the war reconstruction had to take place. The leaders of the north considered full victory after reconstruction. The key things of reconstruction were abolishing any form of slavery, and uniting the confederates with the union states. This resulted to the freeing of all slaves in America by the end of 1865.