The Civil War (150 Years Later)

The Civil War is part of American history. We cant know about American history in a full fashion without
understanding what the Civil War was all about. It was the bloodiest war in American soil and its ended
overt, legalized slavery in the USA. I wrote about the Civil War before, but during this time it's different. It
has been over 150 years since the end of the Civil War. Now, it is the perfect time to outline more
information about this bloody war. The Union and the Confederate forces fought each other across states
and it pit even relatives against each other. I am from Virginia, so I am reminded of the Civil War all of the
time. Many Virginians and people globally know about the Civil War greatly. Museums, statues, etc. remind
us about the Civil War constantly. Even in 2015, Civil War reenactment clubs exist nationwide. There were
numerous factors that led into the Civil War like trade issues, political issues (like many Republicans seeking
to expand free soil states while many Democrats including southern slave-owners wanting new states to
embrace slavery), economic issues, sectarian disputes, and other factors. Yet, one primary factor on why
the Civil War existed was the North and the Souths discussions on slavery and slavery itself. The Northern
bankers wanted free labor while the Southern aristocracy wanted slavery to exist and their cotton crops
to continue to grow. Black slaves were forced to grow cotton, while cotton resources were exported into
the North, Britain, etc. Northern industries readily shipped cotton (which was grown in the South) to Great
Britain. Northerners wanted tariffs to protect their resources. So, American slavery wasnt just in the South.
It existed in the north. Even after some Northern states banned slavery, Northern states economically
benefited from slavery (which grew the capitalist Industrial Revolution of the 19th century). The murder,
exploitation, and brutality inflicted on black people and Native Americans was directly tied to the origin of
the American nation itself.
Since 1776, America was developed via numerous controversies & contradictions. The bourgeois First
American Revolution (which came about in opposition to the imperialist, evil British Empire) was not
completed fully, because black people, women, the poor, and other minorities were readily deprived of
their human rights (by an oppressive, capitalist, & white supremacist oligarchy). Many Founders feared that
the Southerners would not approve of the Constitution, so they compromised to the evil Southern
aristocracy as a way for them to allow the Constitution to count slaves as three-fifths of a person and to
allow slaves to have no citizenship rights. The Bill of Rights was also established as a way for extend human
rights. Yet, the Bill of Rights was not applied back then to protect the rights of all American residents. It was

not used back then to end slavery. This injustice (of continuing legalized slavery and oppression) against
others plagued America for decades. The invention of the cotton gin, the growth of American imperialism
in North America (i.e. the Louisiana Purchase and the broken treaties with Native Americans were
injustices), and the growth of the abolitionist movement (which made up of blacks, whites, Native
Americans, and others) caused the tensions in America to grow. Even Thomas Jefferson before he died
knew that the nation was headed for a Civil War indirectly. President John Quincy Adams outright predicted
that:
"...If slavery be the destined sword in the hand of the destroying angel which is to sever the ties of this
Union, the same sword will cut in sunder the bonds of slavery itself. A dissolution of the Union for the cause
of slavery would be followed by a servile war in the slave-holding States, combined with a war between the
two severed portions of the Union. It seems to me that its result must be the extirpation of slavery from
this whole continent; and calamitous and desolating as this course of events in its progress must be, so
glorious would be its final issue that, as God shall judge me, I dare not say that it is not to be desired..."

This photo shows us why we fight for freedom and justice. This image represents how our ancestors
suffered so much, but they still used determination to advance liberty, and human justice. The
abomination of slavery was not only evil, but it violates basic human dignity. This is why men and
women shed blood in order for the Confederacy to cease to exist.

Some of the Southerners wanted to expand territories into more areas beyond the Old South, but many of
the Northerners rejected this action (since they viewed it as a way for the South to gain more political
power in Congress). The slave owners wanted to promote states' rights as a way for them to expand their
power. Evil supporters of Jim Crow apartheid used states' rights arguments in promoting discrimination and
racism also. Today, the Tea Party and other reactionaries use the states' rights argument including their
support of economic neoliberalism. The newly formed Republican Party had members who didnt oppose
slavery per se, but they didnt want new territories in the Union to adopt slavery (they wanted new
territories to be made up of free labor).

...The man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to
have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives
me any best place! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man
could head me! And aint I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man- when I could get
it and bear the lash as well! And aint I woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold
off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mothers grief, none but Jesus heard me! And aint I a
woman?

-Sister Sojourner Truth

Many Republicans back then did oppose slavery though. The Missouri Compromise of 1850 didn't work to
end tensions in America. The disgraceful and evil 1850 Fugitive Slave Act penalized officials who did not
arrest an alleged runaway slave, and made them liable to a fine of $1,000 (or about $28,000 in present-day
value). Law-enforcement officials everywhere were required to arrest persons suspected of being a
runaway slave on as little as a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask
for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. The 1850 Fugitive Act was part of the Missouri
Compromise. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglas opposed the Fugitive Slave Act in the strongest terms. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed incoming settlers to decide for themselves on whether to permit
slavery in Kansas and Nebraska. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited
slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 3630 north, except within the boundaries of
the proposed state of Missouri. This caused white racist terrorists to attack abolitionists, black people, etc.
in Kansas. The evil Supreme Court decision from 1857 prevented Dred Scott (who was a slave) to have full
human rights. In 1859, John Brown led an unsuccessful attempt to incite a slave uprising at Harpers Ferry.
He was courageous and he worked with many black people. He died and he was a hero just like other
heroes who include Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, etc. Harriet Tubman freed about 300 slaves in her 19 trips
to the South. Sojourner Truth was another excellent abolitionist who inspired people and saved lives.
President Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. His original concern was maintaining the Union

at all costs. Lincoln's views on race in his debates with Stephen Douglas were wrong and evil. Ideologically,
Abraham Lincoln abhorred and hated slavery, but he didn't want the South to end slavery immediately. As
time went on, Lincoln moved into the left and became more progressive on issues of slavery, race, and the
Union. Therefore, the Abraham Lincoln of 1865 was a whole lot different from the Abraham Lincoln of
1860.
The 1860 U.S. election didnt just involve the Republican Abraham Lincoln and John C. Breckinridge of the
Southern Democrats. John Bell and Stephen A. Douglas ran for President as well. The debates dealt with
popular sovereignty (or the right of states to establish slavery or not in their territories), slavery in general,
the homesteads (which the Republican Party supported. Homesteads were government-funded lands given
to immigrants and others in the free territories of the Midwest and the West). Abraham Lincoln won the
election on November 6, 1860. That election represented the sectional struggle over the question of
slavery. It was not solved in 1776. The Democratic Partys President Andrew Jackson was a known
supporter of the Southern planters and the slavery aristocracy. The Democratic administration of James K.
Polk instigated a war with Mexico, so slavery can be opened to the vast territories of the West. Ironically,
Abraham Lincoln opposed the Mexican-American war. Immediately, the South started to consider secession
after Lincoln was voted President. The South passed a punitive fugitive slave law which deprived the human
rights of black people. Frederick Douglas and other abolitionists praised the Lincoln electoral victory.
Frederick Douglas said that:
...Lincolns election has vitiated their authority, and broken their power...More important still, it has
demonstrated the possibility of electing, if not an abolitionist, at least an anti-slavery reputation to the
presidency. (James McPherson, The Struggle for Equality, Abolitionists and the Negro in Civil War and
Reconstruction, (Princeton University Press second paperback edition), p. 26).

Lincoln ended the nefarious era of Buchanan where the ex-President Buchanan submitted to Southern
interests. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Acting on his own initiative a
few days after the South Carolina legislature voted for secession, the commander of the garrison of Fort
Moultrie in Charleston decided to move his troops to the more powerful and less exposed Fort Sumter on
an island in the middle of Charleston harbor. Meanwhile, Lincoln passed word to General Winfield Scott,
commander of the US army, to hold or, if necessary, retake the fort. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
and Louisiana all seceded in January 1861 alone. The Confederacy starts in early 1861 and they elected
Jefferson Davis as its provisional Confederate President on February 9, 1861. Abraham Lincoln was
inaugurated on March 4, 1861. The Confederates attacked first on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. This
action by the Confederates officially started the Civil War. Soon, Fort Sumter surrendered to Southern
forces. Virginia seceded on April 17, 1861.

The Beginning
The Civil War lasted for over 4 years. It existed from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865 (by declaration). The
Confederacy had members with great military experience as many of its Generals and soldiers participated
in the Mexican-American war. Yet, the Union had more people, more factories, more soldiers, and a
stronger infrastructure than the Southern Confederacy. President Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis
were adversaries. Even the compromising ex-President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans
rejected secession as illegal. Abraham Lincolns 1861 inaugural address wanted his administration to not
provoke or initiate a civil war. Still, Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territories
claimed by the Confederacy. A peace conference on February of 1861 failed for both sides to find a
compromise. So, both sides prepared for war. The Civil War was a war of Southern aggression (against
humanity) in which the planter class wanted to preserve its political dominance via slavery. The
Confederates wanted European countries like Great Britain to help them out, but European nations never
directly intervened in the Civil War militarily except with Russias intervention (Russia sent fleets to San
Francisco and New York City as a way to protect Union interests. The Czar Alexander II emancipated the
serfs in 1861, which was very historic. This action gave the over 23 million Russian serfs human rights)
and other actions by other countries.
After the Fort Sumter attack, President Abraham Lincoln called for every Union state to provide troops to
retake the fort. Lincoln controlled the Border States by arresting state legislators and suspending habeas
corpus. This ignored the ruling of the Supreme Courts Chief Justice that such suspension was
unconstitutional. Lincoln formed a naval blockade in the Atlantic Ocean. This action was crucial in crippling
the Southern economy. It was one reason out of many on why the Union ultimately won the war (which
was a good thing. The Confederacy was an evil empire). Union General Winfield Scott created the
Anaconda Plan to support a naval blockade of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In that sense, it
would keep European nations out and prevent them from helping the Confederacy economically, militarily,
or otherwise. Lincoln supported this Anaconda plan and on April 1861, Abraham Lincoln announced the
Union blockade of all Southern ports. Commercial ships couldnt get insurance and regular traffic ended.

The South decreased its exports of cotton. There was the Eastern Theater which was inconclusive from
1861-1862.

The Sister in the center was Susie King Taylor. She helped black Union soldiers.
The Cornerstone speech made by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens came about on March
1861 in Georgia where he said that the Confederacy was created on racial oppression of black people. He
admitted that the secession movement was based on the Confederacy desiring to expand slavery in other
lands of America (also Stephens in that speech denied the equality of black people, which is disgraceful on
his part) and for them to grow their economic interests (as the Southern racist aristocracy used slavery via
the cotton fields, etc. as a way for them to gain profit at the expense of human suffering). We know that
trade, politics, and economics were factors on why the Civil War existed too, but slavery was one large
factor on why the Civil War existed. The South attacked Fort Sumter first, which began the Civil War.
The Confederacy wanted states rights, which was about the state brutalizing human rights. Human rights
are superior to states rights. Also, confederate state Constitutions explicitly supported slavery in their
provisions.
Over 100 years ago, traitors and white supremacists formed the Confederacy as a means for these evil
people to expand slavery, promote racial oppression, and institute other evils in the world. The
Confederacy is no more. We live in the USA and it is affront to black people (including freedom loving
people in general) for that Confederate flag to still fly on the state capitol of South Carolina (which was the
first state to secede from the Union). When even Mitt Romney said take it down, then you know that that
flag has no place being flown on the state Capitol.

#Take it Down Worldwide.

The Battle of First Manassas or Bull Run took placed in Virginia in the date of July 21, 1861. There were
about 4,878 casualties. The Union forces in this battle were led by Major General Irvin McDowell.
McDowells troops were forced back to Washington D.C. by the Confederates under the command of
Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. During this battle, Confederate General Thomas
Jackson was nicknamed Stonewall because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. The Union lost
the Battle of Bull Run. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the
Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated
that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. On July 26, 1861, Major
General George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac.
Throughout the year of 1862, the Confederate government wanted to entice Britain to recognize its
legitimacy. For the Union side, they wanted to execute simultaneous advances along four axes. McClellan
would lead the main thrust into Virginia towards Richmond. Ohio forces would go through Kentucky into
Tennessee. The Missouri Department would drive south along the Mississippi River and the westernmost
attack would originate from Kansas. The Civil War had many Naval battles too. The ironclad warship was a
new addition in the theater of warfare. The Confederacy created ironclads as a means for them to meet or
match the Unions naval superiority and to fight the Union blockade. These ironclads had floating batteries,
ram bows, and they should were used to threaten Union ships. The CSS Virginia was built from the sunken
ship called the Merrimack. It traveled on March 8, 1862 to try to decimate the Unions wooden fleet. The
next day it encountered the first Union ironclad called the USS Monitor (to challenge the CSS Virginia). The
Battle resulted in a draw and it was the worldwide transition to ironclad warships. The Confederacy lost the
Virginia when the ship was scuttled to prevent capture and the Union many ironclads. The Confederacy
would obtain warships from Britain, because they lacked the technology to build more effective warships.
Confederate General Leonidas Polk invaded Columbus, Kentucky. This caused Kentucky to end their
neutrality and turned the state against the Confederacy. Ulysses S. Grant used river transport and Andrew
Footes gunboats of the Western Flotilla to threaten the Confederacys Gibraltar of the West at
Columbus, Kentucky. Grant was rebuffed at Belmont, but cut off Columbus. The Confederates didnt have
their own gunboats and they were forced to retreat. In early 1862, the Union forces won Nashville and
central Tennessee. Soon, the Union took control of western Kentucky in March 1862. Shipyards in Cairo,
Illinois and St. Louis created more warships from modified steamboats. The Union Navy took control of the

Red, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers after victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson,
and supplied Grant's forces as he moved into Tennessee.
There was the famous battle of Shiloh from April 6-8, 1862 in southwestern Tennessee (in the Western
Theater of the American Civil War). The battle started when the Confederates made a surprise attack on
Union forces. This pushed the Union troops against the river as night fell. Overnight, the Navy landed
additional reinforcements and Grant counter attacked. Grant and the Union finally won a decisive victory.
This is the first battle of the Civil War with a high casualty rate which would be a pattern throughout the
Civil War. The Union advances continued. Memphis fell to Union forces and became a key base for further
advances south along the Mississippi River. By April of 1862, U.S. Naval forces under Farragut ran past
Confederate defenses south of New Orleans. Confederates abandoned the city of New Orleans, which gave
the Union a critical anchor in the Deep South. Many scholars have written about Karl Marx and the Civil
War. Regardless of how we view Karl Marx's economic views, he was right to mention that slavery was a big
factor of why the Civil War began in the first place. Engles or Marxs friend in letters feared that the Union
would lose the war, but Karl Marx reassured Engles that the Union would win and that slavery would be
gone in America. Also, Karl Marx corresponded with President Abraham Lincoln. They exchanged letters
during the end of the Civil War. In their letters, they disagreed on many issues. Yet, they agreed on ending
slavery and the growth of free labor. Karl Marx wrote: "The war of the Southern Confederacy is...not a war
of defense, but a war of conquest, a war of conquest for the extension and perpetuation of slavery."

Early Major Battles

President Abraham Lincoln pressured General McClellan to begin offensive operations in Virginia during
1862. By spring of 1862, McClellan attacked Virginia by way of the peninsula between the York and James
River. This was southeast of Richmond, where many of my kinfolks live at. McClellans army reaches the
gates of Richmond via his Peninsula Campaign. Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnson halted his
advance at the Battle of Seven Pines. Later, General Robert E. Lee (including top subordinates James
Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson) defeated McClellan in the Seven Days Battles and forced the Union
General McClellan to retreat. The Northern Virginia Campaign that included the Second Battle of Bull Run
ended in another victory for the South. McClellan resisted General-in-Chief Halleck's orders to send
reinforcements to John Pope's Union Army of Virginia, which made it easier for Lee's Confederates to
defeat twice the number of combined enemy troops. The summer of 1862, Confederate victories came
about in the Eastern Theater. Meanwhile, in the Western Theater, the Confederate armies of Generals

Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith moved into Kentucky and Tennessee and threatened Louisville and
Cincinnati. In the early 1860s, Frederick Douglas called for black people to fight on the Union side. He
wrote the following words:

Why does the government reject the Negro? Is he not a man? Can he not wield a sword, fire a gun,
march and countermarch, and obey orders like any other?...We do believe that such soldiers, if allowed
to take up arms in defense of the Government, and made to feel that they are hereafter to be recognized
as persons having rights, would set the highest example of order and general good behavior to their
fellow soldiers, and in every way add to the national power...[T]his is no time to fight with one hand,
when both are needed;...this is no time to fight only with your white hand, and allow your black hand to
remain tied
During the early stages of the Civil War, the Confederacy had many early victories. During the autumn of
1862, the Confederate campaign came into Maryland (a Union state). In June 7-8, 1862, there was the first
Battle of Chattanooga. The battle was an artillery battle.
After Mitchel received command of all Federal troops between Nashville and Huntsville on May 29, he
ordered Brig. Gen. James Negley with a small division to lead an expedition to capture Chattanooga. This
force arrived before Chattanooga on June 7. Negley ordered the 79th Pennsylvania Infantry out to
reconnoiter. It found the Confederates entrenched on the opposite side of the river along the banks and
atop Cameron Hill. Union General Negley brought up two artillery batteries to open fire on the rebel troops
and the town and sent infantry to the river bank to act as sharpshooters. The Union bombardment of
Chattanooga continued throughout June 7 and until noon on June 8. The Confederates replied, but it was
uncoordinated since the undisciplined gunners were allowed to do as they wished. On June 10, Smith, who
had arrived on June 8, 1862, reported that Negley had withdrawn and the Confederate loss was minor. This
attack on Chattanooga was a warning that Union troops could mount assaults when they wanted. The
Union was victorious.

"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 bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has
earned the right to citizenship."
-Frederick Douglass

On July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act. This action freed the slaves in
the Confederate army. The first African American unit of soldiers in the Civil War was the First Regiment
Kansas Colored Infantry. They formed in August of 1862. They were the first black American Union officers
to see battle. The recruiter of the First Kansas Colored was a man named James Henry Lane. This unit
fought Confederates in Butler, Missouri. They were braved and performed magnificently. "The blacks
behaved nobly," reported the Lawrence Republican, "and have demonstrated that they can and will fight."
According to the Republican's correspondent, Lieutenant W. H. Smallwood, "the battle of Toothman's
Mound [also Island Mound]," October 29, proved "that black men can fight," and they were "now prepared
to scour this country thoroughly, and not leave a place where a traitor can find refuge." On October 28,
1862, a detachment of 225 men faced 500 Confederates at Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri. Ten
were killed and 12 wounded, but the Confederates were driven off. The black American unit defeated the
enemy.
In the Western Theater, General Braxton Braggs second Confederate invasion of Kentucky had a victory
over Maj. General Carlos Buell at the Battle of Perryville. Bragg was later forced to end his attempt to
invading Kentucky because of a lack of support. The Confederates won the Battle of Chickamauga. There
was the heroic defensive stand of Union Maj. General Henry Thomas. The Second Bull Run Southern victory
caused the Confederacy to be motivated to invade much further into the North for the first time. General
Robert E. Lee led 45,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia to go across the Potomac River into
Maryland on September 5, 1862. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee
fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest
single day battle in United States military history. Later, the Confederates retreated at the Battle of
Antietam, which dissuaded British intervention. Robert E. Lees army returned to Virginia before McClellan
could completely destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the
North and provided an opportunity for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation.

The Union won the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky too. Abraham Lincoln wanted a victory, so he sacked the
conservative Democratic General George McClellan for McClellans refused to pursue the defeated
Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Many traitorous Cooperheads allied with McClellan too. The
Cooperheads were a group of pro-slavery northern Democrats who not only abhorred abolitionists, but
even wanted the Union to establish a peace treaty with the Confederacy. They opposed the Civil War.
Cooperheads are snakes, which is fitting name for them. Ohio congressman Clement L. Vallandigham was
one leader of the Cooperhead movement. The Knights of the Golden Circle was a powerful Cooperhead
organization. General McClellan was cautious, so Lincoln replaced him with Major General Ambrose
Burnside. Burnside was defeated in the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862. This battle caused
more than 12,000 Union soldiers to be killed or wounded. The frontal assaults against Maryes Heights
were futile. Union Maj. General Joseph Hooker replaced Burnside after this battle.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln soon issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which banned slavery in Confederate territories. The
Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on the date of January 1, 1863. It was
a very historic proclamation and it shaped Lincoln's political evolution. He was becoming more progressive
albeit slowly. Lincoln wanted to issue it after a great Union victory, which occurred. Afterwards, the Union
forces increased their motivation to end slavery as a war goal. Abolitionists (both Black and white)
organized meetings and demonstrations to oppose the Confederacy. Antislavery papers such as Frederick
Douglasss North Star or William Lloyd Garrisons The Liberator helped to sway public opinion. The
Abolitionists, the Radical Republicans (who were progressives), and others pressured Abraham Lincoln to
be more strong on not only defeating the Confederacy, but to end slavery once and for all. The
Emancipation Proclamation energized ex-slaves and it grew more black people into the Union armies. Not
only did Frederick Douglas encourage black people to fight for the Union. Two of his own sons joined the
Union Army. By the end of the Civil War, about 180,000 black men (or 10 percent of the Union Army)
served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died
over the duration of the Civil War (about 30,000 died because of infection or disease). There were black
carpenters, chaplains, guards, laborers, nurses, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, cooks, and teamsters in
the Union side. Black women served as nurses, spies, and scouts. Harriet Tubman was the famous scout (in
the Union) for the 2d South Carolina Volunteers. There was racism in the Union Army. Black soldiers were

not paid the equal money as compared to white soldiers. Black soldiers served with distinction in numerous
battles.

The draft persisted. States and local communities offered higher and higher cash bonuses for white
volunteers. Congress tightened the law in March 1863. Hooker was humiliated in the Battle of
Chancellorsville in May of 1863. This battle caused General Stonewall Jackson to be mortally wounded by
his own men during battle. He died as product of the complications. Hooker was gone and the Union Maj.
General George Meade replaced him. Meade fought during Lees second invasion of the North during June
of 1863. Abraham Lincoln readily replaced Generals since he wanted the best person for the job.

The Turning Point

One of the greatest strategists and tacticians of the Civil War was United States General Ulysses S. Grant.
He was trustworthy and he won victories at Fort Henry and Donelson. He allowed the Union to control the
Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. He won the Battle of Shiloh. He led the fight in the Battle of Vicksburg.
Vicksburg was a Confederate fortress. Once the Union won the battle of Vicksburg, it cemented Union
control of the Mississippi River. This caused the Union to cause more victories. Grant marched to the relief
of the Rosecrans and defeated Bragg at the Third Battle of Chattanooga. It drove the Confederates out of
Tennessee. This opened the route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy. The Union siege of
Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. By May 19, 1863, Grants army marched 180
miles through the Mississippi River. They fight and won five battles and later the Union forces surrounded
Vicksburg. Grants troops at first failed to attack the city, so Grant settles for a siege later on.

Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion in the North ended at the Battle of Gettysburg. This was one of the
most famous battles of the Civil War. It lasted from July 1 to 3, 1863. It was the bloodiest battle of the war
and it was a turning point. After the battle, the Union began to win the war in a decisive fashion. Meades
Union forces defeated Lees forces. Picketts Charge came on July 3. The Union suffered 23,000 casualties
and Lees army suffered 28,000 casualties. 29,000 rebels surrendered. The battle of Vicksburg was a huge
victory for the Union. On July 4, 1865, General John Pemberton, Confederate commander of the fortress of
Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrendered his entire 32,000-man garrison to Major General U.S. Grant. Grant's
brilliant and relentless seven-month long campaign to seize Vicksburg, culminating in a 48-day siege,
secured control of the entire extent of the Mississippi River for the commerce and military operations of
the Union, even as it split the Confederacy into two considerably weakened parts. After the fall of Vicksburg

in July 1863, General Kirby Smith in Texas was informed by Jefferson Davis that he could expect no further
help from east of the Mississippi River. Although he lacked resources to beat Union armies, he built up a
formidable arsenal at Tyler, along with his own Kirby Smithdom economy, a virtual "independent fiefdom"
in Texas, including railroad construction and international smuggling. The Union in turn did not directly
engage him. Texas remained in Confederate hands throughout the war. On July 18, 1863, the black
American 54th Massachusetts Infantry attacked Battery Wagner at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The
Infantry showed great courage.
Lincoln was angry that Meade failed to intercept Lee's retreat, and after Meade's inconclusive fall
campaign, Lincoln turned to the Western Theater for new leadership. At the same time, the Confederate
stronghold of Vicksburg surrendered, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, permanently
isolating the western Confederacy, and producing the new leader Lincoln needed, General Ulysses S. Grant.
In many places of the North and the South, the draft was unpopular. Men who were selected for the draft
can have substitutes or until mid-1864, pay commutation money. Many eligibles pooled their money to
cover the cost of anyone drafted. Families used the substitute provision to select which man should go into
the army and which should stay home. There was evasion and overt resistance to the U.S. draft in many
Catholic areas especially. There was the great racist draft riot in New York City on July of 1863. This involved
how many Irish immigrants voted for the citys Democratic political machine. This made them eligible for
the draft. Many people (including newspaper reports) scapegoated black people in NYC for the economic
situation in New York City. White racist riots (about 50,000 mostly Irish people) burned buildings and
murdered innocent black men, black women, and black children in those riots.
Confederate gangs like the Quantrills Raiders stroke military places and civilian settlements in Missouri and
Kansas. On August 21, 1863, Confederate William C. Quantrills guerilla raid on Lawrence, Kansas killed 150
civilians. A regular Union infantry division ended the Quantrills Raiders reign of terror against human
beings. On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln spoke of the Gettysburg Address. He dedicated a
battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His speech was one of his greatest speeches. It was
delivered in the afternoon at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery. The speech was short only
lasting 2 minutes, but it eloquently talked about the principles of human equality and the words from the
Declaration of Independence. He spoke about the Civil War as a struggle for not only the preservation of
the Union (which has been in danger of collapsing via secession), but the war would result in a new birth
of freedom that would bring true equality to all of its citizens. Edward Everett gave a two hour oration
before Abraham Lincoln gave his address. It is ironic that Abraham Lincoln said that people will not
remember what he would say, but over 150 years later, people of every color and of every creed would
remember exactly what he would say in Gettysburg on 1863.

This is an actual photo of President Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863

Abraham Lincolns statements during his Gettysburg Address are the following words:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in
liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before usthat from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotionthat we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vainthat this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedomand that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth..

These images show the ruins of Atlanta in 1864. The image to the right shows Peachtree Street in
Atlanta.

The Union Continues to Advance

Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864. Grant made his
headquarters with the Army of the Potomac. He put the Maj. General William Tecumseh Sherman (he was
known for his racism and abrasive personality) in command of most of the Union western armies. Grant
knew about the concept of total war. He and others believed that the Confederacy must be utterly
defeated and their economic base must fall if the Union were to win the war. Lincoln and definitely
Sherman believed in this philosophy. Total war was not about killing civilians (according to its proponents),
but it did involve taking provisions and forage. Some people destroyed homes, farms, and railroads (which
were controlled by the rebels). Grant formed a coordinated policy. He wanted to strike the entire
Confederacy from many different directions. Generals George Meade and Benjamin Butler were ordered to
go against Lee near Richmond. General Franz Sigel (and later General Philip Sheridan) was to attack the
Shenandoah Valley. General Sherman was to capture Atlanta and March to the sea or the Atlantic Ocean.
Generals George Crook and William W. Averell were to go against railroad supply lines in West Virginia.
Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks was to capture Mobile, Alabama. Grants army went on the Overland
Campaign, which tried to draw Lee into the defense of Richmond. Therefore, Lees forces would get pin
down and destroy Confederate process. The Union army made their offensive at Wilderness, Spotsylvania
and Cold Harbor. Both sides suffered heavily losses. Lees Confederate troops fell back repeatedly. Lee
made a comeback against Butler being trapped in the Bermuda Hundred river bend. The Union had
setbacks, but Grant never gave up. He was tenacious and kept pressing Lees Army of Northern Virginia
back to Richmond.
On April 12, 1864, there was Massacre at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. 431 people
died. It occurred in Henning, Tennessee. The battle ended with the massacre of Federal Union troops, most
of them were black African Americans. These federal troops were attempting to surrender. Confederal
Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest was in the battle. Military historian David J. Eicher concluded, "Fort
Pillow marked one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history." A 2002 study by Albert
Castel concluded that the Union forces were indiscriminately massacred after Fort Pillow "had ceased
resisting or was incapable of resistance." General Ulysses S. Grant wrote about the Massacre in the
following terms: The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered for two hundred yards. The
approximate loss was upward of five hundred killed, but few of the officers escaping. My loss was about

twenty killed. It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that Negro soldiers
cannot cope with Southerners
To the west, by the summer of 1864, the Union destroyed the Confederate river naval ships. Lee prepared
for a Union attack on Richmond. Grant later used the tactic of crossing the James River and began the Siege
of Petersburg. Both armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months. Grant used the new
commander General Philip Sheridan to be aggressive enough to prevail in the Valley Campaigns of 1864.
Sheridan was at first repelled at the Battle of New Market by former U.S. Vice President and Confederate
Gen. John C. Breckinridge. The Battle of New Market was the Confederacy's last major victory of the war.
After redoubling his efforts, Sheridan defeated Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early in a series of battles, including a
final decisive defeat at the Battle of Cedar Creek. Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural base
of the Shenandoah Valley, a strategy similar to the tactics Sherman later employed in Georgia. Sherman
maneuvered from Chattanooga to Atlanta. He defeated Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John
Bell Hood along the way.
Many Union soldiers were still racist and other Union soldiers wanted to use the Civil War as a means to
end slavery in America. There is one note from a 43 year old farmer. He was in a Michigan regime. He wrote
the following note to his wife shortly before he was killed during the late summer of 1864. He wrote the
following words:

The more I learn of the cursed institution of Slavery, the more I feel willing to endure, for its final
destructionAfter the war is over, this whole country will undergo a change for the betterAbolishing
slavery will dignify labor; that fact of itself will revolutionize everythinglet Christians use all their
influence to have justice done to the black man
We will always remember the Civil War.

Glory is a great film. I have seen it plenty of times

and it gives great honor to the black Union soldiers who
courageously sacrificed their lives to end the scourge of

slavery and injustice. We will always honor the 54th

Regiment of the Massachusetts forever.

The End of the War

The fall of Atlanta came about on September 2, 1864. This guaranteed the reelection of Abraham Lincoln as
President. Abraham Lincoln would be reelected as President for a second term on November 8, 1864. He
received more than 55 percent of the popular vote. Hood left Atlanta and swing around and menace
Sherman's supply lines and invade Tennessee in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. Union Maj. Gen. John
Schofield defeated Hood at the Battle of Franklin, and George H. Thomas dealt Hood a massive defeat at
the Battle of Nashville, effectively destroying Hood's army. General Sherman continued his March to the
Sea. 20 percent of the farms of Georgia were destroyed in the process. He reached the Atlantic Ocean at
Savannah, Georgia in December 1864.

This map shows how Union General Sherman traveled into Atlanta, then into Savannah, Georgia. Later,
Sherman forces traveled up into the Carolinas (throughout Columbia, etc.) where Confederate General
Johnston surrendered in North Carolina on April 26, 1865. Confederate General Hood would surrender and
be paroled on May 31, 1865 in Natchez, Mississippi. The Civil War ended in a series of events.
On February 19, 1865, Confederate forces abandoned Charleston, South Carolina. On March 3, 1865, the
Union Congress creates the Freedmens Bureau (an organization to help newly freed black slaves and black
people in general to live their own lives). Robert E. Lees army became smaller and smaller by desertion and
causalities. One of the last Confederate attempts to break the Union hold on Petersburg failed at the
decisive Battle of Five Forks. This battle was called the Waterloo of the Confederacy on April 1, 1865. After
that battle, the Union controlled the entire perimeter surrounding Richmond-Petersburg, completely
cutting it off from the Confederacy. Realizing that the capital was now lost, Lee decided to evacuate his
army. The Confederate capital Richmond fell to the Union XXV Corps, composed of black troops. The
remaining Confederate units fled west and after a defeat at Sayler's Creek. Lee didnt want to surrender at
first, but regroup at the village of Appomattox Court House where supplies were to be waiting (and he
could continue the war). Yet, Grant had other plans. Grant chased Lee and got in front of him. Therefore,
when Lees army reached Appomattox Court House, they were surrounded. After an initial battle, Lee
decided that the fight was now hopeless, and so he surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9,
1865, at the Appomattox Church. In an untraditional gesture and as a sign of Grant's respect and
anticipation of peacefully restoring Confederate states to the Union, Lee was permitted to keep his sword
and his horse, Traveller. After Lees surrender, Union forces, black people, and other human beings cheered
for joy.

This image above shows a photograph of the actual 2nd Presidential Inaugural Address that President
Abraham Lincoln gave on March 4, 1865.

President Lincolns Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865 was much more progressive than his
previous speeches. In this speech, Lincoln condemned slavery and desired a unified America. He spoke the
following in his Second Inaugural Address:

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union,
but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All
knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this
interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the
Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party
expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that
the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for
an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to
the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare
to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us
judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been
answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it
must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."
If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God,
must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove,
and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense
came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living
God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war
may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with
the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it
must be said "the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall
have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations
President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 was shot by John Wilkes Booth while in Fords Theater in
Washington, D.C. That date was on Good Friday too. He died a day later in the morning. We do know that
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a conspiracy. John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell, David Herold,
Mary Surratt, and others were involved in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. John
Wilkes Booth was an evil man. On April 11, 1865, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the White House where
he said that he supported the idea of enfranchising the former slaves. This caused John Wilkes Booth to be
infuriated and Booth soon killed Lincoln.
Andrew Johnson became President. Meanwhile, Confederate forces across the South surrendered as news
of Lee's surrender reached them. President Andrew Johnson officially declared a virtual end to the
insurrection. On May 9, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured the following day. On
June 23, 1865, Cherokee leader Stand Watie was the last Confederate General to surrender his forces.
Reconstruction came after the Civil War. Reconstruction was a time of massive changes. Black people were
in state governments. Later, the white racist backlash via the Klan, the Black Codes, etc. continued to
oppress black people in America. It would take more struggle to end Jim Crow apartheid in America.

The American Civil War was one of the first true industrial wars. There was massive usage of railroads,
steamships, and mass produced weapons. There was the mobilization of factories, mines, shipyards, banks,
etc. About 750,000 soldiers died in the Civil War including thousands of civilians. The end of the Civil War
caused overt, legalized physical slavery to end and it destroyed the slave-owners power as a class. The war
caused revolutionary changes in American society. It was one chapter in the overall human rights struggle
for justice and equality. We will always remember the Civil War. Black people were a crucial factor in why
the Union won the Civil War too. The Civil War became a revolutionary struggle of people to end overt,

legalized slavery (and to free black human beings in America). A final great point is to be mentioned as well.
The fight for justice is not over. There are numerous cops killing innocent people in broad daylight with
impunity. We see unjust laws. We see the growth of Empire (with the extension of the military industrial
complex) and income inequality. We still witness other injustices. So, the end of the Civil War didn't end
the system of racism/white supremacy. That is why we have to continue to defend truth, speak truth,
and fight for justice as human beings.

We give honor and appreciation to the men and to the women who
fought and died (during the Civil War) for the cause of freedom for all
people.

Justice is indivisible.
By Timothy