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Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an abolitionist novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is about the injustices to slavery, pushing back against dominant cultural beliefs about the physical and emotional capacities of black people. The author’s main goal for the book was to convince a large Northern readership of the necessity of ending slavery. The book achieved wide popularity particularly among whiter readers in the North.
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Abraham Lincoln wrote a speech for the election. His speech focused on the unity of the United States and equality for everyone. Abraham Lincoln had opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories but did not favor slavery being abolished in slave states. Lincoln also used his powers as commander in chief of the armed forces to issue the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in the rebel states of the confederacy.
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Fort Sumter is most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War. On April 13, a cannon fire had broken through the fortress that had caused fires inside the post. No Union troops had been killed during the bombardment. The bombardment of Fort Sumter played a major part in triggering the Civil War.
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The First Battle of Bull Run had marked the first major land battle on the American Civil War. The First Battle of Bull Run cost some 3,000 Union casualties and 1,750 casualties for the Confederate. Although the Union forces had outnumbered the Confederates, the Confederates had won the battle. The experience of the Confederate soldiers proved the difference.
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The Peninsula Campaign was to advance on and capture the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia. The Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days’ Battle signified a turning point for the war. Robert E. Lee’s appointment and overall strategic victory during the campaign secured Richmond for the short term and gave the Confederates the strategic initiative in the east.
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The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack is famous because it was the first clash between ironclad warships. They kept firing cannonballs after cannonballs at each other but failed to sink each other. Eventually, both of the ships had left the battle. The wooden ships would no longer usable after this battle and had changed the course of naval warfare.
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The Battle of Shiloh was a crucial success for the Union Army, led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of Tennessee. It allowed Grant to begin a massive operation in the Mississippi Valley later that year. The Battle of Shiloh had also robbed the Confederacy leader, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston.
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The Battle of Antietam was a decisive engagement that halted the Confederate invasion of Maryland, an advance that was regarded as one of the greatest Confederate threats to Washington, D.C. The battle gave Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, which discouraged the British and French governments from pursuing any potential plans to recognize the Confederacy.
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The Battle of Fredericksburg saw more troops engaged than any other battle of the American Civil War with almost 200,000 men. It also involved the first major opposed river crossing in the nation's history. The Union had about 120,000 soldiers, while the Confederate side had 80,000 troops. In the end, the Union forces lost about 13,000 troops, while the South lost 5,000 troops.
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The Emancipation Proclamation had confirmed the slave's insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. The proclamation had declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free. Although the proclamation didn’t end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts of millions of Americans.
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The Battle of Chancellorsville was a huge victory for the Confederacy and General Robert E. Lee. It was famous for being the battle in which General Thomas Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded. Lee had faced a force twice his size. He split his army in two and had made a tactical victory.
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Grant’s unsuccessful attacks gave him no choice but to invest Vicksburg in a siege. Pemberton’s defenders suffered from shortened rations, exposure to the elements, and constant bombardment from Grant’s army and navy gunboats. The Siege of Vicksburg was a great victory for the Union. It gave control of the Mississippi River to the Union. These two victories marked the major turning point of the Civil War in favor of the Union.
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The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is the war's turning point. Two armies Union Maj. Gen. George Meade's Army and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. Lee’s objective was to engage and destroy the Union army. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle, the most costly in US history.
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In the middle of the American Civil War, Congress had passed a law about having all men ages 20-45 be responsible for military service. The government attempted to enforce the draft and it made the most destructive civil disturbance in the city’s history. The rioters had torched government buildings and fought pitched battles with troops. About 1,155 people were killed from this event.
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The Virginia Campaign was also known as the Overland Campaign. The campaign was the bloodiest campaign of the American Civil War. The campaign was a strategic success for the North because Ulysses Grant had hindered the South to send reinforcements to halt the campaigns of Philip Sheridan.
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The Battle of Cold Harbor was a disastrous defeat for the Union army during the civil war. The battle was a two-week engagement that left more than 18,000 soldiers, killed, wounded, or captured. This battle was Robert E. Lee’s last large-scale field victory. The battle was a strategic turning point in the Civil War.
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The Battle of Atlanta was an American Civil War engagement that was part of the Union’s summer Atlanta Campaign. Although the Union victory caused heavy casualties on John Bell Hood’s army, Atlanta wouldn’t fall to William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman had succeeded in the cutting of Atlanta killing, wounding, or capturing over 10 percent of Hood’s army. The repeated victories at Atlanta and the eventual capture of the city strengthened the reelection campaign for Abraham Lincoln.
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The 13th Amendment was necessary because the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery entirely. The amendment had forever abolished slavery as an institution in all U.S. states and territories.
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Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant to effectively end the American Civil War. Lee was forced to abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond and had no other option but to surrender.
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Abraham Lincoln’s assassination dramatically changed the Reconstruction era. Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated just five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Courthouse ending the war between the States. John Wilkes Booth had assassinated Abraham Lincoln and had fled from the capital.
