The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of tensions
between the northern and southern states over slavery, states' rights and
westward expansion.
The United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth, however, a
fundamental economic difference existed between the country's northern and
southern regions. In the North, manufacturing and industry was well
established, and agriculture was mostly limited to small-scale farms, while
the South's economy was based on a system of large-scale farming that
depended on the labor of Black enslaved people to grow certain crops,
especially cotton and tobacco.
In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which essentially
opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular
sovereignty over congressional edict. Pro- and anti-slavery forces struggled
violently in 'Bleeding Kansas,' while opposition to the act in the North led
to the formation of the Republican Party, a new political party based on the
principle of opposing slavery's extension into the western territories.
Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and northern
opposition to slavery's extension into the new western territories led many
southerners to fear that the existence of slavery in America - and thus the
backbone of their economy - was in danger. The election of Abraham Lincoln in
1860 was the final straw and caused seven southern states to secede and form
the Confederate States of America; four more states soon joined them.
Even as Lincoln took office in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the
federal-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12, after
Lincoln ordered a fleet to resupply Sumter, Confederate artillery fired the
first shots of the Civil War.
The War Between the States, as the Civil War was also known, was a bitter
conflict that often pitted family members against one another. The
photographs, seen here, depict the battle-weary men who fought in the bloody
conflict between 1861 and 1865, either for the survival of the Union or a
strike out into independence for the Confederates. Enjoy! :)
Getty Image
, Lincoln Election Map
An undated Civil War-era picture of Union Army provost marshals - During the
Civil War, these were the military police in charge of keeping order among both
soldiers and civilians. They often went after deserters or civilians suspected
of disloyalty.
A Union cemetery circa 1863. * Around 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed,
millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin in the Civil War -
following the Vietnam War, the amount of American deaths in foreign conflicts
eclipsed the number who died in the Civil War.
Union General 'Fighting Joe' Hooker pictured on his trusty steed in Washington DC
in 1862. He had a reputation as a hard-living ladies' man, and was best known for
his spectacular defeat by Confederate General Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville
in 1863.
Abraham Lincoln (left) meets with General McClellan, a Union army leader.
Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States, while Jefferson Davis
was the head of the Confederates.
Union Army General Samuel Heintzelman inspects wreckage of horses and carts
during the Civil War. During the long-running conflict, he was a prominent
figure rising to the command of a corps.
A Union drummer boy and sergeants in 1862. Drummer boys, who were often very
young, played an important role in the Civil War - as officers' orders were
given as a series of drumbeats during battle so they could be heard above the
noise and confusion.
Admiral Dahlgren (second left) and staff on the USS Pawnee. He was made
Commander of the Washington Navy Yard and then chief of the Bureau of
Ordnance during the Civil War.
Union company in the field, around 1863 in the midst of some of the Civil War's
heaviest fighting including the Battle of Gettysburg.
Union troops at parade rest in 1863. The war was fought between the Northern
states, known as the Union, and Southern states, known as the Confederates of
America, and took place between 1861 and 1865.
A portrait of a Union soldier. The death toll during the Civil War was catastrophic
for the country - it has been estimated that 10 per cent of all Northern males,
between the ages of 20 and 45 died, while 30 per cent of all Southern white males died.
A Civil War Hospital in Washington DC. Two-thirds of death during the war
were due to disease - dysentery and typhoid fever were the biggest killers
of the men.
A civil war photographer watches from a hill as the Union Army advance. Almost a
million troops went on to battle each other along a line that, by the end of 1861,
stretched 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri.
General Daniel Butterfield and his company using a cannon - the general was one
of 1,522 recipients of the Medal of Honor during the four years of the war.
The Signal Corps, pictured, was founded in 1863 - it developed communications
networks and information systems during the war under the direction of Army
Major Albert J. Myer.
Sailors aboard the warship USS Lehigh, pictured in 1863. The vessel took part in
the attacks on Fort Sumter in September 1863.
A large Rodman Cannon protects New York Harbor - the guns were designed to fire
both shot and shell and protect the sea coast.
A group of sailors aboard the USS Wabash around 1864. The steam frigate was the
lead vessel of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron which enforced a blockade of
the ports of the Confederate States.
Father Mooney performs mass with the 69th infantry - the regiment had three
units from New York. One in particular, the Irish Brigade was known for being
fierce in the face of dangerous missions.
Burying corpses at the height of the Civil War in 1863 - some estimates reveal
that the North lost 10 per cent of white men aged 20-45 and the South lost around
30 per cent of white men the same age.
Haven for Confederate sharpshooters in Georgia is riddled with bullet holes and
shell damage during the Civil War.
Georgia tracks destroyed by Confederate troops as part of a campaign of
sabotage against the armies of the Union.
Union company filing out of a fort around 1862 - by that summer, the Union had
destroyed the Confederate river navy and then much of their western armies.
In 1863, during the American Civil War, Pres. Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million enslaved
people living in the Confederate states to be free. More than two years
would pass, however, before the news reached African Americans living in
Texas. It was not until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on
June 19, 1865, that the state's residents finally learned that slavery had
been abolished. The formerly enslaved immediately began to celebrate with
prayer, feasting, song, and dance.
The following year, on June 19, the first official Juneteenth celebrations
took place in Texas. It marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas
were told they were free, and became a federal holiday in 2021.
Image Source
President Andrew Johnson and the Federal Army in 1865. Johnson took over as
president during the Civil War after Abraham Lincoln was shot.
* In 2011, American historian J. David Hacker reported research he had conducted
comparing male and female survival rates in U.S. censuses between 1850 and 1880.
Hacker believes, and his assertions have been supported by other historians,
that the most probable number of deaths attributable to the Civil War is 750,000,
and that the number may have been as much as 850,000. Hacker found that 10% of
white men of military age died between 1860 and 1870 - one in ten in the US.
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