Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

94 American Civil War BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

erners in Congress were not happy with

this. Congress therefore could not agree

about what to do. Finally, Maine asked

to join the country as a free state, or a

state that would not allow slavery. Congress

then agreed to let Missouri join as

a slave state and Maine join as a free

state. This became known as the Missouri

Compromise of 1820. The Compromise

also banned slavery north of

Missouri’s southern border.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

The Missouri Compromise lasted until

Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska

Act in 1854. The act created Kansas and

Nebraska as new territories in the area

where slavery was supposed to be forbidden.

Yet the act allowed the people of

the territories to choose whether or not

to allow slavery. In Kansas the act led to

armed conflict. On one side were Southerners

who supported slavery. On the

other side were Northern abolitionists,

who wanted to end slavery.

The Confederacy and the Union

Southerners became more upset when

Abraham Lincoln was elected U.S. president

in 1860. Lincoln belonged to the

Republican Party, which opposed slavery.

Southern states decided to secede

(withdraw) from the United States to

protect their right to keep slaves. South

A map shows where the major battles of the American Civil War took place.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA American Civil War 95

 

Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,

Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia,

Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee

seceded. They formed a government

called the Confederate States of

America, or the Confederacy. Jefferson

Davis was the Confederate president.

The states that stayed loyal to the

United States were called the Union.

Four states—Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland,

and Delaware—stayed in the

Union even though they allowed slavery.

They were called border states. In addition,

the western counties of Virginia

refused to join the Confederacy. They

later joined the Union as the state of

West Virginia.

Going into the war the Union had several

advantages over the Confederacy. It

had more people, more industries, and

more railroads. But the Confederacy had

better military leaders.

Events of theWar

Fighting broke out in 1861 and lasted

until 1865. By the end of 1861 two

major battlefronts had developed. One

was in the East, where Virginia, Maryland,

and Pennsylvania suffered most of

the fighting. The other front was in the

West. That front started along the Mississippi

River and then spread.

1861

The American CivilWar began on April

12, 1861, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Confederate troops captured Fort

Sumter from the Union Army. Afterward

both sides quickly raised armies.

The first major battle of the war was

fought on July 21. About 30,000 Union

troops marched toward the Confederate

capital of Richmond, Virginia. The

Confederates stopped them at a stream

named Bull Run, near the town of

Manassas. The Union troops were forced

back toWashington, D.C. The defeat

shocked the Union.

1862

Union forces had some success in the

West in 1862. In February Union troops

under General Ulysses S. Grant captured

Confederate forts in western Tennessee.

These included Fort Henry and Fort

Donelson. In April Grant led the Union

to victory in the battle of Shiloh, near

Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. Then the

Union navy took the city of New

Orleans.

The war’s most notable battle at sea was

fought in Virginia in March 1862. It

was the first battle ever fought between

ships that were covered with iron. Nei-

There were 21

million Northerners

and

only 9 million

Southerners at

the time of the

American Civil

War. More

than one third

of the Southerners

were

slaves.

Many African Americans fought in the

Union Army. Members of the 107th U.S.

Colored Infantry pose for a photograph in

Virginia in 1865.

96 American Civil War BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

ther the Confederacy’s Merrimack nor

the Union’s Monitor could win a clear

victory.

General Robert E. Lee led the Confederacy

to important victories in the East.

In August 1862 his forces won a second

battle at Bull Run. Then Lee invaded

the North. Union troops stopped the

Confederates at Antietam Creek, Maryland,

in September. But in December

Lee’s troops defeated Union troops at

Fredericksburg, Virginia.

1863

At the start of the war President Lincoln

wanted mainly to keep the United States

together. Ending slavery was not his

main goal. This changed after the battle

of Antietam. The Union victory encouraged

Lincoln to issue a statement called

the Emancipation Proclamation. The

proclamation freed all slaves in Confederate

states. As a result of the proclamation,

many blacks joined the Union

Army.

In May 1863 Lee defeated Union forces

near Chancellorsville, Virginia. Then he

again invaded the North. Lee suffered

his first big defeat in July at Gettysburg,

Pennsylvania.

The battle of Gettysburg turned the war

in favor of the Union. A day later Grant

captured the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi,

for the Union. Then the Union

controlled the entire Mississippi River.

In November 1863 Grant and General

William Tecumseh Sherman drove the

Confederates out of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1864–65