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The Southern War Efforts

Introduction

The Civil War marked one of the great defining moments in U.S. history. Long-simmering sectional tensions reached a critical stage in 1860-61 when 11 slaveholding states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. Nothing in the nation's history had prepared Americans for the scale of military fury and social disruption that ensued. Four years of fighting claimed more than 1 million military casualties (of whom at least 620,000 died), directly affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and freed 4 million enslaved African Americans.

Discussion

Also known as the "War for Southern Independence," the conflict continues to fascinate professional historians, novelists, filmmakers, and millions of Americans interested in history. Before the sectional disruption, the American republic had survived diplomatic and military crises and internal stresses. It weathered tensions with France in the late 1790s, a second war with Britain in 1812-15, and disputes regarding international boundaries. Political debates over economic issues such as the tariff, a national bank, and government-supported public works provoked dissension but posed no serious threat to the integrity of the Union. Despite divisions along ethnic and class lines, the majority of Americans had much in common. They were white, Christian, spoke English, and celebrated a shared heritage forged in the crucible of the Revolutionary War (Victoria, pp. 51).

Historians have debated whether the North and South had become markedly different societies by 1860. Some portray the Free-Soil North, with its commercial and industrial interests, as an emerging capitalist giant at odds with an overwhelmingly agrarian South, where most capital was invested in land and slaves. Others insist that the North and South were far more alike than different. It is clear that by the late 1850s many Americans believed there were fundamental differences between the sections. More ominously, a significant number ...