The Civil War
The Civil War began more as a battle over the preservation
of the Union than as a battle over slavery. Many felt that the real
issue at stake was the question of states’ rights versus federal
power—whether states could secede from the Union in protest against
federal policy, regardless of whether that policy concerned slavery
or another issue, such as tariffs. Slavery was therefore considered
the catalyst for the nation’s rupture, but not the primary cause.
It was not until Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation that slavery
emerged as the central issue at stake.
In the East, the Union Army aimed to capture the Confederate
capital of Richmond, Virginia. Most of the early battles ended in
stalemate, with both sides suffering devastating losses. After a
Southern victory in June 1862, Confederate general Robert
E. Lee led his forces on a powerful march northward from
Virginia, aiming to break Union lines. What followed, in September
17, 1862, was the bloodiest single-day battle in the Civil War:
the Battle of Antietam, in which more than 8,000 men
died on the field and 18,000 were wounded. Though a strategic draw,
the battle proved a Union victory in that Lee halted his Confederate
advance northward. Lincoln responded to this victory by issuing
the Emancipation Proclamation.
General Lee struck northward into Pennsylvania in July
1863, but was again blocked by a strong Union defense. In the three-day Battle
of Gettysburg, 90,000 Union soldiers battled 75,000 Confederates
and secured a Union victory. The losses were ruinous to both sides:
a total of 7,000 soldiers died on the field and 40,000 were wounded.
Although fighting would continue for more than a year after the
Battle of Gettysburg, the battle proved a decisive victory for the
Union, and the war thereafter tilted in the Union’s favor. Later
that year, Lincoln delivered his famed Gettysburg Address,
in which he portrayed the war as a test of democracy’s strength.
In the West, the Union experienced successes much earlier
on. Led by General Ulysses S. Grant, the Union secured
control of the Mississippi River and moved southward. At the Battle
of Shiloh, in April 1862, Grant’s troops were ambushed by Confederates,
but Grant proved victorious. Both sides suffered heavy losses, as
nearly one-third of the 77,000 men involved were killed.
The Emancipation Proclamation
Early in the war, Union officials were uncertain how to
treat Southern slaves who fled to the North or were captured by
the army. Lincoln was cautious in his approach to this matter, since
the Union contained four slave states and many pro-slavery Democrats.
He vaguely supported the policy of confiscation, in which slaves
who had worked for the Confederate military were considered captives
of war and put to work for the Union army. Each Union loss in the
war, however, made emancipation a more attractive recourse, since slave
labor drove the Southern economy and allowed the Confederacy to
devote more white men to war. Lincoln eventually came to favor emancipation,
and only awaited the right moment to announce his decision.
After the Union victory at Antietam in September
1862, Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,
declaring all slaves under rebel control free as of January 1, 1863. The
final Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January
1. In practice, the Proclamation freed very few slaves because it
did not affect the slave states within the Union or the parts of the
Confederacy under Union control. But as a political move, it proved
decisive and brilliant. The proclamation mobilized the support of
European liberals (Great Britain and France had outlawed slavery
earlier in the century), and it appeased the Radical Republicans in
Congress. Abolishing slavery thus became one of the Union’s primary
objectives for war, along with preserving the Union.
The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves
under rebel control on January 1, 1863. Though the practical effect
of the proclamation on Southern slaves was slight, it proved a brilliant
The Emancipation Proclamation did significantly affect
the war by bolstering the Union’s forces. After the Proclamation,
the Union began to enlist black soldiers in conquered areas of the
South. In all, almost 200,000 blacks enlisted. By the end of the
war, black soldiers comprised almost one-tenth of the Union Army.
Although blacks were paid less than whites and assigned to less
desirable posts, their military service was an important symbol of
In early 1864, Lincoln appointed General Ulysses S. Grant
commander of all Union armies. The string of Union victories that
followed that summer, especially General William T. Sherman’s victories
in Georgia, helped Lincoln win reelection in 1864. Union forces continued
to rout the Confederate Army after Lincoln’s reelection, destroying
much of Georgia and South Carolina in what is known as Sherman’s
March to the Sea: Sherman and his troops first burned Atlanta,
and then marched toward the coast, demolishing everything in their
way, including railroads and factories. Sherman estimated that his
forces ruined $100 million worth of property.
One month after Sherman’s forces conquered Charleston,
South Carolina, Grant took the Confederacy capital in Richmond,
Virginia. Robert E. Lee’s forces officially surrendered to Grant
on April 9, 1865. One month later, Confederacy President Jefferson
Davis was captured in Georgia.