short essay about the civil war

A Brief Overview of the American Civil War

The Civil War is the central event in America's historical consciousness. While the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world.

Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of 625,000 lives--nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several small, squabbling countries.

The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Claiming this United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened fire on the federal garrison and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this "insurrection." Four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy. By the end of 1861 nearly a million armed men confronted each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri. Several battles had already taken place--near Manassas Junction in Virginia, in the mountains of western Virginia where Union victories paved the way for creation of the new state of West Virginia, at Wilson's Creek in Missouri, at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, and at Port Royal in South Carolina where the Union navy established a base for a blockade to shut off the Confederacy's access to the outside world.

But the real fighting began in 1862. Huge battles like Shiloh in Tennessee, Gaines' Mill , Second Manassas , and Fredericksburg in Virginia, and Antietam in Maryland foreshadowed even bigger campaigns and battles in subsequent years, from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to Vicksburg on the Mississippi to Chickamauga and Atlanta in Georgia. By 1864 the original Northern goal of a limited war to restore the Union had given way to a new strategy of "total war" to destroy the Old South and its basic institution of slavery and to give the restored Union a "new birth of freedom," as President Lincoln put it in his address at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed in the battle there.

For three long years, from 1862 to 1865, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia staved off invasions and attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by a series of ineffective generals until Ulysses S. Grant came to Virginia from the Western theater to become general in chief of all Union armies in 1864. After bloody battles at places with names like The Wilderness , Spotsylvania , Cold Harbor , and Petersburg , Grant finally brought Lee to bay at Appomattox in April 1865. In the meantime Union armies and river fleets in the theater of war comprising the slave states west of the Appalachian Mountain chain won a long series of victories over Confederate armies commanded by hapless or unlucky Confederate generals. In 1864-1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman led his army deep into the Confederate heartland of Georgia and South Carolina, destroying their economic infrastructure while General George Thomas virtually destroyed the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee at the battle of Nashville . By the spring of 1865 all the principal Confederate armies surrendered, and when Union cavalry captured the fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia on May 10, 1865, resistance collapsed and the war ended. The long, painful process of rebuilding a united nation free of slavery began.

Learn More:  This Day in the Civil War

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Short Essay: Civil War

Crafting a short essay on a topic as expansive as the Civil War can be a daunting task. The key to success lies in focusing your argument, conducting thorough research, and presenting your findings in a clear, concise manner. Below is a guide designed to help you write a compelling essay on the Civil War, covering everything from initial research to final proofreading.

Table of Contents

Understanding the Assignment

Before you begin, ensure you understand the requirements of the assignment. What is the prompt asking you to discuss? Is there a specific angle or topic you need to focus on, such as the causes of the Civil War, a particular battle, or the ramifications of the conflict? Clarifying these points will help you stay on topic and avoid unnecessary tangents.

Initial Research and Thesis Development

Start with a broad overview of the Civil War to help you narrow down your focus. Books, academic journals, and reputable online sources can provide a solid foundation of knowledge. As you research, look for a specific aspect of the Civil War that interests you and has sufficient material to explore in a short essay.

From your research, develop a thesis statement that presents your central argument. A strong thesis is specific and debatable, guiding the direction of your essay. For example, if you’re discussing the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might argue that while slavery was the central issue, other political and economic factors also played crucial roles.

Crafting an Outline

An outline is invaluable for organizing your thoughts and ensuring you cover all necessary points. For a 1200-word essay, a simple structure might include:

Mastering the Short Essay: Writing About the Civil War

Crafting a short essay on a topic as expansive as the Civil War can be a daunting task. The key to success lies in focusing your argument, conducting thorough research, and presenting your findings in a clear, concise manner. Below is a guide designed to help you write a compelling 1200-word essay on the Civil War, covering everything from initial research to final proofreading.

• Hook to engage the reader
• Background information
• Thesis statement
• Paragraph 1: Major cause or event with supporting evidence
• Paragraph 2: Another cause or event with supporting evidence
• Paragraph 3: Further analysis or an additional supporting point
• (Each paragraph should have a clear topic sentence and provide analysis, not just description)
• Restate the thesis in a new way
• Summarize key points
• Provide final thoughts or implications of your argument

Writing the Introduction

Begin your essay with a compelling hook, such as a provocative question, a brief anecdote, or a startling statistic related to the Civil War. Provide necessary background information that sets the stage for your thesis, and conclude the introduction with your thesis statement, clearly laying out what your essay will argue.

Developing the Body Paragraphs

Each body paragraph should focus on one main idea that supports your thesis. Start with a topic sentence that clearly states the paragraph’s main point. Follow this with evidence from your research, including quotes, statistics, and historical examples. Be sure to analyze the evidence, explaining how it supports your argument. Transition smoothly between paragraphs to maintain a cohesive narrative.

Writing the Conclusion

Your conclusion should restate your thesis in a new light, considering the evidence and analysis you’ve presented. Summarize the main points of your essay and end with a strong final thought that underscores the significance of your argument. Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion.

Integrating Sources

When citing sources, follow the required citation style (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.) and ensure that all quotations and paraphrased material are properly attributed. This not only gives credit to the original authors but also strengthens the credibility of your own work.

Editing and Proofreading

After completing your draft, take a break before revising. Editing is crucial for clarity and conciseness. Check that each sentence and paragraph contributes to your thesis and that your argument flows logically. Look for areas where you can tighten your prose and eliminate redundancy.

Proofreading is the final step. Read your essay carefully for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. Reading aloud can help you catch mistakes that your eyes might skip when reading silently.

Additional Tips

• Stay within the word count. It’s easy to become engrossed in the vast history of the Civil War, but discipline is key to maintaining a concise essay.
• Use primary sources such as speeches, letters, and official documents to provide a firsthand perspective on the Civil War.
• Understand the limitations of your essay. You cannot cover everything about the Civil War in 1200 words, so focus on a particular aspect or argument.
• Maintain an objective tone, especially when discussing controversial or sensitive topics. Present evidence fairly and acknowledge counterarguments where appropriate.

Example of a Short Civil War Essay Structure

Introduction (150 words)

• Hook: Present an intriguing fact about the Civil War’s impact.
• Background: Briefly outline the period leading up to the war.
• Thesis: State your argument regarding the primary cause of the Civil War.

Body (900 words)

• Topic Sentence: Introduce the first cause (e.g., economic differences between theNorth and South).
• Evidence & Analysis: Provide specific examples and discuss how the economic divide contributed to tensions.
• Transition: Lead into the next paragraph by hinting at how economic factors intertwined with more direct causes.
• Topic Sentence: Discuss the role of slavery and its moral implications as a central cause.
• Evidence & Analysis: Use primary sources and historical evidence to show how slavery fueled sectionalism.
• Transition: Connect the issue of slavery to the wider political frictions it exacerbated.
• Topic Sentence: Address political factors, such as the power struggle between state and federal governments.
• Evidence & Analysis: Draw from political speeches and legislative acts to demonstrate the growing divide.
• Transition: Conclude with how these factors combined to make conflict inevitable.

Conclusion (150 words)

• Restate Thesis: Summarize your argument, now substantiated with evidence.
• Recap Main Points: Briefly review the causes discussed and their interconnections.
• Final Thought: Offer insight into the Civil War’s legacy and its relevance to contemporary issues or historical understanding.

By adhering to this structure and focusing on clear, analytical prose, your essay will not only fulfill the assignment’s requirements but also provide a meaningful contribution to the understanding of the Civil War’s complex causes and legacy.

Civil War Short Essay Example #1

The American Civil War remains one of the most transformative periods in United States history, a conflict that pitted brother against brother and nearly tore the nation asunder. While the moral battle over slavery is often cited as the primary cause of the war, an exploration of the period reveals a complex web of political and economic factors that were equally instrumental in leading to the secession of the Southern states and the subsequent conflict. This essay will argue that, in addition to the obvious moral divide over slavery, the Civil War was rooted in profound economic differences and political disputes that shaped the trajectory of the nation.

Economic Divergence Between North and South

The antebellum period in the United States was marked by a growing economic chasm between the industrializing North and the agrarian South. The North’s economy was rapidly diversifying and industrializing, leading to the development of a modern capitalist economy that required free labor and the protection of patents and innovations. In stark contrast, the Southern economy was heavily reliant on agriculture, particularly the cultivation of cotton, which required a large, cheap labor force — a need met by the institution of slavery.

The economic policies that benefited the North, such as tariffs on imported goods, were often detrimental to the South, which relied on free trade to export its agricultural products. The Tariff of 1828, known in the South as the “Tariff of Abominations,” exemplified such contentious economic policies, as it placed heavy duties on imported goods, disadvantaging Southern planters. The resulting economic strain contributed significantly to the growing sentiment of Southern nationalism and the belief that the federal government was favoring Northern interests at the expense of the Southern way of life.

Political Strife and the Struggle for Power

Politically, the United States was in turmoil as the debate over the expansion of slavery into new territories and states intensified. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 attempted to regulate the spread of slavery but ultimately only postponed the inevitable conflict. The Dred Scott decision of 1857, which ruled that African Americans could not be citizens and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in the territories, inflamed tensions further, signaling to the anti-slavery North that there was no legal method to prevent the spread of the institution.

The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, on a platform that opposed the extension of slavery, was the final straw for many in the South. Lincoln’s victory was seen not only as a direct threat to the institution of slavery but also as evidence that the South no longer had a voice in the national government. Secession followed, as Southern states sought to protect their economic interests and maintain their political power by forming a separate nation in which their values and economic system could persist unchallenged.

While the moral conflict over the institution of slavery was undeniably a driving force behind the American Civil War, the struggle was also deeply rooted in fundamental economic and political disparities between the North and South. The industrial versus agricultural economies, the imposition of tariffs, the political power struggles, and the contentious legislation over the spread of slavery all combined to create an atmosphere ripe for conflict. The Civil War was, therefore, not solely a battle over the morality of slavery but also a clash over different visions of economic development and political power. Understanding these contributing factors is crucial to grasping the complexity of the Civil War and the lasting impact it had on the United States, shaping the nation’s economic and political landscape for generations to come.

Civil War Short Essay Example #2

The Civil War, a pivotal event in American history, was a complex conflict with roots extending deep into the nation’s past. Central to this conflict was the institution of slavery, which had not only moral and humanitarian implications but also profound socio-economic and political consequences. This essay contends that slavery was not just a side issue but the core factor that led to the secession of the Southern states and ultimately the Civil War, as it was inextricably linked to the identity, economy, and political power of the South.

Slavery: The Cornerstone of Southern Society

In the antebellum South, slavery was more than a labor system; it was the foundation upon which the social order and economic prosperity of the Southern states were built. The “peculiar institution” enabled the South to become a powerhouse of agricultural production, particularly in the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and sugar. This agrarian economy was so reliant on slave labor that by the mid-19th century, nearly four million African Americans lived in bondage, representing a significant portion of the South’s population and economic might.

The wealth generated by slave labor created a stark division in society, with a small elite of plantation owners exerting considerable influence over Southern politics. This elite worked tirelessly to protect and expand slavery as essential to their economic interests and way of life, leading to a rigid defense of the institution and a growing sense of Southern distinctiveness.

The Moral and Political Battle Lines

The moral crusade against slavery had been growing for decades, with abolitionists in the North and elsewhere condemning the practice as an abhorrent violation of human rights. The publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the violent resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, among other events, heightened Northern opposition to slavery and sowed seeds of sectional discord.

The political arena became a battleground over the issue of slavery, with the formation of the Republican Party in the 1850s, which held the containment of slavery as one of its central tenets. The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act sought to address the extension of slavery in new territories but ultimately underscored the inability of legislative measures to resolve the deep-seated conflict.

The violent confrontations in “Bleeding Kansas,” the Dred Scott decision, and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry were symptomatic of the tensions that had escalated to a level where political compromise seemed unachievable. The election of Abraham Lincoln, who was perceived as an enemy of the Southern way of life, acted as the catalyst that transformed the dispute over slavery from a political struggle into an armed conflict.

Secession and the Onset of War

The secession of the Southern states was a direct response to the threat they perceived to the institution of slavery. The Confederate States of America was founded on the principle of preserving and maintaining the institution of slavery, which its leaders deemed essential for their economic survival and societal structure. The firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861 was not just an act of rebellion; it was a defense of the socio-economic order of the South against what was seen as Northern aggression.

The American Civil War was fundamentally a conflict over slavery and its place in the United States. The institution was so deeply embedded in the Southern economy, society, and identity that any threat to its existence was met with the utmost resistance. While there were certainly other factors at play, including states’ rights and economic disagreements, these issues cannot be disentangled from the overarching presence of slavery. The battle over whether the United States would be a land of freedom or bondage shaped the political discourse of the era and ignited a war whose reverberations are still felt today. By acknowledging the centrality of slavery in the Civil War, we gain a clearer understanding of the profound sacrifices made in the pursuit of liberty and equality, and the ongoing struggle to realize these ideals for all Americans.

Final Thoughts

Writing a short essay on the Civil War demands focus, discipline, and attention to detail. By carefully selecting a topic, crafting a clear thesis, and supporting your argument with well-researched evidence, you can create a powerful and concise piece of writing. Remember to revise and proofread thoroughly to ensure that your essay is free of errors and that your argument shines through. With these strategies in mind, you are well-equipped to tackle a short essay on the Civil War or any other historical topic with confidence and skill.

About Mr. Greg

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

Mr. Greg’s English Cloud was created in 2020 during the pandemic, aiming to provide students and parents with resources to help facilitate their learning at home.

Whatsapp: +85259609792

[email protected]

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 20, 2023 | Original: October 15, 2009

The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states’ rights and westward expansion. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede and form the Confederate States of America; four more states soon joined them. The War Between the States, as the Civil War was also known, ended in Confederate surrender in 1865. The conflict was the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin.

Causes of the Civil War

In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth, 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.

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.

Did you know? Confederate General Thomas Jonathan Jackson earned his famous nickname, "Stonewall," from his steadfast defensive efforts in the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas). At Chancellorsville, Jackson was shot by one of his own men, who mistook him for Union cavalry. His arm was amputated, and he died from pneumonia eight days later.

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 entity based on the principle of opposing slavery’s extension into the western territories. After the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case (1857) confirmed the legality of slavery in the territories, the abolitionist John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry in 1859 convinced more and more southerners that their northern neighbors were bent on the destruction of the “peculiar institution” that sustained them. Abraham Lincoln ’s election in November 1860 was the final straw, and within three months seven southern states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas—had seceded from the United States.

Outbreak of the Civil War (1861)

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. Sumter’s commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered after less than two days of bombardment, leaving the fort in the hands of Confederate forces under Pierre G.T. Beauregard. Four more southern states—Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee—joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter. Border slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not secede, but there was much Confederate sympathy among their citizens.

Though on the surface the Civil War may have seemed a lopsided conflict, with the 23 states of the Union enjoying an enormous advantage in population, manufacturing (including arms production) and railroad construction, the Confederates had a strong military tradition, along with some of the best soldiers and commanders in the nation. They also had a cause they believed in: preserving their long-held traditions and institutions, chief among these being slavery.

In the First Battle of Bull Run (known in the South as First Manassas) on July 21, 1861, 35,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson forced a greater number of Union forces (or Federals) to retreat towards Washington, D.C., dashing any hopes of a quick Union victory and leading Lincoln to call for 500,000 more recruits. In fact, both sides’ initial call for troops had to be widened after it became clear that the war would not be a limited or short conflict.

The Civil War in Virginia (1862)

George B. McClellan —who replaced the aging General Winfield Scott as supreme commander of the Union Army after the first months of the war—was beloved by his troops, but his reluctance to advance frustrated Lincoln. In the spring of 1862, McClellan finally led his Army of the Potomac up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, capturing Yorktown on May 4. The combined forces of Robert E. Lee and Jackson successfully drove back McClellan’s army in the Seven Days’ Battles (June 25-July 1), and a cautious McClellan called for yet more reinforcements in order to move against Richmond. Lincoln refused, and instead withdrew the Army of the Potomac to Washington. By mid-1862, McClellan had been replaced as Union general-in-chief by Henry W. Halleck, though he remained in command of the Army of the Potomac.

Lee then moved his troops northwards and split his men, sending Jackson to meet Pope’s forces near Manassas, while Lee himself moved separately with the second half of the army. On August 29, Union troops led by John Pope struck Jackson’s forces in the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas). The next day, Lee hit the Federal left flank with a massive assault, driving Pope’s men back towards Washington. On the heels of his victory at Manassas, Lee began the first Confederate invasion of the North. Despite contradictory orders from Lincoln and Halleck, McClellan was able to reorganize his army and strike at Lee on September 14 in Maryland, driving the Confederates back to a defensive position along Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg.

On September 17, the Army of the Potomac hit Lee’s forces (reinforced by Jackson’s) in what became the war’s bloodiest single day of fighting. Total casualties at the Battle of Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg) numbered 12,410 of some 69,000 troops on the Union side, and 13,724 of around 52,000 for the Confederates. The Union victory at Antietam would prove decisive, as it halted the Confederate advance in Maryland and forced Lee to retreat into Virginia. Still, McClellan’s failure to pursue his advantage earned him the scorn of Lincoln and Halleck, who removed him from command in favor of Ambrose E. Burnside . Burnside’s assault on Lee’s troops near Fredericksburg on December 13 ended in heavy Union casualties and a Confederate victory; he was promptly replaced by Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker , and both armies settled into winter quarters across the Rappahannock River from each other.

After the Emancipation Proclamation (1863-4)

Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union victory at Antietam to issue a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation , which freed all enslaved people in the rebellious states after January 1, 1863. He justified his decision as a wartime measure, and did not go so far as to free the enslaved people in the border states loyal to the Union. Still, the Emancipation Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces and put international public opinion strongly on the Union side. Some 186,000 Black Civil War soldiers would join the Union Army by the time the war ended in 1865, and 38,000 lost their lives.

In the spring of 1863, Hooker’s plans for a Union offensive were thwarted by a surprise attack by the bulk of Lee’s forces on May 1, whereupon Hooker pulled his men back to Chancellorsville. The Confederates gained a costly victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville , suffering 13,000 casualties (around 22 percent of their troops); the Union lost 17,000 men (15 percent). Lee launched another invasion of the North in June, attacking Union forces commanded by General George Meade on July 1 near Gettysburg, in southern Pennsylvania. Over three days of fierce fighting, the Confederates were unable to push through the Union center, and suffered casualties of close to 60 percent.

Meade failed to counterattack, however, and Lee’s remaining forces were able to escape into Virginia, ending the last Confederate invasion of the North. Also in July 1863, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant took Vicksburg (Mississippi) in the Siege of Vicksburg , a victory that would prove to be the turning point of the war in the western theater. After a Confederate victory at Chickamauga Creek, Georgia, just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in September, Lincoln expanded Grant’s command, and he led a reinforced Federal army (including two corps from the Army of the Potomac) to victory in the Battle of Chattanooga in late November.

Toward a Union Victory (1864-65)

In March 1864, Lincoln put Grant in supreme command of the Union armies, replacing Halleck. Leaving William Tecumseh Sherman in control in the West, Grant headed to Washington, where he led the Army of the Potomac towards Lee’s troops in northern Virginia. Despite heavy Union casualties in the Battle of the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania (both May 1864), at Cold Harbor (early June) and the key rail center of Petersburg (June), Grant pursued a strategy of attrition, putting Petersburg under siege for the next nine months.

Sherman outmaneuvered Confederate forces to take Atlanta by September, after which he and some 60,000 Union troops began the famous “March to the Sea,” devastating Georgia on the way to capturing Savannah on December 21. Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, fell to Sherman’s men by mid-February, and Jefferson Davis belatedly handed over the supreme command to Lee, with the Confederate war effort on its last legs. Sherman pressed on through North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville, Bentonville, Goldsboro and Raleigh by mid-April.

Meanwhile, exhausted by the Union siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee’s forces made a last attempt at resistance, attacking and captured the Federal-controlled Fort Stedman on March 25. An immediate counterattack reversed the victory, however, and on the night of April 2-3 Lee’s forces evacuated Richmond. For most of the next week, Grant and Meade pursued the Confederates along the Appomattox River, finally exhausting their possibilities for escape. Grant accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9. On the eve of victory, the Union lost its great leader: The actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14. Sherman received Johnston’s surrender at Durham Station, North Carolina on April 26, effectively ending the Civil War.

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American Civil War 101

An Overview of the War Between the States

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Fought from 1861–1865, the American Civil War was the result of decades of sectional tensions between the North and South. Focused on enslavement and states rights, these issues came to a head following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Over the next several months, 11 southern states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. During the first two years of the war, Southern troops won numerous victories but saw their fortunes turn after losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863. From then on, Northern forces worked to conqueror the South, forcing them to surrender in April 1865.

Civil War: Causes & Secession

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

The roots of the Civil War can be traced to increasing differences between North and South and their growing divergence as the 19th century progressed. Chief among the issues were the expansion of enslavement into the territories, the South's declining political power, states' rights, and the retention of the system of enslavement. Though these issues had existed for decades, they exploded in 1860 following the election of Abraham Lincoln who was against the spread of enslavement. As a result of his election, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded from the Union.

First Shots: Fort Sumter & First Bull Run

Civil War Photos / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

On April 12, 1861, the war began when Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor forcing its surrender. In response to the attack, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion. While Northern states responded quickly, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas refused, opting to join the Confederacy instead. In July, Union forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell began marching south to take the rebel capital of Richmond. On the 21st, they met a Confederate army near Manassas and were defeated.

The War in East, 1862-1863

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Following the defeat at Bull Run, Maj. Gen. George McClellan was given command of the new Union Army of the Potomac. In early 1862, he shifted south to attack Richmond via the Peninsula. Moving slowly, he was forced to retreat after the Seven Days Battles. This campaign saw the rise of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee . After beating a Union army at Manassas, Lee began to move north into Maryland. McClellan was sent to intercept and won a victory at Antietam on the 17th. Unhappy with McClellan's slow pursuit of Lee, Lincoln gave command to Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside . In December, Burnside was beaten at Fredericksburg and replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker . The following May, Lee engaged and defeated Hooker at Chancellorsville , Virginia.

The War in the West, 1861-1863

In February 1862, forces under Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donelson. Two months later he defeated a Confederate army at Shiloh, Tennessee. On April 29, Union naval forces captured New Orleans . To the east, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg attempted to invade Kentucky but was repelled at Perryville on October 8. That December he was beaten again at Stones River , Tennessee. Grant now focused his attention on capturing Vicksburg and opening the Mississippi River. After a false start, his troops swept through Mississippi and laid siege to the town on May 18, 1863.

Turning Points: Gettysburg & Vickburg

Kurz & Allison / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain 

In June 1863, Lee began to move north towards Pennsylvania with Union troops in pursuit. Following the defeat at Chancellorsville, Lincoln turned to Maj. Gen. George Meade to take over the Army of the Potomac. On July 1, elements of the two armies clashed at Gettysburg , Pennsylvania. After three days of heavy fighting, Lee was defeated and forced to retreat. A day later on July 4, Grant successfully concluded the siege of Vicksburg , opening the Mississippi to shipping and cutting the South in two. Combined these victories were the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

The War in the West, 1863-1865

Kurz & Allison / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

In summer 1863, Union troops under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans advanced into Georgia and were defeated at Chickamauga . Fleeing north, they were besieged at Chattanooga . Grant was ordered to save the situation and did so winning victories at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The following spring Grant departed and gave command to Maj. Gen. William Sherman . Moving south, Sherman took Atlanta and then marched to Savannah . After reaching the sea, he moved north pushing Confederate forces until their commander, Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered at Durham, North Carolina, on April 18, 1865.

The War in the East, 1863-1865

National Archives and Records Administration / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

In March 1864, Grant was given command of all Union armies and came east to deal with Lee. Grant's campaign began in May, with the armies clashing at the Wilderness . Despite heavy casualties, Grant pressed south, fighting at Spotsylvania C.H. and Cold Harbor . Unable to get through Lee's army to Richmond, Grant attempted to cut the city off by taking Petersburg . Lee arrived first and a siege began. From April 2–3, 1865, Lee was forced to evacuate the city and retreat west, allowing Grant to take Richmond. On April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House.

Currier & Ives / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain 

On April 14, five days after Lee's surrender, President Lincoln was assassinated while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was killed by Union troops on April 26 while fleeing south. Following the war, three amendments were added to the Constitution which ended the system of enslavement (13th), extended legal protection regardless of race (14th), and ended all racial restrictions on voting (15th).

During the war, Union forces suffered approximately 360,000 killed (140,000 in battle) and 282,000 wounded. Confederate armies lost approximately 258,000 killed (94,000 in battle) and an unknown number of wounded. The total killed in the war exceeds the total deaths from all other U.S. wars combined.

Civil War Battles

Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

The battles of the Civil War were fought across the United States from the East Coast to as far west as New Mexico. Beginning in 1861, these battles made a permanent mark upon the landscape and elevated to prominence small towns that had previously been peaceful villages. As a result, names such as Manassas, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg became eternally entwined with images of sacrifice, bloodshed, and heroism. It is estimated that over 10,000 battles of various sizes were fought during the Civil War as Union forces marched toward victory. During the Civil War, over 200,000 Americans were killed in battle as each side fought for their chosen cause.

American People and the Civil War

The Civil War was the first conflict that saw the large scale mobilization of the American people. While over 2.2 million served the Union cause, between 1.2 and 1.4 million enlisted in Confederate service. These men were led by officers from a variety of backgrounds ranging from professionally-trained West Pointers to businessmen and political appointees. While many professional officers did leave the U.S. Army to serve the South, the majority remained loyal to the Union. As the war began, the Confederacy benefited from several gifted leaders, while the North endured a string of poor commanders. In time, these men were replaced by skilled men who would lead the Union to victory.

• American Civil War : War in the West, 1863-1865
• American Civil War: War in the East, 1863-1865
• American Civil War: Battle of Gettysburg
• The Civil War Year By Year
• Second Battle of Bull Run
• American Civil War: General Edmund Kirby Smith
• American Civil War: Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early
• American Civil War: General Joseph E. Johnston
• The Beginning of the American Civil War
• Profile of American Civil War Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant
• American Civil War: Lieutenant General John Bell Hood
• Siege of Port Hudson During the American Civil War
• American Civil War: Major General John B. Gordon
• Robert E. Lee's Civil War Battles
• 1800s Military History
• American Civil War: Battle of Antietam

engagingtimes.com

learn how to write exciting essays with us

20 Interesting Topics & Writing Tips for Your Civil War Essay

Are you a student specializing in the history field? Well, there is no doubt you will have to write several essays revolving around civil war, politics, and history in general. Now, imagine you have a civil war essay topic you need to research and bring forth a meaningful context in the form of an essay. How will you start? What elements will you include in the paper? And how will you determine the best topic? Well, keep reading as we will share some of the best civil war essay prompts, perfect tips, and the overall approach you should take when writing such an essay.

The essay on Civil War: what are the pro tips?

While all essays may have a similar approach, there is a slight distinction in presenting ideas and facts, the language you use, and such elements. So, in the case of a civil war essay, you can use the tips below to bring out an incredible and admirable paper.

• Cite the right sources correctly

Of course, when writing a civil war essay, you will use different resources available in books or online platforms. This isn’t your information, so ensure you cite it appropriately. Also, don’t use any source; ensure you can determine the source is credible and correct since some sources can have false information about historic events.

• Write the best civil war essay introduction

The introduction part plays a significant role in your entire paper. It is the first section where the reader will interact with your paper. So, so don’t want to create a boring scenario in the introduction section. In this case, use a hook, then background information, and finally a thesis statement.

• Start with a civil war essay outline

An outline will give a roadmap to each section of your essay. Be sure to start with an outline to ensure you don’t forget relevant information in each section of the paper.

• Check the civil war essay example in advance

You don’t want to get stuck in the middle of writing your essay. When in doubt, be sure to clear all the doubts by checking other sample essays on the same topic to get a clue of what to write and how to put down your points.

• The civil war essay conclusion matters

How you end your essay on civil war has a higher significance to your whole paper. You will have to revisit the thesis statement, summarize the main points in the paragraphs, present the analysis from your research, and what people can learn from the whole matter.

• Always understand the instructions

You can have great points, ideas, and a well-structured civil war essay. However, if you miss any of the guidelines, you will get a low grade when you should have scored higher. So, avoid this by understanding the basic instructions carefully!

Civil War project topics: best topics to consider

As far as an essay on civil war is concerned, the topic you choose has a crucial role in the outlook of your essay. Below are some of the topic ideas you can consider.

Best Civil War essay topics

• What happened after the American Civil War?
• Why did the reconstruction fail after the civil war?
• What are the main causes of the Civil War?
• Describe strategies used in the American Civil War.
• Politically, what happened after Sri Lanka Civil War?
• Describe the 1991 Sierra Leone Civil war

American Civil War essay topics

• How did the civil war impact America today?
• Describe the Fort Pillow Massacre happening
• Industrialization in America after the civil war
• Did the U.S.A progress after unleashing a conflict that led to civil war?
• Analyze economic differences between Northern and southern states
• How does the American government perceive the civil war legacy?
• Analyze civil war and slavery in America

Essay topics on the Civil War

• What was the role of John Brown during the onset of the civil war?
• Describe the role of Fort Sumter in the civil war
• Analyze the early periods of the American civil war
• Based on historical events, how can we prevent civil war?
• Why did the American civil war last longer?
• Compare the American civil war and American Revolution
• What is the effect of the civil war on women’s efforts in America?

Essay writing is an art, and the best approach is to understand the topic and the subject as a whole before you start writing.

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The U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction

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The US Civil War: A Very Short Introduction covers a period in American history characterized by decades of intensifying conflict over slavery and government authority, culminating in Abraham Lincoln’s election and eleven states seceding from the Union. The Civil War began as a limited conflict with the aim of restoring the Union. It became a diffuse, violent war that lasted four years, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and ultimately led to the abolition of slavery and a vigorous debate over the terms by which the seceded states would be restored to the nation. This VSI ends with a chapter on the aftermath of the war and the remaking of America.

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The reality behind 'Civil War' and the possibility of a real second civil war

NPR's Andrew Limbong talks to Amy Cooter of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies about how realistic an idea of a second civil war is.

ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:

In the near future, the U.S. president has given himself a third term. He's disbanded the FBI. America has broken into various factions that are engaged in armed conflict. It's the premise of one of the buzziest films of the year, the A24 thriller "Civil War," directed by British filmmaker Alex Garland. The dystopian thriller imagines a near future in which a deeply divided United States is violently caught in, well, a civil war.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CIVIL WAR")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Are you guys aware there's, like, a pretty huge civil war going on all across America?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) We just try to stay out. With what we see on the news, seems like it's for the best.

LIMBONG: The film may be fiction, but it has many viewers and pundits thinking about the parallels to reality in a United States that does often feel more and more polarized. But just how close is the film's reality to our own? To unpack that question, we called Amy Cooter. She's a director of research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Amy, welcome to the program.

AMY COOTER: Thanks for having me.

LIMBONG: How much of this is, like, art-is-life, life-is-art film? Should we be wary of reading too much into the perils of real life?

COOTER: I think that it represents some real undercurrents that we have in the United States. I don't think that civil war is imminent, but I think there are some people who wish we would have one and wish that they could be effectively culture soldiers to reenact a civil order that they see as better for them and their families.

LIMBONG: When you say some people, who are those people?

COOTER: The groups I study tend to be folks who are militia members on the extreme end of the spectrum, or other folks who believe that some version of society that they believe existed in the past is better than what we have in our modern day, and they should do something to try to move us back to that past format.

LIMBONG: Most Americans do not foresee a civil war according to recent polls, but more than 40% of Americans think civil war is at least somewhat likely in the next decade. Is there a realistic scenario that could lead the U.S. to at least the verge of a civil war?

COOTER: I certainly hope not. I hope that our federal government, our states' governments, remain organized enough that armed militant groups who try to stir up various sorts of trouble can be controlled within the letter of the law. However, I think we are at a moment of extreme political division that may get worse before it gets better, and there are certainly some people who believe that they and their families are going to be put in a position where they have to defend themselves, whether it's against the government itself or against other factions that they see as being opposed to their interests.

LIMBONG: Does history here have any lessons that could be instructive to understanding the threat of civil war in this country?

COOTER: I think that as a sociologist, we tend not to be super optimistic. But one note of optimism that I do try to latch onto is that we've had moments of extreme divisiveness in our country before extreme political polarization, and so far, at least, democracy has won out and become increasingly inclusive over time. I think there are many more people who are pro-democracy who want to make this country a better place than there are small factions who want to be disruptive for everyone.

LIMBONG: Yeah. That's interesting. In your work, do you ever think about highlighting these groups gives them an outsized voice when we're looking at the raw numbers of people here?

COOTER: It's a concern that all of us who work in extremism and related studies have, and yet we also see that these groups have the outsized potential for harm. So if we look at the extreme factions, what our goal is is to try to understand the real risks of violence, to prevent them and also simultaneously understand that many times, they are simply the more vocal factions of folks who believe very similar things.

Just to reference the January 6 case, a lot of those folks weren't involved in formal, organized groups, but shared the same ideology, the same urgency for action. And frankly, a lot of folks had taken for granted the need to study militias and other groups before then because they assumed they were just outliers, that no other groups or no other individuals sort of agreed with them. And we were smacked with the reality that that's just not the case.

LIMBONG: Yeah. The movie depicts armed factions fighting not so much against, like, a central government, but sometimes against each other. A central thesis of the film is that, like in war, who's on what side gets kind of blurry. Do you think that's a fair representation of real-life fringe extremist groups and how they operate?

COOTER: I do. There is a lot of constant infighting, not usually violent, but very strong infighting across all of these group boundaries. And they would be a lot more powerful if they had an easier time getting along with each other. It's also the case that we have seen an increasing trend in groups opposed to these particular beliefs or this particular political spectrum. And hypothetically, if we're dealing with a world where some kind of pockets of violence, whether it's civil war or not, were occurring across the country, it's highly likely that some people would oppose these groups for various different reasons and also fight them. It wouldn't necessarily just be the government.

LIMBONG: Yeah. So these extremist groups, you've cited some that say they are ready to inflict violence. How much of a threat are they?

COOTER: This is something that's really hard to quantify. We know that even among militia groups, it is a minority of militia groups, a minority of militia members who are really proactively intending to do harm. The ones who are, as we said, can do outsized harm to society as a whole, but they tend to plan their actions amongst themselves. They've gotten a bit more understanding of monitoring and other things that happen online in recent years, and they're really hard to track and monitor.

LIMBONG: Do you think the U.S. government is adequately prepared?

COOTER: That's hard to say. My personal instinct is no. I think that various different government agencies have done more to be prepared since January 6. But I'm also sensing sort of a belief that that was a one-off occurrence, and therefore we don't have to worry about these folks so much anymore. We aren't really expecting another January 6, but I think we're underestimating the risk that different state buildings may face or different politicians as individuals may face or even different flashpoints of violence around elections or school board happenings as they continue to move forward this year.

LIMBONG: Amy Cooter is director of research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Her forthcoming book is "Nostalgia, Nationalism, And The U.S. Militia Movement." Thank you so much for joining us.

COOTER: Thanks so much for having me.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Slavery and the Civil War Essay

Theme essays. diversity, extra credit option. reconstruction, works cited.

During the period of 1820-1860, the life of white and black people in the South depended on developing the Institute of slavery which shaped not only social but also economic life of the region. The Institute of slavery was primarily for the Southern states, and this feature helped to distinguish the South from the other regions of the USA.

Slavery played the key role in shaping the economic and social life of the South because it influenced the trade and economic relations in the region as well as the social and class structure representing slave owners, white farmers without slaves, and slaves as the main labor force in the region.

The development of the South during the period of 1820-1860 was based on growing cotton intensively. To guarantee the enormous exports of cotton, it was necessary to rely on slaves as the main cheap or almost free workforce. The farmers of the South grew different crops, but the economic success was associated with the farms of those planters who lived in the regions with fertile soil and focused on growing cotton basing on slavery.

Thus, the prosperity of this or that white farmer and planter depended on using slaves in his farm or plantation. Slaves working for planters took the lowest social positions as well as free slaves living in cities whose economic situation was also problematic. The white population of the South was divided into slave owners and yeoman farmers who had no slaves.

Thus, having no opportunities to use the advantages of slavery, yeoman farmers relied on their families’ powers, and they were poorer in comparison with planters (Picture 1). However, not all the planters were equally successful in their economic situation. Many planters owned only a few slaves, and they also had to work at their plantations or perform definite duties.

Slaves were also different in their status because of the functions performed. From this point, the social stratification was necessary not only for dividing the Southern population into black slaves and white owners but also to demonstrate the differences within these two main classes (Davidson et al.).

As a result, different social classes had various cultures. It is important to note that slaves were more common features in spite of their status in families, and they were united regarding the culture which was reflected in their religion, vision, and songs. The difference in the social status of the white population was more obvious, and the single common feature was the prejudice and discrimination against slaves.

Picture 1. Yeoman Farmer’s House

The Civil War became the real challenge for the USA because it changed all the structures and institutions of the country reforming the aspects of the political, economic, and social life. Furthermore, the Civil War brought significant losses and sufferings for both the representatives of the Northern and Southern armies.

It is important to note that the situation of the Union in the war was more advantageous in comparison with the position of the Confederacy during the prolonged period of the war actions.

As a result, the South suffered from more significant economic and social changes as well as from extreme losses in the war in comparison with the North’s costs. Thus, the main impact of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery which changed the economic and social structures of the South and contributed to shifting the focus on the role of federal government.

The Civil War resulted in abolishing slavery and preserving the political unity of the country. Nevertheless, these positive outcomes were achieved at the expense of significant losses in the number of population and in promoting more sufferings for ordinary people. A lot of the Confederacy’s soldiers died at the battlefields, suffering from extreme wounds and the lack of food because of the problems with weapon and food provision.

During the war, the Union focused on abolishing slaves who were proclaimed free. Thus, former slaves from the Southern states were inclined to find jobs in the North or join the Union army.

As a result, the army of the Confederacy also began to suffer from the lack of forces (Davidson et al.). Moreover, the situation was problematic off the battlefield because all the issues of food provision and work at plantations and farms challenged women living in the Southern states.

The forces of the Union army were more balanced, and their losses were less significant than in the Southern states. Furthermore, the end of the war did not change the structure of the social life in the North significantly. The impact of the war was more important for the Southerners who had to build their economic and social life without references to slavery.

The next important change was the alternations in the social role of women. Many women had to work at farms in the South and to perform as nurses in the North (Picture 2). The vision of the women’s role in the society was changed in a way.

However, in spite of the fact that the population of the South had to rebuild the social structure and adapt to the new social and economic realities, the whole economic situation was changed for better with references to intensifying the international trade. Furthermore, the abolishment of slavery was oriented to the social and democratic progress in the country.

Picture 2. “Our Women and the War”. Harper’s Weekly, 1862

Diversity is one of the main characteristic features of the American nation from the early periods of its formation. The American nation cannot be discussed as a stable one because the formation of the nation depends on the active migration processes intensifying the general diversity. As a result, the American nation is characterized by the richness of cultures, values, and lifestyles.

This richness is also typical for the early period of the American history when the country’s population was diverse in relation to ethnicity, cultures, religion, and social status. From this point, diversity directly shaped the American nation because the country’s population never was identical.

The Americans respected diversity if the question was associated with the problem of first migrations and the Americans’ difference from the English population. To win independence, it was necessary to admit the difference from the English people, but diversity was also the trigger for conflicts between the Americans, Englishmen, and Frenchmen as well as Indian tribes.

The ethic diversity was not respected by the first Americans. The further importations of slaves to America worsened the situation, and ethnic diversity increased, involving cultural and social diversity.

Diversity was respected only with references to the negative consequences of slave importation. Thus, the Southerners focused on using black slaves for development of their plantations (Davidson et al.). From this point, white planers concentrated on the difference of blacks and used it for discrimination.

Furthermore, slavery also provoked the cultural and lifestyle diversity between the South and the North of the country which resulted in the Civil War because of impossibility to share different values typical for the Southerners and Northerners. Moreover, the diversity in lifestyles of the Southerners was deeper because it depended on the fact of having or not slaves.

Great religious diversity was also typical for the nation. White population followed different branches of Christianity relating to their roots, and black people developed their own religious movements contributing to diversifying the religious life of the Americans (Davidson et al.).

Thus, the aspects of diversity are reflected in each sphere of the first Americans’ life with references to differences in ethnicities, followed religions, cultures, values, lifestyles, and social patterns. This diversity also provoked a lot of conflicts in the history of the nation.

The role of women in the American society changed depending on the most important political and social changes. The periods of reforms and transformations also promoted the changes in the social positions of women. The most notable changes are typical for the period of the Jacksonian era and for the Civil War period.

The changes in the role of women are closely connected with the development of women’s movements during the 1850s and with the focus on women’s powers off the battlefield during the Civil War period.

During the Jacksonian era, women began to play significant roles in the religious and social life of the country. Having rather limited rights, women could realize their potentials only in relation to families and church work. That is why, many women paid much attention to their church duties and responsibilities.

Later, the church work was expanded, and women began to organize special religious groups in order to contribute to reforming definite aspects of the Church’s progress. Women also were the main members of the prayer meetings, and much attention was drawn to the charity activities and assistance to hospitals (Davidson et al.).

Women also played the significant role in the development of revivalism as the characteristic feature of the period. Moreover, the active church work and the focus on forming organizations was the first step to the progress of the women’s rights movements.

It is important to note that the participation of women in the social life was rather limited during a long period of time that is why membership and belonging to different church organizations as well as development of women’s rights movements contributed to increasing the role of women within the society. Proclaiming the necessity of abolishment, socially active women also concentrated on the idea of suffrage which was achieved later.

The period of the 1850s is closely connected with the growth of the women’s rights movements because it was the period of stating to the democratic rights and freedoms within the society (Davidson et al.). The next important event is the Civil War. The war influenced the position of the Southern white and black women significantly, revealing their powers and ability to overcome a lot of challenges.

The end of the Civil War provided women with the opportunity to achieve all the proclaimed ideals of the women’s rights movements along with changing the position of male and female slaves in the American society.

The development of the American nation is based on pursuing certain ideals and following definite values. The main values which are greatly important for the Americans are associated with the notions which had the significant meaning during the periods of migration and creating the independent state. The two main values are opportunity and equality.

These values are also fixed in the Constitution of the country in order to emphasize their extreme meaning for the whole nation.

Opportunity and equality are the values which are shaped with references to the economic and social ideals because all the Americans are equal, and each American should have the opportunity to achieve the individual goal. Nevertheless, in spite of the proclaimed ideals, the above-mentioned values were discussed during a long period of time only with references to the white population of the country.

The other values typical for the Americans are also based not on the religious, moral or cultural ideals but on the social aspects. During the Jacksonian era, the Americans focused on such values as the democratic society. Following the ideals of rights and freedoms, the American population intended to realize them completely within the developed democratic society (Davidson et al.).

Moreover, these ideals were correlated with such values as equality and opportunity. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that for many Americans the notions of democratic society, opportunity, and equality were directly connected with the economic growth. That is why, during long periods of time Americans concentrated on achieving freedoms along with pursuing the economic prosperity.

Thus, it is possible to determine such key values which regulate the social attitudes and inclinations of the Americans as equality and opportunity, freedoms and rights. In spite of the fact the USA was the country with the determined role of religion in the society, moral and religious aspects were not proclaimed as the basic values of the nation because of the prolonged focus of the Americans on their independence and prosperity.

From this point, opportunity, equality, freedoms, and rights are discussed as more significant values for the developed nation than the religious principles. The creation of the state independent from the influence of the British Empire resulted in determining the associated values and ideals which were pursued by the Americans during prolonged periods of the nation’s development.

The period of Reconstruction was oriented to adapting African Americans to the realities of the free social life and to rebuilding the economic structure of the South. The end of the Civil War guaranteed the abolishment of slavery, but the question of black people’s equality to the whites was rather controversial.

That is why, the period of Reconstruction was rather complex and had two opposite outcomes for the African Americans’ further life in the society and for the general economic progress of the states. Reconstruction was successful in providing such opportunities for African Americans as education and a choice to live in any region or to select the employer.

However, Reconstruction can also be discussed as a failure because the issues of racism were not overcome during the period, and the era of slavery was changed with the era of strict social segregation leading to significant discrimination of black people.

The positive changes in the life of African Americans after the Civil War were connected with receiving more opportunities for the social progress. Thus, many public schools were opened for the black population in order to increase the level of literacy (Picture 3). Furthermore, the impossibility to support the Southerners’ plantations without the free work of slaves led to changing the economic focus.

Thus, industrialization of the region could contribute to creating more workplaces for African Americans (Davidson et al.). Moreover, the racial and social equality should also be supported with references to providing more political rights for African Americans.

Reconstruction was the period of observing many black politicians at the American political arena. The question of blacks’ suffrage became one of the most discussed issues. From this point, during the period of Reconstruction African Americans did first steps on the path of equality.

Nevertheless, Reconstruction was also a great failure. The South remained unchanged in relation to the social relations between the whites and blacks. After the Civil War, segregation was intensified. The economic and social pressure as well as discrimination against the blacks was based on the developed concept of racism (Davidson et al.).

The Southerners preserved the prejudiced attitude toward the blacks, and prejudice and discrimination became the main challenge for African Americans in all the spheres of the life.

In spite of definite successes of Reconstruction, African Americans suffered from the results of segregation and discrimination, and they were prevented from changing their economic and social status.

Picture 3. Public Schools

Davidson, James, Brian DeLay, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark Lytle, and Michael Stoff. US: A Narrative History . USA: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.

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• How Did Reconstruction Change the United States After the Civil War?
• The Southern Argument for Slavery
• Reconstruction in the US: Failures and Successes
• Why the Reconstruction After the Civil War Was a Failure
• Reconstruction: Presidents Lincoln and Johnson
• The American Reconstruction: Failures and Significance
• American History: Reconstruction
• Slavery in the Southern Colonies
• American Reconstruction Period
• American History: Reconstruction, 1865 -1877
• The Los Angeles Zoot-Suit Riots and Its Effects
• History of American Foreign Policy
• Literary Works' Views on Slavery in the United States
• The Main Persons in Native American History
• "From Migrant to Acadian: A North American Border People, 1604–1755" by Naomi Griffiths

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The Civil War in The USA

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Published: Aug 14, 2018

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Carlos Lozada

Give Me Liberty or Give Me … What?

By Carlos Lozada

Opinion Columnist

If the American experiment finally decides to call it quits, how might a national breakup begin?

Perhaps California moves toward secession after the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the state’s strict gun control measures. Or Texas rebels when disputes over abortion laws grow deadly and the state’s National Guard remains loyal to the second Texan republic. Or a skirmish over the closure of a local bridge by federal inspectors escalates into a standoff between a beloved sheriff and a famous general, and the rest of the country takes sides. Or it’s the coordinated bombing of state capitols timed to the 2028 presidential transition, with right-wing militias and left-wing activists blaming one another.

In other words: It’s not you, it’s me hating you .

These scenarios are not of my own creation; they all appear in recent nonfiction books warning of an American schism. The secessionist impulses take shape in David French’s “ Divided We Fall ,” which cautions that Americans’ political and cultural clustering risks tearing the country apart. (French published it before becoming a Times columnist in 2023.) The statehouse explosions go off in Barbara F. Walter’s “ How Civil Wars Start ,” which notes that when democratic norms erode, opportunistic leaders can more easily aggravate the ethnic and cultural divides that end in violence. The Battle of the Bridge is one of several possible Sumter moments in Stephen Marche’s “ The Next Civil War, ” which contends that our great divorce would flow from irreconcilable differences over what America stands for.

These authors offer examples of what could happen, not predictions of what will. Their point is that our politics and culture are susceptible to such possibilities. “The crisis has already arrived,” Marche writes. “Only the inciting incidents are pending.”

It is precisely the absence of inciting incidents that makes the writer-director Alex Garland’s much-debated new film, “ Civil War ” (its box-office success resulting in part from the multitude of newspaper columnists going to see it), such an intriguing addition to this canon. We never learn exactly who or what started the new American civil war, or what ideologies, if any, are competing for power. It’s a disorienting and risky move, but an effective one. An elaborate back story would distract from the viewer’s engagement with the war itself — the bouts of despair and detachment, of death and denial — as lived and chronicled by the weary journalists at the center of the story.

Even the choice of journalists as the film’s protagonists creates an additional layer of remove, especially because, weirdly, these journalists rarely discuss the origins of the conflict or question its politics, even among themselves. (“We record so other people ask,” a veteran photographer reminds her protégée.) The story is built around their travels from New York to Washington, where they hope to score one last presidential interview before the capital falls.

“Civil War” is a road trip movie, if your trip occurs somewhere between the dislocation of “ Nomadland ” and the dystopia of “ The Road .” If you’re trying to see the national monuments before they turn to rubble. If stopping for gas involves Canadian currency and scenes of torture. If stadium camps and mass graves have become standard features of America the beautiful.

In this telling, California and Texas have both seceded and somehow allied together. They are battling the remnants of the U.S. armed forces as well as some loyal Secret Service agents and die-hard White House staffers, all of whom serve the same purpose as the expendable ensigns on a “Star Trek” landing party. There is also something called the Florida Alliance, which has been trying to persuade the Carolinas to break away from Washington, too.

Illustration by The New York Times; Photograph by David Yeazell/USA Today Sports, via Reuters Con

But the most memorable fighters in this war are the informal militias found across the country, whose motives for violence range from self-defense to self-indulgence. One fighter explains, with an annoyed air, why he’s taking aim at a sniper: “Someone’s trying to kill us. We are trying to kill them.” Another exudes slow-motion glee while executing his uniformed, hooded prisoners. Another militant mumbles that he’s strung up a local looter in part because the guy had ignored him in high school, a casual malevolence that brought to mind Shad Ledue, the murderous handyman from Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, “It Can’t Happen Here.” Once Ledue gains a little power — just enough — over his kindly but oblivious former employers, his enduring resentment fuels his vengeance.

Civil conflicts are sustained by different groups’ belief that their “position and status in society” have been downgraded, Walter writes. Whether that erosion is real can be less relevant than the feelings of oppression and loss, and the chance to blame and punish someone for it. Once the door has opened just a crack, high school slights and condescending bosses become good excuses — precisely because they’re so petty — for violence.

The power of “Civil War” is that the snippets of context deepen the film’s ambiguity, as well as its realism. The president, we learn in passing, is serving a third term, and the action begins with him rehearsing his lies before addressing the nation. (So was secession a reaction to an authoritarian leader, or was his extended tenure itself a response to regional rebellion?) The president made controversial decisions, like deploying airstrikes against U.S. citizens (a plot point that reminded me of the U.S. killing of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011) and disbanding the F.B.I. (which evoked the fateful U.S. decision to dissolve the Iraqi military in 2003). The war photographer at the heart of the movie, played by Kirsten Dunst, gained fame in college for snapping a “legendary” photo of something called the Antifa Massacre. (I immediately thought of the indelible Kent State photograph from 1970, also taken by a collegiate photographer, though whether this new massacre was supposedly perpetrated by or against Antifa activists is unclear.)

“Civil War” is not ripped from the headlines as much as it is stitched from history; it is not a vision of what might happen in America but a collage of what already has happened, some here and much elsewhere.

In that sense, the film is reminiscent of Omar El Akkad’s 2017 novel “ American War, ” which imagines a new civil conflict late in the 21st century, after climate change has remade the country and a federal prohibition on the use of fossil fuels prompts an uprising by Americans clinging to their guns and gas guzzlers. El Akkad, a journalist who has covered terrorism, military tribunals and mass migration around the world, decides to put them all in one place, a future America where principle has given way to retribution. “This isn’t only about secession anymore,” someone explains after the fighting begins. “This is about avenging our dead.” It’s a book-length rebuttal of American exceptionalism.

“Civil War” issues a similar rebuttal in a lament by Dunst’s character, who struggles with flashbacks from the many conflicts she’s covered and also can’t quite accept that it’s happening here. “Every time I survived a war zone and got the photo,” she says, “I thought I was sending a warning home: Don’t do this. But here we are.”

The missing back story in “Civil War” does not obviate any consideration of how such a war could have begun; it forces viewers to realize that many different roads could get us there. We don’t have to be the United States from the 1850s or the Balkans from the 1990s; we can choose our own misadventure.

Of course, not everyone chooses sides. Political violence does not necessarily depend on mass mobilization but on just the right mix of minority zealotry and majority indifference, or perhaps fear. In “Civil War,” the journalists come upon a time warp of a town, sprinklers still spraying and shops still open, seemingly insulated from the mayhem. One resident explains that she sees the war on television but would rather just “stay out.” The coexistence of brutality and normality is a recurring feature of war, and I can picture many Americans getting through an actual civil war with similar distance. (Maybe they’d call it self-care.) But I suspect that more than enough of us would feel what Marche calls “the pleasure of contempt.” That pleasure is everywhere in “Civil War,” no less than in the Abu Ghraib-style photo that slowly develops in the closing credits.

In “How Civil Wars Start,” Walter points to the breakdown of a unified national identity as a precursor of strife. In Iraq, she writes, people began to ask who was Shiite and who Sunni; in Bosnia, the distinction among Serb, Croat and Muslim identities overpowered all else. One of the most disturbing moments in “Civil War” shows a camouflage-clad fighter threatening the journalists. When they insist they are Americans, he asks, “What kind of American are you?” At gunpoint, they answer, and the fatal exchange shows that the definition of America is no longer found in the creed of liberty, equality and opportunity but in the sludge of blood, soil and language.

The quest for a cohesive national definition comes up in these recent books warning of our deepening divides. Walter compares the political tensions of our time to the 1850s and the 1960s. “Both times, the country’s political parties had radically different visions of America’s future. What could the country be? What should the country be?” She hopes that America’s enduring ideals and shared history can inspire us to “fulfill the promise of a truly multiethnic democracy.” In “Divided We Fall,” French imagines but does not expect that we might draw on our federalist tradition to let different states live as they choose while preserving individual rights, not to mention the union.

Such outcomes would require the acceptance of those shared ideals and history, a semblance of consensus around what kind of country we want to be. This is harder in an America of proliferating identities and symbols, a country where group rights and grievances risk trumping the commonalities and compromises that bind us together. “Identity-based parties make it impossible for voters to switch sides,” Walter writes. “There is nowhere for them to go if their political identity is tied to their ethnic or religious identity.”

Marche hopes that America will regain its swagger and reinvent its politics, but the estrangement he sees offers little encouragement. “Each side accuses the other of hating America,” he writes, “which is only another way of saying that both hate what the other means by America.”

The debate over what kind of America we want is vital and unceasing. But when it shifts from the universal to the personal, from what kind of America we want to what kind of American we’ll accept, then we have moved from conversation to interrogation, from inquiry to tragedy. You don’t have to believe that a new civil war is coming to understand the dangers of the question — “What kind of American are you?” — and to realize that the more answers we grasp for, the weaker we become.

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Carlos Lozada is an Opinion columnist and a co-host of the weekly “Matter of Opinion” podcast for The Times, based in Washington, D.C. He is the author, most recently, of “ The Washington Book : How to Read Politics and Politicians.”  @ CarlosNYT

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Critic’s Notebook: ‘Civil War’ and the elusiveness of the of-the-moment movie

This image released by Mubi shows a scene from the film “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” (Mubi via AP)

This image released by Sideshow/Janus shows a scene from the film “The Beast” (Carole Bethuel/ Sideshow/Janus via AP)

This image released by A24 shows Kirsten Dunst in a scene from “Civil War.” (A24 via AP)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The movies are good at resurrecting the past and imagining the future, but pinning down the present can be tricky. Movies take a long time to make. Once you’ve gone from idea to script to production to edit and, finally, to audiences, several years might have passed.

Take “Civil War,” Alex Garland’s seemingly very of-the-moment, election-year release that led the box office over last weekend. Garland wrote it in 2020 as the pandemic was unfolding and a presidential election was approaching. “Civil War” arrived in theaters four years later, loaded with the anxieties of societal breakdown and concern for the endgame to our current political extremism.

But it also very consciously stepped away from the bitter partisanship of today. “Civil War” sparked a lot of discussion by pairing California and Texas together in battle, but that’s far from the only gesture Garland made to avoid channeling the current, highly charged fissures of American society.

The movie, perhaps out of fear of being too contemporary, is set in a near-future dystopia. Scant mention is made of race, income inequality or climate change. It has connective tissue with many current issues, particularly the plight of journalists. But it’s telling that even a provocative movie that imagines America in all-out warfare is timid about today.

Yet even if “Civil War” was bracingly current, would that have been appropriate in an election year? More importantly, would we even want to see it?

With many exceptions, the movie year in multiplexes can seem forever toggling between the period dramas of Oscar season and the sequels of summer, a seemingly willful dance to forever avoid the here and now. To a large degree, Hollywood runs on intellectual property, which, by its definition, is old. That didn’t stop “Barbie” from being highly relevant 64 years after the doll’s creation, or a 70-year-old Godzilla from showing some new moves , or 62-year-old Spider-Man proving surprisingly adept at reflecting our chaotic digital lives.

But finding movies free of decades-old baggage or loads of CGI that masks the real world can take some effort. That dearth has made a pair of spring releases — Radu Jude’s “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” and Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast” — all the more thrilling for their eagerness to confront our present reality.

“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” the latest from the 47-year-old Romanian writer and director Jude, begins with an iPhone alarm clock going off. On the disheveled nightstand of Angela Răducanu (Ilinca Manolache) is a wine glass, paperback Proust and a clock with no hands, beneath which it reads “It’s later than you think.”

Angela’s life is a discombobulated swirl of GPS-navigated traffic, boorish men and work errands. Everything from the war in Ukraine to gun violence to Pornhub is filtered into her daily experience while she drives to appointments to make workplace-safety videos for a production company.

Angela occasionally boils over, though she mostly vents through TikTok, spouting misogynist incel rants with a filter that cloaks her identity. The persona is modeled after the online influencer Andrew Tate, who is charged in Bucharest with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. He’s denied the allegations.

Interspersed with Angela’s story are excerpts from Lucian Bratu’s 1981 film “Angela Goes On.” That Angela (played by Dorina Lazăr) spends her days driving, too, as a taxi driver, and the juxtaposition between the two Angelas invites a comparison between that era and now. Today, filming in a harsh monochrome, doesn’t come off looking so good — even next to the communist Romania of the 1981 film.

Bonello’s “The Beast,” which expands this Friday in theaters, also uses separate timelines to illuminate present reality while pondering if we aren’t just doomed to repeat the past.

The movie, inspired by the Henry James novella “The Beast in the Jungle,” follows two lovers — Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay) —through three time periods: 1910 Paris, 2014 Los Angeles and 2044 Paris.

In the first chapter, Gabrielle and Louis are brought together — not for the first time, Louis reminds her — in belle époque Paris just before the Great Flood of 1910. Their connection is palpable but the encounter ends in tragedy, in an underwater sequence of haunting power in the doll factory of Gabrielle’s husband.

The switch, then, from costume drama to more-or-less contemporary Los Angeles is jarring. But our characters are still some distant versions of their prior selves. Gabrielle, previously a pianist, is now an actor. Louis is a misogynistic vlogger whose incel delusions — along with some strange force drawing them back together — bring him again into Gabrielle’s orbit.

The echoes of their past lives are even more acute in 2044, by which time artificial intelligence has spread into all corners of life and Gabrielle is considering undergoing a procedure to “purify” her DNA. She’s told she won’t lose her emotions but will feel more “serenely.” The bookends of past and present in “The Beast” put dehumanization — from doll-making to A.I. — in disquieting context.

It’s not a coincidence that both “The Beast” and “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the Earth” wrestle with incel culture. To do so may be a necessary ingredient for making sense of our present reality. Sean Price Williams’ “The Sweet East,” a scuzzy, vital picaresque from last year, glibly but perceptively surveyed a ridiculous America of worlds-apart subcultures, conspiracy-addled shooters and bookish white supremacists. With a cast including Simon Rex, Jeremy O. Harris, Ayo Edebiri and Jacob Elordi, but a central heroine in Lillian (Talia Ryder), “The Sweet East” played like an “Alice in Wonderland” for now – an absurd odyssey for absurd times.

None of these films — “The Beast,” “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the Earth,” “The Sweet East” — are perfect, or even trying to be. But, unlike “Civil War,” they aren’t dodging anything. The present may be messy and muddled but these films, in very distinct and outlandish ways, are at least trying to pin it down.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP