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Brief Description: This website covers variety of facts over the Great Depression.

~ I choose this because it talks about tons of different facts and looks at the financial part as well. This website just gives tons of facts about this time.

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facts about the united states of america

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interesting facts about the great depression

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facts about the united states government

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facts about the great depression for kids

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Great Depression Facts | Great Depression Facts

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This is a website about the Great Depression.

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Brief Description: This website covers the U.S. and East Asia .

~ I choose this because this was another problem that was going on during this time and is also a reason that lead to the Emerging World Power.

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The United States and East Asia: The decline of long-distance leadership? | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

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While it is possible to quibble about both the extent of America's support for the universal liberalization of population flows, and its commitment to reducing its own barriers to trade, nevertheless Bacevich highlights some important continuities in American policy. But it is one thing to have some consistency of purpose, it is quite another to see this supported and realized.

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Brief Description: This website covers the American-Spanish war.

~ I choose this because the American-Spanish war was one of the events that happened in this Emerging World Power period.

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Brief Description: This website talks about all that happened in the twenties starting from year 1920-1929.

~ I choose this because it shows all of what the twenties was like and what went on in the twenties.

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Brief Description: This website talks about the music, toys, cars, and just all the equipment and stuff they had in this time.

~ I choose this because it explains and shows what they had during this roaring twenties time.

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Twenties Fashions, Major Advances in Technology with many of the inventions still in use today, The growth of the movie industry, Start of the Mass Production of cars, Radios For The Home and Popular Culture, The Twenties were a time of radical change caused by the many changes happening in technology with new advancements, discoveries, and inventions. The decade is often referred to as the Roaring Twenties.
Jump To 1920's Fashions -- Toys -- Cars -- Popular Culture -- Homes -- Technology

What Happened in 1920 History

With the ending of World War I a housing boom in Britain and the United States leads to an increase in home ownership.

The League of Nations is founded but the United States votes against joining.

Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified on August 18, giving women the right to vote.

The Russian Civil war ends but the country struggles as a famine begins in 1920 and worsens the following year.

The Summer Olympics take place in Antwerp, Belgium and they emphasize reconciliation after World War I.

The 18th Amendment ( Volstead Act / National Prohibition Act ) goes into force at the beginning of the decade which in turn leads to increased black market alcohol that is sold in speakeasies and run by mobsters who pay off local politicians

The Palmer Raids lead to the arrest and deportation of 6,000 foreign aliens suspected radical leftists.

Personalized Birthday newspaper style front page print features historical information from the chosen month/year. Personalize with Name / DOB / Photos / Personalized Message ( From Our Back In Time History Related Gift Collection ) Features a top news story depending on the month/year chosen, and other more general information from the year such as popular music and movies, world leaders, Broadway shows (1920s), radio shows (1930s), and television (1940s to Present), sports news, prices, and other news events.

What Happened in 1929 History

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 started the period of The Great Depression in the United States

During most of the decade turf wars between rival gangs were frequent and extremely violent. The best known of the many was Al Capone's Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago during 1929.

Vatican City becomes an independent and sovereign state located within Rome after the Lateran Pacts are signed.

Part of our Ladies Hats From The Decade

Ladies Dresses From The Decade

Part of our Collection of Childrens Clothes From the Decade

Check out the new toys pages where you can see some of the children's toys that could be found during the Roaring Twenties and other decades. Toys include Teddy Bears, Velocipedes, Tinker Toys, Gyroscopes, and Magic Lanterns.
From Our Twenties Toys Page
Below are some examples of kids pedal cars, you will notice from the advert below the toy pedal car makers were quick to mimic the cars of the period

Possibly the most significant change during the decade was the mass production of the Car started by Henry Ford in the early 1900's. He had manufactured and sold some 15 million Model-Ts by 1927. I have included 20 examples of cars for sale in the decade

Baseball
The Yankees and Babe Ruth rule the world of Baseball setting records for the team and the Great Babe Ruth.
Major League Teams Buy up Minor League Teams allowing them to get top players much cheaper than the open market.
Association Football (Soccer)
Soccer had been gaining in popularity since the mid 1800's but the Twenties gave an even bigger boost with the Growth Of Radio In Britain making the top players into stars.

To provide an estimate we have given a guide to the value of $100 US Dollars for the first year in the decade to the equivalent in today's money
If you have $100 Converted from 1920 to 2009 it would be equivalent to $1023 in today's money

There were many inventions and new types of technology developed during the 1920s, but possibly the one that had the greatest impact before the turn of the next decade was Radio. It soon became a staple of peoples lives providing entertainment, news, and new ideas. Another very important invention also started to impact peoples lives and that was the uses of airplanes apart from as a weapon of war. Air Mail would provide some of the impetus and investment needed to improve stability and provide a practical use, as a byproduct the airplane became used as a means for entertainment with stunts at Fairs. Man also realized he could push the bounds by attempting previously un-thought of ideas. A good example is Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic Ocean by himself in an airplane. It was during the 20's that automatic vending machines began to appear to dispense soft drinks.

Inventions -- The Year Invented, Inventors, and Country (or attributed to First Use)

Aerosol Sprays ----- 1926 Norway by Erik Rotheim
Antibiotic Penicillin ----- 1928 England by Alexander Fleming
Frozen Food ----- 1924 USA by Clarence Birdseye
Handheld Hair Dryer ----- 1920 USA by Hamilton Beach Co.
Vacuum Tube Hearing Aid ----- 1921 USA by Earl Hanson
Iron Lung ----- 1928 USA by Philip Drinker
Liquid Fuel Rocket ----- 1926 USA by Robert Goddard
Quartz Clock ----- 1927 USA by Warren Marrison
Adhesive Bandages ----- 1920 USA by Earle Dickson
Talking Pictures ----- 1927 USA
Television ----- 1924 Scotland by John Logie Baird
Ultracentrifuge (Separates Proteins) ----- 1923 Sweden by The Svedberg
Videophone ----- 1927 USA
Electric Razor ----- 1927 USA by Jacob Schick
Period Leading up to the Decade You can not talk about the decade without mentioning "The Great Pandemic" from 1918-1919. This influenza epidemic (also known as the Spanish Flu) was a global catastrophe which is believed to have caused the death of over 40 million people worldwide. This is one of the main reasons governments round the world are still so concerned with "Bird Flu" and other largescale influenza outbreaks.

Due to the new technology available allowing movies to have both sound and color, the movie industry in Hollywood grew fast, as did the number of Cinemas showing the films. In 1919, laws were passed for the Prohibition of the consumption and even possession of alcohol, making it illegal. Due to these laws, the Decade provided some of the best known gangsters a means to create vast wealth by opening illegal bars called speakeasies that would provide alcoholic drinks for the people that patronized these establishments. The most well known gangster of the time was possibly Al Capone.
Also this period saw the growth of the Ku Klux Klan and the growth of the Vigilante groups who took the law into their own hands and lynched victims most often black without any trial.
The other great change in people's lives came from an invention and technology developed prior to the twenties. After World War I, the birth of commercial radio helped the radio to became a significant part of life providing news and entertainment to the masses in their homes.
Music Jazz was the music of popular choice and some of the best known musicians were jazz musicians including Duke Ellington and Al Jolson. One other popular musician/composer was George Gershwin. Many of his songs are still recorded and listened to today. A popular dance of the times was known as the Charleston.
From Our 20's Music Section

Electrical Home Goods
The range of things you could own was low because the vast number of Americans still did not have electricity, Below is one great example from our Electrical page featuring a radio, as I did the research I was amazed at the complexity involved in owning a radio for your home. All the items shown below were required to own a radio, more information on this and other items can be found on our
From Our 1920's Home Appliances Page

Homes and Furniture From The Twenties
Our new updated Homes page includes a number of self build homes with varying designs and sizes ranging from a small cottage to a two floor large 7 room house example below is taken from our 1920's Homes and Houses Page
Price: Sectional $2,205
It is interesting looking at the furniture and fixtures you might find in a home from the decade, below are just two examples I found interesting from the more than 20 we have included on our 1920's Furniture
Two Bedroom Country Cottage -- Portable Bathtub With Water Heater

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What Happened in the 1920s inc. News, Popular Culture, Prices and Technology

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Twenties Fashions, Major Advances in Technology with many of the inventions still in use today, The growth of the movie industry, Start of the Mass Production of cars, Radios For The Home and Popular Culture, The Twenties were a time of radical change caused by the many changes happening in technology with new advancements, discoveries, and inventions.

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Brief Description: This talks about how Oklahoma was affected and also talks about how bad it was for them.

~ I choose this because it was from the people in Oklahoma's perspective and how bad they thought the Depression was.

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Brief Description: This is an outline/ an overall view of the New Deal and all the events that happened during this.

~ I choose this because it has really good information and it goes into great detail about all of the things they faced in this New Deal.

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Georgia was helped perhaps as much as any state by the New Deal, which brought advances in rural electrification, education, health care, housing, and highway construction. The New Deal also had a par

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Brief Description: This is an overview of the first and second hundred days. It also talks about the elections and Herbert Hoover.

~ I choose this because it tells about the first and second hundred day deals.

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In early 1933 nation needed immediate relief, recovery from economic collapse, and reform to avoid future depressions, so relief, recovery and reform became Franklin D. Roosevelt`s goals when he took the helm as president. At his side stood a Democratic Congress, prepared to enact the measures carved out by a group of his closest advisors - dubbed the "Brain Trust" by reporters. One recurring theme in the recovery plan was Roosevelt's pledge to help the "forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid."

Birth of the "New Deal" The concepts that became the New Deal had been discussed in earlier years but without effect. The statement by National Catholic War Council in 1919, drafted by Father John A. Ryan, contained recommendations that would later be regarded as precursors of the New Deal.

The term "New Deal" was coined during Franklin Roosevelt's 1932 Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech, when he said, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." Roosevelt summarized the New Deal as a "use of the authority of government as an organized form of self-help for all classes and groups and sections of our country."

The exact nature of Roosevelt`s intentions was not clear during the campaign, although his philosophy was set out in an address that he gave at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on September 23:

The government should assume the function of economic regulation only as a last resort, to be tried only when private initiative, inspired by high responsibility, with such assistance and balance as government can give, has finally failed. As yet there has been no final failure, because there has been no attempt, and I decline to assume that this nation is unable to meet the situation.

At his inauguration in March 1933, Roosevelt declared in his lilting style, "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is, fear itself - needless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." In his first 99 days, he proposed, and Congress swiftly enacted, an ambitious "New Deal" to deliver relief to the unemployed and those in danger of losing farms and homes, recovery to agriculture and business, and reform, notably through the inception of the vast Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The New Deal effects would take time; some 13,000,000 people were out of work by March 1933, and virtually every bank was shuttered.

The New Deal programs were born in Brain Trust meetings prior to Roosevelt's inauguration, and also were a grateful nod to Theodore Roosevelt`s "square deal" of 30 years earlier. Members of the group included Raymond Moley, an American journalist and public figure; Rexford Tugwell, Adolf Berle of Columbia University, attorney Basil O`Connor, and later, Felix Frankfurter of Harvard Law School. Many of Roosevelt`s presidential campaign advisors continued to counsel him after he was elected, among them Berle, Moley, Tugwell, Harry Hopkins, and Samuel I. Rosenman; but they never met again as a group after his inauguration.
Herbert Hoover
Opening the way for the New Deal, President Herbert Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Election of 1932. Hoover, who had been blamed for the stock market crash and the Depression, strongly opposed Roosevelt`s New Deal legislation, in which the federal government assumed responsibility for the welfare of the nation by maintaining a high level of economic activity. According to Hoover, Roosevelt had been slow to reveal his New Deal programs during the presidential campaign and worried that the new president would sink the nation into deficit spending to pay for the New Deal. Roosevelt never consulted Hoover, nor did he involve him in government in any way during his presidential term.
The "Hundred Days"
The president called a special session of Congress on March 9. Immediately he began to submit reform and recovery measures for congressional validation. Virtually all the important bills he proposed were enacted by Congress. The 99-day (March 9-June 16) session came to be known as the "Hundred Days."

On March 12, 1933, Roosevelt broadcast the first of 30 "fireside chats" over the radio to the American people. The opening topic was the Bank Crisis. Primarily, he spoke on a variety of topics to inform Americans and exhort them to support his domestic agenda, and later, the war effort. During Roosevelt`s first year as president, Congress passed laws to protect stock and bond investors.

Among the measures enacted during the first Hundred Days were the following:

Emergency Banking Act (March 9), provided the president with the means to reopen viable banks and regulate banking;

Economy Act (March 20), cut federal costs through reorganization of and cuts in salaries and veterans` pensions;

Beer-Wine Revenue Act (March 22), legalized and taxed wine and beer;

Civilian Conservation Corps Act (March 31). Three million young men, between the ages of 18 to 25, found work in road building, forestry labor and flood control through the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC);

Federal Emergency Relief Act (May 12), established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to distribute $500 million to states and localities for relief. Administered by Harry Hopkins for relief or for wages on public works, that federal agency would eventually pay out about $3 billion;

Agricultural Adjustment Act (May 12), established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to decrease crop surpluses by subsidizing farmers who voluntarily cut back on production;

Thomas Amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act, permitted the president to inflate the currency in various ways;

Tennessee Valley Authority Act (May 18), allowed the federal government to build dams and power plants in the Tennessee Valley, coupled with agricultural and industrial planning, to generate and sell the power, and to engage in area development. The TVA was given an assignment to improve the economic and social circumstances of the people living in the river basin; and the

Federal Securities Act (May 27), to stiffen regulation of the securities business.

The "Second Hundred Days"
Congress also enacted several important relief and reform measures in the summer of 1935 - sometimes called the Second Hundred Days.

During the Second Hundred Days, those measures enacted included:

Joint resolution to abandon the gold standard (June 5);

National Employment System Act (June 6), to create the U.S. Employment Service;

Home Owners Refinancing Act (June 13), to establish the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) to refinance non-farm home mortgages;

Glass-Steagall Banking Act (June 16), to institute various banking reforms, including establishing the Federal Bank Deposit Insurance Corporation, that insured deposits up to $5,000, and later, $10,000;

Farm Credit Act (June 16), to provide for the refinancing of farm mortgages;

Emergency Railroad Transportation Act (June 16), to increase federal regulation of railroads; and the

National Industrial Recovery Act (June 16), to establish the National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration.

Following Roosevelt`s lead, the government launched a relief program, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), in winter 1933-1934. The CWA provided funds to such authorities as mayors and governors for public projects including road, bridge, and school construction, park restoration, and others. Critics castigated the CWA as make-work, much of it useless.

After a few months, Roosevelt terminated the CWA, but other programs enjoyed longer lives. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) lasted from 1933 until 1942. Its members produced notable and lasting results with flood control, soil conservation and forestry programs. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established in 1935 to provide work for the unemployed. Between that year and 1941, the WPA employed an average of two million people a year. The WPA went on to spend billions on reforestation, flood control, rural electrification, water works, sewage plants, school buildings, slum clearance, student scholarships, and other projects. Their crowning achievement came in the completion of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia in 1937.

The New Deal also greatly influenced the American Labor Movement, especially through the following legislation:

Through the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 the National Recovery Administration (NRA) came into being. The NRA attempted to revive industry by raising wages, reducing work hours and reining in unbridled competition. Portions of the NRA were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935; however, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was the second part of the NRA, was allowed to stand. The majority of its collective bargaining stipulations survived in two subsequent bills. The NRA - a product of meetings among such "Brain Trust" advisors as Raymond Moley, big business leaders, and labor unionists - illustrated Roosevelt`s willingness to work with, rather than against, business interests.

Employees were guaranteed the right to negotiate with employers through unions of their choosing by the Wagner Act of 1935, and it established a Labor Relations Board as a forum for dispute resolution. The act bolstered the American Federation of Labor, and pointed to the inception of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.), another labor movement.

Workers were given the right to bargain collectively through the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 promulgated a 44-hour workweek with time-and-a-half for overtime and pegged a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. The act also provided that the hours worked would drop to 40 and the wage would incrementally rise to 40 cents. In addition, the bill made child labor under the age of 16 illegal.

The U.S. government could reach out in the widest way to alleviate human misery - such was an assumption that underlay the New Deal. Beginning in 1935, Congress enacted the Social Security Act of 1935 (and later amendments) that provided pensions to the aged, benefit payments to dependent mothers, crippled children and blind people, and unemployment insurance. Small businesses, homeowners and the oil and railroad industries were given help by other legislation.
Who paid for the New Deal?
The foregoing projects, and others, were expensive, and the government was not taking in enough revenue to avoid deficit spending. To fund all the new legislation, government spending rose. Spending in 1916 was $697 million; in 1936 it was $9 billion. The government modified taxes to tap wealthy people the most, who could take it in stride most easily. The deficit was made up in part by raising taxes and borrowing money through the sale of government bonds. Meanwhile, the national debt climbed to unprecedented heights.
Response in the U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes provided a swing vote during the critical Depression and New Deal eras, although liberal senators had assumed that he would hold conservative positions when he was nominated by Hoover in 1930. Critics have suggested that some of Hughes' pro-New Deal stances were prompted by a desire to weaken FDR`s court-packing scheme, not by conviction. He supported Franklin Roosevelt's decision not to pay government obligations in gold, provided a critical vote upholding collective bargaining rights under the Wagner Act and upheld the controversial Social Security Act.

On other occasions, however, Hughes dealt severe blows to the New Deal, most notably in Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States (1935), in which he voted with the majority to strike down the National Industrial Recovery Act. In 1937, Hughes publicly opposed Roosevelt's plan to pack the Supreme Court with sympathetic justices and offered his opinion in writing to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Opponents of the New Deal
By 1934, the New Deal was encountering opposition from both ends of the political spectrum. All around the country, brazen unions - some Marxist-influenced - sparked job actions, including a city-wide strike in San Francisco. Nevertheless, the most prominent left-wing threat to Roosevelt was a Louisiana senator, Huey P. Long, who railed at the New Deal for not doing enough. Conservatives argued that Roosevelt had done too much. Some of them organized the American Liberty League in August 1934 to galvanize the right. However, in the mid-term elections, the Democrats gained enough seats in both houses of Congress to enjoy veto-proof majorities.

The nation saw measurable progress by 1935, but businessmen and bankers increasingly opposed the New Deal. The president`s experiments alarmed them. The rich, conservatives, numerous businessmen - and those who were all three - vigorously opposed the New Deal. They were dismayed by his toleration of budget deficits and his removal of the nation from the gold standard, and were disgusted by legislation favorable to labor.

Election of 1936
The U.S. Supreme Court had been nullifying crucial New Deal legislation, but the president was re-elected by a wide margin in 1936. That nationwide endorsement of FDR, who carried every state except Vermont and Maine, convinced him that he had popular backing. To capitalize on it, Roosevelt introduced legislation to expand the federal courts, ostensibly as a straightforward organizational reform, but actually to "pack" the courts with justices sympathetic to his proposals. He was unsuccessful, but constitutional law would eventually change to allow the government to regulate the national economy.
Conclusion
As the free world geared up to fight the Axis powers, Roosevelt began to turn his attention away from domestic policies and toward helping the Allies, while maintaining an isolationist position towards entering the fighting of World War II. With America's eventual entry into the war, that nation's economy continued to improve. Large-scale production of military equipment and the draft turned America's eyes toward a larger enemy than the beast of poverty that it had once known during The Great Depression, thus closing the chapter on the New Deal.

---- Selected Quotes ----
Quotes regarding The New Deal.
By Franklin D. Roosevelt
I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.
Speech accepting the 1932 Democratic Party nomination.

- - - Books You May Like Include: ----

Aberdeen Gardens by Aberdeen Gardens Heritage Committee.
Aberdeen Gardens was established by Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal in 1934 as a model for housing following the Great Depression. Of the 5...
The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope by Jonathan Alter.
In this dramatic and authoritative account, the author shows how Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his famous "fear itself" speech and the first 100 days...
Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands.
A sweeping, magisterial biography of the man generally considered the greatest president of the twentieth century, admired by Democrats and Republican...
Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America by Adam Cohen.
Nothing to Fear brings to life a fulcrum moment in American history--the tense, feverish first one Hundred Days of FDR's presidency, when he and his i...
New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America by Burton W. Folsom Jr..
A sharply critical new look at Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency reveals government policies known as the New Deal that hindered economic recovery fr...
Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman.
As a conservative Supreme Court flexes its muscles against a Democratic president for the first time since the New Deal, a series of recent books has ...
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes.
In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, one of the nation's most-respected economic commentators, offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depressi...
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry.
In 1927, the Mississippi River swept across an area roughly equal in size to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, leaving ...

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In early 1933 nation needed immediate relief, recovery from economic collapse, and reform to avoid future depressions, so relief, recovery and reform became Franklin D. Roosevelt`s goals when he took the helm as president. At his side stood a Democratic Congress, prepared to enact the measures carved out by a group of his closest advisors - dubbed the "Brain Trust" by reporters.

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Brief Description: This is a timeline of World War one and all of what happened in chronological order.

~ I choose this because it talks about all of the event that happened in World War one and the order they happened in.

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28 June 1914

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

The Balkan states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had been annexed from Turkey and taken into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was strongly resented by many Serbs and Croats and a nationalist group, The Black Hand, was formed.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and his wife, had decided to inspect Austro-Hungarian troops in Bosnia. The date chosen for the inspection was a national day in Bosnia. The Black Hand supplied a group of students with weapons for an assassination attempt to mark the occasion.

A Serbian nationalist student, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, when their open car stopped at a corner on its way out of the town.

28 July 1914

Austria declared war on Serbia

The Austrian government blamed the Serbian government for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife and declared war on Serbia.

Although Russia was allied with Serbia, Germany did not believe that she would mobilise and offered to support Austria if necessary.

However, Russia did mobilise and, through their alliance with France, called on the French to mobilise.

late 1914

Early stages of the war

The German advance through Belgium to France did not go as smoothly as the Germans had hoped. The Belgians put up a good fight destroying railway lines to slow the transport of German supplies.

Despite a French counter-attack that saw the deaths of many Frenchmen on the battlefields at Ardennes, the Germans continued to march into France. They were eventually halted by the allies at the river Marne.

British troops had advanced from the northern coast of France to the Belgian town of Mons. Although they initially held off the Germans, they were soon forced to retreat.

The British lost a huge number of men at the first battle of Ypres.

By Christmas, all hopes that the war would be over had gone and the holiday saw men of both sides digging themselves into the trenches of theWestern Front.

1 June 1916

Battle of Jutland

The British and German naval forces met again but the battle was inconclusive. The German ships did a great deal of damage to British ships before once again withdrawing and the British Admiral Jellicoe decided not to give chase.

Although British losses were heavier than the German, the battle had alarmed both the Kaiser and the German Admiral Scheer and they decided to keep their fleet consigned to harbour for the remainder of the war.

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28 June 1914 Assassination of Franz Ferdinand The Balkan states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had been annexed from Turkey and taken into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was strongly resented by many Serbs and Croats and a nationalist group, The Black Hand, was formed.

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Brief Description: This website is in the time period of years 1914-1923. It talks about the things that happened in this time period.

~ I choose this because it is pretty specific about what happened in these years.

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From its start in 1914, World War I greatly affected the world outlook of Beloit College. Interest in world affairs increased greatly as news of the War reached the College. Attention peaked when some of Beloit's own became enlisted men. The result after the War was a great desire to know more, to be more prepared, and to be more aware of the world as a whole. Missionary issues faded into the background, giving way to sensitivity to other issues surrounding world politics.

As the War broke out overseas, the initial interest was in the stories sent back by people then traveling in Europe. Both The Beloit Alumnus, and The Round Table featured articles about those who were caught in a wild rush at the War's declaration. The first issue of The Round Table in the 1914 school year featured an article called, "A Modern Odysseus," about Professor Theodore L. Wright's escape from "war-torn Europe." Professor Wright, of the Greek department, spent the summer leading a group of forty tourists on a tour of Italy for the Bureau of University Travel. He reported that at the first word of hostilities, a flood of tourists from the north fled the war zone in a panic. He also described his expensive return home. In order to return to the States in time to start the new semester he had to charter a ship back. He returned safely.

The Beloit Alumnus also paid attention to those abroad during the outbreak. The December edition reported that Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Pitcher of the classes of 1906 and 1908 had to cut their wedding journey short, reaching London with just a few cents left, "after traveling in crowded carriages where they were forced to stand for eight hours at a stretch without food or water." The Beloit Alumnus detailed a number of other frantic cases and listed many more alumni who were caught overseas.

As the War escalated, the College reacted by conducting a number of lectures in October and November 1914, on different aspects of the War. The first, "The Historical Background," was given by Professor Robert K. Richardson, while the second, by Professor Arthur E. Suffern, dealt with the economic background of the War. The final lecture, presented by Professor R. B. Way, was titled, "The World Aspects of the Present War and the Prospects for Permanent Peace." Both Beloit College students and members of the Beloit community were invited to attend.

The Round Table published a number of articles on the War, significant because this was the first time international issues were regularly treated in the school newspaper. In November 1914, Walter Candy wrote "The European War Situation," in which his isolationist views are evident. However, he did acknowledge that most students had no idea what was going on overseas:

"We Americans are prone to look upon the present European war with a more or less indifferent attitude. We consider ourselves too far removed from the conflict to give it much serious consideration. We are content to glance at the bold headlines of our daily newspapers, hastily draw our conclusions, and then go about our routine of work, thinking no more about the atrocities which our brothers in Europe are committing. ...Most of us know that there is a terrible war in Europe and we have our suspicions as to the probable outcome. But as to the real cause of strife, we know but little."

In November of 1914, The Round Table ran a two part article titled, "Some Things You May Not Know About the War," copyrighted by Ford H. MacGregor of the University of Wisconsin. MacGregor explained a range of different subjects from the object of war to submarine mines. MacGregor concluded, "the ultimate object of all modern war is a renewed state of peace."

Peace and its attainment was a major theme early in the war. In December, The Round Table reported about an educational campaign for international peace by the Carnegie Endowment. The plan called for college graduates to organize "polity clubs" at leading colleges for better understanding of international relations. The clubs would study the fundamental causes of the European War as well as other issues.

With the advent of the War, the Home Oratorical Contest became the Home Peace Oratorical Contest. The headline of the contest results in The Round Table read, "Speakers Oppose War With Strong Oration." Most of the material addressed was drawn from the struggle overseas. The paper reported that the audience was larger than usual.

Beloit's international outlook was growing in other ways as well. In December 1914, C. H. Fei, a Chinese student at Oberlin College, addressed the students at chapel service. President Edward Dwight Eaton invited him to the College to speak about the relations between China and the United States. Fei also spoke about missionary work there.

Oscar Ahlgren, class of 1915, won the State Oratorical Contest, giving Beloit College a winning streak of nine years in a row, with his oration, "A Nation Under the Lash," which dealt with the history of Finland as well as its current situation.

As the War progressed and the students received more and more information about developments abroad and at home, they began to demand a change in the format of the school newspaper. Up until then, The Round Table was published as a literary magazine, with feature articles and only a brief section devoted to current events. Between 1914 and 1916, students discussed whether or not The Round Table should become a semi-weekly paper with more of a typical newspaper format. By Fall of 1916, the newspaper had transformed, reflecting the change in world outlook.

As the United States became involved in the War, major changes took place on campus. As one might assume, enrollment dropped dramatically as male students went overseas to fight. The administration of the College was turned over to President Melvin Amos Brannon at this time. President Brannon was the first president who did not possess the title of reverend. The most significant change, however, came with the treatment of current world affairs. A personal stake was now set in international happenings. Attention was closely focused abroad.

From the start of the 1917-18 school year, The Round Table lavished its attention on Beloit's role in the War. The front page headline of the first paper of that year read, "Beloit Has Big Representation in War Service." By October 6, 1917, over 270 students, faculty, and alumni were in training for the War, or were already at the front.

A number of men had already gone to the front as volunteers for the French ambulance corps. The November addition of The Beloit Alumnus featured an article on Beloit men in the First and Third American Ambulance Service Group. Ellis Denny, class of 1915, described his impressions of the situation:

"Our work at the front has made old associations unreal and citizen's life a dream. I have passed the stage of vivid first impressions and many things now seem only commonplace, which would have received notable comment."

Theodore Mills, class of 1918 earned a Croix de Guerre for bravery. He was one of the first American ambulance drivers to aid in the War. He won the Croix for his brave actions on the front lines.

In November of 1917, The Beloit Alumnus published the annual report of the College. Ex-President Eaton acknowledged the change on campus:

"The entrance Of our country into the world war has affected profoundly the life of the college, so that by the close of the year we seemed living in a different academic era from that in which the year had begun, an era of new outlooks and new problems."

The report also described what the faculty and students were doing in the War effort, and listed the number of students the College lost in attendance.

One way the College contributed to the effort was by offering "War Emergency Courses." First aid was a popular course among the women of the College. Other War courses included drafting and surveying and interpretation of topographical maps.

The semester before, the College attempted to set up a military training program. The War Department at that time could not send anybody to train the students at Beloit on a permanent basis. However, by October of 1918, The Beloit Alumnus reported that the College had become "a veritable military camp." Instruction was available in gas engines, machine shop work, radio, and car repair. Beloit was the only institution in Wisconsin besides the University of Wisconsin to have such a mechanical unit. The Student Army Training Corps also prepared students for advanced training in artillery, infantry, air, quartermaster, ordinance, chemical or other engineering branches, and transportation.

Throughout United States involvement in the War, articles appeared in both The Round Table and The Beloit Alumnus about different aspects of the War. The former president of the College, Edward Dwight Eaton, submitted an article entitled, "Washington in War Times" in the February 1918 Alumnus. He described what a number of Beloit men were doing in Washington for the War, including a member of the class of 1901, who worked in the office of the Adjutant General; Leslie Smith, class of 1910, who instructed army officers in the use of gases in warfare; and trustee William Hale, who researched problems of labor for the Council of National Defense. Eaton said of the War:

"Very few people here expect the war to terminate before the close of 1919, and all believe we ought to gird ourselves for the possibility of a much longer struggle, which God [may] avert through the patriotic unity and determination of our whole nation."

Among other articles about the War in Europe, The Alumnus included, "The Army's Method of Placing Skilled Workers," by W. V. Bingham, class of 1901, and executive secretary of the Committee on Classification of Personnel of the Army; "The American Forces in France," written in April 1918 by Professor John Pitt Dean; and "Medical Service in War Torn France," By Marshall C. Pease, class of 1902. Pease reported that, "Meningitis, diphtheria, pneumonia, dysentaries, and the many other infectious diseases, some of which are rare and some of which are feared, call for much investigation and instant action."

Many of those overseas submitted letters or articles telling first hand of their experiences. For example, in the October Alumnus, Lillian Grant, class of 1915, vividly portrayed her daily experience in a Red Cross canteen:

"I got up at 6:30 this morning with great effort and much against my will supposing that I was to work from seven until three. I arrived at the canteen and plunged into serving breakfasts to dozens and dozens of hungry men only to discover that I was changed to night duty and was, all unbeknown to me, supposed to sleep today."

The Beloit Alumnus published a collection of letters in two issues during this period, the first in April 1918. Philip Whitehead, class of 1906, wrote to the College from "Somewhere in France," where he was assigned to the intelligence service. While he was disappointed not to get to the front, he was probably better suited for a post where his knowledge of German, acquired at the College, was a valuable skill. In this same group of letters, Lester L. Shannon, class of 1899, wrote about the spirit of the Beloit "college boys:"

"When the roll is called in France the voices of Emerson and Chapin and Eaton and Porter and all the other strong men who told us of the joy of service and sacrifice, will answer from the firm lips of Beloit's sturdy young men. 'Service' is the spirit they taught, they who made Beloit, and that spirit is Beloit."

Some letters revealed the hardships and uncertainty of serving in the War. Edwin P. Adams, class of 1899, wrote several letters describing his experiences, including one of his missions:

"It is rather hard to write a detailed account of myself during the last few days; but we were driven back several times and have been on the move for the last three days. All of our men got away safely in perfect good order and we saved most of our equipment. How we all escaped I do not know nor understand as we were under rather heavy fire for some time..."

It was these brief glimpses that provided an understanding of the daily life of those serving in the War.

Beloit's involvement in World War I brought home for the first time sustained contact with sources abroad. Correspondence became an everyday event that caused many to crave more. Students grew actively aware of world politics and current events.

By the end of World War I, the College had changed forever. The Round Table and The Alumnus continued to feature current events, and both went on to pay closer attention to international news and politics. In addition, students became more actively involved with international relations and travel abroad.

An article in the March 1919 Alumnus entitled, "The Outlook for Higher Education After the War," dealt with changing the curriculum of the College to suit the times. The author suggested a larger emphasis on languages such as French, Italian, and Spanish as well as German:

"The important thing is to read those languages, not to get a smattering of the spoken tongue. It has been our great failure in the past that while we studied modern languages we did not read the current literature and periodicals of our fellow nations. We must come to understand what they are doing and thinking through the reading of their scientific, political, and popular papers and magazines."

The author stressed the importance of understanding history, sociology, religion and language.

Following the end of the War, foreign enrollment at the College jumped. On October 18, 1919, The Round Table ran an article entitled, "Foreign Registration Heavy this Year." The author observed that the large enrollment of foreign students was a "big opportunity for Beloiters to promote internationalism." The article opened:

"Beloit College has never chronicled the registration of so many foreign students, or offered so great an opportunity for her students to come into contact with so many people from foreign lands. Among our family are representatives of five countries, all of which, though far away, are being gradually brought closer by personal relations and by the spirit of internationalism which now prevails everywhere."

The article reported the enrollment of many Chinese students, as well as students from France, England, Japan, and the Philippines. Foreign enrollment had blossomed from seven students in the 1918-19 school year to fourteen in the 1919-20 school year.

The students from China formed a club that year. Their first event, a celebration of the eighth anniversary of the Chinese Republic, was recorded in The Round Table on October 10, 1919. The festival included an exhibition of Chinese articles and a dinner of Chinese food prepared by the students in the club. The next month, the Chinese students got together and formed a musical group in which they played both traditional Chinese and western instruments. The Chinese students remained active for some time. In February 1921, The Alumnus reported that the Chinese students planned to raise money for famine relief by presenting an Oriental play. The scenery and costumes were Eastern, but the dialogue was in English.

Remarkable as the first of its kind, the Chinese Club provided support for the international students who had to adjust to life in the United States, and educated the campus. Students at Beloit had a chance to learn first hand about another culture.

Other clubs formed at this time included The International Relations Club founded in 1921 under the leadership of Paul Rountree, class of 1923. This club was originally affiliated with the International Relations Institute of New York, an endowed organization that sent speakers to its branches free of charge, and provided topics and outlines for discussion and study. Their purpose was, "to keep in touch with the affairs of the world." Other branches in Wisconsin included, University of Wisconsin, Lawrence University, and Ripon College.
,br> One subject discussed by the clubs was the question of limitation of armaments. Students from all over the country elected representatives to bring their opinions on the issue to Washington. Paul Rountree was elected the Wisconsin State Chairman of the National Student Committee for the Limitation of Armaments. The Round Table reported, "This is the first time a united expression in an attempt to influence government policies has been given student opinion in this country." Resolutions of 235 colleges and universities were presented to President Harding.

Also founded in 1921, the French Club, or Circle Francaise, helped students improve their conversational French and gain a practical knowledge of the language. The club fined students a half cent for each word of English spoken. French department instructors helped in the presentation of plays, and gave lectures on French culture.

Among those students in the post-War era who took the opportunity to travel overseas, Jesse Lawver and Philip Bardell, both class of 1923, traveled around the world with next to no money. Beginning with England in April 1920, they visited eleven countries. At each stop they took on any job they could until they had enough money to keep going. Their trip took seventeen months, and included stops in Italy, Switzerland, Philippines, and Japan among many others. Lawver related, "We had a dandy time all the way and a million dollars worth of experience." They returned to college in August 1921.

The post-War period saw Beloit's second Rhodes Scholar, Ellwyn Evans, class of 1915. Known by his chums as "Booze," Evans was the only candidate from Wisconsin to pass the entrance examinations in 1917. Evans commenced his study abroad immediately following the War.

During the immediate post-War period, alumni and faculty engaged in many exciting endeavors overseas. Clifford Day, class of 1915, sailed for London in 1921 on a permanent assignment to cover European news for the Associated Press. Alonzo Pond, class of 1920, went to France on a scholarship in 1921 to study prehistoric remains. During this time, Gilbert Smith, class of 1907, traveled to England to study the algae of English lakes for comparison with those of the United States. Economics professor, Louis Levine, left the College for Russia as a special correspondent for the Chicago Daily News.

Another remarkable event was the awarding of a French scholarship to Alice Brown, a graduating senior in 1922. The scholarship, the first of its kind received by a Beloit College student, included living expenses and tuition for two years at a French University for graduate work. The scholarship was awarded by the department of education of the French government and was granted in the Ecole Normale de Saint Germain en Laye.

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Archives: World War I and Beyond: 1914-1923 | Beloit College

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From its start in 1914, World War I greatly affected the world outlook of Beloit College. Interest in world affairs increased greatly as news of the War reached the College. Attention peaked when some of Beloit's own became enlisted men.

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Brief Description: This website overviews the Progressive Era and tells like all the events that went on during this time.

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Brief Description: This website overviews everything that happened in the Progressive Era.

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Brief Description: It talks about some of the problems with the Gilded Age/ what problems during this time.

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Politics of the Gilded Age [ushistory.org]

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Brief Description: Talks about the Industrial strength and what the Golden Age is.

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Brief Description: This is from a South African's perspective on how the south changed.

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Brief Description: This website talks about the West transforming.

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Brief Description: This website is an overall view of Immigration and Urbanization.

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SparkNotes: SAT Subject Test: U.S. History: Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration

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Brief Description: This covers the problems that the Immigrants faced and the problems of Immigration.

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Immigration, Industrialization and Urbanization, History, USA, North America - Nativist groups, anti-Chinese sentiment, American Protective Association, European homes, Chinese Exclusion Act

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Brief Description: This website as you scroll, talks about mainly all parts of this period. Like what caused it and so on.

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Brief Description: This website is an overview of this time.

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Brief Description: The Reconstruction Era in years 1865-1877.

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The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (or the Freedmen's Bureau) was organized to provide relief and assistance to the former slaves, including health services, educational services, and abandoned land services. Congress passed an act on March 3, 1865 to establish the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.

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Brief Description: Its an outline over this Era.

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Brief Description: Facts over the Civil War.

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The Civil War , the award-winning film produced and directed by Ken Burns, was rebroadcast as a newly restored, high-definition version in September of 2015. The 2015 rebroadcast coincided with the 25th anniversary of the series' initial broadcast in September 1990, and presented the film for the first time in the same fidelity and framing as the negative that Ken Burns and his co-cinematographers Allen Moore and Buddy Squires shot more than 25 years ago.

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~ Brief Description: This website talks about all what happened in the Civil War, covers just about everything.

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Civil War Facts

Location

Eastern Theater, Western Theater, Trans-Mississippi, Gulf Coast, Sioux Uprising

Dates

1861-1865

Soldiers Engaged

Union: over 2,100,000

Confederate: over 1,000,000

Civil War Casualties

Union: over 350,000

Confederate: over 250,000

See Details Of Civil War Casualties

Outcome

Union Victory

Civil War Pictures

The Civil War was the first war that was widely photographed. Many American Civil War images, pictures, and photos have survived.

See our Civil War Pictures

Civil War Maps

The Civil War made wide use of battle maps.

View our Civil War Maps

Civil War Timeline

See a timeline of events of the Civil War from 1861-1865. See events by year and important Civil War dates.

View our Civil War Timeline

Civil War Battlefields

The battlefields of the Civil War crossed the nation and made famous many previously unknown towns, crossroads, and farms like Antietam Creek, Shiloh and Gettysburg.

View more Civil War Battlefields

More Civil War Facts

To view more Civil War facts and FAQs, please view our Civil War Facts page

Civil War Articles

Explore articles from the History Net archives about the Civil War

" See all American Civil War Articles

Civil War Summary: The American Civil War, 1861-1865, resulted from long-standing sectional differences and questions not fully resolved when the United States Constitution was ratified in 1789, primarily the issue of slavery and states rights. With the defeat of the Southern Confederacy and the subsequent passage of the XIII, XIV, and XV amendments to the Constitution, the Civil War's lasting effects include abolishing the institution of slavery in America and firmly redefining the United States as a single, indivisible nation rather than a loosely bound collection of independent states.

Milestones

It was a war that saw many "firsts" that included America's first income tax, the first battle between ironclad ships, the first extensive use of black soldiers and sailors in U.S. service, the first use of quinine to treat typhoid fever, America's first military draft, and many others. There were advances in medical treatment, military tactics, and the chaplain service. Over the course of the Civil War weapons ranged from obsolete flintlocks to state-of-the-art repeaters. During the Civil War, women took on new roles, including running farms and plantations and spying; some disguised themselves as men and fought in battle. All of the nation's ethnic groups participated in the war, including Irish, Germans, American Indians, Jews, Chinese, Hispanics, etc.

Other Names for the Civil War

Northerners have also called the Civil War the War to Preserve the Union, the War of the Rebellion (War of the Southern Rebellion), and the War to Make Men Free. Southerners may refer to it as the War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression. In the decades following the conflict, those who did not wish to upset adherents of either side simply called it The Late Unpleasantness. It is also known as Mr. Lincoln's War and, less commonly, as Mr. Davis' War.

Troop Strength and Casualties

Between April 1861 and April 1865, an estimated 1.5 million troops joined the war on the side of the Union and approximately 1.2 million went into Confederate service. An estimated total of 785,000-1,000,000 were killed in action or died of disease. More than twice that number were wounded but survived at least long enough to muster out. Casualties of the Civil War cannot be calculated exactly, due to missing records (especially on the Southern side) and the inability to determine exactly how many combatants died from wounds, drug addiction, or other war-related causes after leaving the service. An untold number of civilians also perished, primarily from disease as entire towns became hospitals.

Naval Battles

Most naval actions occurred on rivers and inlets or in harbors, and include history's first clash between two ironclads, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (a captured and converted ship formerly called the Merrimac), at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March 9, 1862. Other actions include the Battle of Memphis (1862), Charleston Harbor (1863), and Mobile Bay (1864), and the naval sieges of Vicksburg in 1862 and again in 1863. The most famous clash between ocean-going warships was the duel between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France, June 19, 1864. Throughout the war, the Union had a decided advantage in both numbers and quality of naval vessels.

The War Between The States Begins

On April 10, 1861, knowing that resupplies were on their way from the North to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, provisional Confederate forces in the city demanded the fort's surrender. The fort's commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused. On April 12 the Confederates opened fire with cannon. At 2:30 p.m. the following day, Major Anderson surrendered.

On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the Southern rebellion, a move that prompted Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina to reverse themselves and vote in favor of secession. (Most of the western section of Virginia rejected the secession vote and broke away, ultimately forming a new, Union-loyal state, West Virginia.)

The United States had always maintained only a small professional army; the nation's founders had feared a Napoleon-esque leader might rise up and use a large army to overthrow the government and make himself a dictator. Many graduates of the U.S. Army's military academy, West Point, resigned their commissions in order to fight for the South-this was especially true in the cavalry arm, but no members of the artillery "went South." The Lincoln Administration had to rely on large numbers of volunteers from the states and territories.

In Richmond, Virginia, the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, faced a similar problem in raising and equipping armies. Neither side expected a war of long duration. Volunteers were asked to serve for 90 days. "One big battle, and it'll be over," was the commonly expressed belief on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Southerners thought Northerners too weak and cowardly to fight. Northerners thought a dependence upon slave labor had rendered Southerners too weak both physically and morally to present a serious battlefield threat. Both sides were due for a rude awakening.

The Challenges of North and South

To win the war would require Lincoln's armies and navy to subdue an area from the East Coast to the Rio Grande, from the Mason-Dixon Line to the Gulf of Mexico. To prevent a Northern victory, the South would have to defend that same large area, but with a smaller population and less industry than the North could ultimately bring to bear. A short war would favor the South, a long one the North.

Theaters of War

Actions in the war were divided into the Eastern Theater, primarily comprised of Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the coast of North Carolina. The Atlantic Coast farther south was the Lower Seaboard Theater. The Western Theater began west of the Alleghenies (West Virginia excepted) and continued to the Mississippi River, but it also included the interior of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Events farther west are considered to have occurred in the Trans-Mississippi Theater and the Far West.

1861

The first inland clash between significant bodies of troops occurred on the morning of June 3, 1861, when 3,000 Union volunteers surprised 800 Confederates at Philippi in (West) Virginia. Lasting less than half an hour, the affair would barely qualify as a skirmish later in the war, but the Union victory there and subsequent ones in the region elevated the reputation of Major General George B. McClellan, commander of the Department of the Ohio.

The first real battle took place July 21, 1861, on the hills around Bull Run creek outside Manassas, Virginia, a railroad junction some 30 miles south of the Northern capital at Washington City (Washington, D.C.) and about 90 miles north of the Confederate capital at Richmond on July. It is known as the First Battle of Bull Run (Northern name) or the First Battle of Manassas (Southern name). During the war, the North named battles for the nearest body of water, and the South used the name of the nearest town.

The Union army made progress early in the battle, but Confederate reinforcements arrived late in the day from the Shenandoah Valley and routed the Federals. The unfortunate Union commander, Irvin McDowell, was made the scapegoat and was replaced with an officer who had some victories to his credit: McClellan.

On September 10 a Union victory at Carnifax Ferry in the Big Kanawha Valley of (West) Virginia virtually ended Confederate control in most of the western counties, although there would be raids and guerrilla warfare there. A successful naval invasion of North Carolina took place in August.

The Western Theater saw only minor skirmishing. Kentucky was attempting to remain neutral and had vowed to take sides against whichever side first moved troops into it. That was the Confederacy, which felt compelled to establish Mississippi River forts and establish camps within the state to repel any attempted Union move south.

Near Springfield, Missouri, in the Trans-Mississippi, the South won a major battle on August 10, 1861. The Battle of Wilson's Creek, also known as the Battle of Oak Hills, saw some 12,000 Confederates defeat less than 5,500 Union soldiers and take control of southwestern Missouri, but the Southerners did not immediately pursue northward. The Union commander, Nathaniel Lyon, was killed, the first Federal general to die in action during the war. The South had already lost Brigadier General Robert S. Garnett in a skirmish at Carrick's Ford, (West) Virginia, and Brigadier General Bernard E. Bee at First Manassas. After Wilson's Creek, Confederate forces won another Missouri victory at the First Battle of Lexington, September 13-20, 1861.

During the fall and winter, both sides swelled their ranks, trained troops, and obtained additional weapons, food and equipment, and horses and mules for the coming year's campaigns.

1862

If 1861 had disabused Americans north and south of the notion this would be a short war, 1862 showed how terrible its cost in human life would be, beginning with the two bloody days of the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee and continuing through a series of battles in Virginia and America's bloodiest single day, the Battle of Antietam in Maryland.

The year saw the first clash between ironclad warships, in the Battle of Hampton Roads. Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation. The South found two heroes: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, for his Shenandoah Valley Campaign, and Robert E. Lee, who took command of the main Confederate army. Lincoln would be hard-pressed to find a commander Lee could not out-general. Farther south along the Atlantic Coast, Federals captured territory in North and South Carolina and Georgia, but lost a chance to shorten the war when they were turned back at the Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina.

In the Western Theater, Union forces made deep penetrations into Dixie, beginning the year along the Ohio River and finishing it in control of Middle and West Tennessee, with outposts in Mississippi. Even New Orleans was under the Stars and Stripes again.

Beyond the Mississippi, initial Confederate successes in New Mexico territory were nullified by a defeat at Glorietta Pass. Texans lynched 50 Unionists in what became known as the Great Hanging at Gainesville and attacked German immigrants trying to leave the state, executing nine of the wounded after the Battle of the Nueces.

In August, starving Sioux Indians in Minnesota, angered because they'd not received badly needed payments promised by their treaty, began an uprising that killed at least 113 white men, women and children. Three hundred Sioux were sentenced to hang, but Lincoln cut that number to 38-still the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

Antietam and Shiloh

If 1861 had disabused Americans north and south of the notion this would be a short war, 1862 showed how terrible its cost in human life would be, beginning with the two bloody days of the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee and continuing through a series of battles in Virginia and America's bloodiest single day, the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. September saw simultaneous Confederate invasions into Maryland and Kentucky in September. Neither, however, was long lived.

The year 1862 ended-and the new year would begin-with another bloodbath, on the banks of Stones River outside Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Overall, the scales were still nearly balanced between the two sides in their struggle to restore the Union or to establish a Southern Confederacy.

1863

The tide of war shifted noticeably in favor of the Union in 1863, despite a brilliant victory by Robert E. Lee in the Battle of Chancellorsville, a battle that cost the life of his daring lieutenant Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Lee then suffered a major defeat at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in early July. The victor, George Gordon Meade, did not pursue aggressively, and the Confederate "Gray Fox" escaped to fight another day. The two antagonists met again in November in a confused, inconclusive affair known as the Mine Run Campaign.

Battle of Chancellorsville

On April 17, the Army of the Potomac, under yet another commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, attempted to outflank Lee at Fredericksburg by crossing the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers above the town. In response, Lee divided his force, leaving part of it to guard the river at Fredericksburg. On April 30, Hooker and Lee collided near a mansion called Chancellorsville in a densely thicketed area of woods known as The Wilderness. After a brilliant flank attack that disorganized Hooker's right, Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men in the darkness. He died May 10. Lee, learning the Federals had captured Fredericksburg, divided his force again and defeated them at Salem Church. Hooker gave up the campaign and withdrew on the night of May 5-6. The Battle of Chancellorsville is regarded as Lee's most brilliant victory. Read more about the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga

The "Confederate Gibraltar," Vicksburg, Mississippi, fell to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4 after a 47-day siege. Confederates won their greatest victory in the Western Theater at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, but failed to capitalize on it and in late November were routed from the hills above Chattanooga, opening the road to Atlanta for the Union's Western armies. Grant was placed in command of all Western armies, a prelude to an even greater promotion that would come the following spring.

Two massacres marked 1863. In response to raids by Shoshoni Indians in the Idaho Territory of the far northwest, U.S. troops under Col. Patrick E. Connor attacked the camp of Chief Bear Hunter on January 29. A number of Shoshoni women, children and old men were killed along with Hunting Bear's warriors in the Bear River Massacre (Massacre at Boa Ogoi). On August 21, Confederate guerrillas under Captain William C. Quantrill sacked and burned Lawrence, Kansas, a center for pro-Union, anti-slavery Jayhawkers and Redlegs, killing 150-200 men and boys.

Gettysburg

In mid-June, Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland and Pennsylvania in his second invasion of the North, hoping to take pressure off Virginia's farms during the growing season and seeking a victory on Northern soil. His men encountered the Army of the Potomac, now under George Gordon Meade, at a crossroads town in southeastern Pennsylvania on July 1. Capturing the town but failing to take the high ground around it, Lee assailed the Union flanks the next day. The fighting on the Union left was particularly costly to both sides, memorializing Little and Big Round Top, Devil's Den, the each Orchard and the Wheatfield. On the right, the Confederates nearly broke through on Culp's and Cemetery hills before being repulsed. On July 3, Lee made perhaps his greatest mistake of the war, ordering a frontal attack across open ground against the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. Known as "Pickett's Charge" for the commander of the largest Confederate division involved, George Pickett, the attack failed, leaving thousands of Southern soldiers dead and wounded. On Independence Day, a wagon train of wounded over 14 miles long began Lee's retreat. With the Confederate's loss of Vicksburg, Mississippi, that same day, July 4, 1863, is often described as the turning point of the Civil War. Read more about the Battle Of Gettysburg.

The year also saw an event unique in American history. Counties of western Virginia had refused to leave the Union when the state seceded in 1861. On June 20, 1863, West Virginia entered the Union as the 35th state, although the U.S. Constitution requires a mother state's permission before a new state can be carved out of it.

At the end of 1863, both sides still had significant forces, and the Confederates enjoyed good defensive terrain in Virginia and North Georgia. If they could inflict enough losses on their Northern opponents, they might win at the ballot box what they could not on the field of battle: Lincoln was vulnerable and in the 1864 elections might be replaced by a Democrat who would make peace with the Confederacy.

1864

Since the beginning of the war, Lincoln had sought in vain for a general who understood that destroying the Confederate armies in Virginia was more important than capturing Richmond, and who wouldn't turn back in the face of a defeat in battle. He believed he'd found that man in Ulysses S. Grant, who was put in charge of all Union armies in March 1864. "Unconditional Surrender" Grant proved Lincoln right, but the cost in lives led many, including the president's wife, Mary, to call the general a "butcher."

The Wilderness

Following his promotion, Grant attached himself to the North's largest army, the Army of the Potomac, while leaving George Gordon Meade, the victor of Gettysburg, in command of that force. On May 2, the Army of the Potomac crossed Virginia's Rapidan River. Three days later, it collided with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in a wooded area thick with underbrush, known as The Wilderness, near the old Chancellorsville battlefield, site of Lee's most brilliant victory. There was no such clear-cut outcome this time. After two blood-soaked days of close-quarters fighting, Grant maneuvered his army to outflank Lee's right. Lee anticipated the move, and the two armies tore at each other again for two weeks in May around Spotsylvania Courthouse. Again, Grant sidestepped, and again Lee met him in the Battle of the North Anna. Grant intended to "fight it out along this line if it takes all summer," and the two armies clashed again and again, moving ever southward. At Cold Harbor, Grant made one of the worst mistakes of his career, suffering 7,000 casualties within 20 minutes while Lee's losses were negligible. Eventually, the Federals maneuvered their opponents so close to Richmond and Petersburg-a town essential to the Confederates' supply line-that Lee had to give up his ability to maneuver and settle into trench warfare. The siege of Richmond and Petersburg had begun. Read more about the Battle Of The Wilderness

Petersburg and Richmond

On July 30, the Union exploded a mine beneath a portion of the Confederate works around Petersburg. A tardy advance by a large number of Union soldiers into the 30-foot-deep crater it created allowed the Southerners time to recover. They poured fired into the densely packed Federals; eventually, the fighting was hand-to-hand. Angered by the blast and the presence of black troops, the Confederates gave no quarter and the Battle of the Crater resulted in 4,000 Union casualties for no gain. Read more about the Battle Of Petersburg

Although much of Lee's army was tied down in the defense of Richmond and Petersburg, other portions resisted Union advances in the Shenandoah Valley. After a victory at Lynchburg in June, Jubal A. Early took his Army of the Valley across the Potomac and boldly marched on the Northern capital at Washington, D.C. A desperate delaying action on July 9 at Monocacy, Maryland, by an outnumbered force under Lew Wallace-the future author of Ben Hur-bought the capital time to prepare. When Early attacked Fort Stevens outside the city on July 11-12, President and Mrs. Lincoln came out to watch the fighting. After Early retired back down the Shenandoah Valley, Grant ordered Philip Sheridan to lay waste to the Valley. On October 9, Early surprised Sheridan's camps on Cedar Creek near Winchester. Sheridan galloped to the sound of the guns, arriving in time to halt the Union rout and crushed the Confederates, effectively ending Early's ability to take offensive actions to protect the Valley.

When Grant went east his friend and subordinate, William Tecumseh Sherman, took command of the armies of the Tennessee and the Cumberland at Chattanooga. While Grant bludgeoned and sidestepped his way toward Richmond, Sherman was slugging through the mountains of North Georgia. There, Confederate general Joseph Johnston made superb use of terrain to slow the Federal advance. After a series of clashes followed by maneuvers around Johnston's defenses, Sherman lost patience and ordered a frontal assault on Kennesaw Mountain that cost 3,000 Union lives compared with 1,000 for the Confederates. But gradually, his armies closed in on the rail center of Atlanta. Finally, on September 2, Sherman's men entered Atlanta after the Confederate army, now under the command of John Bell Hood, evacuated the town, setting fire to it before leaving.

The capture of Atlanta was one of the most crucial events of the war. The South's last remaining hope was that war-weary Northern voters might turn Lincoln out of the White House in the November elections and replace him with a Peace Democrat. The Democrats had nominated George B. McClellan, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, as their candidate. The party made many missteps during the campaign, and for the first time ever, the North allowed soldiers to vote in the field. Both of those contributed to Lincoln winning a second term, but had Sherman not taken Atlanta, the long casualty rolls from Grant's Overland Campaign and the on-going stalemate around the Confederate capital might have been enough to convince Northerners to "give peace a chance" and vote against Lincoln and the war.

Sherman's March To The Sea

Sherman left Atlanta November 15 on his march to the sea. Along the way, he intended to "make Georgia howl," letting his men live off the land and burning all they couldn't take with them. He reached Savannah by Christmas, leaving a 60-mile wide swath of ashes, wrecked railroads and utter destruction behind him. Read more about Sherman's March To The Sea

In an attempt to pull Sherman back into Tennessee, John Bell Hood swung the Army of Tennessee through upper Alabama and struck north for Nashville. Sherman detached George Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland to deal with him. At the town of Franklin, Hood ordered frontal assaults that after five hours of intense fighting, left his army in tatters; five generals were dead. Hood's reduced force then besieged Nashville-the most heavily fortified city in America after Washington, D.C. After an ice storm melted, Thomas came out of his works and finished the job of shattering the Confederate army. Its remnants withdrew to Tupelo, Mississippi.

In the spring of 1864, Nathan Bedford Forrest began an expedition that reached Paducah, Kentucky, on the Ohio River before rampaging against Federal installations in West Tennessee. Stories that his men massacred Union soldiers, particularly members of the United States Colored Troops captured at Fort Pillow, a poorly designed Mississippi River fort north of Memphis, gained instant credence in the North, but two official inquiries were unable to reach a conclusion about what had actually happened. At New Johnsonville, Tennessee, Forrest gained the distinction of commanding the only cavalry group ever to defeat gunboats, when they sunk or frightened crews into scuttling four ships.

On the Gulf Coast of Alabama on August 5, Admiral David G. Farragut steamed into the Battle of Mobile Bay with 18 ships. Tradition has it that when he was warned about torpedoes (mines) in the bay he responded, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" After Farragut's ships defeated the unfinished ironclad CSS Tennessee, Union infantry captured forts Gaines and Morgan, sealing off the mouth of the bay, but the city of Mobile remained defiant.

By the end of 1864, the Confederacy had nothing left but courage and tenacity. With Lincoln's re-election, no viable hope remained for a negotiated peace. The smoke rising above Georgia and the thousands of bodies strung out from Nashville to Atlanta to Petersburg and the gates of Washington said there would be no military victory. Legislators of North Carolina pressed Jefferson Davis to make peace before their state suffered Georgia's fate but to no avail. The South would fight on, no matter cost.

1865

The noose around the Confederacy was strangling it. In mid-January Fort Fisher in North Carolina fell to a combined land and naval force. The port city of Wilmington followed a month later. Sherman's bummers were advancing north. When they reached South Carolina, where the rebellion had begun, any bit of restraint they may have shown elsewhere was pitched aside. By February 20, the state capital of Columbia was captured; fires destroyed much of the city, but whether they were set deliberately by Sherman's troops or by retreating Confederates or accidentally by Union soldiers celebrating with too much alcohol has been long debated. Sherman's men continued on through North Carolina, setting fire to the pine forests that played an important role in the state's economy. What remained of the Confederate forces, once more under the command of Joseph Johnston, was far too small to stop the juggernaut.

Outside Petersburg, Virginia, Lee launched a costly failed attack against the besiegers' Fort Steadman on March 25. When Federals under Phil Sheridan captured the crossroads at Five Forks, cutting Lee's supply line, he withdrew from the Petersburg-Richmond trenches and headed southwest, hoping to link up with Johnston coming up from the south. Before leaving Richmond, the Confederates set fire to the town. On April 9, at Appomattox Courthouse, after discovering Federals had beaten him to a supply cache, he surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant. Despite his nickname of "Unconditional Surrender" Grant and his policy of waging total war against the South to end the rebellion, Grant offered generous terms, realizing this surrender would virtually end the war.

Johnston surrendered to Sherman at Bentonville, North Carolina, on April 26. Sherman extended even more generous terms than Grant had but endured the embarrassment of having to go back to Johnston with harsher conditions. Between Lee and Johnston's surrenders, an event had occurred that reduced the North's compassion toward their proud, defeated enemies.

Lincoln Assassinated

On the night of April 14, John Wilkes Booth, a staunchly pro-slavery Confederate sympathizer, slipped into the President's Box at Ford's Theater in Washington and fired a single bullet into the back of Abraham Lincoln's head. Lincoln died the next morning, the first American president to be assassinated. Booth was shot weeks later while trying to escape from a barn in Virginia. All those captured who were believed to be his co-conspirators in the plot were hanged, including Mary Surratt, who owned the boarding house where the plotters met.

Jefferson Davis, who had escaped Richmond, was captured in Georgia on May 10 and imprisoned for two years at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, before being released on $100,000 bond.

One after another, the remaining Confederate forces surrendered. Their last army in the field was surrendered by Cherokee Chief Stand Watie in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) on June 23.

The Last Battle

The last land battle, a Confederate victory, occurred May 12-13 at Palmito (or Palmetto) Ranch in south Texas, where word of Lee's surrender had not yet been received. Far across the Atlantic on November 6, 1865, the sea raider CSS Shenandoah surrendered to a British captain; had the ship's crew surrendered in America, they risked hanging as pirates.

On Christmas Day, 1868, President Andrew Johnson issued an amnesty proclamation to all former Confederates, including Jefferson Davis. Only one Confederate was executed, Henry Wirtz, commander of the notorious prison camp at Andersonville. Officially known as Fort Sumter, Andersonville was the largest prison camp in the south and was infamous for its ill treatment of Union prisoners who lacked adequate food and medicine. Southerners have long protested that the death rate in Northern prison camps was higher than that of Andersonville, and Wirtz should not have been punished for war crimes. Learn more about the Andersonville Prison Camp

Generals

Several hundred generals were commissioned during the American Civil War in the Union and Confederate armies. These men led the troops into the battles that would ultimately decide the outcome of the war. Prominent Civil War Generals include:
Confederate Generals Union Generals:
Weapons

Weapons were the instruments of war in the Civil War and often played a critical role in deciding many battles. Great advances came in the rifle, muskets, artillery, cannon and bullets, including the Minie Ball. Weapons used in the Civil War include:
Civil War cannon Civil War guns Civil War swords
Confederacy

The Confederacy is the name commonly given to the Confederate States of American which existed from 1860-1865 throughout the Civil War. It was started when southern states seceded from the Union after the election of Abraham Lincoln. The Confederate President was Jefferson Davis.

Civil War Flags

There were many different flags used during the Civil War. On the Union side, there were both 33 star flags and 34 star flags after Kansas was admitted to the Union in 1861. On the Confederate side, there were three national flags as well as the more recognizable confederate battle flag. Additionally, each corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, and even individual companies carried their own unique flags.

Reconstruction

The Reconstruction Period generally refers to the period just after the Civil War, from 1865 to 1877. Reconstruction period was as harsh as the war on the Southern states and that they never fully regained their standing. The period of Reconstruction was important to build equal standing among the states and to regain trust.

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Eastern Theater, Western Theater, Trans-Mississippi, Gulf Coast, Sioux Uprising 1861-1865 Union: over 2,100,000 Confederate: over 1,000,000 Union: over 350,000 Confederate: over 250,000 See Details Of Civil War Casualties Union Victory The Civil War was the first war that was widely photographed. Many American Civil War images, pictures, and photos have survived.