# data[].attributes.body
Two percent of the U.S. population died during the Civil War. Most were killed from disease. Camps became breeding grounds for diseases such as, chicken pox, measles, and mumps.

https://www.factretriever.com/civil-war-facts

-Emily Spears

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Civil War was the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. During an average day during the war, approximately 600 people were killed. By the end of the war, over 618,000 people had died. This is more Americans than WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined.[2]

During the Civil War, 2% of the U.S. population died. This is equivalent to 6 million men today. While rifles were the deadliest weapons during the war, disease killed more men. Camps became breeding grounds for measles, chicken pox, and mumps. One million Union solders contracted malaria.[4]

One of every 65 Federals and 1 of every 45 Confederates were killed in action.[4]

A Civil War soldier's chance of surviving the war was about 1 in 4.[5]

More Americans died at the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania, Virginia, in May 1864 than at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944.[4]

The most common operation performed on soldiers during the Civil War was amputation. The best surgeon could have a limb severed and discarded within five minutes. Civil War doctors were nicknamed "sawbones." There were 60,000 partial or complete amputations during the war.[9]

Virginia experienced the most fighting during the Civil War-more than 2,100 events, followed by Tennessee (1,400) and Missouri (1,100).[4]

The Civil War is also known as "The Boy's War"

The youngest soldier in the Civil War was a 9-year-old boy from Mississippi. The oldest was an 80-year-old from Iowa. More than 10,000 soldiers serving in the Union Army were under 18 years old.[7]

Daniel Emmett, the composer of "Dixie" was not only from the North, but he was also a loyal Unionist. He was disgusted by the song's popularity in the South. Lincoln claimed that it was one of "the best tunes I ever heard."[2]

The last Southern troops surrendered on May 26, 1865. Afterward, survivors began decorating the graves of those who had died. They repeated the ritual each year on "The Decoration Day"-which is now known as Memorial Day.[10]

An estimated 800 wounded men burned to death at the Battle of the Wilderness because they were unable to crawl away from advancing brush fires.[4]

Immediately after the war, 2 out of 3 men sentenced to state prisons in the North were Civil War veterans.[4]

The term "carpetbagger" was used pejoratively by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction. These newcomers often carried bags made from used carpet, or carpetbags.[7]

In the 20 years after the Civil War, the national divorce rate increased 150%.[4]

Seven future U.S. presidents served in the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Chester A. Arthur, and Andrew Johnson.[2]

The Civil War prison camp Elmira had two observation towers constructed for onlookers. Citizens paid 15 cents to look at the inmates. Concession stands by the towers sold peanuts, cakes, and lemonade while the men inside starved.[4]

Approximately 470,000 soldiers were held prisoner during the Civil War, which was more than the population of Arkansas at the time. About 56,000 died in prison camps.[4]

If the names of the Civil War dead were organized similar to the names on the Vietnam Memorial wall, the Civil War memorial would be over 10 times longer.[11]

War at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.

- Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1864, Speech at Philadelphia

Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. About the same number of men died in the first 15 minutes at Grant's assault at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.[4]

From 1861 to 1865, the number of orphans in the U.S. more than doubled.[4]

The Twenty-Sixth North Carolina Infantry suffered the worst regimented losses in a single battle: 708 of 800 killed, wounded, or missing at Gettysburg.[4]

The average Civil War soldier was 5'8" tall and weighed 143 pounds. He was 23 years old.[10]

The oldest Civil War monument in existence is a monument to the Union's Hazen Brigade inside Stones River National Cemetery. It was erected in 1863.[10]

In the North, more than 1/3 of all men of military age served in the war. For the South, it was nearly 2/3.[2]

In a single day, the 1 million Civil War horses would have peed enough urine to fill more than 12 standard swimming pools.[4]

Horses and other draft animals had about a 7-month life expectancy during the Civil War. As many as 300,000 horses died. More than 3,000 horses were killed at Gettysburg alone.[4]

Fighting took place on each day of the war, which lasted approximately 1,396 days, from 1861 to 1865. Nearly 10,455 military "events" took place during the war.[11]

During the Civil War, diarrhea (Greek, meaning "I flow away") was the most common and deadly disease. More Civil War soldiers died from diarrhea than were killed in battle. About 1 in 40 cases was fatal. Death came from dehydration, exhaustion, or the rupture of the intestinal wall.[11]

Both the war's bloodiest day (Antietam) and its bloodiest battle (Gettysburg) occurred in Union states. More than 5,000 soldiers died at Antietam, making September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day in U.S. military history.[4]

The Battle of Antietam was the Civil War's deadliest one-day fight

Most Civil War soldiers marched 15 to 20 miles a day.[11]

The Civil War was the first war to be immediately reported in the press. The first photographs were taken at the Battle of Antietam.[2]

After the Southern states seceded, both the United States and the Confederacy instituted the first ever national income tax. Ever since the Civil War, Americans have lived with the IRS.[4]

The Civil War was the first time the national draft was used in American history (April 16, 1862).[2]

Ulysses S. Grant's critics called him a "butcher" because of his high casualty rates in battle.[7]

The Civil War was known by more than 25 names, including "The Brothers War," "The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance," "The War for the Union," and "The War of the Rebellion."[7]

President Lincoln's personal copy of the Emancipation Proclamation would be worth millions if it were still in existence. It was donated to the Chicago Historical Society in 1864, but destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871.[11]

Of the 3 million soldiers in the Civil War, 1% were regular army, 9% were draftees or substitutes, and the rest were volunteers.[4]

In the four years of the Civil War, the South lost a quarter of its military-age men, half of its wealth, and its position of political preeminence in the U.S. In contrast, the North emerged as an industrial powerhouse and the central government became the overriding power of the land.[11]

The amphibious landing of 110,000 at Iwo Jima cost 5,931 American lives and wounded 17,372 more. Roughly the same numbers and losses were involved in the Civil War battle at Chickamauga. Iwo Jima spanned 36 days. Chickamauga lasted 36 hours (September 19-20, 1863).[4]

Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought in North America. It's victor, General Meade, was born in Spain.[4]

Gen. Pickett's failed charge against the North on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg. When asked why his charge failed, Pickett replied: "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it"

The bullet (especially the Minie) accounted for more than 90% of battle fatalities. The soft, low-velocity bullets tumbled and spread apart inside the body, which caused excessive and irreparable tissue damage. Only 4% of Civil War battlefield casualties came from the muzzle of a canon.[4]

On average, of every 100 fatalities on the battlefield, five men died from limb wounds, 12 from punctures to the lower abdomen, 15 from damage to the heart or liver, and more than 50 from lacerations to the head or neck.[4]

Most Civil War dead were not returned home for interment. Many bodies were ground into the earth by horse hooves or wagon wheels and thousands drowned. Square hits from artillery shredded bodies. After several battles, soldiers recalled seeing bodies eaten by hogs. The U.S. Army did not start issuing dog tags until 1906.[4]

In Vietnam, 1 in 400 of the wounded died of their injuries. In the Korean War, 1 in 50 wounded American soldiers died. In the Civil War, 1 in 7 wounded Federals died and 1 in 5 wounded Confederates died-sometimes within minutes, sometimes after months of suffering.[4]

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860.[10]

The four million slaves living in the South by 1860 had an estimated worth at the time of more than 2 billion dollars.[11]

Susie King Taylor, a runaway slave from Georgia and Civil War nurse, was one of the first African American nurses in United States history. She also taught soldiers to read and write.[11]

Dr. Mary Edwards was the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was not only the first woman surgeon in U.S. Military history, but she was also the only woman in the Civil War to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest honor given to a citizen of the U.S. She is the only female recipient of the award to date.[11]

Amy Clarke wanted to fight near her husband during the Civil War and so disguised herself as "Richard Anderson" to join a Tennessee unit of the Confederacy. Although her husband died at Shiloh, she continued to fight until she was wounded and captured by Union soldiers. When they discovered she was a woman, she was sent back to the Confederate-in a dress.[11]

The Civil War was the first time a submarine ever sank an enemy ship when the submarine the Hunley sank the USS Housatonic. However, the Hunley was damaged in the attack, wandered seaward, and sank drowning all 8 hands. Only 5 of Housatonic's 155 died. The Hunley was finally recovered 136 years later.[11]

During the battle of Chancellorsville, at least one Union soldier discovered he was the victim of corrupt government contractors when he found that his rifle cartridges were filled with dirt rather than gunpowder.[4]

In 2008, the body of a Union soldier was discovered in Antietam. His remains were laid to rest in the regimental home of New York State.[10]

When the Southern states seceded in 1860 and 1861, they did not leave in order of their geographic location, economic standing political qualities, or level of industrialization. They left in almost the exact order of their percentage of slaves.[4]

One of the most controversial campaigns of the Civil War was Union General William T. Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas. Sherman (1820-1891) actually lived in the South for a dozen years, owned slaves, and disapproved of abolitionists. He was also superintendent of a school that later would become Louisiana State University. Before he became a Union general, he was demoted for apparent insanity.[5]

Court martial records during the Civil War list over 100,000 incidents of sexual misconduct. An officer wrote to his wife, "You would think there was not a married man in the regiment."[4]

Among Union white troops, surgeons treated over 73,000 soldiers for syphilis and over 109,00 for gonorrhea. African American soldiers had incidences of less than half than that of the white troops.[4]

Because of the epidemic of venereal diseases among soldiers, the Union army tried government-sanctioned prostitution in Nashville and Memphis from 1863 to1865. The incidence of venereal disease declined sharply.[4]

Nearly 1/3 of Union Army soldiers were immigrants (7.5% were Irish; 10% were German). Other immigrant soldiers were French, Italian, Polish, English, and Scottish. Approximately 1 in 10 were African American.[4]

African American soldiers were allowed to join the Union Army in 1863, but they were paid lower wages than white soldiers and were charged rent for their clothing. Some black Union soldiers refused their salary for 18 months as protest. In September 1864, they finally received equal pay.[6]

Richard J. Gatling said he invented the Gatling gun to show how futile war is

The Gatling gun was a Civil War invention. Richard Gatling hoped his rapid-fire gun (a precursor to the modern machine gun) would help the Union win.[7]

Harriet Tubman led raids to free slaves during the Civil War. She also taught freed slave women skills that could earn them wages with the Union Army.[6]

During the war, the Union confiscated Robert E. Lee's estate and turned it into a cemetery so that he would be reminded of the carnage he caused. It later became Arlington National Cemetery.[5]

During the Civil War, generals usually led their solders into battle, a rare occurrence in modern wars. Because of this, generals were 50% more likely to die in combat than privates were.[4]

Although both the North and South did not allow women in the army, it is estimated that 250-400 women fought disguised as men.[6]

Ulysses Simpson Grant actually was named Hiram Ulysses Grant. His name was incorrectly recorded on his West Point application.[7]

"Quaker guns" (named for the pacifist religious group) were fake artillery that was used by both sides through the Civil War to cause confusion about troop location and strength.[7]

Though many key battles took place in Virginia and the state was home to the Confederacy's capital, it actually had relatively few slaveholders: 2,184 out of more than 1 million Virginians.[4]

To prevent escape at Camp Douglas in Chicago, prisoners were not allowed to wear clothes. Even blankets were taken away. Many Confederates froze to death.[4]

While General Robert E. Lee opposed slavery and secession, he lead the Confederate Army out of loyalty to Virginia, his home state.[4]

Poet Walt Whitman was a nurse in the Civil War.[7]

Edward Everett, the main speaker at the Gettysburg dedication, spoke for 2 hours. President Abraham Lincoln, who was invited almost as an afterthought, spoke for 2 minutes. His speech went down in history.[7]

Lincoln was also the first major leader in the U.S. to feel that women should be allowed to vote

Most Southerners were not slaveholders. In fact, less than a quarter of "whites" had any direct connection to slavery. However, there were between 3 and 4 million African American slaves, which accounted for more than 1/3 of the total population in the South.[10]

In the North, African Americans were subject to the Union draft. In border states, slaves could be drafted and their slave owners paid for each slave who joined the army.[10]

At Fort Sumter, the war began with shots fired from Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia planter and slaveholder, and New York-born Abner Doubleday (who, debatably, invented the baseball). Both survived the war, but Ruffin committed suicide after Lee surrendered. No one was killed at Fort Sumter.[2]

The North expected to win because 1) they had more men to fight (22 million people in the North versus 7 million white people in the South), 2) there were more factories in the North to make guns and bullets, and 3) the North had more railroads for transporting guns and supplies.[2]

The South expected to win because 1) Northerners did not know their way around the South, where most of the fighting would take place, 2) Southern farmers were already skilled marksmen and riding horses, and 3) they were fighting to save a way of life.[2]

Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson got his nickname during the first Battle of Bull Run. During battle, his men noted he stood "like a stone wall." He was later accidentally shot and killed by his own men.[2]

Stonewall Jackson received chloroform for the removal of his left arm. On his deathbed, he described being anesthetized as the "most delightful physical sensation I ever experienced."[2]

Andersonville Prison was commanded by Captain Henry Wirz, who was tried and executed after the war for war crimes

The Confederacy's Andersonville is the most infamous of Civil War prison camps. About 33,000 soldiers were imprisoned there at some point in the war. More than 13,000 men died at this camp.[4]

At Gettysburg, the First Minnesota captured the battle flag of the Twenty-eight Virginia. In 2001, the state of Virginia requested that Minnesota return it. As of 2010, Minnesota still possessed the banner.[2]

The Union uniform was blue and the Confederate uniform was gray. But because clothes were scarce during the war, it was common for soldiers to wear "enemy" colors and mistakenly be fired upon by their own men.[2]

In March 1863, the government passed a law drafting men into the army. A man could avoid the draft by paying $300 to hire someone to take his place. Among those in the Union who hired substitutes were future president Grover Cleveland, J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and Lincoln's personal secretary John Nicolay. Lincoln himself also hired a substitute-John Summerfield Staple-for $500.[5]

The first U.S. Medal of Honor was awarded during the Civil War on March 25, 1863. It was awarded to six 6 survivors of the April 1962 Andrew's Raid. In all, 2,625 soldiers and sailors received the medal during the war. There were 433 awarded during WWII.[5]

After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers had to lie in the mud for days. They noticed that their wounds glowed in the dark. In 2001, two Maryland teenagers discovered that the hypothermic men provided the ideal conditions of a bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens.[1]

Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri remained in the Union even though they allowed slavery. Additionally, the western part of Virginia remained in the Union, while the eastern part seceded into the Confederacy.[2]

While white women in the South feared rape, the scant documentation available indicates that African American women, usually slaves or freed slaves, suffered the most rapes, sometimes in front of white women as a type of proxy rape.[12]

The first battle between ironclads occurred during the Civil War in March 1862, between the Confederate ship Merrimack and the Union Monitor. No winner was declared.[2]

Union ironclads on the Charleston Harbor

President Lincoln at one time had hoped to relocate the entire black population of the U.S. to Central America. He even talked with the British about providing land for them in British Honduras, or modern-day Belize. He noted that "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races."[3]

In 1860, two states had more slaves than free people: Mississippi and South Carolina.[11]

The Founding Fathers refused to include a reference to "Almighty God" into the U.S. Constitution. The Confederate Constitution, however, wanted to appear more evangelical and included the phrase. In fact, the national motto of the Confederacy was Deo Vindice: "God will avenge."[4]

The Civil War lasted 48 months. The 13th Amendment consists of 48 words.[4]

The cure-all medicine for the Civil War was calomel, a mercury mixture of chalk, honey and sometimes licorice. It was used to treat everything from syphilis to headaches. When one Union army doctor, William Hammond, noted that mercury was poisonous, he was dismissed as a quack and removed from his post.[9]

Only two people were convicted of war crimes in the Civil War. The first was Confederate Capt. Henry Wirz. He was tried and executed after the war for murder and conspiracy associated with his command at Andersonville, an infamous prison camp. The second was Confederate guerilla Champ Ferguson.[4]

In the North, inflation rose 100% over the four years of the Civil War. In the South, the rate neared 100% every year of the war. Immediately after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, it took 1,200 Confederate dollars to buy 1 U.S. dollar.[4]

Before the Civil War, approximately 5,000 slaves attempted to escape per year. During the war, the number increased to 5,000 or more per month.[4]

There were around 200,000 Civil War desertions from the Union side and more than 120,000 from the Confederate ranks. An estimated 85,000 Union men fled to Canada. Of the 76,000 deserters who were caught, almost all were returned to duty. Officially, 141 were executed.[4]

Only about 1% of Civil War casualties were actually a result of a bayonet wound

The Industrial Revolution facilitated the mass production of weaponry, but the medical revolution and its use of antiseptics was still years away. Additionally, while rifled weapons and mini bullets increased the firing range threefold, soldiers still used traditional military methods, which depended on massed infantry at close range. All of this led to high mortality rates and excessively bloody battles. The Civil War became dubbed as the "first modern war."[2]

Of the nearly 200,000 African Americans who fought for the North, more than 100,000 were runaway slaves. The number of African Americans who enlisted in the Union Army was larger than the number of soldiers in the entire Confederate Army in the final months of the war. Twenty-five African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Approximately 35,000 of the nearly 200,000 died during the war.[4]

During the Civil War, as many as 25,000 guerrilla fighters participated in "unconventional warfare." Arson, scalping, and lynching were so prevalent along the Missouri-Kansas border, for example, that Union officials evacuated the residents of entire counties for the duration of the war.[2]

There is no one single cause of the Civil War, but historians commonly isolate at least five: 1) Economic and social differences between the North and the South, 2) State vs. federal rights, 3) Slavery, 4) Growing abolition movement, and 5) the election of Abraham Lincoln.[4]

There are more black men in prison today than there were black male slaves in 1850.[8]

1860

November 6: Lincoln elected president of the U.S.
December 20: South Carolina secedes from the Union

1861

February 22: Jefferson Davis inaugurated as president of the Confederacy
March 4: Lincoln inaugurated president of the U.S.
April 12: Confederate troops attack Fort Sumter, start of the Civil War
May 21: Richmond, Virginia, chosen as the Confederate capital
July 21: Confederate troops defeat Union troops at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

1862

March 9: First battle between ironclad ships
September 22: Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
December 13: Union Army suffers one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg

1863

January 1: Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
May 10: Stonewall Jackson dies from wounds suffered at Chancellorsville
July 1-3: Battle of Gettysburg
November 19: Gettysburg Address

1864

November 8: Lincoln re-elected president
November 15: Sherman begins his march through Georgia and the Carolinas

1865

April 9: Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House
April 14: Lincoln shot; dies the following the morning
April 26: John Wilkes Booth shot and killed
May 26: Last Confederate troops surrender
July 7: Four Lincoln assassination conspirators hanged December 6: Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. ratified

¹Abbott, Karen. " The Civil War 8: Strange and Obscure Facts You Didn't Know." Smithsonian. November 15, 2011. Accessed: May 21, 2013.

²Arnold, James R. The Civil War (Chronicle of America's Wars). Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company, 2005.

³Barakat, Matthew. " Lincoln Asked Britain to Help Set Up Colony for Freed Slaves." The Independent. March 6, 2011. Accessed: May 21, 2013.

⁴Flagel, Thomas R. The History Buff's Guide to the Civil War. Naperville, IL: Cumberland House, 2010.

⁵Gaffney, Dennis. The Civil War (The Seven-Day Scholar: Exploring History One Week at a Time). New York, NY: Hyperion, 2011.

⁶Howse, Jennifer. The Civil War (African American History). New York, NY: Weigl Publishers Inc., 2009.

⁷Magner, Blake A. The Civil War Quiz Book: 1,600 Questions and Answers to Test Your Knowledge of America's Most Divisive Conflict. New York, NY: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2010.

⁸" Michelle Alexander: More Black Men Are In Prison Today Than Were Enslaved In 1850." The Huffington Post. October 13, 2011. Accessed: January 7, 2017.

⁹Olson, Kay Melchisedech. The Terrible, Awful Civil War: The Disgusting Details about Life during America's Bloodiest War. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2010.

¹⁰Stanchak, John. Civil War (DK Eyewitness Books). New York, NY: DK Publishing, 2011.

¹¹Stille, Darlene R. American Civil War. Chicago, IL: World Book, Inc., 2011.

¹²Wellborn, B.J. " Behind the Curtain: Rape and Other Horrors." Civil War Odyssey. March 22, 2011. Accessed: May 21, 2013.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
101 Interesting Facts about the Civil War | FactRetriever.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Civil War was the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. During an average day during the war, approximately 600 people were killed. By the end of the war, over 618,000 people had died. This is more Americans than WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined.[2] During the Civil War, 2% of the U.S.

# data[].attributes.body
One-third of the soldiers who fought for the Union Army were immigrants, and nearly one in 10 was African American

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
Harriet Tubman led a raid to free slaves during the Civil War. She used the Underground Railroad to escape and free others.

https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.body
An interesting fact is that about 624,511 people died in the civil war.
Another fact is that the chances of a soldier not surviving was about one in four.

# data[].attributes.body
The Civil War created a deep and long lasting impact on the United States. Some of the impacts were the Emancipation Proclamation, that declared all slaves in the rebellious states to be free, the Jim Crow laws, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The American Civil War was fought from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865between the Union forces and the 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Ultimately won by the Union forces, it remains the deadliest battle for the country with estimated deaths between 600,000 and 800,000. The Civil War is one of the most important events in the history of the United States. It had many important repercussions which went on to have a deep and long lasting impact on the nation. Among these were the Emancipation Proclamation; the Assassination of President Lincoln; the Reconstruction of Southern America; and the Jim Crow Laws. Know more about the impact of the American Civil War through its 10 major effects on the North and the South, on slavery, on politics, on economy and on society.

#1 Emancipation Proclamation

Although Abraham Lincoln considered slavery as an abhorrent evil, as a lawyer and a politician he knew that the constitution protected slavery in the states where the citizens seemed to want it. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln declared that he had "no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery in the States where it exists". With his election as president, the Secession Crisis and the Civil War, the political scenario began to change. After a series of victories in the early 1862, the Union suffered some demoralizing defeats. The large slave population of the south, though not involved in direct action, were helping the southerners in various other ways. The argument that emancipation was a military necessity was gaining ground. In mid-1862, Lincoln decided on the Emancipation Proclamation calling his cabinet for discussion. However, Lincoln's Secretary of State William H. Seward persuaded him to withhold the proclamation as the Union armies were being defeated. Seward argued that the sudden move would look like an act of desperation.

On September 17, 1862 the Union forces forced the Confederates to retreat at the Battle of Antietam. A tactical and moral victory for the North rather than a military one. Five days later on 22nd September, 1862 Lincoln issued a preliminary warning that he would order the emancipation of all slaves in any state that did not end its rebellion against the Union by January 1, 1863. The proclamation came into effect on the historic day of January 1, 1863 legally freeing 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves. It is noteworthy that the new law did not free slaves being held in the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. Lincoln was concerned that the issuance of a universal emancipation of all slaves would persuade these states to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.

#2 Division of Virginia

On April 17, 1861, the Richmond convention of Virginia voted on the Ordinance of Secession to secede from the Union. But many delegates hailing from the western counties of Virginia were opposed to the idea. Almost immediately after the adoption of the ordinance, a meeting of such delegates look place at Clarksburg recommending that each county in north western Virginia send delegates to a convention to meet in Wheeling. This led to three conventions at Wheeling in May, June and July of 1861 and formation of the "Restored Government of Virginia" which gave legitimacy to the formation of one state within another. This meant that there was a point when there were two governments claiming to represent all of Virginia, one owing allegiance to the United States and one to the Confederacy. The politics continued for the next few months. Finally President Lincoln approved the formation of West Virginia in 1862 which officially became a state on June 20, 1863, the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state.

#3 Biggest loss of life in U.S. history

The American Civil War remains the deadliest battle for the country with estimated deaths between 600,000 and 800,000. The war claimed close to 50 percent more American lives than World War 2, and 5 to 6 times more lives than World War 1. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest of all claiming close to 50,000 casualties followed by Chickamauga and Spotsylvania. Diseases, infections and injury were the giant killers. Wounded soldiers were housed in overfilled hospitals with filthy conditions. The worst injuries were caused by the Minni Ball rifle bullets of British Enfield and American Springfield rifles, which were used extensively in the war. Conditions were deplorable in Union and Confederate prisons, where prisoners often died from outright neglect or starvation. At the infamous Camp Sumter prison camp in Georgia, prisoners were described as "walking skeletons". The Camp Sumter prison claimed the life of close to a fourth of its 45,000 prisoners.

#4 Constitutional Amendments and change in definition of American Citizenship

In the five years immediately following the Civil War the United States constitution adopted the 13th, 14th and the 15th Constitutional amendments between 1865 and 1870. These amendments were added more than 60 years after the 12th amendment of 1804 and primarily dealt with the issue of African Americans, people of color and slavery. The amendments are also called the Reconstruction Amendments as they were important in the reconstruction of South ern America after the Civil War.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The US senate passed it on 8th April, 1864 and it was incorporated into the federal constitution on 18th December, 1865.

The Fourteenth Amendment was bitterly contested especially by the Southern States. Added to the Federal Constitution on July 20, 1868, the amendment declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are American citizens including African Americans.

The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". It was ratified and added to the Federal Constitution on February 3, 1870.

#5 Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

After the surrender of Robert E Lee to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Court on 9th April, 1865, the Civil War was at its dusk. John Wilkes Booth was a native of Maryland who had remained in the North during the Civil War. He was a prominent stage actor and Confederate sympathizer who viewed Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant. With his initial plan of abducting Abraham Lincoln failing on 20th March 1865 and Confederate General Lee surrendering a few weeks later, Booth become desperate. Learning that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene's acclaimed performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. he hatched a sinister plan to kill three prominent Union leaders and throw the government into disarray.

At 10:15 pm on the 14th of April 1985, John Wilkes Booth slipped into the box where Lincoln was seated and fired his .44-caliber single-shot derringer pistol into the back of Lincoln's head. He then escaped after jumping on the stage. The other acts of the plot failed as Lewis Powell failed to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward and George Atzerodt failed to attack Vice President Andrew Johnson. Unwilling to surrender, Booth was shot dead on 26th April. His co-conspirators were convicted for their part in the assassination and executed by hanging on July 7, 1865.

#6 Reconstruction Acts of 1867-68

After the end of the civil war there were many debates about how the former Confederate states would re-join the Union. In a way, there was an attempt at the transformation of the 11 Confederate States that had seceded from the Union. Abraham Lincoln had proposed lenient Reconstruction policies and, after his assassination, new president Andrew Jackson intended to follow the same principle. But the more radical Republicans and powerful anti-slavery groups were committed to equal rights for freed blacks and favored more stringent action. It was these groups that were majorly responsible for crafting the Reconstruction Acts. The first bill divided 10 rebel states into five military districts for governance and they were required to draft new constitutions that would be approved by the US Congress. Three more acts were passed in 1867-68 which were concerned about how the new constitutions would be created and passed at the state level.

#7 The Politics and Violence of Reconstruction Era

The Reconstruction Era refers to the period immediately following the American Civil War from 1865 (the end of the Confederacy) to 1877. The south was in disarray after the war and was still not part of the Union. Many bills and laws were passed during the reconstruction era with the aim of reintegrating the South into the Federal structure. The Republican Party gained in prominence and the period changed the southern society and culture in many ways. Among other things, there was a rise of violence and riots against the black communities and formation of many racist groups like the Red Shirts in Mississippi and the Carolinas, and the White League in Louisiana. Most of the violence was however carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a secretive terrorist organization closely allied with the southern Democratic Party.

The 1866 Election gave the Republicans majority in Congress and enabled them to pass the 14th Amendment, upgrad ing the rights of African Americans and curtail ing the powers of ex-confederates. Civil war veteran and radical republican Ulysses S Grant was elected as President in 1868. He strengthened Washington's legal capabilities to directly intervene to protect citizenship rights of African Americans and crushed any acts of violence against them. However, in the 1876 presidential election, Republican nominee Rutherford Hayes negotiated with southern political leaders to get elected. The federal troops returned in 1877 mark ing the end of the Reconstruction Era.

In the coming years new racial systems would disenfranchise black voters and they would remain tied to low wage employment in agriculture and households. Thus Reconstruction is generally viewed as a failure. However, the seed of the Reconstruction Era would remain planted in the constitution bearing fruit over close to 100 years later in the Civil Rights Movement, sometimes also called the "Second Reconstruction".

#8 Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

The defeat of the South led to the breakdown of its economic, social and political situation as was known before the war. Most Confederate military and political leaders were temporarily prohibited from participating in the political process which led to the creation of a vacuum. This further led to the emergence of two groups that were called Scalawags and Carpetbaggers in a derogatory sense. Scalawags, which meant worthless livestock, referred to native white Southerners who supported the federal reconstruction plan and cooperated with the blacks. The majority of them were small non slave-holding farmers, merchants and other professionals who had remained loyal to the Union during the civil war. Although viewed as traitors in the South, the Scalawags made up close to 20 percent of the white electorate and wielded considerable influence especially after the civil war.

The term Carpetbagger referred to a poor traveler who arrives with only a carpetbag and slowly fills up his bag by exploiting his surrounding conditions. The term was used to describe the white Northerners who, motivated by profit or idealism, moved to the south after the Civil War. Many carpetbaggers were from the educated middle class of various walks of life. They saw themselves as reformers and wanted to shape the post war South in the image of the North. Carpetbaggers were hated by the southerners as low-class and opportunistic newcomers seeking to get rich on their misfortune.

#9 The Jim Crow Laws

After the end of the reconstruction period in 1877, as the white southerners began gaining power again, methods were developed to bypass the Reconstruction laws and subjugate the black people. The people who did this called themselves Redeemers. They aimed at taking away the civil rights of the blacks by twisting existing laws and bringing in new ones. The laws came to be known as Jim Crow Laws, named after a racist cartoon strip of a poor uneducated black man. The laws ranged from being inhuman like forcing black people to sit in the back of public buses to insane such as a requiring black people to "qualify" to vote by paying poll taxes, or, by reciting the entire Declaration of Independence or Constitution from memory or the one where official records of black births, marriages, and deaths could not be kept in the same books that contained records of white births, marriages, and deaths. The Jim Crow Laws continued to be enforced until 1965, when they were ultimately overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

#10 The Rise of Industrialism

Before the Civil War the Southern economy was largely agricultural, dependent on cotton and other cash crops while the North was more industrialized. The political tensions between the two had led to years of policy paralysis. The North was forced to delay and compromise on their economic objectives due to strong Southern opposition and their political and economic clout. With the secession of the southern states the northerners began implementing their way of thought through various laws and acts such as the Morrill Tariff of 1861, which increased import tariff in the U.S. to foster rapid industrial growth; and the Transcontinental Railroad Acts, that provided federal subsidies in land and loans for the construction of a transcontinental railroad across the U.S. These measures, including many others, would provide impetus to the industrial growth of the United States. Industrialization, in turn, led to the creation of massive corporations and companies and the emergence of the entrepreneurs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Major Effects of the American Civil War

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The American Civil War was fought from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865between the Union forces and the 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Ultimately won by the Union forces, it remains the deadliest battle for the country with estimated deaths between 600,000 and 800,000.

# data[].attributes.body
Abraham Lincoln was the main part for
slaves to be illegal.

https://www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-lincoln-slavery-and-emancipation

-Leah Barry

# data[].attributes.body
I found this website very informational because it gave good in depth facts. One fact that I thought was interesting was that the death rate for prisoners during the war was 15.5% for the Union and 12 percent for Confederate soldiers https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm

# data[].attributes.body
From what I know the three biggest reasons the Civil War started was, 1: Economics of cotton 2: Slavery 3: State's rights. As for the Southerns and Northers were divided in what to do and after this war the United States became united again.

# data[].attributes.body
I already knew there was a secret underground railroad that helped transport fleeing people from the south.

# data[].attributes.body
I found these facts very interesting and a good intro to learning about the Civil War. One of the facts that caught my eye was that the bloodiest battle of the civil war was the Battle of Gattysburg in Pensslyvania. During that battle over 51,000 men were killed or injured.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fact #1: The Civil War was fought between the Northern and the Southern states from 1861-1865.

The American Civil War was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, a collection of eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861. The conflict began primarily as a result of the long-standing disagreement over the institution of slavery. On February 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. Senator and Secretary of War, was elected President of the Confederate States of America by the members of the Confederate constitutional convention. After four bloody years of conflict, the United States defeated the Confederate States. In the end, the states that were in rebellion were readmitted to the United States, and the institution of slavery was abolished nation-wide.

Fact #2: Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States during the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin in Kentucky. He worked as a shopkeeper and a lawyer before entering politics in the 1840s. Alarmed by his anti-slavery stance, seven southern states seceded soon after he was elected president in 1860-with four more states to soon follow. Lincoln declared that he would do everything necessary to keep the United States united as one country. He refused to recognize the southern states as an independent nation and the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the areas of the country that "shall then be in rebellion against the United States." The Emancipation Proclamation laid the groundwork for the eventual freedom of slaves across the country. Lincoln won re-election in 1864 against opponents who wanted to sign a peace treaty with the southern states. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer. Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning.

Fact #3: The issues of slavery and central power divided the United States.

Slavery was concentrated mainly in the southern states by the mid-19th century, where slaves were used as farm laborers, artisans, and house servants. Chattel slavery formed the backbone of the largely agrarian southern economy. In the northern states, industry largely drove the economy. Many people in the north and the south believed that slavery was immoral and wrong, yet the institution remained, which created a large chasm on the political and social landscape. Southerners felt threatened by the pressure of northern politicians and "abolitionists," who included the zealot John Brown, and claimed that the federal government had no power to end slavery, impose certain taxes, force infrastructure improvements, or influence western expansion against the wishes of the state governments. While some northerners felt that southern politicians wielded too much power in the House and the Senate and that they would never be appeased. Still, from the earliest days of the United States through the antebellum years, politicians on both sides of the major issues attempted to find a compromise that would avoid the splitting of the country, and ultimately avert a war. The Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and many others, all failed to steer the country away from secession and war. In the end, politicians on both sides of the aisle dug in their heels. Eleven states left the United States in the following order and formed the Confederate States of America: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Fact #4: The Civil War began when Southern troops bombarded Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

When the southern states seceded from the Union, war was still not a certainty. Federal forts, barracks, and naval shipyards dotted the southern landscape. Many Regular Army officers clung tenaciously to their posts, rather than surrender their facilities to the growing southern military presence. President Lincoln attempted to resupply these garrisons with food and provisions by sea. The Confederacy learned of Lincoln's plans and demanded that the forts surrender under threat of force. When the U.S. soldiers refused, South Carolinians bombarded Fort Sumter in the center of Charleston harbor. After a 34-hour battle, the soldiers inside the fort surrendered to the Confederates. Legions of men from north and south rushed to their respective flags in the ensuing patriotic fervor.

Fact #5: The North had more men and war materials than the South.

At the beginning of the Civil War, 22 million people lived in the North and 9 million people (nearly 4 million of whom were slaves) lived in the South. The North also had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more farmland. On paper, these advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States. However, the Confederates were fighting defensively on territory that they knew well. They also had the advantage of the sheer size of the Southern Confederacy. Which meant that the northern armies would have to capture and hold vast quantities of land across the south. Still, too, the Confederacy maintained some of the best ports in North America-including New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, Norfolk, and Wilmington. Thus, the Confederacy was able to mount a stubborn resistance.

Fact #6: The bloodiest battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Civil War devastated the Confederate states. The presence of vast armies throughout the countryside meant that livestock, crops, and other staples were consumed very quickly. In an effort to gather fresh supplies and relieve the pressure on the Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched a daring invasion of the North in the summer of 1863. He was defeated by Union General George G. Meade in a three-day battle near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that left nearly 51,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action. While Lee's men were able to gather the vital supplies, they did little to draw Union forces away from Vicksburg, which fell to Federal troops on July 4, 1863. Many historians mark the twin Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Mississippi, as the "turning point" in the Civil War. In November of 1863, President Lincoln traveled to the small Pennsylvania town and delivered the Gettysburg Address, which expressed firm commitment to preserving the Union and became one of the most iconic speeches in American history.

Fact #7: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee did not meet on the field of battle until May of 1864.

Arguably the two most famous military personalities to emerge from the American Civil War were Ohio born Ulysses S. Grant, and Virginia born Robert E. Lee. The two men had very little in common. Lee was from a well respected First Family of Virginia, with ties to the Continental Army and the founding fathers of the nation. While Grant was from a middle-class family with no martial or family political ties. Both men graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the old army as well as the Mexican-American War. Lee was offered command of the federal army amassing in Washington, in 1861, but he declined the command and threw his hat in with the Confederacy. Lee's early war career got off to a rocky start, but he found his stride in June of 1862 after he assumed command of what he dubbed the Army of Northern Virginia. Grant, on the other hand, found early success in the war but was haunted by rumors of alcoholism. By 1863, the two men were by far the best generals on their respective sides. In March of 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and brought to the Eastern Theater of the war, where he and Lee engaged in a relentless campaign from May of 1864 to Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House eleven months later.

Fact #8: The North won the Civil War.

After four years of conflict, the major Confederate armies surrendered to the United States in April of 1865 at Appomattox Court House and Bennett Place. The war bankrupted much of the South, left its roads, farms, and factories in ruins, and all but wiped out an entire generation of men who wore the blue and the gray. More than 620,000 men died in the Civil War, more than any other war in American history. The southern states were occupied by Union soldiers, rebuilt, and gradually re-admitted to the United States over the course of twenty difficult years known as the Reconstruction Era.

Fact #9: After the war was over, the Constitution was amended to free the slaves, to assure "equal protection under the law" for American citizens, and to grant black men the right to vote.

During the war, Abraham Lincoln freed some slaves and allowed freedmen to join the Union Army as the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.). It was clear to many that it was only a matter of time before slavery would be fully abolished. As the war drew to a close, but before the southern states were re-admitted to the United States, the northern states added the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The amendments are also known as the "Civil War Amendments." The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, the 14th Amendment guaranteed that citizens would receive "equal protection under the law," and the 15th Amendment granted black men the right to vote. The 14th Amendment has played an ongoing role in American society as different groups of citizens continue to lobby for equal treatment by the government.

Fact #10: Many Civil War battlefields are threatened by development.

The United States government has identified 384 battles that had a significant impact on the larger war. Many of these battlefields have been developed-turned into shopping malls, pizza parlors, housing developments, etc.-and many more are threatened by development. Since the end of the Civil War, veterans and other citizens have struggled to preserve the fields on which Americans fought and died. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have preserved tens of thousands of acres of battlefield land.

Learn More: Civil War Animated Map

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Facts: What Everyone Should Know About the Civil War

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Civil War profoundly shaped the United States as we know it today. Nevertheless, the war remains one of the most misunderstood events in American history. Here are ten basic facts you need to know about America's defining struggle.

# data[].attributes.body
2 percent of the population died in the civil war and the total number being around 750,000 to 850,000.

# data[].attributes.body
There were 2 sides to the war, the Confederates and the Union. The war was fought over the freedom of the current slaves. It is one of the bloodiest wars America has ever fought. Harriet Tubman was known for leading some slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth when Lincoln was watching a play with his wife.

# data[].attributes.body
I know that the civil war was between the northern states and the southern states, and that slavery and sectionalism were the main causes because the North supported slavery and the South did not.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Prelude to war

The secession of the Southern states (in chronological order, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) in 1860-61 and the ensuing outbreak of armed hostilities were the culmination of decades of growing sectional friction over slavery. Between 1815 and 1861 the economy of the Northern states was rapidly modernizing and diversifying. Although agriculture-mostly smaller farms that relied on free labour-remained the dominant sector in the North, industrialization had taken root there. Moreover, Northerners had invested heavily in an expansive and varied transportation system that included canals, roads, steamboats, and railroads; in financial industries such as banking and insurance; and in a large communications network that featured inexpensive, widely available newspapers, magazines, and books, along with the telegraph.

By contrast, the Southern economy was based principally on large farms (plantations) that produced commercial crops such as cotton and that relied on slaves as the main labour force. Rather than invest in factories or railroads as Northerners had done, Southerners invested their money in slaves-even more than in land; by 1860, 84 percent of the capital invested in manufacturing was invested in the free (nonslaveholding) states. Yet, to Southerners, as late as 1860, this appeared to be a sound business decision. The price of cotton, the South's defining crop, had skyrocketed in the 1850s, and the value of slaves-who were, after all, property-rose commensurately. By 1860 the per capita wealth of Southern whites was twice that of Northerners, and three-fifths of the wealthiest individuals in the country were Southerners.

The extension of slavery into new territories and states had been an issue as far back as the Northwest Ordinance of 1784. When the slave territory of Missouri sought statehood in 1818, Congress debated for two years before arriving upon the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This was the first of a series of political deals that resulted from arguments between pro-slavery and antislavery forces over the expansion of the "peculiar institution," as it was known, into the West. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 and the roughly 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square km) of new territory that the United States gained as a result of it added a new sense of urgency to the dispute. More and more Northerners, driven by a sense of morality or an interest in protecting free labour, came to believe, in the 1850s, that bondage needed to be eradicated. White Southerners feared that limiting the expansion of slavery would consign the institution to certain death. Over the course of the decade, the two sides became increasingly polarized and politicians less able to contain the dispute through compromise. When Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the explicitly antislavery Republican Party, won the 1860 presidential election, seven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) carried out their threat and seceded, organizing as the Confederate States of America.

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter, at the entrance to the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina. Curiously, this first encounter of what would be the bloodiest war in the history of the United States claimed no victims. After a 34-hour bombardment, Maj. Robert Anderson surrendered his command of about 85 soldiers to some 5,500 besieging Confederate troops under P.G.T. Beauregard. Within weeks, four more Southern states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) left the Union to join the Confederacy.

With war upon the land, President Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve for three months. He proclaimed a naval blockade of the Confederate states, although he insisted that they did not legally constitute a sovereign country but were instead states in rebellion. He also directed the secretary of the treasury to advance $2 million to assist in the raising of troops, and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, first along the East Coast and ultimately throughout the country. The Confederate government had previously authorized a call for 100,000 soldiers for at least six months' service, and this figure was soon increased to 400,000.
Jennifer L. Weber

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Civil War | History, Summary, Dates, Causes, Map, Timeline, Battles, Significance, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
American Civil War, four-year war (1861-65) fought between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded to form the Confederate States of America. It arose out of disputes over slavery and states' rights. When antislavery candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president (1860), the Southern states seceded.

# data[].attributes.body
The Youngest soldier was a 9-year old boy.

https://www.factretriever.com/civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.body
A fun fact about the Civil War is that one-third of the soldiers were immigrants who fought for the Union Army.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
During the Civil War, the South had less men and materials to fight the War, while the North had many men and loads of materials.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fact #1: The Civil War was fought between the Northern and the Southern states from 1861-1865.

The American Civil War was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, a collection of eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861. The conflict began primarily as a result of the long-standing disagreement over the institution of slavery. On February 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. Senator and Secretary of War, was elected President of the Confederate States of America by the members of the Confederate constitutional convention. After four bloody years of conflict, the United States defeated the Confederate States. In the end, the states that were in rebellion were readmitted to the United States, and the institution of slavery was abolished nation-wide.

Fact #2: Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States during the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin in Kentucky. He worked as a shopkeeper and a lawyer before entering politics in the 1840s. Alarmed by his anti-slavery stance, seven southern states seceded soon after he was elected president in 1860-with four more states to soon follow. Lincoln declared that he would do everything necessary to keep the United States united as one country. He refused to recognize the southern states as an independent nation and the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the areas of the country that "shall then be in rebellion against the United States." The Emancipation Proclamation laid the groundwork for the eventual freedom of slaves across the country. Lincoln won re-election in 1864 against opponents who wanted to sign a peace treaty with the southern states. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer. Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning.

Fact #3: The issues of slavery and central power divided the United States.

Slavery was concentrated mainly in the southern states by the mid-19th century, where slaves were used as farm laborers, artisans, and house servants. Chattel slavery formed the backbone of the largely agrarian southern economy. In the northern states, industry largely drove the economy. Many people in the north and the south believed that slavery was immoral and wrong, yet the institution remained, which created a large chasm on the political and social landscape. Southerners felt threatened by the pressure of northern politicians and "abolitionists," who included the zealot John Brown, and claimed that the federal government had no power to end slavery, impose certain taxes, force infrastructure improvements, or influence western expansion against the wishes of the state governments. While some northerners felt that southern politicians wielded too much power in the House and the Senate and that they would never be appeased. Still, from the earliest days of the United States through the antebellum years, politicians on both sides of the major issues attempted to find a compromise that would avoid the splitting of the country, and ultimately avert a war. The Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and many others, all failed to steer the country away from secession and war. In the end, politicians on both sides of the aisle dug in their heels. Eleven states left the United States in the following order and formed the Confederate States of America: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Fact #4: The Civil War began when Southern troops bombarded Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

When the southern states seceded from the Union, war was still not a certainty. Federal forts, barracks, and naval shipyards dotted the southern landscape. Many Regular Army officers clung tenaciously to their posts, rather than surrender their facilities to the growing southern military presence. President Lincoln attempted to resupply these garrisons with food and provisions by sea. The Confederacy learned of Lincoln's plans and demanded that the forts surrender under threat of force. When the U.S. soldiers refused, South Carolinians bombarded Fort Sumter in the center of Charleston harbor. After a 34-hour battle, the soldiers inside the fort surrendered to the Confederates. Legions of men from north and south rushed to their respective flags in the ensuing patriotic fervor.

Fact #5: The North had more men and war materials than the South.

At the beginning of the Civil War, 22 million people lived in the North and 9 million people (nearly 4 million of whom were slaves) lived in the South. The North also had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more farmland. On paper, these advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States. However, the Confederates were fighting defensively on territory that they knew well. They also had the advantage of the sheer size of the Southern Confederacy. Which meant that the northern armies would have to capture and hold vast quantities of land across the south. Still, too, the Confederacy maintained some of the best ports in North America-including New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, Norfolk, and Wilmington. Thus, the Confederacy was able to mount a stubborn resistance.

Fact #6: The bloodiest battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Civil War devastated the Confederate states. The presence of vast armies throughout the countryside meant that livestock, crops, and other staples were consumed very quickly. In an effort to gather fresh supplies and relieve the pressure on the Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched a daring invasion of the North in the summer of 1863. He was defeated by Union General George G. Meade in a three-day battle near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that left nearly 51,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action. While Lee's men were able to gather the vital supplies, they did little to draw Union forces away from Vicksburg, which fell to Federal troops on July 4, 1863. Many historians mark the twin Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Mississippi, as the "turning point" in the Civil War. In November of 1863, President Lincoln traveled to the small Pennsylvania town and delivered the Gettysburg Address, which expressed firm commitment to preserving the Union and became one of the most iconic speeches in American history.

Fact #7: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee did not meet on the field of battle until May of 1864.

Arguably the two most famous military personalities to emerge from the American Civil War were Ohio born Ulysses S. Grant, and Virginia born Robert E. Lee. The two men had very little in common. Lee was from a well respected First Family of Virginia, with ties to the Continental Army and the founding fathers of the nation. While Grant was from a middle-class family with no martial or family political ties. Both men graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the old army as well as the Mexican-American War. Lee was offered command of the federal army amassing in Washington, in 1861, but he declined the command and threw his hat in with the Confederacy. Lee's early war career got off to a rocky start, but he found his stride in June of 1862 after he assumed command of what he dubbed the Army of Northern Virginia. Grant, on the other hand, found early success in the war but was haunted by rumors of alcoholism. By 1863, the two men were by far the best generals on their respective sides. In March of 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and brought to the Eastern Theater of the war, where he and Lee engaged in a relentless campaign from May of 1864 to Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House eleven months later.

Fact #8: The North won the Civil War.

After four years of conflict, the major Confederate armies surrendered to the United States in April of 1865 at Appomattox Court House and Bennett Place. The war bankrupted much of the South, left its roads, farms, and factories in ruins, and all but wiped out an entire generation of men who wore the blue and the gray. More than 620,000 men died in the Civil War, more than any other war in American history. The southern states were occupied by Union soldiers, rebuilt, and gradually re-admitted to the United States over the course of twenty difficult years known as the Reconstruction Era.

Fact #9: After the war was over, the Constitution was amended to free the slaves, to assure "equal protection under the law" for American citizens, and to grant black men the right to vote.

During the war, Abraham Lincoln freed some slaves and allowed freedmen to join the Union Army as the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.). It was clear to many that it was only a matter of time before slavery would be fully abolished. As the war drew to a close, but before the southern states were re-admitted to the United States, the northern states added the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The amendments are also known as the "Civil War Amendments." The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, the 14th Amendment guaranteed that citizens would receive "equal protection under the law," and the 15th Amendment granted black men the right to vote. The 14th Amendment has played an ongoing role in American society as different groups of citizens continue to lobby for equal treatment by the government.

Fact #10: Many Civil War battlefields are threatened by development.

The United States government has identified 384 battles that had a significant impact on the larger war. Many of these battlefields have been developed-turned into shopping malls, pizza parlors, housing developments, etc.-and many more are threatened by development. Since the end of the Civil War, veterans and other citizens have struggled to preserve the fields on which Americans fought and died. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have preserved tens of thousands of acres of battlefield land.

Learn More: Civil War Animated Map

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Facts: What Everyone Should Know About the Civil War

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Civil War profoundly shaped the United States as we know it today. Nevertheless, the war remains one of the most misunderstood events in American history. Here are ten basic facts you need to know about America's defining struggle.

# data[].attributes.body
One-third of the soldiers who fought in the army were immigrants.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.body
Beginning shortly in Lincoln's presidency, Southern States began to secede, beginning with South Carolina.

# data[].attributes.body
In my elective class we are learning about the Civil war right now, and we actually just learned about Lincoln's assassination yesterday. About Lincoln's assassination, he was the first president to get murdered. He got killed on April 14th by Booth, he was watching a play in a balcony. Booth waited for the crowd to laugh and then he snuck into the balcony, where he shot Lincoln. He ran out crying, because he was so scared. The entire theater went silent and a member from the audience, who was a doctor explained that the shot was fatal. They tried to rush him to the doctor, but it was no use. Mary Lincoln was distraught about his death, and it took her many years to get over it. She was so sad she could not even attend his funeral. Lincoln got buried in Springfeild, with his son, that had passed many years before. Lincoln's step-mom had a feeling something bad might happen to him after he became president, so she decided to not see him again. During the murder, Louis Paine was set up to kill Secretary of State William Seward, which was successful. Atzedrodt was set up to kill Vice president Johnson, but he got to scared and chickened out. I got all of this information from documentaries I watch in my elective class.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that 1/3 of the soldiers were immigrants and 1/10 of the soldiers were African American.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
From what I know, the Civil War was an American conflict among the United States. This war was between the Union and the confederacy. These two groups were fighting over slaves, and had opposing beliefs to whether slaves should be illegal or not.

# data[].attributes.body
I found that Black Union soldiers refused their salaries for 18 months to protest being paid lower wages than white soldiers. -Steven Fuller

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
Harriet Tubman led slaves to freedom.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

- Marisa Vo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
Black union soldiers refused their pay and their salary for 18 months to protest being paid lower wages than white soldiers.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
The Civil War was a very big conflict between the states. Putting the union army up against the Confederate States of America. Tons and tons of deaths. And a lot of injuries. It left lots of land in ruins. https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Featured

Confederate Spies in Washington Located 60 miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Washington, D.C. was full of southern sympathizers when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Virginia's Governor John Letcher, a former congressman, used his knowledge of the city to set up a nascent spy network in the capital in late April 1861, after [...]
Read more Read more about Spying in the Civil War

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Civil War: Causes, Dates & Battles | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865 over the issues of slavery and states' rights. Learn about Civil War battles, generals, political leaders and more.

# data[].attributes.body
A fun fact about the Civil War is that Harriet Tubman lead more than 720 slaves to freedom along with Colonel James Montgomery.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
What I already know about the civil war is that is was a conflict between the states because of slavery. The north wanted no slavery, and the south was all for slavery. The north side won which caused some of the southerners to be angry. One of the southerners got so angry he decided to assinate Abraham Lincion. He was the one who started the movement.

# data[].attributes.body
there were two sides, the union, and the confederacy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Prelude to war

The secession of the Southern states (in chronological order, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) in 1860-61 and the ensuing outbreak of armed hostilities were the culmination of decades of growing sectional friction over slavery. Between 1815 and 1861 the economy of the Northern states was rapidly modernizing and diversifying. Although agriculture-mostly smaller farms that relied on free labour-remained the dominant sector in the North, industrialization had taken root there. Moreover, Northerners had invested heavily in an expansive and varied transportation system that included canals, roads, steamboats, and railroads; in financial industries such as banking and insurance; and in a large communications network that featured inexpensive, widely available newspapers, magazines, and books, along with the telegraph.

By contrast, the Southern economy was based principally on large farms (plantations) that produced commercial crops such as cotton and that relied on slaves as the main labour force. Rather than invest in factories or railroads as Northerners had done, Southerners invested their money in slaves-even more than in land; by 1860, 84 percent of the capital invested in manufacturing was invested in the free (nonslaveholding) states. Yet, to Southerners, as late as 1860, this appeared to be a sound business decision. The price of cotton, the South's defining crop, had skyrocketed in the 1850s, and the value of slaves-who were, after all, property-rose commensurately. By 1860 the per capita wealth of Southern whites was twice that of Northerners, and three-fifths of the wealthiest individuals in the country were Southerners.

The extension of slavery into new territories and states had been an issue as far back as the Northwest Ordinance of 1784. When the slave territory of Missouri sought statehood in 1818, Congress debated for two years before arriving upon the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This was the first of a series of political deals that resulted from arguments between pro-slavery and antislavery forces over the expansion of the "peculiar institution," as it was known, into the West. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 and the roughly 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square km) of new territory that the United States gained as a result of it added a new sense of urgency to the dispute. More and more Northerners, driven by a sense of morality or an interest in protecting free labour, came to believe, in the 1850s, that bondage needed to be eradicated. White Southerners feared that limiting the expansion of slavery would consign the institution to certain death. Over the course of the decade, the two sides became increasingly polarized and politicians less able to contain the dispute through compromise. When Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the explicitly antislavery Republican Party, won the 1860 presidential election, seven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) carried out their threat and seceded, organizing as the Confederate States of America.

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter, at the entrance to the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina. Curiously, this first encounter of what would be the bloodiest war in the history of the United States claimed no victims. After a 34-hour bombardment, Maj. Robert Anderson surrendered his command of about 85 soldiers to some 5,500 besieging Confederate troops under P.G.T. Beauregard. Within weeks, four more Southern states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) left the Union to join the Confederacy.

With war upon the land, President Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve for three months. He proclaimed a naval blockade of the Confederate states, although he insisted that they did not legally constitute a sovereign country but were instead states in rebellion. He also directed the secretary of the treasury to advance $2 million to assist in the raising of troops, and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, first along the East Coast and ultimately throughout the country. The Confederate government had previously authorized a call for 100,000 soldiers for at least six months' service, and this figure was soon increased to 400,000.
Jennifer L. Weber

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Civil War | History, Summary, Dates, Causes, Map, Timeline, Battles, Significance, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
American Civil War, four-year war (1861-65) fought between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded to form the Confederate States of America. It arose out of disputes over slavery and states' rights. When antislavery candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president (1860), the Southern states seceded.

# data[].attributes.headline
Lincoln was almost killed in the civil war before he was assassinated about 2 years later. -Indigo

# data[].attributes.subject
Lincoln was almost killed in the civil war before he was assassinated about 2 years later. -Indigo

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

# data[].attributes.body
I found out that the Civil War was the deadliest war in American history with 625,000 total people dead.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kids History: Interesting Facts about the Civil War

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn Interesting Facts about the American Civil War when the North battled the South.