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About two-thirds of the dead had died from disease. Disease spread as a result of soldiers and even the wounded sleeping side by side in unventilated tents. Chicken pox, mumps, malaria, and measles were all common.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-civil-war-facts

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In Lincoln's last moments before he was shot, he was watching a comedic play at Ford's Theater with his wife, Major. Henry R. Rathbone and his fiancee, Clara Harris. John Wilkes Booth managed to slice Rathbone's arm after shooting Lincoln.

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Although John Wilkes Booth is the most famous for the Lincoln assassination, it was actually a group-planned event that all but two were unsuccessful in. They planned to kill Lincoln along with other government officials that were a part of the abolitionist movement. Many apart of this were caught, jailed, and hanged.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/assassination-co-conspirators

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South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union.

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The Civil War started because the Southern States would end up seceding from the Union. The reason this happened is because they wanted to keep slavery, and they all defended keeping it. They pointed out that slavery accounted for a large portion of the Southern Economy. They also said that the North was reluctant to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (which mandated that fugitive slaves must be returned to the south), so that was no longer satisfactory. They also disliked Abraham Lincoln, and did not want him to become the president. Many states wouldn't even put his name as an option in voting, but he still won. That was the final straw, and Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas would secede from the Union, and Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina would soon follow. They would form together and become the Confederate States of America.

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In a lot of stories of the assassination of President Lincoln, John Booth was told to have broken his leg from jumping out of the Presidential box. Every eyewitness on the scene of the murder reported seeing John in little to no pain and running out of the theater, mounting a horse on his right side, which would have required him to mount with his left ¨broken¨ leg at the time. Also, he exaggerated the milage from his journey to make it sound more gruesome. John would have had to break his leg at some other time during his ride.

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Today we welcome guest author Cal. J. Schoonover. Cal hail's from Janesville, WI, where he lives with his son James. Cal is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin, Whitewater; and is currently attending American Military University, where he is pursuing his Masters in Military History, with a concentration in the American Civil War.
History says Presidential Assassin John Wilkes Booth broke his leg as he made the jump from the President's Box to the stage, claiming Booth's spur was caught on the red, white, and blue flag that draped the front of the area where the Lincoln party sat. In the 21st century however, historiography must go toe-to-toe with forensic history. Upon a closer examination of primary sources, including letters from both Booth and the doctor who treated him, there is now a greater possibility of creating doubt over when Booth actually broke his leg: was it as he landed on the stage at Ford's Theatre, or later in the evening as he raced away from the scene of the crime?

President Lincoln, his wife Mary, and two guests, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris, were late arriving at the theatre for the start of the play. The Lincoln party made its way to the Presidential Box, on the right-hand side of and elevated from the stage. Unbeknown to any of them, a man by the name of John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor was approaching the Presidential Box as well.

John Wilkes Booth was born on May 10, 1838 near Bel Air, Maryland. Booth was the second youngest of ten children. His father, Junius Brutus Booth, was a famous actor and was eccentric, with a reputation for heavy drinking. John and his siblings were raised on a farm, which was worked by the family's slaves. As a child, Booth attended the Milton Boarding School for Boys and later St. Timothy's Hall. To those who knew him, it seemed only natural that he would follow in his father's footsteps by being on stage.

As Booth neared the Presidential Box, Charles Forbes, a personal assistant to the President, stopped him. Booth calmly showed Forbes something, but what exactly is unknown.

He was allowed to pass, whereupon he entered the Presidential Box as quietly as he could and wedged a piece of wood between the door and the wall. This would prevent anyone from entering.

Booth then crept up behind Abraham Lincoln and raised his .44 caliber pistol to the back of the President's head. He shot at point blank range, and then sprang toward the front of the box. But before Booth could make good his escape, Major Rathbone sprang from his seat and was able to get a momentary grasp on Booth. Booth began slashing at Rathbone with a large knife he had also carried into the Presidential Box. Major Rathbone received a bone-deep wound to his left arm and fell to the floor, bleeding copiously. Booth was then able to break free. He jumped over the railing of the Presidential Box and landed on the main stage.

In his diary, Booth recorded his thoughts and descriptions of that night. To better illustrate some possible discrepancies among versions of events, these should be examined one claim at a time. Once in the Presidential Box-just before Booth pulled the trigger-he wrote, "I shouted Sic Semper before I fired." There are several witnesses that claim not to have heard anything before the shot was fired, including those in the box with the President. One eyewitness, James P. Ferguson, was located in the Dress Circle of the theatre. Ferguson claimed that Booth yelled "Sic Semper Tyrannis" after firing the shot and jumping out of the box.

Therefore, according to Ferguson, it was while on stage that Booth yelled out and not while in the Presidential Box. Another eyewitness confirmed Ferguson's account. Samuel Koontz also claims to have seen Booth as he was running across the stage, "exclaiming Sic Semper Tyrannis."

Booth then made the claim, "in jumping broke my leg" when he leaped from the Presidential Box to the stage. But did he? This claim by Booth is also differed from what eyewitness' saw. The first witness, A.M.S. Crawford, was also seated in the Dress Circle part of the theatre. Crawford stated that on the night of the assassination, "I saw him (Booth) as he ran across the stage." Actor Harry Hawk, who was on the stage when Booth jumped, observed Booth, "rushing toward [him] with a dagger" in his hand. There were other people in the theatre that night who also claim to have seen Booth run, not limp, across the stage. These witnesses included William Withers, Sheldon P. McIntyre, John Downing Jr, Dr. Charles Sabin Taft, Major General B.F. Butler and Samuel Koontz, who was mentioned above. These people made statements that, after landing on the stage, John Wilkes Booth ran out of the theatre. None of them described Booth limping or seeming to be in the slightest bit of pain.

The account of the man who held Booth's horse outside the back door to Ford's Theatre should be examined as well. His name was Joseph "Peanuts" Burroughs, and he was a stagehand at Ford's Theatre. Ned Spangler, another stagehand and one of the men involved in the plan to kill the President, gave him the job of holding Booth's horse. Spangler was later arrested and charged with conspiracy. Initially, Spangler held Booth's horse, but was called to do some work during the play. Spangler asked Burroughs to take over holding the horse. "Peanuts" Burroughs stated that, as Booth came racing out the back door of the theatre "he struck me with the butt of a knife, and knocked me down. He did this as he was mounting his horse, with one foot in the stirrup."

While Burroughs did not mention which leg Booth placed in the stirrup, one has to assume he mounted his horse on the left side, which would require Booth to use his left leg. Had Booth actually broken his left leg in the theatre as he claimed, he would not have been able to use his left leg to hoist himself into the saddle. Nowhere in Burroughs's statement is the claim made that Booth appeared to be in pain when mounting his horse. Mary Jane Anderson lived behind Ford's and was looking out the window and had a clear view of the back alley of Ford's Theatre, said in her statement on May 16 1865, "I saw Booth come out of the door with something in his hand, glittering. He came out of the theatre so quick that it seemed as if he but touched the horse and it was gone like a flash of lighting." Both Burroughs and Anderson gave a description of someone who appeared to be in no sort of discomfort whatsoever, much less a person with a broken leg.

Author and historian Michael W. Kauffman noted in his book American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies that "almost all eyewitnesses at Ford's reported seeing Booth crouch or stagger...but they noticed no sign of pain, in movement or expression." Sergeant Silas Cobb, who was placed in charge of guarding the Navy Yard Bridge that led out of Washington toward Virginia, confirmed the previous eyewitness accounts when he said that he did not notice Booth to be in any type of discomfort when he crossed the bridge. So if Booth did not break his leg at the theatre, when exactly did he?

As Booth made his way across the Navy Yard Bridge, his fellow co-conspirator, David Herold, crossed shortly after Booth without any trouble from Sergeant Cobb. The plan Booth made was to meet up with his fellow conspirators just outside Washington and ride south into Virginia, where he thought he would be safe. However, due to unforeseen problems, Booth would not be able to make the distances he so badly wanted.

Once David Herold was over the Navy Yard Bridge he continued to riding south into Maryland, where he met up with John Wilkes Booth. At this time, according to Herold, Booth said "that his horse had fallen or he was thrown off, and his ankle sprained." To back up what Booth told Herold, when the two men arrived at John M. Lloyd's house at Surrattsville in Prince George County MD, where they were supposed to pick up supplies that were left for them, Booth told Lloyd that he broke his leg when his horse fell. Lloyd stated he "seemed to be in great pain." Lloyd also mentioned that Booth did not dismount, unlike Herold, who was the one that knocked on his door to wake him. Just before Booth and Herold rode off, Booth said to Lloyd "we have killed President Lincoln and Secretary Seward."

Booth and Herold then went looking for a doctor to tend to Booth's injured leg. Booth wrote in his diary that he "rode sixty miles that night, with the bones of my leg tearing the flesh at every jump." The doctor the two men were looking for was Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was about thirty miles away, not sixty as Booth claimed. When the two men arrived at the Mudd farm in Charles County, Maryland, it was around four in the morning. Herold dismounted and knocked loudly on the doctor's front door. When Dr. Mudd answered, he observed the two men, who he claimed appeared to be in distress and in need of assistance.

Mudd then invited the men in and had the injured one lie on the sofa in the parlor; when Dr. Mudd later retold this story, he claimed not to have known either man. Dr. Mudd, in his statement of May 16 th 1865, described Booth's leg "as slight a breaking as it could possibly be." The doctor continued on and said "the patient complained also of a pain in his back." Although Mudd examined Booth, he could see no reason for his back pain "unless it might have been in consequence of his falling from, his horse, as he said he had done." This was one of the few times Booth told the truth and if Booth did in fact have a slight back injury, it backs up the claim he did, in fact, fall from his horse.

When Dr. Mudd finished setting Booth's broken leg, he allowed him to rest in an upstairs bedroom where Booth would have some privacy. Dr. Mudd then gave instructions to his hired help to care for the two horses. It was the statement of one of the farm hands, Thomas Davis, which helps back up the claim of an accident with the horse. Thomas Davis noticed that one horse "had been hurt; his shoulder was swelled right smart."

Davis also said the small bay had a "piece of skin off on the inside of the left foreleg about as big as a silver dollar." Another comment Davis made was that Mrs. Mudd told him the injured man had fallen from his horse in Beantown and would be on their way now that Dr. Mudd fixed him up.

It seems very possible from what has been presented above that what we all assumed to know about the events following Booth's shooting of President Lincoln could be, in fact, wrong. From middle school onward, we have read about John Wilkes Booth jumping from the President's Box at Ford's Theatre and allegedly breaking his leg. Could it be that history has been presented to us incorrectly? As time passes, more information and theories continue to be brought forward. To the best of my ability, I have tried to avoid giving wild speculation about Booth. I have simply examined what people of the time said, including Booth. However, what would be the point of Booth claiming he broke his leg in the Theater if in-fact he broke it when he fell from his horse? One reason would be because of the embarrassment Booth felt from falling. Can one imagine the humiliation Booth would have felt if people would have known the famous assassin of the "tyrant" Lincoln had fallen off his horse? I think Booth felt it sounded a lot more heroic when he made the claim "in jumping, broke my leg" after shooting Lincoln.

I end here with what I consider to be solid evidence of a real possibility that Booth did not break his leg at Ford's Theatre, but while he was riding to meet up with his fellow conspirator, David Herold, when his horse fell. Also, Booth did have a small broken bone in his left leg, and complained to Dr. Mudd that not only was his leg injured, but so was his back.

This is consistent with a riding accident. Additionally, the story of the fall from the horse was told to more than one person, including Herold. There is also a confirmed report of an injured horse. Booth would have no reason to lie at this point, and with the statements above, it seems we now have the true way John Wilkes Booth broke his leg.

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In Jumping Broke My Leg: Another Look at the Lincoln Assassination Legend

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Today we welcome guest author Cal. J. Schoonover. Cal hail's from Janesville, WI, where he lives with his son James. Cal is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin, Whitewater; and is currently attending American Military University, where he is pursuing his Masters in Military History, with a concentration in the American Civil War.

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The Union Army was incredibly inclusive for its time. It contained Irish men(7.5%), Germans(10%), and African Americans which made a third of the army.

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After and during the Civil War, railroads were a major factor in the advancement of America.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/railroads-confederacy#:~:text=The%20Civil%20War%20is%20the,9%2C500%20miles%20in%20the%20South.

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This page discusses the building and destruction of railroads within the confederacy.

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Apparently Lincoln was almost killed two years before his death. According to Lincoln, while riding home to his family's residence a gunshot went off from a hill nearby knocking off his hat and leaving it with a bullet hole.

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Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of “The Seven‑Day Scholar: The Civil War.”

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Before Lincoln was assassinated, there was a plan with not just the man who killed Lincoln but a group of other people conspirators. Many of them backed out and didn't follow through with the plan. However, one conspirator tried killing Secretary of state, William Seward. The man ended up getting arrested but he knocked on the door posing as an assistant since Seward was sick in bed. He tried killing the daughter and William Seward. He ended up cutting Seward's face but Seward survived.

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Spies played a pivotal role in the Civil War by relaying messages and information across secret lines. Modes of communication, like the telegraph, and transportation, like the train, helped to turn the tides of war with messages being sent faster and trains carrying troops into battle.
https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/How-the-Railroad-Won-the-War.pdf

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John Wilkes Booth had two associates who were supposed to kill Andrew Johnson and William Seward but one backed out and the other wasn't able to kill Seward because Seward fought him off.

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My favorite part to learn about was their guns/weapons and all the emerging weapons of war.
https://www.middlecreek.org/civil-war-weapons/

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When the Civil War started in 1861, there wasn't a huge selection of weapons used other than canons, rifles, and swords (mainly for command). This was before airplanes, tanks, and advanced boats, so the weapons produced were those created for on the ground soldiers.

Springfield Model 1861 Rifle

This was the most popular gun during the Civil War. The Springfield was a .58 caliber with a 40-inch long barrel. It was loaded through the tip of the barrel with gun powder to shoot a Minié ball. An experienced soldier could shoot up to 3 rounds per minute at an aimed distance of 500 yards. In 1861, it cost about $20 to produce one (that's about $570.70 in today's equivalent).

Because Confederate and Union soldiers were not highly trained on this rifle nor in proper marksmanship, they fired and reloaded in a line at the same time to maintain accuracy and focused firing. Roughly a million of these were produced during the Civil War.
RELATED: The 13 Civil War battles fought in Kentucky [a short overview of each]
Henry Repeating Rifle

Similar to the rifle above, the Henry Repeating Rifle can shoot 2-4 shots per minute and has 16 shots in one magazine. Rather than manually filling the rifle with gun powder and bullets, it used a single bullet and black powder encased in a single metallic cylinder, like bullets today. It uses a lever-action system to fire bullets repeatedly.

It later became the gun that "won the west." Click to see the more advances gun in action:

Model 1840 Cavalry Saber

Swords like these were more of a status symbol than a weapon. Sure, it could be used if needed, but soldiers died more often from rifle shots and cannon blasts than from swords.

Bayonet

The bayonet wasn't used very often during the Civil War. In fact, it was used to kill only about 1 percent of soldiers. With the advancement of weapons such as the rifle and cannon, it didn't prove itself effective in most battles.

LeMat Pistol

This is the most lethal handgun of the Civil war. It was a .42 caliber and could hold 9 bullets at once. The LeMat was actually two guns in one because it could fire a single shotgun round with a flip of the switch on the side. It was a heavy gun and not the best for carrying, but it still was a deadly weapon during the Civil War.

Model 1857 12-Pounder "Napoleon" Gun

Named after Napoleon III of France, this gun - more like a cannon - was a muzzle-loaded smoothbore gun that fired 12-pound rounds. It could shoot up to 4 shots per minute. It was used by both sides during the war and could shoot solid metal shots, explosive shells, and grape and canister rounds with a range of 1,619 yards (or 16 football fields). The barrel was 66 inches long and the entire cannon (wheels included) weighed 2,350 pounds - that's the weight of a small car.

Gatling Gun

Although it wasn't used much, it's considered to be the most lethal gun in the Civil War. It was a .58 caliber, six-barrel gun that worked by turning the hand crank that rotated the barrels. It could be used by one soldier, but it was at its best when used by two - one to crank and aim while the other loaded more bullets at the top. It could shoot up to 600 rounds a minute.

The Battle of Middle Creek was a tragic example of the fratricidal, neighbor-against-neighbor warfare that characterized the struggle for Kentucky. Read about the history of this battle, see reenactments, and the preservation of this site.

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Weapons used during the Civil War [with photos] - Middle Creek

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When the Civil War started in 1861 , there wasn't a huge selection of weapons used other than canons, rifles, and swords (mainly for command). This was before airplanes, tanks, and advanced boats, so the weapons produced were those created for on the ground soldiers. This was the most popular gun during the Civil War.

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During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman helped fugitive slaves escape, but also worked as a nurse and cook.

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African Americans who joined in the war effort earned respect among their white colleagues that they fought alongside with.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/blacks-civil-war

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John booth jumped off the balcony of the opera after shooting Lincoln and broke a leg.
https://www.vox.com/2015/4/14/8416939/abraham-lincoln-assassination

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The Civil War occurred when Lincoln was elected in 1860, triggering the South's secession from the Union. Millions perished, entire cities were leveled, and the agrarian economy of the South was never the same. The CW also led to the end of slavery, liberating thousands of African Americans.
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern conservative actor, in part of a larger conspiracy. He was shot in the head at a theater.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/abraham-lincoln-assassination

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Causes of the Civil War

In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth, a fundamental economic difference existed between the country's northern and southern regions.

In the North, manufacturing and industry was well established, and agriculture was mostly limited to small-scale farms, while the South's economy was based on a system of large-scale farming that depended on the labor of Black enslaved people to grow certain crops, especially cotton and tobacco.

Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and northern opposition to slavery's extension into the new western territories led many southerners to fear that the existence of slavery in America -and thus the backbone of their economy-was in danger.

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

In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which essentially opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict. Pro- and anti-slavery forces struggled violently in " Bleeding Kansas," while opposition to the act in the North led to the formation of the Republican Party, a new political entity based on the principle of opposing slavery's extension into the western territories. After the Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott case (1857) confirmed the legality of slavery in the territories, the abolitionist John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859 convinced more and more southerners that their northern neighbors were bent on the destruction of the "peculiar institution" that sustained them. Abraham Lincoln 's election in November 1860 was the final straw, and within three months seven southern states-South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas-had seceded from the United States.

Outbreak of the Civil War (1861)

Even as Lincoln took office in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the federal-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12, after Lincoln ordered a fleet to resupply Sumter, Confederate artillery fired the first shots of the Civil War. Sumter's commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered after less than two days of bombardment, leaving the fort in the hands of Confederate forces under Pierre G.T. Beauregard. Four more southern states-Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee-joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter. Border slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not secede, but there was much Confederate sympathy among their citizens.

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

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

The Civil War in Virginia (1862)

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

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

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

After the Emancipation Proclamation (1863-4)

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

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

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

Toward a Union Victory (1864-65)

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

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

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

Fact Check

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Civil War - Causes, Dates & Battles | HISTORY

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The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states' rights and westward expansion. Eleven southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederacy. Ultimately more than 620,000 Americans' lives were lost in the four-year war that ended in a Confederate defeat.

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The First Bull Run, or the Battle of Manassas,  is one of the most famous battles in the Civil War. It was the first major land battle of America. The engagement began when about 35,000 Union troops marched from the federal capital in Washington, D.C. to strike a Confederate force of 20,000 along a small river known as Bull Run.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/first-battle-of-bull-run

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Slavery had ended due to the 13th amendment that stated "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.".

https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/13th-amendment#:~:text=Passed%20by%20Congress%20on%20January,within%20the%20United%20States%2C%20or

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Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States and provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.".

Read more at Our Documents..

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13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery

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Enlarge PDF Link 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery The House Joint Resolution proposing the 13th amendment to the Constitution, January 31, 1865; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1999; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.

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During the civil war, soldiers would play sports and card games. They even played Football.
https://www.rampfesthudson.com/what-games-did-civil-war-soldiers-play/

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The K.K.K. or ,Ku Klux Klan, was a terrorist group formed to terrorize African Americans  and African American supporting whites. Since the Republican party was fighting for equality during the reconstruction era, the KKK wanted to go against this and would commit acts of violence to any black person who tried to vote or just exist. 10 percent of black legislatures were victims to the violence.
https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan

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The Civil War led to the birth of many weapons such as the Springfield or the Henry Repeating Rifles. The Civil War also was the first war to utilize large iron ships in the form of ironclads. During the Civil War, the gatling gun, a gun which utilized rotating barrels was also first debuted. The gatling gun is also a predecessor to the machine gun created later.

The USS Monitor was not actually sunk in any battle. Due to the Monitor's poor design, it was incredibly bad at floating in water. It was lost during a storm.

The USS Merimack (CSS Virginia) was not sunk through a battle either. When the port it was in was captured, the confederates purposely sunk the CSS Virginia. This is called scuttling.

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African American Soldiers and multiple assassinations - Jeffrey C

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African American Soldiers and multiple assassinations - Jeffrey C

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1/3 soldiers in the civil war were immigrants from all around the world. The south even tried using slaves to fight the north. Also, the assassination of Lincoln was one of many assassinations that were planned to happen and were connected.

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- Did you know that the Civil War was the deadliest war in American history? Maybe, but did you know that there were about 210,000 soldiers killed (in action) and 625,000 total dead?
- Also, 30% of Southern, white men between the ages of 18 and 40 died in the war.
- Out of the 9 million who lived in the Southern states at the time of the Civil War, about 3.4 million were slaves.

https://www.ducksters.com/history/facts_about_the_civil_war.php#:~:text=The%20Union%20Army%20of%202%2C100%2C000,40%20died%20in%20the%20war.

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Lincoln wasn't the only one who was supposed to be assassinated. The guy who killed Lincoln, John W. Booth, was in a group with 3 other people who were supposed to assassinate their own people. One man chickened out, and the other shot but didn't succeed at killing.
https://www.history.com/news/the-other-targets-of-booths-murder-conspiracy

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Abraham Lincoln had been on John Wilkes Booth's mind for months before he decided to shoot him at close range in a darkened theater on April 14, 1865. Around the time of Abraham Lincoln's re-election in November 1864, Booth began scheming against the president, whom he loathed for his anti-slavery stance and for waging war against the South. At first, the well-known actor hoped to kidnap Lincoln, bring him to Richmond and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war. However, the fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865, and the surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee a few days later prompted him to consider even more drastic action.

And the president wasn't his only target.

On the night of April 14, a mere two hours before heading inside Ford's Theatre, Booth met at a boarding house with three accomplices-Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt-and unveiled his new plan: assassination. Promising to take care of Lincoln himself, he allegedly assigned Secretary of State William Seward to Powell and Herold and Vice President Andrew Johnson to Atzerodt. Booth may have also wanted to kill Ulysses S. Grant, whom Lincoln had invited to the theater that night, but the top Union general had left Washington earlier in the day.

Powell, 20, a former Confederate soldier wounded at Gettysburg; Herold, 22, a pharmacist's assistant; and Atzerodt, 29, a German-born carriage painter, had all been privy to the kidnapping plot (along with a handful of other Confederate agents and sympathizers). Now, despite some doubts voiced at the meeting by Atzerodt, the threesome left Booth fully intending to commit murder, prosecutors would later assert.
READ MORE: 10 Things You May Not Know About the Lincoln Assassination
Arriving at Seward's residence within a stone's throw of the White House, Powell rang the doorbell claiming to have a prescription for the secretary of state, who was bedridden, recuperating from a carriage accident. A servant let him in and reached out to accept the medicine, but Powell said he was under strict orders to deliver it personally. He then began pushing his way upstairs, arguing with both the servant and one of Seward's sons who had come out to investigate the commotion. When the son refused to let him advance any further, Powell pretended to retreat but then whipped out his pistol and pulled the trigger. Luckily for the son, it misfired, but unluckily for him, Powell turned it into a blunt weapon, clubbing him on the head so severely that he fell into a temporary coma.

Powell next turned his attention to Seward's bodyguard, slashing at him with a knife and pushing him to the floor. Only Seward's daughter, who had inadvertently revealed her father's location to Powell, now stood between him and his target. Maneuvering past her easily, the would-be assassin jumped on the secretary of state's bed and began stabbing wildly downward, cutting open his cheek and neck. Before he could inflict a deathblow, however, the bodyguard and another of Seward's sons pulled him off and wrestled him out of the room. Shouting "I'm mad, I'm mad!" Powell sliced away at both of them with his blade. Eventually tiring of the struggle, he ran downstairs and out of the house, giving one last stab to the back of a defenseless State Department messenger-his fifth victim, all of whom would live.

Herold, who was supposed to be outside waiting to guide him to safety, was scared off by the wild screams emanating from the house. Without his cohort, Powell quickly became lost. Some historians speculate that he ended up spending the night in a nearby cemetery.
READ MORE: The Final Days of John Wilkes Booth
Meanwhile, as Powell and Booth carried out their bloody rampage, Atzerodt sat at the bar of the Kirkwood House, a five-story hotel located a short walk from both Ford's Theatre and Seward's residence. Atzerodt, who had foolishly rented a room there in his own name, was hoping to imbibe some liquid courage before going upstairs to kill Vice President Johnson, who stayed there intermittently since his vice presidential inauguration. That night, Johnson was alone and unguarded in his suite-a sitting duck.

Yet Atzerodt, though armed with a gun and a knife, could not bring himself to knock on the door. Instead, he went outside and began drunkenly wandering around the city, finally checking into another hotel at around 2 a.m. He then pawned his gun the next morning and set out for the home of his cousin in Maryland, unaware that investigators had already found a second gun and knife in his room at the Kirkwood House, as well as a bankbook belonging to Booth. After being arrested on April 20, Atzerodt confessed to his role in the plot and informed on his co-conspirators.

By that time, Powell had also been taken into custody, having shown up at the boardinghouse of Mary Surratt, a Booth confidant, with a pickaxe and bloodstains on his sleeves. Herold lasted a bit longer on the lam. Meeting up with Booth in Maryland, the two managed to evade a massive federal manhunt for 12 days prior to being tracked down at a Virginia farmhouse. Booth was shot to death there, whereas Herold surrendered unharmed. Yet the reprieve was only temporary. A military tribunal found him guilty, and on July 7 he was hanged, along with Surratt, Atzerodt and Powell.
READ MORE: Who Received the Reward for John Wilkes Booth's Capture?

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The Other Targets of Booth's Murder Conspiracy

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Abraham Lincoln had been on John Wilkes Booth's mind for months before he decided to shoot him at close range in a darkened theater on April 14, 1865. Around the time of Abraham Lincoln's re-election in November 1864, Booth began scheming against the president, whom he loathed for his anti-slavery stance and for waging war against the South.

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The Missouri Compromise was a compromise created to try and satisfy the North and the South and prevent war. It said that lands West of Mississippi and below latitude 36º30' could have slavery but lands North, except Missouri, could not. This compromise however, didn't last.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/states-rights

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One third of the US army were immigrants. They were seeking out money from the army, instead of fighting for the country as this country wasn't something they considered theirs yet. Some of them wanted to fight for freedom and justice. A lot of German immigrants wanted freedom for all, and risked their lives to help the cause.

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Many families lost all of the men due to them having to fight in the civil war.
(I learned this from the study sync blast.)

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The end of slavery took place on April 9, in the year of 1865. It took place in the Appomattox Court House, in the state of Virginia. General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War had been going on for 4 years.

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The Civil War was a war between the South and the North mainly started because the South's way of life was different to the North's as the South used slaves and relied on agriculture while the north was more industrialized and didn't have slaves. There was a lot of tension between the north and the south as then north didn't like having slavery. What happened because of this was that southern states started seceding from the union which, therefore, caused the war. The war was grueling as there were many casualties throughout the war on both sides. The war ended as in the end, the North had way more resources and power over the south in naval ability and troops. Lincoln was the president when the war ended so there were some people from the south who despised him. One of those, named John Wilkes Booth, was a confederate sympathizer. John Wilkes Booth ended up killing Lincoln while he was in a theater by sneaking into Lincolns box and shooting him in the head.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/abraham-lincoln-assassination#:~:text=On%20the%20evening%20of%20April,at%20Appomattox%20Court%20House%2C%20Virginia%2C

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There was a battle on every day of the 4 years of the civil war. adding up to 10,455 military events

https://blog.bridgemanimages.com/blog/some-unusual-facts-about-the-american-civil-war

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The civil war was a war over two things. Power, money, and slavery. It was a battle between the North and South, Democrats and Republicans, slavery vs anti-slavery, people vs money. Interestingly, getting rid of slavery was more of a tool than a priority. Even though there were many republicans that supported anti-slavery simply because of its morality, the majority were still segregating blacks and the poor. As for Lincoln's assassination, Lincoln was assassinated by a group of people who were not happy with the change brought about by the end of the civil war. This group of people also tried to kill other republicans.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY9zHNOjGrs&vl=en

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Causes of the Civil War

In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth, a fundamental economic difference existed between the country's northern and southern regions.

In the North, manufacturing and industry was well established, and agriculture was mostly limited to small-scale farms, while the South's economy was based on a system of large-scale farming that depended on the labor of Black enslaved people to grow certain crops, especially cotton and tobacco.

Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and northern opposition to slavery's extension into the new western territories led many southerners to fear that the existence of slavery in America -and thus the backbone of their economy-was in danger.

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

In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which essentially opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict. Pro- and anti-slavery forces struggled violently in " Bleeding Kansas," while opposition to the act in the North led to the formation of the Republican Party, a new political entity based on the principle of opposing slavery's extension into the western territories. After the Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott case (1857) confirmed the legality of slavery in the territories, the abolitionist John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859 convinced more and more southerners that their northern neighbors were bent on the destruction of the "peculiar institution" that sustained them. Abraham Lincoln 's election in November 1860 was the final straw, and within three months seven southern states-South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas-had seceded from the United States.

Outbreak of the Civil War (1861)

Even as Lincoln took office in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the federal-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12, after Lincoln ordered a fleet to resupply Sumter, Confederate artillery fired the first shots of the Civil War. Sumter's commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered after less than two days of bombardment, leaving the fort in the hands of Confederate forces under Pierre G.T. Beauregard. Four more southern states-Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee-joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter. Border slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not secede, but there was much Confederate sympathy among their citizens.

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

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

The Civil War in Virginia (1862)

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

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

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

After the Emancipation Proclamation (1863-4)

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

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

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

Toward a Union Victory (1864-65)

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

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

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

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Civil War - Causes, Dates & Battles | HISTORY

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The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states' rights and westward expansion. Eleven southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederacy. Ultimately more than 620,000 Americans' lives were lost in the four-year war that ended in a Confederate defeat.

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William Seward(in bed) is attacked by one of Booth's co-conspirators with a knife in his own home.

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John Wilkes Booth was part of a group of people who were set to assassinate multiple political leaders, including Lincoln. However, most of the co-conspirators backed out before the assassinations. Like with Lincoln, a co-conspirator was set to kill William Seward, the Secretary of State. Seward was sick in his own home when a man rushed in holding a knife, and charged to his room. Multiple people, included Seward's children, attempted to stop the man, but after some fighting he reached Seward and cut him. He wasn't able to do much however, and Seward survived. Lewis Powell, the assailant & one of Booth's co-conspirators, was arrested.