by Jack Purdum
“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving.” -Ullysses S. Grant. The Civil War was the war between the North, Union, and the South, the Confederacy, of the United States. They fought over slavery. The North wanted everyone to be equal while the South wanted to have slaves. The Civil War was the bloodiest battle in American history. In the Civil War, there were many thing that changed the outcome of the war. Some of them were advantages in people or generals, weapon supply, important battles, etc. They ended in the surrender of the South.
There were different advantages between the North and the South. Those advantages helped them in different ways during the war. “America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter, and lose our freedoms it is because we destroyed ourselves.” (-Abraham Lincoln). The Northerners advantages were that they had factories, more railroads, and more weapons. Unlike the South who had few factories, had to farm, and had to wait on Europe to get supplies. The South had advantages too. They had more experienced generals, they were fighting a defensive war, and had better trained soldiers. With these advantages, both sides appeared pretty equal.
There were many important battles in the Civil War. One of the important battles was the Battle of Bull Run. This battle was the first battle of the Civil War. Both sides thought that the battle was going to be over very quickly. They thought it would be the only battle in the Civil War. It showed them the war was going to be long and bloody. The next important battle was the Battle of Antietam. Also called Sharpsburg, Antietam was the first major battle in the Civil War. It was the bloodiest single day battle in American history. General Lee’s army was out number 2 to 1, but he fought to draw and escaped. That is an example of better generals. There were 22,000 casualties in this battle. The next important battle was the Battle of Gettysburg. The battle of Gettysburg was maybe the most important battle of the Civil War. This battle had the largest number of casualties. There were 50,000 casualties. The Union’s general was Gen. Meade. The Confederacy general was General Lee. Lee’s goal was to get to Harrisburg to get the Union to give up. General Pickett, the other Confederacy general, launched an attack on the third day that ended the battle for the Confederacy. The Confederacy was devastated by artillery and rifle fire. This was the battle that turn the tides of the Civil War. The next battle was the Battle of Vicksburg. It started on May 18, and ended on July 4, 1863. This battle was a Union victory on the same day as Gettysburg. Vicksburg was a Confederate camp that controlled the Mississippi River. General Grant captured 29,000 Confederate soldiers and let them go if they promised not to fight again. That day General Grant took control of the Mississippi River and after that day no more prisoner exchanges were made. These battles really helped the sides change their positions in the war.
The Confederacy ended up losing the war in the Battle Richmond. The Confederacy suffered a huge loss. They later surrendered at the Surrender at Appomattox. Generally brought the white flag and surrendered. The rest of the generals surrendered after Lee and that was the end of the Civil War. Three days after Lee’s surrender, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
The American Civil War was a war between states rights, slavery, and economic problems. “A house divided amongst itself cannot stand. “– Abraham Lincoln. In conclusion, The Civil War was good and bad bad. It ended slavery, but killed a lot of people with it.