History Essay #4- What is the story of the U.S Civil War?

What is the story of the Civil War? Well the Civil War started in 1861 (when Lincoln became President) and ended in 1865. This war was between Confederate (south) states and the Union (north) states. The Union was fighting to end slavery, and the Confederate was fighting to keep it. The Civil War is, "a war between citizens of the same country." A big thing in the Civil War was sectionalism. Sectionalism is, "In national politics, sectionalism is loyalty to the interests of one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole. It is often a precursor to separatism."

The North and South were at war for 5 whole years, both with an uncommon goal. Some of the most important battles were fought in Gettysburg, Antietam, Vicksburg, Shiloh, etc... But it all started when the Confederate states attacked the Union at Fort Sumter in 1861. This war was very messy, and had the most deaths than any war there has every been. There were about 620,000 deaths/casualties.

When you were captured during the Civil War, it was terrible. There was little food and water, you would usually starve to death. Prisoners always had it the worst. They would provide little clothing, they would provide a little amount of anything. I think if i were in the Civil War (which is very impossible because they didn't let women fight.) I would much rather die on the battlefield then be imprisoned and die of starvation because the y weren't feeding me enough.

In 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, stating that if you are a rebellious state, your slaves were now free. This confuses me a little because the war wasn't even over yet and the slaves were already free? Why didn't they stop fighting then? But anyways, Lincoln freed slaves almost everywhere. But not everyone agreed with this. In fact, Lincoln had to issue the Emancipation Proclamation twice because they didn't accept it the first time for it to finally be accepted.

The Civil War is actually my favorite war. Just what they are fighting for is one of my least favorite things and I'm so happy that slavery is over. Thanks to Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, all the troops, and all the generals and colonels that helped us fight this war to win. The North won on May9, 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant.