468.9 865 EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD ALMA E. ANDERSON, Social Studies Department, Robert E. Lee Junior High School, Danville, Va. E. MERTON COULTER, Professor-Emeritus of History, University of Georgia, Athens WILLIAM M. GRANT, History Department, Upper Arlington High School, Columbus, O. RICHARD HARWELL, Librarian, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison DANIEL W. HOLLIS, Professor of History, University of South Carolina, Columbia STANLEY F. HORN, Chairman, Tennessee Civil War Centennial Commission, Nashville WILLIAM M. LAMERS, Assistant Superintendent, Milwaukee Public Schools A. B. MOORE, Professor-Emeritus of History, University of Alabama, University ALLAN NEVINS, Chairman, U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission, San Marino, Cal. MARY G. OLIVER, History Department, George Washington High School, Danville, Va. GLENN A. RICH, Director, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Ohio Department of Education, Columbus BELL I. WILEY, Professor of History, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. T. HARRY WILLIAMS, Professor of History, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge HAZEL C. WOLF, History Department, Manual High School, Peoria, Ill. Jacks PURCHASED THROUGH 3-23-64 FOREWORD Thousands of student requests for information on the Civil War prompted the publication of this booklet. Its purpose is to present in simple language a survey of the eleven most popular aspects of the 1861-1865 conflict. This guide is intended as a supplement, not a substitute, for American history textbooks. Space limitations prevented mention of each of the 6,000 engagements of the Civil War. Thus, while such actions as the battle of Picacho Pass, Ariz., and Quantrill's sacking of Lawrence, Kan., had import for their particular locales, they of necessity had to be omitted. In those battles herein discussed, statistics for armies and losses are those generally accepted. The map midway in the booklet may help familiarize the student with the various theaters of military operations. After each section is a list of works recommended for those who desire more detailed information on the subject. Relatively little consideration of the political, economic, and social history of the period was possible within the limits of this small work. However, the Commission can supply upon request and without charge the following pamphlets treating in part of those subjects: Emancipation Centennial, 1962: A Brief Anthology of the Preliminary Proclamation; Free Homesteads for All Americans: The Homestead Act of 1862, by Paul W. Gates; The Origins of the Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities, by Allan Nevins; and Our Women of the Sixties, by Sylvia G. L. Dannett and Katharine M. Jones. The Commission is deeply indebted to the Editorial Advisory Board members, each of whom rendered valuable assistance toward the final draft of the narrative. JAMES I. ROBERTSON, JR., Executive Director Construction of the U. S. Capitol was still in progress when civil war began. I. CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR Historians past and present disagree sharply over the major cause of the Civil War. Some writers have viewed the struggle of the 1860's as a "war of rebellion" brought on by a "slavepower conspiracy." To them it was a conflict between Northern "humanity" and Southern "barbarism." James Ford Rhodes, who dealt more generously with the South than did many other Northern writers of his time, stated in 1913: "Of the American Civil War it may safely be asserted that there was a single cause, slavery." Other historians, such as Charles A. Beard and Harold U. Faulkner, have argued that slavery was only the surface issue. The real cause, these men state, was "the economic forces let loose by the Industrial Revolution" then taking place in the North. These economic forces were strong, powerful, and "beating irresistibly upon a one-sided and rather static" Southern way of life. Therefore, the 1860's produced a "second American Revolution," fought between the "capitalists, laborers, and farmers of the North and West" on the one hand, and the "planting aristocracy of the South" on the other. A third theory advanced by historians is that the threat to states' rights led to war. The conflict of the 1860's was thus a "War between the States." Many in this group believe that the U. S. Constitution of 1787 was but a compact, or agreement, between the independent states. Therefore, when a state did not like the policies of the central government, it had the right to withdraw-or secede from this compact. Still other writers believe "Southern nationalism" to have been the basic cause of the war. Southerners, they assert, had so strong a desire to preserve their particular way of life that they were willing to fight. This then became a struggle between rival sections whose differences |