9 Questions About the American Civil War Answered

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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div></div> </div> <article class="topic-content content"><div class="topic-paragraph font-serif md-list-intro pt-15 pb-20"><figure class="md-assembly md-feature-assembly print-false" data-type="1" data-descid="1"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/53/184753-131-8376A7BD/Battle-of-Antietam-Kurz-Allison-1888.jpg" target="_blank" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center " data-href="*0"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/53/184753-131-8376A7BD/Battle-of-Antietam-Kurz-Allison-1888.jpg?w=1000" alt="Battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, lithograph by Kurz and Allison, circa 1888." data-width="900" data-height="675" loading="eager"><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class=""><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif "><span></span></div><cite class="credit d-block mt-5">Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. LC-USZC4-1768)</cite></figcaption></figure><p class="topic-paragraph">The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. The questions and answers in this list are taken from the Top Questions sections of the articles on the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Civil-War" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">American Civil War</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Brown-American-abolitionist" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Brown</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham-Lincoln" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Abraham Lincoln</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jefferson-Davis" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jefferson Davis</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ulysses-S-Grant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ulysses S. Grant</a>, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Gettysburg" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Battle of Gettysburg</a>.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><ul class="list-unstyled md-mendel-list"><li><h2>What caused the American Civil War?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph">The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Civil-War" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">American Civil War</a> was the culmination of the struggle between the advocates and opponents of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">slavery</a> that dated from the founding of the United States. This sectional conflict between Northern states and slaveholding Southern states had been tempered by a series of political compromises, but by the late 1850s the issue of the extension of slavery to the western states had reached a boiling point. The election of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham-Lincoln" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Abraham Lincoln</a>, a member of the antislavery <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Republican-Party" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Republican Party</a>, as president in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1860" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">1860</a> precipitated the secession of 11 Southern states, leading to a civil war.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-1"></span></li><li><h2>Why is John Brown significant?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph">Militant American <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/abolitionism-European-and-American-social-movement" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">abolitionist</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Brown-American-abolitionist" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Brown</a> led a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Harpers-Ferry-Raid" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry</a>, Virginia (now in West Virginia), in 1859 that he hoped would spark a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/slave-rebellions" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">slave rebellion</a>. It made him a martyr to the antislavery cause and was instrumental in heightening sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War (1861–65).</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-2"></span></li><li><h2>What were Abraham Lincoln’s chief goals in the American Civil War?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham-Lincoln" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Abraham Lincoln</a>’s chief goal in the American Civil War was to preserve the Union. At the outset of the war, he would have done so at any cost, including by allowing slavery to continue. But <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/abolitionism-European-and-American-social-movement" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">abolishing slavery</a> would become a nonnegotiable objective for him as the war progressed because of his own long-expressed abhorrence for the practice and because of the growing antislavery sentiment among his fellow Northerners. His intransigence on the subject scuttled possibilities of a peace conference between the Union and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confederate-States-of-America" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Confederacy</a> in 1864. By winning the war, he achieved both these objectives—reunion and abolition.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-3"></span></li><li><h2>What did Jefferson Davis do?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph">As president of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confederate-States-of-America" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Confederate States of America</a> throughout its existence during the American Civil War (1861–65), <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jefferson-Davis" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jefferson Davis</a> presided over the South’s creation of its own armed forces and acquisition of weapons. Davis chose <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-E-Lee" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Robert E. Lee</a> as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-4"></span></li><li><h2>How did Ulysses S. Grant affect the outcome of the American Civil War?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ulysses-S-Grant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ulysses S. Grant</a> achieved two major Union victories early in the war. He later became commander of all Union forces after seizing <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vicksburg-Campaign" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vicksburg</a>, Mississippi. Grant ordered Gen. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Tecumseh-Sherman" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Tecumseh Sherman</a> to take <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Atlanta-Campaign" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Atlanta</a> in the South while he personally marched on the Confederate army in Virginia. Grant’s strategy defeated the Confederacy by 1865.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-5"></span></li><li><h2>What was the significance of the Battle of Gettysburg?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph">The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Gettysburg" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Battle of Gettysburg</a> was one of the turning points of the American Civil War. The South lost many of its men, including generals and colonels, and Gen. Robert E. Lee lost all hope of invading the North. He fought the rest of the war on the defensive.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-6"></span></li><li><h2>Who won the American Civil War?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph">The Union won the American Civil War. The war effectively ended in April 1865 when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Appomattox-Court-House" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Appomattox Court House</a> in Virginia. The final surrender of Confederate troops on the western periphery came in Galveston, Texas, on June 2.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-7"></span></li><li><h2>How many people died during the Civil War?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph">It is estimated that from 752,000 to 851,000 soldiers died during the American Civil War. This figure represents approximately 2 percent of the American population in 1860. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Gettysburg" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Battle of Gettysburg</a>, one of the bloodiest engagements during the Civil War, resulted in about 7,000 deaths and 51,000 total casualties.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-8"></span></li><li><h2>Why are Confederate symbols controversial?</h2><div><p class="topic-paragraph">The modern usage of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confederate-States-of-America" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Confederate</a> symbols, especially the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confederate-Battle-Flag" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Confederate Battle Flag</a> and statues of Confederate leaders, is considered controversial because many associate such symbols with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/racism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">racism</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">slavery</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/white-supremacy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">white supremacy</a>. The flag was revived as a popular symbol in the 1940s and ’50s by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dixiecrat" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Dixiecrat</a> Democratic splinter group and others who opposed the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">American civil rights movement</a>.</p><span class="MOD"></span></div><span class="LIST-ITEM-9"></span></li></ul><span class="AM-END-OF-ARTICLE am-inline"></span></article> </div> </div> </div> <aside class="cm-rightrail d-none d-md-block ad-rail"></aside> </div> </div> </div> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col"> <div class="md-loading hidden display-4 font-weight-normal"></div> <div class="text-center my-20 mb-100"> <button class="md-infinite-load-next btn btn-blue" data-value="next-page">Load More</button> </div> </div> <div class="col-md-da-320 hidden-xs"> </div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"List","templateName":null,"pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":11,"pageId":9768,"pageLength":null,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/list-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"A","adLeg":"A","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"List","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":null,"gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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