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US Civil War

US Civil War

The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the Union in 1860–1861. The war produced over 970,000 casualties (3.09% of population), including approximately 560,300 deaths (1.78%), a loss of more American lives than any other conflict in history. The causes of the war, and even the name of the war itself, are still debated (see the article Naming the American Civil War).

The division of the country

Naming the American Civil War

The Deep South

Seven states seceded shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 – even before he was inaugurated:
- South Carolina (December 21, 1860),
- Mississippi (January 9, 1861),
- Florida (January 10, 1861),
- Alabama (January 11, 1861),
- Georgia (January 19, 1861),
- Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and
- Texas (February 1, 1861). These States of the Deep South, where slavery and cotton plantation agriculture were most dominant, formed the Confederate States of America (February 4, 1861), with Jefferson Davis as President, and a governmental structure closely modeled on the U.S. Constitution (see also: Confederate States Constitution). After the Battle of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Lincoln called for troops from all remaining states to recover the forts, resulting in the secession of four more states: Virginia (April 17, 1861), Arkansas (May 6, 1861), North Carolina (May 20, 1861), and Tennessee (June 8, 1861).

Border States

Main article: Border states (Civil War) Along with the northwestern counties of Virginia (whose residents did not wish to secede and eventually entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia), four of the five northernmost "slave states," (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky) did not secede, and became known as the Border States. Delaware, which in the 1860 election had voted for Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, had few slaves and never considered secession. Maryland also voted for Breckinridge, and after rioting in Baltimore and other events had prompted a Federal declaration of martial law, its legislature rejected secession (April 27, 1861). Both Missouri and Kentucky remained in the Union, but factions within each state organized "secessions" that were recognized by the CSA. In Missouri, the State government under Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, a southern sympathizer, evacuated the state capital of Jefferson City and met in-exile at the town of Neosho, Missouri, adopting a secession ordinance that was recognized by the Confederacy on October 30, 1861, while the Union organized a competing State government by calling a constitutional convention that had originally been convened to vote on secession. (See also: Missouri secession). Missouri secession Although Kentucky did not secede, for a time it declared itself neutral. During a brief occupation by the Confederate Army, Southern sympathizers organized a secession convention, inaugurated a Confederate Governor, and gained recognition from the Confederacy. Residents of the northwestern counties of Virginia organized a secession from Virginia, with a plan for gradual emancipation, and entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia. Similar secessions were supported in some other areas of the Confederacy (such as eastern Tennessee), but were suppressed by declarations of martial law by the Confederacy. Conversely, the southern half of the Federal Territory of New Mexico voted to secede, and was accepted into the Confederacy as the Territory of Arizona (see map below), with its capital in Mesilla (now part of New Mexico). Although the northern half of New Mexico never voted to secede, the Confederacy did lay claim to this territory and briefly occupied the territorial capital of Santa Fe between March 13 and April 8, 1862, but never organized a territorial government.

Origins of the conflict

:Main articles: Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events Timeline of events. In their agitation against the South, abolitionists cited the slave codes as an example of the barbarism of Southern society. Above, a woodcut from the abolitionist Anti-Slavery Almanac (1839) depicts the capture of a fugitive slave by a slave patrol.]] There had been a continuing contest between the states and the national government over the power of the latter, and over the loyalty of the citizenry, almost since the founding of the republic. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, for example, had defied the Alien and Sedition Acts, and at the Hartford Convention, New England voiced its opposition to President Madison and the War of 1812. In 1828 and 1832 the Congress passed protective tariffs to benefit trade in the northern states. It was deemed a "Tariff of Abominations" and its provisions would have imposed a significant economic penalty on South Carolina and other southern states if left in force. South Carolina dealt with the tariffs by adopting the Ordinance of Nullification, which declared both the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within state borders. The legislature also passed laws to enforce the ordinance, including authorization for raising a military force and appropriations for arms. In response to South Carolina's threat, Congress passed a "Force Bill" and President Andrew Jackson sent seven small naval vessels and a man-of-war to Charleston in November 1832. On December 10, he issued a resounding proclamation against the nullifiers. On the eve of the Civil War, the United States was a nation composed of four quite distinct regions: the Northeast, with a growing industrial and commercial economy and an increasing density of population; the Northwest, now known as the Midwest, a rapidly expanding region of free farmers where slavery had been forever prohibited under the Northwest Ordinance; the Upper South, with a settled plantation system and (in some areas) declining economic fortunes; and the Southwest, a booming frontier-like region with an expanding cotton economy. With two fundamentally different labor systems at their base, the economic and social changes across the nation's geographical regions – based on wage labor in the North and on slavery in the South – underlay distinct visions of society that had emerged by the mid-nineteenth century in the North and in the South. Before the Civil War, the Constitution provided a basis for peaceful debate over the future of government, and had been able to regulate conflicts of interest and conflicting visions for the new, rapidly expanding nation. For many years, compromises had been made to balance the number of "free states" and "slave states" so that there would be a balance in the Senate. The last slave state admitted was Texas in 1845, with five free states admitted between 1846 and 1859. The admission of Kansas as a slave state had recently been blocked, and it was due to enter as a free state instead in 1861. The rise of mass democracy in the industrializing North, the breakdown of the old two-party system, and increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in the mid-nineteenth century made it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to bring about the gentlemanly compromises of the past (such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850) necessary to avoid crisis. Also the existence of slave labor in the South made the Northern States the preferred destination for new immigrants from Europe resulting in an increasing dominance of the North in Congress and in Presidential elections, due to population size. Sectional tensions changed in their nature and intensity rapidly during the 1850s. The United States Republican Party was established in 1854. The new party opposed the expansion of slavery in the Western territories. Although only a small share of Northerners favored measures to abolish slavery in the South, the Republicans were able to mobilize popular support among Northerners and Westerners who did not want to compete against slave labor if the system were expanded beyond the South. The Republicans won the support of many ex-Whigs and Northern ex-Democrats concerned about the South's disproportionate influence in the Senate, the Buchanan administration, and the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the profitability of cotton, or "King Cotton," as it was touted, solidified the South's dependence on the plantation system and its foundation: slave labor. A small class of slave barons, especially cotton planters, dominated the politics and society of the South. King Cotton Southern secession was triggered by the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a moderate in his opposition to slavery. He pledged to do all he could to oppose the expansion of slavery into the territories (thus also preventing the admission of any additional slave states to the Union); but he also said the federal government did not have the power to abolish slavery in the states in which it already existed, and that he would enforce Fugitive Slave Laws. The southern states expected increasing hostility to their "peculiar institution"; not trusting Lincoln, and mindful that many other Republicans were intent on complete abolition of slavery. Lincoln had even encouraged abolitionists with his 1858 "House divided" speech[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/house.htm], though that speech was also consistent with an eventual end of slavery achieved gradually and voluntarily with compensation to slave-owners and resettlement of former slaves. In addition to Lincoln's presidential victory, the slave states had lost the balance of power in the Senate and were facing a future as a perpetual minority after decades of nearly continuous control of the presidency and the Congress. Southerners also felt they could no longer prevent protectionist tariffs such as the Morrill Tariff. The Southern justification for a unilateral right to secede cited the doctrine of states' rights, which had been debated before with the 1798 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, and the 1832 Nullification Crisis with regard to tariffs. Before Lincoln took office, seven states seceded from the union, and attempted to establish an independent southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. They took control of federal forts and property within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan. Ironically, by seceding, the rebel states weakened any claim to the territories that were in dispute, canceled any obligation for the North to return fugitive slaves, and assured easy passage of many bills and amendments they had long opposed. The Civil War began when Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. There were no casualties from enemy fire in this battle.

Narrative summary

1861 Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's secession from the Union. Lincoln was not even on the ballot in nine states in the South. Leaders in South Carolina had long been waiting for an event that might unite the South against the anti-slavery forces. Once the election returns were certain, a special South Carolina convention declared "that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the 'United States of America' is hereby dissolved." By February 1, 1861, six more Southern states had seceded. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama. The pre-war peace conference of 1861 met at Washington, D.C. The remaining southern states as yet remained in the Union. Several seceding states seized federal forts within their boundaries; President Buchanan made no military response. Less than a month later, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called the secession "legally void". He stated he had no intent to invade southern states, but would use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. The South did send delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties, but they were turned down. On April 12, the South fired upon the federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina until the troops surrendered. Lincoln called for all of the states in the Union to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. Most Northerners hoped that a quick victory for the Union would crush the nascent rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days. This resulted in four more states voting to secede. Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia. Even though the Southern states had seceded, there was considerable anti-secessionist sentiment within several of the seceding states. Eastern Tennessee, in particular, was a hotbed for pro-Unionism. Winston County, Alabama issued a resolution of secession from the state of Alabama. The Red Strings were a prominent Southern anti-secession group. Winfield Scott created the Anaconda Plan as the Union's main plan of attack during the war.

Eastern Theater 1861–1863

Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, whereupon they were forced back to Washington, D.C., by Confederate troops under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General Thomas Jackson received the name of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. Major General George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26 (he was briefly general-in-chief of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862. Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan invaded Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River, southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, Joseph E. Johnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, then Robert E. Lee defeated him in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat. McClellan was stripped of many of his troops to reinforce John Pope's Union Army of Virginia. Pope was beaten spectacularly by Lee in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run in August. Second Battle of Bull Run Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in American history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided justification for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside suffered near-immediate defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when over ten thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. Meade defeated Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), the largest battle in North American history, which is sometimes considered the war's turning point. Lee's army suffered 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000), again forcing it to retreat to Virginia, never to launch a full-scale invasion of the North again.

Western Theater 1861–1863

While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern theater, they crucially failed in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Leonidas Polk's invasion of Kentucky enraged the citizens who previously had declared neutrality in the war, turning that state against the Confederacy. Nashville, Tennessee, fell to the Union early in 1862. Most of the Mississippi was opened with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee. New Orleans, Louisiana, was captured in May 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well. Only the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, prevented unchallenged Union control of the entire river. Braxton Bragg's second Confederate invasion of Kentucky was repulsed by Don Carlos Buell at the confused and bloody Battle of Perryville and he was narrowly defeated by William S. Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee. The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, near the Tennessee border, where Bragg, reinforced by the corps of James Longstreet (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of George Henry Thomas, and forced him to retreat to Chattanooga, which Bragg then besieged. The Union's key strategist and tactician in the west was Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, which seized control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; Shiloh; Vicksburg, Mississippi, cementing Union control of the Mississippi and considered one of the turning points of the war; and Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening an invasion route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.

Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861–1865

Though geographically isolated from the battles to the east, a number of military actions took place in the Trans-Mississippi theater, a region encompassing states and territories to the west of the Mississippi River. In 1861 Confederates launched a successful campaign into the territory of present day Arizona and New Mexico. Residents in the southern portions of this territory adopted a secession ordinance of their own and requested that Confederate forces stationed in nearby Texas assist them in removing Union forces still stationed there. The Confederate territory of Arizona was proclaimed by Col. John Baylor after victories at Mesilla, New Mexico, and the capture of several Union forces. Confederate troops were unsuccessful in attempts to press northward in the territory and withdrew from Arizona completely in 1862 as Union reinforcements arrived from California. :The Battle of Glorieta Pass was a small skirmish in terms of both numbers involved and losses (140 Federal, 190 Confederate). Yet the issues were large, and the battle decisive in resolving them. The Confederates might well have taken Fort Union and Denver had they not been stopped at Glorieta. As one Texan put it, "if it had not been for those devils from Pike's Peak, this country would have been ours". :This small battle smashed any possibility of the Confederacy taking New Mexico and the far west territories. In April, Union volunteers from California pushed the remaining Confederates out of present-day Arizona at the Battle of Picacho Pass. In the eastern part of the United States, the fighting dragged on for three more years, but in the Southwest the war was over. [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/117glorietaraton/117facts3.htm] The Union mounted several attempts to capture the trans-Mississippi regions of Texas and Louisiana from 1862 until the war's end. With ports to the east under blockade or capture, Texas in particular became a blockade-running haven. Referred to as the "back door" of the Confederacy, Texas and western Louisiana continued to provide cotton crops that were transferred overland to Matamoros, Mexico, and shipped to Europe in exchange for supplies. Determined to close this trade, the Union mounted several invasion attempts of Texas, each of them unsuccessful. Confederate victories at Galveston, Texas, and the Battle of Sabine Pass repulsed invasion forces. The Union's disastrous Red River Campaign in western Louisiana, including a defeat at the Battle of Mansfield, effectively ended the Union's final invasion attempt of the region until the final fall of the Confederacy. Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several months after Robert E. Lee's surrender. The last battle of the war occurred at Palmito Ranch in southern Texas—ironically a Confederate victory.

The End of the War 1864–1865

Palmito Ranch At the beginning of 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, although Meade remained the actual commander of that army. He left Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war. Therefore, scorched earth tactics would be required in some important theaters. He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of Confederacy from multiple directions: Grant, Meade, and Benjamin Butler would move against Lee near Richmond; Franz Sigel would invade the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman would invade Georgia, defeat Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; George Crook and William W. Averell would operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and Nathaniel Banks would capture Mobile, Alabama. Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase ("Grant's Overland Campaign") of the Eastern campaign. An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Grant was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 66,000 casualties in six weeks), kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He pinned down the Confederate army in the Siege of Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months. After two failed attempts (under Sigel and David Hunter) to seize key points in the Shenandoah Valley, Grant finally found a commander, Philip Sheridan, aggressive enough to prevail in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Sheridan was sent in response to a raid by the aggressive Jubal Early, whose corps reached the outer defenses of Washington before withdrawing back to the Valley. Sheridan proved to be more than a match for Early, and defeated him in a series of battles, including a final decisive defeat at Cedar Creek, Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural and industrial base of the Valley, a strategy similar to the scorched-earth tactics Sherman would later employ in Georgia. Meanwhile, Sherman marched from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia, defeating Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. The fall of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, was a significant factor in the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched with an unclear destination, laying waste to much of the rest of Georgia in his celebrated "March to the Sea", and reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864. Burning towns and plantations as they went, Sherman's armies hauled off crops and killed livestock to retaliate and to deny use of these economic assets to the Confederacy, a consequence of Grant's scorched earth doctrine. When Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and his men, and for the Confederacy. Lee attempted to escape from the besieged Petersburg and link up with Johnston in North Carolina, but he was overtaken by Grant. He surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Johnston surrendered his troops to Sherman shortly thereafter at a local family's farmhouse in Durham, North Carolina. The Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought on May 13, 1865, in the far south of Texas, was the last land battle of the war and ended, ironically, with a Confederate victory. All Confederate land forces surrendered by June 1865. Confederate naval units surrendered as late as November 1865, with the last actions being attacks on private New England whaling ships by the CSS Shenandoah in the Bering Strait through June 28, 1865.

Analysis of the War

Why the Union prevailed (or why the Confederacy was defeated) in the Civil War has been a subject of extensive analysis and debate. Advantages widely believed to have contributed to the Union's success include:
- The more industrialized economy of the North, which aided in the production of arms and munitions.
- The Union significantly outnumbered the Confederacy, both in civilian and military population partly due to African Americans and Immigrants.
- Strong compatible railroad links between Union cities, which allowed for the relatively quick movement of troops. (It should be noted, however, that the Confederacy had more railroads per capita than any other country at the time.)
- The Union's possession of the U.S. merchant marine fleet and naval ships, which led to its successful blockade of Confederate ports.
- The Union's more established government, which may have resulted in less infighting and a more streamlined conduct of the war.
- The Confederacy's possible squandering of resources on early audacious conventional offensives and its [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HZY/is_1_14/ai_78397581 failure] to fully use its advantages in guerrilla warfare against Union communication and transportation infrastructure.
- The Confederacy's failure to win military support from any foreign powers, mostly due to the Battle of Antietam, and the well-timed release of the Emancipation Proclamation.
- Despite the Union's many tactical blunders like the Seven Days Battle, those commited by Confederate generals, such as the Lee's miscalculations at the Battle of Gettysburg and allowing the battle plans to fall into Union hands before the Battle of Antietam, were far more serious — if for no other reason than that the Confederates could so little afford the losses.
- The Confederacy vastly overestimated the dependence of Great Britain and France on Southern cotton and an early decision by the Confederate government to cut production may have only weakened their hand as it forced the British to seek new supplies in Egypt, ultimately making an alliance less attractive.

Major land battles

The ten costliest land battles, measured by casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) were: Battle of Antietam Other major land battles included First Bull Run, The Seven Days, Perryville, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Siege of Petersburg, and the battles of Franklin and Nashville. There was also Jackson's Valley Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, Red River Campaign, Missouri Campaign, Valley Campaigns of 1864, and many coastal and river battles.

Major naval battles

Major naval battles included Battle of Island Number Ten, Battle of Hampton Roads, Battle of Memphis, Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Battle of Fort Hindman, and Battle of Mobile Bay. In addition to this, a Union blockade of Confederate ports throughout the war managed to deny supplies to the CSA.

Civil War leaders and soldiers

Union blockade at Vicksburg National Military Park.]] One of the reasons that the US Civil War wore on as long as it did and the battles were so fierce was that most important generals on both sides had formerly served in the United States Army — some including Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, during the Mexican-American War between 1846 and 1848. Most were graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where Lee had been commandant for 3 years in the 1850s. Significant Southern leaders included Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, P.G.T. Beauregard, John Mosby, Braxton Bragg, John Bell Hood, James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, William Mahone, Judah P. Benjamin, Jubal Early, and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Northern leaders included Abraham Lincoln, William H. Seward, Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George H. Thomas, George B. McClellan, Henry W. Halleck, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Irvin McDowell, Philip Sheridan, George Crook, George Armstrong Custer, Christopher "Kit" Carson, John E. Wool, George G. Meade, Winfield Hancock, Elihu Washburne, Abner Read, and Robert Gould Shaw. Five men who served as Union officers eventually became presidents of the United States: Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. After the war, the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization open to Union war veterans, was founded in 1866. Confederate veterans formed the United Confederate Veterans in 1889. In 1905, a campaign medal was authorized for all Civil War veterans, known as the Civil War Campaign Medal. According to data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the last surviving Union veteran of the conflict, Albert Woolson, died on August 2, 1956 at the age of 109, and the last Confederate veteran, John Salling, died on March 16, 1958, at the age of 112. However, William Marvel investigated the claims of both for a 1991 piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Using census information, he found that Salling was born in 1858, far too late to have served in the Civil War. In fact, he concluded, "Every one of the last dozen recognized Confederates was bogus." He found Woolson to be the last true veteran of the Civil War on either side; he had served as a drummer boy late in the war. Women were not allowed to fight — though some did fight in disguise. Clara Barton became a leader of the Union Nurses and was widely known as the "Angel of the Battlefield." She experienced the horror of 16 battles, helping behind the lines to heal the injured soldiers. Barton organized a relief program that helped to better distribute supplies to wounded soldiers of both the North and South. After 1980 scholarly attention turned to ordinary soldiers, and to women and African Americans.

The question of slavery

As slavery and constitutional questions concerning states' rights were widely viewed as the major causes of the war, the victorious Union government sought to end slavery and to guarantee a perpetual union that could never be broken. During the early part of the war, Lincoln, to hold together his war coalition of Republicans and War Democrats, emphasized preservation of the Union as the sole Union objective of the war, but with the Emancipation Proclamation, announced in September 1862 and put into effect four months later, Lincoln adopted the abolition of slavery as a second mission. The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves held in territory then under Confederate control to be "then, thenceforth, and forever free", but did not affect slaves in areas under Union control. It had little initial effect but served to commit the United States to the goal of ending slavery. The proclamation would be put into practical effect in Confederate territory captured over the remainder of the war.

Foreign diplomacy

Because of the Confederacy's attempt to create a new state, recognition and support from the European powers were critical to its prospects. The Union, under Secretary of State William Henry Seward attempted to block the Confederacy's efforts in this sphere. The Confederates hoped that the importance of the cotton trade to Europe (the idea of cotton diplomacy) and shortages caused by the war, along with early military victories, would enable them to gather increasing European support and force a turn away from neutrality. Lincoln's decision to announce a blockade of the Confederacy, a clear act of war, enabled Britain, followed by other European powers, to announce their neutrality in the dispute. This enabled the Confederacy to begin to attempt to gain support and funds in Europe. Jefferson Davis had picked Robert Toombs of Georgia as his first Secretary of State. Toombs, having little knowledge in foreign affairs, was replaced several months later by Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, another choice with little suitability. Ultimately, on March 17, 1862, Jefferson selected Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana as Secretary of State, who although having more international knowledge and legal experience with international slavery disputes still failed in the end to create a dynamic foreign policy for the Confederacy. The first attempts to achieve European recognition of the Confederacy were dispatched on February 25, 1861 and led by William Lowndes Yancey, Pierre A. Rost, and Ambrose Dudley Mann. The British foreign minister Lord John Russell met with them, and the French foreign minister Edouard Thouvenel received the group unofficially. However, at this point the two countries had agreed to coordinate and cooperate and would not make any rash moves. Charles Francis Adams proved particularly adept as ambassador to Britain for the Union, and Britain was reluctant to boldly challenge the Union's blockade. The Confederacy also attempted to initiate propaganda in Europe through journalists Henry Hotze and Edwin De Leon in Paris and London. However, public opinion against slavery created a political liability for European politicians, especially in Britain. A significant challenge in Anglo-Union relations was also created by the Trent Affair, involving the Union boarding of a British mail steamer to seize James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate diplomats sent to Europe. However, the Union was able to smooth over the problem to some degree. As the war continued, in late 1862, the British considered initiating an attempt to mediate the conflict. However, the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam caused them to delay this decision. Additionally, the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation further reinforced the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. As the war continued, the Confederacy's chances with Britain grew more hopeless, and they focused increasingly on France. Napoléon III proposed to offer mediation in January 1863, but this was dismissed by Seward. Despite some sympathy for the Confederacy, ultimately, France's own concerns in Mexico deterred them from substantially antagonizing the Union. As the Confederacy's situation grew more and more tenuous and their pleas increasingly ignored, in November 1864 Davis sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe to test whether a promised emancipation could lead to possible recognition. The proposal was strictly rejected by both Britain and France.

Aftermath

Duncan F. Kenner depicts a Union and Confederate soldier shaking hands.]] The border States of Missouri and Maryland moved during the course of the war to end slavery, and in December 1864, the Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, barring slavery throughout the United States; the 13th Amendment was fully ratified by the end of 1865. The 14th Amendment, defining citizenship and giving the Federal government broad power to require the States to provide equal protection of the laws was adopted in 1868. The 15th Amendment guaranteeing black men (but not women) the right to vote was ratified in 1870. The 14th and 15th Amendments reversed the effects of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision of 1857, but the 14th Amendment, in particular, had unanticipated and far-reaching effects. From the election of 1876 until the election of 1964, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas gave no electoral votes to the Republican Party, with South Carolina and Louisiana making an exception only once each. Most other states that had seceded voted overwhelmingly against Republican presidential nominees also, with the same trend predominantly applying in state elections too. This phenomenon was known as the

North America

North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 24,497,994 km² (9,458,728 sq mi), or about 4.8% of the Earth's surface. As of July 2002, its population was estimated at more than 514,600,000. It is the third largest continent in area, after Asia and Africa, and is fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. Both North and South America are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a previously undiscovered (by Europeans) New World. North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America. North America's only land connection is to South America at the narrow Isthmus of Panama. (For geopolitical reasons, all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is often considered a part of North America alone.) According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with the intervening region called Central America and resting on the Caribbean Plate. Most, however, tend to see Central America as a region of North America, considering it too small to be a continent on its own. Greenland, although a part of North America geographically, is not considered to be part of the continent politically.

Physical features

Greenland, plutonic, metamorphic rock types of North America. ]] Plate tectonics recognizes the vast majority of North America as being the surface of the North American Plate. Parts of California and western Mexico are known for being the edge of the Pacific Plate, with the two plates meeting along the San Andreas fault. The continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many sub-regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long plateaus and cordilleras, falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf. The western mountains are split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the coast ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia with the Great Basin – a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts – in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska. Since 1931, Rugby, North Dakota, has officially been recognized as being at the geographic center of North America. The location is marked by a 4.5 metre (15 foot) field stone obelisk. Image:North america terrain 2003 map.jpg|North America bedrock and terrain. Image:North america basement rocks.png|North American cratons and basement rocks. Image:North America Tectonic Elements.jpg|Tectonic elements of North America Image:North america craton nps.gif|North American craton.

Territories and regions

craton On the main continent landmass, there are three large and relatively populous countries:
- Canada - many large islands off the shore of North America belong to Canada, including Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands on the west, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island on the east, and the Canadian Arctic islands (including Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, and Victoria Island) in the north
- Mexico - the Revillagigedo archipelago and numerous smaller islands off its coast belong to Mexico
- The United States - the 48 contiguous states and Alaska are part of North America, while the state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean is not; the Aleutian Islands south of Alaska also belong to the U.S. At the southern end of the continent, in a relatively small area known as Central America, are the countries of:
- Belize
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Panama ¹ At the southeastern end of the continent lies a chain of islands territories called the Antilles, the Caribbean or the West Indies, which include the countries:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Grenada
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago ¹ And the dependencies:
- Anguilla (British overseas territory)
- Aruba ² (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
- Cayman Islands (British overseas territory)
- Guadeloupe (French région d'outre-mer)
- Martinique (French région d'outre-mer)
- Montserrat (British overseas territory)
- Navassa Island (U.S. territory)
- Netherlands Antilles ¹ (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
- Puerto Rico (U.S. commonwealth)
- Turks and Caicos Islands (British overseas territory)
- British Virgin Islands (British overseas territory)
- U.S. Virgin Islands (territory of the USA) Lying in the Atlantic Ocean but considered part of the continent are the dependencies:
- Bermuda, a British overseas territory found about 1,072 km (670 mi.) southeast of New York City
- Greenland, the largest island in the world and a self-governing dependency of Denmark, which is located in the far north of the continent to the east of Nunavut.
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French collectivité d'outre-mer off the south coast of Newfoundland, is the last of France's once vast possessions in America north of the Caribbean. ¹ These states and dependencies have territory both in North and South America.
² These dependencies lie in South America, but are considered North American because of cultural and historical reasons.
See here for details.

Usage

The United States, Canada, and the other English-speaking nations of the Americas (Belize, Guyana, and the Anglophone Caribbean) are sometimes grouped under the term Anglo-America, while the remaining nations of North and South America are grouped under the term Latin America. Alternatively, Northern America is used to refer to Canada and the U.S. together (plus Greenland and Bermuda), while Central America is mainland North America south of the United States. The West Indies generally include all islands in the Caribbean Sea. In this respect, Latin America generally includes Central America and South America and, sometimes, the West Indies. The term Middle America is sometimes used to refer to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean collectively. The term "North America" may mean different things to different people. The term in common usage is often taken to mean "the United States and Canada, only" by some people of the United States and Canada, excluding Mexico and the countries of Central America, unless the context makes it clear that they are to be included (such as with specific reference to Mexico, when talking about NAFTA). For example, guides to wild flora and fauna published by the National Audubon Society for "North America" frequently include only species found in Canada and the U.S. This may be attributed to the fact that culturally and economically, the U.S. and Canada are more alike to each other than they are to the rest of North America. Mexicans, however, are acutely aware that Mexico is a part of North America and object to this usage. Central Americans, however, are generally content to be called Central Americans – largely because of their shared history, which includes several attempts at supranational integration in the region and in which Mexico, their much larger northern neighbor, was never involved.

Political divisions and regions

Notes:
¹ Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map.
² Depending on definitions, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago have territory in one or both of North and South America.
³ Due to ongoing activity of the Soufriere Hills volcano beginning 1995, much of Plymouth, Montserrat's de jure capital, was destroyed and government offices relocated to Brades.

External links

- http://www.america-norte.com/america-norte-mapa.htm Category:Continents Category:North America zh-min-nan:Pak Bí-chiu ko:북아메리카 ja:北アメリカ simple:North America th:ทวีปอเมริกาเหนือ

Northern United States

the North
Red states show the core of the North, states shown as pink may or may not be included in the North, and thus their inclusion or exclusion varies from source to source.

The Northern United States or simply The North, is a region in the United States of America. This region does not contain all of the states in the northern half of the country, but instead, for historical reasons (mainly involving the American Civil War), the Northern states are only those which lie in the northern half of the country east of the Missouri River (Those states in the northern portion of the West are referred to as the Pacific Northwest, those states which lie in the northern reaches of the middle of the country, beyond the Upper Midwest, are the Great Plains or Intermountain states). The states of the North are, from east to west: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, and Kansas are border states (colored pink on the map) which have divided loyalties between North and South. Occasionally the loyalties vary greatly within the state, for example, people from northern Missouri consider themselves Northern, people from southern Missouri consider themselves Southern. Self-identification may be based on life style as well. Those living in urban areas of Maryland usually think of themselves as part of the BosWash, an amalgam of Northeast cities and suburbs.

Facts

- Population: 113,479,422 people
- Density: 50/km²
- Area: 22,821,44 km²
- GDP: 4.433 trillion US$.39064 US$/capita.

Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the United States, the northern states that did not secede. Since the term had been used prior to the war to refer to the entire United States (a "union of states"), using it to apply to the non-secessionist side carried a connotation of legitimacy as the continuation of the pre-existing political entity. Also, in the public dialogue of the United States, new states are "admitted to the Union" and the President's annual address to Congress and to the people is referred to as the "State of the Union" Address. During the American Civil War, Loyalists to the United States living in the Border States and Confederate States were termed Unionists. Nearly 120,000 Southern Unionists served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and every Southern state, except South Carolina, raised 'Unionists' regiments. Southern Unionists were extensively used as anti-guerrilla forces and as occupation troops in areas of the Confederacy occupied by the Union. Since the Civil War, the term has been a widely used synonym for the Northern side of the conflict, and has increasingly lost the more subtle historical connotations. It is usually used in contexts where "United States" might be confusing, "Federal" obscure, or "Yankee" dated or derogatory. Example uses:
- Union General Ulysses S. Grant
- Union Army of the Potomac
- Union cavalry However, the term Union remains more popular with historians than it does with the general public.

References

- Current, Richard N. Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy. Oxford University Press, rpr. 1994. ISBN 0195084659.
- Mackey, Robert R. The UnCivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861-1865. University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. ISBN 0806136243.

Coalition

A coalition is an alliance between entities, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant.

Politics and government

A coalition government, in a parliamentary system, is a government composed of a coalition of parties. In Australia, the Coalition is also used to refer to an alliance of three parties (the Liberals, Nationals and Country Liberals) existing in federal politics since 1922. In international relations, a coalition can be an ad hoc grouping of nations united for a specific purpose. Sometimes, such groups are diverse and are characterized by some degree of commonalities. Sometimes, the degree of uncommonalities would lead some to perceive the group's bond as being ordinarily unlikely; here it can indicate the fact the historical ties may no longer be in operation, and the coalition members, instead, are joined by a new intention, not necessarily prior bonds.

Military

In military usage, coalition is used to refer to any operation involving more than one country unified under a single command. The phrase "Coalition of the Willing" was employed during the 2003 war in Iraq lead by the United States and its allies [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3873359.stm].

Mathematics

Coalitions can be studied as games. The Nash equilibrium defines conditions where rational players can benefit other players in the coalition.

Computer science

In the computer field, and in the study of cognition, the entities can be called agents or daemons. By definition, agents can form coalitions.

Fiction

In the fictional Star Fleet Universe as represented in the range of games from Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. as well as the first two Star Fleet Command games (and the Orion Pirates stand-alone addon for Starfleet Command II) from Taldren, the Coalition is the alliance of the Klingon Empire and the Lyran Star Empire - eventually also including the Romulan Star Empire - which fought together against the Alliance in the General War, the Klingons and Lyrans having been allied in the previous Four Powers War from Y158-Y162.

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or political entity. Typically there is a strong issue difference that drives the withdrawal. The word derives from the latin term secessio.

Political secessions

American Revolution

A proposed example of successful secession in the modern era is American Revolution by which the Thirteen Colonies separated from the British Crown. Some argue that this was a secession movement as opposed to a revolution. Revolutions seek to replace current governments or to seek independence from colonial rule, while secession movements seek to separate from current governments in which the party seeking separation already has a voice.

Confederate States of America

Other secession movements include the case of the Southern states of the United States seceding to form the Confederate States of America. Less dramatically, new U.S. states were commonly formed out of an older state as the United States grew, such as in the northeast (Maine created out of Massachusetts), the mid-Atlantic (Kentucky created out of Virginia) and then repeatedly in the western territories. The formation of such states are not typically considered secessionist because they were officially accepted by the parent state and the national government. During the American Civil War, West Virginia seceded from the state of Virginia (which had joined the Confederacy) and became the 35th state of the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1869 case Texas v. White that unilateral secession by a U.S. state was unconstitutional.

Local examples in the United States

Local examples of secession also exist, such as the attempt of Staten Island to break away from New York City in the late-1980s and early 1990s. San Fernando Valley recently lost a vote to separate from Los Angeles County but has seen an increased attention to its infrastructure needs. Several cities in Vermont including Killington are currently exploring a secession request to allow them to join New Hampshire over claims that they are not getting adequate return of state resources from their state tax contributions. There have been other modern secessionist movements to create new states. There was a short-lived effort to create a Jefferson State out of counties in southern Oregon and northern California in 1941, in part motivated by requests for better roads, but it was quickly shelved by the outbreak of World War II. Advocates in the upper peninsula of Michigan, with off and on intensity, have called for it to become a separate 51st state. A movement in Western Massachusetts, harkening back to Shays' Rebellion, seeks to secede from Massachusetts. There have been calls for formation of Cascadia in the Pacific Northwest. A less ambitious plan would create a new state from Washington east of the Cascade Mountains, along with northern Idaho, northwestern Montana, and possibly northeastern Oregon. It would be centered on Spokane, Washington (the largest city in the region), and called "Columbia" after the Columbia River. The Great Republic of Rough and Ready was a small, short-lived self-declared independent nation that existed in Nevada County in northern California in the United States in 1850. Founded in the town of Rough and Ready by miners largely as a protest against a recently-introduced tax on new mining claims and the prohibition of alcohol in Nevada County, it never achieved formal recognition of any government and was abolished after only three months. The incident has become part of the colorful folklore of the region. At the time of the "secession", the town was populated largely by miners from Wisconsin. The declaration of independence was sent to Washington, DC, but was lost along the way. The United States Congress never got official word that a small town in the newly-admitted State of California was seceding from both the state and the Union, and thus the U.S. government never had the opportunity to take formal action against the "secession." Had it achieved true independence, it would have become the world's smallest nation, with an area of only 0.75 square miles (1.9 km²). The citizens disbanded the Republic the following summer, supposedly when they realized to their dismay that they could not celebrate Independence Day on July 4, since they were no longer part of the United States. The history of the Republic is now celebrated annually in Nevada County on Secession Days during the second weekend of April. There are also web sites currently advocating a separate [http://www.newcaliforniarepublic.org California] nation, and independent nation of Hawaii as well as other [http://www.secessionist.us sections] of the United States. A humorous response to an alleged infringement of the Constitutional protection against unlawful search and seizure inspired the brief formation of the Conch Republic in the Florida Keys. Many articles after the 2004 Presidential election questioned whether the so-called "blue" and "red" states can continue to co-exist or ever reconcile or if they might be drifting toward irreparable policy differences and social conflict and possible future separation. Alternatively it is possible the political conflict may result in gradual diminution of the federal government- for lack of a true national consensus - and perhaps a greater emphasis on state rights to permit them to chart more of their own domestic agendas while maintaining the federal union for a more limited set of national actions than undertaken today and for international purposes.

Canada

In addition, Canada has had the chronic threat of the province of Quebec seceding in some fashion from the confederation. This has led to two referendums which voted repeatedly to defeat the move, but the possibility of another remains. See Secession of Quebec. There is also a growing Secessionist sentiment in the province of Alberta, see Alberta Separatism.

World of art

In the world of art, the term Sezession has been applied to withdrawals from official academies by artists seeking greater freedom to exhibit avant-garde or controversial work. Three such withdrawals occurred in the German-speaking world in the last years of the nineteenth century: the Vienna Secession and the Munich and Berlin Secessions.

External links

- [http://4.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SE/SECESSION.htm Secession - from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica]
- [http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0844253.html Secession - from the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia]
- [http://www.jeffersonstate.com/ Website on short-lived effort to create Jefferson State on the U.S. west coast] Category:Ethics Category:Politics

Naming the American Civil War

The American Civil War has been known by numerous alternative names that reflect the historical, political, and cultural sensitivities of different groups and regions. Unlike some other civil wars, the conflict was not fought over control of a single government, but rather was fought to defeat a secession movement. The combatants, armies, and battles of the war also had distinctive names used at the time and historically.

The War

The following names have been, or are, used to describe the conflict itself, listed roughly by frequency of use:
- Civil War: The most common term for the conflict, it has been used by the overwhelming majority of popular historians and journalists in the United States since the early 20th century. The National Park Service, the government organization entrusted by the U.S. Congress to preserve the battlefields of the war, [http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/civil.htm uses] this term. As the vast majority of discussion and study on this topic takes place in the United States, the internationalized/disambiguated variation American Civil War is not colloquial and is uncommon in popular or scholarly discussion within the United States unless comparisons are made with other nations.
- War Between the States: This term was never used during the war but was coined immediately afterwards by Alexander Stephens, the former Confederate Vice President. During the war Confederates talked about "The War between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America." Stephens shortened this term. Northerners disliked the term because they rejected the legitimate existence of the Confederacy and also rejected the idea that states were fighting states. Confederates at the time thought their new nation was fighting another nation and did not consider it a war between states while it was going on. Union loyalists thought the United States—the nation as a whole—was putting down a rebellion. After 1890 the term seemed the least provocative one possible, and so it was common from 1900 to 1940. The Congressional Record of March 2, 1928, cites Senate joint resolution No. 41, recognizing this term. The USMC War Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery also uses this term.
- War of the Rebellion: This was the official term used by the U.S. government until 1900. The 1880 U.S. War Department report and compilation of Union army and Confederate army records (the Official Records) was entitled The War of the Rebellion. This term is often seen on Northern war monuments. An alternative usage is War of Southern Rebellion.
- War of Southern Independence: While popular on the Confederate side during the war itself, this term's popularity fell in the immediate aftermath of the South's failure to gain independence. It made a comeback in the late 20th century among Confederate heritage groups such as the League of the South and the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
- War for States Rights: Is a neo-Confederate term coined in the late 20th century to promote a political agenda. It was not used by historians before 1990, nor by the people of the 1860s.
- War of Northern Aggression: This term emphasizes claims by Confederate partisans that the North invaded the South. Other terms for the war have seen much less frequent usage, particularly in modern times. In the South: War in Defense of Virginia, Mr. Lincoln's War, and War of Secession. In the North: War of the Insurrection, War to Save the Union, War for Abolition, and War to Prevent Southern Independence. Immediately after the war, the following expressions were common: The War, The Late Unpleasantness, and The Lost Cause.

Combatants

U.S. forces were popularly referred to as "the Union,", "Federals", "the North," or "Yankees"; their Confederate counterparts were commonly referred to as "the Confederacy," "the South," "Rebels," or "Dixie." Soldiers who fought for the North were referred to as "Billy Yanks"; those who fought for the South were called "Johnny Rebs."

Battles and armies

In addition to differences in naming the war between North and South, there is a disparity between the sides in naming some of the battles of the war. In the North, battles were frequently named for rivers or creeks that were prominent on or near the battlefield; in the South, the nearest town was used. Not all of the disparities are based on this land-versus-water conflict. Most modern accounts of Civil War battles use the names established by the North. However, for some battles, the Southern name has become the standard. The National Park Service frequently uses the southern names for their battlefield parks located in the South, presumably in deference to local sensibilities or because the town names are more frequently found on maps accessible to tourists than are river names. Some examples of battles with dual names are: Civil War armies were also named in a manner reminiscent of the battlefields: Northern armies were frequently named for major rivers (Army of the Potomac, Army of the Tennessee, Army of the Mississippi, etc.), Southern armies for states or geographic regions (Army of Northern Virginia, Army of Tennessee, Army of Mississippi). Units smaller than armies were named differently in many cases. Union brigades were given numeric designations (1st, 2nd, ...), whereas Confederate brigades were frequently named after their commanding general (Hood's Brigade, Gordon's Brigade, ...). Confederate brigades so-named retained the name of the original commander even when commanded temporarily by another man; for example, at the Battle of Gettysburg, Hoke's Brigade was commanded by Isaac Avery and Nicholl's Brigade by Jesse Williams. Nicknames were common in both armies, such as the Iron Brigade and the Stonewall Brigade. Union artillery batteries were generally named numerically, Confederate batteries by the name of the town in which they were recruited.

External links

- [http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/civil.htm National Park Service]
- [http://www.civilwarhome.com/battlenames.htm Civil War Battle Names]
- U.S. War Dept., The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
- Musick, Michael P., [http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1995/summer/civil-war-records-2.html "Civil War Records: A War by Any Other Name."] Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives. Summer 1995, Vol. 27, No. 2.

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Southern region of the United States. The Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the first state to secede from the Union to found the Confederate States of America. The state is named after King Charles II of England, as Carolus is Latin for Charles. As of 2004, the state's population is 4,198,068. Several ships in the United States Navy have been named USS South Carolina in honor of this state.

History and government

Main article: History of South Carolina The colony of Carolina was settled by English settlers sent by the Lords Proprietors in 1670, followed by French Huguenots. The Carolina upcountry was settled largely by Scotch-Irish migrants from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Carolina became a royal colony in 1712. North Carolina was split off in 1729. The state declared its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government on March 15, 1776. On February 5, 1778 South Carolina became the first state to ratify the first constitution of the United States, the Articles of Confederation. South Carolina seceded from the United States on December 20, 1860. The rest of the Southern states seceded in the following months; together, they organized themselves as the Confederate States of America. President James Buchanan took little action, preferring to let the newly elected President Abraham Lincoln decide the matter. On April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries began shelling Fort Sumter, which stands on an island in Charleston harbor, thus precipitating the Civil War. Students from The Citadel were among those firing the first shots of the war, though Edmund Ruffin is usually credited with firing the first shot. After the American Civil War, South Carolina was reincorporated into the United States during Reconstruction. The state became a hotbed of racial and economic controversy during the Populist and Agrarian movements of the late 1800s. In the 20th century, South Carolina developed a thriving textile industry, converted its agricultural base from cotton to more profitable crops, attracted large military bases and, most recently, attracted European manufacturers.

State Government

South Carolina's state government consists of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The Governor, elected for a (once) renewable four-year term, heads the Executive branch (some officers of which are elected). The bicameral South Carolina General Assembly consists of the 46-member Senate and the 124-member House of Representatives. The two bodies meet in the South Carolina State House. The Judicial Branch consists of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Circuit Court, Family Court, and other divisions.

Judicial Branch

The Family Court deals with all matters of domestic and family relationships, as well as generally maintaining exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving minors under the age of seventeen, excepting traffic and game law violations. Some criminal charges may come under Circuit Court jurisdiction. The Circuit Court is the general jurisdiction court for South Carolina, comprised of the Civil Court, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of General Sessions, which is the criminal court. The court maintains limited appelate jurisdiction over the Probate Court, Magistrate's Court, Municipal Court, and the Administrative Law Judge Division. The state has sixteen judicial circuits, each with at least one resident circuit judge. The Court of Appeals handles Circuit Court and Family Court appeals, excepting appeals that are within the seven classes of exclusive Supreme Court jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals is selected by the General Assembly for staggered, six-year terms. The Court is comprised of a Chief Judge, and eight associate judges, and may hear cases as the whole Court, or as three panels with three judges each. The Court may preside in any state county. The Supreme Court is South Carolina's highest court. Comprised of the Chief Justice, and four Associate Justices, Supreme Court judges are appointed to ten year terms by the General Assembly. Terms are staggered, and there are no limits on the number of terms a justice may serve. See also List of Governors of South Carolina

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2003, South Carolina's population was estimated at 4,147,152 people. The racial makeup of the state is:
- 66.1% White
- 29.5% Black
- 2.4% Hispanic
- 0.9% Asian
- 0.3% Native American
- 1.0% Mixed race The five largest ancestry groups in South Carolina are African American (29.5%), American (13.9%), German (8.4%), English (8.4%), Irish (7.9%). It is probable that most of those claiming American ancestry are descended from the early Scots-Irish settlers of the upstate region. For most of its history, black slaves made up a large majority of South Carolina's population (as much as 75%). African-Americans still dominate most of the Lowcountry (especially the inland Lowcountry) and much of the Piedmont; areas where cotton, rice, and indigo plantations once dominated the landscape. Whites, primarily of American and British ancestry, live in much of the upstate and in certain urban and suburban areas. 6.6% of South Carolina's population were reported as under 5, 25.2% under 18, and 12.1% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.4% of the population.

Religion

South Carolina, like most other Southern states, is overwhelmingly Protestant Christian, and has a significantly lower percentage of non-religious people than the national average. The religious affiliations of the people of South Carolina are as follows:
- Christian – 92%
- Protestant – 84%
- Baptist – 45%
- Methodist – 15%
- Presbyterian – 5%
- Other Protestant – 19%
- Roman Catholic – 7%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 7%

Famous People from South Carolina

- Shelton Benjamin (1976—) Born and raised in Orangeburg, SC, Shelton Benjamin is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler now working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s RAW brand.
- John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) Born near Abbeville, SC, John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political philosopher. From 1811 until his death, Calhoun served in the federal government successively as congressman, secretary of war, vice president, senator, secretary of state and again as senator. He has been declared one of the five greatest senators of all time.
- Wilson Casey (1954—) Born in Woodruff, SC of Spartanburg County. Trivia Guinness World Record Holder. Nationally Syndicated Newspaper Trivia Columnist. Appeared as contestant on NBC's "Weakest Link".
- Stephen Colbert has been a correspondent for Comedy Central's The Daily Show for several years. In 2005 he became host of The Colbert Report