Election Southern secession creation of the Confederacy
The opening scene of the crisis of 1860-61 took place in the autumn of 1859. On 16 October, John Brown and a small band of followers seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, as part of a plan to gather slaves in a mountain stronghold, arm them and wage war on the South's slaveholders. Robert E. Lee and a detachment of United States Marines quickly suppressed the raiders, and Brown himself was tried, sentenced to die, and hanged. Comporting himself with dignity and courage at his...
Sectional tensions divide the United States 18201860
Sectional tensions simmered and periodically erupted into violent controversy in the United States during the four decades preceding the outbreak of war in April 1861. If viewed retrospectively with knowledge of the enormous slaughter of 1861-65 in mind, the years between 1820 and 1860 can appear as a time when Americans watched almost helplessly as their nation drifted towards disaster. Yet most Americans of this period did not wake up every morning eager to focus on the ways in which the...
Strengths and weaknesses of the Union and the Confederacy
The North entered the war with seemingly-decisive advantages in almost every measurable category. This has led to a common perception, often rooted in analysis that begins with the Confederate surrender at Appomattox and works backwards, that the South faced such overwhelming odds as to make victory impossible. A corollary to this idea suggests that the Confederacy managed to fight as long as it did only because of superior generalship and a gallant effort on the part of its common folk inside...