by Brendan Hamilton

Created on: August 12, 2008   Last Updated: October 23, 2009

The American Civil War:
A Precarious Revolution

The Civil War was an unprecedented period in American history. Some 630,000 young men from both sides lost their lives and countless others survived the war with wounds, both physical and psychological, that would never heal. The nation as a whole was itself marked in ways that changed it forever. The institution of slavery was eliminated and the nation's government, economy, and society all witnessed landmark changes. In short, the Civil War can certainly be characterized as a revolutionary chapter in the American saga. It could easily be argued that no other single event had such a major impact on the nation's history as "War the great Between the States" of 1861-1865.

When Americans think of the changes brought by the Civil War, the abolition of slavery usually stands out as the most well known outcome. Ironically, this was not a Union war aim until almost two years into the conflict. Very few white Union soldiers ever listed the abolition as a motive for enlisting. In fact, the Northern public was torn over the issue of ,slavery, most Northerners, soldiers and civilians alike, entered the war opposed to immediate emancipation. In addition, there was a number of slave-holding states that remained loyal to the Union. Such loyalties were often tenuous, so the Lincoln administration was therefore very cautious when it came to liberating those held in bondage.

The primary goal of the Northern military during the first two years of the war was simply to subdue the rebellion and thus preserve the Union. In May of 1861, General Benjamin F. Butler, in command of the Union garrison at Fortress Monroe in Virginia, started accepting runaway slaves, or "contraband" into the Union lines. His actions set the precedent that led Congress to pass the First Confiscation Act the following August. This act held that any property being used by the Confederacy toward the purpose of war would be confiscated by Union troops. Such "property" included any slaves that were being used to aid the Confederate cause. There was no mention of emancipation; the act only allowed for slaves to be confiscated without specifying what would become of them once the war concluded. Lincoln feared the act might push border states like Kentucky and Missouri to secede. When John C. Fremont tried to use it to free all slaves in Missouri that August, the President refused to endorse his actions. It was not, he asserted, an act of emancipation.

By 1862, as

• 1
• 2
• 3
• ...
• 7
• Next Page >>