American Civil War

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The American Civil War was a war fought between 1861 and 1865 in the United States of America (USA). A group of states in the south wanted to be independent, while the government and the states in the north wanted to keep the US as one country.

[edit] Some reasons why the War happened

In the south, many people were slaves who were owned by other people, and much of the work on the big farms was done by these slaves. In the north, the states had decided to make laws to say no one could own another person. These states were called "free states", and those states where the law said someone could own slaves were "slave states". Also, a large part of land belonging to the United States in the west was not yet divided into states, but territories, where there were few non-Native American people living. Unlike the states, they did not help decide who became president, and they did not send people to Washington to make laws for the whole country. More and more white people moved into the territories, and everyone agreed that one day all the territories should be organized as states. In the north, people wanted these new states to be free states. In the south, people wanted them to be slave states. Abraham Lincoln was from the north, and when he ran for president he said that any "territory" that wanted to become a new "state" should not be a slave state. The slave owners in the south were also fearful of some people who said they wanted to make it a crime to own slaves in all parts of the United States. Also, many people in the north lived in cities and worked in factories, and they wanted policies that helped their economy. But more people in the south lived in small towns and worked on farms, and wanted policies that helped their economy. Because of these differences, they often could not agree on what policies were best.

When Lincoln won the election to become the new president, many of the slave states decided to leave the United States of America, and ended up forming a new country, the Confederate States of America, with a capital in Richmond, Virginia.

[edit] The American Civil War

There were two important areas where the war was fought - in the west and in the east.

In the east area, there was the US capital, Washington, and the Confederate capital Richmond. These two cities are only about 90 miles apart. In this area, the Confederate military leader was Robert E. Lee. Lee was a good general, and won many battles. Even though the North had more soldiers, they could not capture Richmond until the end of the war in 1865.

In the West area, there was the great river, the Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant (who later became US president) won many battles here. The north captured almost all the cities on the river Mississippi, but the Confederacy still held Vicksburg. On the 4th of July 1863, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant. This divided the Confederacy into two.

Lincoln decided that Ulysses S. Grant was his best general. He made Grant general in the East. Grant attacked Lee again and again. Lee decided he had too few soldiers to keep on fighting and he surrendered to Grant.