Collingwood Library

For American Patriots

Civil War Era (1848-1865)

The civil war determined what kind of nation the United States will be, here the declaration was born that all men were created with equal rights to liberty. Hence this became the state that held the largest slaveholdings in the world.

When the Northern victory was declared in the war, the big thing (slave hood) that kept the country divided was taken out of the picture. The big victory came at a bitter cost, almost 625 000 lives were lost, almost as many soldiers died as in the other wars combines. This was the biggest and most destructive war before World War I in 1914.

Start of the Civil war

The Civil War started when the differences between the slaves states and the free states become too much to handle, the conflict intended when the notional government wanted to take slavery into the territories that had not yet established themselves as states.

Civil War Era

On April 12, 1861, in Charleston Bay the war was triggered when they claimed the US as their own. The Confederate army decided to open fire on the federal garrison and they wanted them to lower the American flag in surrender. Four more of the slave states joined the Confederacy and gain on the roll for the war. The Union Navy established their base at Port Royal in South Carolina so that the Confederacy could not continue to the access the outside world for support.

In 1862 the big battle began, as smaller fights broke out and the states started to take sides as they prepared and planned their strategies for the total war to start. By 1864 the goal was to destroy the Old South and the whole institution of slavery along with it.

End of the War

On April 9th, 1865, a few years after the bloodshed and inhuman attacks started, it had ended. Two days later on the 11th of April, Lincoln addressed the people and explained his plan, three days later he was assassinated. The long and painful process of rebuilding and healing a nation had to start then.

Soldiers who fell

Most people see the soldiers who live through the war as heroes and they are welcomed home with big parties and love. But what about those that don’t come home? Most of the soldiers were buried on the battlefield where they fell, other soldiers were buried close to the hospitals where they died. In most of the wars the bodies were collected and taken to cemeteries, but because so many soldiers died in the Civil War, many soldiers were left in unmarked graves.

Prisoners of the War


Over the course of the Civil war more than 400 000 soldiers were captured. When the war was still fresh, equal amounts of soldiers were exchanged, this helped to keep the number of prisoners down. By the end of the war thousands of soldiers had died in the camps due to the cold and hunger. Almost as many soldiers died in captivity as on the battlefield.

Related books

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Team of Rivals; The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Goodwin