THE NATION DIVIDES: THE CIVIL WAR

Not all the states with slavery left the Union. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware stayed in the Union. One area of Virginia did not want to secede. So when Virginia seceded, the northwest part formed a new state called West Virginia. West Virginia stayed in the Union.

Lincoln hoped the South would rejoin the union without bloodshed. But in April, 1861, Confederate soldiers fired at Union troops in Fort Sumter in South Carolina. That was the beginning of the Civil War.

For both North and South, the Civil War was long and hard. More than half a million soldiers lost their lives. Many died in battle, many died of sickness in the army camps. The North set up a blockade to prevent the South from getting supplies from foreign ships.

The South had several great generals. Lincoln had wanted General Robert E. Lee to lead the northern army. But Lee fought for the South because of his loyalty to Virginia, though he didn't believe in slavery, and he did not think the southern states should secede.

On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation which declared that all slaves in states fighting against the Union were free. About 180,000 blacks joined the Union army. When the war was over, the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution freed all slaves.

In the summer of 1863, the Confederate army invaded the North, Lee's army marched into Pennsylvania. The Union army met Lee's troops at the town of Gettysburg. For the first three days of July the armies fought. Finally the Confederate army was forced to retreat.

A few months after the battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln came to the battlefield. The government had decided to make the field a cemetery for soldiers. The speech Lincoln made is known as the Gettysburg Address. In the most famous part of the speech, Lincoln said, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The Union won another important victory - general Ulysses S. Grant captured the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Grant was made commander of all the Union armies.

Another Union army, led by General William Tecumseh Sherman, marched from Tennessee to Georgia. The southern army could fight no longer. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The war was over.

Five days after the war ended, Abraham and Mary Lincoln went to see a play at the Ford Theater in Washington. An actor named John Wilkes Booth found his way to the President's seat, shot Lincoln and escaped. Lincoln was carried to a house across the street. He died the next morning. Booth was killed by soldiers a few days later. The nation had gained peace but had lost great President.

1. How long did the Civil War last?

2. What advantages did both sections have in fighting the war?

3. What was the Emancipation Proclamation, what did it declare and why?

4. What do you know about the Gettysburg Address?

5. How was the war ended?

6. How can you explain the last sentence of the text?

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 897