The Turning Point Of The American Civil War

The American Civil War is probably the most horrific episode in American history. The two belligerents of the war were the Union army, comprised of the northern states, and the Confederate army, comprised of the southern slave states which had voted to secede from the Union. In essence, the North did not want the South to secede from the Union because the North relied on the South for agriculture. On the other hand, the South wanted to secede because they had grown tired of the federal government intervening in their states’ affairs; they were concerned about maintaining their states’ rights, as well as their slavery-driven economy. Today, the Civil War is most notably known as the war to abolish slavery. The siege of Fort Sumter began
Lee was the General-in-Chief of the Confederate army, and George Meade was the General-in-Chief of the Union army. The battle lasted for three days, commencing on July 1, 1863 and ending on July 3. It consisted of three major engagements, the most famous of the three being Pickett's charge, which took place on the third day: this was a failed frontal assault led by Confederate General George Pickett, which resulted in a Union victory. Since the Confederate army lost an entire division during the one engagement, historians consider the battle of Gettysburg to be the turning point of the war. The Gettysburg Address was delivered on November 19, 1863 by President Lincoln to a large group of patriotic Americans during a ceremony dedicating a cemetery in Gettysburg. The speech lasted all of two minutes.
On April 9, 1865, General Lee agreed to surrender. Lee and General Grant, who had replaced General Meade after the battle of Gettysburg, met at a courthouse in Virginia to arrange the Confederacy surrender. President Lincoln demanded that the terms were to be generous. Once the meeting was adjourned, the American Civil War was finally
Slavery was officially ended, all men were guaranteed equal protection under the law, and all men were given the right to vote regardless of race or status. The reasons for the war were many, but the fundamental issues were divisions over the nature of freedom and equality. These issues continue today in a seemingly never-ending conflict (Feinauer, 150 Years Later). The lessons of the Civil War are still relevant today. There have been advances in weaponry and technology, but war is still an act of violence to force those we consider to be our enemy to bend to our political will. The reasons for war continue to rage on, still pitting brother against brother. We seem to be living through a period now of mean, or course political dialogue about race, concepts of how big the government should be and what role it should play in our lives, and about economic disparity (150 Years Later). It is a continuing battle, but given the extensive carnage of the Civil War, we should be careful not to use military force to compel people to stay together politically; Americans should not go to war except for truly important reasons because the cost of war is too great, as demonstrated by the Civil War (Bandow, Lessons From the Civil