The Civil War

The Civil War — page 1
6 INTRODUCTION At 4 30 am on April 12 1861 Confederate artillery in Charleston South Carolina opened fire on Fort Sumter which was held by the United States Army The bombardment set off a savage four-year war between two great geographic sections of the United States One section was the North 23 Northern and Western states that sup ported the federal government The other section was the South 11 Southern states that had seceded withdrawn from the Union and formed an indepen dent government called the Confederate States of America The struggle between these two combat ants is generally known as the American Civil War although it sometimes is also referred to as the War Between the States The secession of the Southern states in chrono logical order South Carolina Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia Louisiana Texas Virginia Arkansas North Carolina and Tennessee in 1860 61 and the ensuing outbreak of armed conflict were the climax of decades of growing sectional friction over slavery Between 1815 and 1861 the economy of the Northern states was rapidly modernizing and diversifying Although agriculture mostly smaller farms that relied on free labor remained the domi nant sector in the North industrialization had taken root there Moreover Northerners had invested 6