AP U.S. History · Lesson 2

The Civil War

Know Know it

The Union had more people, factories and railroads, a navy and an established government. The Confederacy fought on home ground, had skilled generals such as Robert E. Lee, and needed only to avoid defeat. It hoped Britain and France would back it to keep cotton flowing, but neither did, partly because of other cotton sources and Union victories.

Lincoln's first aim was to save the Union. Enslaved people pushed the issue by escaping to Union lines, and Congress let the army keep them as "contraband" of war. After the Union stopped Lee at Antietam (1862), Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863). It freed enslaved people in areas still in rebellion, turned the war into a fight against slavery and let Black men enlist. About 180,000 served in the army as U.S. Colored Troops, with more in the navy.

In July 1863 the Union won at Gettysburg and took Vicksburg, gaining control of the Mississippi River. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address recast the war as a test of whether a nation dedicated to equality could survive. Generals Grant and Sherman then waged total war, destroying railroads, crops and supplies, and Sherman took Atlanta in 1864, helping Lincoln win reelection. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865, and days later Lincoln was assassinated.

The war changed the federal government. Congress passed a draft, an income tax and a national banking system, and, with Southern members gone, the Homestead Act, the Morrill Land-Grant Act and the Pacific Railway Act. The draft caused riots in New York City in 1863. About 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers died.

Trap The Proclamation did not free everyone

The Emancipation Proclamation applied only to areas in rebellion, where the Union could not yet enforce it. It did not cover loyal slave states such as Kentucky and Maryland or Union-held areas such as Tennessee. In practice it freed people as the Union army advanced, and the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) ended slavery everywhere. Still, it changed the war's purpose and opened the army to Black men.

Worked example Easy

Which advantage did the Union have over the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War?

  1. Better-trained generals at the head of its armies
  2. The defense of its own home ground
  3. More factories, railroads and peopleAnswer
  4. Promises of support from Britain and France

How to solve it

  1. Sort the choices into Union strengths and Confederate strengths.
  2. Industry, railroads and population were Northern strengths.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Many of the best-trained officers, such as Robert E. Lee, joined the Confederacy, so this was not a Union edge.
  • B. Incorrect. Fighting on home ground helped the Confederacy, since most battles took place in the South.
  • C. Correct. The North had most of the nation's factories, railroads and people, which let it supply and replace its armies.
  • D. Incorrect. Neither Britain nor France recognized or backed either side with an alliance.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, evaluate

For a Civil War source, connect it to where the war stood. A speech in 1861 had to keep the border states loyal; a document in 1863 came after the Union had committed to emancipation and was enlisting Black troops. The date often tells you what the author needed to persuade people of.

When you evaluate how much a source tells you, ask what it was written to do and who it was written for, and then ask what kind of question it can answer well. The same source can be strong evidence for one question and weak evidence for another.

Worked example Medium

Lincoln did not issue the Emancipation Proclamation until after the battle of Antietam in September 1862. What was the most likely reason for the timing?

  1. The Constitution forbade a president from acting on slavery before a battle
  2. He wanted it to follow a victory, not look desperateAnswer
  3. Congress had refused to declare war until that battle
  4. Britain had asked him to wait until the Confederacy surrendered

How to solve it

  1. Think about how the order would look to Americans and to Europe.
  2. Issued after a defeat, it could look like a desperate plea; after Antietam, it looked like a step taken from strength.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. No rule tied a president's war powers to the timing of a battle.
  • B. Correct. Lincoln waited for a Union success, so the order would look like a show of strength rather than a desperate move by a losing side.
  • C. Incorrect. Congress never declared war on the Confederacy, which the Union treated as a rebellion, not a foreign nation.
  • D. Incorrect. Britain made no such request, and the war went on for more than two years after the order.

Explain Your turn

Explain one way the Emancipation Proclamation changed the Civil War, even though it did not free enslaved people in every state.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • States an accurate change the Proclamation made to the war
  • Gives a result of that change for the war

Model answer

The Proclamation opened the Union army to Black men. As a result, about 180,000 Black soldiers served in the army by the war's end, many of them from slave states, which added strength to the Union just as its armies needed new troops.

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