Civil War: Kansas-Nebraska Act

     The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 dealt with the issue of slavery and the boundary line. The number of free states and the number of slave states had to be equal so that one could not overthrow the other according to the Missouri Compromise. The Kansas-Nebraska Act overturned the Missouri Compromise saying that each state had the right to determine whether it was a free or slave state through popular sovereignty. Because of this decision, an act of violence occurred called "Bleeding Kansas".
     What happened was people that were supporters of free states came in and the people who were supporters of slave states came in trying to influence the decision of the residents. When you have two groups of people with different ideas in the same area it results in a disagreement. The problem was that this disagreement turned deadly as a major fight broke out and ended with people killed, mortally wounded, or other injuries.

Civil War: Reconstruction - The Second Chapter

     The Freedman's Bureau was established by Congress on March 3, 1865. The Freedman's Bureau was to only be in service for one year but congress decided on June 8, 1866, that it should stay for longer despite the veto that President Andrew Jackson had done. It opened 4000 free schools and colleges, it also educated 250,000 African Americans.


                  

     The Black Codes were their to ensure availability as a labor force for slavery that had now been abolished and it was also designed to restricts activity's for freed black slaves.  The Northern outrage for black codes undermined Johnson's policies. There were Jim Crow laws that said the white and blacks should have separate laws.
                               

     After the Civil War the Northerners were after money and jobs. Because of this, many of them traveled to the South after the new jobs that slaves had left behind and the land that now had no owners. These people were called "carpertbaggers" by the South. "Scalawags", as they were called, were Southerners who supported the Republican view of the best way of Reconstruction in the South.
                 

The South's Reaction:   The south reacted with violence with the Ku-Klux-Klan. They dressed in white hoods and robes to make themselves look like ghosts, then rode around at night threatening blacks to keep them from taking advantage of the new rights which the Klan thought that they should not have. When that did not work, they went around and beat and murdered. The government convicted more than 1200 and arrested thousands.

Sharecropping:  Developed for economic answers to the depravations of the South. There was different arrangements which consisted of labor-leased land which provided their own tools and seeds and grew what they wanted too. They also paid the rent with cash or crops. others provided only labor.

Redemption:    The people wanted Congressional control. redeemers were men who led the fight for freedom from the radical rule. Redeemers could sometimes be unfair , which an example is carpetbaggers and scalawags. Some redeemers wanted to strip blacks of their rights and privileges that they had gained since the war. Some supported black codes and the rise of the Jim Crow Laws, and most redeemers wanted to achieve what they considered fair play. They wanted to elect their own governments and run their own affairs without outside governments. Not all redeemer governments were like Hampton, for example Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman, who followed Hampton for 10 years as South Carolina's Governor. Tillman was an open racist who wanted to use racial turmoil to help his further political ambitions. One by one, southern states had redeemers as their leaders and regained control of their states.

Civil War: Reconstruction - First Chapter

1) The Thirteenth Amendment was adopted in 1865, it ended slavery and/or involuntary servitude except in punishment for a crime. 

2) The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868, and it defines all people born in the United States as citizens. It also required due process of law and required equal protection to all people. 

3) The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870 and it prevents the denial of a citizen’s vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

People believed that Lincolns plan was to lenient and they wanted to punish the South. They wanted to punish the South since the succession of the Union. Radical Republicans then passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. The Wade-Davis Bill said that states could be readmitted and accepted back into the Union only after fifty percent of voters took an oath of allegiance to the Union after the result of the recent secession. The Bill went into recess since Lincoln pocket-vetoed the Bill and Lincoln then drastically refused to sign the vetoed Wade-Davis Bill. Congress then created the Freedman-Bureau which helped distributed the food supplies and the set aside land to the new population of freed slaves.  

Civil War: The End.

The End of the War...

Interesting Facts:
1) General Stonewall Jackson walked with his right hand in the air to balance the blood in his body and he never ate any food that tasted good because he assumed that anything that tasted good was completely unhealthy.
2) Confederate President Jefferson Davis was blind in his left eye.
3) By the end of the war 1/4 of the draft age men of the South were dead.
4) About four-thousand cannon shells were fired at Fort Sumter.
5) There was no penicillin so many died from infection which could not be cured.

     The Civil War began on July 21, 1861. In 1861, Wilmer McLean was a farmer in North Virginia with his family. The war pretty much began in his own backyard but out of concern for his family he moved them to central Virginia. He was a retired Major in the Virginian militia. He lived in the house at Appomattox Courthouse and it was in his home that General Robert E. Lee and General Grant discussed and came to terms on the surrender. The war started in his backyard on July 21, 1861, and ended in his parlor in 1865. 

http://www.historynet.com/civil-war

Civil War: Strengths/Weaknesses

	North	South
Strategies	The Anaconda Plan	to attack major Northern cities
Strengths	Industrial advantage Greater population Had twice the density of railroads per square mile Controlled the navy	Same size army Could produce all the food it needed Seven of the eight military colleges established armories and foundries in several states greatest strength lay in the fact that it was fighting on the defensive in its own territory
Weaknesses	Had to conquer a large area to bring South back in the Union Invading unfamiliar land	Very few factories. Few railroads. Small population
Leaders	Abraham Lincoln Ulysses S. Grant	Jefferson Davis Robert E. Lee

" A Rose By Any Other Name Would Still Smell As Sweet."

The Civil War is also called:
The War for Constitutional Liberty
The War for Southern Independence
The Second American Revolution
The War for States' Rights
Mr. Lincoln's War
The Second War for Independence
The War Against Slavery
The Brothers' War
The War of Secession
The Great Rebellion
The War for Southern Nationality
The Civil War Between the States
The War Against Northern Aggression
The Yankee Invasion
The War for Separation
The War for the Union
The Confederate War
The War for Southern Freedom
The War of the North and South
The Lost Cause

War In The East

Name	Date	Contestants	Cause	Course	Consequences
1st Manasses (1st Battle of Bull Run)	July 21, 1861	Union: Gen. Irvin McDowell Confederate: Joseph Johnston & Beauregard	Northern newspapers pressured Lincoln to bring a quick end to the rebellion.	Virginia	Thomas J. Jackson earned the nom de guerre “Stonewall.” By July 22, the shattered Union army reached the safety of Washington.
Vicksburg Campaign (Pennisular)	January 29, 1861	Union: Gen.  George B. McClellan Confederate: Joseph E. Johnston	Union want after the Vicksburg, Mississippi fortress, the last Confederate controlled section of the Mississippi River.	Vicksburg	His success in the West boosted his reputation leading to his appointment as General-In-Chief of the Union armies
2nd Manasses (2nd Battle of Bull Run)	Spring of 1862	Union: John Pope Confederate: Robert E. Lee	Capture of the Union supply depot at Manassas Junction.	Virginia
Ironclads	March 8, 1862	Union: USS Cumberland Confederate: Merrimac	One of the Norths first acts was to force the confederacy into submission by blockading its ports.
Antietam (Southern Name: Battle of Sharpsburg)	September 17, 1862	Union: George B. McClellan Confederate: Gen. Robert E. Lee	Following the Confederate victory at the 2nd bull run, Robert E. Lee led his troops across the Potomac River into Union territory.	Maryland	revealed the limitations of both the Union and Confederate Armies.
Fredericksburg	December 13, 1862	Union: Ambrose E. Burnside Confederate: Gen. Robert E. Lee	Go towards the Confederate capital Richmond before Gen. Lee could catch up.	Burnside	Thomas. R.R. Cobb and Maxey Gregg were killed
Chancellorsville	May 1, 1863	Union: Joseph Hooker Confederate: Gen. Robert E. Lee Gen. Stonewall Jackson	Union raid against Lee's supply line.	Rappahannock fords	Widely to be convinced as his best known battle
Gettysburg	September 19, 1863	Union: George E. Meade John F. Reynolds Confederate: Gen. Robert E. Lee	Confederate infantry was in need of clothes and other supplies. Headed North towards Pennsylvania to retrieve those items.	Gettysburg Pennsylvania	Lee attacked the Union center in Cemetery Ridge and was repulsed with heavy losses in what is known as Pickett’s Charge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPLrWL79iPc
http://history-world.org/some_major_civil_war_battles.htm
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/battle-search-results.html