In the longer term, preservation of the Union made possible the American economic and political colossus of the next century.īefore the outbreak of war in April 1861, the American republic had survived diplomatic and military crises and internal stresses. The inviolability of the Union, most of the loyal citizenry’s pre-eminent concern throughout the conflict, was confirmed on the battlefield. The social and economic system based on chattel slavery that the seceding states had sought to protect lay in ruins. Four years of fighting claimed almost 1.5 million casualties (killed, dead from disease, wounded, or taken prisoner, and of whom at least 620,000 died) directly affected untold civilians, and freed four million enslaved African Americans. Political disagreement gave way to war in April 1861, as Confederates insisted on their right to leave the Union and the loyal states refused to allow them to go. Long simmering sectional tensions reached a critical stage in 1860–1861 when eleven slaveholding states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. The Civil War marked a defining moment in United States history. The Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, published by Kurz and Allison, Chicago, IL, 1889.
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