US Civil War: Causes, Key Events, and Reconstruction

Posted on Jan 30, 2025 in History and Heritage

Lead-up to the Civil War

  • 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected as the candidate for the Republican Party, advocating for the abolition of slavery, tariffs to protect industry, and free homesteads for settlers in the West.
  • Abraham Lincoln is elected president in 1860.
  • (December 20): South Carolina Secession – The first state to secede from the federal Union.
  • (February 8, 1861): Provisional Constitution of the 6 Confederate States of America – An agreement among the seven original states (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas) that served as the first constitution.
  • Abraham Lincoln refused to recognize the secession, considering it “legally void.”

The Civil War Begins

  • (April 12, 1861): Guns opened fire on the federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
  • Civil War: April 12, 1861, started over moral issues regarding slavery.
  • New president of the Confederate States of America: Jefferson Davis.
  • Commander of the Confederate Army: Colonel Robert E. Lee.
  • Great War Hero: Commander of the Union Army, Ulysses S. Grant.

Major Battles of the Civil War

  • The Battles:
    • Bull Run (first large battle)
    • Shiloh (over 10,000 casualties on each side)
    • Seven Days Battles (attempt to capture Richmond)
    • Antietam Creek (September 17, 1862)
    • Gettysburg (July 2 to 4, 1863)
    • General Sherman took Atlanta (1864) and Charleston (1865)
    • General Lee surrendered at Appomattox (April 9, 1865)

End of the Civil War and Aftermath

  • Civil War Ends: April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House.
  • Lincoln is assassinated on April 15, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth.
  • Succeeded by: Vice-President Andrew Johnson.
  • Freedmen’s Bureau (March 1865): Established to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans.

Reconstruction Era

  • Abolition of slavery: The 13th Amendment, adopted on December 18, 1865.
  • Civil Rights Bill: July 1866, declared that all people born in the US were U.S. citizens and had certain inalienable rights.
  • 14th Amendment VS Dred Scott ruling – In 1868, the 14th Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision by granting citizenship to all those born in the US, regardless of color.
  • Southern codes: The Black Codes were laws governing the conduct of African Americans. The best known of them were passed in 1865 and 1866 by Southern states after the American Civil War in order to restrict African Americans’ freedom and to compel them to work for low wages.
  • Reconstruction Act: March 1867, outlined the conditions under which the Southern states would be readmitted to the Union. They had to get rid of the Black Codes and ratify the 14th Amendment.
  • 15th Amendment (1868): Guaranteed protection against racial discrimination in voting.
  • Enforcement Acts (1870-1871): Codes that protected blacks’ right to vote, hold office, serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws.
  • General Amnesty Act: May 1871, removed all political disabilities imposed by the 14th Amendment, except for certain classes of persons specified in the act itself.
  • 19th Century: Jim Crow laws – Segregated public schools, forbade or limited black access to many public facilities, such as parks, restaurants, and hotels, and denied most blacks the right to vote by imposing poll taxes and arbitrary literacy tests.