Civil War, 1861–65 (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

Civil War, 1861–65

The American Civil War stands as the bloodiest conflict in United States history, claiming over 600,000 lives between 1861 and 1865. This devastating war emerged from decades of unresolved tensions between the North and South, primarily centred on the institution of slavery and its expansion into western territories. The war fundamentally reshaped American society, destroyed the Confederate rebellion, preserved the Union, and brought about the emancipation of 3.5 million enslaved people.

The slavery system in the antebellum South

To understand why the Civil War erupted, we must first examine the brutal reality of slavery that the Southern economy depended upon. An 1859 report from the New York Tribune documented the dehumanising process of slave auctions in Savannah, Georgia, revealing the callous commodification of human beings.

Enslaved people were held at a race-course for days or even weeks before sale, allowing potential buyers to inspect them as though they were livestock. Prospective purchasers subjected enslaved individuals to humiliating physical examinations: forcing open their mouths to inspect teeth, pinching limbs to assess muscle development, making them walk to detect signs of lameness, and forcing them to stoop and bend to check for injuries. Buyers interrogated them about their skills and qualifications. These degrading examinations proceeded without resistance, and enslaved people sometimes displayed forced cheerfulness when they found a buyer's appearance acceptable, hoping he might prove a "kind master."

This source illuminates the fundamental brutality underpinning the Southern economic system—a system that treated human beings as property to be bought, sold, and physically examined like animals.

Causes of the Civil War

Sectional differences between North and South had deepened throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. These encompassed political, economic and social disparities that proved impossible to reconcile. The North increasingly embraced industrialisation, wage labour, and urbanisation, whilst the South remained predominantly agricultural, dependent upon enslaved labour to cultivate cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops.

These tensions reached a breaking point in 1860 when Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won the presidency on a platform pledging to prevent slavery's expansion into the territories. Lincoln did not advocate immediate abolition in existing slave states, but his election nonetheless represented an existential threat to the South's "peculiar institution."

In response, seven slave states in the deep South seceded (withdrew) from the Union and formed a new nation: the Confederate States of America. These states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—refused to recognise Lincoln's legitimacy and rejected any federal authority to restrict slavery. Eventually, four additional states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina) joined the Confederacy after fighting began, bringing the total to eleven Confederate states.

The incoming Lincoln administration and most Northerners refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of secession. They argued that allowing states to withdraw from the Union would fatally undermine democracy and establish a dangerous precedent, potentially fragmenting the United States into multiple small, quarrelling nations. This fundamental disagreement over whether states possessed the right to secede made war virtually inevitable.

The war, 1861-65

After four years of bloody conflict, the Confederacy collapsed and the Union was preserved. The war claimed lives on an unprecedented scale and inflicted economic devastation, particularly on the South.

Effects and consequences of the war

Human cost and destruction

The war's most immediate and shocking consequence was the staggering loss of life. Union casualties totalled 360,000 dead, whilst Confederate forces lost 258,000, producing a combined death toll of 618,000. To contextualise this figure, American deaths in the Civil War exceeded those in the Second World War—the nation's next bloodiest conflict. The scale of destruction had never before been witnessed in America, with entire towns razed, farmland devastated, and infrastructure destroyed across the South.

Economic impact

The war's economic effects diverged dramatically between North and South, reinforcing sectional differences even after Confederate defeat.

The North experienced economic prosperity during the war years. Total Northern wealth increased by 50% during the 1860s decade, as industrial production expanded to meet military demands. The Union government spent approximately $2.3 billion on its war effort—an enormous sum, yet one that stimulated Northern manufacturing, transportation, and finance.

The South, by contrast, suffered economic catastrophe. Beyond the Confederacy's $1 billion military expenditure, the region endured roughly $1.1 billion in war damage—approximately 40% of its pre-war wealth. Specific losses included 40% of the South's livestock and 50% of its farm machinery. Infrastructure lay in ruins, with railways destroyed, bridges burned, and port facilities damaged. Most devastating of all, the South's invested capital—some $1.6 billion tied up in enslaved people—vanished with emancipation. The region required more than half a century to recover economically from these catastrophic losses.

Political consequences

Although the war preserved the Union, profound political divisions persisted between North and South. Fundamental questions remained unresolved: How should defeated Confederate states be treated? What political, economic and social rights should formerly enslaved people possess? Who would control the terms of the South's reintegration—Congress or the president? These contested issues would dominate the Reconstruction era (1865-77).

Emancipation

The war's other transformative immediate consequence was the emancipation (legal freeing) of 3.5 million enslaved people. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, declaring free all enslaved individuals in areas still in rebellion against the United States. This proclamation had limited immediate practical effect—it only applied to Confederate-held territory, not to slave states that had remained loyal to the Union. Nevertheless, it transformed the war's character, making the conflict explicitly about ending slavery rather than merely preserving the Union. As Union armies advanced into Confederate territory, they brought freedom to hundreds of thousands of enslaved people who fled plantations to seek protection behind Union lines.

Lincoln's approach to Reconstruction during the war

Reconstruction—the process of reintegrating Southern states into the United States and constructing new social structures to replace slavery—actually began during the Civil War under President Lincoln's direction. Lincoln confronted several interconnected problems regarding how Reconstruction should proceed.

Problems facing Lincoln

The Ten Percent Plan

Radical Republican opposition

Radical Republican Senators, however, viewed Lincoln's approach as far too lenient. Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin Wade introduced the Wade-Davis Bill as an alternative, demanding much stricter terms for Confederate states' readmission and greater rights for formerly enslaved people. This bill reflected Radical Republicans' determination to punish the South severely and guarantee African Americans full citizenship rights.

The conflict between Lincoln's moderate approach and Radical Republicans' harsher vision would define Reconstruction politics. Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, just days after the war's end, left these fundamental questions unresolved, passing them to his successor Andrew Johnson.