What was the difference between the Union and Confederate sides during the Civil War?

Question

I'm reading a book called Across Five Aprils and it mentions the two opposing sides. I'm just curious to know what the differences between the two sides were since I'm not too sure. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

blue and the gray north and south...it was about a country the (USA )splitting down the middle basically because some thought a state should have more loyalty from you as a person than your country did..the south..believed that they had the right to have slaves..the north did not..at some points it was a family torn in half because one brother might have believed it was wrong while the other thought it was his right to own a slave..it was a sad time in our country's history because we had our own civil war and countless lives were lost over something really that should never have been a problem or issue to begin with..we left a country or many countries because we wanted to be free and we turned right around and did to others what we were trying as a country to escape..and by the way if you are an american citizen you should be ashamed you should know this

Answer 2

Excellent question, I'll try to give you a throrough answer. The Civil War was fought from 1861-1865 and pitted the US Government and the Northern States against the Confederate States the "South" that had left the Union in the wake of Abraham Lincoln's election as President in 1860. Lincoln and his party were swept into power promising that no more slave states would be added to the Union. The South knew that if they could not keep up with the non-slave-holding North in the U.S. Senate, then they would be powerless and at the mercy of Northern interests. The South was led by President Jefferson Davis, a Mississippi Senator, West Point graduate, and hero of the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War. Southern military heroes include: Generals Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, A.P. Hill, and J.E.B. Stuart. The North, led by Lincoln had several future U.S. presidents in the Army like Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and William Mckinley. Other Northern military leaders were Generals William T. Sherman, Phillip Sheridan and George Armstrong Custer.



Major battles raged from Pennsylvania all the way to the Mississippi River and included huge Southern victories like Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chacellorsville, Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, etc.

Some Northern victories were: Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chatanooga, Shiloh, and the seige of Atlanta.

The bloodiest day of the war was at Antietam, in Maryland, which was a tactical draw. But Lincoln called it a victory and used it to announce his "Emancipation Proclamation" freeing all of the slaves in the states that were still rebelling against the United States government on Jan. 1, 1863.



By 1865, Northern manpower and industrial superiority finally wore down the south and Robert E Lee surrendered to Grant in April at Appomatox, Virginia, and Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Sherman a short time later in North Carolina. They were the two biggest Southern armies in the field and it meant the war was essentially over, although sporadic fighting went on for a short while. Licoln didn't see the complete victory, he was assassinated in April, of 1865, days after Lee surrendered. Davis, was captured and kept in prison (but was never tried for a crime) and then release. He wrote a history of the Confederacy and died in Louisiana in, I think 1889.



It was the bloodiest war in American history with over 630,000 dead and more than 1 million total casualties in a nation much smaller than today.

Answer 3

Greetings! Boy, did you open up a huge subject. The Civil War is one of two largest historical subjects in US History (the other being World War II). The war ended over 150 years ago, and you can see by many of these responses that there are many, many people who still hold grudges about the war...Yes, even Today, June 30, 2008 (you do the math to figure out how long ago that was). There are libraries that just focus on the Civil War itself. Countless millions of pages have been written about the subject. The war was fought in over 10,000 places in the US. If there is a battlefield close to where you live, you may want to visit it to get a taste of what it was like. Such places like: Fort Sumter Gettysburg Vicksburg Fredericksburg Petersburg Shiloh Bull Run (both) "The Wilderness" Antietam There are also several people who you could research to learn about what the Civil War meant: Abraham Lincoln Jefferson Davis Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee William Tecumseh Sherman Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson Just writing a blanket report on the Civil War would be like eating one of those 7 pound steaks at restaurants you have heard about. It's a HUGE undertaking, so I suggest you look up something that sounds interesting to you and pursue it that way. One more thought: My favorite Civil War writing is called "The Civil War: A Narrative" by Shelby Foote. It is a three part series that runs over 2000 pages. Hope that helps you. Take care.

Answer 4

The Confederacy united under the belief that the states should reserve the right to develop policy (I.E. slavery, taxes etc.) The North controlled the government in Washington due to greater representation because of higher population density. As such, the south was subject to unfair lawmaking practices. Slavery was a hot issue, bot not THE ONLY issue. The emancipation proclamation was not introduced until the war had started, and still only freed slaves in the south. Northerners owned slaves up until the constitution was amended after the end of the war. The line between the two sides can be most easily drawn at the northern border of Virginia, almost all states on opposite sides of that line were aligned according to their location in the nation.

Answer 5

The original reason for the Civil War was economic.



The Southern states saw that they were getting a bad deal from the northern, more populated (blacks counted as only a part of a person for population count and representation in Congress) states in the way that legislation regarding trade was getting passed.



Since the south had primarilly "pantation" based economy (Tobacco and gotton as their mauin income) and the North had the manufacturing (and the mills that processed the cotten into cloth) there were some major philosophical differences.



Slavery was a side issue... it was expected that slavery would die out due to natural evolution of the southern economy (it would have taken till about now...)

Answer 6

Basically -



Control. States rights. Union cohesion. Economic disparity.



Slavery.



But do not be deceived. The war between the states was not fought from a moral standpoint on the issue of slavery. The south wanted to be 'free' from the domination of Washington concerning Washington's interest in southern cash.



In other words; money.

Answer 7

The South (confederates) where slave states which tried to secede from the north which was slave free states but the north (union) and Abe Lincoln didn't want them to so a war broke out with with the rebels attacking the yanks.

Answer 8

I've noticed that the posters who correctly stated that the Civil War was economically based and that slavery was a side-issue are getting thumbs-down ratings. Whomever is doing that is mistaken on their beliefs. Slavery was indeed a minor point because it was more the urbanization of the North and the continued agrarian status of the South that caused the desire for secession.

Answer 9

the confederacy is comprised of all of the states that seceded from the united states, and the union is comprised of all of the states that remained a part of the united states. There were many issues that lead to secession, the two biggest being economical issues and slavery.

Answer 10

The Union were the northern states and the Confederate was the south.

Answer 11

Union... against slavery and secession (separating the US into North and South). These states & territories were mostly northern, they included: CA, CT, DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, VT, WV, & WI.



Confederate... for slavery and secession. These states were mostly southern, they included: SC, MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, & TX... also VA, AR, NC, & TN which joined at a later date.