The U.S. Civil War took place from 1861-1865. The Civil War was between  the Northern and the Southern states of America. The war  ended with  the surrender of the Southern states.

Cause of the War:
The cause of the war was that the Southern United States wanted to have slavery so the slaves could pick cotton for them. The Northern United states didn’t want slavery so they went to war with the South.

Important and Famous People:
Ulysses S. Grant was important for the North by leading them. Robert E. Lee was important for the South by leading them. The Union and Confederate soldiers were important because they fought in the war. The Artists were important because they drew and took pictures of the war. The African/Americans were important because of their freedom. President Abraham Lincoln was important by leading the country.
     
Weapons:
These are some of the weapons that the soldiers in the war used. They used cannons, knives, mortars, swords, muzzle loading rifles, and breech loading guns.                                                                                                             
        
Famous Battles:
Some famous battles in the Civil War were the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of First Bull Run, and the Battle of Vicksburg.
 States in the War:

The North:
The Northern states in the war were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, California, Connecticut, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Kentucky, Missouri, Maine, Maryland, Kansas, Delaware, Vermont, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.
 
The South:
The Southern states in the war were Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
 
The Territories:
The territories during the war were the territory of Colorado, the territory of Dakota, the territory of Nebraska, the territory of Washington, the territory of Utah, territory of New Mexico, and the territory of Nevada.

The Soldiers:
About 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War.  This was more than the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam. About 2/3 of all deaths during the Civil War occurred because of disease and only 1/3 were battle deaths.

The Union armies had about 2,500,000 men. Their losses, were estimated to be 360,000. The Confederate army had nearly  1,000,000 men. Its estimated losses were 258,000.

About 420,000 soldiers in the war were underage, about 20% of the soldiers! 


The Attack on Fort Sumter:
The war began  in Charleston Harbor on an island that was 1 mile away from Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter’s 40 foot high walls were falling down after 34 hours of the war. The  battle for Fort Sumter ended  with the surrender of the Union forces on April 14,1861.

Who I Interviewed And What I Learned On January 5, 2005 I interviewed Montgomery Walker in my house from 5:45 to 6:30. Mr. Walker was a good choice for my interview because he has been interested in the Civil War for about 35 years. In fact, he is a college professor at Yakima Valley Community College.        He has been researching the Civil War for about 35 years and he has been teaching it for eight to nine years.         He is currently involved with researching the Civil War by reading books and teaching about it in class but he is not really active.          He became interested in the Civil War from exciting stories his family told. He also became interested from all the interesting things and places.  Mr. Walker enjoys studying the Civil War because he thinks it’s interesting and fun to talk about what it made us today. He also likes studying the war because he gets to know more about the past.                  The training Civil War soldiers needed was different for certain soldiers. Some went to West Point, some had four years of college training. Some soldiers had to train while fighting in the Mexican/ American war before the Civil War. Some soldiers were just handed a gun and told to go shoot. He told me that everyone was important for some reason. Ulysses S. Grant was important for the North and Robert E. Lee was important for the South by directing their side. Leaders are only part of the story- for things to happen you need people who make things happen. The African/ Americans were important for wanting their freedom. Artists were important because of their drawings and photos from the war.           Some famous battles were Gettysburg, Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Vicksburg because the North thought they would win.             The things that have changed the most about how people research the Civil War are the books. If you look in old books ( 50-70 years old ) that are about the Civil War, they are mostly about the leaders. If you look in the newer types of books they are mostly about how it affected the average person.             Some major problems today facing those who study the Civil War are keeping people out of places where soldiers fought. The Eastern U.S. has a lot of population problems. This population problem is coming into conflict with the areas where the Civil War took place. Disney wanted to build a theme park by the field where the battle of Gettysburg took place. They could not build because others wanted to keep the area looking as natural as possible. Modern growth and trying to preserve historic areas would probably be the biggest problem today.               Having another civil war is not very likely to happen but anything is possible.                There were drummers in the war for many reasons. They helped keep rhythm during marching. They also helped to scare the enemies. The guns were single shots but out classed archery. The military invented a system to work around slow reloads, so instead of occasional shots they trained soldiers to march around in unison as a group. They were timed for loading and firing their weapons. The first row would fire, after firing they would kneel down and the second row would fire and so on. As the rows knelt down they would reload their guns. Drummers helped with keeping time for marching, loading weapons, firing weapons, and keeping together as  a group. They also helped keep up the morale or enthusiasm of the troops.                 Lots of things happened to wounded soldiers. In the Civil War time there was not really much field medicine .Today field medicine is very sophisticated. Surgical bags were not much different than a carpenter’s bag. A doctor was considered good if he could saw through a bone very quickly. Injured soldiers were given whiskey ( alcohol ) before surgery to help with the pain. In this time period it was not good if you had to see a doctor. You would usually die later from infection.

Bibliography   Borritt, Gabor S.  “Civil War.” The World Book Encyclopedia  1998. “Civil War.  The World Book Encyclopedia  1966. ”Civil War”  North and South a Civil War magazine.  Nov. & Dec. 2004. “Civil War”  North and South a Civil War magazine.  Jan. & Feb. 2005. Murphy, Jim The Boys War.  New York, NY: Clarion Books, 1990. all pages. Sandler, Martin Civil War.  Mexico: Eagle Productions, Inc., 1996.  all pages. Walker, Montgomery  Personal Interview. January 5, 2005

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