The Civil war was the largest and most ferocious internal conflict in the country’s history. It uprooted institutions that were centuries old, changed the politics of a nation, and wrought changes on its people for generations to come. As Mark Twain put it, it was “a cataclysm that uprooted and replaced a nation’s institutions and ideologies in a few short years.”
The cause of the war centered on slavery and states’ rights. All four southern states that seceded issued Articles of Secession that contained a variety of claims. But two themes emerge: all four defended slavery and most made a claim that they had a right to secede because they were being economically abused by the federal government.
By the summer of 1861, both sides began to organize field armies. The first major battle was at Bull Run in Virginia, where overconfident Union forces were routed by the much better trained Confederate troops. This was a clear warning that the war would last a long time and both sides needed to raise large numbers of soldiers.
Both sides struggled to acquire supplies for their troops. The North had the advantage here because of its industrial capacity. But it took many months to get the Northern factories up and running. The South, which did not have the luxury of industrialization, had to rely on foreign suppliers. This was a problem because the Union blockade prevented ships from getting to the Southern ports.
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