The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a bitter sectional rebellion against the United States of America by the Confederate States of America, formed of eleven southern states' governments which moved to secede from the Union after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. The Union's victory was eventually achieved by leveraging advantages in population, manufacturing and logistics and through a strategic naval blockade denying the South access to the world's markets.
In many ways, the conflict's central issues – the enslavement of African-Americans, the role of constitutional federal government, and the rights of states – are still not completely resolved. Not surprisingly, the Confederate Army's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865 did little to change many Americans' attitudes toward the potential powers of central government. The passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution in the years immediately following the war did not change the racial prejudice prevalent among Americans of the day; and the process of Reconstruction did not heal the deeply personal wounds inflicted by four brutal years of war and more than 970,000 casualties – 3 percent of the population, including approximately 560,000 deaths. As a result, controversies affected by the war's unresolved social, political, economic and racial tensions continue to shape contemporary American thought. The causes of the war, the reasons for the outcome, and even the name of the war itself are subjects of much discussion even today.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of veterans' issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.corne...de/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. We obtain news and information from many sources. Here is a list of some of them:
Military Services and Reserve Components
Department of Homeland Security
Government References:
- VA
- Library of Congress
- House Committee on Veterans Affairs Republican
- House Committee on Veterans Affairs Democrats
- Department of Defense
- Washington Headquarters Services Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer
- Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics
"Veterans/Armed Forces Network©Copyright 2001-2012" vafnet.com, vafnet.org, vafnet.net All rights reserved.
"Veterans/Armed Forces Network is a both a public service site and subscription based site and is not affiliated with the United States Armed Services.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License