introduction for civil war essay

A Brief Overview of the American Civil War

The Civil War is the central event in America's historical consciousness. While the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world.

Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of 625,000 lives--nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several small, squabbling countries.

The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Claiming this United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened fire on the federal garrison and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this "insurrection." Four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy. By the end of 1861 nearly a million armed men confronted each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri. Several battles had already taken place--near Manassas Junction in Virginia, in the mountains of western Virginia where Union victories paved the way for creation of the new state of West Virginia, at Wilson's Creek in Missouri, at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, and at Port Royal in South Carolina where the Union navy established a base for a blockade to shut off the Confederacy's access to the outside world.

But the real fighting began in 1862. Huge battles like Shiloh in Tennessee, Gaines' Mill , Second Manassas , and Fredericksburg in Virginia, and Antietam in Maryland foreshadowed even bigger campaigns and battles in subsequent years, from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to Vicksburg on the Mississippi to Chickamauga and Atlanta in Georgia. By 1864 the original Northern goal of a limited war to restore the Union had given way to a new strategy of "total war" to destroy the Old South and its basic institution of slavery and to give the restored Union a "new birth of freedom," as President Lincoln put it in his address at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed in the battle there.

For three long years, from 1862 to 1865, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia staved off invasions and attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by a series of ineffective generals until Ulysses S. Grant came to Virginia from the Western theater to become general in chief of all Union armies in 1864. After bloody battles at places with names like The Wilderness , Spotsylvania , Cold Harbor , and Petersburg , Grant finally brought Lee to bay at Appomattox in April 1865. In the meantime Union armies and river fleets in the theater of war comprising the slave states west of the Appalachian Mountain chain won a long series of victories over Confederate armies commanded by hapless or unlucky Confederate generals. In 1864-1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman led his army deep into the Confederate heartland of Georgia and South Carolina, destroying their economic infrastructure while General George Thomas virtually destroyed the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee at the battle of Nashville . By the spring of 1865 all the principal Confederate armies surrendered, and when Union cavalry captured the fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia on May 10, 1865, resistance collapsed and the war ended. The long, painful process of rebuilding a united nation free of slavery began.

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American history: The Civil War (1861-1865) Essay

Introduction, the civil war, northern versus southern interests, causes of the civil war, aftermath of the civil war.

Bibliography

American history is considered as the most inquisitive worldwide. Traditionally, American history started by a declaration of independence in the year 1776. This declaration was due to threats of British government towards American self-governed system. Declaration of independence led to war in 1775 that was to liberate Americans.

With help of France in providing military and financial support, the patriots won American Revolution. In 1789, war hero George Washington became the first president of federal government by virtue of constitution. With influence of European community, coping with scope of central government proved to be a challenging issue for American people.

In 1790s, creation of political parties was initiated and later fighting for the second independence in 1812. Consequently, this brought about expansion of US territory westwards. With this, the US managed to overcome modernizers who were solely interested in deepening its economy rather than helping American people in expanding their geography.

Heavy demand for cotton in southern states encouraged slavery of Africans even though it was illegal in northern states. In 1860, came the election of Abraham Lincoln as president and this triggered a crisis in slave states as he dejected the expansion of slave trade. Amongst the slave states, some of them seceded in forming the Confederate States of America in 1861. This brought about American Civil War, which was from 1861 to 1865. [1]

In the American history, Civil War is the most momentous event that ever happened in the US. This iconic event redefined the American nation, as it was a fight that aimed at preserving the Union, which was the United States of America. From inauguration of the Constitution, differing opinions existed on the role of federal government.

It was a belief of Federalists that in order to ensure the union does not collapse, there was need for the federal government to hold on to power. Anti-federalists on the other hand, were of the opinion that sovereignty of the new states were to remain within their countries. Anti-federalists believed that each state had the right to determine their own set of laws and it is not right to indict them in following mandates of the federal government. [2]

With the advent of the slavery, Northern states completely squared off against Southern states. The main reason for this being economic interests of north and south which were opposed to each other. In addition, Southerners largely depended on large-scale plantations of cotton, which was more labor intensive.

On the other hand, northerners were more of a manufacturing region who produced finished goods by making use of raw materials. Southern ingrained culture of the plantation era encouraged slavery because it gave them an inexpensive labor source. The compromise of each group was the fear that one could gain an unequal amount of power. For example, northerners feared that if more slave states existed, then they would garner an unequal power in the nation. [3]

Causes of the American Civil war, which claimed of over 618,000 casualties, are traceable back to early days in history of the US when tensions escalated. The main cause was difference in economic and social capabilities between the North and the South. The south mainly depended on cotton, which meant the urgent need for cheap labor most probably slaves, as they become one crop economy. On the other hand, northerners depended solely on industrial products.

This disparity, which existed between the two, was the major difference in their economies. The second cause was due to the infighting between those who favored states’ rights and those who favored federal rights. Emergence of these two camps that had differences in opinions ignited the war.

Third, the American Civil war was caused by in-fight between those who were proponents of slavery and those who were against slavery. Another cause of the American Civil war was the growth of the abolition movement. The fact that northerners were against slavery led to the increase of abolitionists who were against slaveholders. Lastly, when Abraham Lincoln was elected as president, it catalyzed the civil war, as southerners believed that he favored interests of the northerners because he was against slavery. [4]

Surrender of General Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1865 marked an end to the confederacy era. However, this did not stop the war completely as some small battles continued to occur. This was later to end when the last general, Stand Watie, surrendered on June 23, 1865.

Abraham Lincoln’s vision of reconstructing the nation did not bear much fruit as it failed to become a reality because of his assassination on April 14, 1865. The Radical Republicans imposed military rule on the southerners dealing with them harshly until Rutherford B. Hayes ended it in 1876. In the American history, Civil War is a watershed event and most importantly an event that officially ended slavery. [5]

In conclusion, the Civil War was an important event in history of the American people. Moreover, its iconic stature is very vital, as the proponents who were against slavery became victors because their wish of anti-slavery was satisfied. In addition, it helped in liberating the people who had different opinions and gave them reasons to live for better ideals. [6]

Foner, Eric. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery . New York: W.W. Norton, 2010.

Kelly Martin. “ Overview of the American Civil War-Secession. ” About. Web.

Kelly Martin. “Top Five Causes of the Civil War: Leading up to Secession and the Civil War.” About. Web.

The History Channel. “ American Civil War. ” History. Web.

• Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010), 74.
• Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010), 74
• The History Channel, “American Civil War,” History.com.
• Martin Kelly, “Top Five Causes of the Civil War: Leading up to Secession and the Civil War,” About.com.
• Martin Kelly, “Overview of the American Civil War-Secession,” About.com .
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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1. IvyPanda . "American history: The Civil War (1861-1865)." October 25, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-history-the-civil-war-1861-1865/.

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American Civil War - List of Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

The American Civil War, waged from 1861 to 1865, was a seminal event in the United States’ history that stemmed from long-standing regional differences and disputes over slavery. Essays could delve into the political, economic, and social factors that led to the conflict, exploring the disputes between the North and the South regarding states’ rights, slavery, and economic policies. The discourse might extend to the significant battles, military strategies, and the leadership on both sides of the conflict. Discussions could also focus on the Emancipation Proclamation and its implications on the war and the broader struggle for civil rights. Moreover, essays could explore the reconstruction era that followed the war, examining the efforts to reunite the nation, address the legacies of slavery, and establish civil rights for freed slaves. The enduring impact of the American Civil War on the national identity, racial relations, and historical narrative could provide a captivating exploration of this pivotal period in American history. A vast selection of complimentary essay illustrations pertaining to American Civil War you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Nationalism in the Civil War

Introduction The Civil war of 1861-1865 is a central event in America's historical conscience. The war determined what kind of nation America would grow to be. The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution (1773-1776): whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would […]

Civil War was the Westward

Many historians argue that the catalyst for the civil war was the westward expansion of slavery. In 1845, after the United States annexed it the year before, Texas officially became a state- a slave state. The addition of a slave state allowed the Lone Star Republic into the Union. As a result of Texas becoming a state, the Mexican-American War broke out. After the war, the United States bought a massive amount of land from Mexico. The land later became […]

African Americans Made up

During the 1800's in America, African Americans made up most of the population. The Southern states were inundated with slaves. They labored in farms and on plantations. African Americans received cruel treament. They were brutally beaten and looked upon as being inhumane. The issue of equal rights for African Americans caused great disparities between the states. Our new country found itself at war with one another. This was a war of the North versus the South. The Civil War for […]

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The Civil War was the Deadliest

The Civil War was the deadliest and most brutal war ever fought. How did everything stir up between the states in the first place? Southerners had an Agricultural economy and mainly focused on the way they lived their lives to make profit for their well being; this included slaves for more hands to get more work done in less time. On the opposite side of things the northerners had an Industrial economy and wanted to abolish slavery. The north and […]

Many Causes of the Civil War

During the 1860s, the North and South of the United States had many disputes and conflicts. The South succeeded from the North, eventually leading to the civil war. The Civil War was the most destructive war ever fought in the western hemisphere and lasted from 1861 to 1865. The Civil War led to the end of the Confederacy and helped America to grow economically and socially as a nation. Today, America faces an issue with immigrants and their policies on […]

The Battle of Gettysburg Changed Everything

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The Civil War was a War Fought

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The Civil War is Perhaps

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One of the most Important Events

The Civil War is one of the most important events in the history of the United States of America. It had many important repercussions which went on to have a deep and long lasting impact on the nation. After four years of a cruel battle, from 1861-1865, between a divided nation of the North and South, more than 600,000 people were killed. These lives, however, were not given in vain. Had it not been for the American Civil War where […]

Role of Technology in the American Civil War

The American Civil War is the first real modern war in America. Most of the technology and weaponry used in the Civil War can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution era. The Industrial Revolution was a time of profound transformation that resulted in new manufacturing processes. It was a time of profound transformation that resulted in new manufacturing processes. By the mid-19th century, mass production industries have been developed mainly in the North, which led them to control a […]

The Civil War Ended

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The American Civil War

The American Civil War was a battle between the South and the North after a number of states in the south seceded after Lincoln's Presidency. The battle started off as states rights but as the battle went on and advanced the battle was fighting to end slavery. Nobody had any idea that this battle would eventually turn into the deadliest battle in American history. This battle cost many people their lives on the battlefield and beyond. Also, it cost a […]

The Civil War is Considered

The Civil War is considered the bloodiest and deadliest wars in the history of the United States. It began in April 1861 when Confederates opened fire on the Union soldiers at Fort Sumter. The war would go on to last four more long years until May 1865. According to American Battlefield Trust, about 2% of the population, or estimated 620,000 men, were lost in the line of duty. As the battle began, there was a shortage of war time labor […]

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The Civil war is central to the history of the United States of America and as part of the historical events that define the American experience, it is vastly represented in several historical movies . Indeed, while 1776-1783 revolution created the US, the Civil war of 1861-1865 is said to be the determinant of what kind of nation America would be in the world . By nature, cinematic historical representations of past events are common and loved by Americans and […]

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The Civil War was and is one of the most outstanding events in the history of the United States. It was a military conflict that occurred in the United States, between 1861 and 1865 (when Abraham Lincoln is elected president). Where the North States fought against the Confederate States of America, composed of the countries of the South, which were just conforming. The struggle took place because the States of the South wanted their independence, while those of the North […]

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The bloodiest conflict in history of North America was not between other countries, like one would might imagine, it was in fact the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the clash between the North and Southern states. The Northern states was committed to ending the practice of slavery. However, the Southern states wished to introduce slavery into the western territories. During this time of conflict over the issue of slavery, Abraham Lincoln won […]

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Home — Essay Samples — War — American Civil War — The American Civil War: A Historical Overview

The American Civil War: a Historical Overview

• Categories: American Civil War

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Words: 691 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 691 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Causes of the civil war, major events of the civil war, key figures and leaders, impact and consequences, legacy of the civil war, references:.

• McPherson, J. (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press.
• Foner, E. (2015). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. Harper Perennial.
• Grose, H.R. (2019). Civil War Leadership and Mexican War Experience: Generals Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee. Routledge.

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20 Interesting Topics & Writing Tips for Your Civil War Essay

Are you a student specializing in the history field? Well, there is no doubt you will have to write several essays revolving around civil war, politics, and history in general. Now, imagine you have a civil war essay topic you need to research and bring forth a meaningful context in the form of an essay. How will you start? What elements will you include in the paper? And how will you determine the best topic? Well, keep reading as we will share some of the best civil war essay prompts, perfect tips, and the overall approach you should take when writing such an essay.

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The introduction part plays a significant role in your entire paper. It is the first section where the reader will interact with your paper. So, so don’t want to create a boring scenario in the introduction section. In this case, use a hook, then background information, and finally a thesis statement.

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How you end your essay on civil war has a higher significance to your whole paper. You will have to revisit the thesis statement, summarize the main points in the paragraphs, present the analysis from your research, and what people can learn from the whole matter.

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Civil War project topics: best topics to consider

As far as an essay on civil war is concerned, the topic you choose has a crucial role in the outlook of your essay. Below are some of the topic ideas you can consider.

Best Civil War essay topics

• What happened after the American Civil War?
• Why did the reconstruction fail after the civil war?
• What are the main causes of the Civil War?
• Describe strategies used in the American Civil War.
• Politically, what happened after Sri Lanka Civil War?
• Describe the 1991 Sierra Leone Civil war

American Civil War essay topics

• How did the civil war impact America today?
• Describe the Fort Pillow Massacre happening
• Industrialization in America after the civil war
• Did the U.S.A progress after unleashing a conflict that led to civil war?
• Analyze economic differences between Northern and southern states
• How does the American government perceive the civil war legacy?
• Analyze civil war and slavery in America

Essay topics on the Civil War

• What was the role of John Brown during the onset of the civil war?
• Describe the role of Fort Sumter in the civil war
• Analyze the early periods of the American civil war
• Based on historical events, how can we prevent civil war?
• Why did the American civil war last longer?
• Compare the American civil war and American Revolution
• What is the effect of the civil war on women’s efforts in America?

Essay writing is an art, and the best approach is to understand the topic and the subject as a whole before you start writing.

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Experiences of the U.S. Civil War, an introduction

Left: Joel Emmons Whitney, Sioux woman and child at the prison camp at Fort Snelling, carte-de-visite, c. 1862–63, 10.1 x 6.2 cm ( Minnesota Historical Society ); right: Charles R. Rees, Unidentified woman (possibly Mrs. James Shields), in mourning dress and brooch showing Confederate soldier and holding young boy wearing kepi, c. 1861–65, hand-painted ambrotype in papier-mâché case with mother-of-pearl and hand painting, 8.0 x 6.9 cm ( Library of Congress )

Two family portraits from the Civil War era (1861–65) show a seated woman with a young child, gazing straight into the camera. The woman on the left, draped with a blanket and carrying her child on her back, is identified only as a “Sioux Squaw” and her child as a “Pappoose,” racist labels used by whites in that era that dehumanize Indigenous people. This portrait was taken by photographer Joel Emmons Whitney, who wanted to profit from the sale of pictures of the Santee Sioux people after the Dakota War of 1862 . This woman and child were living at a concentration camp at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where more than 1,600 Sioux non-combatants were forced to remain over the winter of 1862–63. In the spring of 1863, the U.S. Congress voted to repeal all treaties with the Dakotas and confiscate their lands, forcing them to move to a reservation . [1]

The image on the right shows a white woman in mourning dress, with a brooch featuring the photograph of a Confederate soldier (presumably her husband and her child’s father) pinned to her dress. Her child wears a kepi , which may have belonged to the deceased soldier. This photograph was taken in a Richmond, Virginia studio, and its hand-colored accents and ornate case suggest the sitter’s wealth. 

The format of these photographs draws a contrast between the two families: the carte-de-visite of the Sioux woman and child was intended to be reproduced many times and sold inexpensively as a curiosity to whites interested in seeing people involved with the Dakota War, while the unique ambrotype of the Confederate widow and her child had a closing case designed for private viewing; protected with a latching cover, it was small enough to tuck into a breast pocket. 

Both of these families were profoundly affected by the Civil War. They remind us that the Civil War occurred over a vast country and involved a diverse population, so that capturing “the experience of the Civil War” is an impossible task: there were as many experiences as there were people who lived through it. Soldiers fought in deserts, swamps, mountain passes, orchards, and city streets. Families lived in refugee camps, farm houses, wagons, tepis (tepees), and splendid mansions. Workers made cartridges, built bridges, raised money, sawed off limbs, drove mules, and guarded prisons. 

The experiences of the Civil War in art

These myriad experiences can be difficult to access through the visual and material record of the war—the images and objects that represented everyday life in wartime. The visual record is slanted heavily toward certain groups and areas: northerners produced many more prints and photographs than southerners, for example, because the South was surrounded by a blockade that limited access to the supplies necessary for image-making. Location and wealth were also factors: although photographs were easier to obtain than ever before, not everyone could go to a studio to sit for their portrait, let alone pay for a painting. Like the Sioux family above, they may have appeared in images but often did not control the terms on which they were depicted. We have also lost a great deal of the war’s visual and material culture to time: we can see only what earlier generations decided to preserve, and their ideas of whose art was important enough to save may have differed from our own.

Left: Moore Bro’s. Photographic Gallery, Unidentified U.S. sailor in uniform in front of painted backdrop showing walkway and trees, c. 1861–65, albumen print on card ( Library of Congress ); right: Israel & Co., First Lieutenant Patrick Boyce of Co. F, 8th Regular Army Infantry Regiment in uniform with sword, c. 1861–65 ( Library of Congress )

Photographs provide the largest source of visual evidence about the people who lived through the Civil War, including untold numbers of portraits of soldiers. Although a few daguerreotypes were taken during the Mexican-American War , the Civil War was the first major conflict in the United States that took place after photography—which had been invented only 35 years earlier—became widely available, and enlisted men rushed to have their photographs taken in uniform. Scornful of their opponents’ abilities, both U.S. and Confederate soldiers believed that the war would be over in a few months, and they did not want to miss their chance to show they had been willing to do their duty.

The cartes-de-visite above, both taken during the war, show how recruits put the medium to use. The sailor had his photograph taken in a studio wearing his uniform, but in front of a generic painted backdrop that mimics a garden-like setting and reminiscent of the background often seen in painted portraits of the previous century. The backdrop hardly evokes life at sea, but in the scramble to take pictures before men set off for war, it provided for a suitably respectable portrait setting. The photograph at right shows U.S. Army Lieutenant Patrick Boyce in his officer’s uniform (including tasseled epaulets and sword) standing in front of a blank backdrop; on the back of the card, Boyce scrawled “Votre Amie” (“your friend”) and his signature as a token for a friend or sweetheart. Each of these men took advantage of the opportunity to have a photographic portrait made in uniform, representing his military prowess and social standing.

Unidentified Black U.S. soldier, c. 1861–65, hand-colored tintype with cover glass in black thermoplastic case with brass hinges and red velvet liner ( Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture )

For Black soldiers, sitting for a photographic portrait was not just a record of their bravery in volunteering to serve, but also a claim to citizenship, which was constantly called into question. In 1857, the Supreme Court had ruled that Black people were not citizens of the United States , and so when Black men enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Civil War they were signing up to fight for a nation that did not recognize them as citizens, hoping that their military service would lead not only to the destruction of slavery but to the recognition of Black citizenship.

Stamped brass uniform button with American eagle, c. 1861–65 ( Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture )

The Black soldier pictured above holds a pistol across his chest, his belt buckle proclaims his status as a “US” soldier (the image is reversed, so to the viewer it reads “SU”). The photograph was hand-colored (adding pink to the soldier’s cheeks and gold to his buttons and belt buckle) and encased in a frame with numerous symbols of U.S. citizenship and national belonging: an eagle perches above his head, with American flags and bayonets flanking him on each side. Below him is a cannon and a stylized ribbon with the Latin motto found on the Great Seal of the United States, E Pluribus Unum (“out of many, one”). A simplified version of the Great Seal was also reproduced on the uniform buttons of U.S. soldiers, one of which is pictured here: a bald eagle with its wings spread behind a shield, grasping an olive branch in one set of talons and arrows in the other. Frederick Douglass , who worked to recruit soldiers for Black regiments, understood the power and symbolism of the army uniform in changing minds, stated, “Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S.; let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.” [2]

Winslow Homer, Reconnaissance in force by General Gorman before Yorktown , 1862, graphite with brush and gray wash on cream wove paper, 21 x 33.7 cm ( Museum of Fine Arts, Boston )

Photography was far from the only way of capturing the experience of war. In the 1860s, newspapers could not yet reproduce photographs (the process to do so was not created until 1880), so “special artists” were sent to travel with armies to sketch the action. These artists mailed their drawings to newspaper offices so engravers could interpret them for mass distribution. In the drawing above, the hole where engravers tacked this piece of paper to the wall as a guide for copying is still visible near the top of Winslow Homer’s sketch of a scene of officers and enlisted men discussing strategy outside a farmhouse near Yorktown, later printed as part of a larger page of scenes illustrating the war. [3]

“Glorious News!!!!” in “A Few Scenes in the Life of A ‘SOJER’ in the Mass 44th,” 1863, graphite on paper, 10.5 x 20.5 cm ( Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History )

Some soldier-artists captured their experiences in drawings, completed while in camp or years afterward when recalling the scenes of battle. They used what materials were available to them: ink, watercolors, or even a pencil nub on a lined journal page. One unknown artist, a soldier in the 44th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry stationed in New Bern, North Carolina, drew a series of cartoons in his diary contrasting the northern press’s breathless coverage of the war with the far less romantic reality. In “Glorious News!!!! Destruction of a very Important Bridge in North Carolina!!” the artist showed a wooden plank over a creek being broken by a soldier throwing a rock at it, satirizing the scene with the overblown headline “The REBELS in DESPAIR!!!! Jeff Davis says All is now LOST!!!!!!!!!!” The simple set of panels reveals the humor and playfulness of an ordinary soldier, who wrote that he had to end his sketchbook because he ran out of paper. [4]

Bandolier bag, likely Delaware, wool, glass beads, cotton, fringe c. 1860 (The American Civil War Museum, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Material culture can also tell us about the experience of the Civil War. This bandolier bag, which high-ranking Indigenous men would have worn across their bodies during ceremonies or in battle to carry ammunition, is made of tiny glass beads arranged in abstract floral patterns. This type of decoration is common to bags made in the Prairie Style , which flourished in the mid-19th century in Oklahoma, where many Indigenous groups, including Delawares and Cherokees, came into contact with each other after the United States forcibly removed them from their homes in the east in the 1830s. A female Indigenous artist likely made this bag, which was worn into battle by its owner, likely a Delaware soldier who was fighting as part of the U.S.-allied Indian Home Guard . After the owner’s death at the Battle of Honey Springs in Oklahoma, Confederate soldiers looted it from the owner’s body as a trophy and gave it to Confederate President Jefferson Davis as a gift.

The Battle of Honey Springs—despite the death of this bag’s owner—was an important victory for U.S. forces in their quest to gain control of Indian Territory . Indigenous tribes, nations, and bands fought for both the United States and the Confederacy in the Civil War, hoping their alliances would preserve their sovereignty. The bag’s creation in Oklahoma and its journey to the capital of the Confederacy hint at the complex story of the Civil War, where the future of westward expansion , cultural transformation, and the survival of people and nations were at stake. 

The essays in this section grapple with these complex experiences of the war—both on and off the battlefield—through art. 

The first essay, “ The work of war ,” focuses on images depicting the everyday life of the soldiers and civilians who labored for the military during the U.S. Civil War.   

The second essay, “ Homes and families ,” examines how the “home front” was not easy to distinguish from the battlefront during the conflict, as women’s roles transformed with the advent of war.

The third essay, “ Refugees, prisoners, and displacement ,” looks beyond the battlefield and the home front to the people who moved across and outside those spaces, either by choice or by force.

[1] See more on The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 from the Minnesota Historical Society.

[2] Frederick Douglass, “Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army?,” speech delivered July 6, 1863, at National Hall, Philadelphia, PA, published in Douglass’ Monthly , August 1863.

[3] Frank H. Goodyear III and Dana E. Byrd, Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), pp. 10–11.

[4] A Few Scenes in the life of A “SOJER” in the Mass 44th , 1863, graphite on paper, 10.5 x 20.5 cm (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History).

Additional resources

American Indian Removal: What Does It Mean to Remove a People? from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 from the Minnesota Historical Society

The Battle of Honey Springs from the Oklahoma Historical Society

Civil War Soldier Stories from the Library of Congress

The Civil War and American Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Amy Athey McDonald, “ As embedded artist with the Union army, Winslow Homer captured life at the front of the Civil War ,” Yale News , April 20, 2015.

Lisa Tendrich Frank, Household War: How Americans Lived and Fought the Civil War (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2020).

James G. Mendez, A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019).

Megan Kate Nelson, Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2012).

Amy Murrell Taylor, Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s Slave Refugee Camps (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018).

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The U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction

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The US Civil War: A Very Short Introduction covers a period in American history characterized by decades of intensifying conflict over slavery and government authority, culminating in Abraham Lincoln’s election and eleven states seceding from the Union. The Civil War began as a limited conflict with the aim of restoring the Union. It became a diffuse, violent war that lasted four years, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and ultimately led to the abolition of slavery and a vigorous debate over the terms by which the seceded states would be restored to the nation. This VSI ends with a chapter on the aftermath of the war and the remaking of America.

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Civil War, 1861-1865

Introduction, primary sources, civil war, 1861-1865: introduction.

The American Civil War from 1861 through 1865 is sometimes described as the crucible from which the nation was forged. The cost to the States, north and south, in blood and treasure, is almost inconceivable. This one war accounted for nearly half of all casualties the United States has suffered since its formation.

From the beginning of the war with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, SC, April 12, 1861, to the last battle at Palmito Ranch, Texas, May 13, 1865, the number of lives lost in battle, in prison camps, from disease and exposure, and through causes directly related to the war reached staggering proportions. (See the National Park Service Website for an informative presentation of facts about the war.)

The Battle of Opequon of Winchester, 1864

This Library Guide will provide a staring point and information to aid in your research about the Civil War.

Books at Rowan

All Books at Rowan

To find books use Rowan's Library Search and limit the material type to Books. You can do this either from the Advanced Search page (use the Material Type drop-down menu on the right) or from a search results page (use the Resource Type limiter).  

Select E-Books at RU

• Ebook Central ebook collection This link opens in a new window Collection of scholarly e-books in many academic disciplines. more... less... Multidisciplinary collection of scholarly ebooks, offering a strong collection of academic titles from leading scholarly publishers. Includes subscribed and purchased content. It is not a permanent acquisition of e-books, and is subject to change.

See search tips on e-Book Central's homepage.

Library of Congress Classification (LCC) - Civil War

The library organizes its materials using the Library of Congress Classification System (LCC). The classication ranges below also relate to period immediately preceding the onset of Civil War military action. In this classification system the letter "E" represents all United States History.

Civil War Primary Sources

• Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Select the subcollections The Civil War, Parts I-VII. more... less... Accessible Archives makes available vast quantities of archived historical information, not previously furnished available online. Primary source materials have been assembled into databases with a strict attention to detail allowing access to specific information with pinpoint accuracy. Online full-text search capabilities and digital imaging permits the user to search and manipulate this information in ways never before possible.
• African American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window Online access to 270 African American newspapers published in the U.S. from 1827-1998. more... less... Provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection features papers from more than 35 states—including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.
• American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection 1684 - 1912 This link opens in a new window Access to historical periodicals published from 1684 to1912.
• American Civil War Research Database Photographs and information on over soldiers and battles, regimental rosters, officer profiles
• American Civil War Letters and Diaries
• American History This link opens in a new window Online encyclopedia of American history. more... less... Spans more than 500 years of political, military, social, and cultural history, highlighting the important people and events of the American experience. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, timelines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.
• American Indian History This link opens in a new window Online encyclopedia of the history of the American Indian. more... less... Offers access to more than 600 Native American groups and over 15,000 years of American Indian culture and history.
• American Women's History Online This link opens in a new window Online encyclopedia of the history of women in the United States. more... less... Covers the important people, events, legislation, and issues relevant to the study of women's history in the United States. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, time-lines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.
• Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window Primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.
• Civil War Collection This link opens in a new window Online archive of newspaper articles published in and books during the U.S. Civil War. more... less... Contains the full text of major articles gleaned from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865. Included are descriptive news articles, eye-witness accounts and official reports of battles and events, editorials, advertisements and biographies.
• History Vault: Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War This link opens in a new window Primary source materials candidly documenting the realities of slavery at the most immediate grassroots level in Southern society and provides some of the most revealing documentation in existence on the functioning of the slave system.
• Proquest Civil War Era Civil War era newspapers, pamphlets, and other primary source material
• Reconstruction and Military Government after the Civil War (1865-1877)

Web Resources

• American History: From Revolution to Reconstruction and Beyond The documents tab on the American History website includes documents originating beyond the borders and before the establishment of the United States, but all are related to the history of the country and are very interesting. The site also includes other tabs with a wealth of information and it is worth a visit.
• The Civil War: The Nation Moves Towards War (1850-1861) Conflict between abolition and slavery marked the 1850s, preceding the election of 1860 and the attack on Fort Sumter. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, and secession in maps, newspapers, political cartoons and song sheets. Part of the Library of Congress Primary Source Sets.
• Civil War Women (Duke University)
• Colonial North America at Harvard Library Archival and manuscript materials related to 17th- and 18th-century North America from Harvard Library
• Crisis of the Union: Causes, Conduct and Consequences of the US Civil War (Univ. of Pennsylvania) Print memorabilia about the United States from 1830 to 1880
• Library of Congress Civil War Collection
• Military Records - Civil War (National Archives, U.S.)
• Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspaper Collection (Penn State)
• The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865 (UNC-Chapel Hill)
• Valley of the Shadow Archive (Univ. of Virginia) Primary sources from two communities in the American Civil War

More Primary Sources

• Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Archives of searchable historical primary source materials. See the Subcollections Guide for a list of collections. more... less... Accessible Archives makes available vast quantities of archived historical information, not previously furnished available online. Primary source materials have been assembled into databases with a strict attention to detail allowing access to specific information with pinpoint accuracy. Online full-text search capabilities and digital imaging permits the user to search and manipulate this information in ways never before possible.
• Avalon Project The Avalon Project, a resource of the Yale Law School, provides full text of documents, online, that are important to law, history and diplomacy online. Over the years the collection has grown extensively and has been organized into various topical areas. About forty documents related to Terrorism are included under this title.
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery Digital historical collections from the New York Public Library. more... less... Collections include Africana and Black History, from 16th Century to Present; After Columbus: 400 Years of Native American Portraiture; Turn of the Century Posters; Picturing America, 1497-1899; Prints, Maps, and Drawings Bearing on the New World; A New Nation: The Thomas Addis Emmet Collection of Illustrations Relating to the American Revolution and Early US History.
• New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Access to The New York Times (1851 - 2017). more... less... Presents PDF pages of the newspaper, preserving the visual sense of the publication. This online format replaces the microfiche archival coverage.
• Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window Primary source materials about the Nineteenth Century. See the Subcollections Guide for a list of collections. more... less... Includes books, newspapers, periodicals, diaries and personal letters, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, maps and musical scores.
• North American Slave Narratives Part of Documenting the American South, "includes all known autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves in the United States to 1920."
• Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery: Online Exhibits American portraits in public and private collections in the US and abroad.
• Sunday Times Historical Archive (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window Archive of the London newspaper The Sunday Times 1822 - 2016. more... less... Thoughtful analysis and commentary on the week's news and society at large.
• Times Digital Archive (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window Archive of The Times (London) newspaper from 1785-2019. more... less... Spans over 220 years, from 1785 through 2014, and includes 1+ million pages and 7+ million articles. Search the complete digital edition of The Times (London) using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching. View contemporaneous coverage of the world's historical events from the French Revolution to the Iraq War.
• Wall Street Journal (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Online access to back issues of the Wall Street Journal, 1889 - 1999. more... less... Newspaper coverage is from 1889 through 1996. For more recent issues of the Wall Street Journal, select the Wall Street Journal (current) link.
• Washington Post (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Online access to back issues of The Washington Post, 1877-1999. more... less... Includes PDF images of nearly all content published in the Washington Post from the beginning, 1877, through 1997. Search the Washington Post Current edition for information after this end date.

Streaming Video

Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life: Presented By Richard Carwardine, Oxford University and made available trough the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

YouTube Videos

American Experience: Robert E. Lee

(Click "Watch on YouTube.com" for link to the complete film on PBS)

YouTube Videos: Documentaries

(Part of a five-part 1987  Arts & Entertainment TV Series)

Scenes from American History (Part 5): A House Divided

[United States Information Service (USIS), 1960]

Battle of Gettysburg

(History Channel, 2011)

Antietam: A Documentary Film

(Historical Films Group, 2000. Narrated by James Earl Jones. Filmed at Antietam National Battlefield and produced in cooperation with The Civil War Trust.)

Civil War Journal: The Battle of Fredericksburg

(History Channel, 1993)

Causes of the Civil War: Part 1

Causes of the Civil War: Part 2

• Last Updated: May 1, 2024 2:43 PM
• URL: https://libguides.rowan.edu/c.php?g=499507

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The confederate monument debate

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Emancipation proclamation

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The first group of slaves captured from Africa arrived in America in 1619 after being captured by the Dutch. This formed the genesis of the…

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Abolition was the reform movement that sought to end the slave trade and emancipate the slaves. Slavery was an economic institution that benefited slave masters…

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Abraham Lincoln was born on 12th February and died on 15th April 1865. He was well known as a lawyer and an American statesman who…

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Introduction While the 1776-1783 Revolution created the United States, the Civil War, which occurred from 1861-1865 determined the type of nation the United States would…

The articles of the confederation and the US constitution

The United States Constitution, drafted in Philadelphia in 1787 is an instrumental symbol of the country’s national identity and occupies a large portion of the…

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Nineteenth-Century Saints at War

Robert c. freeman , editor, introduction to the civil war, david f. boone.

“Introduction to the Civil War,” in Nineteenth-Century Saints at War , ed. Robert C. Freeman (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2006), 77–79

“We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.”— Robert E. Lee

The Civil War was a complex conflict that took this nation through its darkest period. The complexity of the Civil War involved every facet of life. The war tore at the heart of what America stood for. It cut to the very core of the political, economic, and social elements of American life. The argument centered on where ultimate sovereignty lay—whether with the Union or with the individual states. It questioned the economic and social structure basis in slave power and agriculture in the South and the wealth of the North. The Civil War is remembered as the war that pitted brother against brother because of the brutal nature of the tensions at work.

In the words of then secretary of state William H. Seward, the Civil War was the “irrepressible conflict.” It has also been deemed an unnecessary bloodletting brought on by arrogant extremists and blundering politicians. Regardless of opinions, in 1861 the nation faced the very real prospect of a war that could undermine everything America stood for.

Causes of the war were many and had developed over decades, but the immediate spark for the conflict was a consequence of South Carolina’s determination to secede from the Union—a result of Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the 1860 presidential election. South Carolina leaders had been waiting for an event to unite the South against antislavery forces. At a special convention called in South Carolina, a declaration was passed declaring that the United States of America was dissolved.

By February 1861, six Southern states had joined South Carolina in seceding. A provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America was adopted that month. The remaining Southern states continued residence with the Union. Less than a month later, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. In Lincoln’s inaugural address, he refused to recognize the secession; he considered it legally void. He concluded his speech with a plea for restoration of the Union. However, in the South Lincoln’s plea fell on deaf ears. On April 12, the fighting began when Confederate forces fired on federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in the Charleston harbor.

As a result, Union troops marched under the command of Major General Irvin McDowell toward the Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia. The Union was blocked, and the first battle of Bull Run ensued. The Confederate troops, under the command of General Jopseh E. Johnston and Pierre G. T. Beauregard, forced Union troops back to Washington DC. Startled at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent the remaining slave states from leaving the Union, the United States Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25, 1861. It declared that the war was being fought to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.

The war began in earnest in 1862. General Ulysses S. Grant brought the Union its first victory; he captured Fort Henry, Tennessee, on February 6 of that year. However, this victory was short lived. Major General George McClellan, of the Union, reached the gates of Richmond in the spring of 1862 only to be defeated by General Robert E. Lee in the Seven Days Campaign. After this defeat, McClellan was relieved of command. His successor, John Pope, suffered the same fate when Lee beat him at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August.

Encouraged by Lee’s success, the Confederacy invaded the North for the first time. General Lee led fifty-five thousand men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then reinstated McClellan, who won a bloody victory at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. Defeated, Lee’s army returned to Virginia.

When McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, Lincoln once again found a replacement: Major General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside suffered a near-immediate defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg and was replaced by Major General Joseph Hooker. Hooker also proved insufficient to Lee’s army and was replaced after the loss of the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.

Lincoln found an able replacement in Major General George Meade, who stopped Lee’s invasion of Union-held territory at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863). General Lee’s army suffered twenty-eight thousand casualties and was forced to retreat again to Virginia.

While the Confederate forces had some success in the eastern theater—holding on to their capital—the west was their downfall. Confederate forces were driven from Missouri early in the war, which allowed the Union to maintain possession of that key strategic state.

Nashville, Tennessee, fell to the Union early in 1862. The Mississippi River was opened to Vicksburg and then to Memphis. New Orleans was also captured early in 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi.

The Union’s strength increased with the strategic mind of Ulysses S. Grant. His gift was proven with the victories of Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he drove Confederate forces out of Tennessee. Grant understood the concept of total war and realized, along with Lincoln, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces would bring an end to the war. Grant was given command of all Union armies in 1864.

Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase of the eastern campaign: the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. An attempt to outflank Lee from the South failed under Generals Benjamin F. Butler and William F. Smith, who were contained in the Bermuda Hundred, a neck of land near the James and Appomattox rivers.

General Grant relentlessly pressed the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of General Lee. Grant pinned the Confederate army in the Siege of Petersburg and, after two failed attempts (under Siegel and Hunter), finally found an able commander, Philip H. Sheridan, who could clear the threat to Washington DC from the Shenandoah Valley.

Meanwhile, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman marched from Chattanooga to the sea at Savannah, leaving nothing in his wake but destruction and ashes. He stuck to his statement that he gave shortly before beginning his brutal march: “War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.” When Sherman turned north through South and North Carolina to approach the Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and the Confederacy.

With Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Courthouse, the Union formally became the victor in the conflict. The last land battle of the war, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, was fought on May 13, 1865, in the far south of Texas and ended with a Confederate victory. However, the victory was meaningless because of Lee’s surrender. All Confederate land forces surrendered by June 1865. Confederate naval units surrendered in November of 1865.

Despite the end of the war, conflict still existed. The post-war Reconstruction Era, headed by Grant, who was elected President, would confront many obstacles, including persistent Southern resistance. Illustrative of the resistance were the “Jim Crow” laws, which essentially legalized racial discrimination. Decades of struggle followed, leading to an appeal for equality and unity in the nation. In a sense, the struggle for “one nation under God” has never ceased.

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‘American Civil Wars’ Review: The Era of Continental Divides

M ore than 60,000 books have been published about the U.S. Civil War since 1865. Historians have spilled much ink over the nation’s deadliest conflict, one that led to the deaths of more than 600,000 soldiers. But only in recent decades have scholars begun to explore the Civil War’s international causes and consequences, challenging the notion that it was a predominantly domestic affair.

Alan Taylor, a professor at the University of Virginia, offers compelling new insights in “American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873,” a fine addition to his series of narrative histories about the nation’s founding and development. The title alludes to Mr. Taylor’s transnational framing of a period when multiple military conflicts rocked the continent. The desire for land, resources, labor and power drove competition among actors seeking territorial control in the United States, Mexico, Canada and their borderlands in the mid-19th century.

“American Civil Wars” begins in 1850, when clashes over the future of slavery in the expanding U.S. threatened to tear the nation apart. While Southern slaveholders wanted to bring plantation slavery into the Western territories to help expand the owners’ wealth and to increase the distance between enslaved people and their freedom, many Northerners envisioned the West as a place where independent farmers could flourish. “Recognizing the high stakes involved,” Mr. Taylor writes, “northern and southern leaders clashed over what form of society—slave or free labor—should prevail in the West and thereby claim the American future.” As a result, he argues, “the West was the contested prize that sparked the Civil War.”

Episodes of violence shattered communities across the nation during the 1850s. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 led to lethal conflicts among pro-slavery, antislavery and Free Soil Party settlers in the two territories. John Brown’s deadly raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859, an effort to spark a rebellion among enslaved people, galvanized some abolitionists and infuriated slaveholders. By the end of the decade, the prospect of war loomed large.

But the U.S. was not the only nation dealing with internal crises during the 1850s. Mr. Taylor deftly connects America’s struggles with those of its neighbors, Mexico and Canada. There, proponents of liberalism “sought to perfect a new social order of equal individual rights” where citizens could “share in the power of their republics.” But a conservative elite in Mexico vigorously opposed liberal reforms, while resentment among Catholic and Protestant Canadians grew—resulting in civil unrest in both nations. American adventurers called filibusterers took advantage of Mexico’s political chaos by heading to its borderlands and claiming territory, sometimes to facilitate slavery’s expansion. In 1858 an influx of American prospectors flooded New Caledonia, in present-day British Columbia, prompting fears of annexation among Canadian officials.

Civil war broke out in Mexico that same year, when Liberals and Conservatives fought for control of the government. By March of 1861, Liberals had secured victory in the War of the Reform, and Benito Juárez was elected president. In the U.S., tensions over slavery reached a boiling point. After Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election, seven Southern states seceded from the union to form the Confederate States of America.

The formal commencement of hostilities between the U.S. and the Confederate States of America in April 1861 initiated a four-year civil war that led to the liberation of four million enslaved African-Americans, as well as economic disruption, property destruction and community upheaval as hundreds of thousands of people became refugees. From the north, Canadian leaders watched with a mix of apprehension and opportunism. Mr. Taylor notes that John A. Macdonald, a future prime minister of Canada, predicted in mid-1861 that “in consequence of the fratricidal war, Canada had every prospect of being the great nation of this continent.”

Mr. Taylor covers the first two years of the American Civil War in three gripping chapters. “Miseries” reveals how the Union and the Confederacy mobilized their populations for war and shaped international opinion through diplomatic efforts. “Revolutions” recounts the major military events of 1862 and highlights President Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. “West” explores the consequences of the Civil War on the frontier, drawing on some of the best scholarship on the subject in recent years. The Union army saw the region as “the ultimate prize,” Mr. Taylor contends, and “imposed its liberal vision for the American future” there via the seizure of Native American lands, environmental destruction and brutal attacks on indigenous people.

As the fighting in the U.S. continued, war also returned to Mexico. Napoleon III sought to establish a monarchy there with the support of Conservatives. He sent thousands of troops to Mexico that wreaked havoc in 1862 and 1863. Mr. Taylor argues that “American Republicans and Mexican Liberals” viewed the military campaigns of the Union, Confederacy and French armies as “intertwined and laden with global stakes: to vindicate republicanism and equal rights against an unholy alliance of slave-lords, aristocrats, and monarchists.” Mr. Taylor concludes: “The fate of republican government hung in the balance as the armies lurched forward.”

The Union army’s ultimate victory in 1865 secured the abolition of slavery, prevented the nation’s fragmentation and strengthened the federal government. According to Mr. Taylor, Confederate defeat also had transnational consequences. It spurred Napoleon III to begin removing his troops from Mexico and motivated Canada’s regional leaders to more energetically pursue political unification.

By the end of 1867, France had exited Mexico and Canada’s Parliament had passed the British North America Act, which joined three territories to create the Dominion of Canada. Mr. Taylor sees these historic moments as linked, arguing that “each of the three national consolidations fed on the other two, which shaped what leaders in each saw as feasible and essential.” Incomplete, however, were the “utopian promises of that century’s form of liberalism,” as all three nations wrestled with racial or ethnic inequality during subsequent decades.

Mr. Taylor’s transnational approach reveals the often unnoticed connections between America’s war over slavery’s future and the concurrent battles for individual rights in Mexico and Canada. To learn more about the multifaceted aftermath of these civil wars, we await Mr. Taylor’s next volume with great anticipation.

Ms. Bellows is a historian and the author of “The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions.”