Talk:American Civil War

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Frequently asked questions

Many of these questions arise frequently on the talk page concerning the American Civil War.

To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.

Q1: Should slavery be presented as the most important cause of the war? (Yes.)

A1: Yes. Slavery was the most important cause of the war. Wikipedia requires that we rely on the best officially documented research available, without any original research or undue weight to fringe theories.

After the war, some movements sought to advance Lost Cause interpretations, arguing that the Confederacy was not primarily fighting to defend slavery. While these have been popular in some quarters, the vast majority of historians do not support these interpretations, including best historians (McPherson, Nevins, Freehling and even the better Southern historians such as Potter). Ironically, during the crisis that led to the outbreak of war, Confederate politicians openly presented preservation of slavery as the central issue, in their own words. They mentioned fears for the future of slavery many times in their declarations of reasons for secession, political speeches and editorials. Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Stephens had the following to say:

"You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub." - From Abraham Lincoln's letter to Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, Dec 22, 1860

"We at the South do think African slavery, as it exists with us, both morally and politically right. This opinion is founded upon the inferiority of the black race. You, however, and perhaps a majority of the North, think it wrong." - From Stephens' reply to Lincoln, Dec 30, 1860

It is true that Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis both downplayed the slavery issue after the war began. As historian James Ford Rhodes explained, Davis hoped to get support from Britain and France, where slavery was unpopular, and Lincoln needed to keep the loyalty of the border states, which were both pro-slavery and pro-Union. This is why in statements like the Crittenden–Johnson Resolution, northern politicians argued they were only fighting to preserve the Union. Similarly, Lincoln's sole justification for the Emancipation Proclamation was military necessity. Holzer, Striner and Brewster note that Lincoln needed to portray the emancipation in a way that was acceptable to the border states and War Democrats.

Q2: Were tariffs and states' rights similar in importance? (No.)

A2: No. The tariff issue and states' rights were factors, and there were others. These are all included in the article. However, no issue was as important as slavery.

The original secessionists were not very careful in separating states' rights from the slavery issue. They defended both states' rights (such as secession) and federal power (such as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850), depending on which suited slavery with each controversy. South Carolina's declaration of reasons for secession is one example out of many. However, Lost Cause historians did subsequently portray the Confederacy as consistent defenders of states' rights.

The tariff issue had been a much larger issue three decades before the war, and even then John Calhoun, who led South Carolina's attempt to nullify the Tariff of 1828, said that the tariff issue was related to slavery. In his March 6, 1860 speech at New Haven, Lincoln had said that the slavery issue was more important than the tariff or any other issue.

Q3: Did Lincoln propose to immediately abolish slavery in the South when elected? (No.)

A3: No. Lincoln combined moral opposition to slavery (calling it "a monstrous injustice") with a moderate, gradual program of action. Lincoln, like most Republicans, believed that compromises of the Constitution (a three-fifths clause, a 20 year extension of the African slave trade and a fugitive slave clause) implied constitutional recognition of slavery where it existed. However, Lincoln would not compromise on preventing any expansion of slavery in the hope that this would put it "in the course of ultimate extinction."

Q4: Did Lincoln believe in racial equality? (Mostly.)

A4: In the context of the 19th century, being seen as a "Black Republican" abolitionist would be politically damaging. Lincoln was inconsistent on the equality issue during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, partly in order to deflect this charge. However, the things Lincoln said in favor of equality were many (including Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address and his Cooper Union speech), while the things he said against it were few, and those few were combined with a great deal of political pressure. While Lincoln and other northern politicians did not always advocate equality, this should not be given undue weight, especially as they wanted to give far more rights to black people than the Confederate politicians. At a July 10, 1858 Speech at Chicago Lincoln said, "I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist."

Q5: Should the article refer to the states that allowed slavery as slave states? (Yes.)

A5: Yes, because their politicians referred to them as slave states, and because slavery related concerns were by far the major complaint mentioned by secessionists. After the outbreak of war, the slave states became divided between the Confederate states and the border states.

Q6: Did some slave states fight for the North? (Yes.)

A6: Yes, the five border states. These states had less slavery and more support for the Union than the Confederate slave states. They opposed emancipation at first, but largely accepted the military need for it eventually. Kentucky and Missouri had more slavery than the rest, and had loyalties that were more divided than the rest. For example, Missouri's Governor Claiborne Jackson was a southern sympathizer, but was prevented from seceding by Union Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon. Missouri saw some of the worst guerrilla fighting of the entire war because of its divisions over slavery.

Q7: Should the title be American Civil War? (Yes.)

A7: Yes. The title "American Civil War" is used only because it is the most common international name for the war. It is used in order to be understood, regardless of whether it could be better. The title does ignore the South's point of view, and it ignores the fact that Central America and South America are also America, in a sense. The other names should be mentioned, but not in this article. They are mentioned in Naming the American Civil War. The main article links to this.

Q8: Did the South start the war? (Yes.)

A8: The South bombarded and seized Fort Sumter, a federal fort in South Carolina. Historians regard this as the incident in which the actual fighting began.

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

American Civil War was one of the Warfare good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 10, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
November 4, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
November 26, 2006	Good article reassessment	Delisted
December 10, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
March 22, 2007	WikiProject A-class review	Not approved
March 28, 2007	WikiProject A-class review	Approved
April 21, 2007	Good article reassessment	Kept
October 14, 2007	Good article reassessment	Kept
November 5, 2007	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
December 10, 2008	Good article reassessment	Kept
March 23, 2011	Peer review	Reviewed
July 28, 2012	Good article reassessment	Delisted
May 30, 2014	WikiProject A-class review	Demoted
December 12, 2015	Peer review	Reviewed
May 25, 2021	Good article nominee	Not listed
Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on December 20, 2004, December 20, 2005, and December 20, 2006.
Current status: Delisted good article

Military history: North America / United States / American Civil War

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This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

Daniel Nasaw (4 April 2012). "Who, What, Why: How many soldiers died in the US Civil War?". BBC.

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Section sizes

Section size for American Civil War (69 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	20,411	20,411
Causes of secession	4,746	41,208
Slavery	7,754	7,754
Abolitionists	10,504	10,504
Territorial crisis	7,078	7,078
States' rights	5,137	5,137
Sectionalism	1,932	1,932
Protectionism	1,396	1,396
Nationalism and honor	1,193	1,193
Lincoln's election	1,468	1,468
Outbreak of the war	25	22,105
Secession crisis	11,044	11,044
Battle of Fort Sumter	3,539	3,539
Attitude of the border states	7,497	7,497
War	852	30,014
Mobilization	7,571	7,571
Prisoners	853	853
Women	2,159	2,159
Naval tactics	3,517	3,517
Union blockade	1,405	7,549
Blockade runners	2,168	2,168
Economic impact	3,976	3,976
Diplomacy	7,513	7,513
Eastern theater	759	10,842
Background	19	2,957
Army of the Potomac	685	685
Army of Northern Virginia	2,253	2,253
Battles	7,126	7,126
Western theater	676	8,521
Background	19	1,284
Army of the Tennessee and Army of the Cumberland	856	856
Army of Tennessee	409	409
Battles	6,561	6,561
Trans-Mississippi theater	95	4,911
Background	754	754
Battles	4,062	4,062
Lower Seaboard theater	91	4,249
Background	591	591
Battles	3,567	3,567
Pacific Coast theater	476	476
Conquest of Virginia	2,020	6,407
Grant's Overland Campaign	1,369	1,369
Sheridan's Valley Campaign	860	860
Sherman's March to the Sea	1,328	1,328
The Waterloo of the Confederacy	830	830
End of the war	13,008	13,008
Union victory and aftermath	10,155	10,155
Casualties	4,360	9,876
Union	365	365
Confederate	5,151	5,151
Emancipation	2,996	15,561
Emancipation Proclamation	12,565	12,565
Reconstruction	4,753	4,753
Memory and historiography	2,764	12,663
Lost Cause	2,289	2,289
Battlefield preservation	3,550	3,550
Civil War commemoration	1,870	1,870
Technological significance	2,190	2,190
In works of culture and art	1,002	4,405
Literature	989	989
Film	1,120	1,120
Music	323	323
Video games	971	971
See also	327	327
Notes	46	46
References	15,773	31,922
Bibliography	16,149	16,149
Further reading	4,805	4,805
External links	2,634	2,634
Total	259,299	259,299

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report. The week in which this happened:

August 13 to 19, 2017 (21st)

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Leonard, Elizabeth D. (1999). All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies (1st ed.). W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-3930-4712-1.

There is a request, submitted by Catfurball, for an audio version of this article to be created. For further information, see WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia.

The rationale behind the request is: "Important".

Numbers for accident/disease deaths[edit]

Why does the info box have numbers for “accident/disease deaths” for the Union but not for the Confeserates? 2600:1700:975E:E000:2DF2:F8BB:E311:8E6D (talk) 16:14, 12 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

at a guess, sourcing. Slatersteven (talk) 16:15, 12 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The federal holiday Juneteenth[edit]

The federal holiday Juneteenth says your end of the Civil War date of May 26,1865 is wrong. The Juneteenth holiday celebrates the end of the civil war in Texas and the freeing of the slaves in Texas. Between your clamed of the end of the war on May 26 and the end of the war in Texas June 19 uniformed confederates were active in Texas and blacks were still slaves in that area. The true end of the Civil war is June 23, 1865, when the last confederate general surrendered all his forces. After that only scattered troops were still resisting and not a threat. 2600:1015:A011:BFA0:C82:AAB8:8474:6668 (talk) 12:48, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

1965? do you have a source for that? 12:50, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Note the above comment was edited. Slatersteven (talk) 13:30, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Appomattox marks the official end of the fighting, even though some skirmishes happened afterward. After Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, Confederate Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, acting for General Edmund Kirby Smith, surrendered the Confederate trans-Mississippi Department forces on May 26, 1865.Michaelbtfsplk (talk) 22:46, 8 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 23 June 2024[edit]

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{{subst:trim|1= Citizens are missing one for forts that Lincoln wishes to retain and the other for McClellan's hesitation.rmeove thse snetances or add the citations.

{{}} 64.189.18.51 (talk) 21:45, 23 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: What unsourced sentences do you want to be removed? It's also helpful if you could state under which section is the mentioned statement in. ABG (Talk/Report any mistakes here) 02:22, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comparison Chart[edit]

The chart Comparison of Union and Confederacy, 1860–1864 shows a decrease in the population of the Confederacy of six million and a comparable increase in the population of the Union. This calls for an explanation. As I understand it, there was no large-scale movement of people in the course of the war from the south to the north. The Confederacy did not experience anywhere near that number of deaths due to the war, nor can natural population increase or immigration account for the increase in the population of the Union. I suspect that something is wrong, or that the chart perhaps represents the population of areas controlled by the Union and the Confederacy, with the population of the Union including that of those parts of the Confederacy conquered by the Union as of 1864, and the population of the Confederacy excluding the population of the areas lost by the Confederacy. If that is the case, at the very least an explanation should be provided, but better yet, the figures should be revised so that the 1864 figures are for the same areas as in the 1860 figures. After all, the population advantage of the Union was not really increased by the population of the conquered areas of the Confederacy.Bill (talk) 22:18, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 5 July 2024[edit]

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Excessive amount of text add more subheadings. 64.189.18.48 (talk) 07:42, 5 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Charliehdb (talk) 14:19, 5 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]