The Civil War

• 1861 Confederacy started the war with an open fire in Charleston harbor in South Carolina (after ignoring Lincoln’s warning speech)

• many volunteers to enter the army, North – more men, weapons, clothing, food – but they only could invade the South and occupy the land

• South – advantage (defending own homes) – only to hold on until North grew tired

• fought in 2 main areas:

  • Virginia – Union army suffered defeats which discouraged supporters from North

  • Mississippi Valley – Union army captured city of New Orleans

• General Lee from South marched into Pennsylvania – blocked at Gettysburg – followed by the biggest battle ever fought in US (50 000 men killed or wounded)

• Confederacy suffered defeat and was running out of men

• Abraham Lincoln dedicated Gettysburg as a war cemetery – a famous speech

• April 9, 1865 – the South surrendered when Union army led by General Grant encircled the capital of Confederacy – they had to give up weapons and promise to fight never again

• after the war 13^th amendment was added to Constitution – slavery was abolished

Reconstruction

• after the war A. Lincoln was killed during a theater performance

• successor Andrew Johnson faced the problem how to deal with South – he tried to reunite the nation

• southerners were horrified at the idea of giving equal rights to blacks – “Black Codes” – laws to keep them in inferior position (not allowed to vote, buy land, give evidence in court)

• Congress group “Radical Republicans” thought the President was treating southerners too kindly and they took advantage of it – 14^th amendment – right to vote for the blacks

• “Reconstruction Act” – dismissed the government of southern states and placed them under military rule until they accept the amendment

• new governments consisting of both black and whites provided care for orphans, encourage new industries, built schools for both white and black children

• hate of southerners – terrorist groups (Ku Klux Klan) killing blacks during night rides

• growing violence helped Democrats to win control – Reconstruction was over

• blacks were treated as “2^nd class citizens”, prevented from voting; laws to enforce strict racial separation (“segregation”) enforced on trains, parks, schools

• breaking up segregation laws – prison or death

• it seemed like all improvements of Civil War and Reconstruction were lost

Years of growth

Miners, Railroads and Cattlemen

• 1848 – by building a sawmill for landowner John Sutter gold was found in California

• in the next 20 years the gold rush continued in other western parts (Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Dakota)

• Great Plains – “Prairiers” laid between West and South – covered with grass, dry, home for hunting Amerindians, called as Great American Desert

• 1862 – Congress granted land and money to the Union Pacific Railroad Company (west from the Mississippi; Irish workers) and to the Central Pacific Railroad Company (eastwards from California; Chinese workers) to build a railroad

• completed in 1869 at Promontory Point in Utah, followed by 4 others railroads

• Texas cattle owners hired “drovers” or “cowboys” feed the cattle on the grasslands and to drive them to the East

• new cattle-towns grew up – Abilene in Kansas, Dodge City