The Civil War: Highlights Part 1

On Monday, Mr. Stewart went over some of the key points in Bruce Catton's The Civil War. For those who may not have caught some of them, here is a brief review of the highlights.

P19-John Crittenden's Compromise: re-establish the Missouri Compromise line, let future states enter on popular sovereignty, enforce fugitive slave law, the Constitution would never be amended to let Congress have power over slavery

P21-Provides a good summary of the steps taken to prevent the war

P24-The bombardment of Fort Sumter was an anticlimactic beginning to the Civil War, no soldiers were killed until a malfunction after Northern surrender. Most soldiers in the Civil War actually died of disease or weapon malfunctions rather than other soldiers.

P27-Describes the degree to which America was not ready for this war. The soldiers were untrained and had no experience with drill, preventing them from maneuvering in battle. This would result in many unnecessary deaths in later battles.

P30-Highlights the significance of the Border States, which contained over half of the South's industrial might and would be key to determining the direction of the war

P33-Goes into Northern and Southern advantages: The South lacked means of production and transportation, but they only had to convince the North to give up in order to win; Old Winfield Scott's slow plan to constrict the South is also examined

P38-"Cotton is King," the South's false beliefs that refusing to export cotton would convince European nations to step in and oppose the North, later this hope was proved false when England and France were getting along so nicely that cotton was shipped back to New England