The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865, fought between northern states loyal to the Union and southern states that had seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America.
The civil war began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina just over a month after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North, which also included some geographically western and southern states, proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states’ rights to uphold slavery.
The war effectively ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the Southern states followed suit, the last surrender on land occurring June 23. Much of the South’s infrastructure was destroyed, especially its railroads. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in a partially successful attempt to rebuild the country and grant civil rights to freed slaves.
The Civil War remains the deadliest military conflict in American history, and accounted for more American military deaths than all other wars combined until the Vietnam War.
Websites
YouTube
- Conversations with Philatelists: Episode 28 – Rebranded Civil War Philatelic Society with Trish Kaufmann
- HRT3 Stamp Chats: Fort Sumter
- Kyle’s Stamps: Looking At Confederate Stamps
- Pennsylvania Postal History Society: Philadelphia Civil War Hospitals
- Pennsylvania Postal History Society: Reed Patriotic Covers
- Philatelic Society of Lancaster County: British North American Union & Confederate Postal Correspondence in US Civil War Era 1859-67
- Philatelic Society of Lancaster County: H H Warner & Co “Safe Remedies”
- Postal History Symposium 2020: Confederate States of America – Postal Innovation during the Civil War
- Stamp Chats: Civil War Covers as Historical Documents
- Stamp Chats: Patriotic Covers & History: Part I: Ft. Sumter & Its Long Shadow Secession
- Stamp Chats: Patriotic Covers and History Part 2
- Stamp Chats: U.S. Civil War Revenue Stamps
