The Great Battles of the American Civil War The Civil War, often called the War for Southern Independence, began on April 12, 1861. The primary cause of the war was slavery. Southern states depended on slaves to help grow the crops that were the main source of income for the South. Slavery was illegal in all northern states, but most people were actually neutral about it. The main conflict was whether slavery should be allowed in the developing Western territories. The first battle of the Civil War occurred on April 10, 1861 when Brigadier General Beauregard demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter. The fort's commander, Major Anderson, refused. Two days later Confederate artillery fell on the fort. The next day Major Anderson surrendered the fort. This was the opening clash of the Civil War. The First Battle of Bull Run was the first battle during the Civil War in which troops met face to face. The battle took place on July 16, 1861. The Union army was led by Brigadier General Irvin McDowell. McDowell was marching from Washington and on the 21st attacked the left flank of the Confederate army on Matthews Hill. Reinforcements for the Confederates arrived late in the afternoon. These new troops advanced and broke through the Union right flank. This sent the Union army into retreat, although the Confederate army was too disorganized to pursue. The First Battle of Bull Run convinced Lincoln that the war would be long and costly. Soon thereafter General McDowell was relieved of command and replaced by Major General George B. McClellan. The Battle of Shiloh took place over two days. It all began as a result of the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, the commander of the area, was forced to fall back, giving up Kentucky and much of western and central Tennessee. He chose Corinth, Mississippi, a major transportation center, as a staging area for an offensive against Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee before the Army of the Ohio, under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, could you join it. The Confederate downsizing was a surprise, if pleasant, to the Union forces, and Grant, with some 40,000 men, took time to mount a southern offensive, along the Tennessee River, toward Pittsburgh Landing. Grant was ordered to wait for Buell's army... half the paper... of wounded stretched more than fourteen miles. Human suffering extended beyond the military sphere and continued long after the fighting ended. During the conflict, thousands of black and white Southerners became refugees, losing many of their possessions and facing uncertain futures in strange environments. Far fewer Northern civilians experienced the war so directly, although the citizens of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, saw their town burned by Confederate cavalry in 1864. An unknown number of civilians died at the hands of guerrillas, deserters, and, less frequently, soldiers regulars in war. both armies. After the war, many thousands of veterans struggled to cope with loss of limbs and other injuries. Thousands of families have faced financial hardship due to the death of husbands and fathers. The U.S. government made small pensions available for disabled veterans and soldiers' widows, and Southern states did the same for former Confederate soldiers and their widows. In neither case, however, were the funds sufficient to provide for all of a family's needs. Bibliography www.about.com Microsoft Encarta www.historyplace.com