Civil war question?

Question

umm... did the north think of the war as a good thing that they would benifit from or as a bad thing...
same as the southerners... same question

Answer 1

The Federals just saw it as a way to preserve the Union, to keep it intact, though throughout the war a majority of people were against it, or close to a majority.

Answer 2

Why would anyone fight for something that they did not think was a good thing?

Both sides thought they were right and fighting for a noble cause. The Federals were at first fighting to preserve the Union until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation; after that, it became a war to free the slaves.

The Confederacy was fighting for State's Rights and their independence. The Southern States had seceded (left) from the Union and banded together to form a new, separate nation. The United States government didn't think the action was legal and did not recognize the new nation. The war ensued.

As a footnote, because I know it's coming: anyone who says that the Confederacy fought the war to preserve slavery is either grossly ignorant and misinformed of the facts, or has an agenda which is supported by this misled and historically inaccurate belief.

Answer 3

it's pretty hard to put how and why the american civil war started into one sentence.

the american civil war was deeply complex and had it's start in a growing inflexibility in american politics in the years leading up to the war. each side found less and less in common with the other side.

i would also say that the american south, while very prosperous, was in denial about the economic about the future of slavery.

it should be remembered that lincoln was prepared to offer economic reibursement to the south for the loss of slavery. it was an astonishing amount of money too - lincoln reasoned that reimbursing the south for slavery would cost less then six months of war.

the best series of books i've seen on the subject were by bruce catton - who wrote a series of books about 100 years after the war ended.

catton wrote that:
"the civil war was the first of the world's really modern wars. that is what gives it its terrible significance. for the great fact about modern war, greater even than its frightful destrcutiveness and its calculated, carefully applied inhumanity, is that it never goes quite where the men who start it intend that it shall go. men do not control modern war; it controls them."

these words are more true today than ever...

Answer 4

When the war started the reason was to keep the union together, not slavery. I think most people were just drafted (the rich could buy their way out) and didn't think much of the politics of it. The North thought the war would be over in months.