Introduction to the Civil War

The Civil War has its origins in the earliest days of the United States. It was a point of contention for the founders that was pushed down the road in an effort to obtain the unity necessary to launch the new republic. In the early 1800’s, states were added to the nation and many paid close attention to these states being free or slave states. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 stipulated that Missouri would be added as a slave state in conjunction with Maine being added as a free state. This provision also prohibited slavery in much of the Louisiana Purchase that was a territory at that time.

As more states were added, pro-slavery advocates became increasingly concerned that the voting power in Congress would tilt toward the anti-slavery proponents. Texas was added as a slave state in 1845 and Iowa was added as a free state in 1846. By the 1850’s, tensions had increased even more with the adding of Minnesota (1858) and Oregon (1859) as free states with no corresponding slave states.

Abraham Lincoln ran for president in 1860 on a platform opposing slavery. When he was elected, the Confederacy was effectively created and numerous southern states seceded from the Union. On January 29, 1861, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state after a contentious election. The attack by Confederate forces on the Union’s Fort Sumter in the bay of Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, started the fighting.

Many of the early battles of the war are generally considered to be Confederate victories. The Union experienced its first successes in the western theatre of the war at Fort Donelson on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The victorious general was US Grant. The western theatre seems to be less well known than the more famous battles in the eastern part of the country. However, the success in the west was critical to the war effort in that it split the Confederacy in two and left the Union in control of the Mississippi River.

The three soldiers buried in Sacred Heart and Elba Cemeteries all fought in the western theatre. Although Iowa was a relatively new state, it had the highest percentage of volunteers join the military of any state. The volunteer rate was so high that the military draft implemented in Washington, DC was not even established in Iowa.

The remainder of the war is well known with a pivotal battle at Gettysburg followed by very bloody campaigns from the north and west to squeeze the Confederacy into submission. Medical science had not progressed as fast as weaponry and thousands of soldiers died from the aftereffects of wounds rather than from the wounds themselves. The Civil War remains the deadliest war in the history of the United States.