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See the fact file below for more information on the American Civil War or alternatively, you can download our MEGA Bundle with over 40 pages of worksheets to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Historical Background
- In the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery was rampant throughout the American colonies. By the mid-19th century, the continuous westward expansion and rise of the abolition movement triggered the debate on slavery.
- In August 1831, in Southampton County, Virginia, Nat Turner led around 75 black people in a slave rebellion. More insurrections occurred and, as a result, southerners implemented rigid slave codes.
- On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown took over the Harpers Ferry arsenal and started a slave rebellion. It was immediately quashed and he was hanged for treason, but many northerners considered him a hero.
- On November 6, 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th President of the United States. Displeased by the election results, southerners feared the abolition of slavery.
- Lincoln was the first U.S. president born outside of the original thirteen colonies. He spent most of his childhood in Kentucky. His debate with Senator Stephen Douglas regarding the Kansas-Nebraska Act made him known in national politics.
- After the election of Lincoln, South Carolina seceded from the United States on December 20, 1860.
- On February 9, 1861, the Confederation was formed with southern states that also seceded, including Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. By April 1861, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas followed suit. Jefferson Davis became its president.
- There were also border states where slavery was legal but did not leave the Union. It included Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and West Virginia.
- The American Civil War was fought between the North (Union states) and the South (Confederate states). The Confederate States wanted to leave the Union.
Causes and Events of the American Civil War
- The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked the U.S. Union military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
- There were a lot of differences between the Northern states and the Southern states. The North had a lot of industry and the South had a lot of agriculture. The South depended on the work of slaves to tend the farms. The North wanted slavery abolished and the South was opposed to it. Taxes and the size of the government were also big issues.
- The Civil War was fought mostly in the southern states and there was a lot of destruction. More than 620,000 lives were lost and more than 375,000 people were injured. Many people died from disease and of wounds that could have been treated had there been adequate medical help.
- The Civil War was also known as the war between the states. People from the North were called Yankees, and people from the South were called Rebels.
- Robert E. Lee was the leader of the Confederate Army. On the other hand, Ulysses S. Grant was the leader of the Union Army.
- Some of the major battles fought during the Civil War were the First and Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of the Ironclads, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Vicksburg, and the Battle of Shiloh.
- On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation, which was an edict freeing slaves from Confederate states. Some historians question Lincoln’s authority to free slaves in the South because his authority was limited to the Union. Nevertheless, the proclamation saw around 200,000 black soldiers recruited to the Union Army and prevented the Confederacy from receiving support from England and France who imported southern cotton.
- Great Britain and France, where slavery had been abolished, supported Lincoln.
- The original five-page document is currently kept at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
- In the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln said the Civil War was to preserve a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
- On December 8, 1863, as an attempt to reunify the Union, President Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which offered pardon to Confederates who would support the Union and the Constitution.
- On March 3, 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established. It was meant to help freed slaves.
- General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, ending the Civil War. Lee said of the terms that Grant had written, “You have been very generous to the South.”
- After the war, Lincoln’s Reconstruction Era began. It lasted from 1865 until 1877. The idea was to help the former Confederate states be readmitted to the Union. It focused on the reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure and plantations.
- As part of the Ten-Percent Plan, southern states would be readmitted to the Union provided that 10% of their voters supported the federal government. In order to ensure that no further insurrections would occur, federal troops occupied the southern states.
- On April 14, 1865, five days after the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln became the first U.S. President to be assassinated. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the head at the Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth escaped and went into hiding for 12 days. He was shot dead before any trial was conducted.
- The Civil War is considered the deadliest war in American history with over 600,000 dead soldiers.
- During the war, soldiers used muskets, repeating rifles, knives, bayonets, swords, cannons, and ironclads. Moreover, the invention of the telegraph was an advantage to the Union forces.
- Union since the south could not match its communication infrastructure. Andrew Carnegie was in charge of the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps during the war.
- Aside from railroads, the Union also used hot-air balloons in combat.
American Civil War Worksheets
This bundle contains 42 PAGES of ready-to-use American civil war worksheets that are perfect for students to learn about this devastating war widely known in the United States as simply the Civil War, which was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy
American Civil War worksheets:
- Civil War Facts
- Civil War Word Search
- Who am I?
- Broadside Analysis
- Map Reading
- Historical Ladder
- Is it True?
- Civil War Weapons and Technology
- War Generals
- Women of Civil War
- Odd One Out
- Slavery 101
- North or South
- What’s in the Flag?
- Remarkable Speeches
- Building Vocabulary
- American Wars
- I’m a Speechwriter
- Poster Making
- Journal Writing
- Picture Analysis
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Link will appear as Civil War Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, December 26, 2021
Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.