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Background
“A blue-coated Union soldier was
carefully preparing a grave for a gray-coated Confederate
soldier. A puzzled Union officer asked the soldier why he
was working so hard to bury an enemy. The Union soldier
lowered his eyes and answered softly, “He is my brother.”
This aspect of the Civil War is sometimes the hardest to
remember: country men fought countrymen, brother fought
brother.”
The Civil War lasted four years –
almost exactly four years. The start of the war began with
the Confederate bombardment of Ft. Sumter, South Carolina on
April 12, 1861. The end of the Civil War is marked by
General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S.
Grant at the home of Wilmer McLean in the village of
Appomattox Court House , Virginia on April 9, 1865. The
following is an excerpt from Lee’s farewell address to his
army : “After four years of arduous service, marked by
unsurpassed courage and fortitude , the Army of Northern
Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers
and resources.”
The Civil War resulted in almost as many deaths as the total
of all other American Wars. One in every five military men
in the Civil War died in service. Of the 620,000 men who
died, 340,000 were from the North and about 280,000 were
from the South. The goal of this Civil War project is to
have you research the major events of the Civil War. Our
hope is that you will learn more than we could ever teach
you and at the same time enjoy the topic that you have been
assigned to research.
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