Throughout history, war has been a large part of American life. War is defined as "a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations" ("Andersonville" Merriam Webster ). War is not a new event, but a quite common and deadly phenomenon. Wars have been taking place since the beginning of time and will remain a part of life until the end of time. One war was the Civil War fought between the states in the 1860's.
In April of 1861, one of the deadliest wars of all time began. This war was known as the Civil War. The war lasted until May 1865, when Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered at Sherman, North Carolina ("Andersonville" Yahoo). By the end of the war of the over 3 million soldiers that fought, 600,000 died ("Andersonville" Civil War). The Civil War was the only war in American history to be fought on American ground by American soldiers ("Andersonville" Civil War).
This a picture of one of the survivors of Anderson...
Andersonville prisoners and tents, southwest view ...
Bird's eye view of the Andersonville POW camp.The Civil War was fought because of differences in the way people of the North and people of the South believed the government should have been run. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. This action by South Carolina was soon followed by six more states succeeding from the Union. The six other states were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. On February 4, 1861, these seven southern states made there own government called the Confederacy ("Andersonville" Encyclopedia Americana). "The chief and immediate cause of the war was slavery" ("Andersonville" Encarta). The southern states used slave labor to work on the plantations for producing crops. The main crop of the time was cotton which was produced heavily. The Northern states did not use slavery because the majority of the...