ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the two competing sides, the Union and the Confederacy, and surveys the course of the war in two chronological periods: 1861–62 and 1863–65. The focus then turns towards the Republican Party’s attempt to repair the immense political, economic and social damage caused by America’s most divisive conflict in the post-war period known as Reconstruction. The American Civil War and its messy aftermath was a defining moment in the history of the United States. The focus then turns towards the Republican Party’s attempt to repair the immense political, economic and social damage caused by America’s most divisive conflict in the post-war period known as Recons. War affected the home front in ways that no one could have anticipated, although only in the Confederacy was daily life transformed. The moderate wing of the party, led by James G. Blaine and Lyman Trumbull, prioritised restoration of pre-war prosperity in which cotton was king.
