Events and battles
Union and Confederacy
View of Washington with the Capitol still under construction.
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View of Richmond during the 1860s. |
The United States was broken. After years of differences and compromises, war erupted. The Union and Confederacy fought a civil war, a fight between opposing sides of the same nation. The Northern states stayed with the Union, while the Southern states joined the Confederacy. The Union capital remained Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va., became the capital of the Confederate States of America. The two capitals were just 100 miles apart.
The Confederacy wanted independence and freedom from a national government. Confederates believed each state should be allowed to withdraw from the union and determine its own future. The United States wanted to preserve the union created by the Constitution. Northerners felt states should not be able to leave, so their objective was to put down the rebellion and bring the states back into the union. War would decide the fate of the nation.
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States that seceded
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
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Remaining in Union
Border states (slave states)
Delaware
Kentucky
Maryland
Missouri
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Free States
California
Connecticut
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin
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