Tag Archives: South

The Civil War 150 Years Later, book by Adam Goodheart

Yesterday April 12th was the 150th anniversary of the start of the U.S. Civil War with shots being fired on Fort Sumter.  The book below that I have included two quotes from the article about it certainly seems like it might be worth reading.  Might have to check it out.

“[At Fort Sumter] the Southerners thought that they would be able to drive the Yankees off of Confederate territory, and [they thought that] the North would feel like it wasn’t worthwhile to fight to bring the South back into the Union,” says Goodheart. “Suffice to say, they miscalculated hugely.”

Goodheart is the author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening, a social history of the earliest days of the Civil War, a time when the country — soon to be two separate nations — was preparing itself for battle. He chose the year 1861, he says, because there were so many uncertainties all over the United States.

via Adam Goodheart: Looking At The Civil War 150 Years Later : NPR.

How New York City almost left the Union

Interesting that as a history buff, I did not know that New York City had talked about secession during the Civil War.  As the article talks about, it would have greatly crippled the North because of the huge loss of tax revenue from New York City.  Certainly provides some interesting historical what if’s, if New York City had gone had with secession.

In the wake of South Carolina’s vote to secession in late December 1860, Americans both North and South anxiously wondered which state would be next to leave the Union. Little did they realize that the next call for secession would come not from a Southern state, but from a Northern city — New York City.

What’s more, pro-Southern and pro-independence sentiment was widespread in New York, particularly among the merchant class. Their pro-independence stance was partly a matter of economic opportunism: New York was not only the richest and most populous city in the country, but it was also the critical source of federal tax revenue in these days before income taxes.

via First South Carolina. Then New York? – NYTimes.com.