Portal:American Civil War/Grand Parade of the States/Archive2007

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This page occupied the Grand Parade of the States article space on this portal from construction until August 30, 2007, when variable automation was turned on.
During the American Civil War, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania played a critical role in the Union, providing a huge supply of military manpower, materiel, and leadership to the Federal government.
Over 360,000 Pennsylvanians served in the Union Army, more than any other Northern state except New York.Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PAHMC) (some other states sent a larger proportion of their population but not a larger number). Beginning with President Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Pennsylvania mustered 215 infantry regiments, as well as dozens of emergency militia regiments that were raised to repel threatened invasions in 1862 and 1863 by the Confederate States Army. Twenty-two cavalry regiments were also mustered, as well as dozens of light artillery batteries.
The vast majority of Pennsylvania troops fought in the Eastern Theater, with only about 10% serving elsewhere. Official Records; PAHMC. The thirteen regiments of the Pennsylvania Reserves fought as the only army division all from a single state, and saw action in most of the major campaigns and battles of the Army of the Potomac.
====August 30, 2007 - September 30, 2007====
Mississippi was the second state to secede from the Union on January 9, 1861. It joined six other Cotton States to form the Confederate States of America in February. Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the North and South; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and cities.
Mississippi troops fought in every major theater of the war, although most were concentrated in the west. The only President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, was a native Mississippian. Prominent Mississippi generals included William Barksdale, Carnot Posey, Wirt Adams, Earl Van Dorn, and Benjamin G. Humphreys.
For years prior to the Civil War, Mississippi had heavily voted Democratic, especially as the Whigs declined in their influence. During the 1860 presidential election, the state supported Southern Democrat candidate John C. Breckinridge, giving him 40,768 votes (59.0% of the total of 69,095 ballots cast). John Bell, the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party, came in a distant second with 25,045 votes (36.25% of the total), with Stephen A. Douglas of the Northern Democrats receiving 3,282 votes (4.75%). Not a single Mississippian voted for Abraham Lincoln, who won the national election. 
Long a hotbed of secession and states' rights, Mississippi left the Union on January 9, 1861, briefly forming the Republic of Mississippi before joining the Confederacy not a month later. Although there were small pockets of citizens who remained sympathetic to the Union, the vast majority of Mississippians embraced the Confederate cause, and thousands flocked to the military. Around 80,000 white men from Mississippi fought in the Confederate Army; some 500 white Mississippians fought for the Union. As the war progressed, a considerable number of freed or escaped slaves joined the United States Colored Troops and similar black regiments. More than 17,000 black Mississippi slaves and freedmen fought for the Union.
====October 1, 2007-October 31, 2007====
Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the North and South. Due to its location and a desire from both opposing factions to sway her population to their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the American Civil War. The first fatalities of the war happened during the Baltimore Riot of 1861, and the single bloodiest day of combat in American military history occurred near Sharpsburg, Maryland, at the Battle of Antietam, which provided the opportunity for President Lincoln to issue his famed Emancipation Proclamation. The 1864 Battle of Monocacy helped delay a Confederate army bent on striking the Federal capital of Washington, D.C..
Nearly 85,000 citizens signed up for the military, with most joining the Union army, although nearly a quarter of these enlisted to fight for the Confederate States of America. Leading Maryland leaders and officers during the Civil War included Governor Thomas H. Hicks, who despite his early sympathies for the South, helped prevent the state from seceding, and General George H. "Maryland" Steuart, who was a noted brigade commander under Robert E. Lee.
====November 1, 2007-November 30, 2007====
On January 18, 1861, Georgia seceded from the Union and joined the newly-formed Confederacy in February. During the war, Georgia sent nearly 100,000 soldiers to battle, mostly to armies in Virginia. Thinking the state safe from invasion, the Confederates built several small munitions factories in Georgia, as well as housing tens of thousands of Union prisoners. Their largest prisoner of war camp, at Andersonville, proved a death camp because of severe lack of supplies, food, water, and medicine. Georgia was indeed relatively free from war until late 1863. A total of nearly 550 battles and skirmishes occurred within the state, with the vast majority in the last two years of the conflict. The first major battle in Georgia was a Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863—it was the last major Confederate victory in the west.
Sherman's March has become a major part of the state's folk history, and Georgia is the setting for Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and the subsequent 1939 film. Today, many of Georgia's Civil War battlefields, particularly those around Atlanta, have been lost to modern urban development. However, a number of sites have been well preserved, including Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Other Civil War related sites include Stone Mountain, Fort Pulaski, and the Atlanta Cyclorama.
====December 1, 2007-December 31, 2007====
California's involvement in the American Civil War included sending gold east, maintaining numerous fortifications, and recruiting or funding a limited number of combat units, including some soldiers who gained notability during the conflict. Republican supporters of Abraham Lincoln took control of the state in 1861, minimizing the influence of the large southern population, leading to a Pacific railroad land grant and authorization to build the Central Pacific as the western half of the transcontinental railroad. 
California was settled primarily by Midwestern and Southern farmers, miners and businessmen. Though the southerners tended to favor the Confederacy, the state did not permit slavery, and they remained generally powerless during the war itself. California was home for powerful capitalists who played a significant role in Californian politics through their control of mines, shipping, and finance, and the Republican party. The possibility of splitting off Southern California as a territory (not a state) was rejected by the national government, and the idea was dead by 1861 when a fervor of patriotism swept California after the attack on Fort Sumter.