vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
American Civil War
Nationalism was a powerful force in the early 19th century , with famous spokesmen such as Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster . While practically all Northerners supported the Union , Southerners were split between those loyal to the entire United States ( called `` unionists '' ) and those loyal primarily to the southern region and then the Confederacy . C. Vann Woodward said of the latter group ,
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the will and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws , though the whiskey excise remained difficult to collect . The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States , a process already underway . The whiskey tax was repealed in the early 1800s during the Jefferson administration .
Military history of the United States
Long - building tensions between the Northern and Southern States over slavery suddenly reached a climax after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln of the new anti-slavery Republican Party as U.S. President . Southern states seceded from the U.S. and formed a separate Confederacy . Within the Confederate states , many U.S. forts with garrisons still loyal to the Union were cut off . Fighting started in 1861 when Fort Sumter was fired upon .
American Civil War
The Union 's key strategist and tactician in the West was Ulysses S. Grant , who won victories at Forts Henry and Donelson ( by which the Union seized control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers ) ; the Battle of Shiloh ; and the Battle of Vicksburg , which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River and is considered one of the turning points of the war . Grant marched to the relief of Rosecrans and defeated Bragg at the Third Battle of Chattanooga , driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening a route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy .
American Civil War
As Southerners resigned their seats in the Senate and the House , Republicans were able to pass bills for projects that had been blocked by Southern Senators before the war , including the Morrill Tariff , land grant colleges ( the Morrill Act ) , a Homestead Act , a transcontinental railroad ( the Pacific Railway Acts ) , the National Banking Act and the authorization of United States Notes by the Legal Tender Act of 1862 . The Revenue Act of 1861 introduced the income tax to help finance the war .
American Civil War
The Union and Confederacy quickly raised volunteer and conscription armies that fought mostly in the South over four years . The Union finally won the war when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House , followed by a series of surrenders by Confederate generals throughout the southern states . Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead , more than the number of U.S. military deaths in all other wars combined ( at least until approximately the Vietnam War ) . Much of the South 's infrastructure was destroyed , especially the transportation systems , railroads , mills , and houses . The Confederacy collapsed , slavery was abolished , and 4 million slaves were freed . The Reconstruction Era ( 1863 -- 1877 ) overlapped and followed the war , with the process of restoring national unity , strengthening the national government , and granting civil rights to freed slaves throughout the country . The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history .
Presidency of Abraham Lincoln
In April 1861 , Lincoln announced the Union blockade of all Southern ports ; commercial ships could not get insurance and regular traffic ended . The South blundered in embargoing cotton exports in 1861 before the blockade was effective ; by the time they realized the mistake , it was too late . `` King Cotton '' was dead , as the South could export less than 10 percent of its cotton . The Confederate Navy briefly challenged Union naval supremacy by building an ironclad warship known as the CSS Virginia , but the Union responded by building its own ship , the USS Monitor , which effectively neutralized the Confederate naval threat . The blockade shut down the ten Confederate seaports with railheads that moved almost all the cotton , especially New Orleans , Mobile , and Charleston . By June 1861 , warships were stationed off the principal Southern ports , and a year later nearly 300 ships were in service . Surdam argues that the blockade was a powerful weapon that eventually ruined the Southern economy , at the cost of few lives in combat . Practically , the entire Confederate cotton crop was useless ( although it was sold to Union traders ) , costing the Confederacy its main source of income . Critical imports were scarce and the coastal trade was largely ended as well . The measure of the blockade 's success was not the few ships that slipped through , but the thousands that never tried it . Merchant ships owned in Europe could not get insurance and were too slow to evade the blockade ; they simply stopped calling at Confederate ports .
American Civil War
Since the Emancipation Proclamation was based on the President 's war powers , it only included territory held by Confederates at the time . However , the Proclamation became a symbol of the Union 's growing commitment to add emancipation to the Union 's definition of liberty . The Emancipation Proclamation greatly reduced the Confederacy 's hope of getting aid from Britain or France . By late 1864 , Lincoln was playing a leading role in getting Congress to vote for the Thirteenth Amendment , which made emancipation universal and permanent .
Confederate States of America
John Slidell , the Confederate States emissary to France , did succeed in negotiating a loan of $15,000,000 from Erlanger and other French capitalists . The money went to buy ironclad warships , as well as military supplies that came in with blockade runners . The British government did allow the construction of blockade runners in Britain ; they were owned and operated by British financiers and sailors ; a few were owned and operated by the Confederacy . The British investors ' goal was to get highly profitable cotton .
United Kingdom and the American Civil War
The fact that British private interests operated blockade runners was not a cause of serious tension . In the end , British involvement did not significantly affect the outcome of the war . The U.S. diplomatic mission headed by Minister Charles Francis Adams , Sr. , proved much more successful than the Confederate missions , which were never officially recognized by Britain .
American Civil War
A Unionist secession attempt occurred in East Tennessee , but was suppressed by the Confederacy , which arrested over 3,000 men suspected of being loyal to the Union . They were held without trial .
United Kingdom and the American Civil War
The decisive factor , in the fall of 1862 and increasingly thereafter was the Battle of Antietam and what grew out of it . Lee 's invasion was a failure at Antietam , and he barely escaped back to Virginia . It was now obvious that no final , conclusive Confederate triumph could be anticipated . The swift recession of the high Confederate tide was as visible in Britain as in America , and in the end , Palmerston and Russell dropped any notion of bringing a mediation - recognition program before the cabinet .
American Civil War
Perceived insults to Southern collective honor included the enormous popularity of Uncle Tom 's Cabin ( 1852 ) and the actions of abolitionist John Brown in trying to incite a slave rebellion in 1859 .
North Carolina
In 1860 , North Carolina was a slave state , in which one - third of the population was enslaved . This was a smaller proportion than in many Southern states . The state did not vote to join the Confederacy until President Abraham Lincoln called on it to invade its sister state , South Carolina , becoming the last or second - to - last state to officially join the Confederacy . The title of `` last to join the Confederacy '' has been disputed ; although Tennessee 's informal secession on May 7 , 1861 , preceded North Carolina 's official secession on May 20 , the Tennessee legislature did not formally vote to secede until June 8 , 1861 .
United Kingdom and the American Civil War
I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis . It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this Government which was built on the foundation of human rights , and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of slavery , was likely to obtain the favor of Europe .
History of women in the United States
By summer 1861 , the Union naval blockade virtually shut down the export of cotton and the import of manufactured goods . Food that formerly came overland was cut off .
Whiskey Rebellion
Daniel Morgan , a general key to the winning of the American Revolution , was called up to lead a force to suppress the protest . It was at this time ( 1794 ) that Morgan was promoted to Major General . Serving under General `` Light - Horse Harry '' Lee , Morgan led one wing of the militia army into Western Pennsylvania . The massive show of force brought an end to the protests without a shot being fired . After the uprising had been suppressed , Morgan commanded the remnant of the army that remained until 1795 in Pennsylvania , some 1,200 militiamen , one of whom was Meriwether Lewis .
Confederate States of America
In 1863 governor Pendleton Murrah of Texas determined that state troops were required for defense against Plains Indians and Union forces that might attack from Kansas . He refused to send his soldiers to the East . Governor Zebulon Vance of North Carolina showed intense opposition to conscription , limiting recruitment success . Vance 's faith in states ' rights drove him into repeated , stubborn opposition to the Davis administration .
Georgia during Reconstruction
In mid-June 1865 , Andrew Johnson appointed as provisional governor his friend and fellow Unionist , James Johnson , a Columbus lawyer who sat out the war . Delegates to a constitutional convention , meeting in Milledgeville in October , abolished slavery , repealed the Ordinance of Secession , and repudiated the Confederacy debt . The General Assembly , while alone among ex-Confederate states in refraining from enacting a harsh Black Code , assumed newly freed slaves would enjoy only the limited freedom of the prewar period 's ' free persons of color , ' and enacted a constitutional amendment outlawing interracial marriage . On November 15 , 1865 , Georgia elected a new governor , congressmen , and state legislators . Voters repudiated most Unionist candidates , electing to office many ex-Confederates , although several of these - including the new governor , former Whig Charles J. Jenkins - initially opposed secession . The new state legislator created a political firestorm in Washington by electing to the Senate Alexander Stephens and Herschel Johnson , respectively , Vice-President and Senator of the Confederacy . Neither Stephens , Johnson nor any of Georgia 's House delegation were allowed to take their seats .
History of United States foreign policy
Every nation was officially neutral throughout the American Civil War , and none recognized the Confederacy . That marked a major diplomatic achievement for Secretary Seward and the Lincoln Administration . France , under Napoleon III , had invaded Mexico and installed a puppet regime ; it hoped to negate American influence . France therefore encouraged Britain in a policy of mediation suggesting that both would recognize the Confederacy . Lincoln repeatedly warned that meant war . The British textile industry depended on cotton from the South , but it had stocks to keep the mills operating for a year and in any case the industrialists and workers carried little weight in British politics . Knowing a war would cut off vital shipments of American food , wreak havoc on the British merchant fleet , and cause the immediate loss of Canada , Britain , with its powerful Royal Navy , refused to go along with French schemes .
History of Maryland
See also : American Civil War , Origins of the American Civil War and History of slavery in Maryland
Confederate States of America
The Southern nation was by turns a guileless people attacked by a voracious neighbor , an ' established ' nation in some temporary difficulty , a collection of bucolic aristocrats making a romantic stand against the banalities of industrial democracy , a cabal of commercial farmers seeking to make a pawn of King Cotton , an apotheosis of nineteenth - century nationalism and revolutionary liberalism , or the ultimate statement of social and economic reaction . Alexander
Twenty Negro Law
The `` Twenty Negro Law '' , also known as the `` Twenty Slave Law '' and the `` Twenty Nigger Law '' , was a piece of legislation enacted by the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War . The law specifically exempted from Confederate military service one white man for every twenty slaves owned on a Confederate plantation , or for two or more plantations within five miles of each other that collectively had twenty or more slaves . Passed as part of the Second Conscription Act in 1862 , the law was a reaction to United States President Abraham Lincoln 's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation , which was issued barely three weeks earlier . The law addressed Confederate fears of a slave rebellion due to so many white men being absent from home , as they were fighting in the Confederate army . The Confederacy enacted the first conscription laws in United States history , and the percentage of Confederate soldiers who were conscripts was nearly double that of United States soldiers .
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter ( April 12 -- 13 , 1861 ) was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston , South Carolina by the Confederate States Army , and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army , that started the American Civil War . Following the declaration of secession by South Carolina on December 20 , 1860 , its authorities demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor . On December 26 , Major Robert Anderson of the U.S. Army surreptitiously moved his small command from the vulnerable Fort Moultrie on Sullivan 's Island to Fort Sumter , a substantial fortress built on an island controlling the entrance of Charleston Harbor . An attempt by U.S. President James Buchanan to reinforce and resupply Anderson using the unarmed merchant ship Star of the West failed when it was fired upon by shore batteries on January 9 , 1861 . South Carolina authorities then seized all Federal property in the Charleston area except for Fort Sumter .
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America ( CSA or C.S. ) , commonly referred to as the Confederacy and the South , was an unrecognized country in North America that existed from 1861 to 1865 . The Confederacy was originally formed by seven secessionist slave - holding states -- South Carolina , Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , and Texas -- in the Lower South region of the United States , whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture , particularly cotton , and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African - American slaves .
United Kingdom and the American Civil War
The possibility of recognizing the Confederacy came to the fore late in the summer of 1862 . At that time , as far as any European could see , the war seemed to be a stalemate . The US attempt to capture the Confederate capital had failed , and in the east and west alike , the Confederates were on the offensive . Charles Francis Adams , Sr. , warned Washington that the British government might very soon offer to mediate the difficulty between North and South , which would be a polite but effective way of intimating that in the opinion of Britain , the fight had gone on long enough and should be ended by giving the South what it wanted . Recognition , as Adams warned , risked all - out war with the United States . War would involve an invasion of Canada , a full - scale American attack on British shipping interests worldwide , an end to American grain shipments that were providing a large part of the British food supply , and an end to British sales of machinery and supplies to the US . The British leadership , however , thought that if the Union armies were decisively defeated , the US might soften its position and accept mediation .
False Claims Act
The American Civil War ( 1861 -- 1865 ) was marked by fraud on all levels , both in the Union north and the Confederate south . During the war , unscrupulous contractors sold the Union Army decrepit horses and mules in ill health , faulty rifles and ammunition , and rancid rations and provisions , among other unscrupulous actions . In response , Congress passed the False Claims Act on March 2 , 1863 , 12 Stat. 696 . Because it was passed under the administration of President Abraham Lincoln , the False Claims Act is often referred to as the `` Lincoln Law '' .
American Revolution
Many black slaves sided with the Loyalists . Tens of thousands in the South used the turmoil of war to escape , and the southern plantation economies of South Carolina and Georgia especially were disrupted . During the Revolution , the British tried to turn slavery against the Americans . Historian David Brion Davis explains the difficulties with a policy of wholesale arming of the slaves :
Confederate States of America
The government of the United States ( the Union ) rejected the claims of secession and considered the Confederacy illegally founded . The War began with the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter on April 12 , 1861 , a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston , South Carolina . No foreign government officially recognized the Confederacy as an independent country , although Great Britain and France granted it belligerent status , which allowed Confederate agents to contract with private concerns for arms and other supplies . In early 1865 , after four years of heavy fighting which led to 620,000 - 850,000 military deaths , all the Confederate forces surrendered and the Confederacy vanished . The war lacked a formal end ; nearly all Confederate forces had been forced into surrender or deliberately disbanded by the end of 1865 , by which point the dwindling manpower and resources of the Confederacy were facing overwhelming odds . By 1865 , Jefferson Davis lamented that the Confederacy had `` disappeared '' .
Confederate States of America
Confederate control over its claimed territory and population in congressional districts steadily shrank from 73 % to 34 % during the course of the American Civil War due to the Union 's successful overland campaigns , its control of the inland waterways into the South , and its blockade of the southern coast . With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1 , 1863 , the Union made abolition of slavery a war goal ( in addition to reunion ) . As Union forces moved southward , large numbers of plantation slaves were freed . Many joined the Union lines , enrolling in service as soldiers , teamsters and laborers . The most notable advance was Sherman 's `` March to the Sea '' in late 1864 . Much of the Confederacy 's infrastructure was destroyed , including telegraphs , railroads and bridges . Plantations in the path of Sherman 's forces were severely damaged . Internal movement became increasingly difficult for Southerners , weakening the economy and limiting army mobility .
Andrew Carnegie
Defeat of the Confederacy required vast supplies of munitions , as well as railroads ( and telegraph lines ) to deliver the goods . The war demonstrated how integral the industries were to American success .
United Kingdom and the American Civil War
The Confederate strategy for securing independence was based largely on the hope of military intervention by Britain and France , which never happened , as it probably would have caused war with the US . A serious diplomatic dispute erupted over the `` Trent Affair '' in late 1861 but was resolved peacefully after a few months . British intervention was likely only in co-operation with France , which had an imperialistic venture underway in Mexico . By early 1863 , intervention was no longer seriously considered , as Britain turned its attention elsewhere , especially toward Russia and Greece .
American Civil War
The causes of the war , the reasons for its outcome , and even the name of the war itself are subjects of lingering contention today . The North and West grew rich while the once - rich South became poor for a century . The national political power of the slaveowners and rich southerners ended . Historians are less sure about the results of the postwar Reconstruction , especially regarding the second class citizenship of the Freedmen and their poverty .
Turning point of the American Civil War
Military historian J.F.C. Fuller contended that Grant 's defeat of Braxton Bragg 's army at Chattanooga , Tennessee was the turning point of the war because it reduced the Confederacy to the Atlantic coast and opened the way for William T. Sherman 's Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea .
American Civil War
Lincoln 's moderate approach succeeded in inducing border states , War Democrats and emancipated slaves to fight for the Union . The Union - controlled border states ( Kentucky , Missouri , Maryland , Delaware and West Virginia ) and Union - controlled regions around New Orleans , Norfolk and elsewhere , were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation . All abolished slavery on their own , except Kentucky and Delaware .
Secession in the United States
During the presidential term of Andrew Jackson , South Carolina had its own semi-secession movement due to the 1828 `` Tariff of Abomination '' which threatened both South Carolina 's economy and the Union . Andrew Jackson also threatened to send federal troops to put down the movement and to hang the leader of the secessionists from the highest tree in South Carolina . Also due to this , Jackson 's vice president , John C. Calhoun , who supported the movement and wrote the essay `` The South Carolina Exposition and Protest '' , became the first US vice-president to resign . On May 1 , 1833 , Jackson wrote of nullification , `` the tariff was only a pretext , and disunion and southern confederacy the real object . The next pretext will be the negro , or slavery question . '' South Carolina also threatened to secede in 1850 over the issue of California 's statehood . It became the first state to declare its secession from the Union on December 20 , 1860 , with the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union and later joined with the other southern states in the Confederacy .
Emancipation Proclamation
Slaves had been part of the `` engine of war '' for the Confederacy . They produced and prepared food ; sewed uniforms ; repaired railways ; worked on farms and in factories , shipping yards , and mines ; built fortifications ; and served as hospital workers and common laborers . News of the Proclamation spread rapidly by word of mouth , arousing hopes of freedom , creating general confusion , and encouraging thousands to escape to Union lines . George Washington Albright , a teenage slave in Mississippi , recalled that like many of his fellow slaves , his father escaped to join Union forces . According to Albright , plantation owners tried to keep the Proclamation from slaves but news of it came through the `` grapevine '' . The young slave became a `` runner '' for an informal group they called the 4Ls ( `` Lincoln 's Legal Loyal League '' ) bringing news of the proclamation to secret slave meetings at plantations throughout the region .