The American Civil War officially started on April 12, 1861 when Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C was fired upon. Major Robert Anderson and his force of eight-five men were in Confederate territory and the Confederation asked them to leave. When Anderson refused, the next morning, Fort Sumter was fired upon for thirty-four straight hours. Anderson and his men fired back, but only slightly to conserve ammo. On April 13 Anderson surrendered and none of his men were killed. Confederates saw this battle as self-defense, while the Union saw this as an assault on their fort. President Lincoln responded to this by calling for volunteers to join his army and the Confederates responded by making an army of their own. Though the Union had more resources and industrial and economic ability the Confederacy had size. (Douglas-Cooper, H., Dunne, J., Kahn, N., Kerr-Jarrett, A., Landis, B., McDonald, F., Parrish ,M … Warren, R, 2011) “Counter balancing the North’s larger pool of material resources was the Confederacy’s immense size… the south occupied about the same amount of territory as Western Europe, which gave it what military historians call “strategic depth.” This allows an army defending its territory to retreat in the face of a stronger force.” (Douglas-Cooper, H …show more content…
It was fought in Virginia, Manassas Junction and the battle was focused in a key transport junction. The Confederate army won the battle even though the Union’s army out numbered them. On the day of the battle the Union troops made a surprise attack on the Confederate’s left flank, which almost won them the battle, if not for General Joseph Johnston and his divisions. The Confederates retreated uphill and had a chance to regroup. Then, the now organized Southerners turned to face their enemy and screamed the famous rebel yell (Kelly, 2011) (p. 44). The Confederacy’s victory gave the southern states more confidence and convinced the Union to work