The Civil War and Reconstruction - AP US History

The election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 led to the secession of the Deep South and the formation of the Confederate States of America. The Civil War began in 1861 as a limited war between Union forces seeking to preserve the Union and Confederate forces seeking to preserve their independence and domestic institutions. Over time, Lincoln's limited war to preserve the Union grew into a total war whose objectives included the abolition of slavery. The war ended with the surrender of Confederate forces in 1865.

The process of Reconstruction lasted longer than the war, itself. While Lincoln attempted to implement a lenient Presidential Reconstruction policy, after his assassination, the national mood favored the Radical Reconstruction policies of the Radical Republicans in Congress. The former Confederate states would not be completely restored until 1877, when the last federal troops were removed from South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida as part of a compromise to settle the 1876 presidential election.

APUSH Period 5

The content of this unit spans the first part of Period 5 in the AP US History curriculum framework.

Unit Guide and Primary Sources

"What a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbours, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world!"
-- Robert E. Lee

Causes of the Civil War

Lecture Outline

Click the image for a link to my lecture outline on the Causes of the Civil War. This is a work in progress but may still be helpful to students.

Union and Confederate Advantages

Although the Union enjoyed many material advantages at the outset of the Civil War, the Confederates had some advantages, as well.

This music video by MrBettsClass is a great and fun way to review the advantages of the Union and the Confederacy in the Civil War.

Civil War PowerPoint Presentations

The Civil War

The Emancipation Proclamation

The Gettysburg Address

Reconstruction

The Civil War was followed by a twelve year period of Reconstruction, as Presidents Lincoln and Johnson attempted to bring the Confederate states back into the Union under generous terms while the Radical Republicans in Congress advocated that these states should be treated like "conquered provinces." Reconstruction ended with Compromise of 1877, which restored white Democratic rule in the South in return for Southern acquiescence to a Republican victory in the 1876 presidential election.