Chapter XIX

The End of the Civil War

In the United States, elections for president are held every four years. So in 1864, it was time for new elections. This time, the South was another country, so it did not take part in the election. This time there were only two parties. The Democrats chose McClellan as their candidate.

The Democrats said that the war had lasted too long and too many people had been killed. Lincoln said the war had to continue until the United States had won. At first, many people were for McClellan. But early in September 1864, Sherman captured and burned Atlanta. Atlanta was a major railroad center. After Atlanta was burned, there was very much confusion on the Southern railroads. Supplies were not reaching the Confederate soldiers. The people of the North saw that the United States was very close to winning the war and they began to support Lincoln. In November 1864, the election results were as follows:

Lincoln		2,213,655
McClellan		1,805,237

Grant now knew that he could win the war. He told his soldiers they had to get out of their trenches and move forward. In one month of 1864, there were 55,000 Northern casualties near the city of Richmond, Virginia. Richmond was the most important city in the Confederacy. In the beginning of April 1865, Grant captured Richmond. The Confederates retreated to Appomattox. However, the commander of the Confederate army, Robert E. Lee, saw that he could not fight any longer. His soldiers were hungry. So on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered and the war ended.

The total number of casualties was around one million. The number of dead in the American Civil War was larger than the combined number of dead from all of the American wars up to 1960. If you add up the number of Americans who died in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, all of the wars with the Indians, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, the number will not be as large as the number of dead in the Civil War alone. The American Civil War set a new record for the number of casualties. Never before had the world seen so many soldiers killed in a war.

Less than a week after the war ended, Lincoln decided to relax. He went to a theater to watch a play. Because he was the President, they gave him a very good seat near the front where he could see and hear everything. In the middle of the play, a famous actor, John Wilkes Booth, pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Lincoln. Lincoln died four hours later. Booth jumped off the stage and went out to the street where he had a horse tied up. His horse galloped across the bridge to Alexandria, Virginia, where his friends lived. There was so much confusion in the theater that no one followed him. However, in jumping off the stage, he broke his leg. His friends in Alexandria called a doctor. A few days later, some of the neighbors saw the doctor coming and they became suspicious and told the police. The police came. Booth was killed in a shoot-out in a barn. His friends were arrested.

At the same time that Lincoln was shot, other men were shooting at other government officials. People who were angry because the Confederacy had lost had organized a conspiracy to kill some of the top government officials. They wanted the vice-president, Andrew Johnson, to become the president because they believed he would be friendlier to the South. If Lincoln were dead, Johnson would be president. Some of the men who were part of the conspiracy were tried and hanged. But these men did not tell the names of the other people who were part of the conspiracy. To this day, we do not know the names of all of the men who were part of the conspiracy.

They decided to bury Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois. As the train that carried his body passed through the cities and villages, huge crowds gathered. Many people cried.

During the four years of war, the thinking of the Northern people changed-a great deal. After many of their sons and brothers were killed at the front, some Northern people began to hate the South. They began to say that the South should be punished. At the same time, they saw how much the Black people were helping the United States. They began to think that the Black people should be rewarded. Some people believed that the North could not have won the war without the help of the Black people. They said that it was the Black people who gave the United States the added strength that made it possible to win the war. Now most people in the North were against slavery. Everybody, North and South, knew that slavery had been ended forever.

As a result, the 13th amendment was added to the Constitution. It said that never again would slavery be allowed in the United States. All slaves were to be freed without any compensation to their owners. Two billion dollars of property was wiped out. Nobody raised his or her voice in opposition.