The 1860 presidential election was chaotic. The Civil War was a defining event in the history of the United States and, for the Americans thrust into it, a wrenching one. Simultaneously, women thrust themselves into critical wartime roles while navigating a world without many men of military age. African Americans, both enslaved and free, pressed the issue of emancipation and nurtured this transformation.
Most northern soldiers went to war to preserve the Union, but the war ultimately transformed into a struggle to eradicate slavery. 1 The war touched the life of nearly every American as military mobilization reached levels never seen before or since. The American Civil War, the bloodiest in the nation’s history, resulted in approximately 750,000 deaths.
