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• The Civil War was about states' rights, preserving the Union, and slavery. The states' "right" of secession never
would have been exercised or challenged had it not been for the issue of slavery.
• Both sides claimed to be the "real" Americans and heirs of the American Revolution. During the war, the
South compared its struggle to that of the colonies in 1776, while the North emphasized the rhetoric of equality in the
Declaration of Independence.
• When emancipation became a Union war goal, the presence of the Union army became a principal agent
in the liberation of slaves. Although African Virginians fought on both sides, they overwhelmingly favored the Union.
• The majority of eligible white men served in the Confederate armies, leaving the home front to be
managed by women.
• The decision to make Richmond the Confederate capital dictated that much of the war would be
fought in the one hundred miles between the two capitals. More battles were fought in Virginia than anywhere
else, and the greatest southern leaders were Virginians.
• The decisive factors in the outcome of the war were the North's superiority in numbers of men
and materials and the lack of foreign intervention (because of strong overseas antislavery sentiment).
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