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Outright war was a possibility in late 1861, when the U.S. Navy took control of a British mail ship and seized two Confederate diplomats. Confederate President Jefferson Davis had named James M. Mason and John Slidell as commissioners to represent Confederate interests in England and France.
During the course of the Civil War, the vast majority of soldiers fighting to preserve the Union were in the volunteer units. The pre-war regular army numbered approximately 16,400 soldiers, but by the end while the Union army had grown to over a million soldiers, the number of regular personnel was still approximately 21,699, of whom several ...
The soldiers of the Confederate armed forces consisted mainly of white males with an average age between sixteen and twenty-eight. [citation needed] The Confederacy adopted conscription in 1862. Many thousands of slaves served as laborers, cooks, and pioneers.
In the United States, Southern Unionists were white Southerners living in the Confederate States of America opposed to secession. Many fought for the Union during the Civil War. These people are also referred to as Southern Loyalists, Union Loyalists, [1] or Lincoln's Loyalists. [2]
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces to win the independence of the Southern states and uphold and expand the institution of slavery. [3]
Uniforms worn by Union and Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War Union and Confederate flags during the American Civil War. With the outbreak of war in April 1861, both sides faced the monumental task of organizing and equipping armies that far exceeded the prewar structure in size and complexity.
On average the fighting strength of a Civil War regiment was just 400 soldiers, with Union regiments having slightly more and Confederate regiments slightly less. Ironically, the smaller size of regiments had the unintended effect of making them more maneuverable and easier to command on the battlefield.
Before the American Civil War, the United States was known as the "United States' federal union", a union of states controlled by the federal government in Washington, D.C. [8] [9] This was opposite to the CSA's first government, a confederation of independent states, functioning similarly to the European Union.