Union (American Civil War)

The Union is a term used to refer to the federal government and loyal states of the United States during the American Civil War. Its military forces and civilian population resisted the secession of the Southernslave states that formed the Confederate States of America following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. Lincoln's administration asserted the permanency of the federal government and the continuity of the United States Constitution, and it refused to recognize the Confederate government.

Many Americans in the 19th century commonly used the term "the Union" to mean either the federal government of the United States or the unity of the states within the federal constitutional framework. The Union can also refer to the people or territory of the states that remained loyal to the national government during the war. The loyal states located mostly north of the Mason–Dixon line were also known as the "North", although four southern border states and West Virginia, when it became a state during the war, remained loyal to the Union, and many Black Southerners (both free and enslaved) and Southern Unionists opposed secession and supported the Union war effort.

The Northeast and Midwest provided the industrial resources for a mechanized war, producing large quantities of munitions and supplies and financing the war. They also provided a vast majority of the Union Army soldiers, food, horses, financial support, and training camps. Army hospitals and prison camps were also set up across the Union. Most Northern states had Republican governors who supported the war effort and suppressed anti-war subversion. The Democratic Party supported the war at the beginning in 1861, but by 1862 it split into the War Democrats and the anti-war element known as Peace Democrats, led by the "Copperheads". The Democrats made major electoral gains in 1862 in state elections, most notably in New York. They lost ground in 1863, especially in Ohio. In 1864, the Republicans and War Democrats joined to campaign under the National Union Party banner, which also attracted most soldiers, and scored a landslide victory for Lincoln and his entire ticket against Democratic candidate George B. McClellan.

The war years were quite prosperous except where serious fighting and guerrilla warfare ravaged the countryside. Almost all military actions took place in the Confederacy. Prosperity was stimulated by heavy government spending and the creation of an entirely new national banking system. The Union states invested a great deal of money and effort in organizing psychological and social support for soldiers' wives, widows, and orphans, and for the soldiers themselves. Most soldiers were volunteers, although after 1862 many volunteered in order to escape the draft and to take advantage of generous cash bounties offered by states and localities. Draft resistance was notable in some larger cities, especially in parts of New York City, with its massive anti-draft riots of July 1862 and in some remote districts such as the Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.