History-3nd Presentation

Hello everyone~! My name is Jung Ye Won. Today, I’d like to tell you about the American civil wars.

Before I start my speech I’m introduce you my contents. First, I’m going to tell you the civil war-time line, second about Yankee doodle and the rebels, and finally, the food soldiers eat during the civil war.

In 1808, writer William Jenks says ” The northern states will fight the southern states and the fight will be about slavery…The northern states will defeat the exhausted southern states in a war that lasts four years…After the war we will have a new United States of America…” All these things will come true 53 years later when Jenks is long dead. He gets one fact a little wrong… Can you guess what is wrong??? The answer is he said ” This war will begin in 1856!” but the war actually began in 1861, but the violence started in… guess when??

Before I tell you this answer, I’m going to introduce you what is American Civil War. According to http://www.history.com, in the spring of 1861, decades of simmering tensions between the northern and southern United States over issues including states’ rights versus federal authority, westward expansion and slavery exploded into the American Civil War (1861-65). The election of the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of America; four more joined them after the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Four years of brutal conflict were marked by historic battles. By the time it ended in Confederate surrender in 1865, the Civil War proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and the population and territory of the South devastated.

This was a brief summary of American Civil War, and now I’m going to tell you the Civil War timeline. To understand civil war timeline, you have to know one very important person, and it’s John Brown. According to Who2 Biographies, John Brown is a famous figure in the fight over slavery that led up to the American Civil War. In 1856, the people of Missouri State wanted to keep slaves and they attack Kansas which can’t make up its mind. The famous John Brown hated slavers. He hacked the Missouri attackers to pieces, saying he was backed by Almighty God. So, the answer of above answer is 1856. In 1859, John Brown attacks US Army at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia. Slaves don’t rise to support him so he is caught and hanged. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected 16th President – he’s going to ban slavery and the Rebels in the south won’t like that! In 1861, war starts when Rebels attack Fort Sumter, South Carolina. In 1862, Desperate Rebels force men to join their army while President Lincoln says ‘All slaves are free!’Black slaves run off to join Lincoln’ but the whites don’t want to fight with them. In 1863, Rebels lose their best general, ‘Stone wall’ Jackson when he is accidentally shot by his own men! When the southern Rebels try to invade the north they are crushed at ‘Gettysburg’ and will not recover. In 1864, 7000 men die in just 20 minutes of fighting at ‘Cold Harbor’. General Sherman’s northern forces start their devastating ‘March to the Sea’ to destroy the southern Rebels. In 1865, the Rebels allow black slaves to fight with them but the ungrateful people jeer and spit at the black soldiers. The Rebels surrender in April but less than a week later President Lincoln is assassinated by an actor, John Wilkes Booth.

Now I’m moving on to second small topic, Yankee doodle and the rebels. The people of the north called themselves Billy Yank.(Hank Yank would have been more fun but the swanky Yankees were serious about their hanky panky.) Where did the word ‘Yank” come from? Well, the old British settlers had sneered at the Dutch settlers in New York. They thought these cheese-making Dutch people were a joke. They called any Dutchman ‘John Cheese’ and the Dutch for John Cheese is ‘Jan Kees’ – pronounced Yankees! The name stuck to northern Americans like Edam cheese sticks to your granny’s false teeth. Northern Americans became Jan Kees or Yankees. The people of the south wanted to rebel against the Billy Yanks so they called themselves Johnny Rebels or Johnny Rebs for short. (because it’s easier to spell).

Finally, I’ll tell you about the way soldiers  eat during civil war. First, they ate chicken soup. Most soldiers hate the hospital food, especially chicken soup- which they nickname ‘shadow soup’. Here’s how they said it was made.. First, a chicken is hung up in the sun where its shadow would fall into the cooking pot. Second, water is put into the cooking pot and the shadow is boiled. Finally, salt, pepper and other spices are added to make it taste of something and it is served out. The second food was beetle bread.  The bread is usually so hard it has to be softened by dipping it into coffee. The warm wet coffee loosens up the beetles that have made a home in it. The soldiers nickname their bread ‘worm castles’. Finally, they was feast on fruit. Soldiers have to grab food when they have a chance. At the Battle of Blackburn’s Ford the Yankee soldiers were being smashed by Rebs. Their Yankee friends ate the back should have rushed to help them but they were too busy picking black berries!!

It was very sad and felt sorry to soldiers. The soldiers had given their lives to fight in civil war, eat strange things, but they fought so now there is peaceful land USA. I think Civil war was very important part of history and I enjoyed to learn about this important war.