A Month-by-Month Compendium of the War Between the States

2012 is the second of four years marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The war is the most important event in our nation’s history, and my latest book, The Civil War Months, traces all the key events of the war in a month-by-month format. The book’s introduction examines the true causes of the war, which are in the excerpt below:
 
Many historians cite slavery as the primary cause of the War Between the States. However, slavery was a byproduct of the true cause, which has been the cause of most conflicts throughout history: money and politics.
 
In 1860-1861, eleven southern states broke from the U.S. to form their own nation, both to free themselves from disproportionate taxation through import tariffs that protected northern industry at the expense of southern agriculture (money), and to assert their right to secede when the Federal government becomes too oppressive to their interests (politics).
 
Since America’s founding, tariffs on imported goods had been the primary source of Federal revenue. Southerners had consistently opposed high tariffs; the South relied more heavily on imports than the North, and foreign trading partners tended to raise prices to offset the tariff increases. Conversely, northerners had consistently pushed for higher tariffs to protect domestic manufacturing—mostly located in the North—from foreign competition.
 
The Industrial Revolution and poor European living conditions prompted millions of immigrants to come to America seeking jobs and homesteads, and most settled in the northern manufacturing centers. In turn, northern industrialists sought to advance their interests by lobbying the Federal government for various favors such as taxes on foreign competitors, free homesteads to settlers, centralization of the money supply, and taxpayer-funded subsidies to businesses.
 
While the northern economy was rapidly changing, the southern economy continued its main reliance on plantation farming carried out by slave labor. Southerners rigidly opposed the northern lobby in Washington, instead favoring the founders’ idea of a decentralized Federal government that dispersed more power to the states and the people. Southerners supported low taxes and free trade, and they opposed special favors such as giving tax dollars to preferred businesses.