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Originally Posted by Pete
It is interesting to note that other than Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea and then up through the Carolinas and the Shennandoah Valley Campaigns by both sides the majority of land mass of the south was untouched by the War. The land and people were hit hard due to shortages of material and manpower but the average southerner did not see a Yankee.
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Pete:
No looking to quibble, but the home territory of virtually every state of the Confereracy was touched significantly by Union troops before the end of the war, starting with the Federal installations in the South that remained intact, like Fort Monroe, Norfolk, the Keys, etc., those that were quickly subject to early Union invasion like the border states of Kentucky and Missouri, as well as the remaining states such as Tennessee, Missisippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, etc. Once the Mississippi fell, all of the adjacent states had the majority of their commerce controlled by the Federals.
Virtually the only states not quickly invaded or partially occupied were the interior states of South Carolina and Georgia, and they were subject to a naval blockade, as well as partisan activity.
Agree that border states Like Missouri, Kansas, and Kentucky had feelings running the strongest and got the most personal, IMHO due to the guerrillas and partisans attacking opposing civilian targets. The Federal imprisonment (and subsequent death) of familiy members of Confederate Missourians and the raid by Confederate partisans on Lawrence, Kansas remain hot topics today.
Martin, one of the primary causes of the War was the delicate proportion of industrial non-slave states to the agrarian slave holding states.
The free states were going to be little affected by the emancipation, but in the slave states, there were going to be major problems. The Southern states were concerned about tyranny of the majority in Congress, where a free state majority would have been able to Federally pass emancipation, taxes on cotton and other agricultural products, etc., which impacted severely on the rights of the Southern states to choose their own destiny and possibly to remain solvent. Hence the battle over states rights where the individual states were responsible for policies within their borders, and the Federal government was responsible only for interstate and international laws and regulations.
If you do some reading, the admission of Kansas in January 29, 1861 as a free state tipped the balance toward secession, the further secession of West Virginia from Virginia, quickly followed by their admission to the Union and the admission of Nevada later during the War, both as free states, sealed the political end of the slave holding states, less the possibility of a Confererate victory.
The curious thing was that several of the Confederate states had considered outlawing slavery, as had the Confederate government. The biggest issue was how to continue to economically produce labor intensive products and what to do with the slaves after emancipation were the primary unresolved issues. Most of the upper Confederate states had relatively small slave populations, mostly concentrated on plantations along the major waterways. States like NC, which had relatively few slaves, took a long time considering whether to secede or not, and only did so ultimately because of their belief in states' rights and the fact that most of their neighboring states had already seceded. In some states, like SC and Mississippi, slaves actually outnumbered the non-slave population. Most Southern states had areas of Union loyalists which obstructed, if not actively opposed the Confederacy, such as the western part of NC.
Today's public schools largely gloss over these details in favor of the summary which I gave earlier, unless it is to mention the action of some special person.
The SCV, the GAR, and other veterans groups promote the better education of schoolchildren on the details of the War, which ultimately changed America.
Here is a link with some of the more impressive casualty figures for the War.
http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm
Hope this helps.
TR