"While in the short term--militarily--the North won the Civil War, in the long term--ideologically--victory went to the South. The continual expansion of the Western frontier allowed a Southern oligarchic ideology to find a new home and take root. Even with the abolition of slavery and the equalizing power of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and the ostensible equalizing of economic opportunity afforded by Western expansion, anti-democratic practices...

The big purchase that led to fundamental questions about what America would become In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from the French for $15 million, extending the United States beyond the Mississippi River for the first time.   Now the United States had big questions to answer: How would Louisiana be governed? How would it be divided? Would it be comprised of free states or slave states? What would happen to the Native...

An analysis of the military strategies and ongoing legacy of the Civil War general describes the leadership tactics that he incorporated into his winning campaigns, demonstrating how his battlefield decisions influenced the war's outcome