Second Columbian War (An Honorable Retelling)

Second Columbian War
Clockwise from top: Union troops at the Battle of Fort Norfolk, French forces firing at Columbian troops at the Battle of Chambersburg, French soldiers after the Burning of the Executive Mansion, Confederate soldiers marching in captured Philadelphia
Date November 20, 1848 - November 24, 1851 (3 years, 4 days) Location Columbia, Atlantic Ocean, Sea of the King Result Confederate victory U.S. recognizes Confederate independence Grand Confederation recognized by France U.S. territorial integrity weakened Abolition of slavery in the United States in 1859 Treaty of Paris of 1852
Belligerents
United States	Grand Confederation of Columbia French Empire Kingdom of Germany
Commanders and leaders
Martin Van Buren Winfield Scott John E. Wool Zachary Taylor William Tecumseh Sherman William O. Butler Charles F. Adams	John C. Calhoun William J. Hardee James Patton Anderson Samuel Read Anderson Goode Bryan Napoleon II Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud Patrice de MacMahon Aimable Pélissier Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
Strength
5,200,000	5,100,000 4,310,000 50,000

The Second Columbian War, also known as the Confederate War of Independence or the Columbian Civil War (1848-1851) was a civil war and military conflict taking place primarily in the United States from the beginning of hostilities on November 20, 1848 to the armistice of November 24, 1851. The conflict was fought between the United States, known as "the Union" and the Grand Confederation of Columbia, a collection of 11 states that had all seceded from the Union. The Confederacy was backed by the French Empire and the Napoleonic Kingdom of Germany. The central cause of the war was the status of slavery and the issue of its expansion following the acquiring of new territories by the United States.

Decades of political dispute over the expansion of slavery came to a head in the 1848 presidential election. In a race between seven different candidates, the House of Representatives elected the abolitionist and former vice president Martin Van Buren to the chagrin of Southern leaders. As a result, southern delegations promptly left Congress and declared pamphlets of secession in their respective states. John C. Calhoun, a fervent supporter of states' rights and the southern Democratic nominee in that year's election, was elected president of the Grand Confederation of Columbia. While initially adherent to a presidential system akin to the United States, the Confederacy underwent a rapid regime change as a result of the influence of the French Empire, which petitioned the nation to adopt a Bonapartist monarchy and system of government. Due to this, historians disagree on the exact beginning of hostilities; while supporters of the original Confederacy had attacked Union bases as early as November 20, the new government in the South did not officially declare war until its attack on Fort Norfolk, Virginia, on April 12, 1849.

The Union initially performed quite well; it repulsed attempted attacks into Kentucky and Pennsylvania, and was able to push into the western portions of Virginia prior to mid 1849. However, Napoleonic entry into the war soon saw an influx of French and German troops to support the South. A divided and strained United States Army was unprepared for the use of modern European tactics on the battlefield, and was forced into a retreat behind its own borders by 1850. Despite this, Confederate and French attempts to invade Centralia and Ohio were repulsed, leading the Confederacy to abandon its initial plan to "dissolve and (re)conquer" the United States. Union attempts to blockade the South ended unsuccessfully, as did petitions by them to negotiate alliances or backing from other European nations, such as England and Denmark-Norway. French and Confederate forces broke through Union defenses in early 1851, and were able to reach Philadelphia, the nation's capital. After having initial demands for unconditional surrender refused by Van Buren, the French retaliated by burning the Executive Mansion and much of the city's federal buildings on May 25, 1851. Following this, the United States surrendered and agreed to guarantee recognition to the Confederacy as an independent nation.

The Second Columbian War is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in U.S. history. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. The myth of the Righteous Cause of the Confederacy is often the subject of critical analysis. The war was among the first wars to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were all widely used during the war. In total, the war left between 620,000 and 750,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties, making the war the second-deadliest military conflict in Columbian history, surpassed much later by the Fourth Great War.