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War came to Virginia shortly after its leaders voted to secede from the United States on 17 April 1861. For the next four years the Old Dominion was the major battleground of the Civil War. Its geographical location, being so near Washington, D.C., and the fact that Virginia's capital city of Richmond also served as the southern capital, guaranteed that Union armies would try to end the war quickly by capturing the seat of the Confederate government. By the end of the war in April 1865 Virginia had hosted over four hundred military engagements, including twenty-six major battles. The presence of so many soldiers marching and fighting across the state also devastated the economy of the Old Dominion. Farms and towns suffered under the weight of occupying armies. The war also ended slavery forever. Thus Virginia, home to the largest population of slaves in the country, experienced a difficult transition. Anyone conducting research on the Civil War in Virginia is faced with a daunting task. Thousands of books have been written about America's bloodiest war, and many of those focus entirely or at least in part on the war in Virginia. Almost every aspect of the state's wartime experience has been written about. Studies on the economic, military, social, and political effects of the Civil War fill the shelves of bookstores and libraries across the country. Biographies of major military and political leaders also account for a large portion of the Civil War library. | |
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