Who were the Yankees in the Civil War? You have probably heard the term Yankee; the first thing that comes to mind is New York Yankees.

If you are into sports, you will picture the MLB team that plays with the distinct white with blue stripe jersey. Nostalgia will kick in, and you’ll probably remember the great Babe Ruth.

However, the name will take you back to the American Civil War if you are from a military background.

The American Civil War was between the Northern part (Union) and the Southern part (confederate). So, who were the Yankees in this Civil War, and how did the name come about? Let’s find out.

Who Were The Yankees in the Civil War

The South used the derogatory term “Yankee” to label Unionists during the Civil War. However, during World War 1, the term was used for all Americans.

In the United States, the term is generally used to refer to New England residents. New England comprises Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts.

The Yankees

A Yankee was either born or raised in the United States, with a particular emphasis on one of the states comprising New England.

The term “Yankee” is frequently associated with intelligent, frugal, skillful, and traditionalist individuals. People in the South used it during and after the American Civil War (1861–1865) to refer to Federal forces and other Northerners.

The term is popular in several nations, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and South America, where they refer to Americans. In Spain, they refer to it as Yanqui. For some, the term is just slang, but others find it offensive.

It is unclear where the term originated. The Oxford English Dictionary gives a more likely explanation that it stems from the Dutch ‘Janke,’ a diminutive form of Jan (John). British troops mocked the Americans with this term in 1775.

In his 1951 book, A Dictionary of Americanism on Historical Principles, Mitford Mathews defined the origin of the term and stated that there is no evidence that New Englanders employed it before the Battle of Lexington (1775).

There have been numerous interpretations that aim to find out the origin of the term. One legend is that mystical New Englanders triumphed over the Yankos (invisible), a tribe of Massachusetts Indians.

The valiant New Englanders adopted their name after that. According to them, the name originates from the nonexistent Cherokee word Yankee, which signifies “coward” or “slave.” 

Oscar G. Sonneck (1873–1928) conducted extensive research for the Librarian of Congress that disproved these and numerous other hypotheses regarding the origins of Yankee and Yankee Doodle.

Regardless of the theories, the term “Yankee” likely originated from Dutch-speaking colonists but gradually expanded to encompass individuals of every ethnicity, but it wasn’t taken kindly.

The Continental Army, following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, used the term “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” thereby converting anti-British colonial biases into expressions of admiration.

In the context of non-Revolutionary War individuals, the term “Yankee” simply refers to any American. 

It can be both fun and impolite. In contrast, when used in the United States, the expression typically refers to a Northerner and is most frequently associated with Puritan New England.

The term gained increased usage throughout the Civil War, and now the term ‘Those damn Yankees’ is not about confederates. Mostly, it is about baseball and music.

Yankees have played a significant role in politics as Yankee politicians are considered all-white, affluent, and have attended prestigious universities such as Harvard. 

Voters in the New England state frequently associate legislators with community service and civic pride.

Cultural Yankees consist of former POTUS such as John F. Kennedy, Calvin Coolidge, and George H. W. Bush, all natives of Massachusetts and Maine, respectively.

Many Americans recall the hit song “Yankee Doodle” from the early days. It gained initial notoriety in Britain during the early 1700s. The tune talks of sloppiness and was originally sung by the Brits to mock the Americans. Connecticut adopted the song, and it went on to be the anthem for the US.

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The Civil War Explained

The Civil War was a dreadful conflict that transpired in the United States between 1861 and 1865. This was a result of decades of animosity developing between the southern and northern states regarding slavery, state sovereignty, and westward expansion.

Seven southern states seceded from the Union in 1860 in support of the election of Abraham Lincoln, which resulted in the formation of the Confederate States of America. 

Four additional states joined them shortly. The Civil War came to an end in 1865 after the surrender of the Confederacy.

Before the war, the North and South had been at odds over slavery for many years. There had been measures such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, but they were all futile.

The Southern economy heavily relied on plantation agriculture, with African American slaves working on the estates.

On the other hand, the North solely focused on the manufacturing industries. In the 1850s, abolitionism was expanding in the North. Southern states were consequently alarmed that the federal government might attempt to abolish slavery.

The Southern states asserted that the federal government lacked the authority to dictate whether or not slavery should be allowed or not.

The North rendered slavery unlawful in the United States and heavily impacted the economy of the South. 

The war came at a cost and claimed the lives of many individuals. An estimated 620,000 of the 2.4 million fighting forces died, millions more were injured, and the majority of the South was obliterated. Consequently, the Confederacy came to an end, and the nation reunified.

What inspired the most violent civil war in American history? A significant contributor to the Civil War was the issue of slavery and the morals behind it. 

The underlying cause of the conflict was the economic implications of slavery and the question of governmental authority over it.

The states’ liberties also held significant importance. The Southern states aspired to demonstrate their influence over the federal government to oust federal laws with which they disagreed. Especially laws that restricted their ability to retain and transport slaves.

Territorial expansion was an additional factor. The North wanted to restrict access to the western regions to European laborers only, whereas the South wanted to establish slavery there.

Moreover, the Republican Party experienced a surge in popularity. Its members opposed the expansion of slavery to the new Western nations.

The 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, to the presidency sealed the Southerner’s fate. His victory, still held despite not receiving any votes from the South, showed that the Southern states had lost their complete loss of influence.

Lincoln sincerely desired a united Nation. He avoided resorting to violent threats upon assuming the presidency. 

However, he did pledge to safeguard “the land and locations” in the South that are under the federal government’s jurisdiction. One of the locations was Charleston, South Carolina’s Fort Sumter.

The Sutherns felt excluded from the government system and were compelled to hostility, resulting in conflict.

Eleven Southern states seceded from the Union after Lincoln’s election to defend what they believed to be their legal right to retain slaves. 

These republics comprised the Confederate Republics of America and appointed Jefferson Davis as the Confederacy’s president.

Despite Abraham Lincoln’s assurances to the contrary, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. That marked the beginning of the civil war.

Moral Values Led to the Civil War

The economies of the Northern nations became considerably more diverse and modern between 1815 and 1861. Agriculture remained the primary sector in the North, especially small-scale farms, but manufacturing was growing fast.

The Northerners invested heavily in an extensive communications network comprising the telegraph, widely available newspapers, and periodicals.

They also had a transportation system comprising canals, roads, steamboats, and railroads that had also been funded with considerable financial investment. 

Additionally, they had made substantial investments in economic sectors such as finance and insurance.

In contrast, the Southern economy predominantly depended on expansive plantations, which had cotton for commercial purposes and plenty of slave labor. 

As opposed to investing in factories or railroads, as their Northern counterparts did, Southerners invested more in slaves than in land. However, even as late as 1860, Southerners viewed this as a good business strategy. 

Cotton, the primary agricultural product of the South, experienced a significant surge in price during the 1850s. Concurrently, the value of slaves also skyrocketed as they were considered property.

The end of the American-Mexican war 1848 saw the US acquire an additional 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square kilometers) of land. This led to more disputes between the two sides of the nation.

Throughout the 1850s, an increasing number of Northerners came to believe that slavery was to stop. Whites in the South thought that eradicating slavery permanently would be their end.

Over the decade, deepening divisions between the two factions hindered politicians from effectively reaching a compromise to end the conflict.

Things went from bad to worse when Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party candidate who vehemently opposed slavery, emerged victorious in the presidential election of 1860. 

Conclusion

Who were the Yankees in the Civil War? We hope we have answered the question exhaustively and explained what led to the famous war. Despite the name being famous, the origin of this widely recognized nickname remains unknown.

Academics believed it originated from Yengees, the language American Indians speak, or Anglais, the French word for English.

Foreign colonists used Yankees during the colonial period to address New Englanders. The British disregarded native distinctions and bestowed the same title on all Americans. They called Americans Yanks in both world wars, leading to a widespread usage of the term.