It is December 24, 1860 and there is a certain chill in the air, the kind of chill an apparition gives you. Edmund Ruffin is one of the “fire-eaters” of the south heading toward secession. The ghost of John Calhoun will visit Edmund and tell him what his night holds for him and why this will happen.

Edmund Ruffin is getting ready for bed and he hears a noise coming from his closet, he checks and nothing is there. Then he hears something outside of his bedroom door, and nothing is there either. He thinks he is hallucinating just because he is tired so he turns around to go to bed and there stands a ghost, but it’s somewhat of a familiar  face. “Who are you?” Edmund said startled, the ghost responded with “I am John Calhoun.” “But didn’t you die ten years ago?” asked Ruffin. “Yes, but I am the ghost of John Calhoun” he said, “No you can’t be because ghosts are not real.” The ghost responded with “Of course they are, I am here aren’t I. Now listen you are making a bad choice siding with the south’s secession and you need to change your ways.” “You expect me to change just because some ghost told me to?” “You are heading down the wrong path, and you will see why. You will be visited by three ghost, ghost of Civil War past, present, and future. They will take you to each of the times and show you why siding with the south is wrong. The first ghost will visit you at midnight, they will visit you exactly one hour apart.” The ghost disappeared and Edmund tried to convince himself that he was dreaming so he went to bed.

The clock just struck twelve and Edmund was awaken by his windows flying open and a strong zephyr. It was the Ghost of civil war past.”Who are you? The Ghost of Civil War Past I’m guessing.” “Yes, my name is Allen Wilkinson, I was one of the proslavery settlers that John Brown killed.” “Oh yeah, John Brown he is just another one of those crazy northerners.” “I will be taking you to events between the years 1850 and 1859. Shall we get started?” asked the ghost. “Well i guess I don’t really have a choice” sighed Ruffin. “We are at Utah to view The Compromise of 1850 which was proposed by Henry Clay. Some causes of this event are the Gold Rush and Northerners wanting to stop the spread of slavery and the south wanted to expand the Missouri Compromise into the new states which are California, New Mexico, and Utah. So the compromise was that CA would enter in as a free state and Ut and NM would have a popular sovereignty which allows the citizens of that state vote on if they wanted slavery or to be free. This angered the south because they wanted their part of the states that were under the line to be slave territory.” “What does this have to do with who I am siding with?” They watched both sides reactions to this compromise and how it pushed the nation closer to sectionalism. “Now we are going to watch the union act to the fugitive slave law.” They went to Illinois to view what the fugitive slave act did. “See that man there?” “Yea, he looks lost.” “He is a slave from the south, he escaped and his owner is probably on his way up to capture his runaway slave.” They waited and watched the man wonder and try to find shelter. They seen him captured by his owner and taken back to the south. “Let’s watch and see what the owner will do” The owner brutally beat his slave and no one was to say it was wrong. “Nobody deserves to be treated like that” said the ghost, “But he is just a slave,” “he hurts and feels just as much as you do, don’t you see this is wrong?” Edmund looked away and the ghost of civil war past took him to Kansas in 1854. “Where are we now?” asked Ruffin. “We are at Kansas in 1854 this is the year the Kansas Nebraska Act was passed. This act was proposed by Stephen Douglass to also allow the new states Kansas and Nebraska to have a popular sovereignty. The north is mad because it in a way repealed The Missouri Compromise and now slavery could expand. Both north and south rushed into Kansas to claim it. John Brown a leading abolitionist from the north killed five pro-slavery settlers, this is known as ‘Bloody Kansas’ and this pushes the country almost at the breaking point of war.” “It’s not my fault some crazy northerner killed five people, that doesn’t make the south the bad guys” said Ruffin. The ghost replied with “it doesn’t make the south the good guys either.” So the next place they visited was the Supreme Court in 1857. “I don’t remember a court being involved with the war” Ruffin said with curiosity. “Well this is the Dred Scott Decision, Dred Scott is a slave and his owner moved to a free state, which was Illinois, but he remained a slave. He thought once they moved he was guaranteed freedom because of The Missouri Compromise. Since he stayed a slave he wanted to sue and that brings us to the Dred Scott Decision which is in three parts. The first part was that they ruled that he did not have a right to sue because he was not a citizen since he was an African American. The second part was that he was not free since he was a slave prior to moving. Lastly the third part was that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional according to Justice Roger Taney because congress didn’t have the ability to regulate slave issues in the territory. This makes the north mad because now the south knows they can have slaves anywhere and not get in trouble.” Edmund is speechless and gathering thoughts about these past events. But the ghost tells him there is one more event to see. So they go to Harper’s Ferry in 1859. “ The last event we will see is John Brown’s raid on
Harper’s Ferry. John Brown was angered by the Dred Scott Decision so he gathered a group of men and planned to capture the U.S military weapons at Harper’s Ferry and give them to slaves to kill their owners. He felt the need to do this because he thought God has chosen him to. This was a major event that drew the nation even farther apart.” The ghost took Edmund back to his house and left.

Edmund just got home and layed down because he was exhausted when the clock struck one. He felt a cold breeze and opened his eyes to another ghost hovering over him and he knew this must be the Ghost of Civil War Present. “I’m John Breckinridge the southern candidate in the election of 1860, the ghost of Civil War Present” the ghost said introducing himself. “We will be visiting events from 1860 to April 12, 1861. “Why do i need to see events now if they are in the present, I already know what’s happening?” asked Ruffin. “Because you need to see both views of these events and how they affected the whole nation” exclaimed the ghost. “First we are going to be seeing the election of Lincoln in 1860.” They went to Virginia where the election was taking place. “ Lincoln as you may know is from the Republican Party and he ran against three other candidates which were a southerner John Breckinridge, a union candidate John Bell, and a northern democrat Stephen Douglas. Lincoln won the election and southerners got mad because they thought he was going to abolish slavery, but he just wanted to stop the spread of it. According to the constitution it said that he wasn’t allowed to abolish it anyways, that it was allowed. Since the south didn't fully understand Lincoln’s goal they decided to secede. Eleven states, South Carolina  being the first, seceded and became the Confederate states of the country. Lincoln’s goal now was to keep the four border states in the union, which were Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. His second goal was to get the southern states back into the union.” The next place the ghost was taking Edmund to was Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 12, 1861. “Fort Sumter was a union fort in South Carolina. The attack happened because Lincoln wanted to send food and materials to his men at the fort, but he also wanted to see what the south was going to do. So Lincoln sent the supplies and South Carolina refused to let that happen so they attacked the northerners, but the north wasn’t doing anything wrong they were just supplying their men. This means the south is taking unnecessary actions. That is the start of the Civil War.”

Edmund got back home and waited for the last ghost and at two the ghost came. “I am Robert E. Lee, I am the general for the south for the last few years of the war, ghost of Civil War yet to come. I will be taking you to events from 1861 after the attack on Fort Sumter to June 17, 1865.” “So I will see who wins the war?” asked Ruffin. “Yes” replied the ghost. The first place the ghost took Edmund was to the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. It occurred in Sharpsburg, Maryland near Antietam creek. “ The cause of this battle was the south invading the north, 2,700 people from the south died, 2,100 died from the north, and 9,000 was wounded in all. This is where south reaches their furthest point north. England holds their support for the south and the north wins. Next we are going to see the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The goal of the north was not to save the union anymore but to free the slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation was made by Lincoln and it says that slaves are property but if an enemy was to capture the property it now belongs to them and their government. But this didn’t really free any slaves because the north wasn’t going to capture slaves from the border states because they were already apart of the union. Also the confederate states weren’t going to give up their slaves without a fight.” “So this Emancipation Proclamation is useless for the north?” “No not entirely because now France and England are not going to help the south because they abolished slavery years ago, and they know that is what the south is fighting for.” The next place they went was the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863. “The south invaded north in this battle too. There were 28,000 casualties from the south, they were forced to retreat and this was the beginning of the end of the war for the south. Lincoln made his Gettysburg address and the north wins.” Now they are at Vicksburg, Mississippi one day later. “ The south wants to gain the key city on the Mississippi river. The north gains control of the Mississippi river and the north wins. Along with the Battle of Gettysburg this is the end of the confederacy. These two battles are significant because it turns the war in favor of the north.” The last event they were going to view was Sherman’s Capture of Atlanta on July 22, 1864. “Sherman wanted to cut of the rail communications of Atlanta  with the rest of the south. He neutralized the important rail supply hub and after evacuating the city he burned most of the buildings in the city. Lincoln gets re-elected and the north wins the war. Now you know why you should not side with the south in the secession. There was a very unlikely chance the south would win the war. The north has advantages in how many soldiers they have, textiles, iron, firearms, and they manufacture more than 90 percent of goods in the U.S.” The ghost took Edmund back home and left.

Edmund woke up on Christmas and was thinking about what he had seen the previous night. “ Now that I think about it we do have many disadvantages compared to the North.” Ruffin went to his companions and told them that he wasn’t going to be supporting or siding with the south in the secession or any upcoming events with the north. He told them he just had a change of mind and thought it was wrong. So Edmund left the country to continue the fighting and stayed neutral.