How did ideas about the nature of the war change from the first battle of bull run in 1861 to the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863?

Answer 1

The election of President Lincoln made Southerners believe slavery would be abolished because Lincoln believed the nation was growing divided. If slavery was abolished, the Southern plantation owners would have no one to work their land and the main export of the south would decline rapidly, along with its income. Lincoln was neutral toward slavery, he just wanted to unite the States once again.

South Carolina seceded from the Union first, leaving other southern states to follow. More states had seceded when the North became a little too confident and decided to try to infiltrate the newly formed capital in the South: Richmond Virginia. Rose Greenhow spied on leaders in the North and heard of this plan. She took the information and warned Southern generals of the oncoming attack. The Confederates were prepared...

Bull Run occurred while the Northern army met up with the Southern army on their way to Richmond. On the way there, they were all laughing and joking about how quickly this "war" would be over. Well... what happened?

The idea is simple:

The north lost many, many men because they were not prepared. This came as a shock to so many Northerners. Now people were saying:

Maybe this war will last longer than first expected...

Thousands of men were signing up to be in the army.

*****By the Battle of Gettysburg***** June 1863 Hundreds of thousands of men were dead, wounded, or missing. Basically everyone in both the North and South knew someone in the army who was deceased, amputated, or MIA. Everyone wanted this Civil War to end. A new draft law was put into effect because of the drastically lowering numbers of recruits in the army. This created even more of an uproar in the Northern states and sent the Union and the Confederacy into mass chaos and uncertainty...