Download Civil War Booklet

Burnside’s Bridge is
a landmark on the
Civil War Antietam
National Battlefield near
Sharpsburg, northwestern
Maryland.
The Learning History Group
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This month’s edition of the Learning History Group newsletter
features the American Civil War. We pay our respects to our
country’s most deadly conflict with reflections on noteworthy
battles, including Gettysburg and the Siege of Port Hudson. Plus,
we look at the life of a Civil War re-enactor, examine the roles of
women during the war, and discuss mid-19th Century southern
plantation architecture.
A
American
Civil War: The
War Between
The States
The Gettysburg Address—
A succinct speech delivered
by President Abraham
Lincoln at the dedication of
Soldiers’ National Cemetery
on the American Civil War
battlefield at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, November 19,
1863—remains one of the
most quoted presidential
speeches.
In just more than two
minutes, beginning with the
now-iconic phrase “Four score
and seven years ago,” Lincoln
reiterated the principles of
human equality espoused
by the Declaration of
Independence. He proclaimed
the Civil War as a struggle
for the preservation of the
Union sundered by the
secession crisis, with “a new
birth of freedom,” that would
bring true equality to all of
its citizens, ensuring that
democracy would remain a
viable form of government
and creating a nation in
which states’ rights were no
longer dominant.
The Civil War resulted
in an estimated 750,000
soldier deaths.
During the presidential
election of 1860, the
Republican Party, led
by Abraham Lincoln,
campaigned against
expanding slavery beyond
the states in which it
already existed. The
Republicans strongly
advocated nationalism,
and in their 1860 platform
they denounced threats
of disunion as avowals of
treason. After a Republican
victory, but before the new
administration took office
on March 4, 1861, seven
cotton states declared their
secession and joined to form
the Confederate States of
America. This chain of
events set in motion what
would become America’s
bloodiest and most deadly
armed conflict.
From the first shots fired at
the Union’s outpost at Fort
Sumter, South Carolina, to
the Confederates’ surrender
at Appomattox, the Civil
War resulted in an estimated
750,000 soldier deaths and
countless civilian lives
adversely affected.
The American Civil War
was one of the earliest true
industrial wars. Railroads,
the telegraph, steamships,
photography, and massproduced weapons were
employed extensively. The
practices of total war, and the
mobilization of civilian labor
and finances all foreshadowed
World War I in Europe.
Victory for the North meant
the end of the Confederacy
and of slavery in the United
States, and strengthened the
role of the federal government.
H
History Through
Reenactment
For Rochester, New York
resident James Coffey, a
passion for participating
in Civil War reenactments
began not as a desire to
better understand one of the
most pivotal eras in U.S.
history, but because the
activities provide him with
a tremendous opportunity to
spend quality time pursuing
a healthy outdoor hobby with
his 11-year-old son, Daniel.
But as he and his son participated in more and more
reenactments, culminating in
this year’s event at Antietam,
Coffey has become a die-hard
Civil War history buff.
“Participating in living
history events at some
of the war’s most crucial
battlefields is a great way
for my son and me to enjoy
spending time together,” he
said. “But it’s also been an
eye-opener for me in terms
of the extent to which the
Civil War still defines us as
a country to this day.”
American Civil War
reenactments draw
enthusiastic participants
willing to duplicate the
events down to the smallest
recorded detail. Participants
learn how to dress, cook, eat,
and even “die” just as real
Civil War soldiers would
have. Most reenactments
have anywhere from 100
to 1,000 participants,
portraying either Union
or Confederate infantry,
artillery, or cavalry forces.
TOP: Daniel Coffey, 11, surveying Burnside’s bridge at
Antietam. MIDDLE: James Coffey stands on the front line
awaiting the Confederates’ charge while Daniel provides backup.
BOTTOM: Cavalry re-enactors scout for Confederate positions.
P
Port Hudson,
Louisiana: America’s
Longest Siege
Map of Port Hudson and it’s Defences. Port Hudson was the
site of the longest siege in American history, lasting 48 days,
when 7,500 Confederates resisted some 40,000 Union soldiers
for almost two months during 1863.
The Siege of Port Hudson
occurred from May 22 to
July 9, 1863, when Union
Army troops assaulted
and then surrounded the
Mississippi River town of
Port Hudson, Louisiana,
during the American Civil
War. In cooperation with
Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s
offensive against Vicksburg,
Mississippi, Union Maj.
Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks’
army moved against the
Confederate stronghold at
Port Hudson. On May 27,
1863, after their frontal
assaults were repulsed,
the Federals settled into
a siege that lasted for 48
days. Banks renewed his
assaults on June 14 but
the defenders successfully
repelled them. On July 9,
1863, after hearing of the fall
of Vicksburg, the Confederate
garrison of Port Hudson
surrendered, giving the
Union complete control of
the Mississippi River and its
major tributaries, severing
communications and
trade between the eastern
and western states of the
Confederacy.
Turning Point: Gettysburg
Gettysburg National Military Park
Next year marks the 150th
anniversary of the Civil
War’s most famous conflict,
the Battle of Gettysburg. The
conflict was fought July 1–3,
1863, in and around the town
of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
It was the battle with the
largest number of casualties
in the American Civil War
and is often described as
the war’s turning point.
Union Maj. Gen. George
Gordon Meade’s Army of the
Potomac defeated attacks
by Confederate Gen. Robert
E. Lee’s Army of Northern
Virginia, ending Lee’s
invasion of the North.
During the battle the two
armies suffered between
46,000 and 51,000
casualties.
Today, the Gettysburg
National Cemetery and
Gettysburg National
Military Park are
maintained by the U.S.
National Park Service as
two of the nation’s
most revered historical
landmarks.
The Civil War was the
first major conflict to be
extensively photographed.
For the first time in
history, citizens on the
home front could view the
actual carnage of far away
battlefields. Crystal-clear
black-and-white photographs
were truly dramatic,
stripping away much of
the Victorian-era romance
around warfare.
W
Women
Of War
With the outbreak of war in 1861, women and men alike
eagerly volunteered to fight for the cause. In the Northern
states, women organized ladies’ aid societies to supply the
Union troops with everything they needed, from food to
clothing to cash.
But many women wanted to take a more active role in the
war effort. They tried to find a way to work on the front
lines, caring for sick and injured soldiers and keeping the
rest of the Union troops healthy and safe.
In June 1861, they succeeded: The federal government
agreed to create “a preventive hygienic and sanitary
service for the benefit of the army” called the United States
Sanitary Commission. The Sanitary Commission’s primary
objective was to combat preventable diseases and infections
by improving conditions in army camps and hospitals. It
also worked to provide relief to sick and wounded soldiers.
By war’s end, the Sanitary Commission had provided
almost $15 million in supplies—the vast majority of which
had been collected by women—to the Union Army.
Nearly 20,000 women worked more directly for the Union
war effort. Working-class white women and free and
enslaved African-American women worked as laundresses,
cooks and “matrons,” and some 3,000 middle-class white
women worked as nurses. The activist Dorothea Dix,
the superintendent of Army nurses, put out a call for
responsible, maternal volunteers who would not distract
the troops or behave in unseemly or unfeminine ways: Dix
insisted that her nurses be “past 30 years of age, healthy,
plain almost to repulsion in dress and devoid of personal
attractions.”
A
Antebellum
Architecture
Nearly 20,000 women
worked more directly for
the Union war effort.
Antebellum means “before war” in Latin. The term
Antebellum architecture refers to elegant plantation
homes built in the American South during the 30 years or
so preceding the Civil War. Antebellum is not a particular
house style. Rather, it is a time and place in history. The
features we associate with Antebellum architecture were
introduced to the American South by Anglo-Americans who
moved into the area after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Most Antebellum homes are grand, symmetrical, and boxy,
with center entrances in the front and rear, balconies, and
columns or pillars.
Many southern plantations to this day bear the scars of the Civil
War, including the one pictured above, located in Virginia on
the Manassas battlefield, with a cannonball now a part of the
exterior detailing.
The Learning History Group