Download US History Chapter 21 Notes The Furnace of Civil War (1861

US History Chapter 21 Notes
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The Furnace of Civil War (1861-1865)
o AL thought militiamen would only be serving for 90 days.
o He said he didn’t want to interfere with slavery- he only wanted to reunite the union by showing the
south how silly it was to secede.
o But the war lasted four years, killed thousands of soldiers, and ended slavery.
Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
o Summer 1861- 30,000 men did drills in DC. They were poorly prepared, but the press wanted a fight.
o AL decided to have them attack a small Confederate force at Bull Run (Manassas Junction).
 This could lead to capture of Richmond, which would probably lead to restoration of union.
o July 21, 1861- Union recruits went to Bull Run gleefully, with lots of spectators.
 At first things went well, but then Stonewall Jackson’s troops wouldn’t be moved, and
Confederate reinforcements showed up.
 Union soldiers fled in panic, but Confederates didn’t feel like following them. So they ate their
abandoned lunches instead. They then deserted, thinking the war had been won.
o The South winning was bad for them, because then enlistments declined and they were unprepared.
o The North losing was good for them, because they realized they would need more support.
“Tardy George” McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
o 1861- General George B. McClellan got command of the Army of Potomac (near DC).
 He was very good at keeping morale high and training the army.
 But he was too cautious, and too much of a perfectionist, leading him to go very slowly. He
always thought he was outnumbered. He and AL didn’t get along.
o McClellan trained them but wouldn’t send them to Richmond until AL finally ordered him to.
 He decided to go over the water. Richmond is on a peninsula between the James and York rivers.
 1862- He made the Peninsula Campaign with 100,000 men.
 It took him a month to get Yorktown. Then he got close to Richmond.
 But AL sent the reinforcements after Jackson, because he kept attacking Shenandoah Valley.
 Then, Jeb Stuart’s cavalry rode around them on reconnaissance, and RL started the Seven Days’
Battles, and sent McClellan back to the sea.
 Even though RL lost more men than GM, AL took away his power.
o The South winning basically guaranteed that the war would involve the ending of slavery.
 AL started making the emancipation proclamation.
o The northern plan: blockade the southern coasts, liberate the slaves, cut the Confederacy in half by taking
the Mississippi River, send troops through GA and the Carolinas, capture Richmond, and focus on
destroying the main forces.
The War At Sea
o They had to extend the blockade by degrees since they didn’t have enough ships.
o Mostly, they focused on blocking the large seaports.
o The rest of the world should have ignored it, since it was so bad, but Britain supported it and didn’t
protect their merchant ships.
 This was because Britain was really good at blockades, and didn’t want to train the US to be like
that too, in case there was a future war.
o People became blockade runners- mostly gray steamers. This was very profitable.
 The ships were built in Scotland. They traded with Nassau for British arms.
o Eventually, the north choked off the ports and this smuggling stopped.
 Northerners would seize British ships if they had war supplies going to Nassau.
 British said okay, since they planned to do that in a future war.
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1862- The south turned a US warship (Merrimack) into the Virginia, and it destroyed two Union ships in
the Chesapeake.
 The Monitor, a tiny union ship, showed up and fought the Virginia. It was ironclad, and it won.
The Pivotal Point: Antietam
o August 29-30- Second Battle of Bull Run. RL found Federal force led by John Pope.
 RL beat him very badly. Then RL went into MD trying to get MD secession and foreign help.
o MD wouldn’t secede, though. A battle would occur at Antietam Creek.
 AL brought back McClellan to lead the army. Union soldiers found dropped Confederate battle
plans, and used those to stop RL.
 The battle was a draw. RL went back across the Potomac. McClellan had to leave army.
o This was the most important battle, since the south was so close to winning. Britain and France were
close to mediation, which the north would have rejected, leading to them supporting the south.
o AL decided after Antietam success to have a proclamation on September 23, 1862, saying that there
would be a final proclamation on January 1, 1863.
 He gave the speech then, and war turned into a moral crusade against slavery.
A Proclamation Without Emancipation
o 1863- Emancipation Proclamation said slaves in Confederate states were free. It didn’t free slaves in
Border States, because Lincoln didn’t want those states to secede.
o The document was dull. And it was also useless, since he had no authority over the south.
 Though, it did lead to more fugitives fleeing the south.
o The real point of the document was to increase northern morale.
 States got rid of slavery by state action or by the 1865 13th Amendment.
o This took away any hope of negotiation.
o Many were in support of the proclamation. Some abolitionists thought it didn’t go far enough. People in
the Butternut region thought it went too far.
 A lot of people deserted, and the administrations lost Congressional elections in 1862.
o The south was furious. British aristocrats agreed. But the working class strongly supported the Union.
Blacks Battle Bondage
o At start of war, there were no blacks in the regular army, and War Department wouldn’t accept free
volunteering blacks. The navy took a lot of blacks, though.
o After EP, though, and diminished manpower, the army started accepting them despite protest.
o 180,000 blacks served in the Union armies, mostly from slave states, but some from north.
 They were 10% of the Union forces. Douglass raised two regiments in MA.
 Many of them died- the south didn’t see them as prisoners of war until 1864, so they killed as
slaves in revolt.
 At Fort Pillow, a black regiment was killed after surrendering. Other blacks were furious.
o The Confederacy wouldn’t enlist slaves until a month before the war ended. It was too late.
 But they did have the slaves producing food during the fighting.
 Most southern slaves didn’t really help the north.
 A lot of them did nothing in response to the EP out of fear, but many others abandoned their
plantations and joined Sherman’s march through GA in 1864.
Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
o After Antietam, AL made General A.E. Burnside the leader of the Army of the Potomac.
o December 13th, 1862- Burnside stupidly attacked RL in Fredericksburg, VA. Many died.
o May 2-4, 1863- Burnside let Joe Hooker lead the army. RL divided his force and attacked the back of the
army as well, leading to southern victory. But Stonewall Jackson was killed by friendly fire.
o So RL marched into PA to encourage foreign aid. Union general George G. Meade got sent to replace
Hooker.
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Meade went to a ridge with some valleys and 92,000 troops. RL had 76,000 troops.
They fought from July 1-3, 1836. No one knew who would win until the end.
 George Pickett from Confederacy failed at his charge north, making the Confederacy lose.
o JD had sent north a team of negotiators to DC at this time, hoping RL’s victorious army would come down
from the north and the south would get the advantage.
o But AL didn’t let the negotiators through. This was the end for the south, even though the war went on
for another two years.
o AL went to Gettysburg soon after and gave a two-minute speech to dedicate cemetery. Everyone
laughed at him, saying the speech was silly.
The War in the West
o UG was a mediocre military student. He had fought in the Mexican War, and became a drunkard. He
resigned from the army and failed at business attempts. He was working at father’s leather store.
o He wasn’t very impressive looking. He did become a colonel in the volunteers. It turned out he was very
bold and resourceful, and he quickly became popular.
o In northern TN, UG captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862.
 This victory ensured support of the union from KY. It also opened up TN and GA.
o Then, UG tried to get the railroad junction in Corinth, MS.
 April 6-7, 1862- The Confederates stopped UG from doing this.
o People kept complaining about UG, but AL didn’t care. UG’s drinking didn’t interfere.
o Spring 1862- David G. Farragut’s flotilla joined with Northern army and seized New Orleans.
o The Union was starting to take over the Mississippi River, which the south needed to get cattle and
provisions from LA and TX. Vicksburg fortress was what protected them.
o UG defeated Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Then he defeated Port Hudson. The Union had control.
 Vicksburg victory came right after Gettysburg, which was good.
 Butternut region was pacified by getting back the Mississippi.
o All foreign help for the south was stopped by end of 1863.
Sherman Scorches Georgia
o UG got sent to eat TN. The Confederates had chased the Union from Chickamauga to Chattanooga and
were seiging them. UG beat them in November 1863. All Confederates left the state. GA was now open.
o William Tecumseh Sherman was sent to invade GA. UG became general in chief.
 September 1864- Sherman captured Atlanta and burned it.
 Then, his troops marched 250 miles across the country and showed up at Savannah.
 Along the way, they burned buildings, destroyed railroads, and stole property.
 This was total war. The south was mad. Many deserted.
 Then Sherman marched north to SC, and destroyed things even more and burned capital.
The Politics of War
o Election of 1864 was awkwardly in the middle of the war.
o Factions within the Republicans tried to get AL out of office.
 SOT Salmon Chase led a group of critics.
 1861- Congressional committee on the Conduct of the War was made, full of radical Republicans
who thought the presidential power had been expanded too much.
o The northern Democrats were especially bad for the Union. Leader and union-supporter Stephen Douglas
had died early in the war of typhoid, and so the democrats split up.
 War Democrats continued to support AL.
 Peace Democrats didn’t, and Copperheads went out of their way to stop the draft/emancipation.
 Clement L. Vallandigham, OH congressman called for an end to the war.
 In 1863 he was convicted by military tribunal for treason and sentence to prison.
o AL eventually banished him to the confederate side.
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But then Vallandigham went up to Canada and ran for Ohio governor. He failed. He went back into OH,
but was never again tried for his rebelliousness.
o Edward Everett Hale wrote fictional story of Philip Nolan in response, encouraging Union support.
The Election of 1864
o AL needed to keep support from Republicans and defeat peace Dems and Copperheads.
o The Reps were worried, so they joined with the War Dems as the Union party.
o At first, a lot of people were against AL and in favor of Chase.
 People thought AL compromised too much and told too many ill-timed jokes.
 But this movement went away and the Union party picked him as their nominee.
o AL ran with Andrew Johnson (War Dem from TN). He had been a slaveholder at start of conflict.
 He was picked to get support from the War Dems.
o South and Copperheads hated both of them. The Dems picked McClellan. They tried to get a plank in
their platform that the war had been a failure, but McClellan didn’t like that.
o The campaign was nasty. At first, it seemed that AL would lose. AL thought this too.
o But suddenly a bunch of northern victories soon before the election.
 Farragut captured Mobile, AL. Sherman got Atlanta. General Sheridan destroyed Shenandoah.
o When the election happened, northern soldiers were called home to vote for AL.
o Chase got a lot of support in the Old Northwest, NY, and PA, but AL won by strong electoral majority.
o If AL had lost, the south could have won. After AL’s victory, there were more southern desertions.
Grant Outlasts Lee
o UG was brought in after Meade failed to pursue RL after Gettysburg.
o UG’s strategy was to attack everyone at once so they couldn’t help each other.
o May/June 1864- UG led a bunch of battles against RL in VA wilderness heading towards Richmond.
 UG lost 50,000 men. RL lost a directly proportional amount.
o June 3, 1864. UG attacked Cold Harbor. He lost thousands of men.
 People thought he was crazy. But he wouldn’t give up.
o February 1865- Confederates, fearing defeat, tried to negotiate for peace.
 AL met with Confederate Representatives on a Union ship in VA to decide on peace terms.
 But AL would only accept Union and emancipation. Southerners only wanted independence.
 So they kept fighting.
o April 1865- Northern troops captured Richmond and met RL at Appomattox Courthouse.
 On the ninth, UG met with RL and the Confederacy surrendered. Confederates were allowed to
keep their horses, and lots of other things.
 AL quickly went to JD’s abandoned office. The slaves were very excited.
The Martyrdom of Lincoln
o April 14th, 1865- John Wilkes Booth, a pro-southern actor killed AL. This was beneficial for his popularity.
o At first, the south cheered. Then they realized that AL would have been nice to them during the
aftermath of the war. This was bad.
o The north was even angrier at the south, since they thought JD had planned it.
o Andrew Johnson was kicked out of his own party for not being harsh enough to the south. Some
historians believe the same might have happened to AL if he had lived. But AJ was no AL.
The Aftermath of the Nightmare
o About as many died as in all future American wars combined. 600,000 people.
o Population was damaged by a lack of babies and young men.
o The monetary cost was about $15 billion.
o There would be no more nullification, secession, or ardent states’ rights people.
o The war inspired democracy in other countries as well.
 English Reform Bill of 1867 turned Britain into a real political democracy.