Download THE CIVIL WAR Hello, I am Professor Doug Cantrell at

THE CIVIL WAR
Hello, I am Professor Doug Cantrell at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College. Today's
topic is going to be the American Civil War. As you probably remember, the Civil War began in April 1861
when southern forces attacked Ft. Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina. The attack upon Ft. Sumter
began the bloodiest war in American history.
Several factors played a role in causing this conflict. As you should recall from previous
lectures the most important issue was the spread of slavery into the western territories. Northern states
want to keep slavery out of the western territories while southern states wanted to expand slavery into the
western territories for political and economic reasons. Had slavery not have existed, certainly the Civil
War would not have been fought. Yet, please understand that the Civil War was not about the North
wanting to end slavery and the South wanting to perpetuate slavery. Slavery as a cause of the Civil War
was far more complicated than simply the North wanting to abolish slavery and the South want to keep
slavery. The issue was one about the economic future of the nation. Would the United States develop
along agricultural lines and would agrarians control the government or would the nation become industrial
with northern manufacturing concerns having more influence in the government?
Another factor that caused the war was the election of Abraham Lincoln as President in 1860.
Lincoln's election upset southern states because Lincoln's election promised to create a Supreme Court
that likely would overturn the Dred Scott decision, which, if you recall, meant that slavery could expand
into all the western territories. The South was not willing to risk having Lincoln appoint new Supreme
Court judges that would overturn the Dred Scott decision. Lincoln's election also threatened the South
because the region had lost complete control of every branch of the Federal Government. Traditionally,
the South had controlled the Presidency and Supreme Court while the North controlled Congress. With
Lincoln's election, the South had lost control of the Presidency and within a few years would likely lose
control of the Supreme Court. Many southerners were simply not willing to live as a minority region within
a larger nation. Some southerners thus thought that it was better for the South to leave the Union and
form a nation of its own rather than live within the United States without control over any branch of the
Federal Government.
Another factor that played a role in causing the Civil War was southern optimism. The South was
optimistic that it could win the war because southerners understood that militarily they do not have to win
to win. What I mean when I say the South did not have to win to win is that the South did not have to
defeat the North to win this war. The South only had to fight a defensive war and hang on until the North
got tired of fighting and agreed to give the South its independence. It is much easier to win a conflict
when a nation is fighting a defensive war--when a nation doesn't have to defeat the enemy but only has to
continue the fight. Southerners understood this and so they were optimistic about the South's chances of
winning this conflict. The South was also optimistic that England would get involved in the war on their
side. Although this never happened, southerners believed that England would be so desperate for
southern cotton that it was only a matter of time before the English would come to the aid of the South.
Another factor that played a role in causing the Civil War was that southerners felt that over time
northern abolitionist had insulted Southern honor with their attacks on slavery. Southerners believed that
an individual should fight to protect his honor. Many southerners saw the Civil War as simply defending
the honor of the South that radical northern abolitionists had insulted.
Another cause of the Civil War was preservation of the Union. In fact, this is why the North initially
fought the war. Lincoln maintained that the Union must be preserved at all costs and he was willing to
fight a war to achieve that objective. If you had asked a northern soldier why he was fighting he would
likely have said he was fighting to preserve the Union. He would not have said he was fighting to end
slavery. Northerners generally did not believe they any state had the right to leave the Union once that
state had joined the Union. On the other hand, had somebody asked a southern soldier why he was
fighting the Civil War he would likely have said for the independence of my country. Southerners were not
fighting to perpetuate slavery; they were fighting to make the South an independent nation. Preservation
of the Union certainly was a cause of the Civil War.
After having discussed the causes of the war, let us now turn to key events in the conflict that
turned the tide of the war in favor of the North. Several key turning points were present during the Civil
War. One important turning point was that four Border States--Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, and
Missouri-- remained loyal to the Union. Had these slave states joined the Confederacy the North might
not have won the Civil War. Of the four Border States, Lincoln believed that Kentucky was the most
important. In fact, he once wrote that to lose Kentucky was tantamount to losing the game. All four Border
States were important in their own way. Kentucky was important because of rivers like the Ohio and
Mississippi and because it produced the best quality livestock in the nation at that time. Likewise,
Missouri was important because of the Mississippi River and because it produced more livestock than any
other state at that time. Had Kentucky and Missouri joined the Confederacy, the middle part of the
Mississippi would have been in Confederate hands and the lower part of the Ohio would have been within
the Confederacy. Maryland was important because it lay north of Washington, D.C. Had Maryland joined
the Confederacy the Union capitol would have been in Confederate territory. Delaware was important
because of Delaware Bay, which would have provided a good invasion point into the North had Delaware
joined the Confederacy. All the Border States were important because they provided a buffer zone
between the North and South. Any invasion of the North would have to come through one of these Border
States.
Another turning point was First Bull Run, the first major battle of the Civil War that occurred at
Manassas Creek in the Virginia countryside outside Washington, D.C. Even though the North lost this
battle, Bull Run was an important turning point because it strengthened the North's resolve to win the war.
After the defeat at Bull Run, northerners realize that this war was not going to be easily won within a few
days as most had previously thought. Northerners realized that winning was going to require much more
effort and take longer than previously believed. Lincoln responded to the defeat by asking for thousands
more volunteers for the Union Army. Northerners could not believe that they had lost the first important
battle of the Civil War. Previously, they thought that winning the war would be easy; all they believed they
had to do was invade the South, win a few battles, burn a few towns and southerners would beg to
reenter the Union. After Bull Run, northerners realized this would not likely happen so quickly or easily.
The most critical turning point in the Civil War was the Trent Affair. The Trent Affair was
important because it kept England from getting involved in the war on the side of the South. What
happened in regards to the Trent Affair, which occurred in November 1861, was that a Northern naval
Captain, Charles Wilkes, received information from spies about Confederate diplomats going to England
from Havana, Cuba on board a British ship, the Trent, with secrete dispatches for the English
government. Wilkes stopped the Trent and captured the Confederate diplomats. This angered England
because Wilkes had violated international law and as a result, England almost went to war with the North.
Had England declared war on the North, the Civil War almost certainly would have been won by the
South. In order to avoid war, Lincoln let the Confederate diplomats out of prison and sent them to
England. Lincoln realized that the Union could not have fought a war with England along the Canadian
frontier and with the South along the Confederate frontier while having to fight the English navy at the
same time. Lincoln was determined that England would not get involved in the war and did everything in
his power to prevent English entrance into the conflict.
Another turning point in the war was the Battle of Antietam. Antietam was an attempt by Robert
E. Lee, the Supreme Confederate military commander, to invade the North. The battle was fought at
Antietam Creek, Maryland. Lee invaded the North in September 1862 in an attempt to influence northern
congressional elections. There were people running for Congress in the North called Copperheads. A
Copperhead was someone opposed to the war and who promised that if they were elected to Congress
they would pressure Lincoln to end the war and give the South its independence. Northern forces turned
back Lee. Had Lee been able to win a series of battles in the North, northern voters might have been so
fearful that the war was spreading into the North that they would have elected enough Copperheads to
force Lincoln to stop fighting and give the South its independence. Antietam, which was fought on
September 17, 1862, represents the bloodiest single day of the entire Civil War. More Americans were
killed on that day than on any other day of the war.
Issuance of the Emancipation Proclamations by Abraham Lincoln represents another important
turning point of the Civil War. Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation after the Battle of
Antietam was fought and a more permanent Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. What the
Emancipation Proclamation said was that all slaves in the rebellious states were free. Today, if you ask
most people what freed the slaves they will tell you it was the Emancipation Proclamation. However, that
answer is not correct as the 13th amendment ratified after the Civil War in 1865 actually ended slavery.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not really free a single slave because it did not apply to the Border
States. The eleven Confederate states were not going to free their slaves because Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United States, told residents of the Confederacy, another country, to free their slaves. If
the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave, why then did Lincoln issue it? Actually, Lincoln
had several reasons for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. One reason was because he wanted to
prevent England from entering the war on the side of the South. Lincoln understood that if the North made
freeing the slaves a war objective, England would find it difficult, if not impossible, to come to the aid of
the South because England considered itself the most civilized nation in the world and civilized people did
not keep slaves. Another reason Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation was to disrupt the South's
war effort. Lincoln understood that once word filtered through Confederate lines that the slaves were free
slaves might rise up and try to assert their freedom. Regardless of whether a slave insurrection occurred,
Lincoln understood that the Confederacy would have to take soldiers off the front lines to guard against a
possible slave uprising, which would weaken the Confederate military. Another reason Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamations was to rally abolitionist support for the Civil War. In the North, abolitionists
did not want to fight the Civil War initially because they opposed slavery and did not want not to bring
slave states back into the Union. By saying the slaves were free, Lincoln was able to get abolitionist
support for fighting the war.
Lee's failure to invade the North a second time at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is also an important
turning point in the Civil War. Had Lee been successful at Gettysburg, Lincoln might not have been
reelected in 1864 and the Civil War might have ended differently. After Gettysburg, the South never really
had any realistic hope of being able to win the Civil War. Southern forces were so devastated that they
were unable to regroup over the long term and continue the war. Gettysburg represents the bloodiest
battle of the entire Civil War. More soldiers died in this three day battle than during any other battle of the
war.
Vicksburg also was an important turning point in the Civil War. Vicksburg was the last
Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. General Grant, soon to become the supreme Union
military commander in the Civil War, laid siege to Vicksburg, which fell in July of 1863. After Confederate
defenders surrendered Vicksburg, the North controlled the entire Mississippi River, which meant that the
Confederate states west of the Mississippi River were separated from Confederate states east of the
River. In other words, the Confederacy was now bisected, which made it hard to win a war.
The final turning point in the Civil War was Lincoln's reelection in 1864. It was not certain that
Lincoln would be reelected as there were still quite a bit of opposition to the war in the North because
Lincoln had used military constriction (the draft) to get enough soldiers for his military. Fortunately,
Lincoln defeated his Democratic opponent, George McClellan, which meant that the war would continue
until the South surrendered. Had Lincoln not been reelected, McClellan likely would have ended the war
by giving the South its independence, even though the North by 1864 had essentially won the conflict on
the battlefield. Thus, it was important that Lincoln be reelected so that the North would win the Civil War.
The war officially ended in April 1865, about four years after it began, when Lee surrendered to
Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Lee's surrender ended the bloodiest war in American History.