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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.