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Life During Wartime
African Americans in the War
Effects on the Economy
Struggles of the Soldiers
African Americans Fight for Freedom
The Emancipation Proclamation led to a large scale enlistment of African
Americans into the Union Army. Made up only 1% of the nations population, but
they accounted for 10% of the Union Army by the end of the war.
Black soldiers faced discrimination and would serve in separate regiments
commanded by white officers, and could not rise above the rank of captain.
Blacks were paid less then white soldiers and given no clothing allowance, but after
much protest Congress equalized the pay in 1864.
African American soldiers also had a higher death rate due to the jobs they served
as well as how the Confederates dealt with them when captured.
One incident at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee, in 1864 resulted in the massacre of 200
African American and some white POWs who begged for their lives.
Slaves in the South would sabotage plantations by breaking plows, neglecting
livestock, and destroying fences. Slave resistance in the south weakened the
plantation system greatly.
Regional Economies: The South
The Confederacy faced a food shortage due to 3 reasons:
(1) The drain of manpower into the army
(2) The Union occupation of food growing areas
(3) The loss of slaves in the work fields.
Food prices skyrocketed—a family spent $6.65 a month in 1861 on food and by
mid-1863 spent $68 a month if they could even find food to buy. This caused
people to storm bakeries and riot for bread in 1863. Jefferson Davis dispersed
the mob and ordered rice rations to be distributed.
The Union blockade of Southern ports created shortages of sugar, salt, coffee,
nails, needles, and medicine. Some Confederates would smuggle cotton into the
North in exchange for gold, food, and other goods.
Regional Economies: The North
Although cotton textiles faltered in the north, most other industries boomed.
Woolen mills, steel foundries, coal mines, and many other industries supplied
the soldiers.
Western farmers also bought many machines like the mechanical reapers since
the draft had diminished the workforce.
The economic boom in the north had an adverse affect as well, that being the
standard of living reduced. When workers would strike, owners would hire free
blacks, women and boys, and immigrant labor to replace them.
Many of the industries had contracts with the government, but these businesses
cheated the government by supplying food and equipment that was shoddy to
gain the most profit.
Congress decided to help pay for the war by tapping the citizens wealth and in
1863 they collected the first income tax (specified % of income).
Soldiers Suffer on Both Sides
In army camps many of the basic necessities such as garbage disposal and latrines
were not available. Many soldiers failed to meet basic hygiene standards and as a
result lice, dysentery, and diarrhea were common.
The rations of the troops consisted of beans, bacon, and hardtack (hard bread).
Southerners ate “cush,” a stew of small cubes of beef and crumbled cornbread
mixed with bacon grease. Coffee was loved by both sides but Southerners had no
supply of coffee so they had to use peanuts, dried apples, and corn to brew pots.
The federal government set up the United States Sanitary Commission whose job
was to improve hygienic conditions of army camps and to recruit and train nurses.
Dorothea Dix became the first superintendent of women nurses and began
recruitment. One nurse, Clara Barton, of the Union was considered the “angel of
the battlefield” after her courage in Antietam.
War prisons did not have these sanitary conditions, and the worst prison was
Andersonville, Ga, where 33,000 men were crammed into 26acres. 15% of Union
prisoners and 12% of Confederate prisoners die in these camps.
Andersonville was one among many P.O.W.
camps and the crowding was equivalent to
having 1,250 people on Krebs field.
Conclusions
• African Americans helped serve the Union through direct
action as well as rebelling in the South.
• The decline of the plantation system was not the only
economic effect that the Civil War caused. Other effects
included inflation and a new type of federal tax. In general,
the war expanded the North’s economy while shattering that
of the South.
• Both sides felt the effects of the war as time pressed on.
Lack of supplies, sanitary conditions, and the hardships of
war were present in both Union and Confederate Camps.
• HW: DE Notes 11.4