Download American History

Bellwork
• What caused the South to eventually secede
from the union?
American History
Section 10, Unit 1
The Union Dissolves and War!
Objectives
• Discuss some of the effects of the fall of Fort
Sumter
• List the military advantages each side possessed.
• Explain how the draft laws affected who fought in
the war
• Describe how women contributed to the war
effort
• Examine some of the hardships faced by soldiers
• Explain why some northerners opposed the war
Video
• Before we continue, we are going to watch a
video that reviews over the causes of the Civil
War (“Was the Civil War About Slavery?”)
Questions:
1. What factors caused the Civil War?
2. What was the main cause of the Civil War?
Compromise
• By Abraham Lincolns inauguration in 1861,
seven southern states had seceded.
• However, the debate was far from settled in
the Upper South, with states like Delaware,
Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, who were
closely tied to the North.
Compromise
• To save the Union,
Senator John J. Crittenden
of Kentucky proposed the
Crittenden Compromise,
which called for the
Missouri Compromise line
to be drawn west through
the remaining territories.
• North of this line, slavery
was illegal. South of it,
slavery could expand.
Compromise
• Lincoln, however,
opposed the plan,
believing that
slavery should not
be spread.
• He knew that many
Republicans would
turn against him if
he had allowed
slavery to expand.
Compromise
• Lincoln was determined to preserve the
Union.
• In his inaugural address, he was firm but
cordial when he reminded southerners that
secession is unconstitutional.
“There needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none,
unless it be forced upon the national authority… In your hands, my
dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of
civil war. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the
aggressor.”—Lincoln
Fall of Fort Sumter
• However, the South took little to heart from
Lincoln’s words.
• The Confederacy had taken over most federal
forts, mints, and arsenals in their borders.
• However, one very important fort– Fort
Sumter– remained under federal control.
Fall of Fort Sumter
• Fort Sumter was strategically located in the
harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
• The South needed the fort to control access to
their major port city.
• By early March, the fort’s commander, Major
Robert Anderson, had notified Washington
that he was nearly out of supplies and that
Sumter would soon fall.
Fall of Fort Sumter
• The North did not want
to lose the fort.
• Lincoln was hesitant to
use force, fearing the
reaction of slave states
who were still part of
the Union.
• Many of these states
said they would leave if
force was ever used.
Major Robert Anderson
Fall of Fort Sumter
• On April 6, Lincoln sent a messenger to South
Carolina’s governor, F. W. Pickens, that supply
ships were coming. They had no soldiers or
weapons.
• Pickens relayed this message to General P. G.
T. Beauregard who ordered the fort be
abandoned. Major Anderson of Sumter
refused to obey.
Fall of Fort Sumter
• On April 12, the Confederate forces opened
fire on Sumter.
• For 34 hours, Confederates attacked Sumter
and set much of the fort ablaze.
• Without any remaining ammunition,
Anderson and his men surrendered.
– Shockingly, no one on either side was killed or
seriously injured.
Fall of Fort Sumter
• On April 15, Lincoln denounced the attack and
asked governors of loyal states to provide
75,000 militiamen to put down the uprising.
• They were only to serve for 3 months.
Choosing sides
• Lincoln’s fear of losing more states became a
reality.
• Four states– Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee,
and North Carolina– responded to the
presidents call for troops by seceding and
making Richmond, Virginia the Confederate
capital.
Choosing sides
• Four other slave states– Delaware, Missouri,
Kentucky, and Maryland– remained with the
Union.
• While some in these states support secession,
there was never enough support to make the
move.
– In Delaware’s case, there simply was not enough
slaves to justify leaving.
Choosing sides
• The mountainous
countries of northwestern
Virginia remained loyal to
the Union.
• The people there had few
slaves and long resented
the rich planers of the
lowlands.
• They set up their own
state government and, in
1863, West Virginia joined
the Union.
Choosing sides
• The people of the Upper South remained
divided.
• Families and friends in the regions often
fought one another because of the different
sides of war.
Choosing sides
Note that while
the territories
did not “take
sides”, many of
the settlers
there did
support either
the Union or the
Confederacy and
the territories
became a
battleground for
the western
expanse of the
war
Preparing for War
• The North had a population of 22 million,
compared the South’s 9 million .
• The North also enjoyed huge economic
advantages, with over 85% of the nations
industries and almost all the known supplies
of copper, gold, iron, and other metals.
Preparing for War
• With such resources, the North could produce
war products and replace lost or damaged
equipment faster than the Confederacy.
• The North also had the advantage of better
infrastructure, such as their railroad system.
• The Union could easily move supplies and
troops.
Preparing for War
• The North was superior
at sea.
• Most of the U.S. Navy
was loyal to the Union
and, because few Naval
officers went to the
Confederacy, the South
had to build its navy
from scratch.
Question: What advantages did the
North have the war?
Preparing for War
• The South, with it’s agricultural and slave
economy, could not compare to the North.
• As well, their infrastructure was relatively
poor in comparison and, due to a lack of
natural resources, they struggled with
replacing or fixing weapons, supplies, railway
parts, and more.
Preparing for War
• However, the South had
two major advantages
over the North:
1. The South only had to
stay on the defensive,
protecting it’s territory
until the North tired
out.
2. The South had
excellent military
leadership.
General Benjamin Cheatham
Robert E. Lee
• Among their military leaders was Robert E.
Lee.
• Lee was an expert combatant who had served
in the Mexican War and who had captured
John Brown at Harpers Ferry.
• Although asked by Lincoln to serve the Union,
Lee chose to resign instead.
Robert E. Lee
• While Lee opposed
both slavery and
secession, he could not
fight against Virginia, his
home state.
• Lee said to his sister in a
letter that he could not
attack, “[his] relatives,
[his] children, [and his]
home.”
The armies
• By the end of 1861, the Union had more than
527,000 soldiers to the Confederacy’s
258,000.
• But conscriptions put a major burden on poor
farmers and working people.
• Wealthy men who were drafted could simply
hire a substitute to fight for them or pay the
government a fee to avoid service.
The armies
• In the South, anyone who owned 20 or more
slaves was exempt from conscription.
• Slave owners argued that the South needed
their resources and that if they weren’t there,
the slaves would run off.
The armies
• Some openly criticized the draft.
• Many immigrants in the North did not feel the
need to fight while some Southerners argued
that the conflict was a “rich mans war and a
poor man’s fight.”
Question: What does that mean?
The armies
• Estimates of the number
of soldiers in the war
vary.
• The U.S. government
estimates that around
2,672,341 fought in the
Union army and another
105,963 in the navy or
marines.
• Among that were 180,000
African American
enlistees and around
3,530 Native Americans.
Ely Parker, a Union Civil War
General and Native American
The armies
• Estimates of the number of
Confederate enlistment are
subject of debate.
• There is an estimate of
around 750,000 men
enlisted.
• Of these are 5,500
Cherokees, Creeks,
Chickasaws, and Choctaws
who were promised an allIndian state with the
possibility of having slaves.
“You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves
of soldiers.” Howell Cobb.
There is no evidence of slaves– or African
Americans in general– of fighting for the
Confederacy.
Quick Review
1. What advantages did the South have over
the North?
2. What advantages did the North have in the
war effort?
3. How did slave owners avoid conscription?
Women and the War
• Women in the North
and South joined the
war effort.
• Some women actually
dressed like men to join
the war effort, while
others like Harriet
Tubman acted as spies.
Loreta Janeta Velazquez (vuh-lah-skez),
a woman who fought in the
Confederate army and then later
became a spy for the South.
Women and the War
• Many women served in medical roles, however.
• The first group of women to volunteer were
Catholic nuns, who transformed their convents
into emergency hospitals.
• Nuns, regardless of their location, served a
neutral purpose in the war and treated all victims
and were recognized by both the Union and
Confederacy for their work.
Women and the War
• Elizabeth Blackwell,
America’s first
professionally licensed
female doctor, helped run
the U.S. Sanitary
Commission which fought
to battle disease and
infections.
• Around 3,000 women
also served as nurses in
the war.
Clara Burton, a nurse who helped during the
war and created the American Red Cross.
Women and the War
• Throughout the states,
women worked in
federal factories, sewing
rooms, and military
arsenals, providing
support both on and off
the battlefield.
The Civil War
• As the nation prepared itself for war, many
continued to hope that this war would be
short.
• However, while the Union had various
advantages over the South, we will see that
victory– or an end of the war– will not come
quickly.
Break
Take two minutes to just relax and breathe before we move forward
Beginning of War
• Many, including Lincoln, believed the North
would have an easy victory.
• Between a better equipped force, better
infrastructure, and more soldiers, victory
seemed eminent.
The First Battle of Bull Run
• In 1861, Lincoln sent
General Irvin McDowell
and 35,000 barely trained
troops to Richmond.
• Joking along the way,
they expected an easy
victory against the South.
The First Battle of Bull Run
• McDowell's forces were
met with a Confederate
force of 35,000 under
General Joseph E.
Johnston near the creek
of Bull Run.
• The North called the
fighting that ensued the
First Battle of Bull Run.
The First Battle of Bull Run
• At first the battle went in
the Union’s favor.
• However, General
Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson and his men
stopped the union assault
and forced a retreat.
• Had the Confederates
followed them, they
might have captured
Washington, but decided
against it due to their
disorganization and
exhaustion.
Reactions
• The First Battle of Bull Run
made everyone realize
that victory would be hard
pressed.
• The First Battle of Bull
Run’s most important
consequences were mostly
psychological.
• The defeat shamed the
North, with some
northerners calling for
peace.
Reactions
• The South, however, felt
assured by their victory.
• They proclaimed
Southern superiority in
their newspapers and
felt that the war would
easily be theirs.
Reactions
• Following the battle,
Jefferson Davis named
Joseph Johnston to
command the army of
Northern Virginia and
chose Robert E. Lee as
his personal military
adviser.
• President Lincoln chose
George B. McClellan to
head the Union forces.
George B. McClellan
Strategies for War
• The North had three steps for winning the
war:
1. Capture Richmond, the Confederate capital
2. Control the Mississippi River
3. Institute a naval blockade of the South to
prevent them from getting foreign goods they
desperately needed
Strategies for War
• Much of the North’s
strategies was based on
geography.
• The border of the
Confederacy stretched
from Virginia to Texas
and the Appalachian
mountains divided the
war into two halves: the
western theater and the
eastern theater.
Strategies for War
• However, the South planned to win by taking
Washington D.C., which was close to their
borders.
• A foreign ally was necessary for a Confederate
victory.
Strategies for War
• Several things worked against the southern
strategy:
1. French and English mill owners had stockpiled
cotton before the fall of Fort Sumter and if they
ran out, they’d turn to Egypt or India for supplies
2. The French were more preoccupied with Mexico,
who was fighting back against them (specifically
Napoleon III) for helping to institute a ruling elite
in the nation.
Military Life
• With high-level leaders
planning the battles,
officers under them had
to train troops for
battle.
• Young recruits in the
Union and Confederate
ranks were generally
enthusiastic when they
first joined, but most
were unfamiliar with
military life.
Military Life
• Training and field officers had to contend with
lack of food, clothes, and even weapons, of
which troops had to provide themselves.
• Most troops brought their own clothes from
home, which was designed with each sides
color-Union blue and Confederate grey– but
most troops lacked good shoes and warm
coats.
Military Life
Doctors and nurses could only do so
much, since medical provisions were
limited and many soldiers had to
endure surgeries without any form of
anesthetics.
• The lack of provisions,
mixed with unsanitary
conditions caused
thousands of soldiers to
die from illnesses like
typhoid, pneumonia, and
influenza.
• In fact, disease, infection,
and malnutrition were
responsible for around
65% of troop deaths
during the war.
Military Life
• Under these conditions, many soldiers
suffered from extreme homesickness,
loneliness, and boredom.
• Some react by deserting, but others coped by
playing cards, attending prayers, singing,
writing letters, or engaging in recreational
activities
Opposition to the War
• As soldiers kept their hopes up, many at home
on both sides were voicing their displeasure
with the war.
• Not everyone in the North supported war and
some northerners, who were sympathetic
towards the South, urged peace.
Opposition to the War
• Democratic newspapers
scared their readers by
saying white men would
have to fight for freedom
of African Americans who
would steal their jobs.
• Many reacted by going
through black
neighborhoods and
attacking people, looting,
and burning buildings.
Opposition to the War
• Many of these northern
Democrats who
sympathized with the South
were called Copperheads–
which likened them to the
venomous snake.
• Most Copperheads spread
their message through
speeches and newspaper
articles, while a few others
actively interfered with war
efforts.
Opposition to the War
• In an attempt to quiet
the Copperheads,
Lincoln suspended
certain civil liberties–
such as habeas corpus,
which was the
protection against
unlawful imprisonment.
An 1863 political cartoon that shows
the Copperheads as a snake
attacking the Union.
Opposition to the War
• At one time or another, thousands of
Copperheads were arrested and other
opponents of war were arrested and held
without trial.
• In some cases, arrests were justified while
many others were arrested for peacefully
stating their views.
War Continues
• No matter how people felt about war, soon
the war effort was going to reach a head as it
spread throughout the Southeast and
Southwest.
Closure
• Write down at least three new things you’ve
learned in this lesson. Be prepared to answer
at any moment.
Review Objectives
• Discuss some of the effects of the fall of Fort
Sumter
• List the military advantages each side possessed.
• Explain how the draft laws affected who fought in
the war
• Describe how women contributed to the war
effort
• Examine some of the hardships faced by soldiers
• Explain why some northerners opposed the war
Questions
• If you have a question, please ask now.
Next lesson
• In the next lesson, we are going to discuss the
war effort in the Southeast and Southwest.
Review
1. How did the First Battle of Bull Run affect people’s belief that the
war would be quick?
2. What were the three (3) Northern strategies for war?
3. What were the South’s strategies for war?
4. What was life like for the average soldier during the Civil War?
5. Why do you think Lincoln chose to arrest Copperheads rather
than allow them to continue speaking against the war?
6. For what reasons did northern Democrats and working-class
whites oppose the war?
7. Why is it that the Civil War can be considered a “rich man’s war
but a poor man’s fight”?
8. Describe at least two (2) roles women took during the Civil War.
9. Describe three (3) advantages that the North had over the South.
10. Why was Lincoln hesitant to outright attack the Confederacy?