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Burnside’s Bridge is a landmark on the Civil War Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, northwestern Maryland. The Learning History Group Printed on a Xerox® WorkCentre® 5800i Series Multifunction Printer. For more information, visit www.xerox.com/office. W58PS-02UB This month’s edition of the Learning History Group newsletter features the American Civil War. We pay our respects to our country’s most deadly conflict with reflections on noteworthy battles, including Gettysburg and the Siege of Port Hudson. Plus, we look at the life of a Civil War re-enactor, examine the roles of women during the war, and discuss mid-19th Century southern plantation architecture. A American Civil War: The War Between The States The Gettysburg Address— A succinct speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of Soldiers’ National Cemetery on the American Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863—remains one of the most quoted presidential speeches. In just more than two minutes, beginning with the now-iconic phrase “Four score and seven years ago,” Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence. He proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle for the preservation of the Union sundered by the secession crisis, with “a new birth of freedom,” that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, ensuring that democracy would remain a viable form of government and creating a nation in which states’ rights were no longer dominant. The Civil War resulted in an estimated 750,000 soldier deaths. During the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, campaigned against expanding slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. The Republicans strongly advocated nationalism, and in their 1860 platform they denounced threats of disunion as avowals of treason. After a Republican victory, but before the new administration took office on March 4, 1861, seven cotton states declared their secession and joined to form the Confederate States of America. This chain of events set in motion what would become America’s bloodiest and most deadly armed conflict. From the first shots fired at the Union’s outpost at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, to the Confederates’ surrender at Appomattox, the Civil War resulted in an estimated 750,000 soldier deaths and countless civilian lives adversely affected. The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, photography, and massproduced weapons were employed extensively. The practices of total war, and the mobilization of civilian labor and finances all foreshadowed World War I in Europe. Victory for the North meant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the role of the federal government. H History Through Reenactment For Rochester, New York resident James Coffey, a passion for participating in Civil War reenactments began not as a desire to better understand one of the most pivotal eras in U.S. history, but because the activities provide him with a tremendous opportunity to spend quality time pursuing a healthy outdoor hobby with his 11-year-old son, Daniel. But as he and his son participated in more and more reenactments, culminating in this year’s event at Antietam, Coffey has become a die-hard Civil War history buff. “Participating in living history events at some of the war’s most crucial battlefields is a great way for my son and me to enjoy spending time together,” he said. “But it’s also been an eye-opener for me in terms of the extent to which the Civil War still defines us as a country to this day.” American Civil War reenactments draw enthusiastic participants willing to duplicate the events down to the smallest recorded detail. Participants learn how to dress, cook, eat, and even “die” just as real Civil War soldiers would have. Most reenactments have anywhere from 100 to 1,000 participants, portraying either Union or Confederate infantry, artillery, or cavalry forces. TOP: Daniel Coffey, 11, surveying Burnside’s bridge at Antietam. MIDDLE: James Coffey stands on the front line awaiting the Confederates’ charge while Daniel provides backup. BOTTOM: Cavalry re-enactors scout for Confederate positions. P Port Hudson, Louisiana: America’s Longest Siege Map of Port Hudson and it’s Defences. Port Hudson was the site of the longest siege in American history, lasting 48 days, when 7,500 Confederates resisted some 40,000 Union soldiers for almost two months during 1863. The Siege of Port Hudson occurred from May 22 to July 9, 1863, when Union Army troops assaulted and then surrounded the Mississippi River town of Port Hudson, Louisiana, during the American Civil War. In cooperation with Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s offensive against Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks’ army moved against the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson. On May 27, 1863, after their frontal assaults were repulsed, the Federals settled into a siege that lasted for 48 days. Banks renewed his assaults on June 14 but the defenders successfully repelled them. On July 9, 1863, after hearing of the fall of Vicksburg, the Confederate garrison of Port Hudson surrendered, giving the Union complete control of the Mississippi River and its major tributaries, severing communications and trade between the eastern and western states of the Confederacy. Turning Point: Gettysburg Gettysburg National Military Park Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s most famous conflict, the Battle of Gettysburg. The conflict was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is often described as the war’s turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee’s invasion of the North. During the battle the two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties. Today, the Gettysburg National Cemetery and Gettysburg National Military Park are maintained by the U.S. National Park Service as two of the nation’s most revered historical landmarks. The Civil War was the first major conflict to be extensively photographed. For the first time in history, citizens on the home front could view the actual carnage of far away battlefields. Crystal-clear black-and-white photographs were truly dramatic, stripping away much of the Victorian-era romance around warfare. W Women Of War With the outbreak of war in 1861, women and men alike eagerly volunteered to fight for the cause. In the Northern states, women organized ladies’ aid societies to supply the Union troops with everything they needed, from food to clothing to cash. But many women wanted to take a more active role in the war effort. They tried to find a way to work on the front lines, caring for sick and injured soldiers and keeping the rest of the Union troops healthy and safe. In June 1861, they succeeded: The federal government agreed to create “a preventive hygienic and sanitary service for the benefit of the army” called the United States Sanitary Commission. The Sanitary Commission’s primary objective was to combat preventable diseases and infections by improving conditions in army camps and hospitals. It also worked to provide relief to sick and wounded soldiers. By war’s end, the Sanitary Commission had provided almost $15 million in supplies—the vast majority of which had been collected by women—to the Union Army. Nearly 20,000 women worked more directly for the Union war effort. Working-class white women and free and enslaved African-American women worked as laundresses, cooks and “matrons,” and some 3,000 middle-class white women worked as nurses. The activist Dorothea Dix, the superintendent of Army nurses, put out a call for responsible, maternal volunteers who would not distract the troops or behave in unseemly or unfeminine ways: Dix insisted that her nurses be “past 30 years of age, healthy, plain almost to repulsion in dress and devoid of personal attractions.” A Antebellum Architecture Nearly 20,000 women worked more directly for the Union war effort. Antebellum means “before war” in Latin. The term Antebellum architecture refers to elegant plantation homes built in the American South during the 30 years or so preceding the Civil War. Antebellum is not a particular house style. Rather, it is a time and place in history. The features we associate with Antebellum architecture were introduced to the American South by Anglo-Americans who moved into the area after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Most Antebellum homes are grand, symmetrical, and boxy, with center entrances in the front and rear, balconies, and columns or pillars. Many southern plantations to this day bear the scars of the Civil War, including the one pictured above, located in Virginia on the Manassas battlefield, with a cannonball now a part of the exterior detailing. The Learning History Group