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Michigan State University College of Social Sciences Department of History HST 304 - Civil War Era Mr Summerhill, Mr Knupfer Study Guide, Week 5 Reading Assignment: Read Michael Fellman, Lesley J. Gordon, and Daniel E. Sutherland, This Terrible War: The Civil War and Its Aftermath (New York: Longman, 2008), Chap. 9, chap. 10 through p. 305; view and study Summerhill lecture, “Winning the War”; 1864 platforms of the Democratic and Union parties; Sherman’s remarks on the meaning of war; Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. The recommended readings for this week include collections of correspondence, images, and maps on Sherman’s march and the assassination of Lincoln, plus the exchanges between Lincoln and Congress on Reconstruction. Writing Assignment: Online quiz. See separate instructions. The fifth week of your study covers the end of formal combat with the series of Confederate defeats in Georgia, the Carolinas, the fall of the Mississippi, and the climactic campaigning in the Eastern theater from Wilderness (Overland) to Appomattox. It also delves into the thorny problem of reconstruction, an issue that arose the moment South Carolina left the Union and that became more complex in response to emancipation and the gradual reincorporation of captured territory into the Union. Don’t forget that as we’ve emphasized throughout the course, battlefield events were inextricably linked to the home front, domestic politics, and popular attitudes. Recent research on women and the war has discovered the vital and in some ways determinative role they played in the war. I. First, make sure that you have a good grasp of basic events, people, and issues. You should be able to discuss comfortably (when, where, why, how, what) the following items: “war of exhaustion” Nathaniel Banks; Benjamin Butler; Philip Sheridan Joseph E. Johnston, John Bell Hood Overland, Atlanta Campaigns Election of 1864: issues, candidates, the stakes Hampton Roads Conference “The lost cause” Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction (Ten-percent Plan) Wade-Davis Bill and Manifesto II. The following general questions should help direct your study of lectures and text for this week. 1. What do the authors mean by a “war of exhaustion,” and how did this way of fighting emerge from previous strategies? What’s the primary method in a war of exhaustion, and what were the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach? How did Grant intend to carry out this strategy? Did the Overland Campaign prove the correctness or failure of this strategy? HST 304 Online, Week Five Study Guide, Page 2 2. What was the significance of the fall of Atlanta? How did Sherman use that victory to pursue the larger strategy of exhausting the Confederacy? Do you agree with the authors’ assessment that Sherman’s occupation of Atlanta “amounted to a measured campaign of mass terror”? Be sure to read the Sherman documents on waging war, at the back of Fellman’s book. Do these documents describe a “measured campaign of mass terror”? How did the Confederates respond, both militarily and politically? 3. The authors describe different attitudes in the Confederate army and among civilians at home: the soldiers’ morale remained fairly strong through 1864, while civilian morale plummeted. What explains this? Why did the Confederacy experiment with black troops and what effect did this have on civilian morale? 4. Carefully read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address and the authors’ interpretation of it on pp. 290-291. What questions about American society did Lincoln leave unanswered in an address that the authors describe as a “sermon about collective white sin”? 5. Where did the “lost cause” ideology come from? What did it mean and how would it comfort Southerners in sorrow and embitter Southerners in resistance to Reconstruction? 6. One historian has argued that the presidential election of 1864 was the most important such election ever in the history of the United States, then or since. What do you think of such an argument? Look at the platforms of the two major parties: what were the primary points of disagreement between them? What kind of society did each party try to promote? Why did the Republicans call themselves the Union party that year? What were the stakes in this election, and which voters determined the outcome? 7. Note how Fellman et al. open chapter ten; did the war promote far-reaching political and social change? They then plunge into a narrative of Reconstruction policy. Why did Lincoln’s plan for amnesty and reconstruction prove so unpopular with radicals of his own party? What did they want him to do, and how did the Wade-Davis bill reflect their wishes? (Lincoln’s veto message and the Wade-Davis Manifesto [in the back of Fellman’s book] are among the recommended readings for this week). What was the central point of disagreement here? III. Additional study and exploration. The recommended reading list includes a collection of maps, letters, and documents from Sherman’s march through Georgia; a collection of transcripts, images, sketches, and newspaper reports on the trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators; and the exchange of views about reconstruction between Lincoln and congressional supporters of the Wade-Davis bill. 1. Sherman’s March Documents: Review the documents, maps and materials at the University of Georgia site on Sherman’s march linked from the syllabus. Be sure to read Sherman’s field orders to his men at the top of the top-level page of this collection. What kind of campaign did Sherman want to wage, and what kind of campaign did he wage? 2. Lincoln assassin trial: This site links to a large number of documents, including excerpts from the trial transcripts, newspaper reports, and photographs and sketches. Why did HST 304 Online, Week Five Study Guide, Page 3 Booth and his colleagues commit this crime? Scan the transcripts and the Attorney General’s opinion about using a military commission to try civilians. Setting aside the conspirators’ guilt or innocence, was a military tribunal the right forum for such a trial? What was the government’s explanation for a military trial of civilians in time of peace, when the civilian courts were functioning? 3. Wade-Davis documents: Compare and contrast Lincoln’s and the Wade-Davis supporters’ perspectives on reconstruction policy. What kind of South did they want to create or foster? Were both sides thinking in the long-term?