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BECOMING CONFEDERATES Civil War watercolor of the battle of Savage’s Station, 1862, by Robert Knox Sneden ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ BECOMING CONFEDERATES On April 4, 1861, the Virginia state convention voted eighty-eight to forty-five against secession, even though seven southern states had already separated themselves from the United States. The majority of Virginians were pro-Union until the attack on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln’s call for volunteers. Once the fighting began,Virginians voted to secede—becoming Confederates. STANDARDS OF LEARNING K.1, 1.2, 2.5, 2.11,VS.7, US1.8, US1.9,VUS.7,VUS.14 KEY POINTS • The Civil War began as a struggle between those who believed in secession and those who sought to preserve the Union. As the war progressed, however, the existence of slavery itself, a “right” demanded by southern states, became the major issue of the war. • Both sides claimed to be the real Americans and heirs of the American Revolution. During the war, the South compared its struggle to that of the colonies in 1776, while the North emphasized the rhetoric of equality as presented in the Declaration of Independence. • When emancipation became a Union war goal, the presence of the Union army became a principal agent in the liberation of slaves. Although black Virginians fought on both sides, the vast majority served in the Union forces. • The majority of eligible white men served in the Confederate armies, leaving the home front largely to be managed by women. • The decision to make Richmond the Confederate capital dictated that much of the war would be fought in the one hundred miles between Richmond and Washington, D. C. More battles were fought in Virginia than anywhere else, and the most prominent southern leaders were Virginians. • Northern superiority in manpower, raw and manufactured materials, and the lack of foreign intervention were the decisive factors in the Confederate defeat. BECOMING CONFEDERATES • 73 SECESSION During the secession winter of 1860–61, white Virginians struggled with their competing allegiances.They were proud of being Americans but for decades had also thought of themselves as southerners. In the end, most believed that they would stay with the Union if it did not attack the seceded states. Thus, the elected convention that met in Richmond in early 1861 was overwhelmingly Unionist. But, within days of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, and Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops to suppress the rebellion,Virginia voted to secede. CONFLICTING VIEWS Robert Edward Lee wrote, “If Virginia stands by the old Union, so will I. But, if she secedes (though I do not believe in secession as a constitutional right, nor that there is sufficient cause for revolution), then I will still follow my native State with my sword, and if need be with my life.” On April 17, 1861, the Virginia state convention, by a vote of 88 to 45, voted to secede. On April 20, Col. R. E. Lee resigned his U.S. Army commission, and on April 22 he was give command of the Virginia state forces. George Henry Thomas, a career army officer, was awarded this sword (pictured below) from his fellow citizens of Southampton County for gallantry in the Mexican War. In 1861, he refused an offer to become Virginia’s chief of ordnance to remain in the U.S. Army. Promoted to general, he earned the nicknames the “Rock of Chicka-mauga” and “Sledge of Nashville” for his actions in Ten-nessee. When he chose to side with the Union, his sisters in Virginia disowned him and refused to return his sword. They eventually donated it to the VHS. Critical Thinking Robert E. Lee and George H.Thomas Discuss the decisions made by Robert E. Lee and George H.Thomas.Why would these have been such difficult decisions? What other examples can you find that show friends and family fighting on opposing sides of the Civil War? 74 • BECOMING CONFEDERATES THE WAR IN VIRGINIA: 1861 Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate government moved its capital from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond. This fateful decision determined that much of the war would be fought between Washington, D.C., and Richmond. The first attempt by the Union army to capture Richmond met defeat near Manassas on July 21, 1861. But the resources of both sides were sufficient to survive a single defeat. The Union occupied Alexandria. It wrested control of Unionist counties in the West, which then seceded from Virginia and formed West Virginia. Some Confederates, and later some historians, believed that making Richmond the capital was a mistake because it placed too much emphasis on defending Virginia. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. —R. E. Lee, 1861 The battle of Dranesville, drawn by Robert Knox Sneden, a topographical engineer with the 40th New York Volunteers BECOMING CONFEDERATES • 75 THE WAR IN VIRGINIA: 1862 During 1862, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson led a successful campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. In a second attempt to capture Richmond, the Union waged the Peninsula campaign from the southeast. Here generals Lee, Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, Richard S. Ewell, and J. E. B. Stuart outmaneuvered the larger Union force under the command of General George McClellan. The victorious Confederates then advanced into Maryland but were stalemated at Antietam. This gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, thus redefining the war’s purpose as a campaign to end slavery.The year ended with the opposing armies facing each other across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Above: McClellan's headquarters drawn by Robert Knox Sneden; Below: Sneden’s sketch of a street in Fredericksburg in December 1862 76 • BECOMING CONFEDERATES Primary Source Robert Knox Sneden People often ask how the VHS acquires the objects, manuscripts, and books that make up its collections. Most materials are donated; others are purchased from dealers or from individuals. Often, the Society is aware of the existence of significant items for years and patiently works to acquire them. Other times, these items seem to come to the Society by chance. An example of this last sort of acquisition is the set of scrapbooks of Robert Knox Sneden, whose illustrations appear in this chapter. Sneden was a draftsman and topographical engineer attached to Union Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman’s Third Corps. Born in Nova Scotia, Sneden grew up in New York City, where he eventually enlisted in the Union army. Much of his wartime service took place in Virginia. He also spent time in seven southern prisoner of war camps.These scrapbooks include more than 400 drawings and 100 maps executed by Sneden of his wartime experiences. After the war, Sneden assembled his work into four volumes and probably intended to have them published. He died in 1918, and the scrapbooks descended unpublished through his family. During the Depression, an heir used them as collateral for a loan.The borrower defaulted, and the scrapbooks remained secluded in a Connecticut bank Above: The titile page of Sneden’s “Army Diary of the War of the Rebellion, vault until 1994.That year, they were dis- 1861–5”; Below: selections of Sneden’s work are part of the display in The Story of Virginia. covered and acquired by the VHS through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd D. Gottwald.The scrapbooks are considered one of the most significant Civil War collections to be rediscovered in recent years. The discovery of the scrapbooks led historians at the Society on a search for more information about this elusive artist.The trail led these historical detectives from Virginia to New York, and from New York to Arizona, to recover five volumes of memoirs compiled by Sneden after the Civil War.This additional material consisted of approximately 5,000 pages of handwritten text and 900 watercolor drawings and maps. BECOMING CONFEDERATES • 77 THE WAR IN VIRGINIA: 1863 During 1863, the southern economy deteriorated.The Union blockade obstructed the export of cotton, which was the basis of much of the southern economy. Price inflation and material shortages led to food riots in several cities, including Richmond in April when angry housewives broke into a number of shops around Capitol Square. The economy was further damaged as 38,000 Virginia slaves escaped to Union armies in 1863. The Confederate victory at Chancellorsville in May was Robert E. Lee’s greatest triumph, but it was here that Lee’s most valuable subordinate, Stonewall Jackson, was mortally wounded. The last Confederate offensive was the failed Gettysburg campaign in July. Above: Quarters of U.S. Sanitary Commission at Brandy Station, November 1863, drawn by Robert Knox Sneden; Below: a sketch of Petersburg, June 1864, by Sneden. 78 • BECOMING CONFEDERATES THE WAR IN VIRGINIA: 1864 A new Union commander, Ulysses S. Grant, decided that the destruction of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, not Richmond, was his goal. He determined to remain almost perpetually engaged in combat because he knew the Confederates could not replace their losses. Lee fought off Grant’s advances in a deadly series of battles: the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. In June, Grant’s army laid siege to Richmond and Petersburg. Meanwhile, Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley, under Jubal A. Early, slowly gave way to Philip H. Sheridan's army. In the course of the campaign, Union troops devastated the Valley render it incapable of supplying muchneeded foodstuffs to the armies defending Richmond. Left: Libby Prison, 1864, drawn by Robert Knox Sneden Right: On display in the Becoming Confederates Gallery is the uniform worn by J. E .B. Stuart when he was mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern. In the Classroom Military Strategies Divide the class into two groups and have each group study the military strategy of either the Union or Confederate army. Research troop movements during 1864–65 and plot them on a current Virginia road map. Keep a journal covering the last year of the war from the viewpoint of a participant in the conflict. BECOMING CONFEDERATES • 79 THE WAR IN VIRGINIA: 1865 The Confederate armies defending Petersburg and Richmond weakened as provisions dwindled and casualties and desertions mounted during the nine-month siege. Union forces were continually strengthened from their supply base at City Point.The Federals moved west to break Lee’s defensive line.The break occurred at Five Forks in Dinwiddie County on April 1. Lee sent word to President Jefferson Davis that the army must abandon Petersburg and Richmond to avoid entrapment. Union forces entered Richmond on April 3. On April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Above: The ruins of Richmond, drawn by Robert Knox Sneden, shows the devastated city after the evacuation fire of April 2, 1865. Critical Thinking Ending Slavery The Civil War ended slavery in the United States. Would it have been possible to end slavery without violence and bloodshed? If so, how? In the Museum The War in Virginia: 1865 Find the broadside pictured far right. What would it have been like to live in Richmond in April 1865? Find the Union flag (right) that was raised over Richmond in 1865. 80 • BECOMING CONFEDERATES THE CIVIL WAR & AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIERS Black Virginians fought on both sides as soldiers and sailors. Of the 29,000 Confederates who surrendered at Appomattox, only thirty were black. By contrast, 5,723 black Virginians were recruited in Virginia as Union soldiers, and many others enlisted from northern states. Despite their good record of service in 1776 and 1812, little effort was made to enlist African Americans in the Confederate cause.When it became clear the war was being lost, Robert E. Lee urged Jefferson Davis to free slaves who would fight for Confederate independence.A few African American companies were recruited in March and April 1865, just before the war ended. “Arlington, Va. Band of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry at Fort Corcoran,” November 1865 (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Call no. LC-B817-7861) In the Museum Examine a recruitment poster What were the benefits for enlisting in the Union army.What might some other benefits be? Why was this poster printed in Alexandria? BECOMING CONFEDERATES • 81 WOMEN ON THE HOME FRONT “The women were, by all odds, far worse rebels than men,” wrote an observer during the Peninsula campaign. Most white Virginia women supported the Confederate cause, and many became volunteers for the war effort. Others formed a new working class in war industries or assumed control of plantations and farms in the absence of men. Women became government clerks and factory workers for the first time. But there were dangers as well as opportunities. The home front and war front were often one and the same. Fear of marauding soldiers and ever-worsening living conditions tested even the strongest of wills. Many white women sewed uniforms, flags, tents, and bandages. Others became nurses and hospital matrons like Sally Tompkins (right). Tompkins was the first American woman commisSally Tompkins sioned a regular military officer. A native of Mathews County, she funded and operated Robertson Hospital in Richmond during the war. Only 73 of 1,333 patients died in her hospital, an exemplary record for the time.When the Confederate surgeon general wanted to stop using private hospitals, Tompkins was made a captain in the Confederate cavalry so that her hospital might remain open as a military facility. Other women such as Annie E. Johns of Danville were revered as hospital matrons. Virginia women supported the war effort by working as laundresses, scouts, and spies. Belle Boyd, who engaged in spying from Front Royal, was known as the Rebel Spy, and Nancy Hart served as a scout for Stonewall Jackson. On the other hand, some women worked against the Confederate cause. Elizabeth Van Lew (left), a Richmond abolitionist, took food to Union prisoners at Libby Prison, feasted on Confederate fast days, and placed a black servant, Mary Elizabeth Bowser, as a spy in the White House of the Confederacy. Elizabeth Van Lew By 1863, conditions on the home front taxed even the most patriotic of Confederate women. With rising inflation, Confederate money became nearly worthless, and women faced shortages in basic necessities. Critical Thinking How did the status of women change during the Civil War? Have similar changes occured in other wars? 82 • BECOMING CONFEDERATES Primary Source By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing among other things, the following, to wit: “That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States or parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States.” Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit: Arkansas,Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption,Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton, Elizabeth City,York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within the designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of all said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free and to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed services of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerable judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. BECOMING CONFEDERATES • 83 In the Classroom The Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation was an important statement of Union war aims.With the issuing of the proclamation on January 1, 1863, northern armies were fighting both to preserve the Union and to end slavery. Lincoln believed that, under normal conditions, Congress did not have the right to free slaves in any state, an action that was also contrary to the Republican party platform. But in war, the president, as commander in chief, had greater authority. Slaves who came under the control of Union armies were considered “contraband of war”—an internationally recognized status that justified the seizure of any property that could be used to benefit an enemy. Lincoln justified emancipation in terms of policy, not principle.The Second Confiscation Act, passed on July 17, 1862, identified individuals who supported the Confederacy as traitors and ordered the confiscation of their property and slaves. Lincoln’s preliminary emancipation order, issued on September 22, 1862, reflected the intent of this act. Lincoln warned the South that he would declare its slaves free if the Confederate states remained “in rebellion against the United States.” This message was repeated in the Emancipation Proclamation—hence the quotation marks around the second and third paragraphs. In the fourth paragraph, Lincoln cited his authority as commander-in-chief and put emancipation into effect “as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion.” The fifth paragraph exempts those areas under Union control from the emancipation order. (The proclamation affected only those areas under Confederate control.) The final paragraph, added on December 30, 1862, at the request of Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, reiterates the military necessity of emancipation but also declares it “an act of justice.” Activities • We say the Civil War was about states’ rights and preserving the Union, but it was also about slavery. The states’ right of seccession never would have been exercised or challenged had it not been for the issue of slavery. Do you agree or disagree? Write a paper supporting your position. • One theme we explore in this section is the effect of geography on the war. Use maps showing political boundaries, topography, and roads and railroads to determine geography’s role in events from secession through Appomattox. • Research the Civil War in your community.Were there battles nearby? How did women and slaves respond to the war? Are there statues, markers, historic buildings, or other monuments? • Using Dudley T. Cornish’s The Sable Arm and Joseph Glathaar’s Forged in Battle, research African American soldiers in the Civil War. Compare their struggles with those of the Tuskegee Airmen, who fought during World War II. • Like many other southerners, white Virginians romanticized the Confederacy long after the war. This glorification of the war has been called the Lost Cause. In what ways did the perpetuation of the Lost Cause influence the future progress of the commonwealth? • Research Confederate and Union generals.Write a biographical sketch of several leaders on opposing sides. Compare their careers and academic and military training before 1861. • Economics: discuss supply and demand and inflation using examples from the war. 84 • BECOMING CONFEDERATES