Download Study Guide 5

Study Guide
Hst 110 chapter 10
Civil War and the Promises of Freedom – The Turbulent 1860s
1. William Walker
2. Anti-abolitionists
a. Often “respected leaders” among whites
b. Often motivated by economic fears
3. Election of 1860
a. Lincoln won without support from a single southern state
b. Lincoln still received more electoral votes than all opponents combined
c. Lincoln continued to argue for union right through his inauguration – indeed, in his
March, 1861 Inaugural Address he promised not to interfere with slavery.
d. African Americans in the North were wary of Lincoln’s position on slavery
4. Abraham Lincoln on slavery and race
a. Lincoln believed in white supremacy
b. Lincoln wanted to compensate masters for their slaves and then send the slaves out of
the United States.
c. Black people, and radical whites, reacted to Lincoln's plan to abolish slavery by
compensating owners by reacting strongly against the idea, as it seemed to recognize
slaves as property, rather than human beings.
5. Southern secession conventions
a. Convinced that Lincoln would destroy their "peculiar institution", South Carolina
legislators voted to secede from the union.
b. All of the deep south states followed
c. Upper South states
i. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee
ii. Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri
6. Confederate States of America (CSA)
a. CSA constitution
b. Jefferson Davis
c. Robert E. Lee – appointed to command the Army of Northern Virginia, the main
Confederate Army
7. Ft. Sumter
a. Federal island garrison at Ft. Sumter in Charleston Bay, South Carolina
b. Lincoln moved to provision the island garrison
c. April 12, 1861 - South Carolina (CSA) troops fire on Ft. Sumter
8. Opening phases of the Civil War
a. Material advantages of the North
i. Population
ii. Industry
iii. Railroads
iv. Navy
b. Material advantages of the South
i. Defensive position
ii. Better generals – better soldiers
iii. Slave labor
iv. Cotton diplomacy?
c. Strategy of each side
i. North
1. Quick victory
2. Anaconda Plan
a. Winfield Scott
b. Cut South in two – squeeze
ii. South
1. Quick victory
2. Force political solution
3. Foreign aid
9. Politics of the War
a. Lincoln and divided politics
i. Radical Republicans
ii. Moderate Republicans
iii. Northern Democrats
b. Lincoln and a war for union
i. From the beginning of the war, Lincoln contended that saving the union was
more important than abolishing slavery.
ii. Slavery
iii. Fear of alienating white public
iv. Volunteer army
v. Fear of losing border states
c. Jefferson Davis
i. Weak federal government
ii. Volunteer army
iii. Prospects for foreign support
iv. Slavery
10. The War -First Half – key battles and Anaconda
a. First Battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861
b. The nature of the fighting
c. The draft – both sides
d. General George B. McClellan
e. The west – Tennessee to the Mississippi
i. General Ulysses S. Grant
ii. Battle of Shiloh - April 6–7, 1862
iii. Battle of New Orleans - April 24–25, 1862
iv. Siege of Vicksburg - May 18 – July 4, 1863
f.
General Robert E. Lee
i. Battle of Antietam -September 17, 1862
ii. Battle of Gettysburg -July 1–3, 1863
11. African Americans and the War – 1861
a. At the beginning of the war, free black Americans volunteered by the thousands for
military service - the government refused to enlist them.
b. Southern slaves slowed down – bided their time
c. Grapevine telegraph
d. Flight to union camps
e. Harriet Tubman
12. Confiscation Acts
a. Ben Butler - Union commander who began the policy of accepting runaway slaves as
"contraband"
b. When slaves began to arrive at his fortifications near Hampton Roads, Virginia, General
Benjamin Butler declared them to be the "contraband" of war.
i. Black men and support – teamsters, construction, gravediggers (guns?)
ii. Black women – nurses, cooks, livestock tenders
c. Changing political dynamics in Washington
d. First Confiscation Act passed by Congress August 6, 1861 specified that any slaves used
in the Confederate army would automatically gain their freedom.
e. Gens. John C. Fremont and David Hunter ordered all slaves in their areas freed under
the First Confiscation Act – Lincoln immediately countermanded their orders, and told
them to stick to the letter of the law.
f.
The second Confiscation Act, passed July 17, 1862, was virtually an emancipation
proclamation. It said that slaves of civilian and military Confederate officials “shall be
forever free,” but it was enforceable only in areas of the South occupied by the Union
Army. Lincoln was again concerned about the effect of an antislavery measure on the
border-states and again urged these states to begin gradual compensated
emancipation.
13. Emancipation?
a. Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
i. Lincoln decided to postpone his July 1862 decision to emancipate the slaves.
Members of his cabinet told him to wait for a Union victory, when the decision
would not look desperate.
ii. Political concerns
1. Border states
2. England and France
3. Northern Democrats – In November northern Democrats gained seats in
Congress, as many voters expressed dissatisfaction with the policy and
lack of progress in the war.
4. White working-class people, especially Irish immigrants in NYC - Other
than outright racism, many white working-class people opposed the
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation out of fear that the freed slaves
would rush into the North, and compete with them for jobs.
5. Blacks and abolitionists
iii. Battle of Antietam -September 17, 1862
iv. Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
1. If the Confederacy returned to the Union by January 1, 1863, they could
keep their slaves.
2. It would free those slaves still in bondage in areas under rebellion on
January 1, 1863.
3. It gave the Confederacy until January 1, 1863 to come back into the
Union.
b. Emancipation Proclamation – January 1, 1863
i. Freed slaves only in areas where the Union had no control.
ii. Provided for the recruitment and arming of free black and former slave soldiers
- More slaves began to run away, dramatically affecting the South's war effort
and morale.
iii. The war became a war to free the slaves. The North gained the moral
advantage.
iv. Stopped the chances for an alliance between the Confederacy and either Britain
or France.
v. Despite his Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln continued to advocate some
plan of emigration for the freedmen.
vi. Jefferson Davis responded to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation by declaring
that all free blacks would be enslaved, and he ordered the Confederate Army to
capture and enslave all free blacks in the North.
14. Blacks in Blue
a. Massachusetts governor, John Andrew, was the first to raise a northern black regiment
to fight for the Union.
i. Frederick Douglass helped to recruit and organize troops – his own son fought
ii. Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment
1. Robert Gould Shaw
2. In the fall of 1863 the 54th refused to accept any pay until their earnings
equaled those of white soldiers. Federal government granted equal pay
toward the end of the war and allowed free blacks to receive back pay
for service only before January 1, 1864.
3. 54th and battery Wagner assault - July 18, 1863
a. The 54th was composed mainly of free blacks, rather than
slaves.
b. The Confederacy won the battle, and the Union never took
Battery Wagner.
c. The black soldiers fought impressively, and many in the North
began to believe that blacks were capable of fighting bravely.
d. William H. Carney, who fought in the battle, was the first black
man to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts
(37 years later)
e. Media coverage
4. After observing black troops on the battlefield, Union commander
Ulysses S. Grant saluted the battlefield prowess of black soldiers.
5. Northern public opinion
a. Many white northerners were worried that black troops would
be cowardly and undisciplined.
b. Valor of black troops
6. South Carolina Volunteers
a. Example of former slave soldiers
b. Most black soldiers were former slaves
c. Like Robert Gould Shaw, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, as
commander of the First South Carolina Volunteers, wanted not
only to abolish slavery, but to show that blacks and whites were
equal.
d. James Montgomery and the Second South Carolina Volunteers
i. Racism
ii. Montgomery wanted to wipe out all evidence of
slavery, especially the plantation houses.
b. Black troops eventually constituted as much as 10 percent of the North's fighting force.
c. Southern reaction
i. Black troops and captive policy
1. CSA generally refused to recognize black soldiers as prisoners of war,
and instead attempted to treat them like escaped slaves.
2. Nathan Bedford Forest
a. Black troops overrun
b. Fort Pillow massacre
ii. President Lincoln
1. Northern public
2. General Order 11 - an order issued by Lincoln in response to the
mistreatment of black soldiers - it threatened to execute southern
prisoners
15. New York City Draft Riots - July 13–16, 1863
a. Gangs of New York
b. Class and race tensions
c. Working-class Irishmen, angry over suspected black attempts to take jobs, engaged in
violence and destruction for four days, lynching blacks and burning black-affiliated
businesses.
16. The War – Second Half – key battles – the Anaconda tightens
a. Occupation of Tennessee
b. General Sherman’s march to the sea - November 15 to December 21, 1864
i. Total war and “bummers”
ii. Burning of Atlanta
iii. Refugees
iv. Special Field Order No. 15 - granted thousands of acres of confiscated land along
the Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina coast to black families in 40-acre plots.
17. Wartime Reconstruction
a. Port Royal Experiment
i. First freedom
ii. Ring Shout
iii. Northern carpetbaggers
iv. Nothing but freedom
v. Cotton
b. Davis Bend
i. Community
ii. Cotton
c. St-Catherine’s Island
i. Tunis Campbell
ii. Community
18. Election of 1864
a. Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
b. George McClellan
c. Soldier’s vote
d. Second Inaugural
19. Lincoln and Reconstruction
a. 13th Amendment – passed January 1, 1865 - ratified on December 6, 1865
b. Ten Percent Plan
c. The vote for former slaves?
20. Closing days of the CSA
a. Arming slave soldiers
b. CSA surrender - April 9, 1865
21. First freedom
a. Thousands of liberated black Americans immediately began to seek lost family
members.
b. Freedman’s Bureau
i. Encouraging planters to revive their farms.
ii. Monitoring contracts between landowners and workers.
iii. Repairing southern social and economic order.
iv. Without meaningful land reform, the Freedmen's Bureau pressured black
freedmen to labor contracts (later, accept sharecropping arrangements).
v. Resistance to labor contracts.
c. Church
d. Schools
22. Lincoln assassinated – April 15, 1865
a. CSA surrender
b. John Wilkes Booth
c. Andrew Johnson
23. Presidential Reconstruction
a. “High confederate officials”
b. Presidential pardons
c. Johnson on confiscated lands
d. Southern Democrats
e. Black codes
f.
Ku Klux Klan