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Civil War
Booklet
Mr. Leighty
Room 311
Name:__________________
1
Table of Contents
Tab 1
The Causes of the Civil War
Tab 2
The Start of the Civil War
Civil War Slang
Torbert
Cartoon #1
Cartoon #2
Map
Secession and the Civil War
Slaveholding, Southern Politics, and Secession
3
4
6
11
12
13
14
17
20
Robert Anderson
Thomas Jackson
Ex Parte Merryman Cloze
Emancipation Proclamation
Civil War Medicine
Civil War Weapons
Trent Affair
George McClellan
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23
25
27
29
31
33
36
Tab 3
Turning Points
Tab 4
The End of the War
Joshua L. Chamberlain
U.S. Grant
Map
2nd Inaugural
Battle of Gettysburg
40
40
42
44
45
47
William Sherman
Lost Cause
March to the Sea
End of the War Activity
Jefferson Davis
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51
51
54
57
59
61
Tab 1
The Causes of the Civil War
Economic?
States Rights?
Slavery?
Civil War Leadership
Election of 1860
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Civil War Slang
Match the terms with the definitions at the bottom
accoutrementsa beatbombproofbonesbuck and gagcarriagedogrobber-.
dog tentfirst rateforageFresh Fishgreenbacksgum blankethaversackhomespunhousewifehorse senseJohnnyJonah-.
paper collar manpicket-.
sacred soilsawbonesseeing the elephant-.
shebang-.
shirkersmart like a foxtough as a knot-.
top rail4
vittlesYank-
Dice.
A soldier's fighting equipments, made of leather.
Confederate soldier's term for a Union soldier
A clothing item made of home-spun cloth.
Slick and cunning.
food or rations.
In good health
Rubber-coated cloth sheet used as a rain cover.
A temporary shelter of poles & branches
Virginia mud.
A lazy soldier who dodges work.
The best place to be. Number One!
The surgeon of the regiment.
A man's first experience in combat
A soldier who would not do his duty on the battlefield.
Feeling well and very happy.
A small, two-man tent.
A soldier who always brought misfortune and bad luck with him
Money or script.
Union soldier's term for a Confederate soldier.
New recruits.
Someone who has money or is financially well off.
The wooden mount for artillery, also used to describe a lady's shape.
A form of punishment.
The soldier of a group who cooks for everyone else
An underground shelter, used also to describe officers who never went to the front.
To search for food from nearby farms.
Cloth bag for carrying the rations & utensils.
A sewing kit.
Smart or to use good sense.
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Robert Edward Lee
(1807-1870)
"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. I have therefore resigned
my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with
the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may
never be called on to draw my sword....." Lee in a letter to his sister, April
20, 1861
The idol of the South to this day, Virginian Robert E. Lee had some difficulty in
adjusting to the new form of warfare that unfolded with the Civil war, but this did not
prevent him from keeping the Union armies in Virginia at bay for almost three years. The
son of Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse" Harry Lee-who fell into disrepute in his
later years attended West Point and graduated second in his class. During his four years at
the military academy he did not earn a single demerit and served as the cadet corps'
adjutant. Upon his 1829 graduation he was posted to the engineers. Before the Mexican
War he served on engineering projects in Georgia, Virginia, and New York. During the
war he served on the staffs of John Wool and Winfield Scott. Particularly distinguishing
himself scouting for and guiding troops, he won three brevets and was slightly wounded
at Chapultepec.
Following a stint in Baltimore Harbor he became superintendent of the military
academy in 1852. When the mounted arm was expanded in 1855, Lee accepted the
lieutenant colonelcy of the 2nd Cavalry in order to escape from the painfully slow
promotion in the engineers. Ordered to western Texas, he served with his regiment until
the 1857 death of his father-in-law forced him to ask for a series of leaves to settle the
estate.
In 1859 he was called upon to lead a force of marines, to join with the militia on the
scene, to put an end to John Brown's Harper's Ferry Raid. Thereafter he served again in
Texas until summoned to Washington in 1861 by Winfield Scott who tried to retain Lee
in the U. S. service. But the Virginian rejected the command of the Union's field forces
on the day after Virginia seceded. He then accepted an invitation to visit Governor John
Letcher in Virginia. His resignation as colonel, 1st Cavalry-to which he had recently been
promoted-was accepted on April 25, 1861.
His Southern assignments included: major general, Virginia's land and naval forces
(April 23, 1861); commanding Virginia forces (April 23 July 1861); brigadier general,
CSA (May 14, 186 1); general, CSA (from June 14, 186 1); commanding Department of
Northwestern Virginia (late July-October 1861); commanding Department of South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida (November 8, 186 1-March 3, 1862); and commanding
Army of Northern Virginia June 1, 1862-April 9, 1865).
In charge of Virginia's fledgling military might, he was mainly involved in
organizational matters. As a Confederate brigadier general, and later full general, he was
in charge of supervising all Southern forces in Virginia. In the first summer of the war he
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was given his first field command in western Virginia. His Cheat Mountain Campaign
was a disappointing fizzle largely due to the failings of his superiors. His entire tenure in
the region was unpleasant, dealing with the bickering of his subordinates-William W.
Loring, John B. Floyd, and Henry A. Wise. After this he became known throughout the
South as "Granny Lee. " His debut in field command had not been promising, but
Jefferson Davis appointed him to command along the Southern Coast.
Early in 1862 he was recalled to Richmond and made an advisor to the president.
From this position he had some influence over military operations, especially those of
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. When Joseph E. Johnston launched his
attack at Seven Pines, Davis and Lee were taken by surprise and rode out to the field. In
the confusion of the fight Johnston was badly wounded, and that night Davis instructed
Lee to take command of what he renamed the Army of Northern Virginia. He fought the
second day of the battle but the initiative had already been lost the previous day. Later in
the month, in a daring move, he left a small force in front of Richmond and crossed the
Chickahominy to strike the one Union corps north of the river. In what was to be called
the Seven Days Battles the individual fights-Beaver Dam Creek, Gaines' Mill, Savage
Station, Glendale, White Oak Swamp, and Malvern Hill-were all tactical defeats for the
Confederates. But Lee had achieved the strategic goal of removing McClellan's army
from the very gates of Richmond.
This created a new opinion of Lee in the South. He gradually became "Uncle Robert"
and "Marse Robert." With McClellan neutralized, a new threat developed under John
Pope in northern Virginia. At first Lee detached Jackson and then followed with
Longstreet's command. Winning at 2nd Bull Run, he moved on into Maryland but
suffered the misfortune of having a copy of his orders detailing the disposition of his
divided forces fall into the hands of the enemy. McClellan moved with unusual speed and
Lee was forced to fight a delaying action along South Mountain while waiting for
Jackson to complete the capture of Harpers Ferry and rejoin him. He masterfully fought
McClellan to a stand still at Antietam and two days later recrossed the Potomac.
Near the end of the year he won an easy victory over Burnside at Fredericksburg and
then trounced Hooker in his most creditable victory at Chancellorsville, where he had
detached Jackson with most of the army on a lengthy flank march while he remained with
only two divisions in the immediate front of the Union army. Launching his second
invasion of the North, he lost at Gettysburg. On the third day of the battle he displayed
one of his major faults when at Malvern Hill and on other fields-he ordered a massed
infantry assault across a wide plain, not recognizing that the rifle, which had come into
use since the Mexican War, put the charging troops under fire for too long a period.
Another problem was his issuance of general orders to be executed by his subordinates.
Returning to Virginia he commanded in the inconclusive Bristoe and Mine Run
campaigns. From the Wilderness to Petersburg he fought a retiring campaign against
Grant in which he made full use of entrenchments, becoming known as "Ace of Spades"
Lee. Finally forced into a siege, he held on to Richmond and Petersburg for nearly 10
months before beginning his retreat to Appomattox, where he was forced to surrender.
On January 23, 1865, he had been named as commander in chief of the Confederate
armies but he found himself too burdened in Virginia to give more than general directives
to the other theaters.
Lee returned to Richmond as a paroled prisoner of war, and submitted with the
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utmost composure to an altered destiny. He devoted the rest of his life to setting an
example of conduct for other thousands of ex-Confederates. He refused a number of
offers which would have secured substantial means for his family. Instead, he assumed
the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in
Lexington, Virginia, and his reputation revitalized the school after the war. Lee's
enormous wartime prestige, both in the North and South, and the devotion inspired by his
unconscious symbolism of the "Lost Cause" made his a legendary figure even before his
death. He died on October 12 1870, of heart disease which had plagued him since the
spring of 1863, at Lexington, Va. and is buried there. Somehow, his application for
restoration of citizenship was mislaid, and it was not until the 1970's that it was found
and granted.
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Alfred Thomas Archimedes Torbert
Alfred Thomas Archimedes Torbert (July 1, 1833 – August 29, 1880) was a career
United States Army officer, a Union Army General commanding both infantry and
cavalry forces in the American Civil War, and a U.S. diplomat.
Union cavalry general Alfred T. A. Torbert (seated center holding saber in front of him)
and staff at their headquarters during the Shenandoah Valley campaign under Sheridan in
1864.
Torbert in Autumn 1864 in the Shenandoah Valley
Torbert was born in Georgetown, Delaware. He graduated 21st in a class of 34[1] from the
United States Military Academy in 1855 and was commissioned a brevet second
lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Infantry Regiment.
Civil War
Just before the start of the Civil War, Torbert was appointed a first lieutenant in the
Confederate States Army on March 16, 1861, but he refused the appointment and
remained a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. By September 16, he was appointed colonel of
the 1st New Jersey Infantry and, by August 29, 1862, he was a brigade commander in the
VI Corps of the Army of the Potomac. In the Maryland Campaign of 1862, he was
wounded at Crampton's Gap in the Battle of South Mountain. He was promoted to
brigadier general on November 29, 1862. Torbert commanded his New Jersey brigade in
the campaigns leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and
the Battle of Gettysburg.
On April 10, 1864, Torbert was given command the 1st Division of the Cavalry Corps of
the Army of the Potomac, following the death of Maj. Gen. John Buford. Torbert
commanded during the Overland Campaign, except when ill following the Battle of
Spotsylvania Courthouse. Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt commanded in his place for a time.
During Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's Valley Campaigns of 1864, Torbert commanded the
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Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Shenandoah and was promoted to brevet major general
on September 9, 1864. Sheridan was unhappy with the performance of the cavalry at the
time of the Battle of Fisher's Hill. He is said to have told Torbert to go out and "whip or
be whipped."[2] The result was a defeat for the Confederate cavalry in the Battle of Tom's
Brook.
Torbert commanded the vestigial Army of the Shenandoah from April 22 to June 27,
1865. Merritt commanded Torbert's former corps under Sheridan in the last campaigns of
the Civil War in Virginia. Torbert received brevet promotions in the regular army for his
service at Gettysburg, Haw's Shop, Third Winchester, and Cedar Creek.
Postbellum career
After the war, Torbert served in a number of diplomatic posts: as U.S. Consul to El
Salvador in 1869, U.S. Consul General in Havana in 1871, and U.S. Consul General in
Paris in 1873.
Alfred Torbert drowned off Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the sinking of the S.S. Vera Cruz
on August 29, 1880. Eyewitness accounts claimed he swam for over 20 hours. He died on
the shore shortly thereafter. His body was recovered August 31, 1880, and he is buried in
the Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, Milford, Delaware.
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In 20 to 25 words describe the cartoon and provide a date for when you think it
may have been published.
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Punch November 1856
In 15 to 20 words describe what the cartoon is depicting.
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Digital History ID 3810
Secession and the Civil War
Interpreting Primary Sources
The leaders and oracles of the most powerful party in the United States have
denounced us as tyrants and unprincipled heathens through the whole civilized
world. they have preached it from their pulpits. They have declared it in the halls of
Congress and in their newspapers. In their schoolhouses they have taught their
children (who are to rule this Government in the next generation) to look upon the
slaveholder as the especial disciple of the devil himself....They have established
Abolition Societies...for the purpose of raising funds--first to send troops to Kansas
to cut the throats of all the slaveholders there, and now to send emissaries among
us to incite our slaves to rebellion against the authority of their masters....They have
brought forth an open and avowed enemy to the most cherished and important
institution of the South as candidate for election to the Chief Magistracy of this
Government....And in every conceivable way, the whole Northern people, as mass,
have shown a most implacable hostility to us and our most sacred rights; and this,
too, without the slightest provocation on the part of the South....
All admit that an ultimate dissolution of the Union is inevitable, and we believe the
crisis is not far off. Then let it come now; the better for the South that it should be
today; she cannot afford to wait.
Charleston Mercury, 1860
The prevailing ideas entertained by...most of the leading statesmen at the time of
the formation of the old Constitution was that the enslavement of the African was in
violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and
politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion
of the men of that day was that somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the
institution would be evanescent and pass away.... Our new government is founded
upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon
the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery-subordination to the superior race--is his natural and normal condition.
Alexander Stephens of Georgia, 1861
The Constitution makes no provision for secession.... Constitutionally, there can be
no such thing as secession of a State from the Union. But it does not follow that
because a State cannot secede constitutionally, it is obliged under all circumstances
to remain in the Union....If for any cause the Government...should become inimical
to the rights and interests of the people, instead of affording protection to their
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persons and property, and securing the happiness and prosperity, to attain which it
was established, it is the natural right of the people to change the Government
regardless of Constitutions.
What then is the South to do? Suffer the compact which brought them into the Union
to be violated with impunity, and without means of redress; submit to incursions into
their territory and trespass upon their property by northern abolitionists?...Who
expects, who desires the South to submit to all this?
Dubuque Herald, 1860
No state can legally leave the Union. What is called "the right of secession" has no
existence. It means the right of revolution, which belongs to every people....If the
revolution succeeds, history justifies them; if they fail, it condemns them, even while
not condemning their motives of action....If South Carolina should rebel,--and
secession is rebellion,--and if other states should join her, it would be the duty of the
general government to compel them to observe the law....
Boston Daily Traveler, 1860
I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of
these States is perpetual....There needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there
shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to
me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to
the government, and to collect the duties and imports; but beyond what may be
necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or
among the people anywhere....
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may
have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
President Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
The contest is really for empire on the side of the North, and for independence on
that of the South, and in this respect we recognize an exact analogy between the
North and the Government of George III, and the South and the Thirteen Revolted
Provinces.
London Times, 1861
The Government liberates the enemy's slaves as it would the enemy's cattle, simply
to weaken them in the coming conflict....The principle asserted is not that a human
being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to
the United States.
London Spectator on the Emancipation Proclamation
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Questions To Think About
1. Describe the arguments used to justify and oppose secession.
2. Which argument do you find most persuasive--that secession was illegal or that it
was justified?
3. Why do you think the North was unwilling to allow the Confederate states to
secede?
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Slaveholding, Southern Politics, and Secession
Interpreting Statistics
Slaveholdings of the Political Elite, Lower South,
1860
% Owning
Slaves
% with 20
or more
slaves
All white families
38
6
County government
officials
53
18
State legislators
68
33
Delegates to
secession conventions
83
41
Questions To Think About
1. Were Southern politicians more or less likely to own slaves than other white
Southerners?
2. Were higher level politicians more likely to own slaves than other politicians?
3. What do these facts suggest to you about the nature of the Southern political
system?
Interpreting Statistics
Timing of Secession
Percentage
Percent Slaves in
of White Families
Population
Owning Slaves
Initial states to secede
South Carolina
57
47
Georgia
48
38
Florida
44
35
Alabama
45
35
Mississippi
55
49
Louisiana
47
31
Texas
30
29
States seceding later
Virginia
31
27
North Carolina
33
29
Tennessee
25
25
Arkansas
28
20
17
Remained in Union
Delaware
2
4
Maryland
13
15
Kentucky
20
24
Missouri
10
13
Questions To Think About
1. How uniform were the proportion of slaves in the population and the proportion of
whites owning slave across the South?
2. Was there a relationship between the number of slaves in a state's population and
whether and when it seceded from the Union?
North-South Comparisons
Interpreting Statistics
Personal Income per capita
by region
as a percentage of U.S.
average
1840
1860
135
139
West
68
68
South
76
72
Northeast
Comparison of Union and Confederate
Resources, 1861
North
South
71
29
79
21
13
87
Proportion of
nation's railroads
71
29
Proportion of
nation's farm acreage
65
35
Proportion of
nation's manufacturing
workers
92
8
Proportion of nation's
population
Proportion of nation's:
white population
black population
18
Proportion of
nation's manufacturing
output
Number of factories
Railroad mileage
92
8
110,000 18,000
22,000
9,000
Questions To Think About
1. What material advantages did the North possess on the eve of the Civil War?
2. Do you think material advantages are decisive in the outcome of wars? Why or
why not?
Copyright 2012 Digital History
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TAB 2
THE START OF THE CIVIL
WAR
First Bull Run
Peninsula Campaign
2nd Bull Run
Soldiers Life
Civil War Medicine
Antietam
Emancipation Proclamation
Civil War Weapons and
Tactics
20
Robert Anderson
MAJOR
Maj. Anderson and His Sumter Staff. Anderson sits in the front row, second from left. (Library of Congress,
Harper's Weekly)
The man most synonymous with the embattled federal position at Fort Sumter and the first
Union loss of the Civil War, Maj. Robert Anderson, was born in the slaveholding state of
Kentucky on June 14, 1805. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1825, receiving
a commission in the 2nd U.S. Artillery. During the Black Hawk War of 1832, he served as a
colonel of Illinois volunteers and had the distinction of mustering a young Abraham Lincoln
in and out of military service. During the Second Seminole War in 1837, he was an assistant
adjutant general on the staff of Winfield Scott and by 1839 he had published the manual
Instruction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot. Severely wounded at the Battle of Molino del
Rey in September 1847, he received a brevet promotion to major.
As tensions continued to rise following the election of 1860, officials in the Army and the
Buchanan administration wisely investigated the situations at military installations
throughout the South. What they found in Charleston was hardly reassuring— Fort Moultrie
was vulnerable to shore attack, Fort Sumter was unfinished and Castle Pickney was manned
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by a single ordinance officer. In an attempt to rectify the situation, Anderson was dispatched
to replace the garrison’s elderly commander, Bvt. Col. John L. Gardner.
In addition to being regarded as an eminently competent and discreet officer, it was believed
that putting a Southerner in command of the forts would be perceived as a diplomatic
gesture of nonhostility. Although staunchly pro-Union, it was widely known that Anderson
had no quarrel with the institution of slavery.
Throughout the crisis in Charleston Harbor during the winter and spring of 1861, Anderson
acquitted himself with dignity and resolve. Immediately upon emerging from Fort Sumter,
Anderson found himself a national hero. Less than one week later, an estimated 100,000
people gathered in Manhattan’s Union Square Park to fete Anderson and salute the 33-star
flag he had rescued from the fort after its surrender. The man and the flag then went on tour
across the North, recruiting military volunteers and raising funds for the war effort. On April
14, 1865, Anderson and the now-legendary Fort Sumter Flag returned to Charleston for a
ceremony to celebrate the war’s end and the reunification of the nation. Precisely four years
after it was lowered, the banner was raised over the now ruined fort. Later that night, in
Washington, Abraham Lincoln was struck down by an assassin.
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T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson
LIEUTENANT GENERAL
JANUARY 21, 1824– MAY 10, 1863
Lieutenant General T. J. “Stonewall” Jackson (National Archives)
Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was born January 21, 1824 in Clarksburg, Virginia.
He graduated from West Point in 1846 and began his official military career with the US
Army as a brevet second lieutenant in the Mexican-American War from 1846-1848, where he
first met Robert E.Lee. After many successful shows of leadership in the war, he was
promoted to rank of major.
In 1851, Jackson resigned his military commission and accepted a teaching position at
Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. His style as a professor was controversial,
but nonetheless invaluable, as VMI continues to use many of his philosophies today.
At the war’s outbreak, Jackson accepted orders as a Colonel of Virginia militia and
commanded at Harper’s Ferry. Jackson then took on the title of Brigadier general and led
troops in the epic battle of First Manassas, where he and his brigade earned him the title
“Stonewall.” So began Jackson’s status as a military celebrity. In November of 1861 he was
promoted to major general and dispatched to the Shenandoah Valley to defend the south
from Federal troops headed towards Richmond.
Jackson organized extremely successful military maneuvers at Front Royal, Winchester,
Cross Keys, and Port Republic in the spring of 1862. These led up to the Seven Days Battle
around Richmond, where Jackson’s nonplussed performance on the outset gradually gained
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momentum. He made more epic showings at Second Manassas and then again in
Sharpsburg at the Battle of Antietam. Following these events the Army of Northern Virginia
was reorganized and Jackson was designated lieutenant general.
In December of 1862, Jackson commanded a victory at Fredericksburg, and then the famous
flank march at Chancellorsville in May. The same night as that victory, May 2, 1863, Jackson
was wounded by friendly fire while making a reconnaissance with a member of his staff. He
died eight days later on May 10 from pneumonia, a complication of having his left arm
amputated from the incident. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was with his wife and only
surviving daughter when he died, and is buried in Lexington, Virginia.
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Name:
Date:
Period:
Ex Parte Merryman
In April 1861, a dissatisfied Marylander named John Merryman dissented from
the course being chartered by Lincoln. He expressed this dissent in both w_______ and
deed. He spoke out vigorously against the Union and in favor of the S______ and
recruited a company of soldiers for the Confederate Army. Thus, he not only exercised
his c____________ right to disagree with what the government was doing, but engaged
in raising an armed group to a_______ and attempt to destroy the government.
On May 25, Merryman was a_____________ by the military and lodged in Fort
McHenry, Baltimore, for various alleged acts of t____________. His counsel sought a
w__________ of h__________ c___________ from Chief Justice Roger B.
T___________, alleging that Merryman was being illegally held at Fort McHenry. Taney
issued a writ to fort commander George Cadwalader directing him to produce Merryman
before the Court the next day at 11:00 a.m. Cadwalader respectfully refused on the
ground that President Lincoln had authorized the s_____________ of the writ of habeas
corpus.
Taney immediately issued an attachment for Cadwalader for contempt. The
marshal could not enter the fort to serve the attachment, so the old justice, recognizing
the impossibility of enforcing his order, settled back and produced the now-famous
opinion, Ex Parte Merryman.10 The C________ J_________ vigorously defended the
power of Congress alone to suspend the w_________ of h_____________
c____________.
Keep in mind that the C________________ permits the suspension of the writ in
"cases of rebellion and when the public safety" requires it. But it is unclear who has the
p_______________, Congress or the President.
Taney relied on the fact that the right to suspend the writ was in Article I, section
9 of the C__________________, the section describing congressional duties.
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Taney failed to acknowledge that a rebellion was in progress and that the fate of
the nation was, in fact, at stake. Taney missed the crucial point made in the draft of
Lincoln's report to Congress on July 4:
“The whole of the laws which I was sworn to execute were being resisted...in nearly onethird of the states. Must I have allowed them to finally fail of execution?... Are all the
laws but one [the right to habeas corpus] to go unexecuted, and the government itself...go
to pieces, lest that one be v___________?”
26
The Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863
A Transcription
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United
States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, 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 first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate
the States and 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 the qualified voters of such
State 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 first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in
accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one
hundred days, from the day first 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 Berkley, Accomac,
Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of
27
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 said 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 said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence,
unless in necessary self-defence; 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 service 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 considerate judgment of mankind, and
the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States
to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
28
How the Civil War Changed Modern Medicine
The bloodiest conflict on American soil ushered in a new era of medicine.
THE GIST
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Despite its barbaric reputation, medical care during the Civil War helped dawn a
new era of modern medicine.
Techniques developed in response to sick and wounded soldiers led to advances
in pain management.
The Civil War saw the birth of organized triage, which directly influenced the
modern ambulance system.
A Civil War-era hospital filled with Union soldiers appears in the above photo.
The American Civil War often gets credit for ending slavery and reshaping the federal
government in this country. But the War Between the States has another, often
overlooked legacy: It may have started a new era in modern medicine.
As soldiers fell in unprecedented numbers from both injuries and disease, anesthesia
became a specialty. The fields of plastic and reconstructive surgery exploded. And
doctors developed new ways to treat a surge in nerve injuries and chronic pain, marking
the beginning of contemporary neurology.
At the same time, a visionary surgeon named Jonathan Letterman forever altered the flow
of medical treatment from battlefield to hospital, said George Wunderlich, executive
director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md.
Now, 150 years later, Letterman's basic principles continue to affect medical care in a
wide range of situations, from bombings in Afghanistan to heart attacks in American
grocery stores.
"Civil War medicine was every bit as barbaric as it's made out to be, and surgeons
weren't washing their hands," Wunderlich said. "But it was a million times more modern
than almost anyone thinks. And there are a lot of lessons we can still learn from today."
Medically, the United States was woefully prepared when the Civil War began in the
spring of 1861, said Michael Rhode, an archivist at the National Museum of Health and
Medicine in Washington, D.C. Nearly 80 years had passed since the end of the American
Revolution, the country's last major war. And the new conflict was happening on a much
bigger scale.
Scientists, meanwhile, had yet to come up with the theory that germs cause diseases.
Doctors didn't know that they should wash their hands before amputating limbs. As
soldiers from small towns came together in large groups, they became newly exposed to
29
pathogens that their bodies had never encountered before. But there were no antibiotics
and no antiseptics.
As a result, for every Civil War soldier that died of an injury or gunshot wound, more
than two died from dysentery, diarrhea or other infectious diseases.
"They had no idea what was causing it," Rhode said. "The theory was something called
miasmas, or bad airs. But no, it's not a miasma when a guy is wiping his surgical knives
on a bootstrap with horse dung on it."
Medicine has come a long way since then. Injuries that resulted in amputations 150 years
ago now lead to X-rays, the setting of bones, and a four- to six-week recovery period
before returning to battle.
Over the course of the war, doctors learned some lessons that forever changed the way
medical care happens, both on the battlefield and beyond.
There was, for example, a growing sense that cleanliness reduced fatalities. Doctors who
treated soldiers made leaps in understanding about neurology and other fields, and
specialists continued their lines of research even after the war ended.
Then there was Letterman, who as medical director for the Union Army created a wellorganized system of care that began with triage close to the source of harm and was
followed by rapid transportation to a series of clinics, hospitals and specialists. Even
though technological advances have replaced horse and carriages with helicopters and
jets, Wunderlich said, those kinds of protocols continue to be essential today.
As the Civil War ended and soldiers returned home, they retained their expectations for
quick and efficient treatment in all situations. If a wounded man could be picked up in the
midst of the Battle of Gettysburg, after all, shouldn't everyone be able to get rapid help
after falling off a ladder on the street?
As a result, the end of the war saw the beginning of ambulance systems in many major
cities. Letterman's ideas also directly influence the way today's 911 call system works.
And the National Museum of Civil War Medicine has used the surgeon's ideas to train
hundreds of thousands of medical professionals who have been sent to Afghanistan.
The war "was a watershed that really changed all medicine to the point where it could
never completely go back to the way it was before," Wunderlich said. "All these changes
had come about, and people weren't willing to go back."
30
Civil War Weapons
Infantry tactics at the time of the Civil War were based on the use of the smoothbore
musket, a weapon of limited range and accuracy. Firing lines that were much more than a
hundred yards apart could not inflict very much damage on each other, and so troops
which were to make an attack would be massed together, elbow to elbow, and would
make a run for it; if there were enough of them, and they ran fast enough, the defensive
line could not hurt them seriously, and when they got to close quarters the advantage of
numbers and the use of the bayonet would settle things. But the Civil War musket was
rifled, which made an enormous difference. It was still a muzzle-loader, but it had much
more accuracy and a far longer range than the old smoothbore, and it completely changed
the conditions under which soldiers fought. An advancing line could be brought under
killing fire at a distance of half a mile, now, and the massed charge of Napoleonic
tradition was miserably out of date. When a defensive line occupied field entrenchmentswhich the soldiers learned to dig fairly early in the game-a direct frontal assault became
almost impossible. The hideous casualty lists of Civil War battles owed much of their
size to the fact that soldiers were fighting with rifles but were using tactics suited to
smoothbores. It took the generals a long time to learn that a new approach was needed.
Much the same development was taking place in the artillery, although the full effect
was not yet evident. The Civil War cannon, almost without exception, was a muzzleloader, but the rifled gun was coming into service. It could reach farther and hit harder
than the smoothbore, and for counterbattery fire it was highly effective-a rifled battery
could hit a battery of smoothbores without being hit in return, and the new 3-inch iron
rifles, firing a 10-pound conoidal shot, had a flat trajectory and immense Penetrating
power. But the old smoothbore-a brass gun of 4.62-inch caliber, firing a 12-pound
spherical shot-remained popular to the end of the war; in the wooded, hilly country where
so many Civil War battles were fought, its range of slightly less than a mile was about all
that was needed, and for close-range work against infantry the smoothbore was better
31
than the rifle. For such work the artillerist fired canisters tin can full of iron balls, with a
propellant at one end and a wooden disk at the other-and the can disintegrated when the
gun was fired, letting the iron balls be sprayed all over the landscape. In effect, the
cannon became a huge sawed-off shotgun, and at ranges of 250 yards or less it was in the
highest degree murderous.
This portion of the "Home of the American Civil War" website attempts to explain a
little about the various weapons used in the Civil War and while you will find few images
here, you will find a lot of good material on "the weapons of war".
32
The Trent Affair
In accordance with the authority conferred by this Congress, the Confederate
President appointed John Slidell and James M. Mason diplomatic agents in October,
1861, with power to enter into conventions for treaties with England and France. They
were commissioned to secure from these European powers recognition of the
Confederate government as a nation, based upon the vast extent of territory, its large and
intelligent population, its ample resources, its importance as a commercial nation, and
withal the justice of its separation from the United States. It was expected that these
statesmen would be able to convince Europe of the ability of the Confederate States to
maintain a national existence, as belligerent rights had already been accorded. With all
the usual credentials and necessary powers the commissioners departed for Havana,
Cuba, on the blockade-runner "Theodora," where they arrived in safety and were
presented to the captain-general of the island by the British consul, not in official
capacity but as gentlemen of distinction. Afterward they went as passengers aboard a
British merchant vessel, "The Trent," carrying English mails, and sailed for England.
In the meantime Captain Charles Wilkes, U.S. N., commanding the United States
sloop-of-war, "San Jacinto," carrying thirteen guns, who appears to have had a zeal not
according to knowledge, was busy in carrying out a purpose to capture the Confederate
commissioners and executed his designs with success enough to produce a sensation
which involved his government in a serious difficulty with England, from which
extrication was gained only by very mortifying explanations. Cruising near the island on
the alert for the "Trent," Captain Wilkes sighted the approaching vessel on the high seas,
and gave the command to "beat to quarters, hoist the colors and load the guns." The next
proceeding was to fire a shot across the bow of the "Trent," which caused that vessel to
display the British colors without arresting its onward speed. A shell from the "San
Jacinto" across her course brought the "Trent" to without delay and Captain Wilkes then
sent his executive officer with a guard of marines and a full armed boat crew to board the
British ship. Lieutenant Fairfax, the executive officer, went aboard, and informing
Captain Moir of the "Trent" as to the object of his visit, asked for the passenger list,
saying that he would search the vessel to find Mason and Slidell. But while the English
captain was protesting against this breach of international law and refusing to show any
papers, the two Confederate commissioners with their associates, Eustis and McFarland,
appeared and united with the British officer in his protest.
At this juncture the other Federal officers in the armed. cutter came aboard with a
number of marines and other armed men of the boat's crew and the second cutter also
appearing alongside Captain Wilkes formed a line outside the main deck cabin into which
the Southern passengers had retired to pack their baggage. This show of force was
followed by the actual compulsion which it was demanded should be used and by which
the commissioners were forcibly transferred from under the English flag to the boat for
confinement aboard the "San Jacinto." The "Trent" was then permitted to pursue her
voyage, while the "San Jacinto" steamed away with her prisoners to Fortress Monroe, and
on arrival was hailed with the hearty laudations of Congress and the compliments of
some portions of the press. Captain Wilkes for a brief moment was the pride of the
nation. But in a few days he heard himself condemned for his officiousness in terms
33
which showed very clearly that he had involved his government in a very disagreeable
and dangerous controversy with Great Britain.
The boarding of the "Trent" was an outrage of national amity which could not escape
the indignation of all maritime nations. It was perpetrated by a zealot who was too stupid
to foresee its ill effect on the relations which his own country was endeavoring to
maintain with Europe, and it produced a sensation which for awhile seemed to threaten
the total failure of coercion. It is not surprising that on getting the full news of the event
President Lincoln said to the attorney general: "I am not getting much sleep out of that
exploit of Wilkes, and I suppose we must look up the law of the case. I am not much of a
prize lawyer, but it seems to me pretty clear that if Wilkes saw fit to make that capture on
the high seas, he had no right to turn his quarterdeck into a prize court." The shrewd
President saw that Wilkes could not let the "Trent" go free, while he bore away from her
the American passengers as "contraband, "or as" conspirators," thus choosing to
determine himself a question which only an admiralty court duly constituted could
adjudicate.
The President also soon realized that the rash act was very inopportune as well as
illegal. Mr. Seward hurried to communicate with Mr. Adams, the United States minister
at London, the shrewd suggestion that "in the capture of Messrs. Mason and Slidell on
board a British vessel, Captain Wilkes having acted without any instructions from the
government, the subject is therefore free from the embarrassment which might have
resulted if the act had been especially directed by us." "I trust," he wrote, "that the British
government will consider the subject in a friendly temper and it may expect the best
disposition on the part of this government."
The penetrating mind of Lincoln had reached the core of the outrage, and the cunning
Secretary saw the only way out of the difficulty. Mr. Adams was therefore immediately
instructed as to his line of diplomatic work, even before the British government had
communicated its indignation to its minister at Washington. But Earl Russell was soon
ready to inform Lord Lyons officially that intelligence of a very grave nature had reached
her Majesty's government concerning" an act of violence which was an affront to the
British flag and a violation of national law." The Earl further expressed the trust that the
United States will of its own accord offer to the British government such redress as alone
could satisfy the British nation, namely, the "liberation of the four gentlemen and their
delivery to your Lordship in order that they may again be placed under British protection,
and a suitable apology for the aggression which has been committed. Should these terms
not be offered by Mr. Seward, you will propose them to him." It should be borne in mind
that the report of the affair made by Commander Williams, the British agent, to the
admiralty must be accepted as the unprejudiced account of the events which transpired
aboard the "Trent." With very slight protest Mr. Seward in answer to Lord Russell's letter
admitted the facts to be as stated, and based the defense of his government mainly on the
fact that Wilkes acted "without any direction or instruction or even foreknowledge on the
part of the United States government." Upon all grounds the best course to be pursued
was the one suggested kindly and firmly by the English government, but Mr. Seward
proceeded to write, after nearly a month's delay, an elaborate argument ending only as it
must have ended, in his repeating that "what has happened has been simply
inadvertence," and that for "this error the British government has the right to expect the
same reparation that we as an independent state should expect from Great Britain or from
34
any other friendly nation on a similar case."
After this explanation and apology the Secretary concluded his remarkable document
by writing that "the four persons in question are now held in military custody at Fort
Warren in the State of Massachusetts. They will be cheerfully liberated. Your Lordship
will please indicate a time and place for receiving them." Mr. Seward must have felt the
sting which was put in the acceptance of his apology by the English government. That
final rejoinder which went through the hands of Lord Lyons to the table of the secretary
of state very coolly declared the apology to be full and the British demand complied with.
Such pungent sentences as the following appeared in the final British communication:
"No condition of any kind is coupled with the liberation of the prisoners" --"The secretary
of state expressly forbears to justify the particular act of which her Majesty's government
complained"--and Lord Russell threateningly says that if the United States had sanctioned
the action of Wilkes, it "would have become responsible for the original violence and
insults of the act"--" It will be desirable that the commanders of the United States cruisers
be instructed not to repeat acts for which the British government will have to ask for
redress and which the United States government cannot undertake to justify." The
illustrious prisoners were placed under the British protection with as little parade as
possible and Captain Wilkes was left to enjoy as best he could the compliments hastily
voted by Congress. The Confederate hope that European nations would unite with
England in some policy severer than the demand for apology and restitution which Mr.
Seward could so easily make was dissipated. The threatening affair produced a ripple,
became a mere precedent in national intercourse, and passed away. Lord Russell and Mr.
Seward were alike gratified by the termination of the trouble. These upper and nether
millstones then went on grinding the Confederacy which lay between.
Source: The Confederate Military History, Volume 1, Chapter XV
This Page last updated 07/26/05
35
George B. McClellan
MAJOR GENERAL
DECEMBER 3, 1826 – OCTOBER 29, 1885
Major General George B. McClellan (National Archives)
George Brinton McClellan is often remembered as the great organizer of the Union Army of the Potomac.
Nicknamed "Young Napoleon," "Little Mac" was immensely popular with the men who served under his
command. His military command style, however, put him at odds with President Abraham Lincoln, and
would ultimately upset his military and political fortunes.
McClellan began his military career after entering the United States Military Academy in 1842. He
graduated second in a class of 59 in 1846, along with 20 others who would become full rank generals
during the Civil War. He was appointed as a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers and served
under General Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War, helping to construct roads and bridges
for the army. The recipient of brevet promotions to both first lieutenant and captain, he returned to West
Point as an instructor after the war, and helped translate a French manual on bayonet tactics. Other duties
included service as an engineer at Fort Delaware, expeditions to explore the Red River, and the exploration
possible routes for the transcontinental railroad. He was also a military observer during the Crimean
War. In 1857, McClellan resigned from the military to take a position with the Illinois Central Railroad.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Ohio governor William Dennison appointed McClellan major general
of Ohio Volunteers on April 23, 1861. This promotion, along with the support of Governor Denison,
encouraged Lincoln to commission McClellan a major general in the Regular Army, making him one of the
highest ranked individuals in the service under only Winfield Scott. McClellan began his work swiftly,
ensuring that Kentucky would not secede from the Union. He then commanded forces during the Rich
Mountain campaign in what is now West Virginia to ensure that the portion of the state would not be fully
36
taken by Confederates. This success, combined with the defeat of General Irvin McDowell at the battle of
First Bull Run, led McClellan to become commander of the Army of the Potomac, and later General-inChief of all Federal armies upon the retirement of General Winfield Scott’s in November 1861.
It was during this time that McClellan cemented his bond with the men of the Union army. Although many
politicians and generals harbored resentment toward McClellan, he was largely revered by his men. After
the defeat at Manassas, much of the Army of the Potomac was unorganized, and its new commander set to
work providing the men proper military training and instilling in them a remarkable esprit de corps. As he
built his army, however, McClellan also became wary of Confederate forces, fearing that he faced numbers
many times his own.
In the spring of 1862, McClellan was removed as General-in-Chief, though he retained command of
the Potomac Army. Facing great pressure from Lincoln, he launched a campaign against the Confederate
capital along the Virginia Peninsula, known as the Peninsula Campaign. Continually tricked by
Confederate commander General Joseph E. Johnston that he was facing a large force, McClellan frequently
delayed his attacks, allowing his opponent ample time to retreat slowly toward the Richmond defenses. A
surprise attack by Rebels at the battle of Seven Pines (or Fair Oaks) blunted the already sluggish Federal
advance. Although the Union army repulsed the attacks, McClellan to again delayed any further
movement, hoping for more reinforcements to come from Washington. Seven Pines had another adverse
impact on the campaign. During the battle, Confederate General Johnston was wounded, and Robert E.
Lee was appointed to replace him. Taking advantage of McClellan's cautious streak, Lee hammered at the
inert Army of the Potomac in a series of fierce and unrelenting assaults. Over the course of the bloody
Seven Days' Battles, McClellan’s mighty host was forced to abandon its bid to seize Richmond and retreat
to the safety of Washington. As a result of the failed campaign, Lincoln named Henry Halleck as Generalin-Chief of the army, and the Army of the Potomac was given to General John Pope.
Following Pope's failure to capture Richmond the subsequent Union defeat at the battle of Second
Manassas, McClellan was once again leading the army that had such strong affection for him. With Little
Mac at its head, the Army of the Potomac moved to counter Lee's 1862 invasion of Maryland. The Union
chief molded his campaign around a captured a document outlining Lee’s invasion plan. After a series of
skirmishes along the Blue Ridge mountains, the two armies met in an epic contest at Antietam on
September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day of the war. Battle weary and bloodied, the Confederate
Army retreated back into Virginia under the cover of darkness.
Though he had managed to thwart the Lee's plan to invade the North, McClellan's trademark caution once
again denied the Northern cause a decisive victory, and the once-cordial relationship between the army
commander and his Commander-in-Chief had been badly damaged by the former's lack of success and
excessive trepidation. After the battle, a disappointed Lincoln visited McClellan in camp to express his
frustration at the general's inability to capitalize on this most recent success. The general countered by
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saying the army needed time to rest and refit. In November of that year McClellan was relieved of
command for the last time and ordered back to Trenton, New Jersey to await further orders, though none
ever came.
In 1864, McClellan became involved in politics when he was nominated to be the Democratic candidate for
president against his former boss, Abraham Lincoln. McClellan ran on an anti-war platform, promising
that he would negotiate peace terms with the Confederacy to help end the war as soon as possible. But by
November of 1864, a string of Union successes had convinced many that the war was in its final phase.
McClellan resigned his army commission on Election Day, but ultimately Lincoln was elected to a second
term.
After the war, McClellan served as an administrator for a number of engineering firms and in 1878 was
elected Governor of New Jersey. In his final years, the former general penned a defense of his tenure as
commander of the Army of the Potomac, but died before he could see it published. George McClellan is
buried in Trenton, NJ.
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TAB 3
TURNING POINTS OF THE
CIVIL WAR
 CHANCELORSVILLE
 GETTYSBURG
 VICKSBURG
 GRANT TAKES COMMAND
 CIVIL WAR PRISONS
 1864 ELECTION
39
Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain
BRIGADIER GENERAL
SEPTEMBER 8, 1828 - FEBRUARY 24, 1914
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
A veritable icon of Civil War legend, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is best known for his
heroic participation in the Battle of Gettysburg. Chamberlain and his regiment, the 20th
Maine Infantry, gained notoriety for their desperate bayonet charge down Little Round Top
on the Second Day of the Battle, a feat that figures prominently in Michael Shaara’s novel
The Killer Angels and its movie adaptation, Gettysburg. This one deed, however, is only one
facet of the man who later wrote “in great deeds something abides.”
Born in Brewer, Maine in 1828, Chamberlain was the eldest of five children born to Joshua
and Sarah Brastow Chamberlain. The elder Chamberlain, an admirer of all things military,
named his son after sea Captain James Lawrence, famous for his quote “don’t give up the
ship.” His namesake, however, had more peaceful ambitions. The studious Lawrence
Chamberlain graduated from Bowdoin College in 1852 where he was a student of Calvin
Stowe (husband of the authoress, Harriet Beecher Stowe). In 1855, after attending Bangor
Theological Seminary, Chamberlain and his new wife, Fannie, returned to Bowdoin to begin
a career as a professor of languages and rhetoric.
The outbreak of war, however, weighed heavily upon Chamberlain, who desperately wanted
to serve his country. Over the objections of the College, Chamberlain offered his services to
the governor of Maine who appointed him Lieutenant Colonel of the newly raised 20th
Maine regiment. The scholar-turned-soldier would take advantage of his position as second-
40
in-command and studied “every military work I can find” under the close tutelage of his
commander, West Point graduate Col. Adelbert Ames.
Though present at Antietam, Chamberlain and his regiment saw their first trial by fire in one
of the doomed assaults on Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg but missed a chance to be
involved at the Battle of Chancellorsville due to an outbreak of smallpox. Losses at
Chancellorsville elevated Col. Ames to brigade command, leaving Chamberlain to command
the regiment in the next major engagement of the war, the Battle of Gettysburg.
On July 2, 1863, Chamberlain was posted on the extreme left of the Federal line at Little
Round Top—just in time to face Confederate General John B. Hood’s attack on the Union
flank. Exhausted after repulsing repeated assaults, the 20th Maine, out of ammunition,
executed a bayonet charge, dislodging their attackers and securing General Meade’s
embattled left. Though the exact origin of the charge is still the subject of debate, Congress
awarded Chamberlain the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry.”
Shortly after Gettysburg, Chamberlain was given command of a brigade in the Fifth Corps
and would retain it until the end of the war. Throughout the war, Chamberlain was wounded
six times, most grievously at Petersburg in June 1864. Believing this wound to be mortal,
Congress promoted Chamberlain to the rank of Brigadier General. Chamberlain, however,
would survive the wound, and return to the front in time to play a pivotal role in the
Appomattox Campaign. On April 12, 1865, Brigadier General Chamberlain received the
Confederate surrender of arms. Rising to the occasion, the general ordered his men to salute
their vanquished foes.
After the war, Chamberlain returned to Maine, where he served four terms as the state’s
Governor. He later served as president of Bowdoin College alongside former general and
Bowdoin alum, Oliver Otis Howard. Prolific and prosaic throughout his life, Chamberlain
spent his twilight years writing and speaking about the war. His memoir of the Appomattox
Campaign, The Passing of the Armies was published after his death in 1914.
41
Ulysses S. Grant
GENERAL-IN-CHIEF
APRIL 27, 1822 – JULY 23, 1885
Ulysses S. Grant, as photographed by Mathew B. Brady (National Archives)
Born Hiram Ulysses Grant, in Point Pleasant, Ohio, the future General-in-Chief's name was
changed due to a clerical error during his first days at the United States Military Academy at West
Point. To his friends, however, he was known simply as "Sam." After a mediocre stint as a cadet,
he graduated twenty-first out of the thirty-nine cadets in class of 1843. Yet despite his less than
exemplary school record, he performed well as a captain during the Mexican War (1846-1848),
winning two citations for gallantry and one for meritorious conduct. Only when the fighting
stopped and Grant was assigned monotonous duties at remote posts far from his wife and family
did he again begin neglecting his work and drinking heavily. He resigned in 1854 to avoid being
drummed out of the service.
Grant spent the next six years in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife, Julia Dent Grant. After several
short-lived pursuits, including a brief episode as a farmer, he moved to Galena, Illinois to be a
clerk in his family's store. When the Civil War began in 1861, he jumped at the chance to
volunteer for military service in the Union army. His first command was as the colonel of the 21st
Illinois Infantry, but he was quickly promoted to brigadier general in July 1861, and in September
was given command of the District of Southeast Missouri.
His 1862 triumphs at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in western Tennessee won him the nickname
“Unconditional Surrender” Grant, and placed him before the public eye. However, when a
surprise attack by Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh yielded devastating casualties during
the first day's fighting, President Abraham Lincoln received several demands for Grant's removal
from command. Nevertheless, Lincoln refused, stating, “I can’t spare this man. He fights.” The
42
following day, Grant's Army - bolstered by troops under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell - fended off
Confederate advances and ultimately won the day.
Grant’s hard-won victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in May of 1863 was a strategic
masterpiece. On May 1, 1863, Grant's army crossed the Mississippi River at the battle of Port
Gibson. With Confederate forces unclear of his intentions, Grant sent a portion of his army under
Gen. William T. Sherman to capture the state capital, Jackson, while setting his sights on
Vicksburg with a view toward permanently closing the Confederate supply base. When initial
assaults on the city demonstrated the strength of Vicksburg's defenses, the Union army was
forced to lay siege to the city. On July 4, 1863, after 46 days of digging trenches and lobbing hand
grenades, Confederate general John Pemberton's 30,000-man army surrendered. Coupled with
the Northern victory at Gettysburg, the capture of Vicksburg marked the turning point in the war.
It also made Grant the premier commander in the Federal army. Later that same year, Grant was
called upon to break the stalemate at Chattanooga, further cementing his reputation as a capable
and effective leader.
In March 1864, President Lincoln elevated Grant to the rank of lieutenant general, and named
him general-in-chief of the Armies of the United States. Making his headquarters with the Army
of the Potomac, Grant was determined to crush Robert E. Lee and his vaunted Army of Northern
Virginia at any cost. Though plagued by reticent subordinates, petty squabbles between generals
and horrific casualties, the Federal host bludgeoned Lee from the Rapidan River to the James in
what one participant would later describe as "unspoken, unspeakable history." The battles of the
Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and the subsequent siege of Petersburg effectively
destroyed the rebel army, leading to the fall of Richmond and Lee's surrender at Appomattox
Court House. Though Grant’s forces had been depleted by more than half during the last year of
the war, it was Lee who surrendered in 1865.
After the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson named Grant Secretary of War over the newly
reunited nation. In 1868, running against Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant was elected eighteenth
President of the United States. Unfortunately, though apparently innocent of graft himself,
Grant’s administration was riddled with corruption, and scandal.
For two years following his second term in office, Grant made a triumphal tour of the world. In
1884, he lost his entire savings to a corrupt bank. To make up some of his losses, he wrote about
his war experiences for Century Magazine. They proved so popular that he was inspired to write
his excellent autobiography, Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, finishing the two-volume set only a
few days before dying of cancer at the age of sixty-three. Ulysses S. Grant is buried in New York
City in the largest mausoleum of its kind in the United States.
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/ulysses-s-grant.html
43
44
Second Inaugural Address
Digital History ID 4016
Author: Abraham Lincoln
Date:1865
Annotation: Lincoln's Second Inaugural address.
On March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address.
Eerily, John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators involved in his assassination
attended the inauguration.
In a little more than a month after Lincoln gave this speech, he was assassinated by
John Wilkes Booth.
The sentence in the last paragraph "to care for him who shall have borne the battle
and for his widow and orphan" has become the mission statement of the Veterans
Administration (now the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs).
Document: Fellow-Countrymen:
AT this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less
occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement
somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the
expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called
forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention
and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The
progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the
public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all.
With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously
directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the
inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving
the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without
war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties
deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive,
and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally
over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a
peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of
the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which
the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no
right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party
expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.
Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the
conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God,
and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men
should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of
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other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both
could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has
His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be
that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall
suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of
God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He
now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as
the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always
ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of
war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth
piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk,
and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives
us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the
nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow
and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations.
Copyright 2012 Digital History
46
The Gettysburg Campaign
JUNE 1863
Following his victory at Chancellorsville in May, 1863, General Lee received approval from
his government to invade the north. Lee hoped an invasion would fuel the northern peace
movement and, at least, disrupt the Union war effort. After the death of Stonewall Jackson, Lee's
Army of Northern Virginia, 75,000-strong, had been reorganized into three army corps under
Longstreet, Ewell, and A.P. Hill, with a cavalry division under J.E.B. Stuart. On June 3, advance
troops of the Confederate army left their camps near Fredericksburg and marched west toward the
Shenandoah Valley.
The 95,000-strong Federal Army of the Potomac, under General Hooker, was initially
uncertain of Lee's intentions. On June 9, Hooker ordered cavalry general Alfred Pleasonton to
conduct a reconnaissance with 11,000 men across the Rappahannock River toward Brandy
Station. Pleasonton ran into Stuart's cavalry, and the largest cavalry battle of the war ensued. The
result was a standoff, but the Federals were now alerted to the Confederate army's movements.
By June 13, elements of Ewell's corps appeared before Winchester. On the same day, Hooker
with-drew the Army of the Potomac from the Rappahannock and ordered it north. On June 14-15,
Ewell attacked the 9,000-strong Federal garrison at Winchester and defeated it, inflicting heavy
losses and capturing much valuable war material.
After Winchester, Lee's army moved unchecked into the Cumberland Valley of
Pennsylvania. On June 25, Lee agreed to Stuart's plan to take three brigades of cavalry across the
Potomac cast of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and cut across the rear of the Federal army. Stuart's
march encountered frequent delays and detours and an increasingly aggressive Federal cavalry,
and was unable to rejoin Lee until July 2.
By June 28, Longstreet and Hill's corps were at Chambersburg. Divisions of Ewell's corps
had crossed the mountains to York and Carlisle, and were preparing to move against Harrisburg.
However, Lee learned on this day that the Federal army was at Frederick, and that Hooker had
been replaced by General Meade. Lee decided to bring his entire army east of the mountains and
offer battle. At the same time, Meade moved his army north. By June 30, both armies were
converging upon Gettysburg and the battle, which would be the turning point of the war, was set
to commence.
JULY 1 1863
After the discovery on June 30 that Gettysburg was occupied by Brigadier General John
Buford's division of Federal cavalry, the Confederates on July 1 sent the divisions of Major
General Henry Heth and Major General William Pender of Hill's Corps, down the Chambersburg
Road to drive Buford away and occupy Gettysburg.
The battle began at 5.30 a.m., when shots were exchanged over Marsh Creek. In the face of
Buford's resistance, Heth pushed on cautiously until he reached a point about two miles west of
Gettysburg. Here he deployed two brigades in line, and pressed ahead; it was nearly 10 a.m.
Federal General John F. Reynolds, commanding I Corps, arrived on the field at this point, and
determined to engage Herb. He ordered I Corps and Major General Oliver 0. Howard's XI Corps
to march to Gettysburg.
Soon after 10.30 a.m., I Corps arrived and engaged Heth along McPherson's Ridge. By 11.30
a.m., Heth had been defeated and forced to withdraw to Herr Ridge. Early in the action, Reynolds
was killed, and field command devolved upon Howard. A lull now settled over the field as both
sides brought up reinforcements. The Federal I Corps deployed to defend the western approaches
to Gettysburg, while XI Corps formed up north of the town. Buford's cavalry covered the flanks.
47
Howard left one division in reserve on Cemetery Hill. His strategy was simple: delay the
Confederates long enough to enable the rest of the Federal army to concentrate.
Lee arrived
on the field after noon. He had initially hoped to avoid a general engagement since the strength of
the enemy was unknown, and the terrain in the Gettysburg area unfamiliar. But, soon after noon,
Rodes's division of Ewell's Corps arrived on Oak Hill and attacked the right of I Corps. At 2 p.m.
Heth's division joined the attack on I Corps. At 3 p.m., the battle spread north of the town when
Jubal Early's division of Ewell's Corps attacked down the Harrisburg Road and crushed the flank
of XI Corps. At about the same time, west of Gettysburg, Pender's division relieved Heth and
assaulted I Corps' position along Seminary Ridge. By 4 p.m., both Federal corps were in retreat
through Gettysburg to Cemetery Hill. Federal losses numbered slightly over 9,000, including
some 3,000 captured, compared with Confederate losses of about 6,500.
The day's action had resulted in a Confederate victory, but Federal forces held onto the high
ground south of Gettysburg, where their position was soon strengthened by reinforcements.
JULY 2 1863
The success of his army in the fighting on July 1 encouraged Lee to renew the battle on July
2. An early morning reconnaissance of the Federal left revealed that their line did not extend as
far south as Little Round Top. Lee directed Longstreet to take two divisions of I Corps and march
south until they reached the flank of the Federal forces. They would attack from this point,
supported by a division of A.P. Hill's corps - a total force of nearly 20,000 men. While Longstreet
carried out the main offensive, Ewell was ordered to conduct a demonstration against the Federal
right. However, he was given discretion to mount a full-scale attack should the opportunity
present itself.
The Federal army was well prepared for Lee's offensive. Six of its seven corps had arrived on
the battlefield, and VI Corps was making a thirty-six-mile forced march to reach it. Meade had
deployed his army in a fish-hook-shaped formation, with the right on Culp's Hill and Cemetery
Hill, the center along Cemetery Ridge, and the left on Little Round Top. The left of the Federal
line was held by Major General Daniel Sickles's III Corps. Sickles was dissatisfied with his
assigned position and in the early afternoon, without orders, he advanced his line nearly half a
mile west in order to take advantage of the high open ground around a nearby peach orchard.
Soon after Sickles took up this new position, Longstreet attacked. Third Corps was hard
pressed and Meade sent V Corps and part of 11 Corps to reinforce Sickles in the Peach Orchard.
But, after furious fighting, Longstreet's forces broke through, causing Sickles's entire line to
collapse. The Confederates pursued to the base of Little Round Top, but Federal reinforcements,
including elements of VI Corps, checked their advance. Farther north, elements of a division of
the Confederate III Corps advanced to the slopes of Cemetery Ridge before they too were forced
to retire.
On the Federal right, Ewell did not attack until evening, after Longstreet's onslaught had
subsided. The effort to storm Cemetery Hill was ultimately unsuccessful. Ewell's attacks were
also repulsed at Culp's Hill, although a foothold was gained near the base of the hill.
The second day's fighting had cost each army some 9,000 casualties. Lee's forces had again
gained ground, but had failed to dislodge the Federal army from its strong position.
JULY 3 1863
Lee's confidence was unshaken by the events of July 2. That night, he ordered Longstreet,
who had been reinforced by Major General George Pickett's division, to renew his assault on the
Federal left. Simultaneously, Ewell, who had also been reinforced, was to storm Culp's Hill.
Stuart's cavalry, which had rejoined the army late that day, was ordered to march well east of
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Gettysburg, and attempt to penetrate to the Federal rear where they might disrupt communications
and distract Meade.
Meanwhile, Meade had determined to hold his position and await Lee's attack. However, at
Culp's Hill he authorized XII Corps to drive Ewell's forces out of the captured Federal trenches at
daylight. The Federal effort opened with a concentrated artillery bombardment which precipitated
a tremendous musketry battle.
With Ewell already engaged, Lee rode to Longstreet's headquarters to observe his
preparations for the attack on the Federal left. Longstreet misunderstood his orders and was
planning instead a movement to turn the Federal left. With the hope of a coordinated attack now
lost, Lee was forced to modify his plans. He determined to shift his main attack to the Federal
center on Cemetery Ridge. Longstreet was placed in command of the effort. The plan was first to
subject the Federal position to bombardment by nearly 140 cannon, then to send Pickett,
Pettigrew and half of Trimble's divisions (formerly Heth's and Pender's) - nearly 12,000 men forward to smash the Federal center.
While Longstreet made his preparations during the morning, Ewell's forces were defeated in
their counterattacks on Culp's Hill, and withdrew around 11:00 a.m.
At l:00 p.m., Longstreet opened the great bombardment of the Federal line. The Federal army
replied with approximately 80 cannon and a giant duel ensued which lasted for nearly two hours.
After the bombardment subsided, the infantry went forward. This has subsequently been known
throughout history as "Pickett's Charge." Federal artillery, followed by musketry, cut their
formations to pieces and inflicted devastating losses. A small Confederate force effected one
small penetration of the Federal line, but was overwhelmed. The attack ended in disaster, with
nearly 5,600 Confederate casualties. Meanwhile, three miles east of Gettysburg, Stuart's cavalry
was engaged by Federal cavalry under Brigadier General David Gregg. The cavalry clash was
indecisive, but Stuart was neutralized and posed no threat to the Federal rear.
The battle was effectively over. Federal losses numbered approximately 23,000, while
estimates of Confederate losses range between 20,000 and 28,000.
Source: This description of the battle was taken, for the most part, from James M. McPherson's "
The Atlas of the Civil War."
49
TAB 4
THE END OF THE CIVIL
WAR
PETERSBURG
SHERMANS MARCH TO THE SEA
APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE
WHY THE SOUTH LOST?
THE LOST CAUSE
CIVIL WAR TODAY
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William T. Sherman
MAJOR GENERAL
FEBRUARY 8, 1820 – FEBRUARY 14, 1891
Major General William T. Sherman (Library of Congress)
William Tecumseh Sherman, although not a career military commander before the war, would
become one of "the most widely renowned of the Union’s military leaders next to U. S. Grant.”
Sherman, one of eleven children, was born into a distinguished family. His father had served on
the Supreme Court of Ohio until his sudden death in 1829, leaving Sherman and his family to stay
with several friends and relatives. During this period, Sherman found himself living with Senator
Thomas Ewing, who obtained an appointment for Sherman to the United States Military
Academy, and he graduated sixth in the class of 1840. His early military career proved to be
anything but spectacular. He saw some combat during the Second Seminole War in Florida, but
unlike many of his colleagues, did not fight in the Mexican-American War, serving instead in
California. As a result, he resigned his commission in 1853. He took work in the fields of banking
and law briefly before becoming the superintendent of the Louisiana Military Academy in 1859.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, however, Sherman resigned from the academy and headed
north, where he was made a colonel of the 13th United States Infantry.
Sherman first saw combat at the Battle of First Manassas, where he commanded a brigade of
Tyler’s Division. Although the Union army was defeated during the battle, President Abraham
Lincoln was impressed by Sherman’s performance and he was promoted to brigadier general on
August 7, 1861, ranking seventh among other officers at that grade. He was sent to Kentucky to
begin the Union task of keeping the state from seceding. While in the state, Sherman expressed
his views that the war would not end quickly, and he was replaced by Don Carlos Buell. Sherman
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was moved to St. Louis, where he served under Henry W. Halleck and completed logistical
missions during the Union capture of Fort Donelson. During the battle of Shiloh, Sherman
commanded a division, but was overrun during the battle by Confederates under Albert Sydney
Johnston. Despite the incident, Sherman was promoted to major general of volunteers on May 1,
1862.
After the battle of Shiloh, Sherman led troops during the battles of Chickasaw Bluffs and Arkansas
Post, and commanded XV Corps during the campaign to capture Vicksburg. At the battle of
Chattanooga Sherman faced off against Confederates under Patrick Cleburne in the fierce contest
at Missionary Ridge. After Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to commander of all the United States
armies, Sherman was made commander of all troops in the Western Theatre, and began to wage
warfare that would bring him great notoriety in the annals of history.
By 1864 Sherman had become convinced that preservation of the Union was contingent not only
on defeating the Southern armies in the field but, more importantly, on destroying the
Confederacy's material and psychological will to wage war. To achieve that end, he launched a
campaign in Georgia that was defined as “modern warfare”, and brought “total destruction…upon
the civilian population in the path of the advancing columns [of his armies].” Commanding three
armies, under George Henry Thomas, James B. McPherson, and John M. Schofield, he used his
superior numbers to consistently outflank Confederate troops under Joseph E. Johnston, and
captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. The success of the campaign ultimately helped Lincoln
win reelection. After the fall of Atlanta, Sherman left the forces under Thomas and Schofield to
continue to harass the Confederate Army of Tennessee under John Bell Hood. Meanwhile,
Sherman cut off all communications to his army and commenced his now-famous “March to the
Sea," leaving in his wake a forty to sixty mile-wide path of destruction through the heartland of
Georgia. On December 21, 1864 Sherman wired Lincoln to offer him an early Christmas present:
the city of Savannah.
Following his successful campaign through Georgia, Sherman turned his attentions northward
and began marching through the Carolinas, chasing the Confederates under the command of
Joseph E. Johnston. He continued his campaign of destruction, in particular targeting South
Carolina for their role in seceding from the Union first. He captured Columbia, South Carolina,
on February 17, 1865, setting many fires which would consume large portions of the city. He went
on to defeat the forces of Johnston in North Carolina during the Battle of Bentonville, and
eventually accepted the surrender of Johnston and all troops in Georgia, Florida, and the
Carolinas on April 26, 1865, becoming the largest surrender of Confederate troops during the
war.
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After the war, Sherman remained in the military and eventually rose to the rank of full general,
serving as general-in-chief of the army from 1869 to 1883. Praised for his revolutionary ideas on
"total warfare," William T. Sherman died in 1891.
53
The Lost Cause
The "Lost Cause," the title of Edward A. Pollards 1866 history of the Confederacy, first
referred to the South's defeat in the Civil War, but in time it came to designate the regions
memory of the war as well.
Appomattox brought defeat, desolation, and despair to the white South. Almost at once,
Southerners began to memorialize their failed cause, establishing Confederate Memorial Day and
dedicating funeral monuments to the Confederate dead. These activities, usually held in
cemeteries, evoked mourning and melancholy even as they honored the soldiers. They formed
part of a larger process through which white Southerners assimilated defeat. Former Confederates
reexamined their defense of slavery and decision to secede from the Union and judged both legal
and moral. To explain their defeat, some Southerners pointed to the Confederates personal sins,
such as drinking or swearing. But most Southerners proclaimed the South blameless, sought
solace in biblical promises that God tested those whom he loved best, and concluded that God
had chosen the South for some great destiny. Having decided God had not abandoned them, white
Southerners sought other explanations for their defeat. A few leaders blamed each other; others
questioned the unity, discipline, or commitment of the Southern people. Almost no one criticized
the fighting mettle of Confederate soldiers; rather, their heroism was praised.
In the 1870s the process of coming to terms with defeat entered a new phase. Jubal A. Early
and a few other former Confederate leaders organized the Southern Historical Society (SHS),
which, through its publications and the other Southern writings it endorsed, established certain
"truths" about the Confederate cause: the South had not fought to preserve slavery; secession was
a constitutional and justifiable response to Northern violations of the national compact; and
Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson were perfect heroes whose very existence
testified to Confederate nobility. When explaining Confederate defeat, Early and the SHS offered
two not altogether consistent explanations: James Longstreet's tardiness at Gettysburg led to the
loss of the war, and the Confederate armies succumbed only to overwhelming numbers and
resources.
Beginning in the late 1880s, the mourning and self-examination of the early postwar years
gave way by the turn of the century to a popular celebration of the war Communities throughout
the South dedicated Confederate monuments. A few of these statues memorialized generals or
other leaders, but most honored the common soldiers and took the form of a lone soldier, often at
rest, atop a tall shaft on the courthouse square or a central street. In 1889 the United Confederate
Veterans formed and chose as its leader John B. Gordon, a Confederate general committed to a
New South and reconciliation with the North. Within a decade, the United Daughters of the
Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans organized. All three groups participated in
annual reunions of Confederate veterans, which became regional festivals that drew huge crowds.
Some scholars argue that this turn-of-the-century Confederate celebration expressed a civil
religion that preserved a distinctive regional identity and Lost Cause mentality. It did indirectly
foster white supremacy, state rights, and Democratic party solidarity, as well as incorporate most
of the positions held by the SHS. But its rituals primarily celebrated the sacrifice and heroism of
the soldiers and vindicated the honor of the South. The celebration thereby rendered the Lost
Cause a glorious memory with much of the wars pain, passions, and such issues as slavery or
independence expunged. In fact, it did little to revive wartime ideology or forge a distinctively
regional identity, but instead reinforced Southerners deference to leaders and loyalty to country,
now the reunited nation.
In 1898 the Spanish-American War allowed the South to demonstrate its loyalty and honor
under fire. In the wars wake, and amid a national resurgence of racism that rendered
reconciliation among whites easier, most Northerners joined in the celebration of the Confederate
soldiers. Robert E. Lee became a national hero, and Blue-Gray reunions demonstrated the Norths
54
respect for its former foes. With Northern acknowledgment of Southern honor and with regional
confidence restored, the Confederate celebration lost much of its intensity. As the twentieth
century progressed, fewer Confederate monuments were erected. As the veteran generation died
off Confederate reunions became less spectacular, and in 1932 the old soldiers held their last
major review. Sons and daughters organizations persisted, but neither assumed the central role in
Southern society the veterans had held. With this decline of the organizations and ceremonies of
the Lost Cause, no one interpretation of the war dominated Southern culture as it once had.
Southern academics and other intellectuals developed independent, conflicting
interpretations of the war. In their 1930 manifesto, "Ill Take My Stand", the Nashville agrarians
sought to counter both New South commercialism and the ills of modern industrial society by
promoting an image of an agrarian South, although one that all but ignored the existence of
slavery. Thereafter a few conservative Southern intellectuals similarly evoked the memory of the
Old South and the Confederacy in opposition to modern developments they disdained. A larger
number of Southern intellectuals, however, rethought their society's celebration of the
Confederacy Novelist William Faulkner, journalist W. J. Cash, historian C. Vann Woodward, and
others saw slavery as central to the sectional confrontation, stressed the Civil Wars devastating
effects on the South, and claimed that defeat helped create a distinctive regional mentality
characterized by guilt and an appreciation for human limitations. By the 1960s, a few historians
influenced by this tradition even attributed Confederate defeat to guilt over slavery which had led
to a failure of Confederate nationalism. Not all historians embraced such explanations; over the
course of the century scholars attributed the war to a conflict of civilizations, a blundering
generation, the collapse of the political party system, and a host of other factors. They offered
myriad explanations of Confederate defeat, although perhaps the overwhelming-numbers-andresources argument remained preeminent. Most Southern historians and intellectuals, though,
emphasized the importance of slavery to the conflict and viewed the war as more tragic than did
the Confederate celebration or twentieth-century popular culture.
A few scholars find popular acceptance of failure, guilt, and human limits, which they label
the Lost Cause mentality, in twentieth-century country music. Such sentiments appeared in many
country songs, but that probably reflected the hard realities of Southern rural and lower-class life
rather than any influence of the Lost Cause. The popular memory of the Civil War more often
took heroic form. Novels and films-- especially the silent classic Birth of a Nation and one of the
most popular movies of all time --Gone with the Wind--portrayed the Old South as a conservative
but romantic place that suffered a terrible defeat. Yet in most, as in Gone with the Wind,
Confederates appeared as heroic figures who survived, if not triumphed, in the end, and slavery
seemed a benign if not beneficial institution. Once again, an absence of concern about the plight
of African Americans made it easier for both Northern and Southern whites to honor the heroes of
the Southern cause. With twentieth-century popular cultures glorification of the Confederacy,
following its celebration at the turn of the century, many white Southerners even joked that the
South had not actually lost the war, which suggested that the heritage of defeat had ceased to be
very important to or even very real for them. Rather than displaying some special caution or
wisdom rooted in defeat, white Southerners became among the most patriotic of Americans; the
Lost Cause had primarily fostered respect for the military and unquestioning patriotism.
The Civil War Centennial, more a Northern than a Southern celebration, did little to reverse
the decline of interest in the Lost Cause or to reshape its definition. Rather, the centennial further
demonstrated the increasing commercialization and trivialization of the memory of the war.
During the civil rights revolt of the l950s and l960s, many white Southerners did revive the use of
Confederate symbols, especially the Confederate flag and "Dixie," in behalf of segregation and
white supremacy. They thereby did much to reverse what the turn-of-the-century Confederate
celebration had done to render them symbols of honor and loyalty to country. In the 1980s
continued display of the Confederate flag exacerbated tensions between white and black
Southerners. By then blacks who objected to Confederate symbols as an assertion of white
55
supremacy probably reacted more to the battles of the l960s than to those of the 1860s. But with
few exceptions, black Southerners had never participated in or embraced the Lost Cause. For
them the Civil War brought not defeat but deliverance from slavery They gloried not in
Confederate legions but in their ancestors participation in a Union army that brought
emancipation, which many black communities after the war, and into the present, celebrated on
January 1, June 19, or various other dates.
These conflicts over Confederate symbols exposed, more than anything else, the nations
failure to establish a biracial society after it emancipated the slaves, but they also revealed that the
Civil War remained important for some Southerners. Even in the 1970s and 1980s, many people,
not just Southerners, reenacted Civil War battles. The Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of
Confederate Veterans persisted; many of their members continued to interpret the war much as
the SHS had. But only a small minority of Southerners participated in reenactments or
descendants organizations; for the majority, Confederate symbols and evocations of the Lost
Cause had little fixed meaning and little clear relationship to the issues that motivated
Confederates from 1861 through 1865. When a neoconservative Harvard student flew the
Confederate flag out her window to challenge liberal calls for cultural diversity on campus; when
a country-music singer bragged that if the South had won the war, murderers would be hanged
and the day Elvis Presley died would be a national holiday; and when an advertisement for an
Atlanta hotel featured William Tecumseh Sherman's picture and told patrons "Say Sherman sent
you" to receive a discount, then defining any specific ideological or cultural content to the Lost
Cause became difficult, if not futile.
Moreover, in the 1980s most white Southerners displayed limited knowledge of or interest in
the history of the Civil War. One survey found that just 39 percent of white Southerners claimed
to have had an ancestor in the Confederate army; another 37 percent did not know if their
ancestors had fought or not. Only 30 percent of the same respondents admitted they had a great
deal of interest in the Southern history, though another 51 percent claimed to have some interest.
By the 1990s the memory of the Civil War had not totally disappeared from Southern
culture, but certainly the specificity and power of the Lost Cause had dramatically declined.
Source: Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, volume 3, article by Gaines M. Foster
This Page last updated 02/24/02
56
March to the Sea - Conflict:
Sherman's March to the Sea took place during the American Civil War.
Armies & Commanders:
Union
Major General William T. Sherman
62,000 men
Confederates
Lieutenant General William J. Hardee
13,000 men
March to the Sea - Dates:
The March to the Sea commenced on November 15, 1864, and ended with the capture of Savannah on
December 22.
March to the Sea - Background:
In the wake of his successful campaign to capture Atlanta, Major General William T. Sherman began
making plans for a march against Savannah. Seeking to destroy the South's economic and psychological
will to resist, he intended to conduct a campaign designed to eliminate any resources that could be used by
Confederate forces. Presenting his plan to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Sherman received approval
and began making preparations to depart Atlanta on November 15, 1864. During the march, Sherman's
army would cut loose from its supply lines and would live off the land.
To ensure that adequate supplies were gathered, Sherman issued strict orders regarding foraging and the
seizure of material from the local population. Known as "bummers," foragers from the army became a
common sight along its route of march. Dividing his forces in two, Sherman advanced along two major
routes with Major General Oliver O. Howard's Army of Tennessee on the right and Major General Henry
Slocum's Army of Georgia on the left. To oppose Sherman's 62,000 men, Lieutenant General William J.
Hardee, commanding the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida had approximately 13,000
troops.
March to the Sea - Sherman Departs:
Departing Atlanta by different routes, the Howard and Slocum's columns attempted to confuse Hardee as to
their ultimate objective. Initially moving south, Howard's men pushed Confederate troops out of Lovejoy's
Station before pressing on towards Macon. To the north, Slocum's two corps moved east then southeast
towards the state capital at Milledgeville. Realizing that Savannah was Sherman's target, Hardee began
concentrating his men to defend the city, while ordering Major General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry to attack
the Union flanks and rear.
March to the Sea - Laying Waste to Georgia:
As Sherman's men pushed southeast, they systematically destroyed all manufacturing plants, agricultural
infrastructure, and railroads they encountered. A common technique for wrecking the latter was heating
railroad rails over fires and twisting them around trees. Known as "Sherman's Neckties," they became a
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common sight along the route of march. The first significant action of the march occurred at Griswoldville
on November 22, when Wheeler's cavalry and Georgia militia attacked on Howard's front. This assault was
beaten off with heavy casualties and the march resumed.
During the remainder of November and in early December, numerous minor battles were fought, such as
Buck Head Creek and Waynesboro, as Sherman's men pushed relentlessly on towards Savannah. As they
approached the city, additional Union troops entered the fray as 5,500 men, under Brigadier General John
P. Hatch, descended from Hilton Head, SC in an attempt to cut the Charleston & Savannah Railroad.
Encountering Confederate troops on November 30, Hatch was forced to withdraw after a defeat at the
Battle of Honey Hill.
March to the Sea - A Christmas Present for Pres. Lincoln:
Arriving outside Savannah on December 10, Sherman found that Hardee had flooded the fields outside the
city which limited access to a few causeways. Entrenched in a strong position, Hardee refused to surrender
and remained determined to defend the city. Needing to link up with the US Navy to receive supplies,
Sherman dispatched Brigadier General William Hazen's division to capture Fort McAllister on the
Ogeechee River. This was accomplished on December 13, and communications were opened with Rear
Admiral John Dahlgren's naval forces.
With his supply lines reopened, Sherman began making plans to lay siege to Savannah. On December 17,
he contacted Hardee with a warning that he would begin shelling the city if it were not surrendered.
Unwilling to give in, Hardee escaped with his command over the Savannah River on December 20 using an
improvised pontoon bridge. The following morning, the mayor of Savannah formally surrendered the city
to Sherman.
Aftermath of the March to the Sea
Known as "Sherman's March to the Sea," the campaign through Georgia effectively eliminated the region's
economic usefulness to the Confederate cause. With the city secured, Sherman telegraphed President
Abraham Lincoln with the message, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with
one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."
The following spring, Sherman launched his final campaign of the war north into the Carolinas, before
finally receiving the surrender of General Joseph Johnston on April 26, 1865.
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Name:
Date:
Period:
General R.E. Lee, Commanding C.S.A.:
5 P.M., April 7th, 1865.
The results of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance
on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and
regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of
blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army
known as the Army of Northern Virginia.
U.S. Grant, Lieutenant-General"
April 7th, 1865.
General: I have received your note of this date. Though not entertaining the opinion you
express of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern
Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and therefore,
before considering your proposition, ask the terms you will offer on condition of its
surrender.
R.E. Lee, General."
April 8th, 1865.
General R.E. Lee, Commanding C.S.A.:
Your note of last evening in reply to mine of the same date, asking the conditions on
which I will accept the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, is just received. In
reply I would say that, peace being my great desire, there is but one condition I would
insist upon,--namely, that the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for
taking up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged. I
will meet you, or will designate officers to meet any officers you may name for the same
purpose, at any point agreeable to you, for the purpose of arranging definitely the terms
upon which the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia will be received.
U.S. Grant, Lieutenant-General"
April 8th, 1865.
General: I received at a late hour your note of to-day. In mine of yesterday I did not
intend to propose the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of
your proposition. To be frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the
surrender of this army, but, as the restoration of peace should be the sole object of all, I
desired to know whether your proposals would lead to that end. I cannot, therefore, meet
you with a view to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia; but as far as your proposal
may affect the Confederate States forces under my command, and tend to the restoration
of peace, I should be pleased to meet you at 10 A.M. to-morrow on the old state road to
Richmond, between the picket-lines of the two armies.
R.E. Lee, General."
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April 9th, 1865.
General: Your note of yesterday is received. I have not authority to treat on the subject of
peace. The meeting proposed for 10 A.M. to-day could lead to no good. I will state,
however, that I am equally desirous for peace with yourself, and the whole North
entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood.
By the South laying down their arms, they would hasten that most desirable event, save
thousands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed.
Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I
subscribe myself, etc.,
U.S. Grant, Lieutenant-General"
April 9th, 1865.
General: I received your note of this morning on the picket-line, whither I had come to
meet you and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your proposal of
yesterday with reference to the surrender of this army. I now ask an interview, in
accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday, for that purpose.
R.E. Lee, General."
April 9th, 1865.
General R. E. Lee Commanding C. S. Army:
Your note of this date is but this moment (11:50 A.M.) received, in consequence of my
having passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg road to the Farmville and Lynchburg
road. I am at this writing about four miles west of Walker's Church, and will push
forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you. Notice sent to me on this road where
you wish the interview to take place will meet me.
U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General."
1. What has Grant asked Lee to do?
2. What did Lee ask Grant for?
3. Why do you think it took so long for Lee to agree to meet with Grant?
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Jefferson Davis
PRESIDENT
JUNE 3, 1808 – DECEMBER 6, 1889
(National Archives)
Jefferson Finis Davis, the first and only President of the Confederate States of America, was a
planter, politician and soldier born in Kentucky and raised in Mississippi. Davis was the tenth and
youngest child of Revolutionary War soldier Samuel Davis and his wife Jane Cook Davis (Finis in
Latin means final—the couple wanted no more children after Jefferson). Born June 3, 1808, he
was heavily influenced by his oldest brother, Joseph, who saw to it that he was well educated.
Davis attended college in Kentucky at Transylvania before entering the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point in 1824.
As a military cadet, Davis’ performance was only adequate. When he graduated in 1828 he placed
twenty-third in a class of thirty-four. He went on to serve briefly in the Black Hawk War in 1832.
While stationed under Colonel Zachary Taylor (future President of the United States) the
following year, he met the colonel’s daughter, Sarah. Jefferson Davis married her in 1835 against
her father’s wishes. Sadly, the couple came down with bad cases of malaria only three months
after the wedding, and the young bride died.
Jefferson Davis led a secluded life for the next eight years on his cotton plantation at Davis Bend,
Mississippi. A slaveholder, Davis firmly believed in the importance of the institution of slavery for
the South. In 1845 he married his second wife, Varina Howell, a young woman eighteen years old.
Jefferson and Varina Davis eventually had six children—two girls and four boys—but only their
daughters lived into adulthood.
In the same year, 1845, Mississippi sent Davis to the U.S. House of Representatives. His
Congressional term was short, however. He resigned in June 1846 to fight in the Mexican War
where he led his troops valiantly at the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. He was offered a
promotion to brigadier general in 1847 but refused it when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
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In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Davis U.S. Secretary of War where he served with
distinction and was recognized as one of the most capable administrators to hold the office. In
1857, Davis returned to the Senate as a vocal proponent of states rights. He formally withdrew
from the U.S. Senate on January 21, 1861 after Mississippi seceded from the Union.
One month later, the Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama selected Jefferson Finis
Davis to become the provisional President of the Confederacy. He was inaugurated for a six-year
term as President on February 22 of the following year. Davis’ appointment was largely political;
he was a compromise candidate chosen to appease both the moderate and radical factions in the
Congress. Davis, however, did not want the job. He had hoped for a military command.
Initially, Davis was a popular President with the Southern people. He had a dignified bearing, a
distinguished military record, extensive experience in political affairs, and—most importantly—a
dedication to the Confederate cause. Unfortunately for Davis, these attributes were not enough to
triumph over the harsh challenges posed by his new position. His early popularity was a result of
war fervor and he did not have the personality necessary to sustain it. He was impatient with
people who disagreed with him, and he had the unfortunate habit of awarding prominent posts to
leaders who appeared unsuccessful. Davis’ loyalty to these people led to bickering and quarrels
throughout his administration. In addition, he was plagued by chronic illness.
Davis’ popularity and effectiveness were not enhanced by the growing numbers of Confederate
defeats in the latter years of the War. On April 2, 1865, he and the other members of the
Confederate government were forced to flee from Richmond before the advancing Union Army.
The Confederate President was captured by Northern soldiers near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10,
1865.
Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was never tried for
treason, but was released on bond in May 1867. After being released, Davis and his family
traveled for some time in Europe before returning to the American South. They first took up
residence in Tennessee then relocated to the Mississippi gulf coast where Davis lived out his
retirement years at an estate called Beauvoir near Biloxi. Mississippi tried to return him to the
U.S. Senate, but he was not legally qualified to serve since he refused to request an official pardon
from the United States for his role in the Civil War. Like many of his contemporaries, Davis wrote
about his wartime experiences. Entitled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, his
two-volume book was published in 1881.
Jefferson Finis Davis died in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 6, 1889. The year before his
death the former President of the Confederate States of America beseeched the young men of
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Mississippi to “lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to make your places in the
ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished—a reunited country.”
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