Download THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1492-1877

THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED
STATES 1492-1877
Lecture 9
The Civil War
„there is nothing civil about war”
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CAUSES OF THE WAR:
Slavery controversy
Failure of compromises
Lack of strong presidential leadership, James
Buchanan
• Differing development of regions
PRESIDENT BUCHANAN
AMERICA AT THE EVE OF THE CIVIL
WAR
• North: more people, railroads, iron, money,
soldiers
• Strategy: blockade ports, take Mississippi River,
take Richmond, confederate capital,
• South: defend their own land, fighting spirit, just
war, Better generals: Robert E. Lee, Thomas
Stonewall Jackson, educated at West Point
• Less population, less iron, railroads
• Strategy: war of attrition, hoping for French or
British help, invasion of the North
THOMAS STONEWALL JACKSON
MILITARY, POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
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USA Lincoln, Washington D.C,
CSA Jefferson Davis, Richmond
1861 March 4, Lincoln’s inauguration
“no intention of interfering with slavery in the
states where it exists.
• But: “union of the states is perpetual”
• Secession of South Carolina, blockade of Fort
Sumter
FORT SUMTER
MILITARY POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
• Lincoln: calls for 75,000 volunteers, announces
blockade of Southern ports
• 1861 July 21 Bull Run
• 1862 September: Antietam
• 1863: Vicksburg, Gettysburg
BULL RUN
MILITARY, POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
• Gettysburg Address,
• Reference to Declaration of Independence,
connecting the Civil War to Revolutionary War,
consensual government, sacred document of
American democracy
• „Fourscore and seven years ago, dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal,
government of the people, by the people, for the
people shall not perish from this earth”
LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG
MILITARY, POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
• 1864: Sherman’s march to the sea
• Burning of Atlanta in M. Mitchell’s Gone With
the Wind
• 1865: Appomatox
• Lee surrenders to Grant
ATLANTA BURNING
THE FIRST MODERN WAR
• Over 620,000 dead, 1.5 million wounded, frequent
amputation of wounded
• -total war, impacting the home front
• not armies but whole societies were fighting against
each other
• utilizing contemporary developments of technology
(submarine, railroad, telegraph, armed trains)
• Institution of the draft,
• Confederates first to adopt conscription
• substitutes, “Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”
• 1863 New York Draft Riots
SUBMARINES IN THE CIVIL WAR
IMPACT ON SLAVERY
• Emancipation Proclamation:
• Lincoln’s aim: keeping the Union together with or without
slavery
• Issued on 9-22-1862
• “As of January 1, 1863 all slaves in Confederate states or
areas still under active rebellion would be thenceforward
and forever free”
• Reasons:
• Military: elimination of potential armed forces
• Economic: depriving the South from its labor force
• Diplomatic: isolation of the South, Britain freed slaves in
1833
IMPACT ON THE PRESIDENCY
• Lincoln: constitutional dictatorship
• Basis: presidential oath, power as commander in
chief
• Violation of the Constitution, in order to protect
it
• -calling for volunteers—declares war
• -suspension of habeas corpus, (protection against
unlawful arrests)
• -military courts take over civilian courts Ex parte
Milligan
IMPACT ON U.S. HISTORY
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A watershed, a dividing line
End of slavery Thirteenth Amendment,
End of the states rights movement
Test for the Union, expression of the unity,
“the United States is”
• Test for the Constitution
• The beginning of modern America