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The Civil War
The battle of Gettysburg, Pa. July 3d. 1863, depicting the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1—3, 1863. The battle was part of the American
Civil War and was won by the North. Hand-colored lithograph by Currier and Ives.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
- Abraham Lincoln
Slavery and the Civil War
• State’s Rights began the Civil War
– Slavery was a catalyst, but not the issue of the war
• In the North, slavery wasn’t profitable, but slavery built and maintained
the economy of the South
• Representation in Congress was key
– More slave or free states in congress shifted the balance of power
and could mean a vote to eliminate slavery
• Compromises that held off Civil War
– Missouri Compromise
• Involved the legality of slavery in the western states
– prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'
north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri
– 3/5 compromise
• 3/5 of slaves would be counted as population for the purposes of
representation in Congress
• Could shift the number of representatives in the House of
Representatives
• Conflict came to a boiling point when Lincoln came out
against slavery
The North – the Union
• Industrialization
– Meant more and better supplies including
weapons and uniforms
• Transportation
– Most railways were focused in the northern
regions where the factories were
– Meant easier transportation for supplies and
troops
• Immigration
– Population increases as influx of immigrants arrive
from Europe seeking a new life
The South – the Confederacy
• Agricultural society
– Depended on slave labor to run plantations
– Technology was coming, but much more slowly to
the South
– Not industrialized (very few factories)
• Excellent leadership and Southern Pride
– Robert E. Lee – resident of Virginia
• Vowed to fight on whichever side his home state fell on
• Brilliant military mind and kept the Confederacy afloat
much longer than it should have survived
– Pride – Southerners would not be told what to do
by anyone. It was a powerful motivator.
The Civil War Begins
• South Carolina seceded first and was followed
by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas
• The Confederate States of America was
established in February of 1861 and made up of
these seven states with the capital in
Montgomery.
• Many Northerners were okay with secession
but not Lincoln, and he vowed to fight to
preserve the Union.
Battle of Ft. Sumter
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First battle of the Civil War
Confederate troops fired upon Union troops
Charleston Bay, South Carolina
Many believed it would be the beginning and
the end of the Civil War.
• Many of Charleston’s citizens watched the
battle from rooftops and had picnics.
The Civil War
• 1st war where blacks fought
– Confederate and Union armies contained black units.
• Native Americans also fought in the Civil War
• Women were involved with the founding of the
American Red Cross to care for soldiers on both sides
of the battles
• over 10,000 military engagements took place during
the Civil War
• 1,030,000 casualties
• Including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by
disease.
• The war accounted for roughly as many American
deaths as all American deaths in other U.S. wars
combined.
The End of the Civil War & Reconstruction
• January 1863, Emancipation Proclamation
– Lincoln’s executive order freeing slaves within the
Confederate states
– Union and border states were freed later
• April 9, 1865
– Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant in the
village of Appomattox Court House.
• Reconstruction Amendments to Constitution
– 13th Amendment – abolished slavery
– 14th Amendment – Due Process Clause – made Bill of
Rights applicable to states laws
– 15th Amendment – granted voting rights regardless of
"race, color, or previous condition of servitude"
Conflicts Following Civil War
• Indian Tribes vs US Army
– More and more Americans were moving west into and
through Native American territories
– Chief Joseph, Geronimo, etc…
• Free Rangers vs Settlers
– Rangers had run herds across the plains to manage
food and water sources.
– Settlers didn’t want the rangers on their property
• Used barbed wire to hold stock out and in
• “fence cutter wars” ended in 1884 when cutting a barbed
wire fence was declared a felony
• Wage Earners vs Companies
– Labor Unions are born to deal with awful conditions in
factories
Slavery Inspired Literature
• There were free blacks, but most were slaves and
most slaves worked in the cotton fields of the
South (being sold down the river)
• Special music
– Spirituals combined the Bible with African music
(most slaves were forced to follow protestant faith)
– Sang as expression of faith, while working, or as
funeral dirges
– The Blues and many of our modern hymns have roots
in slave spirituals
• Frederick Douglass
– Became an abolitionist after his escape from slavery
– Wrote his autobiography
War Related Literature
• Lincoln’s oratory (speeches)
– Gettysburg Address; inaugural speeches, & letters
• Memoirs, journals, letters, diaries from
Confederate & Union troops – from highest to
lowest ranks & civilians
• Songs - “Taps,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,”
“Yellow Rose of Texas,” and of course, “Dixie”
• Some Poetry
– Whitman
Realism & the Frontier
• Civil War & Reconstruction caused writers to turn
away from Romanticism and idealism.
• They moved toward Realism and Naturalism
• Realism – “slice of life”
– Ordinary life as real people lived it
– Showed events and characters in a real and factual
way
– Came from experiences of war, frontier, and city life
– Scientific development contributed because of
objectivity
– Had to find meaning in the common place (limited by
reality, couldn’t look to imagination)
• Realists were observant
• Could deal more openly with bad guys
Naturalism
• Examined people and society objectively and
drew conclusions from observations
• Reality is a working of natural forces
• Destiny – controlled by heredity, environment,
physical drives, and economic circumstances
– humans had little or no control over destiny
• Looked at and examined the brutality of life
– Civil War, frontier life, etc…
Regionalism
• “local color movement”
• Used dialect (regional speech patterns) and
vivid descriptions of the landscape
• Very popular because people wanted to know
about other parts of the country and other
people
• Mark Twain & Ambrose Bierce
Spirituals
• Combination of Protestant faith and African
music
• Used while working, to celebrate, and to
grieve.
• Considered dangerous by slave holders
because they could carry hidden messages
• Most were about freedom, particularly Moses
and the Jewish exodus out of Egypt
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
• The singer/speaker’s goal is to “home”
– Home = both heaven and freedom
• Theme is both seeking freedom and celebrating
religious beliefs
“Go Down Moses”
• About Moses’ escape from the Pharaoh in Egypt
– Moses is fitting because he led his people to freedom
• Israel represents the slaves themselves
• Focus is the hope of freedom and the hope of
reaching heaven
My Bondage, My Freedom
• Autobiography – self-written story of one’s life.
– Douglass is writing about childhood experiences
through the eyes of adulthood
• Slave owners had to forget “human nature” and
be “trained” to own people
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Douglass and Mrs. Auld were both victims of slavery
Slavery goes against the nature of slave and owner
Slavery is the evil – not the people (it’s all they know)
Demonstrated by relationships with boys his own age
• At the time both women and slaves were subject
to the authority of white males
My Bondage, My Freedom
• Mrs. Auld stopped teaching Douglass because
her husband said that slavery and education
were incompatible (education wouldn’t allow
an individual to remain a slave)
• The more Douglass learned the more the
“discontent” Mr. Hugh predicted grew
“An Episode of War”
• Realism – focused on ordinary people faced with
harsh realities of everyday life.
– Established by specific examples
• Rubber blanket, squares of coffee, puff of smoke…
• Naturalism
– Ordinary man’s life shaped by events he cannot
control
– His ability to endure with strength and dignity
• Setting
– Civil War (use of horses & swords)
– Hospital was old schoolhouse
• Description prepares us for the loss of lieutenant's arm
“An Episode of War”
• This story is about how a lieutenant lost his
arm in an unexpected moment
• The loss of the arm separates him from his
unit – he becomes an outsider in the
machinery of war
– The actual amputation is left out of story to focus
attention on the changes in the lieutenant’s life
“Willie Has Gone to War”
• Realism
– Shows how ordinary people are affected by war
• Poem is about ow a young woman misses her
beloved
– The poet reveals powerful feeling the reader
would have experienced as well
• Glade
– She spends time there because that is where she
last saw Willie
“The Gettysburg Address”
• Speech to dedicate a cemetery on the site of the
Battle of Gettysburg
– Lincoln’s goal was to connect to listeners emotionally
– He also needed to maintain support for a bloody war
that wasn’t anywhere near over
• Lincoln states that the Civil War is testing to see
whether a nation like ours can survive for an
extended period of time
• Lincoln points out that no one can dedicate or
make this piece of land more sacred than it
already is because of the men who died there.
“The Gettysburg Address”
• Last task for those remaining involved in the
war is to ensure that the dead did not die in
vain
– This is Lincoln was of gaining continued support
for this bloody and violent conflict
– He ties the previous loss of life to the continued
need to preserve the Union
“Letter to His Son”
Robert E. Lee
• Lee sees the Union a being between states of
anarchy and civil war
– He recognizes that things are bad
• Lee acknowledges that the South has been
“aggrieved” by acts of the North and stands
ready to take whatever action is necessary
• However, he also sees himself as an American
and is willing to defend ANY state
• For Lee, there would be no greater disaster
than the dissolving of the Union
“Letter to His Son”
Robert E. Lee
• Lee wishes the Union to remain intact, but
intents to be patient and await the end of this
conflict
• In the meantime, he vows to return to Virginia
and side with his home state hoping to draw
his “sword on none.”
• We see a man who is torn and wishes for a
peaceful end above all else
“I Will Fight No More Forever”
• Chief Joseph is
– Tired of fighting
– His chiefs are killed
– His children are freezing
• “His children” are his people
– He feels responsible for them
– Asks to have time to look for his children
– Fears that they may be among the dead
• This is a surrender and Joseph makes it clear
that it being done for the survival of his
people
“An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge”
• 3rd Person – Limited
– Narrator outside action of story and inside head of
only one character
– Bierce slows time by giving detailed descriptions
of physical sensations (only possible in 3rd person
limited)
• Setting
– Most takes place in Farquhar’s mind
• Focus of story
– Human psychology
– What happens to human mind in moment of
death
“An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge”
• Flashbacks
– Tool that reveals previous events and information
necessary to rest of the story
– Bierce gives us a flashback of events leading up to
the main character’s death
– Disrupts chronological order by jumping back in
time