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The Civil War
Chapters 20-21
Girding for War:
The North and
the South
Chapter 20
Introduction
• As Lincoln became
President of the dis-United
States on March 4, 1861,
seven states had already
departed and eight more
teetered on the edge.
South Carolina Assails
Fort Sumter
• Secession meant that the South was going
to seize U.S. arsenals, mints, and other public
property within their borders.
• When Lincoln took office, there were only 2
southern forts that flew the stars and stripes;
the most important being Fort Sumter in SC.
• The fort was running out of supplies, but any
attempt to restock the fort would be seen
by the South as an act of reinforcement.
South Carolina Assails
Fort Sumter
• Lincoln notified SC of his plan to
resupply, but the South saw that as an
attempt to reinforce.
• On April 12, 1861, the South
bombarded Fort Sumter for 34 hours
until the dazed garrison surrendered.
• The assault on Fort Sumter reenergized
the North, who, were indifferent to the
South’s secession in many cases.
South Carolina Assails
Fort Sumter
• 3 days later Lincoln issued a call to the states
for 75,000 militiamen and volunteers (so
many came out that they were turned
away).
• This action roused the Southerners as much
as the bombing had roused the Northerners.
• VA, AK, NC and TN, who had earlier voted
down secession, reluctantly joined their sister
states.
Brother’s Blood and
Border Blood
• The only slave states left were the crucial
Border States (MO, KY, MD, DE and later
WV).
• If the north had fired the first shot, these
states likely would have joined the South,
who likely could have won.
• At first, Lincoln declared publicly that the
war as not about slavery, which would have
sent the Border States into the arms of the
South.
Brother’s Blood and
Border Blood
• Lincoln had to make sure that he repeated that
the war was about saving the Union at all costs,
not slavery (although he was anti-slavery).
• Slavery also colored the character of the war in
the West.
• The Five Civilized Tribes sided with the
Confederacy because some of them (most
notably the Cherokees) owned slaves.
• The rival factions of the Cherokees and most of
the Plains Indians sided with the Union.
President Davis Versus
President Lincoln
• The constitution of the Confederacy
had one glaring weakness; it could not
logically deny future secession to its
states.
• Determined states’ rights supporters
fought him bitterly to the end.
• Richmond had trouble persuading
certain state troops to serve outside
their own borders.
President Davis Versus
President Lincoln
• The governor of GA, a hardcore
states’ righter, at times seemed
ready to secede from the
secession and fight both sides.
• The North, on the other hand, was
an established government,
financially stable, and fully
recognized at home and abroad.
Limitations on Wartime
Liberties
• Lincoln had to take away certain
liberties from the people and overstep
his bounds at the start of the war.
• Many people were wary that he would
not reconstitute these liberties once
the war was over.
• Because Congress was not in session at
the start of the war, Lincoln had to
take certain liberties on his own.
Limitations on Wartime
Liberties
• Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of the
South.
• He increased the size of the Army,
something that only Congress could do.
• He directed the secretary of the Treasury
to advance $2 million to 3 private citizens.
• He suspended the precious privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus (having to be taken
to court or before a judge if arrested)
The Economic Stresses of
War
• In early 1861, Congress passed the Morrill
Tariff Act, which superseded the low Tariff of
1857 and raised duties some 5 to 10 percent.
• A financial landmark of the war was the
National Banking System, authorized by
Congress in 1863.
• It was established to stimulate the sale of
war bonds and to establish a standard
bank-note currency.
The Economic Stresses of
War
• Spawned by the war, this new system
continued to function for fifty years, until
replaced by the Federal Reserve System in
1913.
• The Union blockade choked off the
Southern customs duties.
• The Confederacy was forces to print bluebacked paper money with no abandon,
which made inflation rampant.
The Furnace of
Civil War
Chapter 21
Introduction
• When President Lincoln asked for 75,000
militiamen, he envisioned them only serving for
90 days.
• With a swift flourish, he hoped to show the folly
of secession and return the rebellious states to
the Union.
• When the guns fell silent four years later,
hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides
lay dead, slavery was ended forever, and the
nation faced the challenge of reintegrating the
defeated South.
Battle Songs
• Dixie
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5mRk5M5qT8&
safety_mode=true&safe=active&persist_safety_mod
e=1
• Battle Hymn of the Republic
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5mmFPyDK_8
&safety_mode=true&safe=active&persist_safety_m
ode=1
The War at Sea
• It took a while for the North to extend
the blockade to totally clamp down
on the South.
• The growing scarcity of goods in the
South made it very profitable (700%
profit) to try and run the blockade, but
it was also dangerous.
• Most of the blockade running ships
came from Britain.
The Pivotal Point:
Antietam
• After Lee defeated McClellan’s assault on
Richmond, he moved north to Maryland.
• He hoped to strike a decisive blow that
would not only encourage foreign
intervention but also seduce the stillwavering border states to leave the Union.
• Events finally converged toward a critical
battle at Antietam Creek, MD.
The Pivotal Point:
Antietam
• The Union army found Lee’s battle plans left
behind by a careless Confederate officer.
• With this crucial piece of information ,
McClellan succeeded in halting Lee at
Antietam on Sept 17, 1862, in one of the
bitterest and bloodiest battles of the war.
• Lee retreated and McClelland did not
pursue him. McClellan was removed from
command for the 2nd and final time.
The Pivotal Point:
Antietam
• The South was never as close to victory
as it was before Antietam.
• The French and British were ready to
put aside differences to intervene on
the side of the Confederacy.
• Antietam was also the victory Lincoln
needed for launching his
Emancipation Proclamation.
The Pivotal Point:
Antietam
• Abolitionists were clamoring for Lincoln to make
a move, but Lincoln was waiting for the right
time militarily (it would seem that the North,
unable to defeat the South was calling upon
the slaves to murder their Southern masters).
• Lincoln issued the preliminary proclamation on
September 23, 1862.
• The document announced that on January 1,
1863, the president would issue a final
proclamation.
The Pivotal Point:
Antietam
• At this point, the Civil War became
more of a moral crusade as the fate of
slavery and the South it had sustained
was sealed.
• On January 1, 1863, Lincoln said, “the
character of the war will be changed.
It will be one of subjugation…The [old]
South is to be destroyed and replaced
by new propositions and ideas.”
A Proclamation Without
Emancipation
• The presidential pen did not formally strike
the shackles from a single slave.
• Where Lincoln could presumably free the
salves- that is, in the loyal Border States- he
refused to do so, lest he spur disunion.
• Where he could not- that is, in the
Confederate states- he tried to.
• In short, where he could he would not, and
where he would he could not.
A Proclamation Without
Emancipation
• Even without the actual freeing of
slaves under the Emancipation
Proclamation, slavery was doomed.
• This was legally achieved by action of
the individual states and by their
ratification of the Thirteenth
Amendment in 1865, eight months
after the Civil War ended.
Lee’s Last Lunge at
Gettysburg
• After Antietam, Lincoln replaced McClellan
as commander of the Army of the Potomac
with Gen. A.E. Burnside (sideburns were
named after his whiskers).
• Burnside made a huge mistake and lost
more than 10,000 men at Fredericksburg, VA
in Dec. of 1862.
• Burnside was relieved of his duty and
replaced by Joseph (Fighting Joe) Hooker.
Lee’s Last Lunge at
Gettysburg
• Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson defeated
Hooker at Chancellorsville, VA, but
victory for the South came at a cost.
• Jackson was mistakenly shot by one of his
own men at dusk and died a few days
later.
• Hooker was replaced by George G.
Meade as the revolving door of Northern
generals continued.
Lee’s Last Lunge at
Gettysburg
• Meade commanded the Union at
Gettysburg, PA as 92,000 troops viciously
battled 76,000 grey clad Confederate
troops.
• The battle was not decided until the end as
Gen. Pickett’s charge came up short and
Southern defeat was all but assured.
• Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg was the most
northern point that any Confederate force
would reach.
Lee’s Last Lunge at
Gettysburg
• Davis sent negotiators north just in time
to reach Washington as Lee’s victory
at Gettysburg.
• Unfortunately for the South, victory was
Lincoln’s and he did not allow the
peace mission past northern lines.
• The Southern cause was doomed, but
the men of Dixie fought on for nearly
two more years.
Lee’s Last Lunge at
Gettysburg
• Later in the Autumn of 1863, Lincoln
journeyed to Gettysburg to dedicate
the cemetery.
• There, Lincoln gave a 2 minute speech
that, at the time, was considered,
“ludicrous”, “dishwatery”, and “silly”.
• The Gettysburg Address attracted little
attention at the time, but the president
was speaking for the ages.
Sherman Scorches
Georgia
• Gen. Ulysses S. Grant won a series of battles in
TN that opened the way for an invasion of GA
(Grant was rewarded by being named general
in chief).
• The conquest of GA was left to Gen. William
Tecumseh Sherman, who reached Atlanta in
Sept. 1864 and then burned the city in Nov.
• His 60 mile path of destruction was aimed at
cutting off supply lines and weakening Southern
morale by waging war on their homes.
The Politics of War
• Unfortunately for Lincoln, the campaign for
the election of 1864 was happening during
the greatest crisis on American history.
• What is worse were the factions beginning
to form within Lincoln’s party.
• Particularly bothersome to Lincoln was the
Congressional Committee on the Conduct
of the War, which was formed in 1861 and
resented the expansion of presidential
power in wartime.
The Politics of War
• A blow was dealt to the Democrats seven
weeks after the beginning of the war when
Stephen Douglas died of typhoid fever.
• This, in effect, split the Democrats into 2
groups; the “War Democrats” and the
“Peace Democrats” whose extreme
members were known as Copperheads.
• The Copperheads were strong in parts of
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
The Election of 1864
• Fearing defeat at the hands of the Peace
Democrats and the Copperheads, the
Republicans joined with the War Democrats as
the Union party.
• Lincoln, although challenged early by Sec. of
the Treasury Salmon Chase, was nominated by
the Republican party.
• Lincoln’s running mate, Andrew Johnson, was
nominated for his ability to bring in other War
Dems. as well as border state votes (former
tailor).
The Election of 1864
• The Democrats, both Peace and
Copperheads, nominated the
deposed Northern general McClellan.
• Lincoln’s re-election was seriously in
doubt as election day neared, but
then a string of Northern victories
sealed his re-election.
• Lincoln defeated McClellan 212
electoral votes to 12.
Grant Outlasts Lee
• Grant battled Lee in the Wilderness Campaign
in May and June of 1864 (“Bloody Angle” and
“Hell’s Half Acre”).
• Grant lost 50,000 men (about as many as Lee
commanded) and Lee lost as many in
proportion.
• On June 3rd, 1864, Grant took a calculated risk
at Cold Harbor as Union men charged to their
certain death with their names and addresses
pinned to their backs (7,000 were killed or
wounded in a few minutes).
Grant Outlasts Lee
• The end of the war came with
dramatic suddenness.
• Grant marched to Richmond and
cornered Lee at Appomattox
Courthouse in VA. in April 1865.
• On Palm Sunday, Grant met with Lee
and granted generous terms of
surrender
Lincoln’s Martyrdom
• Only 5 days after Lee’s surrender, on April
14th, 1865 (good Friday) Lincoln was shot by
fanatical pro-Southern actor, John Wilkes
Booth.
• A large number of his countrymen had not
suspected his greatness, and many others
had even doubted his ability.
• His dramatic death helped to erase the
memory of his shortcomings and caused his
nobler qualities to stand out in clearer relief.
The Aftermath of the
Nightmare
• Over 600,000 men died in action or of
disease, and in all over a million were
killed or seriously wounded.
• The modern equivalent would be a
loss of some 6 million American lives.
• What is worse is that the country lost
the cream of its young manhood and
leadership, while tens of thousands of
babies went unborn.
The Aftermath of the
Nightmare
• Direct monetary costs of the conflict
totaled about $15 billion.
• The extreme states’ righters were
crushed and the national government
emerged unbroken.
• The English Reform Bill of 1867, passed
2 years after then Civil War ended,
making Britain a true political
democracy.
The Aftermath of the
Nightmare
• Grave dangers were averted by a Union
victory, but America still had a long way to
go to make the promises of freedom a
reality for all it citizens, black and white.
• Emancipation laid the groundwork, and a
united and democratic United States was
free to fulfill its destiny as the dominant
republic of the hemisphere- and eventually
of the world.