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Chapter 14
The Civil War
“It is enough to make the whole world start to see the awful
amount of death and destruction that now stalks abroad. Daily
for the past two months has the work progressed and I see no
signs of a remission till one or both the armies are destroyed… I
begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple of thousand
men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash—and it may be
well that we become so hardened.”
-General William T. Sherman, June 30, 1864
Summary of War
 Most costly of all American wars in terms of loss of human life
 Most destructive war ever fought in Western Hemisphere
 750,000 deaths
 4 Million freed from slavery
 “a new birth of freedom”
 Accelerated industrialization and modernization in the North
 Destroyed most of South
 “Second American Revolution”
War Begins
 Lincoln’s inaugural address:
 He would not interfere with slavery
 No state had the right to break up with the Union
 “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will
not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves
the aggressors.”
 Fort Sumter
 Charleston, SC harbor
 Cut off from vital supplies and reinforcements by Southern
control of the harbor
 Rather than giving up or defending, Lincoln announced he was
sending provisions of food
War Begins
 Fort Sumter
 Gives SC the choice of permitting the fort or opening fire
 April 12, 1861, South Carolina starts the war
 Capturing of Fort Sumter unites most Northerners behind a
patriotic fight to save the Union
 Use of Executive Power
 Called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the “insurrection” in the
Confederacy
 Authorized spending for a war
 Suspended Habeas Corpus
 Congress was not in session
Secession of the Upper South
 Before Ft. Sumter, only seven Deep South states had
seceded
 After Lincoln’s clear use of troops, 4 Upper South states
secede: Virginia, NC, Tennessee, Arkansas
Border States
 Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky do not join the
Confederacy
 U.S. federal forces threaten against secessionists groups
 Military/Political goal to keep border states in Union
 Would’ve increased Confederation population by > 50%
 Would’ve weakened strategic position for conducting the war
 Lincoln rejects initial calls for emancipation
Wartime Advantages (Military)
South
North
 Confederacy only had to fight  Union population of 22 million
defensive war to win, while
Union had to conquer an area
as large as W. Europe
 Confederates had shorter
distances for troop/supply
movements
 South had long, indented
coastline that was difficult to
blockade
 South had experienced
military leaders and high
troop morals
vs. CSA population of 5.5
million free whites (war of
attrition)
 Loyal U.S. Navy
 For command of rivers and
territorial waters
Wartime Advantages (Economic)
South
 Hoped that European
North
 Controlled banking and
demand for cotton would
bring recognition and financial
aid
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capital
85% of factories
70% of railroads
65% of farmland
Skills of Northern clerks and
bookkeepers
 Logistical support of large
military operations
Wartime Advantages (Political)
South
North
 (Distinct Goal) Struggling for
 (Distinct Goal) Fighting to
independence
 Hoped the people of the
Union would turn against
Lincoln and the Republicans
and quit the war because it
was too costly
preserve the Union
 Irony: In order to win the war,
the CSA needed a strong
central government with
strong public support
 CSA had neither
 Well-Established central
government
Confederate States of America
 Constitution
 Modeled after U.S. constitution
 Single, 6-year term for president
 Denied Confederate congress the power to levy a protective tariff,
appropriate funds for internal improvements
 Prohibited foreign slave trade
 President, Jefferson Davis
 Tried to increase executive powers during war but Southern governors
resisted attempts at centralization
 Held back troops and resources
 Georgia threatened to secede from the CSA
 Chronically short of money
 Tried loans, income taxes, impressment of private property
 Issued $1 billion in paper money
 By end of war, $1 CSA < $.02
First Years: 1861-1862
 Expectation: War would last < Few Weeks
 Initial enlistment of 90 days
 First Battle of Bull Run: July, 1861
 30,000 federal troops marched from D.C. to Bull Run Creek at
Manassas Junction, Virginia
 Union forces about to win, Stonewall Jackson counterattacks and
sends inexperienced Union troops back to Washington
 Battle ends the illusion of a short war
 Union Strategy: General-in-Chief Winfield Scott’s 3-part plan
 Anaconda Plan: U.S. Navy to blockade Southern ports, cutting of
essential supplies
 Take control of Mississippi River, dividing Confederacy in two
 Raise and train an army of 500,000 to conquer Richmond
First Years: 1861-1862
 After Bull Run, Union is becoming less successful each battle
 Peninsula Campaign: General George B. McClellan, new
commander of Union army in the East insists on training the
troops
 Lincoln becomes impatient and send him to Virginia
 March, 1862: McClellan’s army invades Virginia
 Union army is stopped by General Robert E. Lee’s forces
(commands the South’s eastern forces)
 McClellan forced to retreat after 5 months and replaced by
General John Pope
 Second Battle of Bull Run: Leek takes advantage of change in
Union generals to strike quickly at Pope’s army in N. Virginia
(Confederate win)
First Years: 1861-1862
 Antietam: Following 2nd B.R., Lee leads troops across
Potomac into Maryland
 Hope a major CSA victory in Union land would convince Britain
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to give official recognition and support the CSA
Lincoln had restored McClellan to command of the Union army
McClellan knew Lee’s plan because of a copy dropped by a
Confederate officer
Union army intercepted Confederates at Antietam Creek
Bloodiest single day of combat in the entire war
 22,000 soldiers killed or wounded
Lee retreats and Lincoln removes McClellan from position for not
following the weakened Lee
First Years: 1861-1862
 Fredericksburg: McClellan replaced with aggressive General
Ambrose Burnside
 December, 1862: Union army under Burnside attacks Lee at
Fredericksburg, Virginia
 12,000 dead or wounded Union vs. 5,000 Confederates
 Burnside’s reckless attack could be worse than McClellan’s
cautious strategy
 Union and CSA generals were slow to learn that improved
weaponry took the romance out of heroic charges against
entrenched positions
 By end of 1862, magnitude of war was clear, with no prospect
of military victory
First Years: 1861-1862
 Only 2 real successes for Union in 1862
1. Monitor vs. Merrimac: Union’s strategy for using naval power
 Merrimac (former Union ship): Confederate Ironclad attacked
and sunk wooden Union ships on March 8, 1862
 March 9, Union’s ironclad, the Monitor, engaged the Merrimac in
5-hour duel
 Battle ends in draw but the Monitor prevented the Confederate’s
new weapon from challenging U.S. naval blockade
First Years: 1861-1862
2. Grant in the West: Union’s campaign for control of Mississippi
River under part command of Ulysses S. Grant
 Grant struck south from Illinois in early 1862
 Used combination of gunboats and army maneuvers to capture Fort
Henry and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River
 14,000 Confederates taken as prisoner
 Opened up state of Mississippi to Union attack
 Grant’s drive down Mississippi River was complemented in
April 1862 by the capture of NoLa by Union navy under David
Farragut
Foreign Affairs
 Trent Affair
 Late 1861, Confederate diplomats (Mason and Slidell) traveling to
England on a British steamer
 Union warship stops British ship, removes diplomats and brings them
back to U.S. as P.O.W.
 Britain threatens war over the incident unless diplomats released
 Despite public criticism, Lincoln gives in
 Failure of Cotton Diplomacy
 “King Cotton” didn’t have power to dictate another nation’s foreign
policy
 Europe found ways of obtaining cotton from other sources (Egypt and
India)
 Other factors in Britain not recognizing CSA:
 Lee’s setback at Antietam (no decisive CSA victory)
 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1863): End to slavery appeals to
Britain’s working class
End of Slavery
 Lincoln was hesitant to take action against slavery
 Concerns:
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Keeping support of the border states
Constitutional protections of slavery
Racial prejudice of many Northerners
Fear that premature action could be overturned in the next election
 Confiscation Acts:
 May 1861, Union General Benjamin Butler refused to return
captured slaves to their Confederate owners, arguing they were
“contraband of war”
 July 1862, 2nd Confiscation Act: freed persons enslaved by
anyone engaged in rebellion against the U.S.
 Also empowered president to use freed slaves in Union army
Emancipation Proclamation
 Already freed enslaved persons in the states then at war with
the U.S.
 Justified as a “military necessity”
 Delayed announcement of the policy until he could win
support of conservative Northerners
 Encouraged border states to come up with plans for
emancipation, with compensation to the owners
 After Antietam, on September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a
warning that enslaved people in all states still in rebellion on
January 1, 1863 would be “then thenceforward, and forever
free.”
Emancipation Proclamation
 January 1, 1863: issued Emancipation Proclamation
“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, shall recognize and
maintain the freedom of said persons.”
 Consequences:
 Applied only to enslaved people residing in CSA outside Union control,
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it immediately freed only about 1% of slaves
Slavery in border sates was allowed to continue
Enlarged the purpose of the war
Union armies, for the first time, were fighting against slavery, not just
secession
Added weight to Confiscation acts, increasing # of slaves who sought
freedom by fleeing to Union lines
With each advance of Northern troops, abolition advanced as well
Suddenly, Union army had thousands of dedicated new recruits
13th Amendment
 U.S. Constitution stood in the way of full emancipation
 To free all enslaved people in border states, country needed
to ratify a constitutional amendment
 Lincoln played an active role in the political struggle to secure
enough votes in Congress to pass the 13th amend.
 By December 1865, amendment abolishing slavery was
ratified
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.”
Union Triumphs, 1863-1865
 Turning Point: Early July 1863- Two crushing Confederate
defeats
 Vicksburg: Union forces controlled NoLa and most of
Mississippi River
 Union almost completely controls Mississippi when Grant begins
siege of fortified city of Vicksburg, Mississippi
 Union artillery bombs Vicksburg for seven weeks before
Confederates surrender city and 29,000 soldiers on July 4
 Federal warships now controlled the full length of the Mississippi
and cut off Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas
Union Triumphs, 1863-1865
 Turning Point: Early July 1863- Two crushing Confederate
defeats
 Gettysburg: Lee takes offensive by leading army into enemy
territory (Maryland and Pennsylvania)
 Goal: Destroy Union army or capture a major Northern city and
the Union will call for peace
 July 1, 1863, Confederate army surprises Union units at
Gettysburg
 Bloodiest battle of the war (50,000+ casualties)
 Lee fails assaults on Union lines on Day 2, 3 and Pickett’s failed
charge
 Destroyed key part of the Confederate army
Union Triumphs, 1863-1865
 Grant in Command:
 Lincoln finally finds a general who could fight and win
 Early 1864, Lincoln brings Grant east to Virginia and is made
commander of all Union armies
 Grant settles on strategy of war by attrition
 Wear down the Confederate’s armies and systematically destroy
their vital lines of supply
 Suffers heavier casualties than Lee’s in battles of the
Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor
 By never letting up, Grant succeeds in reducing Lee’s army in each
battle and forcing it into a defensive line around Richmond
Union Triumphs, 1863-1865
 Sherman’s March (TOTAL WAR!)
 William Tecumseh Sherman leads a force of 100,000 men from
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Chattanooga, Tennessee on a campaign of deliberate
destruction that goes clear across the state of Georgia and into
S.C.
Troops destroyed everything in their path-- burning cotton fields,
barns and houses– everything the enemy might use to survive
Takes Atlanta in September 1864
 Helps Lincoln win reelection
Marches into Savannah in December and completes campaign
by February 1865
 Sets fire to Columbia (capital of SC and symbol of secession)
Effect: breaks the spirit of the Confederacy and destroys their will
to survive
Union Triumphs, 1863-1865
 Election of 1864
 Democrats’ nominee: General George McClellan
 Platform: called for peace
 Popular appeal among millions of war-weary voters
 Republicans renamed party the Unionists party as a way of
attracting votes of “War Democrats”
 Lincoln as Pres. Candidate and Senator Andrew Johnson (loyal War
Democrats from Tennessee) as running mate
 Lincoln-Johnson=212 E.C. votes
 McClellan=21E.C. votes
 Popular vote (McClellan took 45%)
End of the War
 Union blockade and Sherman’s march spread hunger
throughout South during winter of 1864-1865
 Surrender at Appomattox:
 Confederate government tried to negotiate for peace, but Lincoln
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would accept nothing short of restoration of the Union
Jefferson Davis demanded nothing less than independence
Lee retreated from Richmond with army less than 30,000
Forced to surrender at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865
Grant allows longtime enemy to return to their homes with their
horses
End of the War
 Assassination of Lincoln
 Month before Lee’s surrender, Lincoln delivered one of his
greatest speeches—second inaugural address
 Urged that the defeated South be treated benevolently, “with malice
toward none, with charity for all.”
 April 14, John Wilkes Booth, Confederate sympathizer, shot and
killed President Lincoln
 Co-conspirator attacked but wounded Sec. of State William Seward
 Aroused fury of Northerners at a time when Southerners most
needed sympathy
 Loss of Lincoln’s leadership not felt until problems of postwar
Reconstruction
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 Political Change
 Secession of Southern states created Republican majorities in
both houses of Congress
 Sharp differences in Republican party between radical faction
(immediate abolition) and moderate faction (Free-Soilers who
were concerned about economic opportunities for whites)
 Most Democrats supported the war but criticized Lincoln’s
conduct of it
 Peace Democrats and “Copperheads” opposed the war and
wanted a negotiated peace
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 Political Change
 Civil Liberties:
 Early, Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus in Maryland and
other states with pro-Confederate sentiment
 Meant that persons could be arrested without being informed of the
charges against them
 Estimated 13,000 were arrested on suspicion of aiding the enemy
 The Draft: First Conscription Act (March 1863)
 All men between 20 and 45 were liable for military service
 Could avoid service by finding a substitute to serve or paying an
exemption fee $300 (2015 equivalent of $5,500)
 Provoked Opposition among poor laborers
 Feared African-Americans, once free, would take their jobs when
they returned from war
 July 1863, riots erupted in NYC against the draft
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 Political Change
 Political dominance of the North:
 Military triumph of the Union brought a new definition of the nature of
the federal union
 Old arguments of nullification and secession ceased to be issues
 After war, supremacy of federal government over the states was
accepted as an established fact
 Abolition of slavery gave new meaning to the concept of American
democracy
 Gettysburg Address (Nov. 19, 1863): Lincoln rallied Americans to the
idea that their nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal”
 His words, and the abolition of slavery, advanced the cause of
democratic government in the U.S. and inspired champions of
democracy around the world
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 Economic Change
 Financing the War:
 Union borrowed $2.6 billion through the sale of government bonds
 Not enough, so Congress raised tariffs (Morill Tariff of 1861), added
excise taxes and instituted first income tax
 U.S. Treasury issued more than $430 million in paper currency
known as Greenbacks
 Could not be redeemed in gold, which contributed to inflation
 Prices in the North rose by 80% during the war
 To manage revenue moving in and out of the Treasury, Congress
created a national banking system in 1863
 First unified banking network since Andrew Jackson vetoed recharter of
the BUS in 1830s
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 Economic Change
 Modernizing Northern Society
 Negative economic effect on North: Workers’ wages did not keep
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pace with inflation
Positive effect: industrialization accelerated by the war
War placed a premium on mass production and complex
organization
 Sped up consolidation of North’s manufacturing businesses
War profiteers took advantage of government’s needs for military
supplies to sell shoddy goods at high prices—problem that
decreased after federal government took control of contract process
away from states
Fortunes made during the war produced a concentration of capital in
the hands of a new class of millionaires
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 Economic Change
 Republican politics played major role in stimulating economic
growth:
 Morrill Tariff Act, 1861: raised tariff rates to increase revenue and
protect American manufacturers. Passage initiated a Republican
program of high protective tariffs to help industrialists
 Homestead Act, 1862: promoted settlement of the Great Plains by
offering parcels of 160 acres of public land free to any person or
family that farmed that land for at least 5 years
 Morrill Land Grant Act, 1862: encouraged states to use the sale of
federal land grants to maintain agricultural and technical colleges.
 Pacific Railway Act, 1862: authorized building of transcontinental
railroad over a northern route to link the economies of California and
the western territories with the eastern states
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 Social Change
 Every part of American society was touched by the war, but
those most affected were women, whose labors became more
burdensome, and African American, who won emancipation.
 Women at Work: Men were absent from normal occupations in
fields and factories
 Military nurses
 When war ended, most urban women vacated their jobs in
government and industry, while rural women gladly accepted male
assistance on the farm.
 Two permanent effects of war on women:
1. Field of nursing was now open to women for first time
2. Enormous responsibilities undertaken by women during the war gave
impetus to the movement to obtain equal voting rights for women
Effects of War (Civilian Life)
 End of slavery
 Losses from war:
 750,000 lives
 $15 billion in war costs and property losses
 Transformed America into a complex modern industrial
society of capital, technology, national organizations, and
large corporations