Download his 201 class 14

Two Societies at War, 18611865
Class 14
Choosing Sides
• Civil War called the “War between the States” by
southerners and the “War of Rebellion by
Northerners
• On December 20, 1860 the South Carolina
convention voted unanimously to secede from
the union “fire-eaters” elsewhere quickly
followed
• FEB 1861 secessionists met in Montgomery, AL
and proclaimed a new nation—The Confederate
States of America—in addition they made
Jefferson Davis its president
Choosing Sides
• Secessionist fever was less intense in the
slave states of the Upper South (ex. VA)
and their leaders proposed federal
guarantees for slavery in the states where
it existed
• In Dec. 1860 President Buchanan
declared secession illegal but determined
the federal government had the authority
to restore the union by force
Choosing Sides
• Congress responded with a compromise—
the Crittenden Plan—which called for a
constitutional amendment that would
permanently protect slavery in from federal
interference in any state where it already
existed and for the westward extension of
the Missouri Compromise line to the CA
border (Slavery would be barred north of
the line and protected in the future south
of the line)
Choosing Sides
• Lincoln upheld the first part, but was
unwilling to let slavery spread wet to the
CA line
Choosing Sides
• Lincoln declared secession illegal and that
acts against the union constituted
insurrection: he would enforce federal laws
as continue to possess federal property in
seceded states
• Jefferson Davis forced the surrender of
Fort Sumter April 14, 1861: Lincoln called
state militiamen to put down the
insurrection
Choosing Sides
• VA, AK, TN, NC joined the confederacy
• MD, KY, DE and Missouri stayed with the
union (but are considered somewhat
neutral border states)
Setting War Aims
• J. Davis’s aim was the defense of western
territories. He needed a stalemate that
would force a negotiated peace
• Lincoln needed an aggressive military
strategy that required unconditional
surrender of the south
Anaconda plan-Winfield Scott
North Struggles Early
• On July 12 General McDowell’s troops
were routed by Confederate General PGT
Beauregard's troops at Manassas (Bull
Run)
• Lincoln replaced McDowell with McClellan
and enlisted 1 million additional men
• McClellan created the Army of the
Potomac
North Struggles Early
• In 1862, McClellan launched a thrust towards
Richmond but he moved too slowly and allowed
the confederates to mount a counterattack
• Washington was threatened when a confederate
army under “Stonewall Jackson” marched north
up the Shenandoah Valley: Jackson won a
series of smaller engagements tying up union
forces
North Struggles Early
• General Lee launched an attack on
outside Richmond and suffered heavy
casualties, but again McClellan failed to
take advantage
• Jackson & Lee routed the Union army at
the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
in Aug 1862
North Struggles Early
• The battle of Antietam Creek on Sep 17,
1862 was the bloodiest day in U.S. military
history, Jackson’s troops arrived just in
time to save Lee’s troop from total defeat
North Struggles Early
• After McClellan’s slow movement following
Antietam, Lincoln replaced him with
Ambrose Burnside and later with Joe
Hooker
• The Union dominated the Ohio River
Valley and in 1862, General U.S. Grant
took Fort Henry on the Tennessee River
and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland
River
Forts Henry and Donelson
Return to Fort Donelson Photo Album
Return to Map Index
Northern struggles
• In April, a Confederate Army caught Grant
near surprise at Shiloh; Grant forced a
Confederate withdrawal but suffered a
great number of casualties
• Union forces commanded by David
Farragut captured New Orleans, the
south’s financial center and largest city,
and giving it a naval base for future
operations
Mobilizing Armies
• After the defeat at Shiloh in 1862, the
Confederate Army imposed the first legally
binding draft in American History
• Two loopholes-exempted 1 man for every
20 slaves on a plantation & allowed
drafted men to hire substitutes
• Some southerners refused to serve and
the confederate government lacked the
power to compel them
Mobilizing Armies
• To prevent sabotage and concerted
resistance to the war effort Lincoln
suspended Habeus Corpus & imprisoned
about 15,000 Confederate sympathizers
without trial. He also extended martial law
to civilians who resisted the draft or
discouraged enlistment
• 1863-draft riots in NYC over conscription
Mobilizing Armies
• The Union Army Medical Bureau and the
U.S. Sanitary commission provided
medical supplies for the North to soldiers
and tried to prevent deaths from disease,
which killed more men than fighting
• The Confederate health system was
poorly organized and soldiers died from
diseases at a higher rate
Mobilizing Armies
• Women took a leading role in the Sanitary
Commission and other wartime agencies:
Dorothea Dix was the first woman to receive a
major federal appointment
• Women staffed growing federal agencies and
served as nurses, and filled positions
traditionally held by men
• A number of women took on military duties as
(spies, scouts, and disguised as men soldiers)
Mobilizing Resources
• The Union entered the war with
advantages; its economy, its arms
factories
• Confederates had substantial industrial
capacity and by 1863 were able to provide
every soldier with a modern rifle-musket
Tredegar Iron Works-Richmond
resources
• Confederates relied on cotton to provide
revenue to purchase clothes, boots
blankets and weapons from abroad
• The British never recognized the
Confederacy as a government, but did
acknowledge them as a belligerent power
with the right to borrow money and
purchase weapons
resources
• To sustain their allegiance to Northerners,
the Republicans raised tariffs, created a
national banking system, devised plan of
internal improvements (railroads) and
developed the Homestead Act of 1862
• The Confederates (less coherent) built &
operated shipyards, armories, foundries
and textile mills
resources
• The Union created a modern nation-state that
raised revenue for the war by imposing broad
based taxes, borrowing from the middle classes
and creating a national monetary system
• The confederates lacked central government. It
financed about 60 % of its expenses with
unbacked paper money, which created inflation,
property rights were violated in order to sustain
the war
1863
• July 1862 Second Confiscation Act-all
slaves captured by the Union Army are
declared “forever free”
• Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation Jan
1, 1863: Union troops become agents of
liberation
1863: The Turning Point
• *Emancipation
• Lincoln and other Republicans redfined the war
aim as a war to save the union and against
slavery
• 1861- First Confiscation Act-authorized seizure
of all property—including slaves—used to
support the rebellion
• April 1862-D.C.slavery ended in D.C.and Wilmot
Proviso enacted
•
1863-Vicksburg and Gettysburg
• Vicksbur, Miss surrendered to the Union
Army on July 4, 1863 followed by Port
Hudson 5 days later, giving the Union
control of the Miss. R.
• Grant had cut off LA,TX & AK from the rest
of the Confederacy
• The battle at Gettysburg, PA was a great
union victory and the most lethal battle of
the civil war
1863
• After Union victories at Gettysvurg and
Vicksburg, Republicans reaped political
gains, while Confederate elections went
against those who supported Davis
• The losses ended Confederate prospects
of foreign recognition
• Further British manufacturers were no
longer dependnent on the South for cotton
Union Victorious, 1864-1865
• After initially refusing, and facing dwindling
conscription among whites Lincoln accepted
blacks as soldiers and enlisted them (Most
famous 54TH Massachusetts seen in Glory)
• Lincoln put Grant in charge of the war effort and
told him to advance on all major confederate
forces simultaneously (seeking to win the war
before the Election of 1864)
• Accepting large losses of life Grant narrowly lost
to Lee at Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court
House. At Cold Harbor Grant eroded Lee’s
forces but suffered enormous casualties
Grant
Union Victorious, 1864-1865
• Stalemated war in Petersburg threatened
Lincoln with political defeat
• Total War took to civilians as well. U.S.
Gen Phil Sheridan’s burned thousands of
farm acres in the Shenandoah Valley that
grew crops for Confederate troops
Election of 1864 & Sherman
• 1864 Republican Party platform calls for
the abolition of slavery, temporarily
renames itself the Union Party and as a
compromise gesture nominated Andrew
Johnson, a pro-union man from TN as VP
• The Democrats nominated Gen McClellan
who promised an immediate end to the
war
Sherman
• Sep 1864, General William T. Sherman
forces the surrender of Atlanta—this helps
lead Lincoln to victory in Nov
• Emancipation accelerates with these
states freeing their slaves: MD, Missouri,
TN, AK & LA
• Jan 1865 13th Amendment-abolishing
slavery passes
Sherman
• He declines to follow the Confederates in
TN and decides to “cut a swath through
the sea” that would devastate GA and
score a psychological victory
• After burning Atlanta, Sherman destroyed
railroads, property and supplies in his
march to the sea—many confederates
deserted & fled home to protect their
families. He repeated this in SC in 1865
Confederacy failing
• Due to class resentment from poor whites, the
Confederacy had such a manpower shortage
that they were going to arm the slaves in
exchange for their freedom; the war ended
before this could transpire
• The symbolic end of the war came April 9, 1865
at Appomattox Courthouse when Lee
surrendered to Grant
• Deaths-Confederates 260,000, Union 360,00
hundreds of thousands maimed
Lincoln
• Before he had time to savor the long
awaited victory. He was shot at Ford’s
Theater and died the next morning