Download Causes of the Civil War - Appleton Area School District

Causes of the Civil War
1850-1861
Compromise of 1850
 Stalls trouble
 Components:
 California admitted free
 Popular sovereignty in New Mexico
 Tougher fugitive slave law
 Abolition of slave trade in DC
Vigilance Committees
 Northern cities swear to protect freed and
fugitive slaves.
 Anthony Burns example
 Violence common.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Published in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
 Told the story of Uncle Tom, a kind slave who
is physically and emotionally terrorized by
sadistic overseer Simon Legree.
 His death and the story shock Northern
readers.
Transcontinental Railroad
 Franklin Pierces initiative…
 Gadsen Purchase designed to add remaining
continental territory as to build a southern
route from coast to coast.
Gadsden Purchase
Quiz: 10.2
 Discuss the causes of violence in Kansas.
Discuss the violence that occurred in Kansas
in 1854.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
 To support a railroad, the remaining territories
need to be “organized into statehood” for the
purpose of having the railroad.
 Native Americans need to be relocated
 Stephen A. Douglas emerges to
prominence…
 Principal of the act: If South is to accept the
Northern railroad route, they must get
something…what do they get? Popular
Sovereignty in Kansas/Nebraska
Slavery in Kansas/Nebraska?
 Douglas thought the idea absurd, it was
geographically impossible for slavery to exist
there? So his thought, we need a railroad, so
who cares if they want to have slaves in a
northern climate…it will die out?
 Result: wrong. This became a fury!
The race is on…
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Populate Kansas as quickly as possible with
free soilers and pro slavery forces.
Congressional quotes!
“There are 1,1000 coming over from Platte,
Co. to vote and if that ain’t enough we can
send 5,000-enough to kill every #$%#
abolitionist in the territory.”
Quotes:
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“Come on Gentleman of the slave states,
since there is no escaping your challenge,, I
accept it on behalf of freedom. We will
engage in competition for the virgin soil of
Kansas, and God give victory of the side
which is stronger in numbers as it is in
right”.
Impacts of Kansas/Nebraska Act
 The reopening of the slavery question in the territories with
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almost immediate tragic results in “Bleeding Kansas”
The president's hope for reelection dashed
The complete realignment of the major political parties
The Democrats lost influence in the North and were to become
the regional proslavery party of the South
The Whig Party, which had opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
died in the South and was weakened in the North
A new Republican Party emerged as an immediate political
force, drawing in anti-Nebraska Whigs and Democrats.
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas Defined
 The Raid on Lawrence, Kansas. In May 1856, a
band of Border Ruffians crossed the border from
Missouri and attacked the free-soil community of
Lawrence, looting and burning a number of
buildings. Only one person was killed (one of the
Ruffians), but the door to violence had been
breached.
 The Pottawatomie Creek Massacre. A few days
later, in retaliation for the Lawrence raid,
abolitionist forces under the zealot John Brown
attacked a small proslavery settlement on
Pottawatomie Creek. On Brown’s orders, five men
were executed with a scythe.
John Brown
Election of James Buchanon
 Northern “doughface”. Northern (Penn) man
able to move in Southern political circles…
The most shocking event?
 Charles Sumner is beaten to within an inch of
his life for slandering a relative of Preston
Brooks and his pro slavery views.
 Problem…the beating occurred in the US
Senate!
Sumner-Brooks
Dred Scott
 Scott was transported
from slave Missouri, to
Wisconsin, sued for his
freedom as he entered
into free territory he
must be free.
Impact of Dred Scott
 North outraged
 Slavery rendered possible everywhere, Mo.
Compromise and Great compromise
abolished.
 Slaves now have constitutional protection
thanks to a vile 7-2 decision led by
Southerner Roger B. Taney
 Dred Scott was labeled “property”.
LeCompton Constitution
 A proslavery constitution that…was arrived at
illegally.
 When passed by the pro-slavery forces
illegally it was backed by President
Buchannan! Outrage.
 Even some southern senators insisted on a
more democratic process.
 Result: the constitution was defeated by a 6-1
margin! Buchannan shamed and humiliated.
Excerpts
 “The legislature shall have no power to pass
laws for the emancipation of slaves without
the consent of the owners
 Free negroes shall not be permitted to live in
this State under any circumstances.”
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
 Senate seat in Illinois, young representative
and lawyer Abraham Lincoln v. Stephen A.
Douglas.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
John Brown and Harpers Ferry
Election of 1860
Election of 1860
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“I will say then that, I
am not nor have ever
been, in favor of
bringing about in any
way the social and
political equality of the
black and white race”.
Secession
 South Carolina – Dec.
20, 1860
 Alabama, Mississippi,
Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Texas – Feb.
1, 1861
 “Confederate States of
America”
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President Jefferson
Davis
Secession
Order of secession
 South Carolina (December 21, 1860),
 Mississippi (January 9, 1861),
 Florida (January 10, 1861),
 Alabama (January 11, 1861),
 Georgia (January 19, 1861),
 Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and
 Texas (February 1, 1861).
The Confederacy
Border States?
 Lost
 Preserved
 Tennessee
 Maryland
 Virginia
 Delaware
 North Carolina
 Kentucky
 Arkansas
 Missouri
Challenges
 Missouri-Border Ruffians
 Maryland-suspension of Habeas Corpus
 Delaware-only 2% slave
 Kentucky-”losing Kentucky is like losing the
whole game” Abraham Lincoln.
Antebellum Review: 1848-1860
 What are the primary causes of the Civil
War?
 What were the key events during the
Antebellum that fostered the coming of war?
 What could have been done during the
Antebellum to stop the war?
 Some have argued that the civil war had
been coming since 1776…would you agree?
Theatres of War
1861-1865
Tale of the Tape
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Northern Advantages
Industry
Executive Leadership
Naval superiority
Ability to supply
armaments.
Number of fighting men
European relations
Stability of political
system
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Southern Advantages
Caliber of fighting men
Military leadership
Defensive war
“King Cotton Diplomacy”
Don’t have to win the
war?
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
 Lincoln made two promises at his
innauguration that are vital…
 He would be “friends of the South” and not
invade or pursue unprovoked military action.
 He had a duty to protect Federal property.
Bull Run (Manassas)
 Federals named things after geographic
features, rivers, etc…Confederates after civic
sites like railroads or cities (Manassas
Junction Railroad)
All myths about the war dispelled
 This is not the Mexican American War
 Lincoln’s initial call for 75,000 men seems
feeble. Issues a new call for 500,000 men. The
war will be unlike any that we have seen.
 It appears clear as Irving McDowell is routed by
Pierre Gustave Toutant (PGT) Beauregard that
the confederates will have a distinct advantage
in military leadership.
Manassas
 Casualties were light for a civil war battle,
2000 confederates, 1600 union.
 Southerners lauded it as “one of the decisive
battles of the world”.
 McDowell replaced with young bravado
George McClellan who despised Lincoln and
will contest his leadership in the election of
1864.
May 1862: Union Offensive
 Siege on Richmond
 Peninsula Campaign May, 1862. McClellan
moves, hammered by Johnston and then
Lee.
 Lee/McClellan contrast.
 Battle of Seven Days: 30,000 lost. McClellan
replaced with John Pope.
Antietam
Bloodiest Day in US History
 McClellan’s big break.
 23,000 dead (several fields of battle)
 McClellan’s failure proves costly.
 Emergence of Ambrose Burnside.
Fredericksburg
 One of the worst union defeats. An attack on
a Confederate stronghold. Several day
totals: 13,000 Union, 5,000 Confederate.
Western Theatre
 Issues: control of Border States
 Mississippi River and its control would sever
the confederacy.
 Battle of Pea Ridge
Pea Ridge
 Sees the inclusion of Native Americans on the
side of the Confederacy. This key Union
victory allowed them to remain in control of
Missouri.
West’s Mineral Wealth
 Both sides recognized the importance of the
Southwest and the mineral wealth that laid
within.
 Confederate failures meant no empire west of
Texas.
 Union led by John Chivington.
US Grant emerges
 Failure from Galena, Illinois.
 He had the aggressiveness that Lincoln
craved, he matched Lee in that regard.
 Victories at Fort Donnellson and on the
Tennessee River drove the confederates out
of Kentucky.
 His perseverance at Shiloh secured a
Northern victory and facilitated a slow
Southern defeat in the West.
Union Blockade
 Severing Southern commerce was key for the Union.
 Overestimated the importance of King Cotton.
 “Shut the confederacy out from the world, deprived it of
supplies weakened its military and naval strength”.
 Egyptian cotton and a bumper crop of 1860 in the South
ruined their visions of European intervention.
 Union victories and their contempt for slavery dashed
any hope of intervention on behalf of the Confederacy.
1863-1865
 5/1863: Chancellorsville
 6/1864: Cold Harbor
 7/1863: Gettysburg
 9/1864: Fall of Atlanta
 7/4/1863: Vicksburg
 12/1864: Fall of
 9/1863: Chickamauga
Savannah
 4/2 1864: Fall of
Richmond
 4/9: Appomattox
Surrender
 5/1864: Battle of the
Wilderness
 5/1864: Spotsylvania
Court House
US Grant
 Grant’s simplistic ideals.
Sophisticated
reorganization and
reintegration of
technology.
Chancellorsville
 Despite doubling
Confederate forces in
Chancellorsville
Virginia, the recently
appointed Joseph
Hooker is outwitted by
Lee’s genius. A
devastating northern
defeat, a huge victory
for Lee.
The Twin Disasters
 Vicksburg and Gettysburg were the turning
points of the Civil War. Southern forces
endured cataclysmic defeats in both the
North and the South, the tide had turned.
 They occurred one day from each other and
signaled the end of the war.
Vicksburg
 Impregnable stronghold that was sieged with a
brilliant move by Grant. The civil war’s most
brutal reminder of Grant’s total war philosophy.
Vicksburg conclusions
 Lee refused the call of the Eastern armies to
save western Vicksburg. He felt an invasion
of the North to be more important and that
eventually the weather would hamper Grant’s
efforts.
 Grant and the Union controlled the
Mississippi, the confederacy had been cut in
two.
Gettysburg
Lee’s miscalculation
 Chancellorsville gets to his head. Invades
North.
 Meade intercepts the force at Gettysburg, where
Northern forces occupied the high ground atop
the field at Little Round Top.
Cemetery Ridge
 Lee ordered George Pickett and his men to
charge the union forces, fortified atop big and
little round tops. The result 28,000
casualties.
 The hopeless maneuver cost Lee 1/3 of his
battle hardened force.
 Last offensive in the North for Lee.
Chickamauga and Chattanooga
Grant’s reputation grows
 Rescues victory from the jaws of defeat at
Chattanooga and deals a devastating blow to
the confederacy as the victory paved the way
for Georgia and Sherman’s march to the sea.
Grant v. Lee
 Total War v. Strategic War
 Astonishing casualty totals at:
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Wilderness
Spotsylvania Court House
Cold Harbor
The Overland Campaign
Wilderness
 Lee negated Grant’s numbers in the trees.
18000 casualties. Usually considered a draw,
set the stage for other bloodshed in Spotsylvania
County Virginia.
Spotsylvania Court House
 Grant moving to Richmond, Lee moves to
stop him. 120,000-60,000. Lee inflicts
staggering death tolls, but Grant’s total war is
taking its toll on the smaller armies.
Cold Harbor
Overland Campain
 Grant’s Union Army of the Potomac’s quest to get
to Richmond.
 Staggering Union defeat that left even Grant
bewildered at a 3-1 death toll ratio.
 He indicated:
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"I have always regretted that the last assault at
Cold Harbor was ever made. I might say the same
thing of the assault of the 22d of May, 1863, at
Vicksburg. At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever
was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we
sustained."
Sherman’s March to the Sea
 Grant’s apocalyptic march to Richmond
distracted Confederate forces and after union
Victories at Chattanooga and Vicksburg,
Sherman had a clear path to the sea..
 Battle of Kennesaw Mountain paved the way.
 Goal—”make Georgia howl”.
Kennesaw Mountain
 Sherman embraces Lee’s concept of Total
War.
The March to the Sea
 Scorched Earth, Theft, Destruction, ruined
Railroad transportation.
The Election of 1864
 Republican and Democrats divided. Issues
ranging from war handling, to emancipation,
to finances, to character.
Appomattox Court House
Differing opinions
 April 7th, 1865
 HEADQUARTERS, ARMIES
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT,
Commanding Armies of the U. S.
GENERAL: I have received your note of
this date. Though not entertaining the
opinion you express of the
hopelessness of further resistance on
the part of the Army of Northern
Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to
avoid useless effusion of blood, and
therefore, before considering your
proposition, ask the terms you will offer
on condition of its surrender.
R.E. LEE,
OF THE U. S.
5 P. m., April 7th, 1865
GENERAL R. E. LEE,
Commanding C. S. A.:
 The results of the last week
must convince you of the
hopelessness of further
resistance on the part of the
Army of Northern Virginia in
this struggle. I feel that it is so,
and regard it as my duty to
shift from myself the
responsibility of any further
effusion of blood by asking of
you the surrender of that
portion of the Confederate
States army known as the
Army of Northern Virginia.
Generous Terms
 Lee was surprised to learn that Grant allowed
the men to return home immediately and
plant a crop, using their horses to do so.
Toll