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Chapter 15
Secession and Civil War, 1860-1862
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The Election of 1860
• Charleston Democratic Convention
– 2/3rds rule and southern opposition to Stephen A.
Douglas keep Democrats from selecting nominee
• Secessionist leaders: William L. Yancey and
Edmund Ruffin
• Democrats split at Baltimore Convention
– Southern Rights Democratic Party nominates John C.
Breckinridge
– Regular Democrats go with Douglas
• Constitutional Union Party
– John Bell
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The Republicans Nominate
Lincoln
• Republicans needed 2
out of Pennsylvania,
Illinois, and Indiana
• William H. Seward
• Republican platform
• Exclusion of slavery
from territories
• Higher tariffs
– “Higher law” speech
• Homestead Act
(1850)
– “Irrepressible Conflict” • Federal aid for internal
improvements
(1858)
• Abraham Lincoln
Southern Fears
• “Black Republicanism”
• Implications for the South if Lincoln wins
• Results
– Lincoln received less than 40% of popular vote
– Won electoral college by substantial margin
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The Lower South Secedes
• Lincoln’s win broke open tensions that had built
up over years
• Secession theory: states retained sovereignty,
federal government was their agent
• 7 Southern States seceded 1860-1861
– South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana, Texas
– Montgomery, Alabama: creation of Confederate States
of America
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Northerners Affirm the Union
• Northerners considered secession
unconstitutional and treasonable
• Lincoln: “no State can lawfully get out of
the Union” and could “only do so against
law, and by revolution.”
• Southerners would invoke the right of
revolution to justify secession
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Compromise Proposals
• John J. Crittenden
– Crittenden Compromise
– Lincoln opposed
• “peace convention” – hope for the 8 remaining
slave states to reject secession
• None of the secessionist states would consider a
compromise
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Establishment of the Confederacy
• Confederate States of America
– Constitution guaranteed slavery and prohibited
tariffs and central government funding of
internal improvements
– Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens
• Upper South had strong heritage of
Unionism, but also sought to preserve
slavery
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The Fort Sumter Issue
• Fort Sumter crisis
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–
–
–
Charleston, South Carolina
Robert Anderson
James Buchanan
P. G. T. Beauregard
• Lincoln’s dilemma
– Forceful defense or reinforcement might cause more
secession
– Withdrawal will be moral victory for Confederates
– Garrison needs to be resupplied soon
• Lincoln chooses resupply, Beauregard ordered to
attack
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Choosing Sides
• Ft. Sumter attack triggered war fever in the
North
• Free states filled their militia quotas
immediately
• 8 remaining slave states in the Union rejected
Lincoln’s call to arms and seceded:
• Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina
 Robert E. Lee of Virginia
 South enthusiastic about war
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The Border States
• Delaware firmly union
• Northern occupation of Maryland
• Missouri
– Nathaniel Lyon and Wilson’s Creek (1861)
– “bushwhackers” vs. “jayhawkers”
• Unionist win elections in Kentucky and
Maryland
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The Creation of West Virginia
• Fifth Union border state
• Delegates from western part of Virginia
had voted against secession
– Wanted to break away from state of Virginia
• West Virginia became a new state and
entered the Union, 1863
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Indian Territory and the
Southwest
• Five “civilized” tribes mostly sided with
Confederates
– Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaws, and
Choctaws
• Confederate attempts to take the Southwest
– Battle of Valverde (1862)
– Battle of Glorieta Pass (1862)
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The Balance Sheet of War
• Enlistment of Black soldiers
– Union allowed it
– Confederacy did not, until the end of the war
• Advantages:
– North much greater population
– Northern economic superiority
– Southern military prowess
• Neither side anticipated length or intensity of the
Civil War
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Strategy and Morale
• Union faced vast geographic territory of the
South to invade and conquer
• Confederacy required withstanding and
outlasting Northern efforts
• Confederacy had superior morale
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Mobilizing for War
• “citizen soldiers”
• Four-fifths of soldiers on both sides were
volunteers, despite both sides passing conscription
acts
• Not professionally trained soldiers
– Egalitarian attitudes
– Lacking in discipline
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Weapons and Tactics
• Rifles
• “minié ball”
– Rapid load and fire
– Greater accuracy
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Logistics
• Civil War considered 1st modern logistical war
– Railroads, steam-powered ships, telegraph
– Vulnerable communications and supply lines
– Inland: dependence on animal-powered transport
• Horses, mules
• Confederacy improvised well, but had too little to
work with
• As war progressed, northern economy grew
stronger, southern economy grew weaker
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Financing the War
• Confederacy
– Treasury notes and inflation
• Union
– Most funds raised by bonds
– Legal Tender Act (1862) and “greenbacks”
• National Banking Act of 1863
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Navies, the Blockade, and
Foreign Relations
• Confederacy needed imports of foreign
materials (from Britain, especially)
• Lincoln attempted to cut off imports to
South and their cotton exports with naval
blockades
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King Cotton Diplomacy
• South was convinced of cotton’s necessity to
Britain
– Voluntary embargo of cotton on South’s behalf
– Policy contradicted claim that union blockade was
illegal
• “blockade runners”
• Confederate Foreign Policy
– France
– Britain
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The Trent Affair
• Confederate emissaries
– James Mason and John Slidell
• Captain Charles Wilkes
• Britain protests, and wins
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The Confederate Navy
• Confederate ships destroyed or captured
257 Union vessels
– Florida
– Alabama
• Union navy captured or destroyed 1,500
Southern blockade runners
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The Monitor and the Virginia
• C.S.S. Virginia (Merrimac)
– Hampton Roads
• U.S.S. Monitor
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Campaigns and Battles,
1861-1862
• Winfield Scott
– “the Anaconda Plan”
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The Battle of Bull Run
• Bull Run (Manassas)
• Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
• Effects
– Exhilarates Confederates
– Shocks northerners
• George B. McClellan: too cautious
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Naval Operations
• Carolina coast
• David G. Farragut
– New Orleans (1862)
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Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
• Union combined efforts of army and river gunboat
fleets
– Tennessee and Cumberland rivers
– Highways of invasion into Southern heartland
• Ulysses S. Grant
– Union victories at Ft. Henry and Ft. Donelson
– Union gunboats can attack length of Tennessee and
Cumberland rivers
• Confederates prepare to attack
– Commander Albert Sidney Johnston
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The Battle of Shiloh
• Albert Sidney Johnston killed, Beauregard
takes over southern forces
• Buell reinforces Grant
• Union wins, moves into Mississippi toward
Vicksburg
• Pea Ridge, Arkansas (1862)
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The Virginia Theater
• Shenandoah Valley Campaign (1862)
– “Jackson’s foot cavalry”
• Seven Pines
– Joseph E. Johnston
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The Seven Days’ Battles
• “The Army of Northern Virginia”
– Robert E. Lee
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•
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Confederate Counteroffensives
Reconnaissance conducted by the Confederates
Drove McClellan up the James River
Reversed the momentum of the war
Confederate Counteroffensives
• Nathan Bedford Forrest
• John Hunt Morgan
• Battle of Perryville (1862)
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The Second Battle of Bull Run
• Attention focused on Virginia
• Lee attacked Pope before McClellan could assist
with reinforcements
– Union forces retreat
• Lee continued to invade Maryland
– Serious consequences:
• Maryland might fall to the Confederates
• Democrats could gain control of Congress
• Britain and France might recognize the Confederacy
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Conclusion
• 1860 election: powerful shift from Southern
political control
• Lincoln’s “House Divided”
• South: preemptive counterrevolution of
secession to preserve their social systems
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved