Download THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Chapter 14
1861-1865
What Caused the War?
CAUSE #1
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Election of Lincoln
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Southern States felt Lincoln was unjustly elected in
1860, regarded him as a radical
He got less than 40% of the popular vote
More Americans voted against him than voted for him
But he won with a majority of the electoral vote,
mostly from the more populous Northern (free) states
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Cause #2
Unresolved
issues
about States’ Rights
regarding taxation and
slavery
Nullification Crisis
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Nullification question never settled
Nature of membership in Union never
defined: is it permanent, or voluntary?
Are states individually more important than
the Union? (in terms of sovereignty)
Southern perception that Lincoln would not
accept nullification, would enforce a ban on
slavery
John Brown
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1856 “Pottawattomie Massacre” in Kansas
Brutal murder of 7 sleeping pro-slavery
people by John Brown
Captured in 1859 attempting to steal
weapons for a slave revolt from a U.S. Army
arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
“Cult hero” to abolitionists, traitor to proslavery faction
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay’s imperfect compromise
solution to problems of the 1850s:
1.
2.
3.
4.
California admitted as a “free” state
In all the other lands ceded by Mexico, the
slavery issue to be decided by popular
sovereignty (“pro-choice” on slavery)
Slave market in Washington DC closed
Fugitive slave laws tightened
War begins, April 12, 1861
• South Carolina was the first
state to secede
• Followed by Mississippi,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Texas, Florida
• Union garrison at Fort Sumter,
South Carolina, is in “enemy”
territory once South Carolina
seceded in 1860
War begins, April 12, 1861
Dilemma for Lincoln: whether to
attempt sending supplies to support
Fort Sumter
• If yes, it would be perceived by the Confederacy
as an invasion of sovereign territory by a
“foreign power”
• If no, President is abandoning his own soldiers
and allowing them to starve
Secession continues
• After the fall (“liberation?”) of Fort
Sumter, more Southern (cotton, slave)
states secede
• Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas,
Tennessee
• Border states (slave states) of Maryland,
Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri did
not secede
Advantages of the Union (North)
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Union had double the population
Double the railroads
5 times as many factories
Immigrants still coming
Disadvantage: “cause” was nebulous and unclear
“Preserving the Union?” Why?
Was NOT a “righteous crusade to free the slaves,” at
least not yet
Advantage of the Confederacy (South)
Confederates had the best generals
(esp. Robert. E. Lee, N. B. Forrest)
 Defending is always easier than
attacking
 Better cause: “Defending our homes and
families!” Our HOME STATE!
 Farm boys more experienced at shooting
than factory workers

Union Goal, and Strategy
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GOAL: subdue Rebels, force seceded states
back into Union
STRATEGY:
Blockade Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico
Control Mississippi River
Then press inward (eastward, toward the
Atlantic Ocean) to strangle the Confederacy
“Anaconda Strategy”
Confederate goal, and strategy
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GOAL: defend homeland and force Union to
accept that Confederacy was gone forever
STRATEGY:
Outlast Union
Wear down Union forces
Force Union to use up weapons and supplies
– “war of attrition”
Thus force Union to give up and go away
Important Battles
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Bull Run (AKA Manassas Creek) – 1st and 2nd
Two important CSA victories
Lee could have captured Washington DC and
ended war in 1862; chose not to do so
WHY?
Antietam Creek, Fredericksburg: Two
important Union wins, heavy losses to CSA
(1863, 1864)
Lincoln and civil liberties
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Suspended habeas corpus in border states
Imprisoned “suspected” rebels without trial
Was forbidden to do this by Supreme Court
(ex parte Merryman, 1861)
Ignored Supreme Court’s order
“Copperhead” Republicans called Lincoln a
dictator
Lincoln and the draft
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Ongoing problem recruiting Union soldiers
“Cause” of the war was vague – “Preserving
the Union?”
Both sides resorted to conscription (draft) by
1863
Union law allowed purchase of a substitute
recruit for $300 fee
“Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”
Emancipation Proclamation
 Issued
by Lincoln January 1863
 Freed ONLY those slaves in states
still in rebellion (excluded
Tennessee, New Orleans, and the
border states that did not secede)
 Helped encourage enlistment into
Union Army, giving a “cause”
Gettysburg – turning point
July 1863
 Gettysburg
was the largest battle in
the history of the Western
hemisphere.
 Over 100, 000 people died in 3 days.
 It was the last time the South
invaded the North.
Blacks in the Military
After the Emancipation Proclamation
blacks began to join the Union Army
 Initially they were only used for manual
labor
 Eventually, Blacks saw live combat
 54th regiment out of Massachusetts
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Blacks in the Military
 There
is evidence that some blacks
served in the Confederate Army,
although historians disagree
 Hoke Collier
Surrender
Appomattox Court House, VA
• April 9, 1865 (3 days short of the 4th
anniversary of Fort Sumter)
• Grant accepted surrender signature
from Lee
• Lee’s soldiers allowed to keep one
weapon and a horse, if needed
Surrender
Appomattox Court House, VA
• Union never declared war
• Never signed a peace treaty
• Lincoln had never recognized
the Confederacy as a “foreign”
nation
“The Face of a Lost Generation”
Private Edwin Francis Jemison
Company C, 2nd Louisiana Infantry
Dec 1, 1844 - July 1, 1862
Killed by a cannonball at the Battle of
at Malvern Hill, Virginia, on July 1,
1862 at age 17. Buried in Memory
Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Georgia.
His tombstone reads:
Edwin Francis
Second Son of R.W. & S.C.
Jemison
Born Dec. 1, 1844.
Fell a Confederate Soldier at
Malvern Hill July 1, 1862.
Results of the Civil War?
– time of rebuilding
the bonds of union after the Civil
War
 Concern was reconstructing unity
 Reconstruction was NOT about
reconstructing the damage done to
the South by the war
 Reconstruction