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Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil
War, 1861–1865
I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
• Bull Run (Manassas Junction)
– Lincoln eventually concluded that an attack on a
smaller Confederate force might be worth a try:
• If successful it would demonstrate the superiority of
Union arms
• It might lead to the capture of the Confederate capital
at Richmond, 100 miles to the south
• If Richmond fell, secession would be thoroughly
discredited and the Union could be restored without
damage to the economic and social system of the
South
I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day
War” (cont.)
– Raw Yankee troops left Washington toward Bull
Run on July 21, 1861:
• At first the battle went well for the Yankees
• But Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson and Confederate
reinforcements arrived unexpectedly
• The “military picnic” at Bull Run:
– Though not decisive militarily, bore significant psychological
and political consequences
– Victory was worse than defeat for the South because it
inflated an already dangerous overconfidence
– Many Southern soldiers promptly deserted
I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day
War” (cont.)
• Southern enlistment fell off sharply
• Defeat was better than victory for the Union:
– It dispelled all illusions of a one-punch war
– Caused the Northerners to buckle down to the staggering
task
• It set the stage for a war that would be waged:
– Not merely for the cause of the Union
– Eventually for the abolitionist ideal of emancipation
II. “Tardy George” McClellan and the
Peninsula Campaign
• In 1861 General George B. McClelland was
given command of the Army of the Potomac
– Embodied a curious mixture of virtues and
defects:
• Superb organizer and drillmaster
• Injected splendid morale into the Army
• Hating to sacrifice his troops, he was idolized by his
men, who affectionately called him “Little Mac”
• He was a perfectionist
II. “Tardy George” McClellan and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
• He consistently but erroneously believed that the
enemy outnumbered him
• He was overcautious
– A reluctant McClellan decided to approach
Richmond
• Which lay west of a narrow peninsula formed by the
James and York Rivers
• Hence the name given to this historic campaign: the
Peninsula Campaign (see Map 21.1)
– He inched toward the Confederate capital, spring 1862, with
1000,000 men
II. “Tardy George” McClelland and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
• Took McClelland a month to take historic Yorktown;
he finally came within sight of Richmond
• Lincoln diverted McClelland to chase “Stonewall”
Jackson, who was moving toward Washington, D.C
• Stalled in Richmond, “Jeb” Stuart’s Confederate
cavalry rode completely around his army on
reconnaissance
• General Lee launched a devastating assault–the
Seven Days’ Battles—June 26-July 2, 1862
• The Confederates slowly drove McClellan back to the
sea
II. “Tardy George” McClellan and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
• The Peninsula Campaign
– The Union forces abandoned the Peninsula
Campaign as a costly failure
– Lincoln temporarily abandoned McClellan as
commander of the Army of the Potomac.
• Lee:
– Achieved a brilliant, if bloody, triumph
– He ensured that the war would endure until
slavery was uprooted and the Old South
destroyed
II. “Tardy George” McClellan and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
– Union strategy now turned toward total war (see
Map 21.2):
• Finally developed the Northern military plan
– Slowly suffocate the South by blockading its coasts
– Liberate the slaves and hence undermine the very economic
foundations of the Old South
– Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the
Mississippi River backbone
– Chop the Confederacy by sending troops to Georgia and the
Carolinas
– Decapitate it by capturing its capital at Richmond
– Try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and to
grind it into submission
Map 21-1 p437
III. The War at Sea
– The blockade:
• 3500 miles of coast was impossible to patrol for the
Northern navy
• Blockading was simplified by concentrating on the
principal ports and inlets where docks were used to
load bulky bales of cotton
• Britain recognized it as binding and warned its
shippers that they ignored it at their peril
• Blockade-running was risky but profitable
• The lush days of blockade-running passed as Union
squadrons pinched off leading Southern ports.
III. The War at Sea
(cont.)
• The Northern navy enforced the blockade with highhanded practices
• They would seize British freighters on the high seas, if
laden with war supplies
• The justification was obviously these shipments were
“ultimately” destined by devious routes for the
Confederacy
• London acquiesced in this disagreeable doctrine of
“ultimate destination” or “continuous voyage”
• Britain might need to use the same interpretation in
a future war; in fact they did in WWI
III. The War at Sea
(cont.)
– The most alarming Confederate threat to the
blockade came in 1862
• Resourceful Southerners raised and reconditioned a
former wooden U.S. warship, the Merrimack:
– Plated its sides with old iron railroad rails
– Renamed it the Virginia:
» Easily destroyed two wooden ships of the Union navy in
the Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay
» It threatened catastrophe to the entire Yankee
blockading fleet
III. The War at Sea
(cont.)
– The Monitor:
• For four hours, March 9, 1862, the little ”Yankee
cheesebox on a raft” fought the wheezy Merrimack to
a standstill
• A few months after the historic battle, the
Confederates destroyed the Merrimack to keep it
from the grasp of advancing Union troops
Map 21-2 p439
IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
• Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30,
1962):
• Lee encountered a Federal force under General John
Pope
– Lee quickly attacked Pope’s troops and inflicted a crushing
defeat
– Lee daringly now thrust into Maryland
– He hoped to strike a blow that would:
» Encourage foreign intervention
» Seduce the still-wavering Border State and its sisters
from the Union
• The Marylanders did not respond to the siren song
IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
(cont.)
– Antietam Creek, Maryland, a critical battle
• “Little Mac” McClellan was restored to active
command:
– Found copies of Lee’s battle plans
– McClelland succeeded in halting Lee at Antietam on
September 7, 1862, in one of the bloodiest and bitter days
of the war
• Antietam was more or less a draw militarily:
– Lee withdrew across the Potomac
– McClellan was released of duty for the second time
– The landmark Battle of Antietam was one of the divisive
engagements of world history; most decisive Civil War
battle
IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
(cont.)
– Antietam was the long-awaited “victory” that
Lincoln needed for launching his Emancipation
Proclamation
• Midsummer of 1862 the Border States were safely in
the fold and Lincoln was ready to move
– However, Lincoln decided to wait for the outcome of Lee’s
invasion
– Antietam served as the needed emancipation springboard
– Lincoln issued on September 23, 1862, the preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation
– It announced that on January 1, 1863, the President would
issue a final proclamation
IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
(cont.)
– On schedule, he fully redeemed his promise
• The Civil War became more of a moral crusade for
slavery
• On January 1, 1863, Lincoln said,
– “the character of the war will be changed. It will be one of
subjugation . . . .The (Old) South is to be destroyed and
replaced by new propositions and ideas.”
V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation
– Lincoln’s Proclamation of 1863 declared “forever
free” the slaves in those Confederate areas still
in rebellion:
• Bondsmen in the loyal Border States were not
affected
• Nor were those in specific conquered areas in the
South
• The tone of the document was dull and legalistic:
– Lincoln: the proclamation was “an act of justice” and calling
for “the considering judgment of mankind and the gracious
favor of Almighty God.”
V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• The presidential pen did not formally strike
the shackles from a single slave:
– Where Lincoln could free the slaves—in the loyal
Border States—he refused to do so, lest he spur
disunion
– Where he could not—in the Confederate
states—he tried to
– In short, where he could he would not, and
where he would he could not
V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• Thus the Emancipation Proclamation was
stronger on proclamation than emancipation
– There were thousands of do-it-yourself
liberations
– By issuing the Proclamation Lincoln:
• Addressed the refugees’ plight
• Strengthened the moral cause of the Union at home
and abroad
• Also clearly foreshadowed the ultimate doom of
slavery (see Map 21.3)
V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
– The ultimate doom of slavery was
• Thirteenth Amendment (see the Appendix):
– Legally achieved by the ratification of the individual states
– The Emancipation Proclamation fundamentally
changed the nature of the war:
• It effectively removed any chance of a negotiated
settlement
• Both sides knew that the war would be a fight to the
finish
V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
– Public reactions to the long-awaited
proclamation of 1863 were varied:
• Many ardent abolitionists complained Lincoln had not
gone far enough
• Formidable number of Northerners felt that he had
gone too far
• Opposition mounted in the North against supporting
an “abolition war”
• Volunteers had fought for the Union, not against
slavery
V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• Desertions increased sharply
• Critical congressional elections of 1862 went heavily
against the administration—particularly New York,
Pennsylvania and Ohio
• Aristocrats of Europe were inclined to sympathize
with Southern protests
• The Old World working classes, especially in Britain,
reacted otherwise
• Gradually the diplomatic position of the Union
improved
V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• The North now had much the stronger moral
cause:
– In addition to preserving the Union,
– It had committed itself to freeing the slaves.
– The moral position of the South was
correspondingly diminished.
Map 21-3 p442
VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
• Lincoln:
– Moved to emancipate the slaves
– He took steps to enlist blacks in the armed forces
• Black enlistees were accepted
• By war’s end some 180,000 blacks served in the
Union army, most of them from the slave states,
many more from the free-soil North
• Blacks accounted for about 10% of the total
enlistments in the Union forces on land and sea
– Two Mass. Regiments were raised largely through the
efforts of the ex-slave Frederick Douglas.
VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
(cont.)
• Service offered them a chance to prove their
manhood and strengthen their claim to full
citizenship at war’s end
• They received about 500 Congressional Medals of
Honor
• Their casualties were extremely heavy:
– More than 30,000 died
– Many were captured and put to death
– Confederacy and slaves:
• Could not bring itself to enlist slaves until a month
before the war ended—it was too late
VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
(cont.)
– Tens of thousands were forced into labor
battalions:
• The building of fortifications; the supplying of armies
• Other war-connected activities
• Slaves were “the stomach of the Confederacy”:
– They kept the farms going while the white men fought.
• Involuntary labor did not imply slave support for the
Confederacy
VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
(cont.)
– In many ways the actions of Southern slaves
hamstrung the Confederate war efforts:
• Fear of slave insurrection necessitated “home
guards,” keeping many white men from the front
• Every form of slave resistance diminished productivity
and undermined discipline
• When Union troops neared, slave assertiveness
increased
• They stopped short of violent uprising:
– Slaves contributed powerfully to the collapse of slavery and
the disintegration of the antebellum way of life
Map 21-4 p444
VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
• Lincoln replaced McClellan with General A.B.
Burnside:
• He proved his unfitness when he launched a rash
frontal attack on Lee’s strong position at
Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862
• Burnside yielded his command to Joseph (“Fighting
Joe”) Hooker
• At Chancellorsville, Virginia, on May 2-4, 1863, Lee
divided his forces and sent Hooker to attach the
Union flank. The victory was Lee’s most brilliant, but it
was dearly bought.
VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
(cont.)
• Lee now prepared to invade the North again:
– A decisive blow would add strength
– And would encourage foreign intervention—still a Southern
hope
– Three days before the battle Union general George C.
Meade was informed that he would replace Hooker
• Meade took his stand near the quiet little Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania (see Map 21.4):
– There his 92,000 men locked in furious combat with Lee’s
76,000
– The battle seesawed across the rolling green slopes for
three agonizing days—July 1-3, 1863.
VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
(cont.)
– Pickett’s charge:
• The failure of General George Pickett’s magnificent
but futile charge finally broke the back of the
Confederate attack—
– And broke the heart of the Confederate cause
– Its has been called the “high tide of the Confederacy.”
– It defined the northernmost point reached by any
significant Southern force and the real last chance for the
Confederates to win the war
– At the Battle of Gettysburg raged, a Confederate peace
delegation was moving under a flag of peace of truce
toward the Union lines near Norfolk, Virginia
VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
(cont.)
– The victory at Gettysburg belonged to Lincoln
• He refused the Confederate peace mission to pass
though Union lines
• From now on, the Southern cause was doomed, yet
the men from Dixie fought for two more years
• In autumn of 1863, while the graves were still fresh,
Lincoln journeyed to Gettysburg to dedicate the
ceremony.
– He read a two minute address, followed by a two-hour
speech by a former president of Harvard.
– The Gettysburg Address attracted relatively little attention
at the time, but the president was speaking for the ages.
VIII. The War in the West
– Ulysses S. Grant
• Grant’s first signal success came in northern
Tennessee theater (see Map 21.5)
• He captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the
Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers in February 1862
– When the Confederate commander at Fort Donelson asked
for terms, Grant bluntly demanded “an unconditional and
immediate surrender”
– Grant’s triumph in Tennessee was crucial:
» It riveted Kentucky to the Union
» It opened the gateway to the strategically important
region of Tennessee, Georgia and the heart of Dixie.
VIII. The War in the West
(cont.)
– Battle at Shiloh:
• Just over the Tennessee border from Corinth on April
6-7, 1862
• Grant counterattacked—the impressive Confederate
showing at Shiloh confirmed that there would be no
quick end to the war in the West
• Other western events:
– 1862 David G. Farragut joined with a Northern
unit to deal a striking blow by seizing New
Orleans
VIII. The War in the West
(cont.)
– Vicksburg, Mississippi:
• Was the South’s sentinel protecting the lifeline to the
western sources of supply
• Grant was commander of the Union forces at
Vicksburg: this was his best-fought campaign
– The Union victory at Vicksburg came the day after the
Confederate defeat at Gettysburg
– Reopening the Mississippi helped quell the Northern peace
– The twin victories tipped the diplomatic scale in favor of the
North and Britain stopped delivery of the Laird rams to the
Confederates (see p. 425)
– Confederate hope for foreign help was irretrievably lost
Map 21-5 p448
IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
– Grant transferred to east Tennessee:
• Confederates won the battle of Chickamauga, near
Chattanooga, to which they laid siege
• Grant won a series of desperate engagements in
November, 1863:
– Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain (the “Battle Above
the Clouds”)
– Chattanooga was liberated, the state cleared of
Confederates
– Way opened for an invasion of Georgia
– Grant was rewarded by being made general in chief
IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
(cont.)
– Georgia’s conquest:
• It was entrusted to General William Tecumseh
Sherman
• He captured Atlanta in September 1864, burned the
city in November 1864
• Sherman with 6000 troops cut a sixty-mile swath of
destruction through Georgia
• Major purposes of Sherman’s march:
– destroy supplies destined for the Confederate army
– weaken the morale of the men at the front by waging war
on their homes (see Map 21.6)
IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
(cont.)
– Sherman was a pioneer practitioner of “total
war”:
• His success in “Shermanizing” the South was attested
by increasing numbers of Confederate desertions
• All his methods were brutal
– He probably shortened the struggle and hence saved lives
– The discipline of his army at times broke down
• After seizing Savannah as a Christmas present for
Lincoln, his army veered north into South Carolina,
where the destruction was even worse:
– Sherman’s conquering army rolled deep into North Carolina
by the time the war ended
Map 21-6 p450
X. The Politics of War
• Presidential elections come by the calendar
and not by the crisis:
– Political infighting added to Lincoln’s cup of woe
• Factions within his own party, distrusting his ability or
doubting his commitment to abolition, sought to tie
his hands or remove him from office
• Conspicuous among his critics was the overambitious
secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase
X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
– Congressional Committee on the Conduct of
War formed in late 1861:
• Dominated by “radical” Republicans who
– Resented the expansion of presidential power in wartime
– Pressed Lincoln zealously on emancipation
– Most dangerous to the Union cause were the
Northern Democrats:
• Taint with the association with the seceders
• Tragedy befell when their gifted leader Stephen A.
Douglas died
X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
• Lacking a leader, the Democrats divided
– The “War Democrats” supported the Lincoln administration
– Tens of thousands of “Peace Democrats” did not
– Extreme were the Copperheads—openly obstructed the
war through:
» Attacks against the draft
» Against Lincoln
» Especially, after 1863, against emancipation
» Denounced the president as the “Illinois Ape”
» Condemned the “Nigger War”
» Commanded considerable political strength in the
southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
– Notorious was congressman from Ohio, Clement L.
Vallandigham:
» He publicly demanded an end to the “wicked and cruel”
war
» He was convicted by a military tribunal in 1863 for
treasonable utterance and was sentenced to prison
» Lincoln thought he liked the Confederates so much, he
ought to be banished to their lines. This was done.
» Vallandigham inspired Edward Everett Hale to write his
moving but fictional story of Philip Nolan, The Man
Without a Country (1863)
» Nolan was a young army officer found guilty of
participation with Aaron Burr plot of 1806 (see p. 214).
» He was condemned to a life of eternal exile on
American warships.
X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
– Lincoln’s renomination at first encountered
surprisingly strong opposition:
• Hostile factions wanted to shelve “Old Abe” in favor
of Secretary of the Treasury Chase
• The “ditch Lincoln” move collapsed, and he was
nominated by the Union party without serious dissent
• His running mate was Andrew Johnson, a loyal War
Democrat from Tennessee:
– A small slaveowner when the conflict began
– Placed on the Union Party ticket to “sew up” the election
» With no proper regard for the possibility that Lincoln
would die in office
X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
• Democrats:
– Nominated the deposed and overcautious war
hero General McClellan:
• Their plank denounced the prosecution of the war as
a failure
• McClellan repudiated this defeatist declaration
– Campaign:
• Noisy and nasty campaign with numerous slogans
• Lincoln’s reelection was at first gravely in doubt
X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
• The anti-Lincoln Republicans started a movement to
“dump” Lincoln in favor of someone else
• Atmosphere changed by succession of Northern
victories
• The president pulled through, but nothing more than
necessary was left to chance:
– At election time many Northern soldiers were furloughed
home to support Lincoln at the polls
– Some Northern soldiers were permitted to cast their ballots
at the front
– Lincoln bolstered the “bayonet vote” with 212 electoral
votes for Lincoln and 21 for McClellan
XI. The Election of 1864
(cont.)
• Election of 1864:
– Lincoln’s precarious authority
• depended on his retaining Republican support
• while spiking the threat from the Peace Democrats
and Copperheads
– Fearing defeat, the Republican party executed a
clever maneuver:
• Joining the War Democrats, it proclaimed itself to be
the Union party (see Figure 21.1)
• Thus the Republican party was temporarily out of
existence
XI. The Election of 1864
(cont.)
• Lincoln lost Kentucky, Delaware, and New Jersey (see
Map 21.7)
• “Little Mac” ran a closer race than the electoral count
indicates
• He netted a healthy 45% of the popular vote,
1,803,787 to Lincoln’s 2,206,938
• Crushing defeat for the Northern Democrats in 1864
• The removal of Lincoln was the last ghost of a hope
for a Confederate victory
• When Lincoln triumphed, desertions from the sinking
Southern ship increased sharply
Figure 21-1 p452
p453
XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
• Wilderness Campaign:
– Grant with 100,000 men struck toward
Richmond
– He engaged Lee in a series of furious battles in
the Wilderness of Virginia, May and June 1864
– Grant suffered 50,000 lost (see Map 21.8)
– On June 3 Grant ordered a frontal assault on
Cold Harbor:
• In about 5 minutes, 7 thousand men were killed or
wounded
XIII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
• Public opinion in the North:
– Critics cried “Grant the Butcher” had gone
insane
• Grant’s reputation was underserved
• While Lee’s was overrated
• Lee’s rate of loss was the highest of any general in the
war
• By contrast, Grant lost one of ten
• Grant had intended to fight battles out in the open
• Lee turned the eastern campaign into a war of
attrition fought in the trenches
XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
• Lee could no longer seize the offensive
• His new defensive posture in turn forced Grant into
some brutal arithmetic
• Grant could trade two men for one and still beat the
enemy to his knees
• In February 1865 the Confederates tried desperately
to negotiate for peace between the two “countries”
– Lincoln met with Confederate representatives aboard a
Union ship at Hampton Road, Virginia, to discuss peace
– Lincoln could accept nothing short of Union and
emancipation
– Southerners could accept nothing less than independence
XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
– The tribulation wore on to its terrible climax
• Appomattox Courthouse:
– The end came with dramatic suddenness:
• Advancing Northern troops captured Richmond and
cornered Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia,
April 1865
• Grant met with Lee April 9th, Palm Sunday
– Granted generous terms of surrender
– The hungry Confederates were allowed to keep their horses
for spring plowing
XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
– Tattered Southern veterans wept as they took leave of their
beloved commander
– The elated Union soldiers cheered
– Lincoln traveled to conquered Richmond and sat in Jefferson
Davis’s evacuated office just forty hours after the
Confederate president had left it
• Sadly, as many freed slaves were to discover, the
hereafter of their full liberty was a long time coming
Map 21-7 p454
Map 21-8 p455
XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
• Lincoln’s death:
• On April 14, 1865 (Good Friday) only five days after
Lee’s surrender, Fort’s Theater in Washington
witnessed its most sensational drama
• Pro-Southern actor, John Wilkes Booth, slipped
behind Lincoln and shot him in the head
• The Great Emancipator died the following morning
– Lincoln expired in the arms of victory, at the very pinnacle of
his fame
– His dramatic death erased the memory of his shortcomings
and caused his nobler qualities to stand out in clearer relief
XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
(cont.)
– The full impact of Lincoln’s death was not at
once apparent to the South
• As time wore on, increasingly Lincoln’s death was
perceived as a calamity for the South
• Belatedly they recognized his kindliness and
moderation
• The assassination increased bitterness in the North,
partly because of the rumor that Jefferson Davis had
plotted it
• Some historians argued that Andrew Johnson was
crucified in Lincoln’s stead—doesn’t really stand up!
XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
(cont.)
• Lincoln:
– Lincoln no doubt would have had clashes with
Congress
– Lincoln was a victorious president, and there is
no arguing with victory
– His powers of leadership were refined in the war
crucible
– Lincoln possessed in full measure tact, sweet
reasonableness and an uncommon amount of
common sense
XIV. The Aftermath of the Nightmare
– The Civil War’s grisly toll:
• 600,000 men died in action or of disease
• Over a million were killed or seriously wounded
• The amount of dead amounted to 2% of the entire
nation’s population
• To its lasting hurt, the nation lost the cream of its
young manhood and potential leadership
• Tens of thousands of babies went unborn because
potential fathers were at the front
XIII. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
– Direct monetary costs of the conflict:
• Total cost of the conflict—$15 billion
• Does not include continuing expenses—pensions, and
interest on the national debt
• Intangible costs—dislocations, disunities, wasted
energies, lowered ethics, blasted lives, bitter
memories, and burning hats—cannot be calculated.
– Greatest Constitutional decision was written in
blood and handed down at Appomattox
Courthouse
XIII. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
• The extreme states’ righters were crushed
• The national government, tested in the fiery furnace
of war, emerged unbroken
• Nullification and secessions were laid to rest
• The Civil War was the supreme test of American
democracy
• The preservation of democratic ideals was
subconsciously one of the major objectives of the
North
XIV. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
• Victory for Union arms provided inspiration to the
champions of democracy and liberalism (pp. 458-459)
• The great English Reform Bill of 1867, under which
England became a true political democracy, was
passed two years after the Civil War ended
– American democracy proved itself
– Its success was an additional argument used by
disfranchised British masses in securing similar blessings for
themselves
XVI. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
– The “Lost Cause” of the South was lost
• The shameful cancer of slavery was sliced away by
the sword
• African Americans were last in a position to claim
their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness
• The nation was once again united politically
• Great dangers were adverted by a Union victory:
– The indefinite prolongation of the “peculiar institution”
– The unleashing of the slave power on weak Caribbean
neighbors
XVI. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
– The transformation of the area from Panama to Hudson Bay
into an armed camp:
» With several heavily armed and hostile states
constantly snarling and sniping at one another
• American still had a long way to go to make the
promises of freedom a reality for all its citizens, black
and white
• Emancipation laid the necessary groundwork:
– a united and democratic United States was free to fulfill its
destiny as the dominant republic of the hemisphere—and
eventually of the world.
p463