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1861-1862 Life Goes on as the War Begins This Day in History • 1860: Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States – first Republican to win the presidency – Received only 40 percent of the popular vote • 1861: Jefferson Davis elected President of the Confederate States of America – Ran without opposition, and the election confirmed decision made by Confederate Congress earlier in the year. – "Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits, and flowers, but beyond them I saw troubles and thorns innumerable." – Six-year term as established by the Confederate constitution. – President until May 5, 1865, when the Confederate government was officially dissolved. The Beginning of the Wild West • September 9, 1850: Gold-rich California becomes the 30th state admitted into the Union. • June, 1859: Comstock Lode lures miners to Virginia City, Nevada, in search of gold and silver ore. – Revitalizes the California mining economy – Urges exploration of a road east across the Sierra Nevada. New Weaponry • Oliver Winchester invented the repeating rifle – Carried by the Union Cavalry • Colt’s Army Model1860 repeating revolver – Carried by Union officers War Technology Advances • Repeating weapons, improved canons and artillery – Improvements in steel and iron technology • Warfare was much less organized into formations – Men began fighting low to the ground using cover – More fortifications used • Siege method used at Vicksburg, Petersburg, defense of Richmond Infrastructure Advancements • Ironclad ships, torpedoes, submarines appeared but did not make great impacts • Railroads became key to transporting soldiers and materiel – Could move as many as 250,000 men at once • Telegraph improved – Troops began stringing them along marching routes – Often tapped by enemy “Team of Rivals” • Lincoln’s cabinet represented every faction of the Republican party – Former Democrats, Whigs from New England, Midwest, Middle Atlantic • Secretary of State: William Seward – Influential within the party • Secretary of War: Gideon Welles • Head of War Department: Simon Cameron • Attorney General: Henry Bates Constitution of Confederate States of America • March 11, 1861 adopted in Montgomery – identical to US except • Acknowledged sovereignty of individual states • Did not include secession • Specifically sanctioned slavery and made abolition impossible, even by an individual state States Rights Getting in the Way • Resulted in resistance toward all government efforts to exert national authority, even war necessities – Restricted government authority to impose martial law and suspend habeas corpus and conscription • Centralized actions did occur – “food draft” soldiers fed themselves by seizing crops from farms in their path – Impressed slaves despite owner objections – Took control of railroads, shipping – Regulated industry Confederate Leaders • Montgomery convention named Jefferson Davis of Mississippi president – Public experience – West Point Graduate • Commanded Mississippi volunteers in Mexican War – Senator from Mississippi – Franklyn Pierce’s Secretary of War • Alexander H. Stevens of Georgia vice president. – Stevens originally argued against slavery • Later elected by popular vote for 6 year term – February 22, 1862 Forts Controversy • Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor needed supplies – Union would not surrender federal property – Major Robert Anderson in command • Sumter a threat to Lincoln’s commitment to no surrender – Unionists: surrender fort to avoid conflict – Northern businessmen knew Confederacy would not trade with north, but Europe – Manifest Destiny: only fulfilled through Union • Attempted to send in provisions April Last Ditch Effort • Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Walker to PTG Beauregard at Charleston: – “Do not desire needlessly to bombard Fort Sumter. If Major Anderson will state the time at which … he will evacuate.” • Anderson received word of attack at 3:30 AM, April 12 April: The Confederacy Acts • Seized federal property within boundaries – Forts, armories • Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, SC could not be taken and Major Robert Anderson refused to surrender to General P.T. Beauregard – Sent supply ships, informing south that no arms would be sent unless the supply ships met resistance • Confederate guns denied ships access to fort • Confederacy denied US government authority in SC Attack of Fort Sumter • Confederates attacked April 12, 4:30 am – Continued to April 13 • Anderson surrendered April 14 • Lincoln mobilized for war – April 15: called for state militia – No formal declaration of war; declared an insurrection • Secession continued – Virginia: April 17 • Richmond became the capital of the CSA Money Problems • States were unwilling to tax their citizens – Confederate Congress’s attempt to tax to raise funds thus failed • Issued paper currency in 1861 – $1.5 billion in paper money issued – 9000% increase in prices (inflation!) – Killed Confederate morale Davis’s Troubles • Davis was a professional soldier but did not create an effective central command system – Named Lee Principle Advisor but did not heed his advice • Lee left to command the Army of Northern Virginia – Named General Braxton Bragg as replacement – Davis served as his own secretary of war USMA Confederate Alumni • Most southern generals and professional officers graduated from the USMA at West Point and the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. – – – – – Robert E. Lee PGT Beauregard Braxton Bragg Jubal Early Richard Ewell – – – – – – – – – – Henry Heth Ambrose Hill Thomas Jackson James Longstreet Albert Johnston Joseph Johnston Lafayette McLaws George Pickett JEB Stewart Isaac Trimble Status of Free African Americans • 250,000 free blacks in slaveholding states by 1861 – ½ in Virginia and Maryland – Some earned money and managed to buy their freedom – Often urban blacks • Elizabeth Keckley: bough freedom for herself and her son with earnings from being a seamstress – Became seamstress, personal servant, and companion of Mary Todd Lincoln – Some set free by moral owners or after death of owners Radical Republicans • Radical Republicans – Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania – Charles Sumner of Maryland – Benjamin Wade of Ohio • Wanted to abolish slavery immediately and completely • Conservatives wanted to act moderately to placate border slave states Union territories not permitting slavery Union states Union Territories permitting slavery Border Union states, permitting slavery Kansas entered Union Confederate states Border States • • • • More white Americans lived there than in CSA No desire to fight, little sympathy for CSA Closer economic, geographical ties to North More modern than Lower South – Railroads, industry, cities • Average slave population 10% (compared to 46% in Lower, 28 in Upper South) – Declining, free population growing Missouri Conflict • St Louis: one of the largest arsenals in nation • Unionists vs. Pro-Confederates – Non-military violence split state • Battle of Pea Ridge (Arkansas): Confederates pushed out of Missouri for remainder of war – Unionists controlled state, still sentimentally divided • Guerrilla warfare continued throughout war Map, show border states surrounded dc 1861 • April, 1861: Kansas entered Union as a free state • Confiscation Act passed by Congress • Declared all slaved used for purposes that supported Confederate military cause must be considered free Northern Advantages • Population – 22 million vs. 9 million (1/3 slaves) • Advanced industrial system – Could manufacture own war materials • Better transportation system – More and better railroads and roads • Union had superior naval power – Enforced the blockade the south could not officially break • Runners did get through – Seized southern ports – In west: Ships brought supplies, reinforcements, and attacked strongholds – South could only fight gunboats with land fortifications Southern Advantages • Armies were fighting a defensive war in familiar territory – Support of local people • Commitment to cause firm – Fought for independence • Superior Leadership • English and French support – “King Cotton diplomacy” • English manufacturers had surplus of raw cotton and finished goods • Later imported cotton from Egypt and India Choosing Sides • Sympathies of French and English ruling class were with the South – Importers of cotton – Wanted to weaken the US since it was a rival in world commerce • US still a world power, so only way Europe would support CSA was if it looked like they would win the war – Irony: CSA needed Europe to win – France would not take sides until England did so “Neutral” England • England reluctant to officially support slave nation – Support for Union came from a large English antislavery movement – Emancipation Proclamation cemented support • England unofficially aided CSA – Many in Europe declared neutrality • Lincoln argues domestic insurrection, not war between two sovereign nations Raising Money • Republican controlled Congress passed a series of tariff bills to raise duties on imports – Protection from foreign competition for domestic producers • Congress spurred completion of the transcontinental railroad – Created formally chartered corporations • Union pacific Railroad company built west from Omaha • Central Pacific Railroad built east from California • Government provided free public lands and loans to the companies Income Tax Appears • US government levied taxes on nearly all goods and services – 1861: income tax: unpopularity kept it from being raised Armed Forces • 2 million served in the Northern forces – Regular army in 1861: 16,000 troops, most in the west to protect white settlers from Indians – July 1861: Congress authorized enlisting 500,000 men • Volunteered for 3 years instead of 3 months Lincoln and the Constitution • Government could not recognize secession – Meant own distruction – Maintain authority against disunion • Lincoln used war powers of presidency – Ignored parts of the Constitution “foolish to lose the whole by being afraid to disregard a part” – Sent troops into war without asking for Congressional declaration of war • Domestic insurrection required no congressional authority – Unilaterally increased the size of the army, proclaimed a blockade on the south Copperheads • Peace Democrats (Copperheads) mobilized popular opposition to the war – Lincoln responded by ordering military arrests of civilian dissenters • Suspended habeas corpus (right to a speedy trial) • First used only in border states Lincoln the Strategist • Lincoln knew how to exploit the North’s advantages – Knew the proper objective was to destroy Confederate armies, not occupy the south – Could not find a good General • General Winfield Scott was too old and retired in 1861 • George B. McClellan was a poor strategist – Trained men well, reluctant to go into battle • Chief of Staff General Henry Halleck made no decisions Southern Economic Troubles • Planters and producers were cut off from northern markets • Union blockade of CSA ports made export to Europe difficult and expensive • Farms and industries without large slave populations were robbed of work force – Production declined by more than 1/3 Pacific Railroad Bill: July, 1862 • Allows Central Pacific to build California line • Simultaneously chartering Union Pacific Railroad Company to build west • The bill grants each enterprise 6,400 acres of land and $48,000 in government bonds per mile built. It does not designate a meeting point for the lines. Pacific Railroad Act passed in 1862 • Authorized the construction of the new transcontinental link – Provided grants of land and other subsidies to the railroads for each mile of track laid – Railroad companies became the largest landholders in the west – Expansion of railroad accelerated the transformation of life west of the Mississippi – Railroads looked to immigrants for inexpensive labor • Central Pacific hired Chinese workers to carve tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and used Irish and black laborers to lay track The Big Four • Collis P. Huntington – Brought in other three investors – Bought influence in D.C., efforts to undermine Union Pacific RR • Mark Hopkins – Bookkeeper, businessman, treasurer of Central Pacific RR • Leland Stanford • Charles Crocker Bosses of the Central Pacific • Leland Stanford – President of Central Pacific Board • Charles Crocker – His idea to recruit Chinese immigrants • James Harvey Strobridge – Construction boss; intimidated, abused workers Working on the Railroad • Who: – Native-born whites, Mexican Americans, African Americans • Civil War Veterans, Freedmen – Immigrants: Irish, followed by Chinese • Distrusted by owners because of prejudice • Hard work + low pay = high attrition rate – Attrition: Lowering of numbers due to death or retirement Chinese Immigrants in the West • Chinese peasants arriving in California in 1850 – Result of poverty, overpopulation from China • Five-year stints in the mines • Prospected or became laborers, domestic workers, and fishermen • Faced growing prejudice and increasingly restrictive laws limiting opportunity First Battle of Bull Run/First Manassas • Washington hoped for a single battle war • Civilians picnicking at the battlefield • Retreat turned into a riot • Union had 30,000 under Irvin McDowell • Confederacy had a slightly smaller force under P.G.T. Beauregard – Numerical advantage did not help north, as Confederate forces broke Union assault General Problems • McDowell: defeated (humiliated) at Bull Run/Manassas – replaced • McClellan: brilliant trainer, organizer of army – Did not fight as directed – Ignored Lincoln’s advice • Lincoln trained himself, became able strategist • Pope – Humiliated at Second Bull Run/Manassas • • • • Burnside: devastating defeat at Fredericksburg Hooker Meade Grant The Trent Affair and Other Problems • Trent Affair: November 8, 1861 – Mason and Slidell taken off HMS Trent and brought to Boston – Britain demanded their release and an apology – “One war at a time.” • CSA bought destroyers from Britain – Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah – This violated laws of neutrality – Fought Britain for damages Homestead Act of 1862 • Any citizen or perspective citizen could buy 160 acres of public land for a small fee after living on it for 5 years Individual Rights Violations • All who discouraged enlistments or engaged in disloyal practices were subject to martial law – 13,000 arrested or imprisoned Emancipation Begins • Spring: slavery abolished in Washington DC and in western territories – Owners compensated for losses Ironclads Battle • March, 1852: Monitor vs. Merrimac (Virginia) – latter was an ironclad scuttled when Virginia seceded – March 8, the refitted Virginia attacked blockade at Hampton Roads • Destroyed 2 ships – Monitor met Virginia on March 9, battled to a draw, Virginia could no longer attack blockade Economics in the North • Republicans promoted nationalistic economic legislation – Coal production increased 20% – Railroads improved with the standard gauge (width) on new lines – Loss of farm labor increased the mechanization of agriculture (necessity being the mother of invention) • Eliminated many skilled-labor jobs Inflation, Immigration, Women • Prices rose 80% as wages rose only 40% • Immigration increased and flooded labor market with workers – Resulted in large increase in union membership • National unions formed – coal miners – railroad engineers – Opposed and suppressed by employers • Women became teachers, sales clerks, office workers, mill and factory workers, nurses – United States Sanitary Commission led by Dorothea Dix mobilized volunteers to serve in field hospitals – Nursing almost entirely female profession by 1865