Download ch21TheFurnaceofCivilWar

The Furnace of Civil War
I.
II.
Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
a. Bull Run (Manassas Junction) – July 1861
i. Lincoln decided to try his unready troops against a small Confederate
force here
ii. If successful, it would:
1. Demonstrate Union power
2. Could lead to the fall of Richmond, the Confederate capital (it was
only 100 miles to the south)
iii. Congressmen and spectators brought lunchbaskets with them to witness
the “fun”
iv. The Union did well at first, but Stonewall Jackson’s troops stood like a
stone wall. However, the Union ended up defeated
b. Results of Bull Run
i. Victory made the South even more overconfident
ii. Some Southern soldiers deserted feeling that the war was now over
iii. Southern enlistments dropped
George McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
a. George B. McClellan
i. Was a West Point graduate
ii. Had fought in the Mexican War and observed the Crimean War
iii. Given command of the Army of the Potomac (major Union army near
Washington)
iv. He believed in the following:
1. Hated to sacrifice troops
2. Instilled lots of morale
3. Consistently (and erroneously) believed the enemy outnumbered
him
a. Pinkerton’s Detective Agency – Intelligence reports were
unreliable
b. Was overcautious
4. Addressed the president in an arrogant tone
b. Attacking Richmond (1862)
i. McClellan continued to drill his army without moving it toward Richmond
ii. Eventually, Lincoln ordered his army to advance
iii. Spring 1861 – McClellan decided to take a water approach to Richmond
(lies on the base of a peninsula formed by the James and York Rivers).
After a month of fighting with 100,000 men, Yorktown fell (it wasn’t
defended very well, but it took too long to take)
iv. Lincoln diverted McClellan’s reinforcements to chase Stonewall Jackson
in the Shenandoah Valley, close to Washington, D.C.
v. June/July 1862 – Lee launched a counterattack on McClellan (known as
the Seven Days’ Battles). The Union forces retreated and abandoned the
campaign
c. Results of the Peninsula Campaign
“Win” for the South
Lee lost 20,000 troops; McClellan lost 10,000 troops
McClellan temporarily removed from command
If McClellan had taken Richmond, the war may have ended with slavery
restored
v. Lincoln was now changing his mind about his unwillingness to tamper
with slavery and he began writing the emancipation proclamation
d. Union Military Plan
i. Slowly suffocate the South by blockade
ii. Liberate the slaves to undermine the economic foundations of the South
iii. Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River
iv. Chop the Confederacy to pieces by sending troops through Georgia and
the Carolinas
v. Decapitate it by capturing its capital at Richmond
vi. Try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and to grin it into
submission (Grant’s idea)
The War at Sea
a. General Winfield Scott
i. Developed a strategy to crush the South
ii. Called for a:
1. Naval blockade to shut out European supplies and exports
2. A campaign to take the Mississippi River, thereby splitting the
South
3. A targeting of Southern cities in hopes that pro-Unionists would
rise up in the South and overthrow the secession
iii. Both the blockade and the taking of the Mississippi were successful
b. Blockade
i. Defending the 3,500 mile coast with yachts and ferryboats was not good
ii. However, it was made easier by concentrating on the biggest ports and
blocking only them
iii. Britain warned shippers that if they ignored it, it was their choice. They
didn’t want to make a future war
c. Blockade Running
i. Risky, but profitable
ii. Speedy ships could rendezvous with Nassau, in the British Bahamas. This
was called the “ultimate destination” doctrine, and it would actually be
used by the British in WWI
iii. Northern navy would take any goods obviously not intended for the
Confederacy anyhow
iv. These days ended as the blockade would eventually strengthen
d. Merrimack and Monitor (1862)
i. Merrimack – Southerners plated this wooden ship’s sides with iron
railroad ties and renamed it Virginia. It could easily destroy wooden ships
and threatened the blockade
ii. Monitor – Union countered with the hastily built Monitor
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
III.
IV.
V.
iii. Both ships encountered each other and fought each other to a standstill.
The South destroyed their ship to keep it from the grasp of advancing
Union troops
iv. This was the first battle test of ironclad ships, although Britain and France
had already made some. It also spelled the doom of wooden ships
Antietam: The Pivotal Point
a. Second Battle of Bull Run (August 1862)
i. Lee attacked the Union army led by General John Pope
ii. Pope was crushed
b. Maryland
i. Lee hoped to strike MD successfully for two reasons:
1. Encourage foreign intervention
2. Encourage MD to join the South
ii. Having seen so many ill-equipped Southern soldiers, it dampened their
Southern spirit
c. Antietam Creek (September 1862)
i. McClellan was restored to command
ii. His troops found a copy of Lee’s battle plans dropped by a Confederate
soldier
iii. McClellan succeeded in stopped Lee’s advance, but it was a draw
militarily
iv. As Lee retreated, McClellan declined to pursue him and was removed
from command again
v. It was the bloodiest day of the war (4,000 deaths)
d. Importance of Antietam
i. The South was on the verge of winning the war
ii. British and French governments were on the verge of helping the South,
which would’ve probably led to an armed conflict between the North and
those countries. The Union victory dampened those countries’ spirits
iii. The Emancipation Proclamation could now be put into effect
e. Emancipation Proclamation
i. Was the victory that Lincoln needed for putting the Emancipation
Proclamation into effect. Lincoln felt this way because:
1. The border States were firmly border
2. Doing the Emancipation Proclamation after a series of military
defeats would make it seem like it was a desperate attempt to get
the slaves to rebel against their masters
ii. September 23, 1862 – Emancipation Proclamation was issued. On
January 1, 1863, the president would issue a final proclamation
A Proclamation Without Emancipation
a. What Did the Emancipation Proclamation Do?
i. Declared free the salves in those Confederate States still in rebellion. The
border States weren’t affected (it was cause them to succeed)
ii. 800,000 slaves were freed
iii. Many have criticized it as Lincoln freeing the slaves:
1. Where he could he would not
VI.
VII.
2. Where he would he could not
iv. Thousands of slaves went into the Northern army (1/7 Southern slaves
runaway to Union camps). This helped convince Northerners of slavery’s
evils
v. The Proclamation strengthened morale by making the war a moral cause
vi. The Proclamation did away with any chance of a negotiated settlement. It
would be a fight to the finish
b. Public Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation
i. Antislavery people liked it, but some thought it didn’t go far enough
ii. Border States and regions of the Old Northwest felt it went too far
1. Army desertions from these areas increased
iii. European workers sympathized with the slaves and liked the Proclamation
1. They sensed that it spelled the ultimate doom of slavery
2. The diplomatic position of the Union improved
3. The moral position of the South was diminished
Blacks Battle Bondage
a. Enlisting Blacks
i. Had served in the Revolution and War of 1812
ii. At the outset of the Civil War, the regular army contained no blacks. Only
the Union navy allowed blacks to enroll (worked as cooks, firemen, etc.)
iii. As manpower ran low and emancipation was proclaimed, back enlistees
were accepted
iv. 180,000 blacks served in the Union army, most of them from the slave
States (accounted for 10% of the total enlistments)
v. Frederick Douglass even raised two MA regiments
b. Why Serve?
i. War against slavery (38,000 died from battle, sickness, or reprisals – were
killed if captured – Fort Pillow, TN – many were massacred)
ii. Offered a chance to prove their manhood (received 22 Congressional
Medals of Honor)
iii. Strengthened their claim to full citizenship at the war’s end
c. Slaves In the Confederate Army
i. South didn’t enlist them until a month before the war ended because of
pride, prejudice, and principle
ii. Worked on building of fortifications, supplying the armies, etc.
iii. Slaves kept the farms going as the whites fought
d. Affects of Slaves On the South
i. Fear of slave insurrections necessitated Confederate “home guards,”
keeping many eligible white men from the front
ii. Forms of slave resistance, such as slowdowns, strikes, and open defiance,
diminished productivity and undermined discipline
iii. Many runaways served as Union spies, guides, etc.
Lee’s Last Offensive at Gettysburg
a. General A.E. Burnside
i. Lincoln replaced McClellan with Burnside (Burnside told Lincoln he was
unfit for the responsibility)
VIII.
ii. December 1862 – He launched an attack on Lee’s position at
Fredericksburg, VA. 10,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded
b. General Hooker
i. Burnside yielded command to his subordinate, Hooker
ii. May 1863 – In Chancellorsville, VA, Lee divided his numerically inferior
force and sent Stonewall Jackson to attack the Union flank. The strategy
worked
iii. Hooker was beaten, but Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men
when he was scouting the Northern troops at dusk. Lee’s right hand man
was lost
c. Gettysburg (July 1863)
i. Lee decided to follow up this victory by invading the north in PA. A
victory would help foreign intervention. It was also the northernmost
point of invasion for Lee
ii. Union General George Meade replaced Hooker, who took his stand atop a
low-lying ridge near Gettysburg, PA
iii. Meade – 92,000 troops; Lee – 76,000 troops
iv. Battle lasted for three days until General George Pickett’s charge broke
the back of the Confederate attack
v. From now on, the South was on the defensive
d. Gettysburg Address
i. Lincoln went to Gettysburg to dedicate the cemetery of those who had
fallen (it was the bloodiest battle of the war – 51,000 casualties – killed,
wounded, missing, captured)
ii. He read a two-minute address that received little press, but lots of
criticism by the London Times as “ludicrous” and by Democratic editors
as “dishwatery” and “silly”
The War in the West
a. Ulysses S. Grant
i. Was a mediocre student at West Point
ii. Fought well in the Mexican War
iii. He was stationed at isolated frontier posts, where boredom and loneliness
drove him to drink. He resigned from the army to avoid a court-martial
for drunkenness
iv. Then, he failed at some business ventures and was working in his father’s
leather store in Illinois for $50 a month. He then enlisted in the army
b. Grant’s First Success
i. February 1862 – Came in TN, when he captured Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson
ii. Results –
1. This helped to secure Kentucky to the Union
2. Secured TN, a strategic area to Georgia and the South
3. Asked for their unconditional surrender
c. Battle of Shiloh
i. April 1862 – Grant hoped to capture the junction of the main Confederate
railroads in the Mississippi Valley
IX.
ii. The Confederates held off Grant
iii. Results –
1. Ensured that there would be no quick end to the war in the west
d. New Orleans (southern end of MI River)
i. Spring 1862 – The Navy, commanded by David G. Farragut joined with
the Northern army to strike New Orleans. New Orleans was important
because:
1. If taken, the Union would be able to control the Mississippi River
and have a back door to the eastern part of the Confederacy
2. It also supplied the Confederacy with supplies, such as cattle and
other provisions
e. Vicksburg and Port Hudson (both Southern ports along the MI River)
i. Summer 1863 – Grant attacked these strongholds of the MI River
ii. Vicksburg fell, then Port Hudson – the last Southern strongholds along the
river
iii. Vicksburg came the day after the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg
f. Results of Gettysburg and Vicksburg
i. Quieted the agitation in the Ohio River valley area. Confederate control
of the MI River had cut off that region’s usual trade routes down the river
to New Orleans
ii. Tipped the diplomatic scales in favor of the North. Britain stopped
delivery of the Laird rams and France killed a deal for the sale of six naval
vessels to the Richmond government. By the end of 1863, all Confederate
hopes for foreign help were lost
Sherman Scorches Georgia
a. Battle of Chattanooga
i. Union forces under Grant had driven Confederates from Chickamauga,
TN to Chattanooga, NC
ii. November 1863 – Grant laid siege and defeated the Confederates at
Chattanooga. This opened a way for an invasion of Georgia
iii. Grant was made the head general of the army
b. General William Sherman and the Conquest of Georgia
i. Conquest of GA was entrusted to General William Sherman
ii. September 1864 – He captured Atlanta and burned the city
iii. December 1864 – Sherman’s 60,000 troops marched all the way to
Savannah, GA. They:
1. Lived off the land
2. Stole from the houses
3. Burned the buildings
4. Tore up railroads
iv. Purposes of “Shermanizing” the South:
1. To destroy supplies destined for the Confederate army
2. To weaken the morale of the men at the front by waging war on
their homes
3. Increase numbers of Confederate desertions
v. Results of “Shermanizing” the South:
X.
XI.
1. He probably shortened the struggle and saved lives
2. Discipline of the army broke down at times
c. South Carolina and North Carolina
i. After capturing Savannah, Sherman marched north to South Carolina
ii. Destruction here was even worse because the Union soldiers believed that
this State provoked the war
iii. The capital, Columbia, was burned
iv. Then, Sherman marched into North Carolina
The Politics of War
a. Republican Political Infighting
i. Factions within Lincoln’s party occurred
ii. Some distrusted his ability or doubted his commitment to abolition. Other
critics were:
1. Secretary of Treasury Salmon Chase – an outspoken critic (leading
spokesman of the Liberty Party, helped found the Free-Soil Party
& Republican Party – he resigned his post because he thought
Lincoln to be too moderate on slavery and Lincoln later appointed
him Supreme Court Chief Justice)
2. Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War – dominated
by radical Republicans who resented the expansion of presidential
power in wartime and who pressed Lincoln for emancipation
b. Northern Democrats
i. Departed with the Southern wing of the party
ii. Leader Stephan Douglas died 7 weeks before the war started. Lacking a
leader, the Democrats were divided
iii. War Democrats supported the Lincoln administration
iv. Peace Democrats did not
v. Copperheads – extreme Democrats who obstructed the war through
attacks against the draft, Lincoln, and emancipation
c. Clement L. Vallandigham and the Copperheads
i. Congressman from Ohio who was one of the notable Copperheads
ii. He was convicted by a military tribunal in 1863 for treasonable utterances
iii. Lincoln banished him to the Confederacy
d. Aftermath of Vallandigham
i. Ran for the governorship of Ohio from Canada and won substantial votes,
but not enough to win
ii. He inspired Edward Everett Hale to write a fictional story called The Man
Without A Country (1863). It was about a young army officer who was
found guilty of participation in the Aaron Burr conspiracy. After crying
out in court “Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the
United States again!” he was condemned to a life of exile on American
warships. This book helped stimulate devotion to the Union
The Election of 1864
a. Union Party
i. The Republican party joined with the War Democrats and proclaimed
itself to be the Union Party
XII.
ii. The Republican party temporarily went out of existence
b. Nomination of Lincoln
i. Lincoln’s nomination encountered strong opposition at first
ii. Many wanted Secretary of Treasury Chase to be nominated
iii. Lincoln was accused of:
1. Lacking force
2. Being overready to compromise
3. Not having won the war
4. Having an odd sense of humor
iv. Eventually, Lincoln was nominated with little opposition
c. Andrew Johnson
i. Lincoln’s running mate
ii. Was a War Democrat from TN
iii. He was put on the ticket to get the War Democrat vote and the voters in
the Border States
iv. He, like Lincoln, was condemned as an ignorant backwoods politician
born in a log cabin
d. Peace Democrats and Copperhead Nomination
i. Nominated McClellan
ii. Platform – denouncing the war as a failure. However, McClellan
repudiated this declaration
e. War Sways Lincoln’s Chances of Reelection
i. When the war was going badly, his reelection was in doubt
ii. With Northern victories in GA, however, Lincoln’s fortunes changed
iii. Some soldiers were permitted to cast their ballots at the front, while others
hurried home to vote for Lincoln
f. Election of 1864 Results
i. Lincoln won 212-21; 2.2 million to 1.8 million
ii. Removal of Lincoln was the last gasp of hope for a Confederate victory
iii. When Lincoln won, desertions in Southern armies increased sharply
Grant Outlasts Lee
a. Grant Replaced Meade
i. Meade was blamed for failing to pursue Lee and was replaced by Grant
ii. Lincoln wanted a general who would have the nerve to use the resources
and men of the North to drive forward. Grant was his man
iii. His plan was to attack the enemy at all fronts so that the enemy couldn’t
assist one another
iv. May and June 1864 – Wilderness Campaign – Grant surged towards
Richmond and attacked in the Wilderness of Virginia. In this campaign,
both sides had about 50,000 casualties
v. June 1864 – Cold Harbor – A battle in which 7,000 Union men were killed
or wounded in a few minutes
b. Public Opinion
i. Grant – His reputation as being “mad” was undeserved. His rate of loss
was 1 in 10 soldiers
XIII.
ii. Lee – Lee was overrated. His rate of loss (at one casualty for every five
soldiers) was the highest of any general of the war
iii. Lee was the one who turned the eastern campaign into a war of attrition
(who could last longer). With fewer men, Lee could no longer seize the
offensive, as he had at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Antietam. As a
result, he fought from the trenches, while Grant preferred to fight in the
open as he had in the West. Grant now figured he could trade two men for
Lee’s one and still beat him
c. Confederates Negotiate Peace
i. February 1865 – Being nearly defeated, the South tried to negotiate a
peace. Lincoln would not accept anything short of Union and
emancipation. However, the Southerners wanted independence
ii. The war continued
d. Capture of Richmond
i. April 1865 – Northern troops captured Richmond and cornered Lee at
Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Lee surrendered to Grant, ending the
Civil War
ii. Lincoln traveled to Richmond and walked the streets with a small escort of
sailors. Freed slaves began to recognize him and crowds gathered to see
Lincoln. Many thanked Lincoln for freeing them
The Martyrdom of Lincoln
a. Lincoln’s Death
i. Five days after Lee’s surrender, Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater in
Washington
ii. A crazed pro-Southern actor, John Wilkes Booth, went to the booth were
Lincoln was watching the play and shot him in the head. He died the next
morning (“Now he belongs to the ages” – said Secretary of War Stanton)
b. Impact of Lincoln’s Death
i. The timing helped to erase all criticism and contributed towards his legacy
ii. Many ex-Confederate soldiers, Southern civilians, and Northern
Copperheads cheered his death. Their reaction was natural because
Lincoln refused to give in and instead fought until the end. This increased
bitterness in the North (people thought Jefferson Davis had plotted it)
iii. As time went on, Southerners increasingly realized that Lincoln’s kindness
and moderation would have helped neutralize vindictive treatment by the
victors
c. Would Lincoln Have Been Impeached?
i. Andrew Johnson ended up taking what would have been Lincoln’s wrath.
Embittered members of his own party, who demanded harshness toward
the South, probably would have impeached him (they instead impeached
Johnson)
ii. However, others argue that Lincoln wouldn’t have been impeached
because he was a victorious president, possessed great tact,
reasonableness, and common sense. Johnson was hot-tempered and
impetuous (impulsive – rushing into something without using common
sense)
XIV. The Aftermath of the Civil War
a. Results of the War
i. Deaths – 600,000 men died. Many potential young leaders died and
babies were unborn because fathers were at the front
ii. Costs - $15 billion. Doesn’t include pensions and interest on the national
debt
iii. Intangible costs – Dislocations, disunities, wasted energies, lowered
ethics, bitter memories, and burning hates
iv. Constitutional decisions – With the defeat of the South, the issues of
nullification, secession, and slavery were put to rest
v. Democracy prevails – The democratic Union lasted and inspired
champions of democracy and liberty around the world (Britain’s English
Reform Bill of 1867, under which Britain became a true political
democracy, was passed two years after the Civil War ended)