Download Chapter 21: Girding for War: The North and the South

Chapter 21: Girding for War: The North and the South (1861-1865)
“President of the Disunited States of America”
A. Abraham Lincoln became President March 4, 1861 in a time of disunion
1. Inaugural address – 2 points
a. War would begin only with Southern aggression
b. Secession impractical – North and South not geographically separated
B. Problems of uncontested secession
1. Share of national debt to South?
2. Share of federal territories to South?
3. Resolve fugitive-slave law issue
C. North/South conflict would open the door for European colonization
II.
“South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter”
A. South seized all but 2 major forts–most important Fort Sumter–Charleston Harbor
1. Fort running out of supplies->would force North to surrender w/out a fight
2. Sending reinforcements would draw a South Carolinian attack
a. Northerners would block their most important Atlantic port
3. Lincoln chose medium solution – provision not reinforce
a. South saw as same thing, attacked anyway
B. South fired on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861) and forced Northern surrender
1. Angered North and changed their view on the Southern secession
a. Before, they had been willing to let them go w/out war
b. After the South fired on the North, they had to defend their honor
C. Lincoln retaliates
1. Called for 75,000 volunteers (April 15)
2. Declared weak blockade (April 19, 27)
D. South now saw North as aggressor waging war
1. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina decided to join Confederacy
III.
“Brothers’ Blood and Border Blood”
A. Border States: Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, (later) West Virginia
1. If North had shot first, it would have lost some/all of these states
B. Border States considered crucial to success of Union
1. Contained white population > ½ South
2. Manufacturing=South, horses/mules½ South–Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri
3. Ohio river = Northern boarder of West Virginia and Kentucky
C. Lincoln’s methods of dealing with Boarder States
1. Maryland could cut off Washington -> declared martial law, sent troops
2. Also sent soldiers to fight with Unionists in Missouri civil war
3. Statements of official war aims affected by need to keep Boarder States
a. Declared that freeing slaves was not a war objective
(1) Also unpopular in Butternut region (southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois)
b. -> war for Union with proslavery in North and South
D. Indian Territory
1. Most of 5 Civilized Tribes joined Confederacy (some owned slaves)
a. Delegates to Confederate Congress, federal payments from South
2. Rival group of Cherokees and most Plains Indians sides with Union
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“The Balance of Forces”
South seemed to have edge at wars beginning
1. North was burdened with obligation of invading the South and defeating it,
while the South just had to defend their own territory to a draw
2. Higher morale in South defending own way of life
3. Militarily superior officers and soldiers accustomed to carrying gun
Weaknesses of South
1. Apparently handicapped industrially with less factories for producing arms
a. Seized federal munitions and slipping through blockades to get enough
2. Supply of shoes, uniforms, blankets became a problem as war progressed
3. Faulty transportation system failed to even deliver their abundant food
4. Economic inferiority to North
a. ¾ of wealth and railways in North
b. North had superior Navy and controlled the Atlantic
c. 22 to 9 million (including 3.5 million slaves) population edge for North
(1) increased with continuous supply of immigrants (1/5 of army)
Weaknesses of North
1. Troops unprepared for battle
2. Failed uses of trial and error to find generals cost many lives until U.S. Grant
Eventually North’s strengths overwhelmed South
None of the many events potentially helpful for the South ever happened
1. Secession of Boarder States, Support of upper Mississippi Valley, Northern
failures causing a demand for peace, England/France breaking blockade
“Dethroning King Cotton”
Foreign intervention vital to Southern success
1. European elite supported South
a. More agreeable with neo-aristocracy of South than democracy of North
2. Commoners supported North
a. Hoped that Northern victory would lead to the end of slavery
Without vote, commoners still influenced government to refrain from interference
Cotton failed to cripple England and cause the government to ignore its people
1. Large surplus of cotton from 1857-1860 was stored up and used
a. Economic hit occurred after the Emancipation Proclamation
2. Americans sent food to ease the hunger problem of the unemployed
3. Union army raided South and supplied cotton to be shipped to England
4. South partially broke blockade to supply some additional cotton
5. Egypt and India stepped up production due to higher cost of cotton
North’s grain production flourished while British crops suffered ->  trade market
1. North’s supply to British became to vital for them to risk breaking blockade
“The Decisiveness of Diplomacy”
Trent Affair (late 1861)
1. Union warship stopped British mail steamer Trent north of Cuba
2. Removed 2Confederate diplomats headed for Europe
3. Angered British and led to talk of war, sending soldiers to Canada
4. Slow communication allowed tempers to die down
Confederate commerce-raiders
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1. Built unarmed in England (to comply with British laws) and were armed and
manned elsewhere
2. Commerce-destroyers (mostly made in England) captured >250 Union ships
a. Alabama plundered over 60 Union ships (1863)
b. Permanently damaged Yankee economy
3. American minister Charles Francis Adams convinced British they could be
setting themselves up to have the Americans do the same thing to them
a. 1863 – London violated own law and confiscated another would-be raider
“Foreign Flare-Ups”
British conflicts end
1. Final conflict over the Laird rams (1863) built in Britian
a. Iron rams and heavy weaponry designed to destroy wooden ships of Union
b. Could break the blockade if released
c. Adams’ threats of war -> ships bought by British government for its Navy
2. Britain paid $15.5 million in damages for commerce-raiders (1872)
Conflict in Canada
1. Canadians invaded northern U.S. cities
2. Irish hatred for England -> invasions of Canada (1866,1870)
3. United Canada emerged after war – British Parliament’s Dominion of Canada
a. To protect against retaliatory American invasions\
France challenged Monroe Doctrine (1863-1864), yielded after Union victory
“President Davis versus President Lincoln”
Weaknesses of federal government
1. Constitution created out of secession had to allow future secession
a. Conflict between President Jefferson Davis and states’ rightists almost led
Georgia to secede and fight both Union and Confederacy
2. President Jefferson Davis
a. Never had popularity, impeachment discussed
b. Did not always follow the people’s will
c. Unable to adequately lead to Confederacy
Lincoln’s advantage over Davis
1. Longer-established government, financial stability, full recognition
2. Lincoln’s superior flexibility to Davis proved to be a virtue
3. Able to lead instead of impose
“Limitations of Wartime Liberties”
Lincoln took liberties with constitution, but limited his taking of rights
1. Congress general allowed questionable acts
2. W/out congress in session, Lincoln made his own decisions w/out permission
a. Proclaimed blockade (later approved by Supreme Court)
b. Enlarged federal army against Constitution (later approved by Congress)
c. Transferred money against Constitution
d. Took habeas corpus privileges(late 1861)->allow arrest of anti-Unionists
3. “supervised voting” in Border States, discontinued certain newspapers
Jefferson Davis less able to use same arbitrary powers
1. Contested by states’ rightists to the end
2. South would rather keep rights than win war
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“Volunteers and Draftees: North and South”
Northern armies required draft after lull in volunteer supply
1. First national conscription law in history of U.S. favoring rich
2. Angered poor, foreigners -> rioting
3. As potential soldiers became scarce, reward for enlisting increased
a. Led to “bounty/substitute brokers” gathering enlistments from British Isles
and Western Europe
b. Many enlisted and deserted repeatedly after receiving enlistment bounty
South had small population; resort to draft almost year earlier (April 1862)
1. Also unfair conscription allowing payoffs and exemption for big slave owners
2. Angered poor Southerners who had to fight to keep the rich people’s slaves
a. Especially mountain whites
“The Economic Stresses of War”
Union far more successful in surviving financial troubles of war
1. Government helped itself keep sufficient funds
a. Excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol
b. 1st income tax in history of nation (very low rate, yet netted millions of $)
c. Morrill Tariff Act (early 1861) contrasted low Tariff of 1857
(1) Increased duties 5-10% initially; rose due to demand of war
d. Issuing of green paper money helped although resulted in heavy inflation
e. Best source of income for government: sale of Treasury bonds
2. National Banking System (1863)
a. To stimulate sale of bonds and to establish standard currency
b. National Banking Act = first significant step to unify the banks since 1836
South’s economic struggled were deadly
1. Confederate bonds were also sold
2. Increased taxes, 10% levy on farm produce
a. Opposition to direct taxation -> limits
3. Confederates forced to print massive amounts of blue paper money that
created rampant inflation far worse than in the North
“The North’s Economic Boom”
North had economic success thanks to cheap products yielding massive profits
1. Manufacturers sacrificed quality and deceived consumers
2. War created new concept of sizes instead of custom fitting
3. Reapers freed laborers for war, fed them, and surpluses supplied the money to
arm and cloth them
4. Discovery of oil in Pennsylvania led to another new industry
5. Only suffering industry was shipping, suffering from commerce-raiders
Homestead Act of 1862 drew pioneers westward
Women improved their opportunities for jobs
1. Industrial laboring jobs opened up
2. Many joined the army in disguise or helped medically
a. First female doctor Elizabeth Blackwell -> U.S. Sanitary Commission
b. Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix made nurse a respectable profession
c. Sally Tompkins became a respected nurse in the South
“A Crushed Cotton Kingdom”
A. Blockade and invaders brought devastation to the South
1. Percentage of national wealth dropped from 30% to 12% from 1860 to 1870
2. Transportation was in ruins
B. North freed itself from economic dependence on the South, led to industrial
revolution, and had full economic dominance over South
Chapter 22: The Furnace of Civil War (1861-1865)
I.
“Bull Run Ends the ‘Ninety-Day War’”
A. p. 461