Unit 6: Civil War

Goals of this Unit

• To understand that the North effectively brought to bear its long-term advantages of industrial might and human resources to wage a devastating total war against the South.

• To recognize that the war helped organize and modernize northern society, while the South, despite heroic efforts, was economically and socially crushed.

• To understand that Lincoln’s skillful political leadership helped keep the crucial Border States in the Union and maintain northern morale, while his effective diplomacy kept Britain and France from aiding the Confederacy.

• To be able to explain how the Civil War, begun as a limited struggle over the Union, eventually became a total war to end slavery and transform the nation.

• To recognize that after several years of seesaw struggle, the Union armies under Ulysses Grant finally wore down the Southern forces under Robert E. Lee and ended the Confederate bid for independence as well as the institution of slavery.

The South Secedes • SC secedes in Dec. 1860

– Soon followed by “Deep South”• Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,

Texas– Feb 1861 – Southern states form “Confederate

States of America”• Elect Jefferson Davis as President of C.S.A.

– President Buchanan did almost nothing to stop the secession

– One final compromise offered – Crittendon Compromise (extend Missouri Compromise line – north = free, south = slave)

– Lincoln takes over, crushes compromise• “Honest Abe” took free-soil pledge, wouldn’t break it

Why the South Seceded:

• Institution of slavery threatened by North– Would kill Southern economy if outlawed

• Believed starting own nation allows own development– Economy, industry, banking, shipping, etc.

• Compared their secession to independence of American colonies in 1776– U.S. breaks from England, South breaks from North

• South didn’t think North would try to stop their secession

• Believed if war did break out, Europe would support South due to its economic value

Lincoln’s Inauguration (Mar. 4, 1861)• Primary goal:

– REUNITE THE NATION• Problems with South leaving:

– Dividing country impossible due to geographic reasons

– They still owe national debt– Runaway slave issues would surely lead

to conflict– Europe could prey on a weak and split

America (economically, diplomatically, militarily)

War Begins (1861)• Lincoln’s inauguration (Mar)• Southern delegates offer peace

treaty to Lincoln– Lincoln refuses

• Fort Sumter, SC (April)– Island fort held by North, being

surrounded by South• Supplies running out,

reinforcements too late• South open fires on Ft. Sumter• North surrenders after day• War officially begins

Lincoln Preps for War• Call to arms– 75,000 soldiers

• Orders naval blockade of South• 4 undecided states secede and CSA

– Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and NC

Border States

Border States• Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland

– All slave states that had not seceded• Importance:

– Would increase South’s population– Would increase South’s industrial potential

• Lincoln’s plan to gain border states:– Declared martial law in Maryland

• Railroad importance, buffer to D.C.– Convinced border states his motives were to end war, not

slavery• Splits between border states:

– Tennessee “volunteers”– Anti-slavery West Virginia breaks away from Virginia

Advantages

North• Larger population

– 3x South’s population• Industry• Railroads• U.S. Navy

– Naval blockade’s importance

• More money

South• Only had to defend, not

conquer• North needed a decisive

victory to win• Geographical

advantages• Better military

leadership– Robert E. Lee– “Stonewall” Jackson

South’s Foreign Aid?• South believed Europe would help them

– Economic importance – cotton• Reasons help never came:

– Some Europeans wanted a split U.S.– Other Europeans were anti-slavery

• Effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin– England’s reliance on Southern cotton decreasing

• Had started own crops in colonized Egypt and India– North sends food over to famine-affected Europe

throughout war → support grows

Foreign Affairs

• England gives very little support to South– “Trent affair”

• Northern ship stops British ship with 2 Southern diplomats on it → arrested → released

– CSS Alabama• Staffed with British forces, attacked U.S. ships worldwide, but not

in U.S. waters– Brits never follow though with promise to build raider

ships for South → could hurt England one day• U.S.-Canada border issues• Puppet government set up in Mexico by Napoleon III

(France)– violates Monroe doctrine

A. Lincoln vs. J. Davis

• Stable & established government– Can easily exert power

• Better foreign relations• Navy at disposal• Telegraph and railroad

system

• Never popular– (Elected by delegates,

not common people)• An unstable

“confederacy”– Loosely united– Weak by design– Hard to govern– Hard to exert power

Lincoln vs. the Constitution• Unconstitutional actions:

– Martial law declared in Maryland– Increases the size of the Army

• Created draft too– Paid $2 million to a few private citizens for undisclosed

military purposes– Suspended habeas corpus

• Anti-unionists arrested and held without trial– “Supervised” Border State elections

Economies During War

NORTH • Raises import tax• Railroads and open seas• Sold war bonds

– Funded 62% of war for North• Recreated National Banking

System– Secured and regulated money

in economy• War boomed industry• Women’s role increased

– Factory workers, Red Cross

SOUTH• Union naval blockade killed

South’s money flow– Could not export cotton– Could not import for (no

import tax)• Massive inflation

– New CSA currency fails• Southerners held 30% of

nations wealth before secession → 12% after

• Lack of money kills South’s war effort

War Starts • Ft. Sumter (April 1860)• Both sides confident war will be short

– “Ninety-Day War”– North wants to take Richmond, VA (CSA

capital)• July 1860 – Battle of Bull Run (VA)

– Both sides unprepared, unorganized– Southern Gen. Thomas Jackson holds

line, fights off North• “Stonewall Jackson”

– North panics & retreats, South wins the first major battle of the Civil War

• Significance?– Realization war was going to take much

longer– Both sides needed better preparation– 5,000 casualties in one day

• Both sides stall to prepare for long war

• Lincoln puts Gen. George McClellan in charge– Organized, master planner

• Planned to take Richmond– Would end war

• “The Peninsula Campaign” (Summer 1862)– Stonewall Jackson bluffs attack on

D.C.– Northern troops split– Southern Gen. Jeb Stuart’s cavalry

circles & outflanks McClellan– Southern Gen. Robert E. Lee attacks in

“Seven Days’ Battles”– Pushes McClellan back to sea– South wins another huge battle– 35,000 casualties

• North’s quick solution to war fails twice

• Lincoln’s new plan: TOTAL WAR– Blockade, divide, conquer

• Strengthen naval blockade• Free the slaves• Divide the South along Mississippi

River• Capture Richmond, VA (CSA Capital)• Engage battle anywhere possible

– Abandons using only large, planned battles

• South would be pounded into submission in every facet of war

North’s New

Strategy

Northern Gen. Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda Plan”

Naval Blockade

• Penetrable at first, strengthened over time• Stopped and searched any ships coming in or out• C.S.S. Merrimack – ironclad ship threatened blockade• North builds U.S.S. Monitor• Monitor defeats Merrimack in Chesapeake Bay March, 1862• New plan: replace wooden ships with iron, steam ships

– Who’s more likely to manufacture more and at a faster rate?

Antietam

• Aug 1862 – Second Battle of Bull Run– North beaten badly by South, led by Lee

• South undoubtedly winning the war• Lee marches forward invades

Antietam, MD– Wants to lure Border States to join CSA– Draw war off of Virginia’s farmland– Make a symbolic victory on Northern

soil• Loses battle plans – found by North• Gen. McClellan (back in charge)

prepares for battle…

Antietam• Battle of Antietam Creek

(Sep. 1862)• Most critical battle of war

so far– Could be knockout punch

for South– Northern victory would

keep war alive, convinces Europe to stay out of war

• North wins– Overpowers South with

numbers• Over 20,000 casualties

Emancipation Proclamation• First, much awaited victory for North• Gives Lincoln a stage to announce next part

of plan: free the slaves• Not just a war to reunite the nation, but

now to end slavery as well– Gives North a “moral” rationale for fighting

• Proclamation did not free slaves in Border States– States too fragile → could leave secede in anger

• No real legal repercussions to Proclamation – why?– Lincoln holds no political power in South– Lincoln didn’t have authority to free slaves even

in the Union– North would have to win the war for it to go into

effect– South complains Lincoln is stirring slave rebellion

Black Soldiers Join Effort• Free Black men in the North banned

from enlisting at first• As war progressed, more soldiers

were needed– Black men now allowed to enlist– 10% of army made up of Black men

• Southern army often just executed captured Black soldiers rather than treat them as POWs– Massacre at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee

• Advancing Northern armies freed slaves, some of which joined the war

Futile Northern Generals• Gen. McClellan demoted again after

Antietam– Had Lee’s plans!!!– Barely won the battle

• Largely because of numbers– Failed to pursue and crush Lee

• Gen. Burnside takes over– Defeated at Fredericksburg, VA (Dec,

1862)• Gen. Hooker takes over

– Defeated at Chancellorsville, VA (May, 1863)

– Lee’s most impressive victory– Humiliating loss for the North– Stonewall Jackson mistakenly killed by

own men• Gen. Meade takes over…

Gettysburg• Lee again goes for “knockout

punch”• Invades North again• Battle of Gettysburg, PA (July

1863)– South wins first two days of

battle forcing North to retreat up into hills

– Third Day: “Pickett’s Charge”• Lee sends 15,000 men across

open field to crush the North with frontal assault

• Fails miserably – Northern lines hold

• North wins HUGE battle

Gettysburg• Biggest win for North thus far• Massive loss for South

– 25,000 casualties• Turning point in war• South could not keep up with

North’s influx of soldiers, supplies– Chances at victory dwindling fast

• Gettysburg Address (Nov 1863)– Lincoln returned to battlefield to

give speech to troops– Meant to boost morale,

rationalize war

Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Blockade, Divide, Conquer

• Ulysses S. Grant– “Unconditional Surrender”– Rose to fame by capturing

Jackson and Vicksburg, MS• One day after Gettysburg• Divides South at Mississippi River

• Gen. Sherman divides South from Tennessee to Atlanta (Spring 1864)

• “March to Sea”– Total war tactics– Destroyed everything in his path– Burns Atlanta to ground

Election of 1864

Lincoln Results: McClellan 212 Electoral College 21 55% Popular Vote 45%

George McClellan

(Democratic Party)

Abe Lincoln(National Union

Party)

Election of 1864

• Lincoln had some Northern opposition– “Radical Republicans” felt Lincoln was

mismanaging war– Democrats split on Lincoln support

• “War Dems vs. Peace Dems”

• Lincoln forms “Union Party”– Combines Republicans and War Democrats

• George McClellan runs vs. Lincoln• Lincoln easily wins election

The Final Stages: Lee vs. Grant

• Grant promoted to Commanding General Army

• South blockaded & divided• GRANT’s strategy now:

– Beat the South by outlasting the South

– North has strength in numbers• Series of battles in VA grinds

away at South:– The Wilderness (May 1864)– Spotsylvania Courthouse (May)– Cold Harbor (June 1864)*– Petersburg (June 1864 - Mar

1865)

All result in Northern “victories”*

The South Surrenders• Petersburg was South’s last

stand– After it falls, South doomed– Grant marches to Richmond

• “Scorched earth” method of South causes fires in Richmond

• Evacuation allows for easy capture of capital

– April 1865 – Lee surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse in VA

Aftermath• 600,000 dead

– A whole generation gone• $15 billion spent• Long-term animosity• Physically destroyed the South• Pro: Slavery ended forever• Lincoln assassinated 5 days after the war ends

– At a play at Ford’s Theater in D.C.– Shot by John Wilkes Booth in part of plot to still help South win

the war– Lincoln an instant martyr in North

• Died reuniting the nation, ending slavery– Assassination celebrated in South, ironically dooms them

• Radical Reps who replace Lincoln not as forgiving as Lincoln