Civil War Midterm 2

The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege: Epilogue

Discusses the senses of Southerners at the end of the Civil War following Sherman’s “Total War.”

Total War

A battle tactic used in the Civil War by northern generals, such as Sherman, that involved destroying anything that may be of use to the Confederacy.

The End of the War: Seen

The presence of Union symbols on the state capitol buildings.

The End of the War: Taste

Freed slaves ate Union army rations.

The End of the War: Felt

Union soldiers and freed slaves sympathized with one another.

War Upon the Land, “Devoured Land”

• Focuses on the environmental perspective during the Civil War.

• How the Southern environment played a role in how the Union approached warfare in the South.

How did Sherman’s army devour the land?

• Setting fire to any building that could be of use to the Confederate army.

• Stealing the agriculture of the South and destroying the rest.

• Destroying the agricultural tools and labor.

Why did the Confederacy Lose?

• Lack of support from Southern women.

• Inefficient medical infrastructure compared to the Union.

• Very high death rate.

• Logistical challenges.

Why did the Union Win?

• Superior medical infrastructure compared to the Confederacy.

• Union generals’ military strategies.

• Emancipation Proclamation.

• Resources.

• Centralized government.

Union Advantages

Northern structures remained intact.

Union Disadvantages

• Use of a military draft.

• Political divide (Emancipation and Southern sympathies).

• Political tension (Within the Republican Party).

Confederate Advantages

Strong initially (many Confederate victories and volunteers).

Confederate Disadvantages

• Later trouble with recruitment.

• Difficulties expanding the army.

Why Confederate Soldiers Fought

• Protecting racial hierarchy.

• Keeping order.

• Fear of danger of a free society.

Why White Union Soldiers Fought

• Anger over secession.

• Antislavery.

Why African American Soldiers Fought

• Personal reasons (finding family).

• After Emancipation, to end slavery.

• Supported by Frederick Douglass.

Eastern Theatre 1861 - 1862

• Half of the casualties occurred here because the capitals were close to each other.

• Union wasn’t doing great.

• The Confederacy had strong enthusiasm because of its strong leadership.

• Battle of Antietam.

Emancipation Proclamation

• Presidential proclamation and executive order.

• Declared all fugitive slaves and slaves in the South free.

Bull Run

First major battle of the Civil War.

Turning Points of the Civil War

• Gettysburg.

  • Prevented the Confederacy from capturing Washington DC.

• Vicksburg.

  • A siege in Virginia.

  • Divided the Confederacy and gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.

Battle of Gettysburg

• July 1 - 3, 1863.

• Battle in Southern Pennsylvania.

• Confederates desired to surround Washington DC while the Union had the high ground.

• Pickett’s Charge failed (named after Confederate general, George Pickett).

• Union victory.

Gettysburg Address

• Given by Lincoln during the dedication ceremonies at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg.

• November 19, 1863.

• Claims that the Civil War tests whether the proposition that all men are created equal can survive.

• The Union must win the war.

Separate Spheres

• The differences in society between men and women.

• Women were associated with working at home.

• The Civil War changed this as many women began working in the public sphere in hospitals.

Hospitals

• Became more prominent during the Civil War.

• Before, treatment was more common at home.

Diseases.

• More disease deaths than combat deaths during the war.

• Dysentery, malaria, drapetomania, nostalgia.

Drapetomania

• A “mental illness” that declared slaves that tried to escape slavery as insane.

• Scientific/biological racism.

Nostalgia

• Mental illness/disease during the Civil War describing people who were supposedly homesick.

• Often considered fatal.

Changes in Medicine as a Result of the Civil War

• More regulations on becoming a physician.

• Gendering of medical care.

Outcomes of the Emancipation Proclamation

• Inspired self-emancipation.

• Anti-slavery and abolitionists liked it.

• Outraged Southerners and Union Democrats.

How did Confederate Propaganda Portray Ulysses S. Grant

Butcher, unskilled, drunk.

End of the Civil War

• Collapse of the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, in 1865.

• Jefferson Davis flees.

• Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox.

What did Grant Write in his Memoirs?

• Wanted to write a truthful history.

• Described the courage, endurance, and ability of American citizen-soldiers.

• Believed emancipation made the Union morally superior.

• Supported adding African American soldiers.

Jubal Early

• Confederate Lieutenant under Robert E. Lee.

• A big proponent of the Lost Cause.

• Wanted to improve the reputation of Confederate veterans and the Confederacy.

Early’s Distortions

• Lee had no faults or lost any battles.

• Ignored Confederate advantages during the war.

• Denied Grant’s virtues.

• Ignored the Confederacy’s actions outside of the eastern theatre when convenient.

Early’s True Statements

• Lee was a gifted general.

• The Confederacy often fought against disadvantages in numbers and materials.

Sensory History

How history is experienced through the main human senses.

The Civil War: Sounds

Normal city sounds transformed into a military warzone.

The Civil War: Sight

• Sight became less reliable during battle.

• Muddied the senses (smoke, dust, gunfire, etc.)

• Especially during the Battle of Bull Run.

Cornelia Hancock

• A Union nurse who treated soldiers from the Battle of Gettysburg.

• Important to understanding sense of smell during the Civil War.

The Civil War: Smell

Odors of wounds and decomposing bodies.

The Civil War: Taste

• Before the siege, Vicksburg residents ate luxuriously.

• During, the city began losing access to food.

  • Grant used starvation as a military tactic.

• Taste helps determine someone’s social status/place in society.

Marrow of Tragedy

Studies the changes in medicine, especially in the Union, as a result of the Civil War.

Ulysses S. Grant, Historian

• Studies Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs.

• Studies Grant’s reputation following the Civil War.

Jubal Early, the Lost Cause, and Civil War History

• Discusses Jubal Early and the Lost Cause.

• How it shaped Robert E. Lee’s legacy.

Warwork and the Crisis of Domesticity in the North

Change in gender roles during the Civil War to support the war effort.

Altars of Sacrifice: Confederate Women and the Narratives of War

Change in gender roles in the Union and the Confederacy.

Seldom Thanked, Never Praised, Scarcely Recognized: Gender and Racism in Civil War Hospitals

• Racism occurred in Civil War hospitals.

• The relationship between gender roles and racial hierarchy.

Andrew Johnson

• Vice president of Lincoln.

• Became president after Lincoln was assasinated.

• Oversaw reunion.

• Impeached.

George McClellan

• Union general.

• Ran for the Democratic candidate in the 1864 election.

Reconstruction Amendments

• 13th Amendment.

  • Made emancipation the law of the Union.

• 14th Amendment.

• 15th Amendment.

  • Guaranteed suffrage for black men.

John Wilkes Booth

Assassinated Lincoln

Architects of Their Own Liberation

Argued that slaves were responsible for their own emancipation as much as the Union was.

The Great Emancipator

A title given to Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War and his assasination.

Mourning Lincoln, Preface

Focuses on how the Americans expressed grief over the assassination of Lincoln differently.

Albert and Sarah Browne

• A married white abolitionist couple from Salem, Massachusetts.

• Responded with despair to Lincoln’s assasination.

Rodney Dorman

• A Confederate lawyer in Jacksonville, Florida.

• Responded with great delight to news of Lincoln’s assassination.