5. Civil War: Politics, Financing, and Early Campaigns

Abraham Lincoln's stated war aim (post-Fort Sumter)

Preserving the Union, primarily to prevent border states like Maryland from seceding.

Jefferson Davis's stated war aim

Defending states' rights, avoiding the topic of slavery to prevent slave insurrections.

Confederate constitutional dilemma

Balancing the need for a strong central government with the ideology of state sovereignty.

Confederate Constitution preamble change

Inserted language declaring each state acted in its sovereign and independent character.

Central powers of the Confederate government

The constitutional authority to levy taxes and coin/regulate money.

Confederate Constitution Article 1, Section 9

Guaranteed federal protection of slavery and banned states from abolishing it.

Internal Revenue Act of 1862

Created the first, temporary graduated income tax in United States history.

Greenbacks

Union paper currency backed by a fiduciary system of IOUs, not precious metals.

War bonds

Government notes sold to the public to raise immediate cash, repaid with interest.

Union Draft Law of 1863

Drafted men aged 20-45, but allowed a $300 buyout option.

Cotton notes

Unstable Confederate currency backed by cotton, which rapidly lost its value.

Confederate Conscription Act of 1862

Drafted men aged 17-50 due to the South's smaller population.

Twenty-slave clause

Exempted Southern plantation owners with 20 or more slaves from the military draft.

Judah P. Benjamin

Confederate Secretary of State who attempted to negotiate a British alliance.

King Cotton diplomacy

The failed Southern strategy leveraging British dependence on Confederate cotton for an alliance.

Failure of King Cotton diplomacy

Britain held strong abolitionist views and found alternative cotton sources in Egypt and India.

First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

1861 Confederate victory that proved the war would not end quickly or easily.

Admiral David Farragut

Union naval officer who successfully seized and occupied New Orleans.

Battle of Shiloh (April 1862)

Union victory securing control of the critical Tennessee River valley.

General Albert Sidney Johnston

Highest-ranking Confederate officer killed in the war; bled to death at Shiloh.

Peninsular Campaign

General George McClellan's failed 1862 waterborne offensive to capture Richmond from the southeast.

Battle of Seven Days

The military engagement that decisively defeated McClellan's Peninsular Campaign.