Civil War

Cornerstone Speech

Alexander Stephens (GA)

·         Outlined causes for Secession and Confederation

 

Fort Sumter

War Starts April 12. 1861

·         Most forts in South had relinquished their power to the Confederacy, but American union forces are still at Fort Sumter

·         Lincoln chose to send supplies to the fort. 

·         Cannons were fired onto the fort, after 34 hours of non-lethal firing, the fort surrendered.

 

Border States

·         Delaware

·         Maryland

i.                    Strong confederate sympathies, but voted unionism

ii.                  Surrounded D.C.

iii.                Lincoln declared martial law and suspended habeas corpus

iv.                Arrested 1/3 of Maryland’s General Assembly

·         Kentucky

i.                    Declared neutrality

ii.                  “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.” Abraham Lincoln

·         Missouri

i.                    State legislature coted overwhelmingly for unionism

ii.                  Pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Jackson called out state militia

·         West Virginia

i.                    Yeoman farmers in western Virginia who did not own many slaves

ii.                  Seceded from Virginia and officially recognized as a state in 1862

 

Comparing the Union and Confederacy

-Union

·         Population- 18.5 million

·         Finance- 234,000,000

·         Agriculture- Advantage in corn, wheat, horses and livestock

·         Industry- 101,000 factories with 1.1 million factory workers. 20,000 miles of railroad. 97% of gun production

·         Troop Enlistment : 2,672,341

·         Loyalty of the Navy

-Confederacy

·         Population : 5.5 million free, 3.5 million slaves

·         Finance : 74,000,000

·         Agriculture : Advantage in cotton, rice and tobacco

·         Industry : 21,000 factories with 111,000 factory workers. 9,000 miles of railroad

·         Troop Enlistment : 750,000 to 1.2 million

·         Defensive war and cause

·         Hope of Cotton Diplomacy

 

Union’s Strategy

·         General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan

i.                    Naval blockade of Confederate ports

ii.                  March southward along Mississippi River

·         Capture Confederate capital of Richmond

i.                    Disrupt command lines

 

Western Theater

Early Union Fails (1861-1862) ]

·         Generals-in-Chief

i.                    Winfield Scott 1861

ii.                  George McClellan (1861-1862)

iii.                Henry Halleck (1862-1864)

iv.                Ulysses S. Grant (1864-1865)

·         Army of the Potomac

·         Army of Northern Virginia

i.                    Robert E. Lee

ii.                  Stonewell Jackson

iii.                Joseph E. Johnston

·         First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861)

i.                    Confederate victory over Union Army

·         McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign (1862)

i.                    Union retreat from Confederate capital siege in Richmond

·         Battle of Fredericksburg (Dec 1862)

i.                    Most lopsided Union defeat

 

Confederate Resistance

·         Blockade Runners and Raiders

i.                    Constructed by British shipbuilders

ii.                  CSS Alabama

-Captured and sunk 86 Union merchant ships

·         Confederate Raiders

i.                    Guerrilla warfare tactics

ii.                  Quantrill’s Raiders

-Looted, burned, and executed in Kansas and Texas

i.                    John Singleton Mosby, “the Gray Ghost”

Western Theater

Union Generals

·         Ulysses S. Grant

·         William T. Sherman

Confederate Generals

·         P.G.T. Beauregard

·         Joseph Johnston

·         Braxton Bragg

Battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862)

·         Confederate loss opened the door for the Mississippi River

-Capture of New Orleans (May 1862)

-Battle of Vicksburg (Dec 1862 – July 1863)

·         Confedeerate loss and union control of the Mississippi River

Chattanooga (Nov-Dec 1863)

·         Confederate loss of the “Gateway to the Lower South”

 

The Union and Black /Slaves

The idea of ending slavery was difficult for Lincoln

·         Border states were slave states like Kentucky

·         Slavery is constitutional

·         Racism in the north and among democrats

·         His main reason was to bring the states together, not slavery yet.

Confiscation Acts (1861, 1862)

·         Captured fugitive slaves not to be returned to  owners and forfeited to the union army

 

Army of Freedom

·         54th Massachusetts- Black soldiers paid less, their uniform and tools

·         Fought in major battles: 200,000 participants; 37,000 casualties

-Did the Confederacy really lose?

 

 

Battle of Antietam (Sep 1862)

Army of Northern Virginia

·         Robert E. Lee

Objective

·         Lee marched into Maryland to devastate Union Morale

Results

·         Tactically inconclusive

·         Union strategic victory

·         McClellan failing to pursue Lee and destroy his army led to his replacement

·         Bloodiest day in Civil War with 22,717 killed in action, wounded, missing

Effects

·         No foreign help for the Confederacy

·         Emancipation Proclamation

 

Emancipation Proclamation

-Lincoln decided to issue the Proclamation after the Battle of Antietam

-Issued January 1, 1863

-An executive order under war powers (extra power).

-Made slavery an explicit war goal.

-It emancipates all slaves in the confederacy only.

·         Freed 3.5 million of 4 million slaves in the U.S.

Limits

·         Did not outlaw slavery in the U.S.

·         Did not free slaves in the Border States

·         Did not repeal the Fugitive Slave Law

·         Did not compensate slave owners

·         Did not grant citizenship to freed slaves

-Discouraged British and French recognition of the Confederacy

 

Union Difficulties

-War lasting longer than expected

Enrollment Act of 1863

·         Substitution and Commutation

·         Pay a substitute or pay $300 (5,400) to avoid draft

·         If you had resources and wealth you don’t have to fight. “A rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight”

·         New York Draft Riots (1863)

i.                    Whites went into black neighborhoods and killed black people.

 

Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)

After Gettysburg, the Union is sure they’ll win.

Battle of Chancellorsville (April-May 1863)

·         Confederate victory

·         Loss of “Stonewall” Jackson

Army of Potomac

·         General Joseph Hooker then General George Meade

Army of Northern Virginia

 

Objective

·         Invade Union as far as Pennsylvania to demoralize Union

Results

·         Union victory

·         Between 46-51,000 casualties

Aftermath

·         Gettysburg Address

·         A turning point in the war toward an ultimate Union victory, along with Vicksburg

Lincoln and the Constitution

Ex parte Merryman (1861)

·         The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, except when in Cases of Rebellion

·         Congress was in recess and Lincoln ordered the suspension of habeas corpus

i.                    Does Lincoln have the right to do this?

·         Lincoln arrested a lot of people just for the safety of the country

·         Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled only Congress can suspend habeas corpus

·         Lincoln and U.S. army ignored the decision

Ex parte Milligan (1866)

·         Trial by military tribunal only constitutional when only military law is in effect

·         Trial of civilians in military tribunals when civilian courts still function is unconstitutional.

 

Politics and the Civil War

Radical Republican

·         Believed Lincoln to be too lenient with Confederacy

·         Demanded abolitionism and equality as major goals of the war

Conservative Republicans

·         Can not make ending slavery an explicit goal od the Civil War

War Democrats

·         Unionists who supported the war and aggressive policies toward the Confederacy

·         Andrew Johnson

Copperheads/Peace Democrats

·         Concentrated in the Ohio River Valley and urban wards

·         Jackson Democrat-types who supported an immediate peace settlement with the Confederacy

·         George H. Pendleton (OH)

 

Battle of Atlanta

-General William “Tecumseh” Sherman led a Union Victory

-Most trains that passed through the south, past through Atlanta

-Union controlled a major railroad line hub in the South

Aftermath

·         Solidified electoral support for Lincoln in upcoming election

·         Become launching point for Sherman’s March to the Sea

 

Election of 1864

Abraham Lincoln (R)

·         Ran as National Union Party

·         Andrew Johnson (D) as VP running mate

·         Fall of Atlanta ensured re-election

-George McClellan (D)

 

Hard War

-General Ulysses S. Grant

-General Sheridan and “The Burning”

·         Devastation of Shenandoah Valley: Destroying crops and railroads in the Union Army’s path

-General Sherman’s March to the Sea

·         Scorched earth policy from Atlanta

·         Burned and destroyed everything.

Sherman’s Special Field Orders No. 15

·         Confiscation of 400,000 acres of land along coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida (most fertile ground in the south)

·         40 acres for each freed slave in the area

 

Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

-Text

·         Section 1. Slavery is banned except as punishment for a crime.

·         Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

 

Peace

-Appomattox – April 9, 1865

·         Lee surrenders to Grant

-What about slavery? Voting rights? How much punishment should Confederate soldiers face?