Civil War

  • Fort Sumter: War Starts   * 7 southern states had already left the Union before Lincoln took office in March 1861   * Lincoln’s Inaugural Address     * Pledged not to interfere with slavery       * No right of secession   * Lincoln says sending provisions to Fort Sumner     * Not reinforcements   * Confederacy attacks Fort Sumter in April 1861     * Civil war begins
  • Impacts   * Unites the North against the South to preserve the Union     * Lincoln calls for volunteers to fight   * Southerners rally around the Confederacy     * 4 more states join the Confederacy   * Lincoln’s priority becomes keeping the Border States in the Union
  • Border States   * The Border States     * Missouri     * Kentucky     * Delaware     * Maryland       * Slave states that remain in the Union   * Goal of Lincoln to keep them in the Union   * Importance     * Would have given south more white men to fight     * Would nearly double the manufacturing capacity of the South     * Strategic geographic location   * Martial law in Maryland   * Guerilla Warfare in Missouri   * Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus
  • North: The Union   * Advantages     * Industrial resources       * Majority of manufacturing capacity     * Transportation       * Railroads advantage     * Powerful navy and established government     * Population advantage       * 22 million to 9 million     * Emancipation   * Disadvantages     * Lack of leadership       * Many top military leaders joined the south     * Lack of purpose       * Southern states felt they were struggling for their independence
  • South: Confederate States   * Advantages     * Fighting defensive war       * Friendly population     * Sense of purpose       * Reason to fight         * Southern honor     * Veteran military officials     * Cotton diplomacy       * Hoped would get recognition and financial assistance   * Disadvantages     * Had no navy     * No government structure       * States rights     * Poorly equipped and no railroad system       * Weak economy       * No manufacturing
  • Mobilizing for War: North   * Conscription Act     * March 1863     * All men 20-45 had to register for the draft       * Unfair to the poor         * “Three-Hundred dollar men” substitutes   * NY City Draft Riots     * July 1863     * Mob of mostly Irish Americans attacks the wealthy and African Americans
  • Lincoln Proclaimed He Was Not Fighting the War to End Slavery   * Secession was not legal   * Needed to keep support from Border States   * Fear from white workers in the north   * Political concerns     * Northern Democrats
  • Road to Emancipation   * Two reasons to free the slaves     * Military       * Liberate the slaves undermines the economic foundation of the south     * Ideological       * Right thing to do, pressure to do so   * Radical republicans had been pressuring Lincoln to make war about slavery     * Charles Sumner     * Thaddeus Stevens     * Benjamin Wade   * Confiscation Act     * August 1861     * Slaves used for “insurrectionary purposes” declared free       * Incentive to escape Union camps   * 2nd Confiscation Act     * July 1862     * Freed all slaves who were enslaved by anybody engaged in rebellion against the U.S.
  • Emancipation Proclamation   * Following the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln decided to move forward with announcing emancipation   * Emancipation Proclamation was justified as military necessity     * Declared slaves free in rebel territory (Confederacy)       * Does not free slaves in the border states   * Impact     * Strengthened the moral cause of the North       * Not just a war against secession         * Against slavery     * Helped keep Europe from aiding Confederacy     * Gave the Union new soldiers for Union army   * Limits     * North had no authority in the Confederacy     * Did not apply to border states
  • African Americans Fight For Freedom   * Frederick Douglas saw enlistment in the Union army as an opportunity to prove their citizenship     * Denied by Dred Scott   * 180,000 African Americans served in the war     * Massachusetts 54th Regiment   * Prejudice     * Paid less than white soldiers
  • Use of Executive Power   * Civil liberties are oftentimes reduced during times of national crisis   * Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland and other states     * People arrested without being informed of the charges against them and held without trial   * Presidential power oftentimes increases during times of war     * Ordered a blockade without approval of Congress     * Increase size of Federal Army without approval of Congress
  • Politics During the War   * Challenges for Lincoln     * Radical Republicans vs. Moderates     * War Democrats       * Support war but criticized Lincoln’s handling of it     * Peace Democrats       * Copperheads       * Opposed the war and wanted negotiated peace     * Election of 1864       * Lincoln beats General McClellan   * Challenges for Confederacy     * Cotton Diplomacy       * Hope for European intervention         * Europe obtained cotton from other sources         * Failure at Antietam

September 1862

  • Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863   * Tradition of states rights makes fighting the war difficult     * Conflict with central government
  • Republican Majority in Congress   * 1861     * Morrill Tariff Act       * Help pay for war and protect northern industry   * 1862     * Homestead Act       * Set up sale of land in west and encourage settlement   * 1862     * Legal Tender Act       * Printing of paper money “greenbacks”   * 1863     * National Bank Act       * Financial landmark that sought to establish a unified banking system   * 1863     * Pacific Railway Act       * Established northern route of transcontinental railroad
  • Impact of the Civil War   * Over 600,000 lives lost   * Southern economy destroyed, and northern industrialization accelerated by the war   * Republican laws passes   * Union preserved     * Ideas of secession and nullification defeated     * Civil war was the ultimate test for American democracy   * 4 million slaves freed by the 13th Amendment

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