Ch.15

1. Crittenden Proposal—1860

 This was a last-minute attempt at a compromise to save the Union. James Crittenden of

Kentucky proposed a series of constitutional amendments: 1) Slavery in the territories

would be prohibited above 36 o 30’ (the old Missouri Compromise line) and allowed below

it. 2) The federal government would be forbidden to interfere with slavery in the South.

3) New states could enter the Union free or slave as they chose. 4) Owners of runaway

slaves would be compensated. 5) Personal liberty laws would be repealed.

 Lincoln rejected the Crittenden proposal, and it collapsed.

2. The Confederate States of America /7 States, Initially

 South Carolina seceded in December of 1860, followed by Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,

Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee

followed after Fort Sumter.

 A number of factors led to secession. The Southern states saw the political balance in

Congress tipping against them. They were appalled by the triumph of the Republican

Party (opposed to slavery in the territories; in favor of a high protective tariff, federal

financing of internal improvements, and a homestead act). They were tired of Northern

interference with slavery (Underground Railroad, Brown’s raid, abolitionist propaganda).

Many felt that the North would not fight secession. And they felt they had a constitutional

right to secede.

3. Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural Address—March 1861

 Lincoln promised not to interfere with slavery where it already existed and to enforce

federal laws including the Fugitive Slave Law.

 He pledged to the South that there would be no conflict unless the South provoked it.

 But he also labeled secession illegal and promised to hold on to federal property in the

states that had seceded, e.g., Fort Sumter.

4. The Five Civilized Tribes During the Civil War

 The Five Civilized Tribes were primarily located in the Indian Territory, following their

forced removal west via the Trail of Tears.

 The Five Tribes were comprised of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Seminoles, and

Cherokees. OpenStax suggests all five tribes supported the Confederacy; however, this is

not completely true. Some online resources suggest the Creek and Seminole supported

the Union.

 Regardless, the majority of the tribal members of the five nations supported the

Confederacy and members from each tribe had slaves.

5. Border States, esp. Kentucky

 Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware were slave states that did not secede. Had

the North fired first, they likely would have seceded.

 The Border States would have vastly increased the Southern population and industrial

capacity had they seceded.

 Kentucky was geographically important because it provided access to the Ohio River and

its tributaries that flowed deep into CSA territory.

6. Fort Sumter—April 1861

 When South Carolina seceded from the Union, it demanded that all federal property in

the state be surrendered to state authorities. When Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861,

Sumter was one of only two forts in the South still under Union control. Learning that

Lincoln planned to send supplies to the fort, Confederate General Beauregard demanded

Major Robert Anderson’s surrender, which was refused. On April 12, 1861, the

Confederate Army began bombarding the fort, which surrendered on April 14, 1861.

 The attack solidified public opinion in the North in favor of the use of force against the

South. The next day Lincoln declared that an insurrection existed and called for 75,000

three-month volunteers.

7. First Battle of Bull Run—July 1861

 Union troops advancing on the Confederate capital of Richmond were defeated. This was

the first major battle of the Civil War; both sides were ill prepared.

 Prior to Bull Run, both sides predicted a quick war; Lincoln assumed the war would be

over in ninety days. Bull Run showed that this would not be the case. The North

responded to the defeat with renewed determination.

 The victory caused the South to be overconfident; enlistments dropped and preparations

for war slackened.

8. Southern Advantages in 1861

 The South could fight defensively behind interior lines.

 The South was fighting on its own soil for self-preservation (which boosted morale).

 The South had the most talented officers.

 Southerners were more accustomed to the outdoor life of riding and hunting and so made

an easier transition to the military life.

 The South would not have to win to gain independence. Simply fighting the Union to a

stalemate would have secured Southern independence.

9. Northern Advantages in 1861

 The North had a stronger economy than did the South (the North possessed three times

the wealth of the South).

 The North had a superior navy allowing it to blockade the South and continue foreign

trade.

 The North had more railroads, three times what had been built in the South.

 The North had more manpower (22 million in comparison to the South’s 9 million—3 ½

million of whom were slaves). This advantage increased even more during the war due to

immigration.

 The North had more factories to produce supplies (90% of the nation’s industry).

 The North had superior civilian political leaders.

10. Failure of King Cotton

 The South assumed that British demand for cotton to supply its mills would force

England to support the South. Further, the aristocratic British elite favored the less-

democratic South.

 But the British working class favored the North because of the slavery issue. Further, the

British had on hand large surpluses of cotton that initially kept the mills running and the

British working class employed. The Union captured supplies of cotton and sent them to

England while the South also exported what cotton it could through the Union blockade.

And the increased price for raw cotton encouraged Egypt and India to increase

production.

 Finally, the British suffered poor harvests during the war years and needed Northern corn

and wheat more than Southern cotton.

11. George B. McClellan

 Given command of the Union forces after Bull Run, McClellan excelled at transforming

raw recruits into a professional army. He was reluctant to attack the South, however,

always assuming incorrectly that Lee had superior forces.

12. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson

 One of the South’s best generals, Jackson was, in Lee’s words, “my right arm.” Jackson

won his nickname at Bull Run when his troops stood firm like a stone wall against the

Yankees.

13. Ironclads: Merrimack & Monitor (NOT MENTIONED IN OPENSTAX)

 The South restored a former US warship (Merrimack) and plated its sides with old iron

railroad rails. It was renamed the Virginia; not a seaworthy craft but it did destroy

wooden ships of the North and threatened the whole Northern fleet. The Union built a

tiny ironclad, the Monitor, which held off the Merrimack. This was the first real testing of

ironclads and foreshadowed the doom of wooden warships.

14. Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)—September 1862

 A draw on the battlefield, this bloodiest day of the war was a strategic victory for the

North as it halted Lee’s invasion of the North. But it was more important for two other

reasons.

 It provided Lincoln with the military success he needed to issue the preliminary

Emancipation Proclamation.

 France and Britain were close to intervening diplomatically but decided not to after this

battle.

15. Ulysses S. Grant

 Grant was little known until his triumph in Tennessee when he captured Ft. Henry and Ft.

Donelson, cementing Kentucky to the Union and opening the gateway to the Union

invasion of Tennessee and Georgia.

 Grant was criticized as a butcher for suffering tremendous losses in battle. But the Union

could replace its lost soldiers; the South could not. Grant eventually ground down the

Confederate forces.

 After his victory at Vicksburg, Grant was given command of all Union forces in 1864.

16. The Confederate Draft – 1862

 The South initially relied on volunteers. By 1862 they found it necessary to institute a

draft of men seventeen to fifty. The wealthy could hire a substitute or purchase an

exemption. Slave owners or overseers with more than twenty slaves to supervise were

exempt. Southerners protested that it had become “a rich man’s war but a poor man’s

fight.”

17. Difficulties Governing the CSA

 The Confederacy was established on the principle of states’ rights, similar to the Articles

of Confederation. This made it difficult for President Jefferson Davis to rule effectively.

For example, some states were reluctant to allow their troops to serve outside their state

borders.

 In addition, Davis lacked the political skill needed to persuade people to do difficult

things they did not want to do. He tended to order people rather than persuade them. At

times the CSA congress talked of impeaching him.

18. Homestead Act—1862

 With the South out of Congress for the duration of the war, Republicans dominated

Washington. Without Democratic opposition, they enacted a number of their campaign

promises: a transcontinental railroad, the Morrill Land Grant Act (which funded state

land grant universities), and the Homestead Act.

 The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of public land to settlers who lived on the land for

five years.

19. The National Banking Act—1863

 This established the first national banking system since the demise of the BUS. It allowed

banks to obtain national charters, buy government bonds, and issue sound paper money

backed by those bonds.

 This helped finance the Union war effort through the sale of government bonds. It also

helped the North establish sound currency and avoid the 9,000% inflation the South

suffered during the war.

20. The Union Draft (Enrollment Act) – 1863

 The North likewise relied on volunteers initially, then on cash bounties to enlistees. A

draft became necessary in 1863, and, as in the South, the wealthy could buy their way

out. In New York City in 1863, poor, anti-black Irish rioted against the draft leading to at

least seventy-three deaths. This is also known as the New York City Draft Riots.

21. Lincoln Stretching the Constitution

 Lincoln at times exceeded his constitutional powers in prosecuting the war. His position

was that had he not done so, it might have been impossible to save the Union.

 His actions included the following: increasing the size of the army withot congressional

approval, authorizing government expenditures without congressional approval,

suspending the writ of habeas corpus, ordering civilians to be tried in military courts, and

supervising voting in the Border States.

22. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell & Clara Barton (NOT MENTIONED IN OPENSTAX)

 Blackwell organized the US Sanitary Commission which provided medical supplies and

assistance to armies; many women worked with her, which gave women confidence and

organizational skills they used to further the women’s movement after the war.

 Barton transformed nursing from a lowly service to a respected profession and opened up

an area for employment outside the home for women after the war. In 1881 she founded

the American Red Cross.

23. Emancipation Proclamation—January 1863

 The Emancipation Proclamation declared free the slaves in rebel Confederate states but

did not mention the Border States.

 Thousands of slaves from Southern plantations flocked to Union armies, weakening the

Southern war effort.

 Some felt, however, that Lincoln had unfairly changed the goal of the war, and many

soldiers deserted. But for the most part, this bolstered the moral cause at home and

abroad and thus strengthened the North’s position.

24. Fall of Vicksburg—July 1863

 Grant led the North to victory in the siege of Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the

Mississippi.

 Grant’s victory combined with the win at Gettysburg the same week to quiet Northern

peace agitators. It also persuaded the British to stop delivery of the Laird rams and the

French to halt the sale of six warships to the South.

25. Battle of Gettysburg—July 1863

 Lee invaded the North in hopes of encouraging Northerners to press for peace and

Europeans to intervene. Gettysburg was the northernmost point of the Southern advance.

 The Union victory was the turning point of the war. After Gettysburg, the South had no

real chance at victory, though they fought for two more years.

26. Gettysburg Address—November 1863

 Lincoln delivered this 273-word speech at the dedication of a national cemetery in

Gettysburg. In this two-minute address Lincoln said that the point of the Civil War was

not simply to preserve the Union but to preserve democracy (“government of the people,

by the people, for the people”) and the ideals of the Declaration (“dedicated to the

proposition that all men are created equal”).

Foreign Policy IDs during the Civil War (NOT ALL MENTIONED IN OPENSTAX)

27. The Trent Affair—1861

 A Union warship stopped the Trent, a British ship, and removed two Confederate

diplomats. Britain was outraged at this violation of neutral rights and sent troops to

Canada. Lincoln released the prisoners; “One war at a time,” he said.

28. The Alabama

 The Alabama was one of several British-made warships that fought for the Confederacy,

destroying over sixty Northern ships in twenty-two months before it was sunk in 1864.

 US Ambassador to England, Charles Francis Adams, eventually convinced the British

that it was not in their long-term interests to violate their status as a neutral nation by

building ships for the South.

29. Laird Rams—1863

 These were two Confederate warships built in Britain at the Laird shipyard. They were

equipped with iron rams for sinking ships and with heavy guns. They could have broken

the Union blockade and threatened Northern cities.

 Ambassador Adams convinced England that the sale of the rams to the South would

mean war against England, so England bought them for the Royal Navy.

30. Maximilian in Mexico—1863-1867

 Seeking to take advantage of the American conflict, the French sent an army to Mexico

City and then sent Austrian Archduke Maximilian to rule Mexico as France’s puppet. The

US protested but was not able to deal with the problem until after the Civil War. At that

point, the US threatened an invasion of Mexico to remove Maximilian. The French

withdrew their troops; Maximilian was captured and executed by the Mexicans.

 This event was significant in demonstrating US resolve and ability to enforce the Monroe

Doctrine.

31. Black Union Soldiers

 At the start of the war, the Union forces barred blacks from enlisting (even though blacks

had served in the Revolution and the War of 1812). Lincoln feared that enlisting blacks

would push Border States such as Missouri over to the Confederacy.

 After Emancipation (and as manpower ran low), blacks were allowed to serve—180,000

in the Union forces, about 10% of the total Union enlistments.

 In 1864, faced with a shortage of soldiers, the South considered impressing its slaves into

the military in exchange for freedom at the end of the war.

32. “Remember Fort Pillow”

 Black Union soldiers captured by the South were not treated as prisoners of war until

1864. Many were put to death as slaves in revolt. The massacre of black soldiers after

their surrender at Fort Pillow was an infamous case that inspired black troops.

33. William Tecumseh Sherman & Fall of Atlanta—September 1864

 Sherman’s forces captured Atlanta and then headed for Savannah on the coast.

 The victory in Atlanta was a significant boost for Lincoln’s sagging reelection campaign.

34. Sherman’s March to the Sea/Concept of Total War => “War is Hell”

 Earlier wars had largely pitted two armies against each other. General Sherman’s total

war concept destroyed farms, factories, and rail lines in his March to the Sea through

Georgia.

 The purpose was to eliminate anything that could help to supply the Confederate army

and to weaken the Confederate soldiers’ morale by making them worry about the

conditions for their families back home.

35. Election of 1864

 Lincoln first faced a battle just to win re-nomination by his own party. He was

condemned for not having won the war and for being too willing to compromise.

 Hoping to win the votes of war Democrats, the Republicans labeled themselves the Union

party and nominated Democrat Andrew Johnson from the Border State of Tennessee as

vice president.

 Peace Democrats nominated the deposed Union commander George McClellan.

McClellan repudiated the peace platform, but still managed to win 45% of the vote.

 Lincoln pulled out a win, aided by Northern victories and by questionable voting

practices in the Border States and among Union troops.

36. Copperheads

 These were extreme Northern peace Democrats, named for the poisonous snake. They

attacked the draft and denounced Lincoln and emancipation. They were especially strong

in southern Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana.

 Representative Clement Vallandigham was the most famous Copperhead. Demanding an

end to the war, he was charged with sedition, tried by a military tribunal, and banished to

the Confederacy.

37. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural—March 1865

 “With malice toward none, with charity for all”—Lincoln offered the South an

opportunity to move ahead with the North without severe punishment.

38. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House—April 1865

 Grant finally cornered Lee’s worn and hungry army and gave generous terms to the

South; when Northern soldiers cheered the surrender, Grant admonished them saying,

“The war is over; the rebels are our countrymen again.”

 Lee resisted calls by some to continue a guerilla campaign against the North that could

have extended the war for years.

39. Results of the Civil War

 Over 600,000 soldiers (North and South) died as a result of battle or illness. Several

hundred thousand more were seriously wounded.

 Slavery was abolished. Whereas the Emancipation Proclamation had a limited effect, the

Thirteenth Amendment eliminated slavery throughout the country.

 Politically, the war settled the conflict over states’ rights. Nullification and secession

were no longer viable political actions.

 Those who favored a strong central government triumphed. The power of the national

government increased dramatically as a result of the Civil War.

 Executive power expanded. Lincoln, the first strong president since Jackson, showed the

possibilities of using executive power to deal with crises.

 The Republican Party became the dominant party until the New Deal.

 Industrialization accelerated in the North. And with this came immense wealth for some

and a materialistic attitude that characterized the Gilded Age.