Unit 5: The Civil War & Reconstruction

Fanaticism → 1850-1861

• Abolition Movement

  • Moral issues

  • no compromise

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  • seen by many in the North and is also turned into a play and petitions for abolition

  • plays a large role in the abolitionist movement

• Popular Sovereignty is brought up in the setteling of the unorganized territory above the missouri compromise line

  • Fugitive slave law is also still raging on and Northern States don’t approve of this law

  • State Liberty Laws → laws passed in the North saying that if it is against your moral concesious then you don’t have to follow the law

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Stephen Douglas→ new compromiser

  • wants to open up the Kansas and Nebraska territory

• Many issues

  • construction of the transcontinental railroad

    • nobody lives in these territroies to build the railroad

• Open up Kansas and Nebraska to settelment if they were created with popular soverignty to get the Southern approval

  • * Republican party is born because they are upset with the passing of this act

• ‘Bleeding Kansas’(1856)

  • large amount of people are moving to Kansas and trying to make the state free or a slave state

  • this issue leads to violence

    • free settelments and pro-slave settelments

  • John Brown → moves his family to Kansas in the hopes of scaring off Pro-slavery settelers

    • Pottawatamy creek Massacre

      • John Brown and sons remove Pro-slavery settelers from their homes and slaughter them

• ‘Caning of Sumner’

  • Senator Charles Sumner hurls insults a southern senator around Rep. Preston Brooks who is in the house of Representatives

  • Brooks beats Sumner and beats him nearly to death

    • takes Sumner years to recover

Dred Scott v Sanford

• Dred Scott → slave in Missouri that was moved to free states by his owner before returning to Missouri

  • sues for freedom since he was taken to free territory

  • loose in the Missouri court but takes it to the Supreme Court

• Chief Justice Taney → put into this role by Jackson

• Supreme Court says that they cannot hear Scotts case because he is a slave and has no legal authority

• Claims that no blacks have any legal freedom

• Rules that the Missouri Compromise in Unconstitutional

  • * if this is unconstitutional then slavery can exist anywhere and congress has no control over it

  • Republican party doesn’t want to see slavery expand even farther to the west

• John Brown leads to raid on Harper Ferrie

The Civil War 1860-1865

• 1860 Presidental Election

  • Abraham Lincoln is nominated as the Republican nominee

    • beats everyone and is seen as a more moderate Republican

  • Democratis are divided and so two candidates are chosen

    • Douglas (northern democratic) → beleives in popular soverignty

    • Breckinridge (southern democratic) → beleive in the dred scott ruling

  • Bell is a moderate candidate and wants to ignore slavery entirley → constitutional union

• Lincoln is the first Republican president

  • South Carolina is the first state to revoke from the constitution and write an article of cession to leave the US

• Lincoln is seen as the Redeemer President

  • served 4 terms in the Illinois house of representatives and only one term in the US house of representatives

• Lincoln & the Secession WInter of 1860

  • Southern states issue articles of secessions prior to Lincoln inoggoration

  • the Critonton compromise → extend the missouri compromise line all the way to California

    • ammendment to the constitution → would have legally entried slavery in the southern states into the constitution

  • Lincoln refuses compromise and ammendment

1861

• Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, georgia, south carolina, and florida secced before Lincolns inogeration

• Arkanasas, Tennesse, North carolina, and Virginia secceed after Lincolns inogoration

• Missouri, knetucky, west virgina, delaware, maryland, and washngton D.C. never formally secceed

Jefferson Davis

• born in Kentucky

• west point graduate → army camp where people served in the mexican-american war

• former secretary of war

• popular figure in the south

• elected as the political figure for the southern confederacy states

Lincoln’s Inauguration → March 4,1861

• Lincoln tries to stop states from secceeding

• attempt to create a bring between the north and the south

Architects of their own fortunes

• Alexander Stephens creates the “cornerston” speech

  • the cornostone of the american government is slavery

  • states that the southern states are going to be founded on the beleif that slavers are less than and that their state will be built on slavery

Fort Sumter → April 12-13, 1861

• confederate troops demand that the federal government hand over the fort

• Lincoln wants to resupply the federal troops

• Confederate troops still fire on the fort

  • heavily shelled untill the fort surrenders

• civil war is happening after this battle

The battle of bull run (July 21, 1861)

• union beleives that this is going to be a quick war

• high society from the north comes to the battle to watch

• Stonewall Jackson for the confederacy leads a counter-attack that sends the union troops running

The Young Napolean

• Geroge B. McClellan → the head of the military movement for the union

  • butts heads with Lincoln constantly

  • Hesistant to engage confederate forces

1862

War in the west

• Ulysses S. Grant → served in the mexican-american was and leaves to go home

  • re-enlists in the army for the union

• Fort Donelson (February 14-16, 1862) → takes this fort and when he met with the confederates, he said the conditions of surrender were unconditional

• The Battle of Shiloh (april 6-7, 1862) → very bloody and massive battle

  • 23,000 cassualties

  • recieves some criticism

Robert E. Lee → poster boy for west point army graduates

• initally offered the command of the Union army

• sides with his home state and joins the Northern Virginian army

• respect from both sideds of the battelfield

Lincoln Presents the Emancipnation Proclomation to the Cabinet (July 22, 1862)

• frames the proclomation as it is part of the military strategy

• take away the southern labor force to ruin their army

• some are hesistant to support this untill they have a large victory

Landscape Turned Red

• Battle on Antietam (September 17, 1862) → bloodiest single day battle in American history

  • 22,000 killed

  • stumbeled upon Robert E. Lees battle plans

• Lincoln announced Emancipation Proclomation after this battle

• Advent of Civil War Photography → new invention during this time

  • photograph the after math of these batteles

    • changes the way that the public views the war

The Preliminary Emacipation Proclomation (September 22, 1862)

• does not free all of enslaved people

• proclomation only applies to the southern secceeded states

• gives confederate states a change to rejoin the country or free their slaves

• Lincoln had the right to enforce this proclomation because states did not have the right to leave the union

The Battle of Fredericksberg (December 11-15, 1862)

• massive dissapointment for the union and large victory for the confederacy

Emancipation proclamation goes into affect

Frederick Douglass is key to recruiting black men to join the union army

• tries to rally support

200,000 black men fight in the union army by the end of the Civil war

The Conscription Act

• the first federal military draft ( March 3, 1863)

  • able bodied men 20-40, both american and other countries

  • weathy people are finding a way out of the draft

    • paying $300 dollars to get out of the draft and get a substitute to take their place

The Death of Stonewall Jackson → killed in the battle of Chancellorville

THe Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863)

• biggest victory for the confederate army

The battle fo Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)

• massive fight occurs as the confederate tries to get into the north

• union army holds the high ground

• robert e lee wants to win this fight so badly that he sends soldiers to a charge known as picketts charge

• Union army wins this battle

The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18-July 4, 1863)

• Grant leads a seige around the same time as Gettysburg

  • practicly starve out the army and citizens

  • confederate army surrenders

• union army now controlls the Mississippi river

• battle cuts the confederacy in half

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment

• first action at Fort Wagner in SOuth Carolina (July 18, 1863)

  • bold charge to take the fort

  • large amount of the army is killed

• shows the country that african americans are willing to fight and want a union victory

• increases participation in the union army

The Gettysburg Adress (November 19, 1863)

• Edward Everett is the main speaker

  • gave an hour long speech

• Lincoln speaks after Everett

• written to continue drumming up support for the war effort

1864 Presidental Election

• people are starting to get wiery of Lincoln because he has not written a peace agreement yet

• McClellan, Peace Democrats, and Copperheads appose Lincoln

• peace Democrats → tired of the war, mostly in the north, that want the war to end even if they have to go back to the status quo

• Copperheads → peacful radicals; organized rallies and gave speeches

• McClellan is the Democrat that goes against Lincoln

The Overland Compaign (May 4- June 24, 1864)

• Grant v Lee

• no large vicories but a lot of death

• Grant eventually traps part of the army in the city of Pettersburg and starts to lead a seige

Lincoln has his cabinet sign the blind memorandum that states that if they loose this election, that they will help whoever wins, to end the war

William T Sherman → takse the city of Atlanta for the Union ( May -December, 1864)

Sherman then marches to Savvanaugh and burns everythin in his path

• uses total warfar

  • digs of railroad tracks, burns buildings and crops

Lincoln wins the 1864 election by a landslide

• new vice president → andrew jhonson

  • was from tennesse but suported the union

1865 → House of Representative Passage of the Thriteenth Amendment (January 31, 1865)

• abolishes slavery

Lincolns second Inaguration (March 4, 1865)

• Short and considered one of the best speeches ever written

The Fall of RIchmond Virgina (April 3-4, 1865)

• fall of the confederate capital

• citiznes have no way to get food or supplies

• Lincoln visits Richmond

the Surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virgina (April 9, 1865)

• Lee met with Grant to finalize the terms of surrender

• signifies the collapse of the southern union

John Wilkes Booth → (April 14, 1865)

• came from a famous family of actors

• Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head but it did not immediatley kill him

Lincoln taken across the street and dies the next morning (April 15, 1865)

Union is left to reconstruct itself without its leader

Reconstruction → Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan →

• offers a pardon and complete resperation of propert minus enslaved people to confederates who swear themselves to the union and agree to except emancipation

  • called the 10% plan because when 10% of a former confederates states voters pledge allegiance to the union, he will allow these states to start readmission into the country

    • emacipation proclomation would no longer apply

Congressional Reaction

• Radical Republicans → led by Thadius Stevens and Charles Sumner

  • beleive that now is the time to stitch the country back together to the way that Jefferson and the founding fathers wanted it

  • free blacks and promote civil rights

  • apposed to lincoln’s ten-percent plan

• THe Wade-Davis Bill

  • 50% of white male voters in confederate states need to swear allegance to the union and renounce the confederacy

  • southern states have to grant black males the right to vote

  • can participate in state conventions only after this

  • confederate officials should be bared from holding public office

• Lincoln Pocket Vetos the bill

  • occurs when the president does not even touch the bill and lets it expire

Andrew Johnson →

• was a tailer, illiterate untill 17

• southerner but not a fan of wealthy southerners and democrat

• remained loyal to the union as govoner of tennessee even when tennessee suceeded

• racist and white supremecist

Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan →

• respiration property except blacks

• wants southerners to partition to him individually to beg for a pardon(especially rich and powerful southerners)

• Southern states have to ratify the 13th Amendment

• Land given back to southerners, even if the land was given to free blacks

• eventually annouced that reconstruction was over even though it wasn’t

• grants pardon to southern president

Johnson backs 60 confederate officals in congress

• southern officials aren’t in role call and aren’t seated

The Black Codes

• impose laws on blacks

  • can only work in fields

  • unemployed blacks can be captured and imposed to work

  • children can be taken and forced to work

  • have to sign labor laws

  • are supposed to reap a benefit to the blacks at the end but don’t get money

Johnson v Congress

• The Freedmen’s Bureau

  • provide food, housing, medical aids, and schooling to free blacks in the couth but it is vetoed

• THe Civil RIghts Act of 1866

  • all people born in the US are entitled to full and equal benefits of the law

  • attempts to veto but is overruled

• The 14th Amendment

  • equality under the law regardless of race or law and citizenship

  • vetoed but still eventually passes

Radical Reconstruction

• state suicide → states comitted suicide by succeeding the union

  • considered terriotories → congress is in charge of territories

• Military Reconstruction Act

  • sends military to the southern states and military needs to be established for the southern states to rejoin the union

  • states divided into military districts

  • ensures that southen blacks are being guarenteed

• Tenure of Office Act

  • Vetoed but it is overuled

  • Presidents cannot fire cabinet members without senate approval

  • Johnson fires Secretary of State anyway

House of Representatives and Radical Republicans Impeach Johnson

• found not guilty and serves the rest of his term

Ulysses S Grant wins 1868 Presidental election

15th Amendment

• guarentees black men the right to vote

freeded slaves are all republicans

establish schools

blacks become active in politics

South Carolina is the first state to rejoin the union and has more blacks in their congress than whites

Carpetbaggers & Scalawags

• Scalawags → white southerner who starts to work with the republicans or becomes a republican, a traitor

• Carpetbaggers → northerners who move to the south after the civil war to help run schools, open buisnesses

Redeemers → southernes who want to redeem the south to how it was before the war

Klu Klux Klan is started by 6 confederate soldiers in Tennessee

• whipped blacks

• burned churchs

• killed blacks

Grant passes a law and tries to destroy the KKK

• only effective as long as their is a union army in the military districts

Election of 1876

• Hase V Tillden

• Floridas voting was corrupt and compromised

Compromise of 1877

• election is given to Hase in agreement for the military to leave the southern states, ending reconstuction