American Civil War Flashcards

Advantage: Union (North) vs. Confederacy (South)

Military Strategy:
- Union: N/A
- Confederacy: Defensive war; did not need to invade, just defend.
Military Leadership:
- Union: N/A
- Confederacy: More experienced leaders like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
Population:
- Union: About four times that of the South.
- Confederacy: N/A
Naval Power:
- Union: Robust navy to control seas and rivers.
- Confederacy: N/A
Economic Power:
- Union: Most banks, manufacturing, and approximately 70% of America’s railroads.
- Confederacy: N/A
Political Power:
- Union: Well-established central government.
- Confederacy: Constitution eschewing centralized power led to struggles.

Both sides needed to mobilize their economies.
Union:
- Manufacturers rapidly modernized.
- Figures like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller started by manufacturing goods for the Union effort.
Confederacy:
- Relied on tariffs and taxes on exports to raise revenue.
- Union naval blockades hampered this plan.
Opposition:
- Confederacy:
  - Introduced a war tax, but many refused to fund it due to states’ rights.
- Union:
  - New York City Draft Riots in 1863.
  - Men could pay 300 to avoid being drafted, which working-class men saw as an injustice.
  - Protests turned violent, resulting in at least 120 deaths.

Lincoln did not want to start a war but would not stand for secession.
Fort Sumter:
- Federal possession in Confederate South Carolina.
- South Carolinians cut off supply lines.
- Lincoln announced he would send provisions.
- The South fired on the Union suppliers, considered the first official act of war.
The first part of the war belonged to the Confederacy.
First Battle of Bull Run:
- 30,000 Union troops marched to confront Confederate troops at Bull Run Creek in Virginia.
- Civilians came to watch.
- The Union initially mopped the floor with the Confederacy, but Confederate reinforcements under Stonewall Jackson routed the inexperienced Union soldiers.
- Disabused both sides of the idea it would be a short war.

Union: Anaconda Plan.
- Naval blockade of Southern ports.
- Control of the Mississippi River to split the Confederacy.
Confederacy: Relied on foreign help, especially from Britain and France.
- Relied on exported southern cotton.
- Southerners were confident that King Cotton would convince both countries to come to their aid.
- However, both countries discovered that India and Egypt could produce cotton, and therefore King Cotton wasn’t as powerful as they thought.

The Union ultimately succeeded due to:
- Improvements in leadership and strategy.
- Key battle victories.
- Wartime destruction of the South’s infrastructure.

Lincoln struggled to find good generals.
The rise of generals like Ulysses S. Grant, who rarely retreated, turned the tide.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 freed enslaved people in states in active rebellion against the U.S. (the Confederacy).
It did not free enslaved people in the Border States: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia.
The Emancipation Proclamation was more a military strategy than a document of freedom.
It changed the scope of the war to eradicating slavery.
Effects:
- Enslaved workers escaped to Union lines.
- Prevented Britain and France from allying with the Confederacy.

Emancipation Proclamation
- Morally transformed the war into a fight against slavery.
- Encouraged enslaved people to flee to the Union army.
- Deterred British support for the Confederacy.
Key Military Victories
- Battle of Vicksburg: Union gained control of the Mississippi River, bisecting the Confederacy.

After capturing Vicksburg, General Grant sent General William Tecumseh Sherman to capture Atlanta.
Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground.
Sherman's March to the Sea:
- Devastating march from Atlanta to Savannah.
- Sherman's forces destroyed railroads and implemented a