Chapter 21 - The Furnace of Civil War

Bull Run Ends the "Ninety-Day War"

• President Lincoln decided to attack a small Confederate force at Bull Run and if it was successful, the victory would show the superiority of Union arms and could potentially, eventually lead to the capture of Richmond
• Union and Confederate forces met on July 21, 1861
• Confederates won due to “Stonewall” Jackson holding his line of Confederate soldiers until reinforcements arrived with this being a loss for the Union as it got rid of the illusion of the war ending quickly

"Tardy George" McClellan and the Peninsular Campaign

• ==General McClellan== ==was given command of the Army of the Potomac in 1861==
  • McClellan’s army launched a waterborne attack in spring of 1862
• Northern military plan had 6 components which consisted of slowly suffocating the South by blockading its coasts, liberating the slaves and undermine the economic foundation of the South, cutting the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River, dismembering the Confederacy by sending troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, capturing the South’s capital at Richmond, and trying to engage the enemy and grind it into submission

The War at Sea

• Northern sea blockades were concentrated at the South’s main ports with fast ships being developed to overcome strong blockades
• Ships made a lot of profit by exchanging cargoes of arms for cotton
• The Union ship, the Monitor, and the Confederate ship, the Merrimack met and fought to a standstill on March 9, 1862

The Pivotal Point: Antietam

• Lee moved northward after General Lee crushed McClellan’s forces in Richmond

• In the Second Battle of Bull Run, General Lee defeated General Pope’s Union forces

• Antitam provided Lincoln with the military backing to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 23, 1862

  ==Lincoln== ==issued a final proclamation on January 1, 1863 and made the Civil War a war to end slavery==

A Proclamation without Emancipation

• The ==Emancipation Proclamation== ==called for the freeing of all slaves in Confederate territory except in locations where the Union had mostly regained control==
• Lincoln didn’t require slaves to be freed in Border States as he feared they would secede
• The Emancipation Proclamation fundamentally changed the nature of the war as it effectively removed any chance of a negotiated settlement between the North and the South
• The ==13th Amendment== ==was passed in 1865, 8 months after the Civil War ended==
  • It legally ending slavery with this meaning that the North now had a much stronger moral cause in fighting the war, with it fighting to preserve the Union and free slaves

Blacks Battle Bondage

• After the Emancipation Proclamation and as manpower ran low, blacks were allowed to enlist in the Union army
• Confederacy allowed blacks to enlist towards the end of the war, but by then it was too late to change the tides of the war

Lee's Last Lunge at Gettysburg

• Lincoln replaced McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac with General Burnside
• Burnside was replaced by Hooker due to his defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1882
• Lee moved his Confederate force to the north again
• Confederate President Davis was planning to deliver negotiators to Washington D.C. after Confederates at Gettysburg and since the Union won, Lincoln didn’t negotiate with the South
• At the cemetery dedication in Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address

The War in the West

• ==Ulysses S. Grant== ==became a colonel in the Union volunteer army==
  • Grant’s first victory was when he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862 with him planning to capture a line of railroads in the Mississippi Valley in Corinth
  • Grant’s plan was foiled when he was defeated by a Confederate force at the Battle of Shiloh in April of 1862
  • Grant was given command of the Union forces attacking Vicksburg with the city falling and then being surrendered on July 4, 1863
• Due to back-to-back Union military victories at the Battle of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Confederates lost hope for foregin help

Sherman Scorches Georgia

• Grant won the Battle of Chattanooga and the state of Tennessee was cleared of Confederates with Grant making chief due to this win
• ==General Sherman== ==led the invasion of Georgia== and captured Atlanta in September of 1864 and burned it in November
  • In Sherman’s invasion, the rail lines were destroyed and the buildings were burned
  • Sherman’s March continued through Georgia, with the intent of destroying supplies destined for the Confederate army
• ==Sherman== ==captured Savannah on December 22, 1864 and moved up through South Carolina and captured and burned Columbia on February 17, 1865== \n

The Politics of War

• Critics in President Lincoln’s own party were led by the secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase
• The ==Congressional Committee on the Conduct of War== ==was formed in late 1861 and was dominated by radical Republicans who hated emancipation and the expansion of presidential power in wartime==
• The Democratic Party in the North died, and split up between those who supported Lincoln and those who didn’t after Stephen A. Douglas, the leader of the Democratic Party

The Election of 1864

• Republicans joined with the War Democrats to form the Union Party in the election of 1864
• Andrew Johnson was Lincoln’s running-mate
• Democrats, including the Copperheads, nominated General McClellan for president
• Northern Democrats lost the election of 1864 with this being a big defeat for the South
• The ==removal of Lincoln== ==was the last hope for a Confederate victory==

Grant Outlasts Lee

• President Lincoln chose Grant to lead the assault on the Confederate capital of Richmond
  • ==Grant== ==had 100,000 men and engaged Lee in a series of battles in the Wilderness of Virginia==
• On June 3, 1864, Grant ordered the frontal assault on Cold Harbor in which thousands of Union soldiers were killed in a matter of minutes but Grant’s strategy of losing two Union men to one Confederate man worked
• On April 9, 1865, ==Lee== ==was forced to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War==

The Martyrdom of Lincoln

• President Lincoln was shot and killed at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865 by southerner, John Wilkes Booth
• Due to Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson became President

The Aftermath of the Nightmare

• ==Civil War== ==claimed over 600,000 lives and cost over $15 billion==
• Britain extended the right to vote to more of its people with the Reform Bill of 1867
• American democracy had proved itself and the disfranchised British people used this to justify their own democracy