Civil War and Reconstruction

1. Civil War and Reconstruction

2. Decisive Battles of The Civil War • First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861)- Humiliating defeat for the North and almost led to a Confederate invasion of Washington, D.C. • Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862)- Bloodiest battle of the Civil War • Antietam (September 17, 1862)- Led by Robert E. Lee, it was the bloodiest one day battle in the history of the United States. Afterwards, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) • Vicksburg (May 15-July 4, 1863)- fort that was conquered on the fourth of July, and afterwards the Mississippi River came under the control of the Union. • Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)- Taken over by the Union, Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address here. • Chattanooga (November 23-25)- A combined union force defeated the Southern forces occupying Lookout Mt. • Kennesaw Mountain (June 27, 1864)- Union soldiers suffered heavy losses and failed to take the mountain. • Mobile Bay (August 5, 1864)- Union forces cut off an important supply port of the Confederacy. • Atlanta (September 2, 1864)- General Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground, destroying the ability of the Confederacy to supply the war effort. • Sherman’s March (May-December, 1864)- Sherman’s March and the burning of Atlanta broke the spirit of the Confederates creating bitterness and tension between the North and the South that still exists to some degree today.

3. Social and Political Changes During the Civil War • Maryland voted to stay in the Union. • Habeas corpus- guaranteed that a person could not be imprisoned without appearing in court. • For the first time in U.S. history, men were drafted. • Drafted- forced to serve in the military. • During the Civil War, free and newly emancipated blacks served the Union in segregated military units, which persuaded many people that blacks deserved to have full rights as citizens. • Homestead Act (1862)- stated that anyone who would agree to cultivate 160 acres of land for five years would receive title to that land from the federal government. • Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)- allotted each state thousands of acres of land based on the number of senators and representatives. • Emancipation Proclamation- freed the slaves in the Confederate States, while maintaining slavery in the border states loyal to the Union. • 13th Amendment- abolished slavery throughout the United States.

4. Cost of War • The North- • By the end of the war, the budget had grown 200 times larger that its original salary to 1.3 billion dollars, causing inflation to increase quickly. • Industrial production increased to record high levels. • The Union was restored. • Over 360,000 Union soldiers lost their lives. • The return of 800,000 soldiers to work plus the slower demand for manufactured products in the North led to a short-lived recession. • The South- • Lost its fight for Independence, along with rights to slavery. • Over 258,000 Confederate soldiers lost their lives. • Bands closed in the South. • Agricultural economy declined. • Feared retaliation from the North and from former slaves. • Over 2/3 of southern wealth was destroyed.

5. Life for Emancipated Blacks • Emancipated slaves were called “freedmen,” and they experienced many difficulties even in their newly acquired freedom. Among these difficulties were: • Illiteracy was widespread because teaching slaves to read and write had been illegal in most states. • Freed slaves were skilled in farming but owned no land and had no money to purchase any land. • Few people could afford to hire freedmen, and working for former masters was like going back to slavery.

6. Cultural Foundations In The Black Community • The Family • Family was the most important cultural link for the people of West Africa. Slave traders and their allies captured and sold millions of Africans into slavery. Slaves were either captured individually or as a tribe. After they were captured, they were sold separately to people who bought them, called “masters”, and this made it hard to develop family ties. Despite these challenges, as slaves and after emancipation, developed strong family relationships. • The Church • From the time of slavery through emancipation, blacks developed cultural institutions to help them deal with their dislocation from Africa, loss of family, and their condition as slaves. • Education • As a general rule, state laws prohibited slaves in the South from learning how to read and write. However, free blacks in the north were able to receive and education.

7. Different Views and Plans of Reconstruction • Even before the Civil War ended, politicians in the North argued over how to readmit the rebellious states, or “reconstruct” the South. One reason the Executive Branch and Congress battled over Reconstruction was due to their differing understandings of the secession of the Southern states. • Radicals were Republicans who called for strict readmission standards and vigorous restructuring of the South. • Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction called for a generous way to readmit Southern states into the Union. For each state to be admitted, and for the occupying forces of the North to leave, 10% of the voting populace had to swear allegiance to the Union and the Constitution. However, a twist of fate changed the tone of Reconstruction. On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot in the head by a Confederate sympathizer at a play at Ford’s Theater. Vice President Andrew Johnson became the new President for the remainder of Lincoln’s second term.

8. Radical Reconstruction • In the spring of 1866, the Republican Congress passed its most radical plan for Reconstruction. • The main features of this Reconstruction Act (March 1867) were the following: • With the exception of Tennessee, which had ratified the 14th Amendment, all former Confederate states would be administered as five military districts; • Southern states would not be readmitted until they ratified the 14th Amendment; • Black citizens must be granted the right to vote; • Former Confederate officials could not hold public office.

9. Bitter Feeling in the South • Throughout the South, whites had bitter feelings regarding the North and Northerners: • The South was bitter about the loss of war and slaves. • They were angry at Northerners for imposing Reconstruction on them. • White supremacists called Republicans traitors to their race. • They resented the high taxes which paid for the Reconstruction programs. • They blamed corruption in government on Reconstruction, Republicans, and black politicians. • They resented carpetbaggers ( people who came from the North to do business in the South) and scalawags (Southerners who supported Reconstruction). • Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), used terrorism and violence to intimidate blacks and other minorities.

10. Corruption in Government During Grant’s Presidency • Southerners blamed Reconstruction and black politicians for the corruption they saw in government, but there seemed to be a general moral lapse affecting the country after the war. Bribery, lying, and stealing infected all levels of government and business in both the North and the South. • In the building of the first transcontinental railroad, a small group of Union Pacific stockholders involved several politicians of both parties, including the Vice President, in swindling money from the government. • On a national level, excessive speculation and widespread corruption led eventually to an economic panic and depression in 1873.

11. The End of Reconstruction • As political corruption difficulties began to claim attention, the memories of the Civil War faded and the drive for Radical Reconstruction weakened. The leading radicals left Congress. • Building on the bitter feelings in the South and intimidating black voters, white southern Democrats gradually “redeemed” or regained power in state legislatures. In the presidential election of 1876, the Democrats returned to power.

12. Presidential Election of 1876 • Because of bad economy and various scandals that had surrounded President Grant, the Democrats were hopeful that their candidate, Samuel Tiden (Governor of New York), would win the election. The Republicans put their support behind the Governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes. • Although Tiden received almost 300,000 more popular votes than Hayes, he needed one more electoral vote to win the election. • Nineteen votes were disputed in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. In these states, the Republicans and the Democrats had established rival boards of election officials, and each board was reporting different results. • The Compromise of 1877 was used to settle this dispute, agreeing that Hayes could win if Republicans would end Reconstruction. • The main points of this compromise were: • The Democrats agreed to accept the election results. • The republicans agreed to appoint a Southerner to the President’s cabinet; • Provide federal money for railroads in the South and for flood control along the Mississippi, and, most importantly; • To withdraw federal troops from the South.