Lecture 14

1. Lecture 14 Hist 110 American Civilization I Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer Upper Iowa University

2. Lecture 14The Secession Crisis • Lincoln’s election with only northern votes and his firm opposition to the spread of slavery into the territories convinced Lower South states to secede • South Carolina seceded: Dec. 20, 1860 • Quickly followed by six other Lower South states • Feb. 7, 1861: Confederate States of America formed • John J. Crittenden of Kentucky attempted a new compromise but failed • The new Confederate government seized federal installations in the South • Federal troops retained Fort Sumter on an island in Charleston Harbor • Lincoln decided to try to hold on to this fort by resupplying the garrison, forcing the Confederates to act • Fort Sumter fired on by the Confederates: April 12, 1861—war resulted The attack on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861

3. Lecture 14First Battles • After the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for 90 days • Four border (Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia) states responded by seceding and joining the Confederacy • Bull Run-Manassas (July 21) • First major battle of the war • Union forces tried to capture a critical railroad junction leading to the new Confederate capital at Richmond • The timely arrival of Confederate reinforcements won them the battle • Other notable events • William Rosecrans, under George McClellan, drove the Confederates from West Virginia (May-June) • Wilson’s Creek (August 10): Confederates won the first major engagement in the Far West, but failed to capitalize on it because most of Missouri’s population remained firmly pro-Union The Orange and Alexandria Railroad: used the Confederates to move troops from the Shenandoah Valley and win the First Battle of Bull Run

4. Lecture 14Capabilities and Strategies • Over 90 percent of U.S. industry in North in 1860 • 22 million people in the North vs. 9 million people in the South • Nearly 4 million southerners were slaves • Lack of southern financial infrastructure • Forced the South to rely mostly on printing money to finance its war effort • South had a poorer transportation network • Less railroad mileage • Poorly maintained, with less uniformity of gauges • Made it harder for the Confederates to shift troops between theaters • Northern Strategy: Anaconda Plan (1861) • Brainchild of Winfield Scott, became strategy by default • Naval blockade of the South • Capture strategic southern territory, slowly strangle the South • Southern Strategy • Exhaust northern resolve, win foreign recognition Winfield Scott

5. Lecture 14 1862 • Ulysses S. Grant advanced in the western theater • Captured Forts Henry and Donelson • Battle of Shiloh (April): Grant won the battle, but nearly lost his command over high casualties • George McClellan took charge of the Union Army in the East • Built the Army of the Potomac • Failed Peninsula campaign: McClellan dithered in his preparations, overly cautious in his advance up the peninsula • Union offensive in the East stopped at the Seven Days (June-July 1862) • Robert E. Lee took command • Confederate offensive into the North stopped at Battle of Antietam (Sept. 1862) • The Union defeat at Fredericksburg prevented the Union from exploiting its victory at Antietam Ulysses S. Grant George McClellan

6. Lecture 14The Strange Advent of Emancipation • Both sides tried to ignore slavery at the beginning • Lincoln was especially eager to do so because he did not wish to alienate the remaining loyal slave states • “Contraband of War” • Union commanders in the field quickly realized the military value of slaves • General Benjamin Butler declared slaves to be “Contraband of War” which meant that they could be confiscated and put to work for the Union • Congress made Butler’s policy law and a year later authorized freedom for slaves confiscated from disloyal owners • Emancipation Proclamation (Sept. 1862) • Border states and occupied South exempted • Signaled change in Northern war strategy • Helped prevent European recognition of Confederacy Drawing from a British illustrated newspaper depicting slaves seeking refuge inside Union lines (c. 1861)

7. Lecture 141863 • Chancellorsville (May): Confederate victory convinced Robert E. Lee to mount a new invasion of the North • Gettysburg (July 1-3) • Three day battle, culminating in a disastrous Confederate assault on the center of the Union line (Pickett’s Charge) • Lee lost ¼ of his army at Gettysburg and was forced to retreat back south • Fall of Vicksburg (July 4) • Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg after a long and difficult campaign • Its loss cut the Confederacy in two and denied them the use of the Mississippi • Grant followed up his victory at Vicksburg with a campaign that drove the Confederates from Tennessee • Lincoln rewarded Grant with a promotion to Lieutenant General and gave him overall command of the Union army Confederate dead after the Battle of Gettysburg

8. Lecture 14Why the Civil War was so Deadly • 620,000 American died in the Civil War • Union deaths: 360,000 • Confederate deaths: 260,000 • Since Confederate forces (820,000) were much smaller than Union forces (2.1 million) a southern soldiers was more likely to die in the conflict • Dirty secret of death in the Civil War: most soldiers died of disease in camp rather than because of conflict • A combination of war before germ theory’s discovery and exposing soldiers to diseases they wouldn’t have encountered otherwise • But the battlefield was more deadly than in earlier wars because of advances in military technology • The development of the minie ball allowed all soldiers to use rifled muskets • Rifled muskets and artillery expanded the zone of lethal fire, making Napoleonic tactics commonly used in the Civil War largely useless and increasing casualties Rifling the inside of a musket barrel made it considerably more accurate Over a longer distance than she previously common smoothbore musket “Minie ball” ammunition was as easy to load in a rifled musket as roundball in a smoothbore, making it a feasible weapon for ordinary infantry

9. Lecture 141864 • Grant left William Tecumseh Sherman in charge in the western theater, while he took personal charge of the eastern armies • Grant and Sherman’s approach in 1864 was later called “total war” or “hard war” • Keep engaging Confederate forces to deny them time to rest, resupply, and regroup • Destroy anything of value to the Confederates, even if it meant civilian suffering • Grant engaged Lee’s army, maneuvering until he bogged down in front of Petersburg, Virginia • Trench warfare until Spring 1865 • Sherman invaded Georgia • Captured Atlanta after a long, difficult campaign • Then raided through Georgia until he reached the Atlantic Ocean • Sherman’s victories and other Union successes guaranteed Lincoln’s re-election in November 1864 Result showed the North’s resolve to fight until it had achieved total victory William Tecumseh Sherman

10. Lecture 14The Civil War in the Far West • Both the North and the South coveted the Far West • Confederate sympathizers throughout the region, but Union supporters more prevalent • Pro-Confederate supporters strongest in southern New Mexico territory, where they unsuccessfully tried to establish a Confederate territorial government • New Mexico (1862) • Confederate forces invaded New Mexico territory from Texas in Spring 1862 • They won two tactical victories at Val Verde (February) and Glorieta Pass (March) but the destruction of their supply wagons by Colorado militia forced them to retreat back to Texas • Native Americans remained a problem • The Santee Sioux rose up in Minnesota, forcing Lincoln to divert troops there • Colorado militia massacred peaceful Indians at Sand Creek(Nov. 1864) Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Site of the western-most battle of the Civil War in March 1862

11. Lecture 14Final Collapse of the Confederacy • Confederate situation in early 1865 desperate • Sherman’s army marched through the Carolinas largely unopposed • Lee’s army barely held on in front of Petersburg • Hungry and increasingly demoralized his army faced constant desertion • Confederate Congress votes to arm slaves (March) • Lee’s lines collapsed on April 2 • Richmond fell (April 3) • Lee surrenders (April 9) • Palmetto Ranche (May 13): last land battle in Texas (a Confederate victory) • CSS Shenandoah (Nov. 5): Confederate commerce raider finally ends in campaign by seeking sanctuary in Great Britain Wilmer McLean’s House Appomattox, Virginia Site of Lee’s surrender to Grant

12. Lecture 14Why the Union Won • Superior Resources • With a much greater population, virtually all the industry, and better financial resources than the South, the North was able to recover from its early defeats and ultimately grind down the South • Flawed Confederate Approach • The South also often failed to take advantage of being on the defense, which would have allowed it conserve its limited resources and stretch out the war • Southern public opinion demanded its armies too often fight aggressively, losing a greater amount of men and material • Failed Ideologies • States Rights ideology kept valuable resources out of the hands of the central government where they might have done more good • Racist ideology prevented the South from using African Americans as soldiers, while driving black men to fight for the Union A busy Union supply depot at City Point, Virginia, which kept Grant’s forces well supplied during the 1864- 1865 campaign against Lee