The American Civil War

1. The American Civil War Strategy, battles, assessments, trivia

2. From a letter by Gen. William T Sherman, 1861(would he be correct in his prediction?) • “You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! • Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth--right at your doors.You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail. • You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it …”

3. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy

4. As Abraham Lincoln said in 1865, • "Corporations have been enthroned.... An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people . . . until wealth is aggregated in a few hands . . . and the Republic is destroyed." The North would later undergo sweeping social unrest, the rise of militant workers’ unions, and horrific and cycling depressions partly as a result of their victory in the Civil War.

5. How do these maps suggest a potential weakness for the South?

7. So, how do you run a government like this? A government based on the principle that any centralized power is dangerous to the individual states? More to the point, how do you fight a war this way? Answer, you don’t.The most ardent states' rights proponents, claimed that the president sought dictatorial powers and denied that Davis had any real power as executive. Some even advocated that their states secede from the Confederacy and form separate countries. After the next congressional elections, held over a nearly six-month period in 1863 due to the logistical problems of the Union military presence across the South, nearly two-fifths of the Confederate House and one half of the Senate were openly anti-administration. Nor was the Davis gov’t successful at raising money to fund the war. Hampered by a constitution similar to the Articles of Confederation (remember that?) in philosophy, its attempts included issuing paper currency, which brought rampant inflation, seeking loans and selling government bonds, which did not produce sufficient revenue, and passing taxes, which was hugely unpopular.And a draft? That was cause for riots!

8. Comparison of Union and CSA Who do you think will win based on this chart? Union CSA • Total population 22,000,000 9,000,000 • Free population 22,000,000 5,500,000 • Slave population Negligible 3,500,000 • Soldiers 2,200,000 1,064,000 • Railroad miles 21,788 (71%) 8,838 (29%) • Manufactured items 90 percent 10 percent • Firearm production 97 percent 3 percent • Bales of cotton in 1860 Negligible 4.5 million • Bales of cotton in 1864 Negligible 300,000 • Pre-war U.S. exports 30 percent 70 percent From wikipedia.org

9. The Union Army This was really just the regular US Army minus the officers and soldiers who seceded. It had the advantage of a centralized gov’t to organize, fund, and supply it, as well an existing command structure, unlike the Confederate Army. Lincoln served as commander-in-chief, and was active in directing the Army. He needed military victories agianst the Confederacy to keep foreign nations from recognizing the South as a legitimate government, and thus lending it aid an assistance. So, Lincoln wanted fighting commanders. He fired three different commanders before settling on US Grant (upper right corner) by 1864. Grant’s advantage was that he wasn’t concerned with how many of his soldiers survived each battle, as long as the South lost the war. Its soldiers fought for many reasons--for abolition, to keep the Union together, and sometimes simply to show their patriotism (many immigrants wanted to show their nationalism for their adopted country.) Millions volunteered, and it really was a multi-ethnic army, with the largest immigrant groups being Germans, free blacks, and Irish. However, Lincoln needed greater numbers (especially since desertion was common during the hardest years,) and instituted a draft. Interestingly, you could buy your way out of the draft for 300 dollars. Guess who thought that was unfair? And this led to the most notorious event of the Civil War, and one immortalized by the film “Gangs of New York,” the…

10. The Confederate Army Many of the best, and most experienced, officers of the regular US Army came from southern states. Among the best of them was Robert E Lee (upper right corner.) Stonewall Jackson (lower right corner) exemplified the image many Americans have of Southern generals--tactically brilliant, devoutly religious, chivalrous and gallant. He was probably the exception, though. The Confederate Army never solved its problems with supplies and organization--there wasn’t much of a central government, after all, and very little industrialization in the South. Though the typical Confederate soldier is said to have the advantage over his Union counterpart because he was fighting on his home ground (Southerners still call the Civil War “the War of Northern Aggression,”) many historians now believe that the typical soldier may have hated the leadership of the Confederacy--they were often poor farmers who had been kept poor by the slave economy, and had often been barred from politics by the slave oligarchy who had seceded without asking them. The worst problem the Confederacy faced was when it tried to implement a draft--this was seen as tyrannical by many Southerners, and an example of why they had seceded in the first place. The draft made the government of Jeff Davis even less popular. As a result, though the Confederate Army would become legendary for their ferocity in battle, it suffered appalling desertion rates during the war--with as much as a 1/3rd of the Army walking away by 1864. Out of desperation, in 1865 Pres. Davis briefly authorized drafting slaves. Can you imagine?!

11. Battle Strategies • Lincoln intended on using the North’s advantages to “throttle” the South--that is, starve the Confederate capitol of Richmond into submission. Without a train network, the south depended on the Mississippi River and their ocean ports to move supplies. So…

12. Why it’s called the “Anaconda Plan” Why it’s called the “Anaconda Plan”

13. Scott went on to warn against hot-headed demands for a march on the Confederate capital of Richmond. Scott's plan involved two main parts: 1. Blockade the coast of the South to prevent the export of cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops from the South and to keep them from importing much-needed war supplies. 2. Divide the South by controlling the Mississippi River to cut off the southeastern states from the West. Scott considered this an "envelopment" rather than an "invasion", although it would require armies and fleets of river gunboats to accomplish it. --This would ultimately win the war for the North. The british were prevented from supplying the South without risking war with the Union. The Confederates wouldn’t be able to break the blockade, and by 1863, the southerners were starving. Bread riots broke out in major cities, and these were a factor in the high numbers of Confederate desertions towards the end of the war. The North could probably have won without a major military engagement, but it would have taken a long time, so… Unfortunately, Lincoln couldn’t ignore the “hot- headed” demands. Can you guess why?

14. Threat of international intervention? Entry into the war by Britain and France on behalf of the Confederacy would have greatly increased the South's chances of winning independence from the Union. The Union, under Lincoln and Secretary of State William Henry Seward worked to block this, and threatened war if any country officially recognized the existence of the Confederate States of America (none ever did). In 1861, Southerners voluntarily embargoed cotton shipments, hoping to start an economic depression in Europe that would force Britain to enter the war in order to get cotton. “Cotton diplomacy” proved a failure as Europe had a surplus of cotton, while the 1860-62 crop failures in Europe made the North's grain exports of critical importance. It was said that "King Corn was more powerful than King Cotton", as US grain went from a quarter of the British import trade to almost half. When the UK did face a cotton shortage, it was temporary; being replaced by increased cultivation in Egypt and India. The war created employment for arms makers, iron workers, and British ships to transport weapons. Moreover, Britain and France had already abolished slavery, and the thought of public reaction in either country should they ally themselves with the slave-owning South meant that the confederacy remained unrecognized during its short life.

15. There were so many battles in Virginia that people are still picking bones, bullets, and buttons (from uniforms) out of the ground. Many sites have become state parks, and people re-enact battles there.

16. Speaking of reenactors… How much do they look like the real thing …?

17. The real thing wasn’t really that much fun, actually…

18. Bodies left out in the sun begin to bloat, like these here. Dedicated reenactors pride themselves on “bloating” authentically

19. The Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)--July, 1861. Most Civil War battles have two names--the Union name and the Confederate name. This is considered the first battle of the war. The Confederate Army moved quickly to seize the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry (remember this?), which lies close to DC, and their pickets could be viewed from the Capitol. Lincoln ordered his army to take the field against them, over his commanders’ objection that the Union Army was untrained. Northerners living in Washington DC were convinced the Confederate Army would be smashed immediately and the war over quickly, due to the “invincibility of the Union Army” and it’s superior numbers. Bull Run is a short horse ride from the Capitol, so many Washingtonians went to see the battle. Some brought picnic lunches. It must have been comical watching them run for their lives back to DC when the Confederates broke through Union lines. The ferocity of the Confederate soldiers was the first glimmering Northerners had that this would not be a short war.

20. Fighting in Virginia Lincoln was determined to smash the Confederates quickly, probably both to prove a point to the rebels about the uselessness of resistance, but also to ensure his popularity among Northerners (he wanted to be re-elected in ‘64, after all.) He ordered his first Commander of the Union Army, George McClellan, to attack the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Gen’l Robert E Lee, and then move on to capture Richmond, capitol of the Confederacy. This almost ended in disaster. McClellan didn’t want to lose any troops, and tended to be cautious rather than take unncessary risks. I’m sure his soldiers appreciated it, but look at this record on the next slide…

21. Antietam/Sharpsburg, Sept. 1862 Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 45,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland (technically, a slave holding border state loyal to the North) on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in United States military history, with almost 23,000 casualties. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided an opportunity for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation.

23. Antietam/Sharpsburg

24. In some respects, the American Civil War provided European observers with a foretaste of the slaughter in World War One. ...the most deadly fire of the war. Rifles are shot to pieces in the hands of the soldiers, canteens and haversacks are riddled with bullets, the dead and wounded go down in scores. -- Captain Benjamin F. Cook of the 12th Massachusetts Infantry, on the attack by the Louisiana Tigers at the Cornfield .. every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the [Confederates] slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before. -- Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker We were shooting them like sheep in a pen. If a bullet missed the mark at first it was liable to strike the further bank, angle back, and take them secondarily. --Sergeant of the 61st New York.

25. Antietam/Sharpsburg I am not going to go into strategy, so I will sum this battle up: 1. Lee wanted to fight in Maryland to convince Marylanders to join the Confederacy, and to convince Britain and France to recognize the South. His failure to win here doomed both those chances. However, by holding off a Northern Army twice his size, Lee created the legend that the Confederate Army would never have lost the war had they not run out of supplies by 1864. Many Southerners still believe this today. Lincoln, enraged by McClellan’s inability to destroy a numerically inferior enemy, fired him and replaced him with another general, who would also be fired, and so on…until Lincoln would find a general who would sacrifice as many soldiers as needed to win.

26. When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside was soon defeated at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when over twelve thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded during repeated futile frontal assaults against Marye's Heights. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. The Battle of Chancellorsville, with Stonewall Jackson getting killed in the foreground. Oops.

27. Gettysburg, 1863 This was the logical conclusion of Lee’s strategy to “take the fight to the North.” He decided to invade the Union to draw the North into a climactic battle that would destroy public confidence in Lincoln’s administration--perhaps even make the President lose in the next election and thus bring a Democrat into office (who would probably have more sympathy for the Confederacy and would work out a truce.) More books and movies and have been made about this battle than any other in the Civil War. Lee lost here and basically destroyed the Army of Northern Virginia as an effective force for the rest of the war. It saved Lincoln’s presidency and guaranteed an eventual Union victory.

28. Gettysburg For those of you interested in “strategery”--the two armies kind of blundered into each other near the Pennsylvania village of Gettysburg. Luckily, the Union Army grabbed the heights, which meant that any Confederate charge would have to be uphill, and into cannon fire. Nonetheless, the Confederates charged, frequently, despite some divisions losing up to 80% of their men. Both sides fought to allow time for reinforcements to arrive. Interestingly, Col. Abner Doubleday, who “invented” baseball, was a commander for the North here.

30. Gettysburg The most famous part of the battle came on the 3rd day, when Lee decided to throw the bulk of his Army of Northern Virginia against the center of the Union lines. The Confederates had to walk nearly a mile of open ground in the face of direct gunfire to reach the Union lines. This became known as Pickett’s Charge, as Pickett was one of the three major generals ordered forward that day by Lee.

31. Gettysburg The destruction was incredible. Over the 50% of the 12,500 men in the charge were casualties, including all 13 of Pickett’s field commanders. When Lee told Pickett to rally his division for the defense, Pickett allegedly replied, "General Lee, I have no division.” The battle destroyed the Southern hopes for any offensive attack in the future, as Lee was forced to retreat and fight defensive actions while trying to rebuild his shattered army. That is called rolling the dice, and Lee crapped out. Some historians think Lee lost his mind, or at least never quite recovered emotionally, from the loss The victory saved Lincoln, who might have lost the 1864 election to his democratic opponent, his former commander, George McClellan, who was running on a peace platform.

32. The Gettysburg Address After learning of the slaughter, Lincoln strove for some way to make sense of it. The result is one of the greatest speeches in American history--with the last sentence carved into stone at Lincoln’s memorial in DC. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

33. Other strategies As you saw, Lincoln was forced to fight big battles for public opinion, while Lee was doing the same in order to force an end to the war. The result was bloodshed on an epic scale, and inconclusive victories and losses. In terms of strategies, the battles of the Anaconda plan were more important in terms of their consequences: Vicksburg & Shiloh

34. Vicksburg, 1863

35. Vicksburg While the horrors of Gettysburg were beginning, the first major victory for the Anaconda plan had just occurred. US Grant led the North across the Mississippi River and into the state of Mississippi, where he bottled up a Confederate army in the city of Vicksburg, which lay on the heights above the river. Grant tried several direct attacks, all of which failed at a horrendous cost for the Union. Thus, he settled for a siege, while periodically bombing the city, killing civilians and Confederate soldiers alike. The eventual surrender by the Confederate division there sealed Union control of the Mississippi River.

36. Vicksburg Look how fun the battle was! “All through June, the Union dug lines parallel to and approaching the rebel lines. Soldiers could not poke their heads up above their works for fear of snipers. It was a sport for Union troops to poke a hat above the works on a rod, betting on how many rebel bullets would pierce it in a given time. Pemberton, the Confederate commander, was boxed in with lots of inedible munitions and little food. The poor diet was showing on the Confederate soldiers. By the end of June, half were out sick or hospitalized. Scurvy, malaria, dysentery, diarrhea, and other diseases cut their ranks. At least one city resident had to stay up at night to keep starving soldiers out of his vegetable garden. The constant shelling did not bother him as much as the loss of his food. As the siege wore on, fewer and fewer horses, mules, and dogs were seen wandering about Vicksburg. Shoe leather became a last resort of sustenance for many adults.”

37. Shiloh, 1863 Shiloh is connected to the Vicksburg campaign in that the Confederate Army was unable to relieve the river city due to their loss here. “Shiloh” is a Hebrew word meaning “Place of Peace.” It is also the title of a Neil Diamond song. There may be a connection, but I’ve never figured it out.

38. Shiloh, 1863 The two-day battle of Shiloh, the costliest in U.S. history up to that time, resulted in the defeat of the Confederate army and combined with Vicksburg, effectively cut the Confederate army in half. Union casualties were 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing); Grant's army bore the brunt of the fighting over the two days, with casualties of 1,513 killed, 6,601 wounded, and 2,830 missing or captured. Confederate casualties were 10,699 (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing or captured). This total of 23,746 men represented more than the American battle-related casualties of the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican-American War combined. Both sides were shocked at the carnage. None suspected that three more years of such bloodshed remained in the war and that eight larger and bloodier battles were yet to come. Grant came to realize that his prediction of one great battle bringing the war to a close was probably not destined to happen. The war would continue, at great cost in casualties and resources, until the Confederacy succumbed or the Union was divided.

39. The March through Georgia, 1864 Grant and Lincoln searched for a way to bring the war to a close. Grant developed the “Scorched Earth” doctrine, which meant bringing the reality of the war home to Southern civilians, as well crippling the South’s ability to supply its armies. A series of bloody battles brought the Union Army into Georgia and into control of Atlanta. Grant then dispatched his best commander, William T. Sherman, with orders to burn everything on his way to Savannah, on the Atlantic Ocean. "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.” --William T. Sherman

40. Sherman’s route is in gray—both wings

41. An picture from 1865, showing the effects of total war in South Carolina.

42. Whether the accounts are exaggerated or not, Southerners still tell stories about the atrocities carried out by Northern soldiers, from looting, to “slave stealing,” to rape, to murder. After 4 years of war, who’s to say the Northern soldiers weren’t incapable of venting their anger on the people they saw as responsible for the war. As Sherman said, “War is hell.” Secession Hall in Charleston, South Carolina

43. But here’s something interesting: from his general order regarding soldier conduct: “VII. Negroes who are able-bodied and can be of service to the several columns may be taken along, but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one and that his first duty is to see to them who bear arms...” In other words, this raised the question of what to do with slaves who would be freed by the march of the Union Army. Sherman was worried they would burden the Army, so he issued what became known as Field Order no. 15, or, “the twenty acres and a mule” rule. It was meant to settle the slaves where they were, rather than have them move North or get in the way of the Army. And the freed slaves began to set themselves up as property owners almost immediately. This will have big repercussions later.

44. The End of the War (?) Despite a series of bloody battles in Virginia in which Grant took horrific losses, the success of Sherman’s march meant the South was doomed, as he was now able to swing up from the deep south and attack Lee to his rear. Lee realized the inevitability of defeat and formally surrendered at Appomattox in 1865.

45. Casualties: Confederacy: 93,000 killed in action 258,000 total dead 137,000+ wounded Union: 110,000 killed in action 360,000 total dead (from disease, etc.) 275,200 wounded “The war accounted for more casualties than all other U.S. wars combined. The causes of the war, the reasons for its outcome, and even the name of the war itself are subjects of lingering controversy even today. The main results of the war were the restoration and strengthening of the Union (mainly by permanently ending the issue of secession), and the end of slavery in the United States. About 4 million black slaves were freed in 1865. Based on 1860 census figures, 8 percent of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6 percent in the North and an extraordinary 18 percent in the South.”

46. Lincoln’s Assassination. There was one last casualty of the war. After winning re-election, Lincoln hoped to be able to bring about a reconciliation between the North and the South. He never had the chance. He was murdered by an actor named John Wilkes Booth, who was romantically sympathetic to the Confederacy, and who shouted “Thus die tyrants” moments after shooting Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln remains the 2nd most popular president in US history.

47. The Myth of the “Lost Cause”

48. Lost Cause? Many whites in the South consider the Civil War to have been a romantic struggle against Northern oppression. They use the Confederacy to evoke images of manliness, independence, military valor, and in many cases, white supremacy. Some Southern states openly fly the Confederate flag over federal buildings A political organization named “the League of the South” openly advocates secession, limited immigration, and a return to Christian fundamentalism.

49. Images from a pro-Confederate flag rally Nazis always seem to sneak into these things

50. Some of the main tenets of the Lost Cause movement were that: ▪ Confederate generals such as Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson represented the virtues of Southern nobility, as opposed to most Northern generals, who were characterized as possessing low moral standards, and who subjected the Southern civilian population to such indignities as Sherman's March to the Sea. ▪ Losses on the battlefield were inevitable due to Northern superiority in resources and manpower. ▪ Losses were also the result of betrayal and incompetence on the part of certain subordinates of General Lee. ▪ Defense of States' rights, rather than preservation of chattel slavery, was the primary cause that led eleven Southern states to secede from the Union, thus precipitating the war. ▪ Secession was a justifiable constitutional response to Northern cultural and economic aggressions against the Southern way of life.