The Civil War

1. The Civil War Chapter 11 Section 1 & 2

2. Objectives and Why it Matters • The 13th Amendment abolished slavery forever • Power of the Federal Government was strengthened.

3. Economy • Northern Banks loaned the federal government money by buying government bonds. • Congress passed the Legal Tender Act in February 1862. • This created a national currency and allowed the government to issue green colored paper money known as greenbacks.

4. Before the Civil War, banks and states would issue their own money.

6. The Confederacy’s financial situation was not good to start, and it continued to worsen • Southern planters and banks could not buy bonds. • The Union Navy Blockaded Southern ports so money was raised by taxing. Trade was greatly reduced. • To raise money, the South taxed its citizens • The South was forced to print its own paper money, which caused rapid inflation in the South

7. As the war began, there were many Republicans and Northern Democrats who challenged Lincoln’s policies • Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union, even if that meant allowing slavery to continue • The War Democratssupported the Civil War and restoring the Union. They opposed slavery • The Peace Democrats referred to by Republicans as Copperheads, opposed the war. They wanted to reunite the States by using negotiation.

8. In 1862, Congress introduced a militia law that required states to use conscription; the drafting of people for Military Service, to fill their regiments. Also, people could be paid to fill military service for someone else. Example; a wealthy land owner could “hire” a poorer neighbor to go into the military in his name. For payment, the landowner would agree to take care of their land and family. • Many Democrats opposed the law and riots erupted in many cities.

9. To enforce the militia law Lincoln suspended the Writs of Habeas Corpus: A writ of habeas corpus is used to bring a prisoner or other detainee (e.g. institutionalized mental patient) before the court to determine if the person's imprisonment or detention is lawful. • The Writ was suspended for anyone who openly supported the rebels or encouraged others to resist the militia draft

10. Southern Government • The Confederate’s Constitution’s commitment to state’s rights limited President Davis’s ability to conduct the war. • Many Southern leaders opposed President Jefferson Davis’s policies • They objected to the Confederacy forcing people to join the army

11. The South’s government was weak because President Davis and the Constitution emphasized state’s rights, which limited the central government and interfered with Davis’s ability to conduct the war.

12. The War Overseas • The United States did not want Europeans to recognize the Confederate States of America as an independent Country • Abraham Lincoln NEVER recognized the South as an independent country. He ALWAYS referred to the South as states in rebellion. To recognize the South as an independent country would only legitimize their cause to other countries and create the possibility of other nations coming to the South’s Aid.

13. The United States wanted Europeans to respect the Union Navy’s blockade of Southern Ports • The South wanted Europeans to recognize the Confederacy and declare the Union Navy’s blockade illegal. • The South wanted Britain, and in particular, Britain’s Navy to help the South • To pressure France and Britain, Southern Planters stopped selling cotton to these countries.

14. The summer and fall before the war began, there had been a bigger than usual cotton crop that had shipped to Britain. Britain had a surplus of cotton, so the threat to not have any cotton shipped to them backfired on the South. When the textile mills did need cotton again, they turned to their Empire and started getting cotton from Egypt. Other factories that had used cotton in the past, changed to making woolens, weapons or ships.

15. The Trent Affair • In 1861, The Confederacy sent James Mason of Virginia and John Slidell of Louisiana to Europe to be permanent ministers to Britain and France and hope to gain their support. • A Union Warship intercepted the Trent, a British Ship that had agreed to transport the two men to Europe. The ship was boarded and the men arrested. • Britain demanded the release of the two men and threatened war against The United States • President Lincoln freed Mason and Slidell, but the South still failed to gain support from Europe.

16. Modern War • The Civil War was the first “modern war” with new military technology and tactics. • The war involved huge armies made up of mostly civilian volunteers who required a large amount of supplies and equipment. • In addition, new ammunition in the form of cone shaped bullets began to be used. These were more accurate and fired faster than previous bullets.

18. Instead of standing in a line, troops defending positions in the Civil War began to use trenches and barricades to protect themselves.

19. Attrition: The wearing down of one side by the other through exhaustion of soldiers and resources meant that the armies had to keep replacing their soldiers. • Jefferson Davis wanted to wage a war of attrition against the Union and make them surrender. • Many Southern troops disliked this tactic and instead fought offensively, charging enemy lines and suffering large numbers of casualties • The Union Forces implemented The Anaconda Plan: Proposed by General Winfield Scott, this was a blockade of Confederate ports, sending gunboats down the Mississippi River to divide the Confederacy and keep supplies from making it to the Confederate troops.

21. Section Two Confederate reinforcements at the First Battle of Bull Run were led by Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson He became one of the most effective commanders in the Confederate Army.

23. At first, many Northern and Southern men enlisted in the Armies. • As the war continued with no end in sight, the South introduced Conscription in April, 1862. • The north tried to get volunteers to enlist by offering a bounty; an amount of money given as a bonus to men who enlisted for three years of military service. • In 1863, Congress introduced a national draft.

26. By spring of 1862, The Union Navy has blockaded all Confederate ports except for Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. • Lincoln wanted to cut the South’s trade with the world. • The Union Blockade became more effective as the world continued. • The Union Navy could not stop all of the blockade runners; small fast vessels, used by the South to smuggle goods past the blockade. • Confederate ships that worked out of foreign ports attacked Northern merchant ships at sea • The Confederacy had two of these ships built in Britain.

27. The building of the CSS Alabama in Britain, further strained relations between the US and Britain. • A fleet of Union Ships led by David G. Farragut, captured New Orleans and gained control of the lower Mississippi River in April 1862.

28. QUESTION • Why did the Union want to capture New Orleans? • New Orleans was the South’s largest city and its center of the cotton trade. Capturing New Orleans gave the Union control of the Lower Mississippi River. This helped put pressure on the South’s economy by cuttings its trade.

29. In February, 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant began a campaign to control the Cumberland River and the Tennessee River. He believed that if he controlled the rivers it would cut Tennessee in two and would give the Union a river route deep into Confederate territory. • Grant and his troops advanced down the Tennessee River until the Confederates launched a surprise attack at Shiloh. • The Union Army won the Battle of Shiloh, but twenty thousand troops were killed or wounded.

31. The Battle of Shiloh stunned people in both the North and the South because of the number of troops that had been killed or wounded. Newspapers demanded that Grant be replaced, but Lincoln responded “I can’t spare this man; he fights”. • Fighting continued in Murfreesboro, Bull Run, Yorktown, VA. • Lee began a series of attacks against Union General McClellan that would be known as the Seven Days’ Battle. Although the Union Army was not defeated, Lee was able to inflict heavy casualitiesand forced McClellan to retreat back to Washington.

32. Heading to Washington • Lee decided to attack the Union forces defending Washington. The maneuvers by the two sides led to another battle at Bull Run, near Manassas Junction, the site of the first major battle of the war. Again, the South forced the North to retreat, leaving Confederate Forces only 20 miles from Washington.

33. Turning Point of the War • The Battle of Antietam would be one of the deciding points for the rest of the war. Lee decided to invade Maryland. He and Jefferson Davis believed that only an invasion would convince the North to accept the South’s independence. They also hoped that a victory on Northern soil would help gain recognition from Britain. • Lee is outnumbered 2-1 by McClellan. He splits up the Confederate Army and sends some to Harpers Ferry to get more troops and come back. He hopes to take the two parts of the army and attack on opposite sides.

34. Lee’s plan is written down and is wrapped around some cigars. It falls out of a courier’s pocket (he was taking the plans to another commander) and a Union Soldier finds the cigars and ultimately the note. He gives it to McClellan. McClellan, wastes over 18 hours trying to see what Lee is going to do instead of attacking. There is a Confederate spy in McClellan’s regiment who is able to get word to Lee that McClellan knows his plan. Lee has enough time to change his plan of attack.

35. Battle of Antietam • The bloodiest one day battle in the war and in American History, with over 6.000 men killed and another 16,000 wounded. Although McClellan did not break Lee’s lines he inflicted so many casualties that Lee had to retreat to Virginia. • The Battle of Antietam was a crucial victory for the Union and Lincoln. The British Government had been ready to intervene in the war as a mediator if Lee’s invasion has succeeded. It had also begun making plans to recognize the Confederacy in the event that the North rejected mediation.

36. The North decided to wait and see how the war progressed, and the South once again lost its best chance at gaining any overseas help. • More than anything, the South’s defeat at Antietam helped Lincoln decide the time was right to end slavery.

37. In 1863, President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Nonetheless, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation. Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.

38. Emancipation Proclamation • Because the Proclamation only freed enslaved African Americans in states that were at war with the Union, it did not address slavery in the border states ( Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri). Lincoln could not end slavery in the border states, nor did he want to endanger their loyalty. • The Proclamation, by its very existence, transformed the conflict over preserving the Union into a war of liberation. And with the Proclamation, any hope that the South might have still held for help from Britain, ended.