C H A P T E R S 2 0 & 2 1 The Civil War

C H A P T E R S 2 0 & 2 1The Civil War American Pageant

The Menace of Secession • March 4, 1861: • Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated • in his inaugural address, said that there would be no conflict unless the South provoked it • Restoration of the union=his top goal • split U.S. brought up questions about the sharing of the national debt & the allocation of federal territories.

Choosing Sides • The Civil War: • Southern name: “War between the States” • Northern name: the “War of Rebellion” • December 20, 1860: • South Carolina convention voted unanimously to secede from the Union • “fire-eaters” elsewhere in the Deep South quickly followed

Fire-eaters (definition) • Southern politicians who sought secession. • They organized secession conventions in several southern states in 1850 but backed away because of a lack of support and the promise of moderate southern backing for secession if Congress tried to outlaw slavery in the future.

Choosing Sides • Secessionists met in Montgomery, Alabama: • When? February 1861 • What did they do? Proclaimed a new nation—the Confederate States of America • Named Jefferson Davis as president

Choosing Sides • Upper Southern slave states: • Secessionist fever was less intense • Their leaders proposed federal guarantees for slavery in states where it existed • Upper South = Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri & Arkansas

Choosing Sides • In December 1860 • President James Buchanan declared secession illegal • Also said that the federal gov’t lacked the authority to restore the Union by force

Choosing Sides • South Carolina: • Demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter • federal garrison in Charleston Harbor • Viewed Buchanan’s message as recognition of its independence • Buchanan sends unarmed merchant ship to resupply the fort • South Carolinans fired on the ship • Buchanan backs down

The Bombardment of Fort Sumter, 1861 (p. 400) • Currier and Ives, a New York publishing house, brought colorful art into thousands of middle-class homes by printing inexpensive lithographs of pastoral scenes and dramatic historical events. This fairly realistic depiction of the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in April 1861 was especially popular in the South.

Choosing Sides • Jefferson Davis forced the surrender of Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861 • Lincoln called in state militiamen to put down the insurrection. • Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, & North Carolina joined the Confederacy after the fall of Fort Sumter

Brother’s Blood and Border Blood • remaining Border States (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland) = crucial for both sides • would have almost 2X the manufacturing capacity of the South & increased its supply of horses & mules by half. • called “border states” because… • they are on the North-South border • they are slave-states. They have not seceded, but at any moment, they just might.

Brother’s Blood and Border Blood • Retaining the border states: Lincoln used moral persuasion…and methods of dubious legality: • Maryland: declared martial law in order to retain a state that would isolate Washington D.C. within Confederate territory if it went to the South • sent troops to western Virginia & Missouri to secure those areas.

Map 14.1 The Process of Secession, 1860–1861 (p. 399) • The states with the highest concentration of slaves (see Table 14.1) led the secessionist movement. After the attack on Fort Sumter, the states of the upper South joined the Confederacy. Yeomen farmers in Tennessee and the back country of Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia opposed secession but, except in the futures state of West Virginia, initially rallied to the confederate cause. Consequently, the South entered the Civil War with a white population generally opposed to the policies of Lincoln’s administration.

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • Jefferson Davis’s focus: • Defense of the Confederacy rather than conquering western territories; (the Confederacy only needed a military stalemate to guarantee independence)

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • Lincoln: • Portrayed secession as an attack on popular government • Insisted on a policy of unconditional surrender.

Dethroning King Cotton • South was depending on foreign intervention to win the war--didn’t get it. • European countries wanted the Union to be split • strengthen their nation • people were pro-North & anti-slavery, • effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin—being lowly wage earners, the common people felt Uncle Tom’s pain.

Dethroning King Cotton • Southern believed that the war would produce a shortageof cotton, which would draw England and others into the war, right? • Wrong. • pre-war years, cotton production had been immense, and England and France had huge surpluses of cotton.

Dethroning King Cotton • As the North won Southern territory, it sent cotton and food over to Europe. • India & Egypt upped their cotton production to offset the hike in the price of cotton. • King Wheat and King Corn (of the North) beat King Cotton of the South • Europe needed the food much more than it needed the cotton.

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • On July 21, 1861: • General Irwin McDowell’s troops were routed by P. G. T. Beauregard’s Confederate troops in the Battle of Bull Run • Lincoln: • Replaced McDowell with George B. McClellan • Signed bills for the enlistment of men for the newly created Army of the Potomac

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • In 1862: • McClellan launched a thrust toward Richmond, Virginia (the Confederate capital) • He moved too slowly • Allowed the Confederates to mount a counterattack.

President Davis Versus President Lincoln • South’s problem • gave states the ability to secede in the future • getting Southern states to send troops to help other states was always difficult to do. By definition in a confederacy, national power was weak. • Jefferson Davis was never really popular & he overworked himself

President Davis Versus President Lincoln • Lincoln • benefit of leading an established government • grew patient & relaxed as the war dragged on.

Limitations on Wartime Liberties • Lincoln’s tyranny: • illegally proclaiming a blockade, • proclaiming acts without Congressional consent • sending in troops to the BorderStates • justified his actions: said that such acts weren’t permanent, and that he had to do those things in order to preserve the Union.

Limitations on Wartime Liberties • the advancement of $2 million to threeprivate citizens for war purposes • the suspension of habeas corpus sothat anti-Unionists could be arrested without a formal charge • Theintimidation of voters in the Border States.

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • In 1862: • Washington was threatened when a Confederate army under “Stonewall” Jackson marched north up the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia • Jackson won a series of small engagements, tying down the larger Union forces

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • General Robert E. Lee: • Launched an attack outside Richmond & suffered heavy casualties • McClellan failed to exploit the advantage, & Richmond remained secure.

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • Jackson & Lee: • Routed a Union army in the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862 • The battle at Antietam Creek on September 17, 1862: • The bloodiest single day in U.S. military history • Jackson’s troops arrived just in time to save Lee’s troops from defeat.

Fields of Death (p. 396) • Fought with mass armies and new weapons the Civil War took a huge toll in human lives, as evidenced by grisly photos like this one of a battlefield at Antietam, Maryland. At Shiloh, Tennessee, Gen. Grant surveyed a field “so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk…in any direction, stepping on dead bodies, without a foot touching the ground.”

Lincoln Visits the Army of the Potomac, 1862 (p. 405) • Following the battle of Antietam, President Lincoln journeyed to the headquarters of General McClellan. Supported by his military advisors (standing to his rear), the towering commander in chief vigorously urged his principal general to exploit the opportunity offered by Lee’s heavy casualties and launch an all-out attack against Richmond. When McClellan did not undertake this offensive, Lincoln removed him as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • Lincoln • Replaced General McClellan with Ambrose Burnside, who later resigned & was replaced by Joseph (“Fighting Joe”) Hooker • The Union dominated the Ohio River Valley, & in 1862: General Ulysses S. Grant took • Fort Henry on the Tennessee River • Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River

Map 14.2 The Eastern Campaigns of 1862 (p. 404) • Confederate Generals Robert J. “Stonewall” Jackson & Robert E. Lee secured victories that were almost decisive; they also suffered a defeat—at Antietam, in Maryland—that was almost fatal. As was often the case in the Civil War, the victors in these battles were either too bloodied or too timid to exploit their advantage • Many of the great battles of the Civil War took place in the 125 miles between the Union capital of Washington & the Confederate capital of Richmond. During the eastern campaigns of 1862,

Setting Objectives & Devising Strategies • In April 1862: • Confederate army caught Grant by surprise near Shiloh • Grant forced a Confederate withdrawal but suffered lots of casualties • Union naval forces captured New Orleans, undermining Confederate strength in the Mississippi Valley

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • After the defeat at Shiloh in April 1862, the Confederate Congress imposed the first legally binding draft in American history • The Confederate draft had two loopholes: • It exempted one white man for each twenty slaves on a plantation • It allowed drafted men to hire substitutes.

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • Some Southerners refused to serve: • Confederate government lacked the power to compel them • Confederate Congress overrode state judges’ orders to free conscripted men

Dixie • Dan Emmit was working for Dan Bryant's Minstrels in New York when he wrote this "hooray song." When the Civil War began, "Dixie," written by a Northerner, became the unofficial national anthem of the Confederate South. After the surrender of General Lee in 1865, President Lincoln had "Dixie" played by the band in Washington, saying, "We have captured the Confederate Army; we have also captured the Confederate tune, and both belong to us."

I wish I was in the land of cotton, Old times there are not forgotten; Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land. In Dixie Land where I was born in, Early on one frosty morning, Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land. I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray! Hooray! In Dixie Land, I'll take my stand, To live and die in Dixie, Away, Away, Away down south in Dixie, Away, Away, Away down south in Dixie. Old missus marry "Will de weaber," Willium was a gay deceaber; Look away! Look away! Look away way! Dixie Land But when he put his arm around'er, He smiled as fierce as a forty-pound'er. Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land Den I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray! Hooray! In Dixie Land, I'll take my stand, To lib and die in Dixie, Away, Away Away down south in Dixie, Away, Away, Away down south in Dixie. His face was sharp as a butchers cleaber, But dat did not seem to greab'er; Look away! Look away! Look away way! Dixie Land Ole missus acted de foolish part, And died for a man dat broke her heart, Look away! Look away! Look away way! Dixie Land Dixie

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • To prevent sabotage & concerted resistance to the war effort in the Union • Lincoln suspended habeas corpus (the constitutional right that protects citizens against arbitrary arrest and detention) • Imprisoned about 15,000 Confederate sympathizers without trial • He also extended martial law to civilians who discouraged enlistment or resisted the draft

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • The Union government’s Militia Act of 1862 • Set a quota of volunteers for each state • Enrollment Act of 1863: Increased the quotas • Northerners, too, could hire replacements or pay a $300 commutation (exemption fee)

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • Hostility to the draft & to African Americans spilled into the streets of New York City in the form of a series of riots • Irish & German workers sacked the homes of Republicans • Rioters lynched and mutilated a dozen African Americans • Forced hundreds of black families from their homes

Draft Riots and Anti-Black Violence in New York City (p. 408) • The Enrollment Act of 1863 enraged many workers and recent Irish and German immigrants who did not want to go to war. In July in NYC they took out their anger on free blacks in a week-long series of riots. This engraving depicts the burning by a mob of the Colored Orphan Asylum on 5th Avenue, home to 200 African American children. All of the children escaped before the mob set fire to the building; the fire spread to adjoining structures, forcing residents to flee with whatever possessions they could carry.

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • Lincoln rushed in Union troops fresh from the battle of Gettysburg, who killed more than hundred rioters and suppressed the insurrection.

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • The Union Army Medical Bureau & the United States Sanitary Commission: • Provided medical services to the soldiers • Tried to prevent deaths from disease, which killed more men than did the fighting. • The Confederate health system was poorly organized, & soldiers died from camp diseases at a higher rate than Union soldiers

Mobilizing Armies & Civilians • Women took a leading role in the Sanitary Commission & other wartime agencies • Dorothea Dix = 1st woman to receive a major federal appointment (superintendent of female nurses) • Women staffed growing bureaucracies, volunteered to serve as nurses, & filled positions traditionally held by men. • A number of women took on military duties as spies, scouts, & (disguised as men) soldiers

Hospital Nursing (p.408) • Working as nurses in battlefront hospitals 1000s of Union & Confederate women gained firsthand experience of the horrors of war. A sense of calm prevails in this behind-the-lines Union hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, as nurse Anne Belle tends to the needs of soldiers recovering from their wounds. Most Civil War nurses served as unpaid volunteers and spent time cooking and cleaning for their patients as well as tending their injuries.

Mobilizing Resources • The Union entered the war with a distinct advantage • Its economy was far superior to the South’s • Its arms factories were equipped for mass production

Mobilizing Resources • The Confederates had substantial industrial capacity • By 1863 able to provide every infantryman w/ a modern riflemusket • Confederate leaders counted on “King Cotton” to provide revenue to purchase clothes, boots, blankets, & weapons from abroad

Mobilizing Resources • To sustain the allegiance of Northerners to their party while bolstering the Union’s ability to fight the war, the Republicans: • Raised tariffs • Created a national banking system • Devised a system of internal improvements, especially railroads; & developed the Homestead Act of 1862

Mobilizing Resources • Homestead Act of 1862 • Gave heads of families or individuals 21 or older the title to 160 acres of public land after 5 years of residence & improvement

Mobilizing Resources • The Confederate government’s economic policy was less coherent. The Davis administration • Built & operated shipyards, armories, foundries, & textile mills • Commandeered food & raw materials • Requisitioned slaves to work on forts

Mobilizing Resources • The Union government created a modern nation-state that raised revenue for the war by • Imposing broad-based taxes (paid for about 20 % of the cost of the war) • Increased tariffs on consumer goods • Imposed direct taxes on business corporations, large inheritances and incomes • Borrowing from the middle classes • Creating a national monetary system • National Banking Acts of 1863 & 1864

C H A P T E R S 2 0 & 2 1 The Civil War