The Civil War: Beginnings

1. The Civil War: Beginnings In George Hayward’s Departure of the Seventh Regiment, flags and the spectacle of thousands of young men from New York marching off to battle give a deceptively gay appearance to the beginning of the Civil War.

2. White noise is comingThe wolf at your doorDo you hear the drummin'?Outside your windowOutside your windowCivil war, civil warAll your yesterdays gone beforeCivil war, civil warCan you tell me what you're fighting for?Soldiers of FortuneThe traitor withinBlood on the pale moonOutside your window, outside your windowCivil war, civil warAll your yesterdays gone beforeCivil war, civil warCan you tell me what you're fighting for? • Children learn to killBet you’re a** you'll pay the billSeason of the dogThe dollar takes the place of GodDeath laughs in your faceAnarchy will take your placeYou give all your children gunsSee what you have doneBacklash coming soonJoker gonna call the tuneChorus • Your children are learningYou teach them to hateYour cities are burningOutside your windowOutside your windowCivil war, civil warAll your yesterdays gone beforeCivil war, civil warCan you tell me what you're fighting for?

3. Bell-Ringer: Make a list of the things in life that you value the most. These can be material objects, values/ideas, people, etc. Would you be willing to leave the United States if you felt any of these items were being threatened? Why or why not?

4. What would each “side” be fighting for in this war? For the South, only slaveholders had a direct economic reason for preserving slavery, but most whites defended the institution and the way of life they had built on it. The degraded status of blacks was a basis of elevated status for even humble whites. • Southerners also believed firmly in the “aggression” of the Yankees, especially since much of the war would involve the North trying to subdue the South by “invading” its territory. • The South also believed that their secession shared very much with our declaration of independence from tyrannical British rule in 1776. Many Southerners simply wanted to be let alone by the North. • For the North, the “treason” of the rebels threatened to destroy a government that the country had spent considerable time, energy, and bloodshed in creating. • The North was also outraged that Southerners were upset that a president had been chosen through a democratic election, and that the law of the land and authority of the Constitution was being challenged. • Men from both sides would rally behind their separate battle flags, convinced that they were right and that God was on their side.

5. THE ODDS STACKED AGAINST WHOM?

6. TWO PRESIDENTS, TWO COUNTRIES Abraham Lincoln, U.S.A. Jefferson Davis, C.S.A.

7. Defending the Cause

8. Portraits of a group of unidentified Union soldiers

9. Portrait of Pvt. Philip Carper, 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, C.S.A.

10. The Glorious Burden… Both armies experienced religious revivals during the war. This photograph shows members of a largely Irish regiment from New York celebrating mass at the beginning of the war. Notice the presence of some female visitors in the left foreground.

11. WAR STRATEGIES • Southern confidence: a “just” war; northern prosperity depended on the South’s cotton; cotton would make Europe a powerful ally (King Cotton diplomacy). • The Confederacy’s sheer size also was a factor. The Union would need a sizeable fighting force to subdue over 750,000 square miles of hostile territory. • South’s strategy: stay at home, hold off invasions, avoid battles that risked wiping out its army, and outlast the North’s will/desire to fight. • The South could technically win independence by not winning the war. • The Union and the “Anaconda Plan.” Cut-off southern ports so they could not ship cotton to foreign countries, and they could not import supplies and munitions (guns/weapons). • Plays an important role in eventual victory of the Union…years later. • The Union thinks this will be a 90 day war…that is why Lincoln had people enlist for only three months at first!