Chapter 4

1. Chapter 4 The Union in Peril

2. Section 1 The Divisive Politics of Slavery

3. Difference Between North and South • Different climates and religions lead to different values and economies • In order to maintain the Union, a balance of power must be reached and maintained. • Every time this balance of power is threatened we sit on the brink of war • Slavery ends up dividing the nation • South is angry that the North wants to rid them of the way they make their money, it would be like the South demanding the North shut down all their factories

4. Statehood for California • Because of the population boom caused by the Gold Rush, California can apply for statehood in 1850 • California’s new constitution prohibited slavery which made Southerners mad since they assumed California would be a slave state due to the fact the most of it existed below the slave line (But remember that was ONLY for the Louisiana Territory)

5. Compromise of 1850 • Henry Clay’s idea • North gets California admitted as a free state • South gets Fugitive Slave Act (slaves who escaped to the North now have to be returned to the South and anyone who helps runaways will be fined or imprisoned) • Both get “Popular Sovereignty” for Utah and New Mexico (meaning people in those states will vote whether they want to be free or not)

6. Underground Railroad • A system of routes used by abolitionists to help free slaves from the South • Conductors provided runaways with food, clothing, shelter during the day and directions to the next station • Harriet Tubman- most famous conductor, escaped from slavery herself and then returned to the South to help 300 others escape

7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe • Stressed slavery was a moral issue • Encouraged whites to increase protests, Southerners hated and banned it

8. Kansas/Nebraska • People wanted to use Popular Sovereignty in these territories to decide issue of slavery, but it is legally closed to slavery because it is above the Mason-Dixon line • Bill proposed to split the territories in two and establish Popular Sovereignty in both

9. Bleeding Kansas • Both supporters and opponents of slavery sent people to populate Kansas in order to win the vote • “Border Ruffians” from Missouri crossed the border, voted illegally and “won” the election • They set up a proslavery government in Lecompton • The other side got mad and set up an antislavery government in Topeka • Struggle turns violent

10. Violence in the Senate • Senator Charles Sumner spoke against slavery for two days and criticized Senator Andrew Butler in particular • Butler’s nephew Preston S. Brooks showed up in the chamber and beat Sumner until his cane broke • Sumner suffered brain damage and didn’t return to work for three years

11. Slavery Divides Whigs • Whigs in both the North and the South • Can’t agree on a national platform • Those in the South want proslavery and pro-Union • Those in the North look for other alternatives like the Know-Nothing, Democratic, Republican, Liberty, Free-Soil…

12. Free-Soilers • Alternative to abolitionism, not all Northerners favor blacks • Want anti-black laws but dislike slavery’s competition with free white workers

13. New Republican Party • Opponents of slavery in territories • Free-Soilers, antislavery Whigs and Democrats, nativists from the North all joined to strengthen the party • In the election of 1856, John C. Fremont vs. James Buchanan, Fremont loses which postpones the secession of the South

14. Dred Scott Decision • Slave who lived in Missouri with his master, master took him to live in the free territories of Illinois and Wisconsin, then back to the South • Dred Scott sued, claiming that he should have been freed when he went to the free territories • After years the Supreme Court finally said Scott was not a citizen and therefore could not sue, and on top of that the 5th amendment protects property and therefore living in a free territory does not make a slave free • Guarantees the expansion of slavery because slave owners can take their property into an new territory

15. Dred Scott

16. Lincoln-Douglas Debates • In the 1858 Senate race Lincoln challenged Douglas to a debate about slavery in the territories • Neither wanted slavery in the territories, but disagreed how to keep it out. Douglas believed in popular sovereignty, Lincoln believed in abolition • Lincoln asks if territories can vote to keep slavery out before they become a state, Dred Scott says no, which means popular sovereignty is meaningless • Douglas says people can get around Dred Scott by electing Free-Soilers that won’t enforce the law • Important because it split Democrats and made Republicans consider Lincoln for president

17. Lincoln vs. Douglas

18. Harper’s Ferry • John Brown studied slave uprising and decided it was time to have one here • Night of October 16, 1859 he led a band of 21 men to an arsenal at Harper’s Ferry • Troops met them and put down the rebellion • Brown was tried and executed

19. Lincoln Elected • Election of 1860, Lincoln vs. Douglas vs. Breckenridge vs. Bell • Too many options means Lincoln wins although he had less than half the popular vote and no electoral votes from the South (where he mostly wasn’t even on the ballot)

20. Southern Secession • Lincoln’s victory ticks off the South • December 20, 1860 South Carolina secedes from the Union, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas • Make their own country called the Confederacy, they write their own constitution, and elect Jefferson Davis as president • North has the option to let them go peacefully or fight to keep the Union together

21. Section 2 The Civil War Begins

22. Attack on Fort Sumter • Confederacy started seizing Union forts. • By Lincoln’s inauguration in March only 4 forts remained in Union hands • On April 12, 1861 the South attacked Fort Sumter and it fell. • Lincoln then called for army volunteers and Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee seceded. West Virginia then seceded from Virginia and joined the Union (Total=11). • Border states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri stayed.

23. Strengths and Strategies • North • More people, more factories, more food production, more railroads • Blockade Southern ports, Split Confederacy on Mississippi • Capture capital of Richmond, Virginia. • South • “King Cotton” • First-rate generals • Highly motivated soldiers • Defensive strategy

24. Battle of Bull Run • 25 miles from Washington D.C. • Union gains upper hand to start, but Stonewall Jackson earns his nickname by refusing to give in • At the end of the day the Confederates win the victory, but are too exhausted to follow their victory up with an attack on Washington D.C. • Many Confederate soldiers go home convinced their victory was so great that the war was over in a single battle

25. Union Armies in the West • Lincoln ramps up enlistments and appointments General McClellan • Troops in the West fight for control of the Mississippiunder General Grant’s command • He wins several victories but is surprised by an attack at Shiloh where ¼ of the 100,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured • General Farragut seizes New Orleans and heads North • The two Generals only have three forts left in their way of the Confederacy-splitting goal.

26. War for the Capitals • Spring 1862 McClellan was gaining on Richmond • Robert E. Lee took over and drove McClellan away • By September Lee is nearing D.C. • McClellan’s men find some cigars with Lee’s orders wrapped around them and discover the Southern army is currently split • McClellan goes after Lee’s half, they fight the bloodiest single-day battle in American history at Antietam with 26,000 dead • Lee retreats, McClellan does not follow and end the war, so Lincoln fires him

27. Great Britain’s Role • South assumed Great Britain would side with them since they often bought a lot of cotton from the South. • Great Britain foresaw the war and stocked up on cotton. • They now need the North’s wheat and corn, but remain officially neutral

28. Emancipation Proclamation • Lincoln believed he could not abolish slavery where it already existed • His way around this was by saying the South was using slaves as weapons of war and therefore his troops could free them • Only frees slaves where he cannot (no slaves are immediately set free) • Gives war a moral cause and ensures no compromise

29. Political Dissent • Not everyone agreed with the war so there was dissent on both sides. • Both sides then held people without charging them • Both sides turned to conscription (drafting) to keep people in the army

30. African American Soldiers • Fought for BOTH the North and the South • In the North they made up 1/10 of the army, but were still treated poorly, segregated and paid less.

31. Soldiers Suffer on Both Sides • Killing technologies advanced faster than healing technologies so it was a particularly bloody war • Lack of supplies, medical care and clean surroundings led to body lice and dysentery • POW’s were held in even worse conditions, 15% of Union prisoners died in the South, 12% of Confederate prisoners died in the North

32. Women Work to Improve Conditions • Although they did not fight, they helped the war through medical care • Like Clara Barton who eventually founded the Red Cross or Sally Tompkins who was commissioned as a captain

33. War Affect Regional Economies • War expanded North’s economy, destroyed South’s economy • South faced food shortage and inflation of 7000% • War boosts Northern factories and industries, but wages do not keep up with growth and prices so people end up with a lower standardof living • Congress needs to pay for the war so they start the first income tax

34. Section 3 The North Takes Charge

35. The Tide Turns • South was winning the war • Only consolation for North was that General Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by his own men. After his arm was amputated he caught pneumonia and died.

36. Battle of Gettysburg • Union troops take positions in the hills surrounding the town • 90,000 Union vs. 75, 000 Confederate by end of Day 1 • Day 2, Confederates took control of the town and Union only held Cemetery Ridge • Confederates come from Seminary Ridge, for two hours they exchange fire until the North stops. South thinks they are out of ammo and rush the field only to get slaughtered • End 23,000 Union dead, 28,000 Confederates dead

37. Gettysburg Address • November 1863 at a ceremony to dedicate a cemetery there • About two minutes long, but it was significant because people went from saying “The United States are…” to “The United States is…”

38. Battle of Vicksburg • One of two remaining strongholds on Mississippi, allowed holder to control all traffic • Many unsuccessful attempts to take it over • Finally Union troops destroy rail supply lines leading into fort • Grant sieges and when occupants are so hungry they are eating dogs and mules South finally surrenders the fort • The Confederacy was successfully cut in two five days later with the fall of Port Hudson

39. Confederacy Wears Down • Confederacy runs so low on supplies that they can no longer attack and the best they can hope for is an armistice • When even that goal starts slipping away more and more Southerners call for peace

40. Total War • Grant and Sherman are appointed to wear down the South by using “total war” tactics • When you break the will of the people, the war ends • Grant wants to decimate Lee’s army in Virginia while Sherman raids Georgia (even at the cost of casualties twice as high as their opponents) • During Sherman’s march to the sea houses, livestock, and railroads were destroyed to make the South so sick of war that they wouldn’t try it again in a hurry • Torched most of Atlanta, reached the sea and returned North with 25,000 newly freed slaves to wipe out Lee

41. Election of 1864 • Lincoln’s chances of winning the re-election were not high as his opponents and many within his own party were so sick of the war • Lincoln knew he was going to be beaten and “unless some great change takes place, badly beaten.” • That great change took place as news of Sherman’s victories reached the North right before the election, causing Lincoln to win

42. Surrender at Appomattox • April 3, 1865 Union troops conquered Richmond which had been torched and abandoned by the Southerners • April 9, 1865 in Appomattox Court House, Virginia Lee and Grant meet to discuss surrender. • Lincoln requested that the terms be generous, within a month all resistance was dead and the war was over

43. Political and Economic Changes • Increased power of the Federal Government (income tax, draft…) • No state ever threatened secession again • Northern economy boomed, Southern economy devastated with the elimination of the labor force and the physical destruction of industry and farmland

44. Revolution in Warfare • Last old fashioned war or the first modern war • Rifle and minie ball were two new deadly developments • Hand grenades and land mines became deadlier • Ironclad ships could withstand cannon fire, resist burning and ram wooden ones

45. 13th Amendment • “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party has been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

46. Lincoln is Assassinated • April 14, 1865 Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by Booth and died the next day • Booth was finally shot by Union cavalry in a shed • 1st American presidential assassination, 1/3 of the Northern population witnessed his funeral train

47. Section 4 Reconstruction and Its Effects

48. Reconstruction • Between 1865 and 1877 when the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War • Also refers to the process the federal government used to readmit the Confederate States back into the Union • There are 3 different plans for Reconstruction: Lincoln’s, Johnson’s, and Congress’s

49. Lincoln’s Plan • Lenient • Ten-Percent Plan: Government would pardon most Confederates who would swear allegiance to the Union • As soon as 10% of those who had voted in 1860 took this oath the Confederate state could form a new state government and send representatives and senators back to Congress. • Under this plan Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia moved toward readmission

50. Johnson’s Plan • Since Lincoln was assassinated before the plan was totally in place Johnson announced his own plan • Similar, except it excluded high-ranking Confederates and wealthy Southern landowners from taking the oath needed for voting privileges. • However, he was pretty racist and believed white men should rule the South and therefore also pardoned 13,000 former Confederates • Almost all the rest of the states started to follow this plan and sent representatives to D.C. where Congress refused to seat them