The Civil War

Becker

US History

• Slavery: tied into all causes• Economic differences:

– Industrial North, Agrarian South– Tariff Battle linked to Economic Differences

• Political differences– State versus federal sovereignty– Legality of nullification and secession– Fight for representation in Congress

Recall Causes of War

PREPARING FOR WAR

Union and Confederate Resources

• The North’s Material Advantage

Civil War

War by Railroad

• Preparing For War 

• The New Technologies

– Deadlier Weaponry– Military Importance of RRs– Aerial Reconnaissance– Black & White Photography

PREPARING FOR WAR

– African Americans and the Union Cause– Growing Black Enlistment– Low Status of Black Soldiers 

All African Union Regiment

• In the North– Conscription: first draft in American history

• Bounties often paid: bounty jumping• Could pay a replacement…

– Paying for the War• Printing “greenbacks” not backed by specie• Higher tariffs and war bonds

– Suspension of Civil Liberties• Habeus corpus, etc

THE HOMEFRONTS

• In the South– Conscription: rich buy their way out– Paying for the War

• Print paper money, no specie, no faith in gov’t• Sales of war bonds not very lucrative

– Suspension of Civil Rights• Habeus corpus• Martial Law declared

– Delicate balance of federal v. state rights• States could secede from Confederacy if they wanted

THE HOMEFRONTS

Leadership and Strategy

• Winfield Scott is Commander of US Armies– Veteran of the MexAm War, Indian Removal…

• His strategy is the Anaconda Plan– Cut off southern supply lines; Blockades at sea– Slowly strangle the South

• Unpopular- N wants quick, glorious battles

• Robert E. Lee is Confederate commander– Thus, leadership is a key Southern advantage

Fort Sumter

• Island in Charleston harbor– Buchanan is do-nothing lame duck– Lincoln also avoids confrontation

• S Gen Beauregard cuts off island, begins attack• Sumter holds out for 2 days of bombardment• Finally, without supplies, Fort Sumter is surrendered• Shocking loss to the North• Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops, 3 month enlistments• Gen. Winfield Scott and the Anaconda Plan

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Fort Sumter

2 yrs of Union Defeats

• First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)– Southern Victory

• Battle of Shiloh– A draw: strategic S victory

• Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)– Southern Victory

• Lincoln frustrated with Scott: fires

1st Bull Run

• Union McDowell has 35K unseasoned troops• Confederate Beauregard & Johnston have

21K unseasoned troops• Scott: “You are all green”• Union assault on Johnston and Beauregard• Stonewall Jackson holds the line• Union retreats to Washington, DC• Confederate Victory

Battle of Shiloh

• Johnston and Beauregard attack Grant

• Grant has 48K Army of the West

• Confederates have 55K, Dawn attack

• Complete strategic and tactical surprise

• Johnston wounded in leg- bleeds to death

• Grant is villified as drunk and poor leader

• (Injured and unable to be on front lines.)

• Nearly 24K casualties

2nd Bull Run

• Lee’s Army of N Virginia vs. Union Pope

• Pope believes that Jackson is trapped

• Launches attack on Jackson’s main position

• Meanwhile, Jackson flanks Pope

• Longstreet launches frontal assault

• Pope trapped and flees west

• Confederate Victory

Victory at Sea?

• Union naval blockade is fairly effective

• Britain officially respects blockade

• Blockade runners risk life and limb for profit

• Merrimack (The Virginia) first ironclad (S)

• Monitor hastily built to counter by N

• Ironclads battle it out without resolution

• (Battle of Hampton Roads)

• Virginia sunk to keep N from capturing

• Great on training and organization

• Very cautious• Never takes

“unnecessary risks”• "If General

McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

McClellan

Battle of Antietam

• Lee can’t sustain a long war: supplies

• Lee tries invading North, win decisive victory

• Sept 1862 armies meet at Sharpsburg, MD

• McClellan finds copy of Lee’s orders

• Massive battle, bloodiest day of the war, 23K

• 5000 soldiers will die- not casualties, fatalities

• Turning point in Confederate fortune

• Lincoln dissatisfied with McClellan: fires

Antietam

Dead Union Soldiers at Antietam, 1862

Ambrose Burnsides

• Nov 1862 becomes new Union general

• Invasion of S to capture Richmond

• Lee tries to block Burnside’s invasion

• Armies meet at Fredericksburg, MD

Battle of Fredericksburg

• Burnside wants to be aggressive

• Has to cross river to attack Lee

• Builds pontoon bridges and begin to cross

• Disaster: Lee fires down on “the crossing”

• Few men make it across

• Then, bluffs to climb to reach Lee

• Major loss for the Union

• Lincoln frustrated with Burnside: fires

Emancipation Proclamation

• Lincoln frustrated with military defeats

• Tries to recruit “sleepers” in South: slaves

• Used powers from War Powers Act

• 01/01/1863 frees all slaves in rebelling states

• Does not free slaves in border states

• More symbolic than effective: does give hope

• Opens way for blacks to serve in Union army

• By war’s end, 186,000 serve: most decorated

Civil War

• The Emancipation Proclamation  

“That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, 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…”

- The Emancipation Proclamation

Joseph Hooker

• Fighting Joe

• Very popular with his soldiers

• His headquarters was criticized as being a “cross between a bar and a brothel”

• Talks big, acts little

Battle of Chancellorsville

• May 1863 Hooker, Lee meet in VA

• Hooker has much larger force: loses nerve

• Waits for Lee to attack

• Ends up being flanked and trapped

• Should have been an easy Union victory

• “Lee’s Perfect Battle”

• Lincoln frustrated with Hooker: fires

George Meade

• Courageous attack at Fredericksburg

• June 1863 replaced Hooker

• Reputation as an aggressive officer

• Not Lincoln’s first choice, but…

Battle of Gettysburg

• 3 days after command, Meade/Lee meet• Lee trying to attack Philadelphia, PA• Not planned: Lee trying to raid a shoe factory• Town already occupied by Meade• Set up for 3-day battle is in place• Day 1: Lee successful, pushes Union back• Day 2: Lee blind due to Jeb Stuart and cavalry

– Basically a draw, Union retreats but no winners– Lee knows it’s all or nothing now

Gettysburg, Day 3

• Union occupies Cemetery Ridge– Firing artillery down on Lee’s men– Lee hides in trees just out of artillery range– Artillery stops firing: Lee sees his chance

• Orders Longstreet to attack Cemetery Ridge– Longstreet argues: no cover, over a mile march– Lee insists: Longstreet takes his time

• Finally, Longstreet orders Pickett to attack– Nearly an hour of time has been wasted

• Pickett begins march across open field

• Meanwhile, artillery have more ammo

• Begin firing down from ridge on Pickett’s defenseless men

• Have to climb fences, rock walls Union built

• Complete slaughter: 8000 of 13000 die

Gettysburg

• Bloodiest battle of the war

• 50,000 casualties over 3 day battle

• Most bodies are mangled, unidentifiable

• Turning Point

• Lee will never again go on offensive

• Retreats south to regroup, heal

• Lee spends rest of war on the defense

• Lincoln frustrated with Meade: fires

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln, 1863

• The Gettysburg Address  – “Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers

brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the purpose that all men are created equal”

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln, 1863

• The Gettysburg Address  – Now we are engaged in a great civil war,

testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

• The Gettysburg Address  – 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.

Abraham Lincoln, 1863

Civil War

• The Gettysburg Address– “with malice toward none, with charity for all…

Let us bind up the nation’s wounds…”

Abraham Lincoln, 1863

Civil War

Ulysses Grant

• Heavy drinker• Heavy smoker• Lincoln criticized for

appointment• Lincoln: “Find out

what he drinks, and I will buy the generals a thousand barrels of it, for it seems to work.”

A New Kind of War

• Grant is different than other generals

• Not looking to minimize losses

• Total War: Use everything we have– Attack everything they have

• William Tecumseh Sherman– March to the Sea: burn, pillage, destroy South– Burn crops, “Sherman’s bowties”

• Grant himself will hunt down Lee

Battle of Vicksburg

• July 4, 1863, same as Gettysburg• Grant lays seige to Vicksburg May 18• S Pemberton has tons of guns/ammo: no food• Scurvy, malaria, dyssentary, cholera, etc• Eat horses, dogs, chew on shoe leather• July 1, Grant begins bombardment• Finally July 4 after news of Gettysburg,

Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg• Wins N control of Mississippi River, splits the

Confederacy in half

Battle of the Wilderness

• N and S meet in a densely wooded area

• Black powder sets brush on fire

• Thick smoke creates “friendly fire”

• Wounded burn to death in forest fires

• 18000 Union, 10000 Confederate casualties

• Lee expects Grant to fall back, regroup

• Grant, however, keeps pushing

Burning of Atlanta

• Sherman finally reaches Atlanta

• Surrounds and lays siege to the city

• Outnumbers defenders 112K to 50K

• Finally, Confederate Army flees, city falls– Burned and pillaged (gone with the wind)

• Shortly afterward, Grant takes Richmond– Confederate gov’t flees– Jefferson Davis caught fleeing dressed as woman

Election of 1864

• War Democrats: pro-Lincoln, pro-War

• Peace Democrats: anti-Lincoln, so-so War

• Copperheads: anti-Lincoln, anti-War

• Republicans: pro-Lincoln, pro-War

• Formation of unlikely alliances– Republicans and War Democrats: Union Party– Copperheads and Peace Democrats: Democrats

• Union Party nominates incumbent Lincoln– Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, for VP– Ensures the Lincoln-Johnson ticket will have

bi-partisan support

• Democrats run George McClellan– Has a personal issue w/ Lincoln, former boss– Democratic stronghold, the South, isn’t voting

• Lincoln wins resounding victory, 212-21– Very harmful to Southern morale

Election of 1864

Appomattox

• With Grant on his trail, Lee is in trouble

• Knows his time is short

• Faced with tough choice

• Finally decides not to waste further lives

• Asks Grant for a meeting– Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia– Surrenders his army to Grant

• Effectively, ends the war, reunites Union

Lee and Grant signed the armistice ending the Civil War at this table in these chairs

Lincoln Assassinated

• April 14, 1865, Lincoln attends a play

• Ford’s Theatre, in Washington, DC– S sympathizer/actor, John Wilkes Boothe – Enters presidential box, shoots Lincoln– Leaps out of 2nd story box, “Rex semper tyrannus”– Spur catches on flag, trips, breaks leg– Limps out to horse and escapes– Treated by Dr. Sam Mudd, arrested for conspiracy

• Boothe followed, shot dead by Union troops

• Lincoln is taken across the street

• Mortally wounded

• Hangs on until following morning

• Largest funeral in American history

• Body transported to Springfield, IL

• Millions turn out at every rail stop on the way

Lincoln Assassinated

• Preparing For War

• Campaigns & Battles of the War

• The Problems of Peacemaking

THE CIVIL WAR

Civil War

• The Problems of Peacemaking  – The Aftermath of War and Emancipation

• The Devastated South 

Richmond, VA 1865

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln, 1865

• The Problems of Peacemaking  – The Aftermath of War and Emancipation

• The Devastated South• Emancipation &

Amendments

Civil War

• The Thirteenth Amendment  – Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,

except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

• The Fourteenth Amendment– Citizenship for African-Americans

• The Fifteenth Amendment– Voting Rights regardless for all born or

naturalized males