The Civil War – A Modern War

• Considered first modern war - fought using weapons of the industrial age

• Total War – societies against societies• First American war to use the draft (South

first followed by North)• First use of iron warships in battle• First use of railroads to move troops and

supplies• First use of telegraph for military

communication• First use of observation balloons• Musket replaced by rifle – deadly at 600

yards

The Civil War – A Modern War

• Around 750,000 men died (equivalent to >7 million today as percentage of population)

• Death toll does not include civilians or slaves

• Total death toll greater than all American deaths in all wars from Revolution to Iraq

• Medical care was primitive – more men died from disease than combat

• Over 50,000 men died in POW camps (13,000 alone in Andersonville)

The Civil War – A Modern War

• Propaganda through lithographs, souvenirs, sheet music, and pamphlets - demonized both sides

• War correspondents gave near-immediate reports to newspapers along with long casualty lists

• Photography brought the war home as shocking pictures of the dead were shown in galleries across America (Matthew Brady made a fortune)

• Dramatic rise in embalming industry

Blue Gray

Population = >20 million / Continuing immigration

Population = 9 million (including 3.5 million slaves)

Nine times as much manufacturing as South

Little manufacturing

Larger railroad system - 70% of all US railroad miles

Small railroad system – 30% of all US railroad miles

Merchant marine and navy Little to no merchant marine or navy

Northern reliance on Southern markets Provided 3/4 of world’s cotton

Invasion and defeat of South mandatory War need only be one of defense

Officer problems Military heritage - officers

Lincoln’s personality / Federal government Davis’ personality / Confederacy

Emancipation Proclamation

• The Emancipation Proclamation Radical Congress pushed abolition Lincoln saw emancipation as military tool and way to appeal to liberal

Europeans Military “victory” at Antietam allowed proclamation Applied only to slaves liberated by US troops in South Changed course of war and US history – Lincoln now took on role of Great

Emancipator Lincoln changed views on slavery and role of blacks in US

New York Draft Riot

• The New York Draft Riots Congress established a wartime

draft All men 20-35 placed in lottery Men could hire a substitute or

pay $300 to the government to get out of duty

Blacks were exempt from draft as they were not citizens

Poor Immigrants (Irish) could not afford a substitute

New York Draft Riot

Emancipation Proclamation caused anxiety in NY as Irish feared freed blacks would compete for jobs

Anti-war newspapers and the Democratic Party helped incite the mobs

13 July 1863 – Mobs (mostly Irish) attacked draft office and other government offices

Attacks then turned to pro-war newspapers and war supporters

New York Draft Riot

Anybody calling for restraint were attacked

White women married to blacks and white prostitutes who serviced blacks were all attacked

Businesses that served blacks were destroyed

Random blacks were attacked, lynched, and their bodies burned

A black orphanage was burned down

New York Draft Riot

Rioters sought to drive black laborers from the city

Police fought but were routed in several confrontations

By Day 4 of riot, >4,000 Union troops fresh from the Battle of Gettysburg arrived and put down rioters – firing into mobs

Blacks fled the city – population dropped to 1820 levels

Democratic political machine, Tammany Hall, gained more power

Socioeconomic Effects

• Inflation and labor shortages in South

• Blockade of Southern ports – several port cities taken by US including New Orleans and Mobile

• Manufacturing and agriculture in North boomed

• Continuous immigration into North provided labor and soldiers

• Copperheads• Lincoln and the law – Habeas

CorpusThe Sons of Erin – The Irish Brigade

Women in Wartime

• Women gained temporary employment opportunities outside the home

• War work laid foundation for post-war feminist movement

• Clara Barton Helped organize Union supply lines

and nursed wounded soldiers Founded the American Red Cross Lobbied for US involvement in the First

Geneva Convention

Women in Wartime• Jon Haralson, Jon Haralson, you are a funny creature;• You have brought into this cruel war a new and curious feature.• You would have us think while every man was born to be a fighter,• The women, bless the pretty dears, should save their pee for niter.

• Jon Haralson, Jon Haralson, where did you get the notion,• To send your barrels “round the town to gather up the lotion?• We thought the girls had work enough in making shirts and kissing;• But now you’ve put the pretty dears to patriotic pissing.

• Jon Haralson, Jon Haralson, pray do invent a neater• And somewhat less immodest mode of making your saltpeter.• The thing is so very queer, you know, gunpowder-like and cranky,• That when a woman lifts her skirts she shoots a bloody Yankee.

Women in Wartime• Jon Haralson, Jon Haralson, we’ve read in song and story• That women’s tears in all these years have sprinkled fields of glory;• But never did we know before that ‘midst these scenes of slaughter,• Your Southern beauties dried their tears and went to making water.

• No wonder, Jon, your boys are brave, who would not be a fighter,• if every time he fired his gun he used his sweetheart’s niter?• And, vice-versa, what could make a Yankee soldier sadder,• Than dodging bullets fired from a pretty woman’s bladder.

• They say there is a subtle smell that lingers in the powder,• And when the smoke grows thicker and the din of battle louder,• That there is found in this compound this serious objection:

The South

• The central government in the Confederacy took control of several areas of the economy including railroads and manufacturing

• “King Cotton Diplomacy” failed to get European support as Britain looked elsewhere for cotton supplies

• Much of what Davis wanted to do was frustrated by state governors

• Growing disunity in South over the draft and economic depravation – seemed only the poor suffered while rich planters fared well

• “Rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight”

Assignment

• Groups will research a specific battle and create a wall presentation that: Describes the battle – Date, Place, and Summary Identifies the major players on both sides Interesting facts? Shows a map of the battle Explains how the battle impacted the war Groups will turn in list of members showing what each member

contributed

Important Battles

Bull Run (First Manassas)

Battle of the Ironclads

Shiloh

Antietam

Chancellorsville

Vicksburg

Gettysburg

Blacks in the Civil War

Chickamauga

Cold Harbor

Siege of Petersburg

Franklin-Nashville

Sherman’s March to the Sea

Appomattox (Battle and Surrender)