The Civil War and Reconstruction

Home Fronts & the Collapse of the Confederacy

Union states sent nearly 40% of their military age men to fight in the war. Many of these men did not survive and those who did, were not the same.Historians have been able to learn a great deal about

what happened on the battlefield and on the homefront from the correspondence between soldiers and their families.

The effects of war left deep social and emotional wounds in the lives of soldiers’ families.The wives of enlisted men often had to work to

supplement their husband’s pay.Many families that lost sons, husbands, and fathers

would have a difficult time recovering from the emotional loss.

The Union Home Front

Union women had already been working outside of the home before the war but the war pushed more women into the workforce.

Other women felt compelled to support the war effort by becoming nurses, working in hospitals, serving as spies and messengers, and even fighting in the war disguised as men.

Still other women supported the war effort by doing volunteer work—making uniforms, preserving food stuffs, raising funds, sending supplies to men.The Women’s Central Relief Association coordinated

these women’s work and provided invaluable support to the United States Sanitation Commission.

Union Women

Women Soldiers

Although Civil

War women are

generally

depicted as help-

mates to soldiers,

they served in the

military disguised

as men.

Union Nurses

Clara Barton was one

of many women who

rushed to provide

relief to wounded

soldiers. She was

critical to the Army

Medical Department’s

finally getting enough

supplies to tend to

soldiers.

Barton served at

Cedar Mountain,

Second Bull Run,

Antietam, and

Fredericksburg.

She would later help

to found the American

Red Cross.

African American Union Women

Harriet Tubman

was one of many

African American

women who

provided service

to the Union army

during the war.

Although most

known for her

Underground

Railroad activism,

she served as a

nurse, a cook,

and a spy during

the Civil War.

The economic recession that began before the war continued until 1862 when the recovery began.

Although military service sapped the number of male workers, the entrance of native born women and children and large numbers of immigrants into the workforce as well as the development of new technologies eased the burden and allowed the economy to grow.

Industrial production increased as did the number of national unions designed to protect the interests of workers.

The Union Economy

Cities continued to grow and soon they were filled with such attractions as theaters, circuses, parks, baseball games, opera, resorts, carnivals and shows.

A criminal underclass emerged as people seeking to profit from the war and crime and corruption rose.

Both public and private organizations emerged to provide relief not only to soldiers’ families but also to the poor.

Women’s volunteer work on behalf of soldiers in the Women’s Central Relief Association gave rise to the United States Sanitary Commission which provided medical care and services to soldiers.

Union Life

In 1864, Lincoln faced political opposition to his reelection from both Republicans and Democrats.Republican opponents to Lincoln nominated John C.

Frémont, the Free Soil candidate and general whom Lincoln removed for issuing and order that enslaved Missourians be freed.Frémont eventually withdrew from the race.

Lincoln won the party’s nomination and in 1864 the Republicans restyled themselves as the National Union party. In the summer, some Republicans called for a stronger candidate.

Their platform included an insistence on the CSA’s unconditional surrender, a nascent plan for reconstruction, support for a Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, encouragement of immigration and funding for the building of a Pacific railroad. The party was by no means solidly behind all of these issues.

The Union’s Political Landscape

In 1864, Lincoln faced political opposition to his reelection from both Republicans and Democrats.Many Democrats supported war for the restoration of

the Union but as the war went on, a faction in the party started advocating a Peace Movement, led by Clement Vallandigham.The terms of negotiating peace with the CSA involved

such issues as surrender, amnesty to Confederates, the terms of state readmission to the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and compensation to slaveholders.

In the end, Democrats nominated George C. McClellan, the general who was loved by soldiers but who clashed so often with Lincoln.

Lincoln won 55% of the vote in the election.

The Union’s Political Landscape

Women served a

multitude of

roles in the Civil

War, both on the

battlefield and

the home front.

Civil War Women

Because much of the Civil War was fought in the CSA, southerners experienced the horrors of war more directly than did their Union counterparts.

They experienced moving armies and in different parts of the region, some of them were even occupied by both the CSA and USA armies. See for example Drew Gilpin Faust’s Mothers of

Invention for coverage of women and Anya Jabour’s Topsy-Turvy analysis of children.

Some 50,000 civilians died of war related problems like epidemics, starvation, stray bullets.

The Confederate Home Front

Once it became clear to the USA that they couldn’t easily vanquish the CSA, officials opted for occupation, seizing control and setting up in Tennessee, in Louisiana near New Orleans, and in select areas of Virginia and along the Atlantic Coast.

The primary objective was to remove Confederate officials from power and restore local communities to the Union’s fold.

Occupation proved to be an effective war strategy not only for its ability to allow the USA to gain control over CSA territory but also for its demoralization of proud Confederates.

Union Occupation

One striking example of the demoralizing effects of occupation was Benjamin Butler’s Woman Order.

During the occupation of New Orleans, Butler and his men encountered proud and defiant Confederate sympathizers in women who broadcast their loyalty to the CSA (and opposition to the USA) by their dress (adorning themselves in CSA garb) and their sometimes callous treatment of Union soldiers while still demanding the protections of a lady.

Historians believe that to avoid a likely violent incident in which the women’s behavior elicited a response from the men, Butler issued his famous General Order No. 28, which became known as the “Woman Order.”

Union Occupation

Butler indicated that

women who didn’t

comport themselves

as ladies could not

expect to be treated

as ladies and might be

treated as callously as

prostitutes were

treated.

Confederates

interpreted this as an

authorization of rape

but Butler and his

supporters saw it as a

way to make

southerners accept

occupation and to

keep the peace.

Benjamin Butler’s War Order

This image depicts the effects of the order on the behavior of Confederate women.

Confederate Spies

Rose O’Neal

Greenhow was

one of the most

successful CSA

spies.

Her activities led

to her arrest

several times and

her exile from

Maryland into the

CSA.

Other occupying Union generals encountered resistance.

In some places Union forces seized buildings and destroyed Confederate plantations, including Jefferson Davis’s.

In the end, the Union’s occupation of land and confiscation of goods sapped the resolve to continue fighting of many Confederates.

Union Occupation

It took a while

for the USA’s

blockade to work

but when it did,

it deprived the

CSA of access to

valued goods like

salt, which

people used to

preserve

foodstuffs.

Squeezing the CSA

“A Confederate salt factory, with approaching Union raiding ships in the background.”

As the war went on with no end in sight, the effects of the CSA’s policies of conscription and impressment of goods started to take their toll on the civilian and military population.

The military men who survived the horror of battle faced insufficient food, clothing, and pay, which made less inclined to continue fighting in what some characterized as a lost cause.

At the same time, they felt the pressure to provide relief for their family members who were suffering in their absence.

Desertion

CSA conscription stripped many working class and poor families of the men who helped provide for the family’s basic needs. Longterm military service combined with the CSA’s impressment of 10% of whatever families produced left many civilians starving.

Both men and their families called upon the CSA for relief for their families to little avail.

The combined effects of continued battle and significant hardship at home triggered desertion.

Deserters left individually but as the war continued, they also departed in groups. The significant loss of men to death on the battlefield and to desertion made it much harder for the CSA to wage war effectively.

Desertion

With so many of the males fighting the war, with much of the war being fought in their communities, and with occupying forces, Confederate women of all classes faced significant hardship.

Women were left to manage farms and plantations in the absence of men and sometimes the absence of slaves who ran away.

Initially, they volunteered enthusiastically to nurse soldiers, teach children, and provide goods and uniforms for soldiers but this wore off.

They bore alone the hardship of losing multiple male kin.

Confederate Women

Some historians argue that they railed against what appeared during the war to be men’s inability to provide them with the protection and care they needed.

Poor women faced significant hardship in that in the absence of men, they had fewer people to help grow basic food stuffs. Their problems were compounded by the blockade and by profiteering in the CSA which drove up the price of food.

Confederate Women

Conditions of

hardship as well

as ineffective

policies of the

CSA to manage

civilian life led

some Confederate

women to wage

riots for bread and

foodstuffs in 1863.

The women’s

actions forced

governors as well

as CSA officials to

provide relief.

Bread Riots

The Bread Riots exposed the class divisions in the CSA and how the civilian burden of the war was being carried by the poor.

Some CSA officials tried to develop nationalized programs and policies to increase food production and provide relief to the civilian population but this contradicted many southerners’ cultural beliefs in small government.

CSA officials tried to regulate production of goods and to limit profiteering but this was met with swift resistance by civilians and by state officials.

Some historians argue that what the CSA needed to wage and win the war was a nationalization program that allowed Davis, Congress, and the generals to harness all of the resources at their disposal. The principles of white southern life—states’ rights, protection of the individual rights of white males—made it difficult for them to do, which in turn made it harder for them to fight the war.

Political Subversion

The Union occupation and advancement in 1864-1865 combined with the CSA’s sociopolitical challenges further demoralized Confederates.

In North Carolina and Georgia a peace movement emerged.

After the 1863 election, Jefferson Davis faced a more hostile CSA Congress, as Confederates became more vocal in their opposition to his management of the war.

Civilians continued to defy official CSA policies re: not trading with the enemy. They resisted strongly the CSA’s policies to confront political subversion.

Even when generals like Robert E. Lee called for enlisting enslaved men to fill the CSA’s depleted ranks, it took so long for Congress to authorize enlistment (March 20, 1865) that it was too late.

Political Subversion & Chaos

This cartoon

depicts Jefferson

Davis trying

(unsuccessfully)

to obtain

Napoleon III’s

recognition of

the CSA after

France declared

itself neutral in

the Civil War.

Failure to obtain European recognition

Despite uneven numbers, the CSA proved itself to be a serious contender.

Their willingness and ability to fight for their independence resulted in enough early and continuing victories in such places as Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and the Crater that they were even more emboldened to fight.

Nevertheless, even with these significant wins, the CSA’s continued loss of men to battlefield death and to desertion depleted the ranks.

At the same time, Union’s occupation, blockade, and increasing number of battlefield victories (beginning in 1863) combined with hardship on the home front sapped the CSA’s resolve to fight.

Confederate Collapse

John Bell Hood

The CSA’s John Bell

Hood moved from

Atlanta toward

Tennessee, hoping to

draw Union forces

away from

Confederate territory,

where he encountered

the USA’s John

Schofield outside

Nashville.

Hood’s forces

assaulted Schofield’s

entrenched men and

in the process

suffered 6300

casualties, including

several generals and

regimental

commanders.

John Schofield

Schofield suffered

2000 casualties

and made his way

to Nashville where

he connected with

George Thomas.

Hood followed and

tried to lay siege

to the city.

Thomas’s forces

struck back,

pushing Hood’s

forces out of the

city, ending the

western

campaign.

Lee replaced Hood with Joseph E. Johnston with orders to stop Sherman from advancing through the Carolinas but neither he nor William Hardee were able to halt Sherman’s march.

Lee faced his own challenges of with confronting Grant at Petersburg.

With these and other defeats, the residual morale of civilians evaporated. CSA calls for more men went unanswered and civilians did not resist when Union forces advanced.

Final Eastern Campaigns

In February, a peace conference was in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Lincoln’s terms: ReunionEmancipationNo suspension of fighting as the CSA requested

Davis balked at these terms:The CSA wanted compensation for slaveholdersA temporary suspension of fighting so that they could

regroup.Lincoln was flexible on a number of terms, including

emancipation, but he would not budge on the issues of reunion and his insistence that CSA armies disband. The conference ended without agreement so the fighting continued.

1865 Peace Conference

Union officials continued to fight and Grant combined his forces with those of Sherman, Sheridan, and Meade and made his move toward Lee where he was dug in at Petersburg.

The USA’s forces besieged Lee’s army at Five Forks, many of Lee’s men were without adequate food.

Lee evacuated Petersburg the next day heading towards Lynchburg . Union forces took the city and Grant moved his men to stop Lee from joining up with Johnston.

Jefferson Davis and his cabinet fled Richmond leaving the city in chaos.

On April 3, Union forces entered the city led by African American soldiers. Lincoln entered the city the next day before he visited Libby Prison where POWs had been held.

Final Eastern Campaigns

One of the last

major battles

was at Five

Forks.

Five Forks

Grant

stopped Lee

from escaping

and initiated

discussions

about

surrender.

Lee agreed,

hoping to

avoid losing

any more

men.

Lee Surrenders to Grant

The terms of surrender included:Lee and his men being released once they promised

not to take up arms against the U.S.They had to turn over their weapons and surrender

public property.Grant allowed Lee’s officers to keep their weapons

and he allowed soldiers to keep their horses and mules.

Grant supplied rations to Lee’s hungry men.Although Lee suffered casualties and desertions,

there were still 60000 troops remaining. Rather than continue to wage war informally, as some, including Jefferson Davis preferred, Confederates lay down their arms.

Final Eastern Campaigns

Union forces outside Appomattox

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

On April 14, John

Wilkes Booth and

other Confederate

sympathizers struck

Union officials.

Wilkes assassinated

Lincoln and another

conspirator

attacked Secretary

of State William

Seward before they

fled and were

eventually captured.

Johnston

surrendered on

April 17 after he

lost at

Bentonville, after

he learned of the

fall of Richmond

and Petersburg

& Lee’s

surrender, and

then found

himself facing

the combined

forces of

Schofield and

Sherman.

Johnston Surrenders to Sherman

Truce at Mobile

The CSA’s Lt.

General Richard

Taylor commanded

the Department of

Alabama,

Mississippi, &

Louisiana.

After Mobile fell to

Union forces and

Taylor learned that

Johnston had

surrendered to

Sherman, he and

his 12,000 troops

surrendered.

Capture of Jefferson Davis

When Davis fled

Richmond, he

hoped to continue

waging war.

On May 10, Union

forces under the

First Wisconsin

and Fourth

Michigan cavalries

captured Davis and

transferred him to

prison at Fortress

Monroe, where he

remained

imprisoned for two

years.

Surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department

The CSA’s Lt. Gen

Edmund Kirby Smith

commanded forces

west of the Mississippi

after Vicksburg.

By the spring of 1865

there were only small

numbers of CSA forces

west of the river.

Smith held out on

accepting Grant’s

terms but increasingly

his men understood the

war was over and Lt

Gen Simon Buckner

surrendered the Trans-

Mississippi Department

on May 26.

Confederate Indians surrender

It was not until after

Richmond fell and

Lee and Johnston

surrendered that

Native American

Confederates

agreed to negotiate

peace terms with

Union officials.

Stand Watie of the

Cherokee Nation

was one of the last

Confederates to

surrender, which he

did on June 23.

Between 750,000 and 850,000 soldiers dead (60% from the Union, 40% from the Confederacy).

More than 1 million soldiers maimed and incapacitated.

More than 50,000 civilian casualties and injuries (starvation, stray bullets, soiled wells, disease).

Few Americans were untouched by the war.It would take the nation decades to recover

from the sense of horror over the loss of life.

The War Ends

At the beginning of the war, both sides expected the war to be a short, victorious one. Neither side had any idea that the war would last as long as it did and that it would result in as much devastation as it did.

Although the Union won, its victory was not predestined. Indeed, research by military historians reveals that there were numerous instances when the Union could have lost not only major battles but also the war.

Nevertheless, the USA prevailed and the CSA did not and so now we can explore the reasons why.

The War Ends

CSA11 states9 million (30% of whom

were enslaved)1 million white men for

military service1 million served

800,000 enlisted (3 yrs of service)

340,000 casualties250,000 killed in action

or from disease

22 states22 million people3.5 million white men for

military servicePlus about 100,000 loyal

southerners & later free blacks and runaway slaves

2.9 million served1.5 million enlisted (3

years)650,000 casualties360,000 killed in action or

from disease

Demographic Profiles

USA

Recent research suggests the number of fatalities was higher. See the NYT Disunion Blog

ConfederacyHad to create a new

governmentWar fought on their turf,

750,000 sq miDetermination of the

Confederates to winMore men trained to fight

Numerous military academies, inc West Point

Culture of chivalry, honor, weaponry

Possibility of foreign recognition of the CSA

Slave labor

Economic strength—wealth and the nation’s banking and financial centers were located in NYC

Modern infrastructure (communication, transportation, industry)

Existing governmentExisting military service

MilitiaRegular armyVolunteers

Profiles in Strength

Union

ConfederacyGet the support of

and/or occupy the Border States

Protect Richmond (CSA capitol), threaten Washington, D.C.

Get recognition from Britain, France, and Spain

Keep the support of the Border States

Recall armies from the West

Protect the South’s valuable resources for the return to the Union

Protect Washington, D.C. (USA capitol), threaten Richmond

Control the Mississippi River—Anaconda Plan

Blockade southern coasts

Initial Priorities

Union

Despite the Union’s initial profiles in strength, the CSA managed to even the odds.

Many historians identify fatal flaws in the CSA’s campaign: Inability to follow through on victories because of high

casualties and low resources;Failure to provide the necessary resources for civilians; Tensions between the CSA states and the CSA Congress and

the Davis administration; Inability to overcome their cultural focus on individual rights

and states’ rights to marshal all resources needed to fight the war;

Failure to obtain recognition from European government;Failure to consider the actions of enslaved people and to

mobilize them for military service;Failure to win enough northern campaigns to demoralize the

Unionists.

Why the Confederacy Lost

Many of the Union’s initial profiles in strength made them overconfident and therefore unprepared for the determination and initial success with which Confederates waged war.

Historians point to some of the following reasons for why the Union won: Manpower (larger population and then the enlistment of black

soldiers); Runaway slaves; Vast resources (food, trade, wealth, existing army & navy,

access to industrial complex); Ability to maintain the Border States and get European

countries to remain neutral; Blockade; Ability to nationalize necessary resources to wage war; Ability to maintain the morale of civilians and soldiers.

Why the Union Won

CSA’s Salt Factory: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/squeezing-the-south-into-submission/ .

Butler’s Order: http://hill.blogs.lib.lsu.edu/2011/02/. Bread riots: http://lifeofthecivilwar.blogspot.com/2011/04/let-them-eat-bread.html European recognition: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/a-dangerous-neutrality/ John Bell Hood: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/john-bell-hood.html John Schofield: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/John_Schofield.jpg. Five Forks:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Battle_of_Five_Forks_Kurz_%26_Allison.jpg

Lee surrenders to Grant: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/82272/Confederate-Gen Union forces outside of Appomattox:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Appomattox_courthouse.jpg Johnston surrenders to Sherman:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=703863&imageID=813699&word=Document%20signings&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=2&k=1&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&sort=&total=24&num=0&imgs=20&pNum=&pos=20&print=small

Richard Taylor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Taylor.jpg Edmund Kirby Smith:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Edmund_Kirby_Smith.jpg Stand Watie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stand_Watie.jpg Capture of Jefferson Davis:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Jefferson_davis_fort_monroe_capture.jpg

Images

Harriet Tubman: http://americancivilwar.com/women/harriet_tubman.html

Clara Barton: http://americancivilwar.com/women/cb.html

Rose O’Neal Greenhow: http://americancivilwar.com/women/rg.html

The Influence of Women: http://americancivilwar.com/women/index.html

Images

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