War Begins

-Election of 1860 – Lincoln wins!

-Secession of lower states (SC, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, FL)

- The 7 states form the Confederate States of America

-Elect Jefferson Davis their president!

-Capital established in Montgomery, AL

War Begins

-Firing on Ft. Sumter – first shots of the war

- was a Union Fort on an island in Charleston Harbor

- fall of Ft. Sumter unites North

-Virginia secedes followed by Ark., NC, and Tenn. – not wanting to fight other Southern, slave-holding states

- new Confederate capital: Richmond!

- A total of 11 States Leave Union

- MD, DE, KY, MO are slave states that remain with the union

- key for Lincoln!

Modern War

-Uses both old and new methods of war

OLD: CAVALRY: troops mounted on horses;

- MUZZLE RIFLES: guns used by both sides – new minie ball can be reloaded faster and is more accurate - brings change battle tactics;

- BATTLEFIELD FORMATIONS: mass infantry attacks give way to trenches and barricades

Modern WarModern War- New:

- RAILROADS: easy to transport troops, equipment

- TELEGRAPH: lines of communication!

- DRAFTS: a.k.a. CONSCRIPTION; forces certain members of population to serve in military; CSA: 1862……. USA: 1863

- SUBMARINES: Confederates build the Hunley

- ARMORED SHIPS: Monitor vs. Merrimack (N vs. S) – forever changed naval warfare – wooden ships obsolete!

- OBSERVATION BALLOONS

Strategy-Union

-Constrictor (Anaconda) Plan

developed by Winfield Scott

1. blockade Southern ports

2. Union riverboats/armies move down MS River, splitting CSA in 2

3. capture Confederate capital: Richmond!

-divide the south through the Mississippi and control access to its ports

Strategy-Confederacy

-South plans to fight a defensive battle – saw the Union troops as invaders of a new, independent country

Confederacy needs European recognition to substantiate claim as a new country, opportunity to get supplies

- Britain remains neutral

Advantages-Union

-most of the population

-large advantages in resources

-most of the transportation and industry

Advantages-Confederacy

-defending their homes

-strong sectional pride

-better military tradition and leadership – Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson

- many US generals from the South resigned their commissions to serve their home states first

Government Powers

-both sides had to increase central government powers

- South had a tradition of small gov’t – so this is hard for them

- Gov’ts needed to:

- raise an army

- Supply armies

- finance the war

- Suppress any opposition

-Copperheads: Northern Democrats advocating peace with the South

Raising Armies

-North had an advantage!

- volunteers at first – excitement of war!

- Drafts begin – in South first

-bounties paid

-substitution possible – North and South allowed you to pay for a substitute to go in your place

- poor Confederates: “rich man’s war, but poor man’s fight”

- Draft riots in NYC

Supplying Armies

Union Advantages:

-Industrial Capacity

-Transportation Capabilities

-Financial Centers

Confederate Problems

-Shortages

- food shortage because: 1) manpower in army; 2) Union occupation; 3) loss of slaves in fields

- blockade meant shortages of other supplies, had to smuggle to export goods for $$

-Foraging the land because of shortages

War Politics

-War to Preserve Union!!

-civil rights were restricted – by Lincoln

-habeas corpus suspended: the court order requiring a person being jailed to be brought before the court to determine why he is being held

- used to arrest and hold Confederate sympathizers in the Union

THE HABEAS CORPUS SUSPENDED IN THE

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. On 23d the President

instructed the Marshal for the District of Columbia not

to serve writs on the Provost Marshal, but return them to the Court with the

explanation that the President has, for the

present, suspended the privilege of the writ of

habeas corpus in cases relating to the military for

reasons of public necessity.

Harper’s WeeklyHarper’s Weekly, Nov. 9, , Nov. 9, 18611861

War Politics

-Emancipation Debated

Needed higher cause to be fighting the war! (moral issue and weapon of war!)

- Emancipation also popular in Britain, offering the strategic benefit of discouraging Britain from supporting the South

-Emancipation Proclamation

Jan. 1, 1863

- did not free any slaves immediately – applied only to rebelling states, not to CSA territory already occupied or states that did not secede

- SYMBOLIC IMPORTANCE!

- effect on the South?

Others in the War

-African Americans: allowed to serve in Union army in

Segregated Forces – 1% of northern population, but 10% of army

- 54th Massachusetts – infantry unit participating in a failed attempt to capture CSA fort

- valor of 54th helped win acceptance for African American soldiers from Grant, Lincoln

-Women

- took men’s jobs while at war

- served as nurses in hospitals

- Clara Barton served as a nurse and doctor on front lines

Soldier’s Lives

-disillusionment of war… explain?

-filthy conditions – in the prison camps, as well as the regular army camps – diseases main cause of death

-poor food – malnutrition!

-bad medical care – medical technology not keeping up with developments in weapons

- amputations

- infection

-prison camps

- Andersonville – worst CSA prison with 33,000 prisoners; 1/3 of prisoners died