THE CIVIL WARChapter 7

The War Starts

• After Lincoln’s election in 1860, seven southern states seceded.

• Although in hindsight, the war seems inevitable, to most Americans at the time it was not. Armed conflict did not erupt until after a compromise effort had failed, shots were fired at Fort Sumter, and the North resolved to fight to preserve the Union.

• Southerners were divided over the process of secession as well as the need for it.

• The firing on Fort Sumter served to rally the North behind Lincoln and his call for troops. The call for troops prompted a second wave of secession conventions in the border South states with varying results.

A New Type of War

• The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars in human history.

• Railroads, steamships, mass-produced weapons, and various other military devices were employed extensively.

• The practices of total war and of trench warfare foreshadowed World War I in Europe.

• It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties.

• Victory for the North meant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the role of the federal government.

The War Begins – The North• At the outset of the war, the North benefited from greater resources

of population, money, railroad mileage and manufacturing.• Manufacturing was important because this was the first modern war

– whoever produces the most equipment would win.• population was important because the North could replace their

battlefield casualties, the South couldn’t.• The economies and societies of both the Union and the

Confederacy had to make massive adjustments for the war: adjustments that the North was better able to make.

• The majority of the best military commanders were from the south. Lincoln offered the command of the Northern armies to Robert E. Lee. Lee refused, saying that he couldn’t raise his sword against his home state of Virginia.

The War Begins – The South

• The South possessed some advantages including southern optimism about independence and dedication to protecting their homes and way of life. The vast majority of the best officers in the Army were from the south.

• The South’s strategy of waging an “offensive defense” was also an advantage. at first, though ultimately the North’s anaconda plan was more effective.

• the South also believed that England would come to their aid. They believed that the English textile industry would force the English government to help the South to get access to “King Cotton”.

The Legal Tender Act

• To finance the Civil War, the federal government in 1862 passed the Legal Tender Act, authorizing the creation of paper money not redeemable in gold or silver. About $430 million worth of “greenbacks” were put in circulation, and this money by law had to be accepted for all taxes, debts, and other obligations

• This created the first national currency of the US

CONSCRIPTION

• The United States first employed national conscription during the American Civil War. The vast majority of troops were volunteers, Resistance to the draft touched off the New York Draft Riots in July 1863.

• The Confederate president Jefferson Davis proposed the first conscription act on March 28th, 1862, and the act was passed into law the next month

• resistance was both widespread and violent, with comparisons made between conscription and slavery.

• Both sides permitted conscripts to hire substitutes. • In the Union, many states and cities offered bounties and

bonuses for enlistment. They also arranged to take credit against their quota for freed slaves who enlisted.

MARYLANDOf the border states, the most important was Maryland.With Virginia having seceded, Union troops had to go through Maryland to reach Washington DC. If Maryland joined the Confederacy, Washington DC would have been totally surrounded. Lincoln had to do something. He suspended habeas corpus, meaning he could put someone in jail without formally arresting and charging them. He sent General Ben Butler to Baltimore with troops and ordered him to arrest anyone that preached secession.Lincoln was criticized heavily for this. People said that he was a dictator. He was, but the Constitution authorizes the suspension of habeas corpus in times of national crisis.

The Anaconda Plan• The Anaconda Plan is the

name of the strategy for subduing the South.

• It was proposed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan was to blockade Southern ports, and called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two.

• Scott likened it to the coils of an anaconda suffocating its victim.

• This was the first step in the war of attrition against the South. A war of attrition is a war in which one side simply wears down the other.

Battle of Bull Run

• The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas was fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War.

Early Battles• Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on

July 26 and the war began in earnest in 1862. • Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan

attacked Virginia in the spring of 1862• Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the

Peninsula Campaign. Albert SydneyJohnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines,

• then General Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson defeated McClellan in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat.

• The Northern Virginia Campaign, which included the Second Battle of Bull Run, ended in yet another victory for the

• Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North. General Lee led 45,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5.

• McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in United States military history.

• Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. • Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North

and provided an opportunity for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

• The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. It declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863.

• The proclamation did not name the slave-holding border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, or Delaware, which had never declared a secession, and so it did not free any slaves there.

• The state of Tennessee had already mostly returned to Union control, so it also was not named and was exempted.

• The Emancipation Proclamation was criticized for freeing only the slaves over which the Union had no power.

Civil War Battles

• While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern Theater, they were defeated many times in the West.

• The Union's key strategist and tactician in the West was Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Forts Henry and Donelson

• The Battle of Vicksburg which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River and is considered one of the turning points of the war.

Civil War Battles• At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies. • Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that

only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war. This was total war not in terms of killing civilians but rather in terms of destroying homes, farms, and railroads. Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the entire Confederacy from multiple directions.Generals Meade and Butler were ordered to move against Lee near Richmond General Franz Sigel and Philip Sheridan were to attack the Shenandoah ValleyGeneral Sherman was to capture Atlanta and march to the sea (the Atlantic OceanGrant's battles of attrition at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor resulted in heavy Union losses, but forced Lee's Confederates to fall back repeatedly. Meade defeated Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg[109] (July 1 to July 3, 1863). This was the bloodiest battle of the war, and has been called the war's turning point. Pickett's Charge on July 3 is often considered the high-water mark of the Confederacy because it signaled the collapse of serious Confederate threats of victory. Lee's army suffered 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000). The fall of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, was a significant factor in the reelection of Lincoln as president.Sherman's army marched with an unknown destination, laying waste to about 20% of the farms in Georgia in his "March to the Sea".

Reconstruction

• The Reconstructioni Period stretches from 1865 – 1877

• It is called the Reconstruction because the devastation of the war required a complete rebuilding of southern society

Republican control of the South

• In the years immediately following the civil war, the Republican party was the dominant political party.

• The Democratic party was weak and still under attack for their support of the war.

Carpetbaggers

• Carpetbaggers were northerners that came south right after the Civil war to take advantage of the economic opportunities. They were hated by the Southerners, but the Southerners still accepted the money.

Scalawags

• Scalawags were southerners that supported the Republican party.

• This was usually ex slaves

Reconstruction

• Another area that had to be rebuilt was the Southern social system. The freeing of the slaves created chaos for the southern planter class.

• Many responded by joining the KKK to suppress and control the ex-slaves