The Civil War

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”- Abraham Lincoln

The battle of Gettysburg, Pa. July 3d. 1863, depicting the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1—3, 1863. The battle was part of the American Civil War and was won by the North. Hand-colored lithograph by Currier and Ives.

Slavery and the Civil War• State’s Rights began the Civil War

– Slavery was a catalyst, but not the issue of the war• In the North, slavery wasn’t profitable, but slavery built and maintained

the economy of the South

• Representation in Congress was key– More slave or free states in congress shifted the balance of power

and could mean a vote to eliminate slavery

• Compromises that held off Civil War– Missouri Compromise

• Involved the legality of slavery in the western states– prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'

north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri

– 3/5 compromise• 3/5 of slaves would be counted as population for the purposes of

representation in Congress• Could shift the number of representatives in the House of

Representatives

• Conflict came to a boiling point when Lincoln came out against slavery

The North – the Union• Industrialization

– Meant more and better supplies including weapons and uniforms

• Transportation

– Most railways were focused in the northern regions where the factories were

– Meant easier transportation for supplies and troops

• Immigration

– Population increases as influx of immigrants arrive from Europe seeking a new life

The South – the Confederacy• Agricultural society

– Depended on slave labor to run plantations

– Technology was coming, but much more slowly to the South

– Not industrialized (very few factories)

• Excellent leadership and Southern Pride– Robert E. Lee – resident of Virginia

• Vowed to fight on whichever side his home state fell on

• Brilliant military mind and kept the Confederacy afloat much longer than it should have survived

– Pride – Southerners would not be told what to do by anyone. It was a powerful motivator.

The Civil War Begins• South Carolina seceded first and was followed

by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas

• The Confederate States of America was established in February of 1861 and made up of these seven states with the capital in Montgomery.

• Many Northerners were okay with secession but not Lincoln, and he vowed to fight to preserve the Union.

Battle of Ft. Sumter

• First battle of the Civil War

• Confederate troops fired upon Union troops

• Charleston Bay, South Carolina

• Many believed it would be the beginning and the end of the Civil War.

• Many of Charleston’s citizens watched the battle from rooftops and had picnics.

The Civil War• 1st war where blacks fought

– Confederate and Union armies contained black units.

• Native Americans also fought in the Civil War• Women were involved with the founding of the

American Red Cross to care for soldiers on both sides of the battles

• over 10,000 military engagements took place during the Civil War

• 1,030,000 casualties• Including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by

disease. • The war accounted for roughly as many American

deaths as all American deaths in other U.S. wars combined.

The End of the Civil War & Reconstruction• January 1863, Emancipation Proclamation

– Lincoln’s executive order freeing slaves within the Confederate states

– Union and border states were freed later

• April 9, 1865– Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant in the

village of Appomattox Court House.

• Reconstruction Amendments to Constitution– 13th Amendment – abolished slavery

– 14th Amendment – Due Process Clause – made Bill of Rights applicable to states laws

– 15th Amendment – granted voting rights regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"

Conflicts Following Civil War • Indian Tribes vs US Army

– More and more Americans were moving west into and through Native American territories

– Chief Joseph, Geronimo, etc…

• Free Rangers vs Settlers– Rangers had run herds across the plains to manage

food and water sources.

– Settlers didn’t want the rangers on their property• Used barbed wire to hold stock out and in

• “fence cutter wars” ended in 1884 when cutting a barbed wire fence was declared a felony

• Wage Earners vs Companies– Labor Unions are born to deal with awful conditions in

factories

Realism & the Frontier• Civil War & Reconstruction caused writers to turn

away from Romanticism and idealism.

• They moved toward Realism and Naturalism

• Realism – “slice of life”– Ordinary life as real people lived it

– Showed events and characters in a real and factual way

– Came from experiences of war, frontier, and city life

– Scientific development contributed because of objectivity

– Had to find meaning in the common place (limited by reality, couldn’t look to imagination)• Realists were observant

• Could deal more openly with bad guys

Naturalism• Examined people and society objectively and

drew conclusions from observations

• Reality is a working of natural forces

• Destiny – controlled by heredity, environment, physical drives, and economic circumstances

– humans had little or no control over destiny

• Looked at and examined the brutality of life

– Civil War, frontier life, etc…

Regionalism• “local color movement”

• Used dialect (regional speech patterns) and vivid descriptions of the landscape

• Very popular because people wanted to know about other parts of the country and other people

• Mark Twain & Ambrose Bierce

“An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge”• 3rd Person – Limited

– Narrator outside action of story and inside head of only one character

– Bierce slows time by giving detailed descriptions of physical sensations (only possible in 3rd person limited)

• Setting– Most takes place in Farquhar’s mind

• Focus of story– Human psychology

– What happens to human mind in moment of death

“An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge”• Flashbacks

– Tool that reveals previous events and information necessary to rest of the story

– Bierce gives us a flashback of events leading up to the main character’s death

– Disrupts chronological order by jumping back in time

– Division into three parts helps readers follow the flashback

• Suspense– Draws readers into the story by holding back bits and

pieces

– the disjointed sequence of events helps create and build suspense

“The Outcasts of Poker Flat”• Regionalism

– The inclusion of details that help readers experience the setting of the story in a vivid and realistic way

• Irony

– A twist or turn

– The outcasts were better people than those who turned them out.

• Theme

– Punishment without justice is worse than the crime

“An Episode of War”

• Realism – focused on ordinary people faced with harsh realities of everyday life. – Established by specific examples

• Rubber blanket, squares of coffee, puff of smoke…

• Naturalism– Ordinary man’s life shaped by events he cannot

control

– His ability to endure with strength and dignity

• Setting– Civil War (use of horses & swords)

– Hospital was old schoolhouse• Description prepares us for the loss of lieutenant's arm

“An Episode of War”• This story is about how a lieutenant lost his

arm in an unexpected moment

• The loss of the arm separates him from his unit – he becomes an outsider in the machinery of war

– The actual amputation is left out of story to focus attention on the changes in the lieutenant’s life