US history survey

May 15, 2012Civil War battlesaftermath of war

announcements

• final class: Tuesday, May 22.

• paper # 2 due Tuesday, May 22.

• I added 10 points to all midterm exams.

• final exam: Tuesday, May 29, noon. Eat first or bring a snack with you.

1861

battles of Civil War

• where did most of the fighting happen?

fighting 1861 – 1863

• Lincoln thought one battle would defeat S & war would end.

• fighting in N Virginia; N goal to capture Richmond, Confederate capital.

• neither side strong enough to win; both sides too strong to be defeated.

• N strategy: control Mississippi River & blockade S by ocean.

• N seized islands of N & S Carolina & captured New Orleans.

historical re-enactors

fugitive slaves = “contrabands”

• slaves fled to Union armies when they reached their areas.

• slave owner demanded return, but union commander refused, said they were “contrabands of war.”

• built fortifications, cooked, did other work.• Contraband Relief Association, Washington,

DC, founded by Elizabeth Keckley, ex-slave, seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln.

contrabands, Virginia

Elizabeth Keckley, Contraband Relief Association

Corinth,Mississippi

• Contraband Camp at Shiloh Battlefield, National Park.

• 6,000 ex-slaves lived there.

contrabands employed by 13th Massachusetts Infantry, 1862

Antietam, MD, 9/1862Union victory

Emancipation Proclamation

• after Antietam victory, Lincoln stated, unless rebellious states returned to Union by 1/1/1863, he would declare their slaves free.

• “If I could save the Union w/o freeing any slave, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. If I could free some & leave others alone, I would also do that.”

• freed only slaves in areas of rebellion, not areas Union controlled or in border states.

• recruited Black soldiers for 1st time.

Gettysburg, PA, 7/1 – 7/3/1863

• 160,000 troops; 51,000 dead, wounded, missing, captured.

• could not ride across field on horse, so many bodies.

• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 11/1863, dedication of cemetery.

1864

• Sherman captures Atlanta.• Lincoln wins re-election. • voters supported his new policy of

unconditional surrender – no negotiated peace.

• war continued.

Sherman’s marchto the sea

• destruction of Atlanta & RR.

• 11 & 12/1864

Sherman’s march to the sea, 1864

• 60,000 troops. • to cut off Mississippi,

Alabama, Georgia from rest of Confederacy.

• seize, burn, destroy everything; don’t harm civilians.

• 400,000 acres to be given to freed slaves, 40-acre plots.

Petersburg, VA, 1865, before battle

soldiers’ daily lives

• volunteers w/ little military training.

• marched w/ 50 – 60 pound packs.

• disease, hunger.• 1/9 Confederates & 1/7

Union soldiers deserted. Also AWOL.

• early in the war, fraternization between battles.

• by end, Confederate troops starving.

• Confederacy considered arming slaves near end.

• “If slaves make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong. (Confederate Congressman).

Black men picking up bones of dead

surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 9, 1865

• Confederate government fled Richmond, early April.

• Lee surrendered to Grant.

• Grant gave Confederate troops parole – could not be prosecuted for treason.

• Jefferson Davis, Conf. President, captured May 10.

enormous death toll of war – N & S

• improved weapons, but generals still relied on old military doctrine of massed infantry offensives (learned at West Point).

• medical ignorance – gangrene (infected wounds) & disease (smallpox, dysentery, typhoid, pneumonia, malaria).

• unprepared for health & supply needs.• Andersonville, GA – Confederate prison camp for

Union soldiers. 100 died daily, summer 1864.

620,000 military deaths =2% of population

• equal to total fatalities of Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War, Spanish-American War, WW I & II, & Korean War combined.

• 1/5 white S men of military age died; 3 times rate of N men.

• 2.1 million N & 880,000 S soldiers = 3 million combatants.

• American Rev. – largest army was 30,000.

assassination of Lincoln, 4/14/1865

plans for Reconstruction

• Lincoln wanted to bring seceded states back to Union asap (as soon as possible).

• respect private property (except slavery).• full pardon if swear oath of allegiance.• 10% Plan – once 10% swore allegiance, could

establish state government & ask to return.• Congress disagreed; Lincoln vetoed 50% plan. • Freedmen’s Bureau established 1865.

Freedmen’s Bureau school

Freedmen’s Bureau, 3/1865

• food, clothing, fuel to destitute.• managed abandoned lands.• could lease 40 acres abandoned or confiscated

land to freed slaves or white Unionists.

• 13th Amendment passed & ratified, 12/1865.• abolished slavery.

plans change – President Andrew Johnson

• only S Senator loyal to US, Democrat; VP ‘64.

• Reconstruction belonged to executive, not legislative branch.

• blamed planter elite.

• granted amnesty & pardons for officers.

• fall 1865, 10/11 S states claimed they had met requirements.

• Johnson opposed to political rights for freedmen.

Radical Republicans

• federal govt. should remake S society, especially civil rights & suffrage for freedmen.

• S states passed Black codes, 1865, to restrict freedom & keep as close to slavery as possible.

• Civil Rights Bill, 1866 – citizenship & rights of citizens for Black people.

• enlarged Freedmen’s Bureau to schools & courts.• Congress overrode Johnson’s veto of both.• 14th Amendment – citizenship & due process of law cannot

be denied based on previous condition of servitude.

Congressional Reconstruction

• 1st Reconstruction Act, 1867 – S divided into 5 military districts, under martial law.

• states had to call new constitutional conventions, w/ universal manhood suffrage, ratify 14th Amendment. Then readmitted.

• 7 states readmitted by 1868.• Grant (Union commander) elected president.• 15th Amendment, Black male suffrage, passed

1869, ratified 1870.

“40 acres & a mule”

• economic necessity for freedom.• too radical to be implemented by Congress. • former slave owners wanted compensation for

lost property (enslaved human beings).

Ku Klux Klan, 1866• threatened, whipped,

murdered Black & white Republicans in S to prevent voting.

• violence in 1868 election.

• KKK Act, 1871 – violent infringement of civil & political rights a federal crime.

• Mississippi, Texas, Virginia required to ratify 14th & 15th Amendments.

• all states readmitted by 1870.

meanwhile, elsewhere

• US purchases Alaska from Russia, 1867.

1st transcontinental RR, 1869

• Chinese workers started in California.

• Irish immigrant workers started in Omaha, Nebraska.

• also Black workers.

Promontory Point, Utah, 1869

announcements

• final class: Tuesday, May 22.

• paper # 2 due Tuesday, May 22.

• I added 10 points to all midterm exams.

• final exam: Tuesday, May 29, noon. Eat first or bring a snack with you.