The Civil War

Ms Fishel - March 2014

Lincoln’s Dilemma

• seven states had left the United States by Feb 1861
• does Lincoln let them go peacefully?
• does Lincoln try to force them to come back?

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Quick Write - What are the pros/cons of each of those options?

Lincoln’s Beliefs

• the Union must be preserved
• uses Andrew Jackson’s Nullification Decision and the US Constitution as sources �
• Constitution says ‘WE the people’, not individual states

The Civil War begins

• Confederate troops in new CSA begin to take over federal buildings
• court houses, post offices, forts �
• By March 4th, only 2 forts in the South remained in Union hands
• most important - Fort Sumter, South Carolina

Fort Sumter

• South Carolina (in the CSA) wanted US troops out of the state
• If Lincoln takes troops out, he is accepting the legitimacy of the CSA
• If Lincoln leaves troops/sends supplies, it will be seen as an act of war
• US troops in Fort Sumter have 6 weeks of supplies left

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What to do...

• Lincoln sends in ‘food for hungry men’
• Jefferson Davis ALSO has a problem
• if he allows Lincoln to send supplies to the fort he is weakening the image of the CSA as an independent country
• if he attacks, he will risk war and ruining a peaceful secession�
• April 12, 1861 - the CSA attacks Fort Sumter and starts the war �

War is on

• The Union surrenders the fort to the CSA
• No casualties, only a horse
• Virginia secedes
• Most think it will be a fast war

Union’s Plan for Success

• Use navy to block Confederate ports
• can’t export cotton
• can’t import much-needed goods
• Union Riverboats will go down the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two
• Union armies would capture the Confederate capital at Richmond

Confederacy’s Plan for Success

• on the Defense
• don’t lose
• take land if the opportunity arises

1st Official Battle - Bull Run

• Inexperienced Union troops met inexperienced Confederate troops
• Union army winning in the morning
• Confederacy gains the advantage in the afternoon
• Confederate General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson
• People from surrounding areas make an event of it

Stonewall Jackson�(Confederate)

William T. Sherman

Union

Robert E. Lee

Confederacy

• Originally offered by Lincoln to be a general in the Union army
• Wife related to Martha Washington
• aka Gray Fox

Ulysses S. Grant� Union

• West point graduate
• eventually become President of the US
• afraid of the sight of blood

George McClellan

Union

• Not very aggressive – kind of just sits around waiting – keeps asking for more and more troops, he is afraid of failure.
• At one point he has 110,000 soldiers compared to Lee’s 17,000 and he still would do NOTHING!

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Foreign Influence

“You have no friends in Europe...The sentiment of Europe is anti-slavery...and the popular public opinion is abolition. It is an error to say that ‘Cotton is King’.”

- William Yancey, Confederate Diplomat to England

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• Most of Europe chooses neutrality
• have cotton in India and Egypt
• need for the Northern wheat instead of cash crops

Emancipation Proclamation - 1863

• So why is the Emancipation important?�
• Lincoln did find a way to use his war powers to address the issue
• Allowed African Americans to serve in the Union army.
• Emancipation was a military strategy
• Britain and France supported abolition and by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation it would insure that Britain would NOT support the Confederacy
• Also, by issuing the proclamation, it let them know compromise was no longer an option – if the South lost slavery would cease to exist

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Conscription = a military draft

July 1863 - Draft Riots New York City

• Incited by Irish immigrants who resented southern blacks because they were competing for jobs AND that people could pay to get out of being drafted�
• Federal troops were required to end the riots.

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Life in the South

Food shortage – why in such a rich growing area was there a shortage of food?

• Drain of manpower
• Union occupation of food growing areas
• Loss of slaves�

1861 – family spend $6.65 per month on food

1863 – families spent $68.00 per month on food

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Blockade of ports created shortages of salt, sugar, coffee, nails, needles and medicine. Driven to smuggle cotton in exchange for food.

Life in the North

• Economic boom but wages did not keep up with prices and the standard of living decreased�
• Businesses made huge profits�
• Corruption in business was common.

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Life in the Army

• Army required to wash hands and face every day and to take bath once a week, many failed to do this
• lice, dysentery, diet consisted of beans, biscuits and hardtack
• Southern soldiers subsisted on cubes of beef with crumbled cornbread mixed with bacon grease
• “Coffee” made from peanuts, corn or dried apples
• When getting surgery, surgeons did not sterilize instruments

Gettysburg

• Gettysburg (July 1863) was NOT intended for battle – both sides end up there looking for supplies (shoes) and they literally run into one another. -- Gettysburg will prove to be the turning point of the war.

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July 1, 1863

• MOST decisive battle of the war – whoever won would (unofficially) win the war
• 51,000 casualties after the 3 -day battle
• The Union (north) was led by General George Meade, Robert E. Lee led the Confederacy
• Holding the high ground was EXTREMELY important to the Union victory!

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Day 1 - July 1

• Lee, once again, attempts an invasion of the North – hoping a victory would turn the tide to Southern Support in the North
• Lee was in DESPERATE need of supplies – especially shoes.
• When the armies met up on July 1^st, the Confederates were successful in taking control of the town, but the Union held the high ground – Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top

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Day 2 - July 1863

• The Union mistakenly leave their position on Little Round Top – luckily, Col. Joshua Chamberlain notices the abandoned position and retakes it
• The Confederates were exhausted from a literal uphill battle (and they had a 25 mile march the previous day), could not take the hill
• Both lines held by the end of the day – but the South had to get the high ground to win.

Day 3 - July 3

• Lee felt confident that he could break the Union defenses�
• For 2 hours that morning the two sides fired at each other, when the Union fell silent Lee ordered Longstreet to attack the center of the Union Line on the high ground�
• Pickett’s Charge – Lee ordered Pickett to have his men marched across the farmland and up the hill to their deaths, the Union held their ground

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Meade’s BIG mistake

• Lee’s army was badly beaten – he lost 28,000 men that day to wounds or death�
• Lee ordered his men to march back to Virginia�
• Meade NEVER ordered a counterattack – the war could have ended – instead it went on for another 2 years.�
• Lee would never again invade the North, he could never recover from the loss at Gettysburg, and subsequently the Confederate loss at Vicksburg on July 4^th.

Confederate Morale wears down

• CSA Congress urges planters to plant more food crops > cash crops �
• Taxes can be paid in livestock �
• some Confederate soldiers switch sides
• 2400 Floridian soldiers fight for the Union

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Deserting

• Letters from home describe lack of supplies and loss of farm hards for planting �
• Soldiers leave army illegally and begin to walk home
• penalty of death if caught, but no one’s really looking

Total War

• Grant and Sherman believed in fighting the army AND the civilians
• civilians make the weapons and food that keep the army going

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Vicksburg

• Important port city on the Mississippi River �
• Grant has railroads in MS destroyed to distract from the port �
• Grant sets up a siege
• no way supplies can go in or out�
• Confederacy surrenders on July 4 (after Gettysburg) and the CSA is split in two

Fighting Intensifies

• May 4 - June 18th: Grant lost 60,000+ men (replaceable) and Lee lost 32,000 (irreplaceable) �
• “Whatever happens, there’s no turning back”

Sherman’s March to the Sea

“The fields were trampled down and the road was littered with the carcasses of horses...the wandering cows were shot down to starve out the people...here are there, lonely chimney stacks...told of homes laid in ashes”

- Voices from the Civil War

Election of 1864

• Lincoln up for reelection vs. McClellan �
• Union victories inspired voters and Lincoln is voted for a second term

Surrender at Appomattox

• April 2 - the Government of the CSA sets fire to Richmond and flees the capital
• Confederate surrender April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House
• Conditions
• Confed. soldiers could go home
• officers could keep their side arms