Rebecca Edwards Eric Hinderaker Robert O Self James
Rebecca Edwards • Eric Hinderaker • Robert O. Self • James A. Henretta America's History Ninth Edition CHAPTER 13 Bloody Ground: The Civil War 1861– 1865 Copyright © 2018 by Bedford/St. Martin’s Distributed by Bedford/St. Martin's/Macmillan Higher Education strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
I. War Begins, 1861– 1862 A. Early Expectations 1. Union and Confederate volunteers - lots of early fervor for the cause on both sides 2. Identification of the Confederate’s cause with the Patriots in 1776: In April 1861, Jefferson Davis spoke of the proslavery cause as if it were a patriotic cause, a fight for the “sacred right of self government” 3. Lincoln’s response on July 4, 1861: Secession is an attack on representative government, and on Americanism
I. War Begins, 1861– 1862—cont’d B. Campaigns East and West 1. Confederate advantage: they just had to defend their new national boundaries while the Union had to force them to return 2. Lincoln wanted to end the rebellion with a quick strike on the CSA capital of Richmond, but there was a counterattack attempt on Washington that thwarted the plan 3. Union was defeated at Bull Run, then attempted a slow advance to Richmond in 1862 under Gen. George Mc. Clellan 4. Stonewall Jackson threatened DC as a diversion, so Lincoln had to peel 30 k troops from the Richmond force to protect the Union capital 5. This gave Jackson the opportunity to pull back to Richmond to assist General Lee’s army. Richmond survived, secure, but CSA lost 20 k lives to Union’s 10 k
I. War Begins, 1861– 1862—cont’d A. Campaigns East and West: Border Wars 1. In addition to taking Richmond, Lincoln’s second goal was to hold/make inroads in border areas where slaveownership was low 2. Union troops occupied Maryland, arresting CSA sympathizers (including legislators) until Unionists had seized control of state government. Habeas Corpus problem! 3. Lincoln moved more cautiously in KY, where unionists took over the government by summer, 1861
I. War Begins, 1861– 1862—cont’d A. Campaigns East and West: Stuggle for MS 1. Union commanders won key battles in TN, dividing the CSA and reducing mobility of its armies, and in Ohio River Valley as KY didn’t join the rebellion 2. Union victory at Pea Ridge secured MO for the Union, though local conflicts continued throughout the war 3. Union navy attacked via Gulf of Mexico to capture New Orleans, the South’s financial center and biggest city
I. War Begins, 1861– 1862—cont’d C. Antietam and Its Consequences: 9/17/1862 1. Bloodiest day in American military history 4800 dead, 18, 500 wounded, 3 k of which died of their wounds 2. Claimed as a Union victory in public, but privately Lincoln criticized Mc. Clellan for not demanding full CSA surrender. Mc. Clellan feared heavy casualties (& public outrage)
I. War Begins, 1861– 1862—cont’d A. Antietam and Its Consequences: Call for Emancipation 1. Union Gen. Benjamin Butler labeled three slaves as “contraband of war” when they reached his VA campaign in 1861. Refused to return them on the grounds that enemy property can be legitimately seized in wartime. 2. Soon, thousands of “contrabands” were camping with Union armies as a means of escape 3. In August 1861, Congress passed the Confiscation Act, which authorized the seizure of all property used to support the rebellion, including slaves
I. War Begins, 1861– 1862—cont’d A. Antietam and Its Consequences: Emancipation Proclamation 1. Lincoln wasn’t originally for emancipation as a goal of the war, but gave in to pressure from Radical Republicans and escaped slaves 2. After Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation on 9/22/62, offering rebel states a chance to return to the Union prior to the new year and thus preserve slavery in their borders 3. Proclamation did not immediately free all slaves; in fact, it authorized slavery to continue in Union-controlled border states and Indian Territory 4. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1/1/63 changed everything: now, Union troops were agents of liberation 5. Proclamation was controversial everywhere, even in the North where Democrats feared race warfare and competition for employment
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863 A. Both the Union and the Confederacy exerted centralized authority to harness resources for the war effort.
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863—cont’d B. Politics North and South: North 1. Union advantage: superior, industrialized economy with arms factories and state-of-the-art transportation innovations 2. Republicans’ modern economic and fiscal policies: raised tariffs and taxes, created a national banking system, issued Treasure Bonds, authorized printing of paper money (“greenbacks”) as a new national monetary system via Legal Tender Act of 1862, promoted a system of internal improvements (esp. railroads), and passed the Homestead Act of 1862 to encourage western migration & agricultural development 3. All intended to unite the nation, investors, producers, and transportation services behind efficiently supplying the Union army 4. Creation of a new fiscal system ended up concentrating lots of capital in the hands of a relative few industrialists and financiers
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863—cont’d A. Politics North and South: South 1. CSA’s economic policy is forced to evolve from reliance on states to a centralized government to supply the war effort and control foreign trade 2. Davis administration built shipyards, armories, foundries, and textile mills, and commandeered food and raw materials for the war effort 3. Slaves were requisitioned to work on fortifications 4. One-tenth Tax adopted in 1863 required Confederate farmers to turn over a tenth of all products for military use, even poor families with husbands and fathers in the army 5. CSA Congress and ordinary people opposed, firing strong government and high taxes 6. Unbacked paper money printed to finance 60% of war expenses, which created inflation and led to even more property takings to keep financing the war
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863—cont’d A. Politics North and South: Conscription 1. 1862 was a hard year, forcing total war for both sides and the expenditure of huge resources 2. Volunteer ranks dwindled after the first year, requiring conscription on both sides; after CSA defeat at Shiloh in 4/62, CSA Congress imposed first binding draft in American history 3. Union’s Militia Act of 1862 and Enrollment Act of 1863 set quotas for “volunteers” from each state. Antidraft, antiblack, anti. Republican riots break out in NYC among immigrants 4. Fear of sabotage led Lincoln to suspend habeas corpus and imprison 15 k CSA sympathizers without trial. Also extended martial law to civilians who discouraged enlistment or resisted draft.
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863—cont’d C. The Impact of Emancipation 1. African American and fugitive slave volunteers eventually accepted in Union army - disproportionate numbers of them volunteer 2. Influence of the Emancipation Proclamation: some northern whites argued that if blacks were to benefit, they should share in the sacrifice 3. Black Americans pick up some slack as whites resisted conscription 4. CSA refuses to exchange black prisoners, precipitating a new Union policy to suspend prisoner exchanges; by late 1863, huge numbers of POWs suffering on both sides 5. The Union’s Lieber Code, 1863: anyone who escaped a slaveholding locality was then free, and black soldiers should be treated the same as whites. Drafted by German-American law professor Francis Lieber, who had sons fighting on both sides.
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863—cont’d D. Citizens and the Work of War 1. Medicine and nursing: US Sanitary Commission established in 1861 to supply Union troops with clothing, food, and medical care. Over 200 k women supported the commission as volunteers. 2. Northern women were experienced social reformers and activists and knew how to organize to help the war effort; this would be an opportunity to show that women deserved rights 3. Women in both N & S took over farm tasks and filled jobs in hospitals, schools, and factories while men fought. Also staffed new bureaucracies, served as nurses, and filled some positions traditionally held by men 4. Some women worked as spies, scouts, and soldiers (in disguise!)
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863—cont’d E. Vicksburg and Gettysburg 1. Support for a negotiated peace grows as Dems gain seats in Union Congress in 1862 2. Lee’s army defeated Union at Fredericksburg at end of 1862 and Chancellorsville in May, 1863, eroding northern support for the war 3. General Grant splits the Confederacy by gaining control of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, MS, and Port Hudson, LA, in summer, 1863 4. Slave desertion in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas is the result, as those states are cut off from the rest of CSA 5. General Lee suggests invading the north proper to divert Grant/try to win a decisive, demoralizing victory against Union…doesn’t work out
II. Toward “Hard War, ” 1863—cont’d E. Vicksburg and Gettysburg—cont’d 5. Battle of Gettysburg, PA: 3 days, lethal, but a major Union victory and a turning point in the war 6. The affects of Confederate loss at Vicksburg and Gettysburg: Rejuvenated Republican support during Union Congressional elections, sharp retribution against CSA Congress friends of Davis 7. CSA hopes of British recognition and support disappear; Brits withhold recognition and impound ironclad warships designated for CSA 8. Additionally, many British workers and reformers were not interested in promoting slavery
III. The Road to Union Victory, 1864– 1865 A. Confederate leaders still hoped for a battlefield stalemate and a negotiated peace.
III. The Road to Union Victory, 1864– 1865—cont’d B. Grant and Sherman Take Command 1. Ulysses S. Grant took charge of all Union armies and was charged by Lincoln to advance against ALL major CSA forces to achieve decisive victory before 1864 election 2. Grant relied on technology and targeted Confederate infrastructure - a modern war 3. Grant began to accept heavy casualties as a method of speeding up the war 4. Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House are narrowly won by Lee. Grant erodes Lee’s forces at Cold Harbor 5. Stalemate around Richmond and Petersburg, with huge casualties on both sides, threatened Lincoln in 1864 election 6. General Sheridan ordered by Grant to punish all farmers who supplied Lee’s army with scorched-earth campaign; a major shift in warfare
III. The Road to Union Victory, 1864– 1865—cont’d C. The Election of 1864 and Sherman’s March 1. Republican Convention, 1864, endorses Lincoln, demands CSA surrender, and calls for constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. Republicans temporarily rename themselves the “Union” party 2. Democrat Andrew Johnson nominated for vice president - a sort of unity candidate 3. Dems divided into War Democrats and Peace Democrats; they eventually select General George Mc. Clellan as their nominee. He endorses immediate armistice and a peace convention, but changes his mind as Sherman marches through Georgia 4. 9/2/1864, William Tecumseh Sherman forces Atlanta to surrender, which is a big boost to Lincoln, Republicans, and the north; Lincoln wins reelection 5. Emancipation pace picks up; MD and MO free their slaves, followed by TN, AR, and LA; 1/31/1865 = 13 th amendment approved in Congress, prohibiting slavery in the US 6. Sherman crosses Georgia, cutting “a swath through to the sea” that devastates the state, destroying railroads, supplies, and property. It demoralizes CSA army as many soldiers desert to return home to protect their families and farms
III. The Road to Union Victory, 1864– 1865—cont’d D. The Confederacy Collapses 1. Manpower shortage in the Confederacy 2. Lee surrendered to Grant, April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, VA, to conclude the Closing Virginia Campaign. By the following month, the Confederate army and government had dissolved.
III. The Road to Union Victory, 1864– 1865—cont’d E. The World the War Made 1. The failure of King Cotton diplomacy: Union had the economy to fight, CSA couldn’t squeeze foreign aid out of their cotton economy 2. Union innovations in policy, strategy, and technology industrialization and infrastructure wins! 3. Lincoln’s second inaugural address in 1865 named the sin of slavery as the central cause of the war. He proposed that both Union and Confederacy shared guilt. 4. The U. S. emerged with the “same wealth” as before the war, and Republican tariffs paid off the war debt quickly 5. The path to global economic power via industrial north
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