AP U.S. History Chapter 14 The Civil War
Main Idea / DetailsThe Secession Crisis / Coinciding with Lincoln’s election in 1860 came the concept of ‘Southern nationalism.’
Men known as ‘fire-eaters’ to their contemporaries began to demand an end to the Union
The Withdrawal of the south / Dec. 20, 1860 South Carolina called a special convention to
withdraw from the Union.
Jan. 9, 1861 Mississippi
Jan. 10, 1861 Florida
Jan. 11, 1861 Alabama
Jan. 19, 1861 Georgia
Jan. 26, 1861 Louisiana
Feb. 1, 1861 Texas
Representatives of these states met at Montgomery, AL and announced the formation of a new nation: the Confederate States of America
Lame-duck Pres. James Buchanan’s response was indecisive: Told Congress these states had no rights to secede but suggested that the federal government had no authority to stop them.
The seceding states immediately seized federal property in these respective states: arsenals, forts, government offices.
Ft. Sumter – Buchanan refused to yield to SC; orders merchant ship to resupply; Confederate guns fired on vessel, it turns back. First shots fired.
The Failure of Compromise / Sen. John Crittenden, KY- The Crittenden Compromise
Several constitutional amendments:
a. guarantee the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states
b. satisfy Southern demands regarding the Fugitive Slave Law and slavery in the District of Columbia
c. Reestablish the Missouri Compromise line in all present and future U.S. territory
The South was willing to accept but the Republicans were not b/c it abandoned their fundamental position: slavery not be allowed to expand
Lincoln must sneak into Washington in disguise on a night train to avoid assassination.
In his inaugural address, which dealt directly with the secession crisis, Lincoln laid down several principles:
As the Union was older than the Constitution, no state could leave it.
Acts of force or violence to support secession were insurrection
The government would ‘hold, occupy, and possess’ federal property in the seceded states. * A clear reference to Ft. Sumter
Ft. Sumter / Conditions at Ft. Sumter deteriorated rapidly.
Short of supplies, the fort would have to soon be evacuated
Lincoln believed that surrendering the fort would make his commitment to maintaining the Union not credible
A relief expedition to the fort, carefully informing SC that no attempt to send soldiers or munitions unless the supply ships met w/ resistance.
Confederate government dilemma: allow expedition to land = submission
Firing on the ship or fort = aggression
Confederates decided to appear cowardly would be worse than appearing belligerent.
Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard ordered to take fort by force if necessary
Union Gen. Anderson refused to surrender the fort
April 12-13, 1861 Confederate forces began bombardment
April 14, 1861 –Anderson surrenders. The Civil war has begun
Lincoln begins mobilizing for war
Four more states secede: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee
The remaining slave states: Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri remain under the Union, albeit with heavy military and political pressure.
Was there anything that Lincoln could have done?
His possible choices:
a. let the South go in peace
b. sectional antagonisms had risen to a point that the existing terms of Union were untenable
Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: How can a barbarous community/civilized community constitute one state?
The Opposing Sides / Covered in Graphic Organizer
North – offensive South – defensive Advantage: South
North – more $$/material South–less$$/material Advantage: North
North – opinion divided South –united Advantage: South
Mobilization of the North / With Southern representatives gone, Republicans could exercise virtually unchallenged authority
They enacted aggressively nationalistic programs to promote economic development, especially in the West
Homestead Act of 1862 – any citizen or prospective citizen 160 acres of public land & to purchase it for a small fee after living on it for five years.
Morrill Land Grant Act – transferred substantial public acreage to state governments. The state governments would sell the land and use the proceeds to finance public education.
Many state colleges and universities were created (land-grant colleges)
Congress also passed high tariffs which protected domestic industries from foreign competition.
Congress also moved to complete the transcontinental railroad; it created two federally chartered corporations: the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Central Pacific.
The government provided free public lands and generous loans for companies building these railroad lines.
The National Bank Act of 1863-64 created a new national banking system
Banks could join the system if they were financially sound & invested a third of their assets in government securities.
In return, they could issue U.S. Treasury notes as currency.
The new system eliminated much of the chaos and uncertainty of the nation’s currency and finally created a uniform system of national bank notes
Financing the war proved more difficult.
a. levying taxes
b. issuing paper currency -not backed by gold or silver, but good faith
c. borrowing – a large source of $$ was from loans from the American people
d. but the greatest amounts came from banks & large financial institutions
Raising the Union Armies / Over 2 million men served in the Union army
1861 – U.S. Army = 16,000 troops, most in the West
July, 1861 –Congress authorized enlisting 500,000 volunteers for 3 year terms (instead of the usual 3 month terms)
March 1863- Congress forced to pass a national draft law
- A man could ‘dodge’ the draft by paying someone else to go in his place
- Opposition to the draft was widespread, particularly among laborers, immigrants and ‘Peace Democrats’ aka ‘Copperheads’
- July, 1863 anti-draft riots lasted 4 days in NYC; over 100 dead
- Irish workers at the center of the violence; black strikebreakers had been recently used against them in a longshoreman’s strike & the Irish generally blamed African Americans for the war
- The Irish actually lynched a number of African Americans, burned down homes and businesses of free blacks
- Only the arrival of federal troops subdued the rioters
Wartime Politics / Expectations of Lincoln were not high when he arrived in Washington.
Considered a ‘minor politician from the prairie’
Asserted his authority quickly; assembled cabinet from every faction of the Republican Party
Moved boldly to use war powers; ignored some parts of the Constitution
‘Domestic insurrection rather than ‘war’
Increased size of the army without legislative authority
Lincoln’s greatest problem was with the ‘Peace Democrats’
The Peace Democrats feared the agricultural Northwest was losing influence to the industrial East and Republican nationalism was eroding states’ rights
Lincoln used extraordinary measures to suppress them, including arresting dissenters and suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus
- Most prominent Copperhead, Congressman Clement Vallandingham D-OH, was seized by Union authorities and exiled to the Confederacy after making a speech claiming the purpose of the war was to free blacks and enslave whites.
In addition to pro-war pamphlets, posters, speeches, and songs, the war effort mobilized a large group of photographers, organized by
Mathew Brady, one of the first important photographers in American history
The photographs of warfare contributed to both a revulsion for war and a resolve to ensure that the sacrifices made had been made for the preservation of the Union. And later to end slavery once and for all.
1864- Presidential election –much political dissent; Republicans had suffered heavy losses in the congressional elections of 1862; the party tried to create a broad coalition of all groups who supported the war.
They called it the Union Party but it was really just the Republican Party with a small faction of War Democrats.
Their nominees were Lincoln for President and Tennessee ‘War Democrat’ Andrew Johnson as VP
The Democrats nominated former Union general George McClellan, who had earlier been relieved of his command by President Lincoln.
At this crucial moment, several Northern military victories including the capture of Atlanta boosted Northern morale.
Lincoln won reelection with 212 electoral votes to McClellan’s 21.
Lincoln’s lead in the popular vote was only 10%
The Politics of Emancipation / On the morning of September 13, the 27th Indiana rested in a meadow outside of Frederick, Maryland, which had served as the site of a Confederate camp a few days before. Sergeant John Bloss and Corporal Barton W. Mitchell found a piece of paper wrapped around three cigars. The paper was addressed to Confederate General D.H. Hill. Its title read, "Special Order No. 191, Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia."
Realizing that they had discovered a copy of the Confederate operation plan, Bloss and Mitchell quickly passed it up the chain of command. By chance, the division adjutant general, Samuel Pittman, recognized the handwriting on the orders as that of a colleague from the prewar army, Robert Chilton, who was the adjutant general to Robert E. Lee.
Pittman took the order to McClellan. The Union commander had spent the previous week mystified by Lee's operations, but now the Confederate plan was clear. He reportedly gloated, "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home."
McClellan now knew that Lee's forces were split into five parts and scattered over a 30-mile stretch, with the Potomac River in between. At least eight miles separated each piece of Lee's army, and McClellan was just a dozen miles from the nearest Confederate unit at South Mountain. Bruce Catton, the noted Civil War historian, observed that no general in the war "was ever given so fair a chance to destroy the opposing army one piece at a time."
Yet McClellan squandered the opportunity. His initial jubilation was overtaken by his caution. He believed that Lee possessed a far greater number of troops than the Confederates actually had, despite the fact that the Maryland invasion resulted in a high rate of desertion among the Southerners.
McClellan was also excruciatingly slow to respond to the information in the so-called Lost Order. He took 18 hours to set his army in motion, marching toward Turner's Gap and Crampton's Gap.
Lee, who was alerted to the approaching Federals, sent troops to plug the gaps, allowing him time to gather his scattered units.
The Radical Republicans
Charles Sumner Thaddeus Stevens Benjamin Wade
These men wanted to abolish slavery immediately and completely.
Conservative Republicans favored a slower, more gradual process which Lincoln, early in his Presidency also favored
Momentum began to gather in favor of emancipation in the North.
1861 – Congress passes the Confiscation Act making all slaves who were forced to help their Confederate masters in the war effort free.
1862 – Slavery is abolished in Washington, D.C. and in the West. Owners are compensated
July 1862 - Radicals pushed through a second Confiscation Act, again declaring slaves free and giving the president the power to employ freed slaves as soldiers
September 22, 1862 After the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln announces his intention to use his war powers to issue an executive order freeing all slaves in the Confederacy
January 1, 1863 The emancipation Proclamation was signed, which declared slaves forever free in all areas of the Confederacy except those already under Union control: Tennessee, western Virginia, and southern Louisiana. The proclamation did not apply to the border states as they had never seceded from the Union.
The immediate effect of the Emancipation Proclamation was limited but it was important because it clearly established that the war was being fought not only to preserve the Union but also to eliminate slavery
This helped African Americans to liberate themselves and they did so in increasing numbers as the war progressed.
By 1862, the Union was deep in Confederate territory and almost everywhere they went, escaped slaves flocked to join them.
1865 The final step came when Congress approved and the necessary states ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery as an institution
African Americans and the Union Cause / About 186,000 emancipated African Americans served as soldiers, sailors, and laborers for the Union forces.
There were obstacles: a few black regiments ere formed but they were segregated and received lower pay than white soldiers
Congress changed that law in mid-1864.
If black soldiers were captured by Confederates, they were often sent back to their masters in the South or even executed
The War & Economic Development / The war sped up the economic development of the North.
Coal production increased by nearly 20%
Railroad facilities improved, adopted a standard gauge track
The loss of farm labor led to an increase in farm mechanization
Increasing mechanization also affected factory labor, limiting the need for skilled workers
Prices rose by more than 70% while wages rose only 40%
One result of these changes was a substantial increase in the creation of several national unions for coal miners, railroad engineers, and others
Women, Nursing and the War / Women, desperate for money took over positions vacated by men and worked as teachers, retail sales clerks, office workers, mill and factory hands.
Above all, women entered nursing, a field previously dominated by men.
The U.S. Sanitary Commission, an organization of civilian volunteers led by Dorothea Dix, mobilized large numbers of females nurses to serve in field hospitals.
Dorothea Dix
By the end of the war, women were the dominant force in nursing. By 1900, nursing had become an almost entirely female profession.
Nurses and many other women found the war liberating.
Women committed to feminist causes earlier came to see the war as an opportunity to win support for their own goals
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony
They founded the National Women’s Loyal League in 1863 and worked simultaneously for the abolition of slavery and suffrage for women.
Clara Barton was active during the war collecting and distributing medical supplies. She later founded the American Red Cross * See letter
Nursing had an enormous impact on the medical profession and the treatment of wounded soldiers, the importance of sanitary conditions in hospitals.
The Mobilization of the South – The Confederate Government / Confederate Constitution – largely identical to the Constitution of the United states with several significant exemptions:
It acknowledged the sovereignty of individual states (although not the right of secession)
It sanctioned slavery and made its abolition even by one of the states practically impossible
Jefferson Davis - Pres. Alexander Stephens – VP
Davis was a moderate secessionist before the war, Stephens had argued against secession
Davis was ultimately unsuccessful, rarely providing national leadership
There were no formal political parties, but there was disagreements within the government
Some white Southerners opposed secession and war
Many white people in poorer ‘backcountry’ and ‘upcountry’ regions refused to recognize the new Confederate government
However, most white Southerners supported the war
Money and Manpower
States’ Rights versus Centralization
Economic and Social Effects of the War
Strategy and Diplomacy: The Commanders
The Role of Sea Power
Europe and the Disunited States
The American West and the War
The Course of Battle
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