The Civil War
The War between the states
The War of Northern Aggression
War begins
 Secession Crisis
 12/1860 –SC ‘Declaration of Immediate Causes’
 Seizure of federal property in secessionist states
 Failure to Compromise
 John Crittenden’s Compromise
 Guarantees the permanence of slavery in slave states
 Reestab. the Missouri compromise for all present & future territory
 Lincoln’s Inaugural Address
 Since the Union was older that the Constitution, slave states could not secede
 Acts of force/violence against US gov’t was ‘insurrectionary’
Mobilization of the South
Disadvantages
 5.5 million free people;
Nearly 4 million enslaved
 Limited liquidity
 Wealth tied to land &
slaves
 Limited infrastructure
 Had to construct a new
constitution & gov’t and
find leadership
Southern Leadership
 CSA Constitution
 Similar to US, but w/explicit reference to state sovereignty,
sanctioned slavery and prevented abolition
 Established capital in Richmond
 Honoring States’ Rights
 With limited wealth tried to impose taxation & bonds (both
unsuccessful)
 Issued 1.5 billion in paper currency which led to 9,000%
inflation
 Relied on volunteers from the states, but in 1862 had to pass
the Conscription Act, nearly 100,000 deserted in the last year
of the war.
Jefferson Davis
 1st President of the Confederate States of America
 Former Mississippi Senator, Colonel in the Mexican-
American War, West Point & college graduate
 Had difficulty administering the loose confederation
 As a trained soldier had greater ability in selecting
battlefield leaders & trusting in their abilities
Mobilization of the North
Advantages
 Over 22 million free
people
 Large base for volunteers &
later draft
 Nearly 2 million will serve
 South seen as aggressor
Disadvantages
 In 1860, only 16,000 active
service men
 Many northern democrats
were against the war
‘copperheads’
 Fighting on enemy
territory
 Faced greater civilian
commitment than their
own side
Military Strategy
 North
 South
 Had to destroy the
 Needed to avoid defeat
Confederacy
 Preserve pre-1861 status
quo
 Needed to enlist support
from foreign gov’t
 Glory
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=lJiMlgvygvc
New York Draft Riots of 1863
 Federal gov’t in 1863 passed a conscription law
 Allowed for the wealthy to hire substitutes for $300
 Due to recent layoffs & strikes in NYC where free blacks were hired as
replacements, young Irish immigrants began rioting & lynching blacks
 Only put down through federal troops firing on civilians
 Paddy’s Lament
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCX-Zdz5qA
Northern Leadership
 Republicans dominated Congress after
secession
 Nationalist Programs
 1862, Homestead Act
 Morrill land Grant
 High tariffs
 Transcontinental RR
 National Bank Acts
 1/3 investment from banks into
national securities (bonds)
 US treasury notes as currency
Abraham Lincoln
 Elected in 1860 w/39% of the vote
 Will be challenged by Gen. McClellan in 1864, winning by only a
10% margin
 No formal declaration of war b/c South was not an independent
nation
 By Executive order sent ships into battle, increased the size of the
army & sent troops into battle
 Suspended habeas corpus (13,000 civilians imprisoned) –later
ruled unconstitutional
 Ex Parte Milligan (1866) –Supreme Court no military tribunal
allowed when civil courts do exist
The generals
 North
 South
 George Winfield Scott
 P.T. Beauregard
 George McClellan
 Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson
 Ulysses S. Grant
 Joe Johnston
 William Tecumseh Sherman
 Robert E. Lee
Gettysburg –Turning Point
 Lee’s 2nd and last attempt to
invade the North
 Over 3 days, more than
51,000 men were wounded
or killed
 Pickett’s Charge –failed
attempt to take Cemetery
Ridge on the 3rd day of battle
psychologically destructive to
Confederate troops
 Nearly 6,000 men died in the
assault
AP PARTS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPkKQJ0GVMk
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this.
 But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we
can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.
War of attrition
Battle
Significance
Bull Run, Manassas, VA -1861
War would not be over quickly
New Orleans, LA -1862
Mississippi River controlled by North
Shiloh, TN -1862
RR hub captured
Hampton Roads, VA -1862
Ironclads -Monitor vs. Merrimack
Murfreesboro, TN -1862
Control west of the App. Mtns
2nd Bull Run, -1862
Protected VA for the South
Antietam, MD -1862
McClellan removed from duty
Single bloodiest day
Gettysburg, PA July, 1863
Farthest attack North for Southern forces
Chickamauga, TN -1863
Southern victory w/greater forces
Spotsylvania, VA -1864
Grant unsuccessfully tries to seize Richmond
Burning of Atlanta -March to Sea 1864 - Sherman’s army destroys a 60 mile swath from Atlanta to the east
Technology
 Colt repeating pistol
 Winchester repeating rifle
 Gatlin gun
 Cannon & artillery
 Siege warfare and trenches
 Torpedoes & submarines
 Ironclads
 Rail road
 telegraph
Total War
Changes in American life
 US Sanitary Commission
 American Red Cross*
 Daily Postal delivery
 Bureaucratic ‘red tape’
 Mechanized warfare
 Combat from a fixed position
 Draft/conscription
 Open immigration
 National Day of Thanksgiving
 Abolition
Prisoners of War
Camp Sumpter
Andersonville Ga
Sept 9 1864
To Mrs Ellea Byrnes
I want to leave to my mother the sum of $150 one hundred
fifty dollars to support her during the rest of her life or in case of
her death the sum above mentioned will be held in trust, by the
Rev. P. Crudder of Gorham St. Catholic Church for my son
Thomas Byrnes in case that he returns within one year of this
date, in case he does not return the above mentioned sum will be
left to my wife From John Burns
Prisoner at Camp Sumpter Ga
An end to war
 Lee surrenders to Grant
April 9th, 1865 at
Appomattox Courthouse
 By April 1865, more than
618,000 men killed
 Nearly 5% of the
population
 Lincoln assassinated 5 days
later at Ford’sTheater