Unit 5 – Chp 21 – The Furnace of the Civil War
My Paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union,
and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.
- Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln’s main goal before, during and just after the Civil War is to keep the Union (nation)
together. However, a close second is to end the peculiar institution of slavery. The
Emancipation Proclamation ends slavery in all areas of rebellion beginning on January 1, 1863
and Lincoln helps end slavery everywhere with the ratification of the 13th Amendment (1865).
(To see his instrumental role in its ratification, see the movie – Lincoln with Daniel Day Lewis.)
Many expected the Civil War to be over quickly, 90 days. However, the North’s embarrassing
loss at the Battle of Bull Run, where the Northern Union Army “ran” to safety, proved the
strength of the South. The North, under the guidance of General McClellan, later attempted a
Peninsula Campaign, to capture the Confederate Capitol at Richmond, Virginia. However, the
Union troops lost again as General Robert E. Lee (of the South), mounted a vigorous counterattack, called the Seven Days’ Battles. This defeat led to the firing of McClellan and the Union
strategy of Total War: 1) Blockade the South – the Anaconda Plan, 2) liberate the slaves and
undermine the South’s economy, 3) cut the Confederacy in half by seizing the Mississippi River,
4) divide the Southern Confederacy even more by sending troops into Georgia and the Carolinas,
5) capture Richmond, 6) grind the enemy into submission by attacking its strengths everywhere
possible. (1 & 2 and 3 & 4 largely go together) This would mean a costly war to the South and
its people, as well as to the Union army.
The War at Sea – the blockade was the major feature of the Anaconda Plan, strangle the South
by not allowing the exportation of its cash crops, especially cotton, or the importation of any
supplies that were desperately needed by Southern forces and the Southern people. The blockade
was slow to work, but the Union eventually focused attention on the main Southern ports and
inlets. Blockade running was very risky and even more profitable. Some shippers made profits
of over 700%! The South tried (and failed) to break the Blockade with the capture and use of the
Merrimack. Placing metal along this ship’s hull, it was largely impenetrable, but the Union
Army built it’s own iron–clad beast, the Monitor, and the two fought to a standstill in March
1862.
The Second Battle of Bull Run was as successful for the North as the first battle. This gave the
South hope that it could capture the Northern capitol of Washington, DC, located on its northern
border. A battle was launched at Antietam (Maryland – north of the Union’s capitol), it was the
bloodiest single day battle of the war. (The South lost.)
Unit 5 – Chp 21 – Notes 1
The North had re-appointed McClellan to the top military post, after a short time of failure by
General Pope. Many believe McClellan only won at Antietam because he found Lee’s battle
plans lost by a Confederate, days before. No matter what, the victory did two major things, it
kept the Border States within the Union (finally seeing the power of the North) and allowed
Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, the freeing of all slaves in areas of rebellion as
part of a necessary war measure. This war measure did very little to end slavery, it freed only
the slaves that Lincoln did not have the ability to free, but it was successful in: 1) keeping the
French and British out of the war (they could not fight on behalf of a slavery nation, their people
would never allow it, no matter how much Southern cotton was lost) and 2) it led to many free
blacks to enlist to help the North (see the Movie Glory). The Union finally had the “moral”
grounds for this fight, but it was still a costly decision, since most people in the North did not
like free blacks (remember, the KKK is very popular in the North, a local Grand Wizard for this
region lived in Montgomery.) (Also, this was a major reason why so many free blacks were
killed during the Draft Riots in NYC in 1863.) (Also, the Border States had slaves.) Note: the
Emancipation Proclamation was an Executive Order, an order passed by the President that does
not need Congressional approval. It is a way around the system of Checks and Balances and it
has been used by almost EVERY president, most notably FDR with Executive Order 9066 –
leading to the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII and Obama, with the forbidding
of federal funds from Obama-care for the use of abortions.
The new “abolition War”, as many called the Civil War after the Emancipation Proclamation, led
to many Northern troops to desert and many more Confederates troops to also desert the military
to go and protect their homes, out of fear of slave desertions. These whites became “home
guards.”
The war continued, and so did the revolving command of Northern Generals. There was General
Burnside, more known for his “sideburns,” than his military prowess. Then there was General
Hooker, who was infamous for his female companionship. Later, General Meade led Union
forces to a tie at the war’s deadliest battle, the 3-day Battle at Gettysburg, Pa, a last attempt by
the South to get a Northern victory. July 1-3, 1863 was a horrendous battle for both the North
and the South. Within a few short months, Lincoln gave his now famous Gettysburg Address, a
very short speech that was not well received at the time and was preceded by a 2 hour long
speech. (Coincidentally, this fantastic speech is now compared to Pericles’ Funeral Oration
Speech, is considered one of our nation’s greatest speeches, and it was one of two great old
speeches given at Ground Zero the year after the tragedy at the old World Trade Center site.)
The War in the West – led mostly by Ulysses S. Grant, a self-confessed drunk that gave up his
military position rather than be discharged from the Army due to his love for the drink, quickly
in stature as his brutal, Western battles resulted in victories. Grant wanted and demanded an
“unconditional” surrender of all Confederate troops, exacting bloody victories along the
Unit 5 – Chp 21 – Notes 2
Mississippi River and in Tennessee, especially at Shiloh. The Battle of Vicksburg was also very
horrible as the Union troops eventually laid siege to the city and waited for the inhabitants of the
city to give up or starve to death, they eventually gave up and the great Mississippi River was
also lost to the Union. The Union victory at Vicksburg came less than a week after the Battle of
Gettysburg.
General Grant was transferred to eastern Tennessee in late 1863 and won some hard fought
battles against the Confederacy there. However, Grant gave leadership to Union forces
advancing into Georgia to General Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman’s “March to the Sea” is now
part of the brutal legend of the Union toward the South during the war. He, marched onto
Atlanta, burned every building that was more than two-stories to the ground. After his victory
there, he supposedly burnt a mile wide swath of land as he and his troops cut through Georgia,
destroying and pillaging as they went. As his troops reached the great old port city of
Charleston, the inhabitants gave up without a fight, saving the city from destruction. Sherman
then marched to the state’s capitol, Columbia, which coincidentally also burned to the ground.
Then Sherman and his men moved to fight and win more victories in North Carolina.
The Politics of War – the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War criticized Lincoln
on: 1) the expansion of presidential power during the war and 2) the emancipation of all slaves.
This group was full of “Radical” Republicans, white Northerners that hated the white
Southerners, the former Southerners that settles in the southern regions of Indiana and Ohio – the
“butternuts”, and anyone else who was not for full abolition and helping the freedmen, the
formerly enslaved blacks. “Copperheads”, northern supporters of the South hated the radical
Republicans and Lincoln.
During the Civil War, Lincoln had to win an election, the Election of 1864. The Republican
Party joined with War Democrats in the North to create the Union Party. Abraham Lincoln, and
his VP, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee and a War Democrat won as more and more Union
victories mounted. After the Election, Grant finally outlasted Lee. Grant became the military
leader of the Union Army after Meade. Often deemed, “Grant the butcher” for putting his own
men into terrible situations during warfare, his casualty rate and rate of loss was actually better
than Lee’s. Lee gave his unconditional Southern surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse
in April 1865, just days before Lincoln was shot in killed in Ford’s theater by a Copperhead
actor, John Wilkes Booth. Grant fantastically silenced his own men when they cheered at the
Southern surrender, saying, “The war is over; the rebels ae our countrymen again.”
The Aftermath of the Nightmare – more men died during the Civil War than in all other US wars
before and after, combined. Much of the nation, mostly in the South, lay in ruins. The “Great
Emancipator”, Lincoln, was now dead and new man (a Southern Democrat) was now the
President that had to deal with a very Republican Congress and the rebuilding of the nation. The
Unit 5 – Chp 21 – Notes 3
Civil War destroyed so much in America but it gave rise to more liberal political systems in the
Old World, like in England, where the English Reform Bill of 1867 created a true democracy
there
Unit 5 – Chp 21 – Notes 4