The Furnace of Civil War
1860-1865
Bull Run Ends the 90-Day War
Union army ill-prepared for battle
in 1861
– Attack on smaller Confederate
force at Bull Run would
demonstrate superiority
– Could lead to capture of
Richmond if successful
July 21, 1861: spectators crowded
to watch
– Confederate reinforcements
arrived
– Union troops panic and flee
Bull Run, con’t
Victory worse than defeat for the South
– Inflated a dangerous overconfidence
– Southern enlistments fell off sharply
– Preparations for long conflict waned
Defeat better than victory for the Union
– Dispelled notion of a one-punch war
– North buckled down to preparations
The Peninsula Campaign
Gen. George McClellan
command of Army of the
Potomac
– Great organizer and
drillmaster, but
overcautious and loathe
to sacrifice troops
Moved to Richmond via
water in 1862
– Stalled outside city by
efforts of Jackson and
Stuart
The Seven Days’ Battles
June 26-July 2, 1862
Gen. Lee launched a counterattack
– Drove McClellan back to sea
Results:
– Lincoln abandoned McClellan as general
– Had McClellan won, the union restored with minimal
disruption
– Lee’s win ensured that war would endure until end of
slavery
– Lincoln began to draft Emancipation Proclamation
Union Strategy
1. Slowly suffocate South by blockading its ports
2. Liberate the slaves and undermine South’s
economy
3. Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing the
Mississippi
4. Chop Confederacy in pieces by sending troops
through GA, SC, NC
5. Capturing Richmond
6. Try everywhere to engage Confederacy’s main
strength
“Anaconda Plan”
Scott's Great Snake
Scott's Great Snake
General Winfield Scott's scheme to surround the South and await a seizure of power
by southern Unionists drew scorn from critics who called it the Anaconda plan. In
this lithograph, the "great snake" prepares to thrust down the Mississippi, seal off the
Confederacy, and crush it. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
War at Sea
Blockade of 3500 miles difficult at best
– North converted yachts and ferryboats
– Concentrated on main ports
Britain recognized the blockade as that was
Royal Navy’s best-used weapon
Blockade-running profitable
– Risks great, but high prices brought large
profits
Ironclads
Confederacy plated sides of Merrimack
with iron
– Easily defeated two wooden Union ships
– Threatened Union blockade
March 9, 1862: Merrimack fought Union’s
Monitor to a standstill
– First battle-testing of ironclads spelled doom
for wooden ships
Pivotal Point: Antietam
Lee thrust into Maryland after success of Second
Bull Run
– Wanted to encourage foreign intervention and seduce
Border States to leaving Union
2 Union soldiers found Lee’s plan dropped by
Confederate officer
– Lee halted at Antietam on September 17, 1862 in
bloody battle
– Military draw
Antietam
Antietam
In the photograph of Antietam, dead rebel gunners lie next to the wreckage of their
battery. (Library of Congress)
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Antietam dead, Confederates lined for burial
Antietam dead, Confederates lined for burial
This photograph of corpses awaiting burial was one of ninety-five taken by
Mathew Brady and his assistants of the Antietam battlefield, the bloodiest single
day of the war. It was the first time Americans had seen war depicted so
realistically. When Brady's photographs went on display in New York in 1862,
throngs of people waited in line to see them. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Pivotal Point: Antietam
Results:
– London and Paris declined to help Confederacy
– Lincoln launched his Emancipation
Proclamation
• Announced that as of January 1, 1863, slaves in
rebellious states were “forever free”
• Border States not affected
Proclamation without Emancipation
Thousands of slaves flocked to invading Union
armies
Goal not only to liberate slaves but to strengthen
the Union’s moral cause
– Ardent abolitionists said Lincoln did not do enough
– Those with Southern sympathies felt he went too far
– Diminished moral cause of the South
Freedom to the Slave, 1863
Freedom to the Slave, 1863
This engraving celebrating the
Emancipation Proclamation first
appeared in 1863. While it places a
white Union soldier in the center, it
also portrays the important role of
African American troops and
emphasizes the importance of
education and literacy. (The
Library Company of Philadelphia)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Contraband slave group
Contraband slave group
A group of "contrabands" (liberated slaves) photographed at Cumberland
Landing, Virginia, May 14, 1862, at a sensitive point in the war when their
legal status was still not fully determined. The faces of the women, men, and
children represent the human drama of emancipation. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Blacks Battle Bondage
Black enlistees accepted as manpower ran low
– 180,000 served, most from slave states, with 2 full
regiments from MA
– Fought in 500 engagements, high casualties
– Not recognized by CSA as POWs, but as slaves in
rebellion
Confederacy did not use black troops until end of
war
– Most forced to work shoring up defenses
Black Troops from Company E
Black Troops from Company E
Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, photographed at Fort Lincoln, Virginia, in
1864. Nothing so symbolized the new manhood and citizenship among African
Americans in the midst of the war as such young black men in blue. (Chicago
Historical Society)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Build-up to Gettysburg
Union’s McClellan replaced with Ambrose
Burnside
– Burnside replaced by Joe Hooker after the
defeat at Fredericksburg, VA (12-13-1862)
– Hooker replaced by George Meade after loss at
Chancellorsville, VA (5-2 to 5-4-1863)
Road to Gettysburg
Gettysburg
July 1-3, 1863
Outcome in doubt until the end
– Davis sent peace negotiators towards DC in
hope of Confederate victory
– Lincoln refused to allow them past Union lines
Beginning of the end for the Southern cause
Gettysburg



The 3 day battle was costly
for both sides.
Pickett’s Charge up Little
Round Top was little better
than a suicide mission
After 3 days
 23,000 Union casualties
 28,000 Confederate
casualties
A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July 1863
A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July 1863
(Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
War in the West
February 1862: Grant captures
Forts Donelson and Henry
– Bound Kentucky more
securely to Union
– Opened gateway to TN &
GA
April 1862: Defeated by
Confederate forces at Shiloh
July 4, 1863: Grant captures city
of Vicksburg
– Severed the spinal cord of
the Confederacy
– Britain stopped delivery of
the Laird rams and France
stopped purchase of
warships for Confederacy
Sherman Scorches Georgia
Fall 1864: Sherman captures/burns Atlanta
– Major purpose to destroy supplies destined for
Confederacy and weaken moral of men by
waging war on their homes
– Strategy worked: Southerners deserted in
droves
Winter 1865: South Carolina--by-passed
Charleston and burnt Columbia
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea
Determined to "make Georgia howl," William Tecumseh Sherman and his band of
"bummers" slashed their way through the South during the winter of 1864,
destroying military and civilian property along the way. This painting shows
Sherman astride a white horse looking on while his men rip up a rail line and burn
bridges and homes. (Collection of David H. Sherman)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Atlanta's Depot, 1864
Atlanta's Depot, 1864
Atlanta's depot in
ruins after Sherman's
siege of the city in
1864. (Library of
Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Charleston
South Carolina
Post- Sherman
Politics of War
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the
War: late 1861
– Radical Republicans resented expansion of political
power
Democrats tainted by the seceders
– Stephen Douglas died before war began
– War Democrats supported Lincoln administration
– Peace Democrats and Copperheads did not
Eagle cartoon
Eagle cartoon
"Annihilation to Traitors," screams the American Eagle as it watches various evil and slimy
creatures hatching in its nest enfolded in the American flag. Various southern secession leaders
are named, some being shown as beasts, while a copperhead snake, the popular cartoon image
representing northerners who sympathized with the southern cause, prepares to strike at the
national symbol. The Union states are represented as healthy eggs, holding out promise for the
future. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Election of 1864
Union Party
– Composed of Republicans and War Democrats
– Republicans temporarily did not exist
– Lincoln/Johnson ticket
Democrats chose McClellan
Lincoln aided by series of Northern successes
– Soldiers furloughed home to vote
– 121 electoral votes/21
Union Party, 1864
Grant Outlasts Lee
1864: Grant heads towards Richmond
February 1865: Grant meets with Confederate diplomats to
broker peace terms
– Lincoln wanted no less than Union and emancipation
April 1865: Union troops capture Richmond and cornered
Lee at Appomattox Courthouse
April 9: Grant met with Lee,
giving generous terms of
surrender
Lee with his son after the surrender
Lee with his son after the surrender
After opposing secession, General Robert E. Lee accepted a commission in the
Confederate army and commanded the Army of Northern Virginia for most of the war.
Photographer Mathew Brady took this picture of Lee (center), his son Major General
G.W.C. Lee (left), and his aide Colonel Walter Taylor (right) eight days after Lee's
surrender to General Grant. The forlorn expression on the general's face vividly
demonstrates the agony of defeat. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Ford’s Theatre
On April 14th, 1865,
President Abraham
Lincoln and his wife
were attending a show at
Ford's Theatre in
Washington D.C. when
John Wilkes Booth shot
him in the head. Lincoln
was carried across the
street to a boarding
house, where he died
early the next morning.
Booth’s Weapon
Martyrdom of Lincoln
April 14, 1865: Lincoln assassinated at
Ford’s Theater in DC
–
–
–
–
John Wilkes Booth
Lincoln’s death calamity for North and South
Increased bitterness in North
Reconstruction more brutal for the South
Hanging Hooded Bodies of the Four Conspirators with the Crowd Departing Washington, D.C., July 7, 1865 (Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne, David Herold, and
George Atzerodt ) Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-B8171-7796 DLC
Mary Surratt
1st Women Hanged in U.S.
Aftermath of the Nightmare
Over 620,000 died in
action or from disease
– Over a million seriously
injured or dead
Direct costs of $15 million
– Does not include continuing
costs (pensions, etc)
Nullification and
secession laid to rest