APUSH: Lecture 4C
(covers chapter 14)
Ms. Kray
Some slides from historyteacher.net
Long-Term Causes
 Slavery
 North increasingly viewed slavery as a moral issue while
the South defended its use and encouraged expansion
 Constitutional Disputes
 National supremacy vs. states’ rights
 Economic Differences
 Industrial Revolution highlighted and intensified a
growing economic divide between North & South
Short-Term Causes
 Crises of the 1850s
 Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska
Act, Dred Scott
 Election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860
 Fire-eaters demand secession
 December 20, 1860 – South Carolina votes to withdraw from the Union

Six other states in the deep South follow South Carolina (Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas
 Weak Presidential Leadership of James Buchanan
 Allowed these states to leave the Union without a fight
 Congress offers Crittenden Compromise (1860) to hold union together


Constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to hold slaves in all
territory south of 36o30’
Lincoln said he would not accept Crittenden Compromise
Secession of the Deep South
 Why Secession?
 Southerners believed
they were acting in the
tradition of the
American Revolution
 Social Compact
Argument
 Though Lincoln, like
Buchanan, would let
them go without a
fight
The Spark:
Fort Sumter, 1861
 Lincoln had tried to be conciliatory in his inaugural address but
made it clear he would not allow the break-up of the Union
 “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.”
 Danger of war breaking out acute
 But no one wants to be the aggressor
 Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor is low on supplies
 When Lincoln tries to send provisions, the South attacks
 Upper South Secedes; Civil War has begun
The Confederate States of America
 President Jefferson Davis
 Their Constitution
 Very similar to U.S. Constitution
 Placed limits on governments power to impose tariffs and
restrict slavery
 Significant power given to individual states at the expense of
the national government’s power
Union & Confederacy, 1861
Northern Advantages
 An extensive railroad
network
 Strong industrial base
 A superior navy
 A larger population
 An abundant supply of
food
Northern Disadvantages
 A shortage of
experienced and
skilled military
commanders
 A divided
population that
did not fully
support the war
 Border states
and Peace
Democrats
(Copperheads)
“Copperheads Secret Supporters of Slavery”
Southern Advantages
 A defensive war fought on its home territory
 A tie is a victory
 A long coastline that would be difficult to blockade
 An important cash crop in cotton
 A group of experienced and skilled military
commanders
 A close economic relationship with Britain
Southern Disadvantages
 A smaller population
than the North
 North’s pop. 22 million,
South’s only 5.5 million
 North also had a steady
stream of immigration
 A smaller industrial base
than the North
 Weak national
government would make
coordinating the war
effort difficult
Union Strategy for Victory
 1861-1862: Make the war about preserving the Union, not
slavery
 Hold the border states, whatever the cost
 Military Strategies
 1861-1864: Anaconda Plan


Devised by General Winfield Scott
Blockade southern ports and cut of their access to the Mississippi River
and squeeze
 1864-1865: Attrition and Total War
 Gen. Ulysses S. Grant & attrition
 Realized North outnumbered the South; Union needed to wear down
the Southern army and systematically destroy their supply lines
 Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and Total War
 wanted to make war so awful for the South that it would break their
will to fight
The Importance of the Border States
 Who are the border states?
 4 slave-holding states that remained loyal to the Union (Delaware,
Missouri, Maryland, and Kentucky)
 Important b/c of strategic location & industrial and agricultural
resources
 Lincoln would use shrewd policies to keep the border states loyal
 Suspended habeas corpus
 Careful wording in the Emancipation Proclamation
Southern Strategy for Victory
 A win or a tie = victory for the South
 Guerilla warfare in the West
 Bushwhackers vs. anti-slavery Jayhawkers
 Cotton Diplomacy
 Southern hopes for British intervention on their behalf b/c of
Britain’s dependence of Southern cotton
 Trent Affair, 1861
 Confederate Raiders and the Alabama Claims
 Plan failed for 2 reasons


Europe found other sources of cotton
Battle of Antietam changed purpose of the war
 North now fighting to end slavery
First Battle of Bull Run, 1861
 1st major battle of the
Civil Wars
 Ends the illusion that the
war will be short
 Promoted the myth of
“southern invincibility”
 Confederate victory due
to strong leadership
 Gen. Robert E. Lee &
“Stonewall” Jackson
Battle of Shiloh, 1862
 North trying to gain
control of the
Mississippi River
 Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
held his ground and
forced Confederate
forces to retreat
Terrible losses on both
sides
 More than 23,000 dead
Battle of Antietam,
September 1862
 Gen. Robert E. Lee invaded
the North
 Gen. George McClellan in
command of Union forces

Had Lee battle plans
 Still only able to tie
 Lee retreats to Virginia
 Turning point battle
 Led to Emancipation
Proclamation
 Britain stays out of the war
The Emancipation Proclamation, 1862
 Lincoln had delayed issuing
because he didn’t want to
antagonize slave owners in the
border states
 Strengthened the Union’s moral
cause
 Originally went to war to
preserve the Union  now it’s
end slavery too
 Rallied anti-slavery support in
England and France
 Only freed slaves in the
Confederate states
 DID NOT free slaves in the
border states
Battle of Vicksburg, 1863
 Gen. Grant’s victory meant Union control of the Mississippi
River
 Confederacy effectively cut in two
Vicksburg, July 1863
 Union victory meant
Grant began his siege of the
heavily fortified city of Vicksburg,
we controlled the
Miss. River and
Confederacy was cut
in ½
Battle of Gettysburg, 1865
 Lee hoped to force the
North to call for peace 
or at least gain foreign
intervention for the
South
 He surprised Union units
at Gettysburg in
southern PA
 Most crucial battle of the
war…and the bloodiest
(50,000 casualties)
Battle of Gettysburg, 1863
 Gen. Lee invades the
North again
 Hoped to force the
North to call for peace or
at least gain foreign
intervention to help the
South
 Bloodiest and most
crucial battle of the Civil
War
 Lincoln’s Gettysburg
Address
 Reinforced the reasons
we were fighting
General Grant in Command, 1864
 Lincoln had finally found a
commander who could win
 Grant’s strategy: attrition
 Recognized Southern
resources dwindling
 Sought to wear them down
& destroy their supply
lines
 In its final stage, the Civil
War had become a Total
War
Sherman’s March to the Sea,
1865
 Chief instrument of
Grant’s tactics
 Pioneer of total war
 Set out on a campaign of
destruction from
Georgia to South
Carolina
 Wanted to break the will
of the South to fight
 Sherman Burn’s Atlanta
Lee Surrenders at Appomattox,
1865
Surrender at Appomattox
Grant cut off Lee’s escape to the mountains and Lee was
forced to surrender on April 9, 1865.
The Costs
 Mostly costly of all American wars
 Killed more Americans than any other  620,000 dead
 Most destructive war ever fought in the Western
Hemisphere
 Transformed American society
 Accelerated industrialization & modernization in the
North
 Destroyed the plantation system & freed 4 million slaves
in the South
 Changes were so fundamental & profound that
some historians refer to the Civil War as the 2nd
American Revolution
Political Change:
Key Congressional Actions
 With Democrats gone, Republicans were able to pass a
significant amount of legislation
 Legal Tender Act, 1862 & National Bank Act, 1863 -- Established
a national banking system to provide uniform national currency
 Pacific Railway Act, 1863 – chartered two corporations, the
Union Pacific & Central Pacific, to build a transcontinental
railroad
 Homestead Act, 1862 – offered cheap and sometimes free land
(160 acres) to people who would settle the West and improve
their property
 Morrill Tariff, 1862 – passed high tariffs to protect American
industry from foreign competition
Political Change:
Expansion of Presidential Power
 Lincoln found that the war required active and
presidential action
prompt
 Suspended the writ of habeas corpus for everyone living between
Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia
 Done to hold the border states
 Approximately 13,000 people arrested & held without trial

Ohio Congressman & Copperhead, Clement Vallandingham exiled to the
Confederacy
 Ex Parte Merryman – Lincoln ignored order to release Maryland
secessionist leader
 Ex Parte Milligan – military trials in areas where civil courts existed
were unconstitutional
 Despite this, democracy continued to function -- Election of 1864
Economic Change:
Industrial Revolution Accelerates
 War placed a premium on mass production and
complex organizations
 Sped up consolidation of the North’s manufacturing
businesses
 Hard times for workers increased union membership
 War profiteers created a new class of millionaires to
invest in the post-war industrial economy
Social Change:
Class and Racial Tensions Rise
 March 1863 – 1st Conscription Act adopted
 Made all men between 20-45 yrs. Liable for military service
 Draftee could avoid service by either finding a substitute to serve or
paying a $300 exemption fee
 Law provoked fierce opposition
 1863: NYC Draft Riots


Irish American mob attacks wealthy whites and African Americans
117 people killed; draft temporarily suspended
Social Change:
African Americans Gain Freedom
 1861 & 1862 – Confiscation Acts
 Gave army power to seize enemy property
used to wage war against U.S. (including
slaves)
 Freed slaves whose owners were engaged in
rebellion against U.S.
 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation
 25% of slave population just walked away to
the protection of the Union army
 1865 – 13th Amendment
 “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Social Change:
Freedmen and the War
 Almost 200,000 blacks served in the Union army & navy
 Mostly newly freed slaves
 Served in all-black units with white officers
 Performed courageously under fire & won respect of
Northern white soldiers
 54th Regiment
Social Change:
Women and the War
 Southern and Northern women
stepped into the labor vacuum
created by the war
 Operated farms & plantations
alone, took factory jobs normally
held by men
 Played critical role as military
nurses and as volunteers in
soldiers’ aid societies
 Traditional gender roles
reinforced
Clara Barton