Chapter 15
Secession and the Civil War
1861-1865
The Tide Turns
• early 1863 the Confederate economy was in shambles
and its diplomacy had collapsed
• as slaves fled from plantations, more and more lowerclass whites deserted the army or refused to be drafted
at all
– some counties became “deserter havens”
• the Appalachian mountaineers resisted the
Confederacy more directly by enlisting in the Union
army or joining guerrilla units
• North was slow to capitalize on this advantage
• had its own serious morale problems and war
weariness to deal with
– emancipation, which was popular with
Republicans was viewed by most Democrats as a
betrayal of northern war aims
• Enrollment Act (March 1863) –
provided for outright conscription
of white males, but allowed those
of wealth to hire substitutes or pay
a fee to avoid military service
– this provoked a violent response
from those unable to buy their way
out of service and a series of antidraft riots broke out
– the New York Riot (July 1863) – made
up of Irish-American laborers, burned
the draft offices, the homes of
leading Republicans, and an
orphanage for black children
• lynched more than a dozen defenseless
blacks and at least 120 people were
killed
– reflected working class anger at the
wartime privileges and prosperity of
the middle and upper classes
– showed how divided the North really
was on how the Republicans were
conducting the war
• government used its martial law authority to arrest a few
alleged ringleaders
• used a barrage of propaganda aimed at what they believed
was a vast secret conspiracy to undermine the northern war
effort
• Copperheads – were militant advocates of “peace at any
price”
– was their opposition to emancipation on racial grounds rather
than anxiety about big government that gave the movement
most of its emotional force
• only way to stop these
new movements was to
start winning battles and
convince the northern
public that victory was
assured
• but, the North suffered
one more humiliating
defeat at Chancellorsville
– Union forces under
General Joseph Hooker
were routed by a
Confederate army less than
half its size
• The Battle of Chancellorsville
– General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker (Union)
– Lee separates forces with General Jeb Stuart (cavalry command)
– orders soldiers to build large fires at night, so the enemy does not
realize most of the army is gone
– Lee demonstrated his superior generalship by dividing his forces
again with General Stonewall Jackson to make a surprise attack on
the Union’s right flank
– Hooker’s troops withdraw across the river, the Confederacy wins
– Jackson dies (from wounds by his own soldiers who mistook him
as the enemy) and deprives Lee of his “strong right arm”
Scene from “Gods and Generals”
• General Ulysses S. Grant –
had been trying to capture
Vicksburg, Mississippi – the
almost inaccessible
Confederate bastion
between the North and
control of the mighty river
– in a bold campaign, Grant
crossed the river, cutting
himself off from his supply
line, and marched into the
interior of Mississippi
– his troops won a series of
victories over two separate
Confederate armies and
advanced on Vicksburg from
the east
• Grant then settled in for a siege
• President Davis
approved Robert E.
Lee’s plan for an allout invasion of the
Northeast
– might lead to a
dramatic victory that
would help to
compensate for the
probable loss of
Vicksburg
• Battle of Gettysburg
– Lee confronted a Union
army that had taken up
strong defensive
positions on Cemetery
Ridge and Culp’s Hill
• one of the few occasions in the
war when the North could take
advantage of choosing its ground
and then defending it against an
enemy whose supply lines were
extended
– a reversal from most other battles
• a series of Confederate attacks
failed to dislodge General George
Meade’s troops
• Lee faced the choice of retreating
to protect his lines of
communication or launching a
final desperate assault
– he chose to make a direct attack on
the strongest part of the Union line
– charge on Cemetery Ridge was
disastrous – advancing
Confederates dropped like flies
under the barrage of Union artillery
and rifle fire
• July 1, 1863
– Confederates outnumbered Union
forces
– pushed Northerners back onto hills
south of town
– General George Meade (new Union
general) arrived on the scene
• had been in command less than a
week
– each group took position on a
series of hills, lines stretching
about four miles
• Cemetery Ridge – center of the
Union line
• Seminary Ridge – center of the
Confederate position
– between the two was a large field
– General James Longstreet Confederate, who replaced Jackson
• advised Lee against attacking such a
strong Union position
• was ordered to attack the southern
end of the Union line the next
morning
• July 2, 1863
– Longstreet had wanted to in charge of the Confederate army’s
payroll, Lee made him a field commander
• he was not ready to attack until 4:00 P.M. and his delays gave Meade the
chance to bring in reinforcements
– Devil’s Den – mass of boulders where fighting occurred
– Little Round Top – undefended hill noticed by Alabama soldiers
where if taken the Confederates could have bombarded the Union
lines
– Maine Soldiers – arrived on the hill first and fended off repeated
attacks under Colonel Joshua Chamberlain
• ran out of ammunition and took a bayonet charge against the
Confederates, surprising them and forcing a retreat
– Union lines would remain intact at day’s end
• July 3, 1863
– 150 Confederate cannons begin the heaviest artillery barrage of
the war
– Lee decided to risk everything on an infantry charge at the center
of the Union position
• Longstreet opposed such a direct attack, Lee opposed him
– Pickett’s Charge – reduced Confederate group from 15,000 men to
a few hundred who actually reached the Union lines
• Lee ordered Pickett to reform his line, worried about a counter-attack by
Meade: “General Lee, I have no division.”
– ended the bloodiest battle of the Civil War
• Confederates retreat to Virginia
• retreat was inevitable and Lee withdrew to the Potomac with his
battered troops
– the river was at flood stage and could not be crossed for several days
– Meade failed to follow up his victory with a vigorous pursuit and Lee
escaped
• Vicksburg fell to Grant on July 4 – the same day Lee began his
retreat and Northerners rejoiced at the simultaneous
Independence Day victories that turned the tide of the war
– Union had secured control of the Mississippi and had at last won a
major battle in the East
Last Stages of the
Conflict
• in the middle south, the main
target was Chattanooga “the
gateway to the Southeast”
– General William Rosencrans
managed to maneuver the
Confederates out of the city,
only to be outfought and
driven back to Chickamauga
– Union army then retreated
into Chattanooga where it was
surrounded and besieged by
southern forces
– Grant arrived from his victory
at Vicksburg to take command
– encirclement was broken by
daring assaults on the
Confederate positions on
Lookout Mountain and
Missionary Ridge
• after Union success, the
North was poised for an
invasion of Georgia
• Grant’s victories in the
West earned him
promotion to general in
chief of all Union armies
• he ordered a
multipronged offensive
to finish off the
Confederacy
– a march on Richmond
under Grant’s personal
command
– thrust by the western
armies, now led by
General William
Tecumseh Sherman, to
Atlanta and the heart of
Georgia
• Grant and Lee began to meet in northern Virginia,
fighting a series of battles
– Lee would take up an entrenched position in the path
of the invading force, Grant would attack it
– Grant would sustain heavy losses, but inflict casualties
on the shrinking Confederate army
– Grant would move to his left, hoping to maneuver Lee
into a less defensible position
• Battle of the Wilderness –
woods caught fire, causing
confusion in the smokefilled forest
– General Longstreet of the
Confederacy – accidentally
shot by his own soldiers,
three miles from where
Jackson was shot
• Battles of the Wilderness,
Spotsylvania, and Cold
Harbor
– Union lost about 60,000
men – more than twice that
of the Confederates –
without defeating Lee or
opening the road to
Richmond
– soldiers began pinning their
names and addresses to
their uniforms so they
would be identified if killed
• Grant decided to change his tactics and moved his army
to the south of Richmond
• he came upon Petersburg and settled down for a siege
• Siege of Petersburg
– a long, drawn-out affair, the resulting stalemate in the East
caused northern morale to plummet, in the critical election
year of 1864
• Lincoln was confronted with
growing opposition within his
own party – especially from
the Radicals who disagreed
with his apparently lenient
approach to the future
restoration of the seceded
states
• Democrats – platform appeal
to war weariness by calling
for a cease-fire followed by
negotiations to re-establish
the Union
– nominee was George
McClellan
• he wanted to pursue the war,
but promised to end the conflict
sooner than Lincoln could
because he would not require
emancipation as a condition for
reconstruction
The Election of 1864
Candidate
Party
Popular Vote
Electoral Vote
Lincoln
Republican
2,218,388
212
McClellan
Democratic
1,812,807
21
• northern military successes changed the political arena
• Sherman’s invasion of Georgia went well
– used a skillful flanking movement to force the Confederates
to retreat to the outskirts of Atlanta
– the city fell, and northern forces occupied the hub of the
Deep South
• news unified the Republican party behind Lincoln and
improved his chances for defeating McClellan
– Republican cause of “liberty and Union” was secure
• concluding military operations revealed the futility of further
southern resistance
• Sherman cut himself off from his supply lines and lived off the
land in his march to the sea
– marched unopposed through Georgia (wanted to “make Georgia
howl”), destroyed almost everything of possible military or
economic value in a three hundred mile long and sixty mile wide
swath
• destroyed bridges, factories, and railroad lines
• seized and slaughtered livestock
• Sherman’s Goals
– destroy the South’s
remaining resources
– crush Southerner’s
remaining will to fight
• few houses were spared
“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform
it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”
- General William Tecumseh Sherman
• Confederate army under
the command of General
John B. Hood moved
northward into Tennessee
– was defeated and almost
destroyed by Union forces
under General George
Thomas at Nashville
• Sherman captured
Savannah and presented
the city to Lincoln as a
Christmas present
– turned north and carried
his scorched-earth policy
into South Carolina
• aim was to eventually join up
with Grant at Petersburg
near Richmond
• Grant finally ended the stalemate at Petersburg
• Lee’s starving and exhausted army tried to break
through the Union lines
• Grant renewed his attack and forced the
Confederates to abandon Petersburg and Richmond
– pursued them westward for a hundred miles
• were daily desertions in the Confederate army
• Lee was hoping to unite his troops with Johnston’s; but
was continually cut off by Grant’s troops
– his soldiers suggested fighting as guerrillas (using surprise
raids and hit-and-run tactics)
• Union forces were positioned to cut off the Confederate
line of retreat to the south
• recognizing the hopelessness of further resistance, Lee
surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865
• Appomattox Court
House
– Lee and Grant met in a
private home in the
town
• Terms of Surrender
– Southern soldiers can
take their horses and
mules and go home
– not be punished as
traitors as long as they
obeyed the law
– fed by Union troops
before leaving
– Grant orders all
celebrations to end –
“the rebels are our
countrymen again”
– Johnston surrenders to
Sherman
• joy of victory turned to sorrow and anger after John
Wilkes Booth (a pro-Confederate actor) assassinated
Abraham Lincoln as the president watched a play at
Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14
– Lincoln himself had given “the last full measure of devotion”
to the cause of “government of the people, by the people,
for the people”
• only remaining Confederate force of any significance laid
down its arms four days later and the Union was saved
• John Wilkes Booth – Maryland
actor with strong Southern
sympathies; met with a group
plotting to kidnap the president
for the release of Confederate
POW’s
• goes into Lincoln’s unguarded
box in Ford’s Theatre and shoots
the President in the head
• he flees over the railing breaking
his leg in the process and is
eventually cornered in a barn
where he dies
• Lincoln – taken to a boarding
house across the street, where
he lingers through the night
before dieing early the next
morning
– body was taken to his hometown
in Springfield, Illinois
Effects of the War
• 618,000 young men were
in their graves – victims of
enemy fire or the diseases
that spread rapidly in
military encampments
• widows and sweethearts
they left behind
temporarily increased the
proportion of unmarried
women in the population
– involuntary “spinsters” who
sought new opportunities
for making a living or
serving the community
• northern women pushed the
boundaries of their traditional
roles by participating on the
home front as fund-raisers
and in the rear lines as army
nurses and members of the
Sanitary Commission
– promoted health in the
northern army’s camps
through attention to
cleanliness, nutrition, and
medical care
– created in June 1861,
attempted to combat these
problems
•
•
•
•
•
•
dysentery
typhoid fever
malaria
pneumonia
mumps
measles
• Medical Care
– one in four Civil War
soldiers did not survive the
war
– doctors did not know how
to sterilize their materials
• Clara Barton – Union
nurse, “angel of the
battlefield”
• would later found the
American Red Cross
• women filled key positions
in the administration and
organization of patriotic
organizations
– calls for broadening “the
women’s sphere”
• postwar philanthropic and
reform movements
• the efforts of women
during the Civil War
broadened beliefs about
what women could
accomplish outside of the
home
– a vivandiere gave a
wounded or sick soldier
immediate attention
• white women in the Confederacy faced a different kind
of war at home
• coming of the war forced them to shoulder even
greater burdens at home
– the loss of fathers and brothers, the constant advance of
Union troops, and the difficulty of controlling a slave labor
force destroyed many southern women’s allegiance to the
Confederate cause
– faced the challenge of rebuilding a society that had been
permanently transformed by the experience of war
• devastation of the southern economy forced many women
to play a more conspicuous public and economic role
– forming associations to assist returning soldiers, entering the
workforce as educators, and establishing numerous
benevolent and reform societies or temperance organizations
• the South would remain more conservative in its views
about women’s “proper place” than in those in the North
• nation had emancipated 4 million African Americans
from slavery
• had not resolved whether they would be equal citizens
• Republican rhetoric
stressing “equal
opportunity” and the
“dignity of labor” raised
hopes that the crusade
against slavery could be
broadened into a
movement to improve
the lot of working
people in general
• so many immigrants had
fought and died for the
Union cause
– this weakened nativist
sentiment and
encouraged ethnic
tolerance
• federal government was
now supreme over the
states
– southern principle of state
sovereignty and strict
construction died at
Appomattox
• the U.S. was becoming a
true nation-state with an
effective central
government
– states could no longer claim
the right to secede or
nullify federal law, they did
still have primary
responsibility for most
functions of government
• questions would continue
about where federal
authority ended and states’
rights began
• broadened definition of federal
powers
• Republican-dominated
Congresses passed legislation
designed to give stimulus and
direction to the nation’s
economic development
• began a program of active
support for business and
agriculture
• passed a high protective tariff,
approved a homestead act to
encourage settlement of the
West, granted huge tracts of
land to railroad companies for
the construction of a
transcontinental railroad, gave
the states land for agricultural
colleges
• Congress set up a national banking system and
authorized these banks to issue notes of currency
– the country’s first standardized and reliable
circulating currency
• showed a decisive shift in the relationship
between the federal government and private
enterprise
• encouraged an
“organizational revolution”
• venturesome businessmen
took advantage of the new
national market
– developed more effective
national associations
• North won the war because
it had shown a greater
capacity than the South to
organize, innovate, and
“modernize”
• began the great
transformation of American
society from an
individualistic society of
small producers into the
more highly organized and
“incorporated” America of
the late 19th century