The Civil War
AP US – Unit 7
With graphics from Ms. Susan Pojer
Understanding the Beginning
of the War through Visuals
North vs. South in 1861
North
South
Advantages
?
?
Disadvantages
?
?
Rating the North & the South
Resources: North & the South
Railroad Lines, 1860
Slave/Free States
Population, 1861
The Union & Confederacy in 1861
Immigrants
as a %
of a State’s
Population
in
1860
Men Present for Duty
in the Civil War
Ohio Military Service
Soldiers’ Occupations:
North/South Combined
The Civil War Begins
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861
Confederate Conscription Act –
April 1862
• The first draft in American history
• All able bodied white men from 17-50 were
required to serve for 3 years (originally from
18-35)
• Exemptions for certain occupations and the
20-Negro Law
– “Rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight”
– You could also hire a substitute, but that ended in 1863
• Only 1 in 5 in the Confederate army was
actually a draftee
Supplying the Confederate Army
• Purchased weapons from Europe for the first few
years
• By 1862, Confederacy had ordnance contracts with
Southern factories and gave loans to start others
• Most supply problems centered around clothing,
shoes, and food
– Caused the Impressment Act (1863) – Army officers
could take food from farmers for prescribed prices.
Could also take slaves
• What problems with supplies does Doc 2 talk about?
What type of war did this lack of supplies create in
the South?
The Union Enrollment Act –
March 1863
• Made every able bodied, white male from 2045 eligible for war
– Had a loophole to either pay the government $300
or to hire a substitute
– Exemptions were for high government officials,
ministers, and men who were the sole support of
widows, orphans, or indigent parents
• Bounties were offered for volunteers
– This led to many “bounty jumpers”
• 8% of the Union army were draftees or
substitutes
Financing the War
• Both sides issued bonds, but required them to be
paid in specie
– The South’s first bond took almost all of the specie
– Northerners preferred to keep their specie
• Began to print paper money
– Union: The Legal Tender Act (1862) authorized the
printing of $150 million greenbacks
– Confederacy: never made their paper money legal
tender
• Caused the value of the paper money to plunge because of
lack of consumer confidence
• South responded by printing more (= more inflation)
Outcomes of Financing the War
• The South was broke from the hard
currency system as well as the minimal
government interference in the economy
• North passed a system of national banking
(without those pesky southern Democrats)
– The National Bank Act (1863) established the
criteria by which a bank could obtain a federal
charter and issue national bank notes
The Leaders of the Confederacy
Pres. Jefferson Davis
VP Alexander Stevens
•Had strong differences:
•Davis wanted to liberate the South from the North
•Stevens wanted a guarantee for protection of states’ rights
The Confederate “White House”
The Confederate Seal
MOTTO  “With God As Our Vindicator”
A Northern View of Jeff Davis
Politics in the North
• Republicans
fragmented against
Lincoln
– Caused the
Democrats to win 5
states in 1862
– Republicans then
solidified behind
their president
Securing the Union’s Borders
• Lincoln focused on keeping the border states
within the Union even though they were slave
states
• Armed pro-Unionists in Kentucky and
defended the state against a Confederate
invasion in 1862
• Missouri and Delaware also never left though
MO had many who fought for the South
• West Virginia separated from Virginia in 1861
and officially joined the union in 1863
Holding onto Maryland
• Suspended the writ of habeas corpus in MD so
federal troops could arrest and hold prosecession Marylanders – kept MD in the Union
• Led to the case Ex parte Merryman (1861) in
which Chief Justice Taney ruled that Lincoln
had exceeded his authority by suspending the
writ of habeas corpus
– Lincoln argued that the writ could be suspended in
“cases of rebellion” and it was his job to determine
if rebellion was happening. He ignored Taney’s
ruling
The Union & Confederacy in 1861
Advantages and Disadvantages
(Add to chart from before)
• Union had more men, supplies, and
infrastructure, but would have to sustain
huge supply lines to attack the south. The
Union could also not use all of its men since
many were required work.
• South had fewer white men, but a higher
percentage could fight since the slaves
worked. Also had the home court advantage
and a fight for independence.
Weapon Development That
Helps in the Future
• Submarine
• Repeating Rifle
• Gattling Gun
USS Alligator (1862)
developed with the
help of the French
The Rifle and Minie Ball
• The rifling musket or rifle was
used extensively by both sides in
the Civil War
• Fired further, faster, and more
accurately than a regular musket
• Used a slightly pointed lead slug
called the Minie ball
• Huge advancement in weapon
technology + almost no
advancement in military tactics =
much death
Civil War
Strategy
•Succession of battles
•Victors were the ones
who kept the field, not
always the ones with
the fewer casualties
•Was difficult to
pursue defeated
troops because of
supply line problems
and vast quantities of
injured
The Union’s
“Anaconda” Plan
• Blockade
southern ports
and strike down
the Mississippi
River
• Devised by
General
Winfield Scott
• In reality the
blockade
happened and
the Mississippi
took some time
Day 2
Lincoln’s Generals
Winfield Scott
Irwin McDowell
George McClellan
Joseph Hooker
Ambrose Burnside
Ulysses S. Grant
George Meade
George McClellan,
Again!
McClellan: I Can Do It All!
The Confederate Generals
“Stonewall” Jackson
Nathan Bedford
Forrest
George Pickett
Jeb Stuart
James Longstreet
Robert E. Lee
Battle of Bull Run
(1st Manassas)
July, 1861
• Union had to get rid of CSA
troops at Manassas before
moving on to Richmond
• Politicians from
Washington DC went to
watch the battle and
picnic…
• CSA reinforcements arrived
by train and routed the
Union army
• Confederate Victory
Results of Bull Run
• Lincoln replaced McDowell General George
B. McClellan who put in place The Peninsula
Campaign
• 1862 - McClellan’s hesitation prevented him
from attacking Richmond early and by the
time he attacked he was not able to reach
the city though he did defeat the
Confederates.
• Lincoln ordered McClellan back to DC after
the Seven Days Battle
War in
the East:
18611862
Battle of Antietam
“Bloodiest Single Day of the War”
September 17, 1862
23,000 casualties
Ken Burns: The Civil War
Episode 3 Chapter 8: Antietam
10 min if ltd time
The Western
Campaign
• Surprise Union victory at Shiloh
led to control of the upper
Mississippi
• By abandoning the southern
Mississippi to attack Shiloh, the
Confederacy left New Orleans
open to attack by Farragut and
Butler
• Once the Union controlled the
West, bands of pro-Union troops
began to attack Native Americans
to gain control of land
The Naval War
• Union began war with 40 warships while
the Confederacy had 0
• South had a 90% success rate with blockade
runners at first. This was dropped to a 50%
success rate by 1865 as the Union gathered
non-military vessels to secure southern
ports
• Even with their few ironclads, the Union
was clearly the victor on the seas
The Battle of the Ironclads,
March, 1862
USS Monitor vs. the CSA
Virginia (formerly
Merrimack)
Diplomatic Issues in War
• The South expected both France and England
to recognize the Confederacy and help them
break the Union blockade
• Never happened:
– England was not as reliant on southern cotton as
once thought
– Both were wary to join the war
– Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation
Proclamation turned this into a fight against
slavery
The
Emancipation
Proclamation
The Emancipation
Proclamation
• Preliminarily issued after the battle of
Antietam in September 1862
• Final version issued on January 1, 1863 to
immediately take effect:
– Freed slaves in areas under rebellion where Union
had no authority (didn’t apply to slave states in the
Union or areas the Union had already conquered)
– Really had no effect on slavery until the Union army
came near. And then…
Emancipation in 1863
African-American Recruiting Poster
The Famous 54th Massachusetts
August Saint-Gaudens Memorial to
Col. Robert Gould Shaw
African-Americans
in Civil War Battles
Black Troops Freeing Slaves
African American Troops
• By the end of the war, 186,000 African
Americans had served in the Union army
• This was 1/10 of the Union soldiers
• Were only led by white commanders and
were paid less than white soldiers
• Less likely than whites to be killed in action,
but more likely to die of disease
• Were not treated as POW’s by the South
when captured – instead were enslaved or
killed
The Massacre at Ft. Pillow, TN
(April 12, 1864)
Nathan Bedford Forrest
(Captured Ft. Pillow)
• Ordered black soldiers
killed after they
surrendered (many white
soldiers were killed as well)
– 229 out of 262 African
American soldiers were
killed
• Became the first Grand
Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
after the war…
The War in the
West, 1863:
Vicksburg
May 18 – July 4, 1863
• Grant’s army tried to
capture Vicksburg on
May 19 and 22, when this
didn’t work he besieged
the city until they
surrendered on July 4th
• This coincided with the
Southern loss at
Gettysburg the day before
and the combination is
considered a turning
point. After Vicksburg,
the Union controlled
the Mississippi
The Road to Gettysburg: 1863
Gettysburg Casualties
War and Society,
North and South
Day 3
Extensive Legislation Passed
Without the South in Congress
1861 – Morrill Tariff Act
1862 – Homestead Act
1862 – Legal Tender Act
1862 – Morrill Land Grant Act
1862 – Emancipation Proclamation
(1/1/1863)
1863 – Pacific Railway Act
1863 – National Bank Act
Inflation in the South
By 1865, a barrel of flour in Richmond, VA cost $250…if you could find one
Economy in North and South
• The North and South continued to trade as
early as July 1861
• Factories in the North were allowed to trade
goods (bacon, salt, blankets) with “loyal”
cotton farmers in the South.
The North
Initiates the
Draft, 1863
Recruiting Irish Immigrants in NYC
NYC Draft Riots, (July 13-16, 1863)
NYC Draft Riots, (July 13-16, 1863)
A “Pogrom” Against Blacks
Dealing with Dissent
• Lincoln was much more willing to crush dissent
during the war than Davis was
• Some problems in the North, though few:
– Ex parte Milligan (1866): civilians can not be tried
by military courts when civil courts are open
• A man was sentenced to death by a military court for
conspiring to free Confederate prisoners
– Clement Vallandigham was banished by Lincoln and
sent to the Confederacy! He was working for peace,
challenging the administration, and fighting the
suspension of habeas corpus
Medical War
• United States Sanitary Commission and other
groups helped to clean up Union hospitals
• Dorothea Dix was placed in charge of the Union
Nursing Corps (Dragon Dix)
• Most hospitals in the South were private and in
homes
• Still hadn’t figured out germ theory yet…
– Much disease and infection, though some basic
sanitary measures made this war slightly bettter
Original Andersonville Plan
•Planned to hold over 10,000 men, had 32,000 at one time
•Provided no shelter for the men, they built tent-like structures out
of blankets
•Exposure, lack of food, and disease led to double the mortality rate
of other Confederate camps
Union Prison Camp
at Andersonville, GA
Union “Survivors”
Union Prisoner’s
Record
at
Andersonville
Women and the War
• Women expanded their “sphere” by
embracing nursing and sanitary work
• In rural areas women worked the fields
because the men were at war
• Women tried to propel the fight for abolition
into a fight for women’s suffrage, but it did
not work
The Union Victorious
1864-1865
The Progress of War: 1861-1865
1864 Election
Pres. Lincoln (R)
George McClellan (D)
The Peace Movement:
Copperheads
Clement Vallandigham
Presidential
Election
Results:
1864
Sherman’s
“March
to the
Sea” Georgia,
62,000 troops would make the march from Atlanta to
the sea, destroying over $100 million in property
1864
“We will make war so terrible…that generations would pass before they could
appeal again to it”
The Fall of Richmond
• On April 3, 1865,
Union troops
conquered Richmond,
VA, the confederate
capital. Southerners
had abandoned the
city the day before
and set it on fire as
they left to prevent
the Union from
seizing it.
The Final Virginia Campaign:
1864-1865
Surrender at Appomattox
April 9, 1865
Ken Burns: The Civil War
Episode 8, Chapter 8: Appomattox
Casualties on Both Sides
Total:
Confederacy: 260,000 dead
Union: 360,000 dead
Civil War Casualties
in Comparison to Other Wars
Ford’s Theater (April 14, 1865)
The Assassin
Booth shot Lincoln
while another
accomplice stabbed
Secretary of State
Seward, and a third
accomplice failed to
attack VP Johnson.
John Wilkes Booth
The Assassination
WANTED~~!!
The Execution
Lincoln’s Funeral Procession