Presidential Bio…
Abraham
Lincoln
1861-1865
I. Secession and Military Stalemate,
1861–1862
A. The Secession Crisis
1.The Lower South Secedes
1. South Carolina (SC) seceded first in December 1860,
fearing a Lincoln presidency would end slavery
2. fire-eaters in the Deep South called on their states to hold
conventions to consider following SC; MS, FL, AL, GA, LA,
and TX followed by February
3. declared Confederate States of America (CSA) with
Jefferson Davis as president.
4. Buchanan did not act decisively; claimed federal
government lacked authority to restore the Union by force.
2. The Crittenden Compromise
• President asked Congress to act
• Senator Crittenden (KY) proposed:
1. constitutional amendment to protect slavery from
government interference where it already existed
(approved)
2. expand the Missouri Compromise line to the CA border,
banning slavery north of line but allowing it to the south
(rejected by Republicans who feared it would unleash new
imperialist adventures by proslavery forces to gain land
beyond the borders, such as Cuba)
• Lincoln’s inaugural address in March 1861
called the Union “perpetual” and secession
illegal.
1. Describe this image of the Alabama Secession flag. What types
of traditional American imagery did it borrow?
2. What does the flag reveal about the reasoning behind
Alabama’s decision to secede? What did Alabamians think they
were achieving through secession?
I. Secession and Military Stalemate, 1861–1862
B. The Upper South Chooses Sides
1.Union responds
a)
b)
c)
Northerners joined the war effort quickly
OH was asked to provide 13 regiments and supplied 20; northern
Democrats supported Lincoln (including Stephen Douglas)
Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve for 90 days.
2. Middle and border states
a) Decision of these states was crucial
b) 8 border and middle states accounted for two-thirds of the whites
in the slaveholding states
c) VA sided with Confederacy as did AK, TN, and NC
d) northwestern VA, yeomen broke away and became part of Union
(admitted in 1863 as WV)
e) DE and MO sided with Union; MD was occupied and secured by
Unionists who seized the state’s government
1. negotiation kept KY in Union.
I. Secession and Military Stalemate,1861–1862
C. Setting War Objectives and Devising Strategies
1. Union Thrusts Toward Richmond
a) Lincoln rejected General Winfield Scott’s strategy of
peaceful persuasion through economic sanctions and a
naval blockade
b) Lincoln insisted on an aggressive military campaign to
restore the Union; hoped a quick strike against the
Confederates at Richmond would end the rebellion
c) Attack at Manassas (Bull Run) led to panic among Union
soldiers who retreated
d) Union enlisted a million more men to serve for three years
in the new Army of the Potomac
e) 1862, General McClellan launched major assault, but
Confederates fought back; war continued and Richmond
was still secure.
2. Lee Moves North: Antietam
a) Antietam – CSA General Lee went on the
offensive; routed Union troops in Second Battle
of Bull Run (1862)
b) Headed north into western MD; delays on the
Union side kept Lee moving towards Antietam
Creek (MD)
c) Horrible Union casualties and savage warfare
d) Battle at Antietam on September 17, 1862
remains bloodiest day in U.S. military
history:
a)4800 dead and 18,500 wounded (3000 of whom later died);
because of Lee’s retreat, Lincoln claimed a victory, but
problems continued.
3 The War in the Mississippi Valley
a) Union had success in the Midwest gaining the Tennessee
and Mississippi rivers
b) Union naval forces commanded by David G. Farragut
struck the Confederacy from the Gulf of Mexico
c) Captured the South’s financial center and largest city,
New Orleans (took control of 1500 plantations and 50,000
slaves)
d) Workers on some plantations looted their owners’
mansions)
e) Others refused to labor unless they were paid wages.
Union victories significantly undermined Confederate
strength in the Mississippi River Valley.
Consider Timothy
O’Sullivan’s image of
dead soldiers at
Antietam, Maryland.
In your opinion, what
did O’Sullivan hope to
convey to the
newspaper-reading
American public with
this and other
battlefield
photographs?
II. Toward Total War
A. Mobilizing Armies and Civilians
1.The Military Draft
a)Initially, patriotic fervor filled both armies with eager
volunteers; however, death toll discouraged enlistment and
both sides soon needed draft.
b)In April 1862, Confederate States of America imposed first
draft in U.S. history: existing soldiers would serve duration
of war, and men ages 18-35 would serve three years
(increased to age 45 in September 1862).
c)South’s draft had two controversial loopholes:
a) for every 20 slaves supplied, one white man would be
exempt;
b) secondly, men could hire substitutes.
D.) Union taxed those who refused to serve or sympathized
with the CSA
E.) suspended habeas corpus and imprisoned about 15,000
southern sympathizers without trial
F.) northerners could provide a substitute or pay a fee not to
fight
G.) Enrollment Act of 1863 in the North led to immigrants
refusing to serve
H.) New York City had draft riots (Irish and German workers)
in which black workers were lynched and harassed
I.) 1861 U.S. Sanitary Commission established in NY to aid
in the care of soldiers on the battlefield and in Union
hospitals
J.) so much death created new industries (ex: embalming)
and cultural rituals.
2. Women in Wartime
a) Approximately 200,000 women volunteered for
the Sanitary Commission and the Freedman’s
Aid Society
b) nursed family members
c) worked as paid nurses, clerks, and factory
operatives
d) Dorothea Dix named superintendent of female
nurses.
e) Women took over farm tasks; filled jobs in
schools and offices; worked as spies, scouts,
and soldiers (in disguise).
II. Toward Total War
B. Mobilizing Resources
1.Republican Economic and Fiscal Policies
a) The North’s economy was far superior to that of the South:
more output, two-thirds of railroads, and two-thirds of
population.
b) Southerners hoped to trade cotton for much needed
supplies.
c) Congress enacted a neomercantilist program of
government-assisted economic development; imposed high
tariffs, offered “free land” to farmers through the
Homestead Act (1862), closed local banks, and forced the
states/people to accept federal charters and regulations,
made plans for a transcontinental railroad.
d) Industries grew to feed/clothe the soldiers. Union spending
increased dramatically; Legal Tender Act of 1862
introduced “greenbacks” (paper currency).
2. The South Resorts to Coercion and
Inflation
a) CSA left economic matters to state
governments in the beginning
b) eventually had to build and operate shipyards,
armories, and textile mills
c) commandeered food, coal, iron, copper, and
lead; reluctant to tax slaves and cotton
d) paid 60 percent of its war costs by printing
paper money, which led to massive price
inflation and food rioting.
III. The Turning Point: 1863
A. Emancipation
1.“Contrabands”
a) Abolitionists began to demand emancipation as
part of war effort
b) slaves who escaped to Union armies called
“contrabands of war”
c) Confiscation Act of 1861: authorized seizure
of property used to support the rebellion
d) Radical Republicans worked for legislation that
would end slavery in the rebellious states and
outlaw slavery in the federal territories.
2. The Emancipation Proclamation
a) Lincoln initially rejected emancipation as a war
aim, but in August 1862, he publicly linked
black freedom with the preservation of the
Union
b) slavery could continue in those states that had
not rebelled (MD, MO) and areas occupied by
Union armies (parts of TN, western VA,
southern LA); Lincoln called emancipation an
“act of justice.”
***See document-Emancipation Proclamation
In your composition book….
• Why was the Emancipation
Proclamation ineffective?
• Why did the Confederate
States of America not have
to abide by Union laws?
III. The Turning Point: 1863
B. Vicksburg and Gettysburg
1.The Battle for the Mississippi
a) General Grant sought to split the Confederacy in two
b) achieved the surrender at Vicksburg, MS
c) took regions of Louisiana; slaves began deserting region
Gulf of Mexico.
2. Lee’s Advance and Defeat
a) Gettysburg, PA, July 1863
b) Union victory was hard won
c) after three days, there were 28,000 CSA deaths and
23,000 Union deaths
d) last effort by the CSA to invade the North; increased the
power of Republican Party and its supporters.
IV. The Union Victorious, 1864–1865
A. Soldiers and Strategy
1.The Impact of Black Troops
a) Many northern whites were initially offended by blacks
fighting for the Union.
b) Emancipation Proclamation changed public thinking on
this issue; northern whites now accepted that blacks
would fight and die for the cause.
c) In 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry’s heroic and
costly attack on Fort Wagner (SC) was critical in
changing perspective on black soldiers
d) discrimination was widespread, but changes to pay
were achieved.
2. Capable Generals Take
Command
a) General Ulysses S. Grant (March 1864)
implemented President Lincoln’s new strategy
b) Grant focused not just on battles but on
mobilization against southern society (disruption)
c) ordered two major offensives:
a) Grant personally took charge of the Army of the
Potomac and set out to destroy Lee’s forces in
Virginia
b) he ordered General William Sherman to invade
Georgia and take Atlanta.
3. Stalemate
a) Psychological toll of fighting was
enormous on both sides
b) as morale declined, soldiers
deserted
c) trench warfare and scorched-earth
campaign revealed desperation to
end the war.
IV. The Union Victorious, 1864–1865
B. The Election of 1864 and Sherman’s March
1.The National Union Party Versus the Peace Democrats
a) Republican Party supported Lincoln for reelection,
demanded the surrender of the CSA and called for end to
slavery
b) Republicans called themselves the National Union Party
c) Democrats did not want emancipation, but they were split
into two camps over war policy.
2. The Fall of Atlanta and Lincoln’s Victory
a) After taking control of Atlanta, Lincoln promised the war
would continue
b) National Union Party labeled Peace Democrats
“copperheads” (poisonous snakes)
c) Lincoln won; 1864 Maryland and Missouri changed their
state constitutions and called for emancipation.
3. William Tecumseh Sherman:
“Hard War” Warrior
a) Commanded the Union Army of the Tennessee
b) Moved South with his army, demolishing whatever
was in their path
c) many CSA soldiers were demoralized and
abandoned
d) treated as a savior by Georgia’s black population
e) issued Special Field Order No. 15, which set aside
400,000 acres for the use of freedmen
f) invaded South Carolina and met up with General
Grant in North Carolina to fight General Lee.
4. The Confederate Collapse
a) Class resentment among the CSA weakened
the Confederacy
b) desertions increased
c) Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House,
Virginia. April 9th, 1865.