The American Civil War
Some Thoughts in Survey
Dr. John Robert Greene
Paul J. Schupf Professor, History and
Humanities
Cazenovia College
By Way of Introduction…..
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30th Year…
Bachelor’s and Master’s, St.
Bonaventure University
Ph.D., Syracuse University
15 books ….articles…presentations
Most recent publications--Betty Ford:
Candor and Courage in the White
House; Profiles of an Era: The George
H.W. Bush Presidency; Profiles of an
Era: The Nixon/Ford Years
Media Pundit--Political Commentary
(PBS; MSNBC; C-SPAN; NPR; Ivory
Tower Half Hour)
Working this summer on: Profiles of
an Era: The George W. Bush
Presidency, and America in the 1960s
Chittenango, NY
The important role to the
professional historian of the
“Civil War Buff”
1. “The nation had stumbled into
armed conflict.” (
The Inevitability Thesis
 Lincoln and……
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Gallman, The North Fights the Civil War, 12
2. Fort Sumter (12-13 April 1861)
3. A Military Survey: 1861-1863
3A.”On to Richmond,” Lincoln’s Political
Problems, and the
First Battle of Bull Run (July 16-21, 1861)
3B. McClellan, the Peninsular Campaign, and
the Siege of Yorktown
3C. Farragut and the Mississippi
3D. Sam and Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862)
3e. The Apex of the Marble Man:
April-December, 1862
-The Seven Days Battle (July 1862)
-Second Bull Run (August 30, 1862)
-Antietam (September 17, 1862)
-Fredericksburg (December 11-12, 1862)
3f. 1863
Vicksburg (February-July, 1863)
3g. 1863
-Chancellorsville (May 1-6, 1863)
-Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)
4. Some Extra-Military Issues
A. The Growth of the
National State…or…
…how Salmon P.
Chase financed the
war.
B. The Two-Party System,
Democrats, and Copperheads
C. The “Draft”
“Most soldiers fought because they
wanted to; most who wished to avoid
service probably succeeded.” (Gallman, 71)
D. Photographers
Selected Civil War Photographs
Home Page
E. The Emancipation
Proclamation …
…as a military measure.
F. Women in (and by) the War
Not Heavy
industryTextiles
 Nursing
 Dorothea Dix
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5. A Military Survey:
1864--1865
5A. “Total War”
“Absolute War”
(Carl von Clausewicz, On War)
 James McPherson, Drawn With the
Sword:
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“no distinction between combatants and
non-combatants”
5B. 1864
-Grant’s Assessment of “Total War” (103)
-The Wilderness (May 8-21, 1864)
-Cold Harbor (May 30-31, 1864)
5C: 1864: Sherman’s March to the Sea
5D. 1865
-Siege of Petersburg (June, 1864-April, 1865)
-April 9, 1865—Appomattox Court House
6. Father Abraham
Your Thoughts.
6A. The Marble Monument
versus Herndon’s Lincoln
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William Herndon,
Lincoln: The true
Story of a Great Life
(1888)
Herndon: “Politics
were his life” (124)
Then….
what were his
politics?
6B. Lincoln as “Grecian Tragedy” (Richard
Hofstadter, The American Political
tradition and the Men Who Made It, 21)
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“The greatest of the Lincoln
dramatists was Lincoln
himself” (Hofstadter, 122)
6C. What He Was: The Unionist.
6D. What He was NOT.
An Abolitionist.
 Hofstadter: “moderately hostile”
to slavery (139)
 Your View on This?
6E. What he MIGHT have been, but
is very debatable…
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…a great military strategist.
6F. Lincoln’s Ambition
A given. BUT..…
 …one cannot, then, be both
humble and successful in
politics?
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6G. He was a Westerner.
Just like Jackson??
 Jacksonians—property over
liberty
 Hofstadter—Lincoln's seeing
slavery as a “menace to free
labor” (153)
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6H. The Gettysburg Address and
Lincoln's view of Liberty
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Garry Wills, Lincoln at
Gettysburg(1992)
Wills: “Lincoln was an
artist, not just a
scholar.” The
Gettysburg Address
(Library of Congress
Exhibition)
6I. Reconstruction
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Ten Percent Plan (1863; Lincoln)
Versus
Wade-Davis Bill (1864; Radical
Republicans)
 Lincoln Pocket Vetoes
 …and had he lived…..?
rgreene@cazenovia.edu
Questions?