THE CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
(Chapter 9)
What was the Civil War Like? Bad
• 4 years of warfare
• 625,000 deaths
• 650,000 wounded
• 4% of US population either killed or wounded in the war
• Total War=war on the civilian population=destruction of homes,
businesses, etc. (especially in the South)
• Draft Riots in the North
• Suspension of civil liberties like habeas corpus and freedom of
speech and the press in some areas during the war
Atlanta After Being Burned by Sherman: 1864
Battlefield Dead: Civil War
Why Fight? Motivations for the Civil War
• Southern Motivations: “We’re fightin’ for arrr rats!”
• Freedom from a government that didn’t represent their interests anymore
• Northern Motivations (early): Preserve the Union
• At the beginning of the war, the North was fighting only to preserve the
Union, keep the confederacy from leaving the country
• Northern Motivations (later): Preserve the Union and End Slavery
• After the Emancipation Proclamation and the Battle of Gettysburg (what
year?) the abolition of slavery slowly became an additional goal of the
North
• Question: Why does it matter to know or think about the
motivations for fighting the Civil War?
Strategies: North and South
• South: delay and get help from Britain and France
• As long as the South didn’t lose, they won
• Make the war as long as possible, cost as many lives for the North as
possible, North would get discouraged and give up
• Get help from Britain and France (like the Revolutionary War)
• North: Anaconda Plan
• 1-Blockade the South’s ports—no cotton out, no money, weapons, food,
etc. in
• 2-Capture the Mississippi River—cut the confederacy in half (east/west)
• 3-Capture the Confederate capital, Richmond
• Eventually two other strategies were added
• 4-Free the slaves: deprive the South of their workforce by freeing their workers
• 5-Total War: make the Southern population want to end the war by waging war
on Southern soldiers and civilians
What Happened During the War?
• Early War 1861-1862: Bad for the North, good for the South
• Northern attempts to land one knock-out blow on the South failed again
and again
• Blockade worked though—South couldn’t sell its cotton
• Turning Points 1863: Gettysburg and Vicksburg
• Gettysburg=major Union victory (largest battle of the war)
• Vicksburg=major Union victory on the Mississippi, Confederacy cut in half
• Late War 1863-1864: The North on the Offensive and Total War
• Grant (hero of Vicksburg) put in charge of Northern army
• Began attacking Richmond—incredibly bloody
• Sherman (Grant’s #2) began attacking the deep South—Total War
State of the War: 1863
Total War: Is it Moral, is it Effective?
• Sherman and Total War in Georgia
• William Tecumseh Sherman—Union general who invaded Georgia
• Total War—make the South “want” to end the war by making the war as
hard for them as possible—wage war not just on the Southern army but on
every aspect of Southern society
• Sherman marched from Tennessee to Georgia coast, destroyed everything
in his path
• Question: Was Sherman. . . ?
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A military genius?
A war criminal?
Ahead of his time?
Someone who liked war?
Someone who hated war?
What Happened During the War? (Cont.)
• End of the War 1865: The South Surrenders
• North captured Richmond after a long and bloody siege
• Southern army retreated out west, chased down by North
• Main southern army surrendered in western Virginia, Appomattox
Courthouse, April 1865
• Smaller bands of confederate soldiers all gradually surrendered by June
1865 (war over)
• Recap: Important Battles of the Civil War 1861-1865
• 1861 Fort Sumter: why important?
• 1863 Gettysburg and Vicksburg: why important?
• 1865 Appomattox
Why Did the South Lose?
Or, The Advantages and Disadvantages of North
and South
North
South
23 States (4 border states)
11 states
22 million people
9 million people (3.5 million slaves)
92.6% of Industrial Production
7.4% of industrial Production
20,000 miles of railroad
10,000 miles of railroad
90 ships in the Navy
0 ships
Produced 97% of all firearms and 96% of
all railroad equipment
Produced very little of the country’s
firearms or railroad equipment
Most banks and financial centers located
in the North (New York, Boston, etc.)
Very few major financial centers/banks
(Richmond, Charleston, New Orleans)
Invading the South, needed to conquer in Defending their homes, had to simply
order to win
survive in order to win
Very little military tradition
Very large military tradition, experienced
officers and soldiers
Effects of the war
• Emancipation for African American Slaves
• Emancipation Proclamation 1863—freed slaves in the South
• 13th Amendment—banned slavery everywhere else 1865
• Slightly improved role for African Americans in US society
• Still second class citizens, won’t have full rights of citizens until the passage
of the 14th amendment in 1868
• African Americans participated in the military-10% of all Union soldiers
• Opened up opportunities for African Americans after the war was over
• Women
• Wartime service—20,000 northern women served as military nurses, 400
actually fought in the war as soldiers (in disguise)
• Men away fighting meant women had to assume new jobs/roles
• Ex. In North Carolina before the war 7% of teachers were women, after the war over
50% were women
• Women ran farms and businesses
• In the North more jobs in wartime industries for women
Effects of the war
• Increased role of the Federal Government—increased Power
• High protective tariffs
• Federally financed transcontinental railroad (and other internal improvement
projects)
• National banking system
• Homestead Act 1862
• 1st ever income tax (abandoned once the war ended)
• 1st ever mandatory draft (abandoned once the war ended)
• Economic Boom for the North, disaster for the South
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War greatly accelerated the process of industrialization in the North
North emerged from the war more prosperous then when it entered
Southern economy/way of life destroyed
Southern per person income fell from 2/3rds of Northern income to 2/5ths by
the end of the war
• US became an urban and industrial society, rather than a rural agricultural
one
Effects of the war
• Politics: Republicans and the North in Control
• Republicans firmly in control--dominant political party until the 1930s
• Northern industrial interests dominated the national government,
government took actions to help big business and industrial interests
• One of the first “Modern Wars”
• Nation vs nation—whole populations were mobilized in the war effort
not just small groups of professional soldiers
• Industrial war—technology and increased production of the industrial
revolution could be used to aid in the war effort
• Modern technologies used on a large scale for the first time
• Telegraph, railroad, repeating rifles, machine guns, observation balloons,
ironclad ships, submarines, trench warfare
The Monitor Fights the Merrimack: First battle
between metal warships (Civil War)
WWI Battleship
CSS Hunley: First submarine (Civil War)
Inside the Hunley
WWI Submarine
Railroad Car and Mortar (Civil War)
WWI Railroad Gun
Gatling gun: first primitive machine gun (Civil
War)
WWI Machine Gun
Observation balloons (Civil War)
WWI Zeppelin bombing London