Civil War
United States I
Secession
• Dec 1860-S.C. leaves Union
• Followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas
• Convention—Montgomery, Alabama
• Jefferson Davis-president
• Determined, decisive minority seized
control
Buchanan Fails
• In period between November and March,
President Buchanan does nothing.
• Crittenden Proposal—last gasp at
compromise
– Unamendable constitutional amendment
• Initially, President-elect Lincoln did not see
war as inevitable
• Walked tightrope—tried to be conciliatory
– Avoid alienating border states
• Unrealistic belief that “hotheads” would
lose control.
• South fires first shot over Ft. Sumter
– Charleston harbor
– Fort forced to surrender
• Lincoln declares insurrection exists in
South and calls up 75,000 troops
• Virginia, N. Carolina, Tennessee and
Arkansas soon join Confederacy
• War begins!
Mythology surrounding War
• Mental Images?
• What do you think of when American Civil
War is mentioned?
Typical Mythology
• North’s triumph was seen as inevitable
• South was fighting a romantic lost cause
– Doomed from the start
Tale of the Tape
• Almost all statistical comparisons favored
the North
• Population 22 million vs. 9 million
• Industrial production, railroad mileage and
financial resources the North far
outstripped the south.
Reality
• Military situation was far from clear-cut
• South:
– Large captive labor force
• 80% mobilization of military-aged white males
– Defensive fight on familiar territory
– Few understood changes in technology
– More experienced military leaders
Union’s task
• To restore union, it had a major task
– Invade and conquer area larger than Western
Europe.
• Confederate troops were highly motivated
– Defending homes and families
• Southern armies could lose most of the
battles and still win the war
– Remember American Revolution!!!
Both sides unprepared for war
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No national railroad system
No organized banking system
No tax system to support war
Few accurate maps
• Both sides need to make major societal
changes to feed, arm and supply massive
armies
Northern Plan
• Anaconda Plan
– Slowly squeeze south with blockage at sea
and on river systems
– Unable to initially enforce
– Eraly generals were too timid
• George McClellan
Southern Plan
• Fight a defensive war but carefully select
where to fight the battles
• Convince British and French to join war or
change Northern opinion against war
Early Stages of War
• Early battles in the East consistently go in the
South’s favor.
• Important Southern victories at:
– Bull Run I and II
– Fredericksburg
– Chancellorsville
• West has series of important Union victories
– Able to seize control of important rivers of the region
Behind Confederate Lines
• Southern devotion to states’ rights and
individual liberty conflicted with needs of
wartime.
– Finance—taxation
– Limited manufacturing
– Foreign Policy—”King Cotton Diplomacy”
• British relations
Question of slavery
• At beginning of war, Lincoln promised to restore
union
– Maintain slavery where it existed
• As war progressed, shift in view
• Means of saving the union
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Slave labor helping South
Lagging morale needed a lift
Public opinion moving in that direction
Reduced change of Britain and France joining war
Emancipation Proclamation
• Sept 1862
• All slaves in areas of rebellion were free.
• Did not apply to border states and areas
already under Union control.
• Important 1st step in the end of slavery in
the nation.
Raising an Army
• Mobilization is haphazard
• Units often formed on community and
ethnic lines
• Confederacy was 1st to turn to conscription
– By 1864—covered men 17 to 50
– Loopholes--substitute or cash
• Union begins in 1863
– Draft riots in 1863 in NYC
Tide turning for the North
• Two key victories in July 1863
– Gettysburg-East
– Vicksburg-West
• North beginning to break invincible image
of Confederate armies.
• 1st total war
• Grant and Sherman
– Grind the South down with sheer numbers
and resources
– Take the war to the people of the south
– Maximum damage on the fabric of the South
• 1864—March through Georgia
– Living off the land
Anti-war Sentiments in the North
• Peace Democrats—flirted with outright
disloyalty to Union
– Clement Vallandigham (Copperheads)
– Election of 1864—George McClellan
…And the South
• Food Riots
– Lower classes especially felt the pressure of
shortages, inflation
• Desertions
– Increased as conditions at home deteriorated
• North strangles South to death
– Numerical advantages begin to take their toll.
– Siege at Richmond and Petersburg
• Lee surrenders his army on April 9, 1865
– Discourages potential guerilla actions
• Lincoln assassinated by Confederate
sympathizer.