Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil War
1861-1865
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Bull Run ends the “Ninety –Day War”
1. A union army of some thirty thousand men drilled near Washington in the summer of 1861.
 It was ill-prepared for battle but the press and the public clamored for action.
 Lincoln decided to attack Bull Run (Manassas Junction)- if successful it would
demonstrate how superior they were.
 If Richmond fell, (the Confederate capital) succession would be thoroughly discredited
and the union could be resorted without damage to the economy/ social system of the
south.
2. Victory was worse than defeat in the south because it inflated an already dangerous
overconfidence.
3. Defeat was better than victory for the union because it dispelled all illusions of a one-punch war
and caused the northerners to buckle down to the staggering task at hand.
 It sets the stage for a war that would be waged for the abolitionist ideal of emancipation.
Tardy George McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
1. 1861- General George B. McClellan took command of the army of Potomac. He was dubbed
“Young Napoleon”.
 He was a suburb organizer and drillmaster, but was a perfectionist that wasted a lot of
time trying to make an impossibly perfect army.
2. The song of the hour was “tardy George” (McClellan). After threatening to “borrow” the army if it
was not going to be used, Lincoln finally issued firm orders to advance.
3. Peninsula Campaign was McClellan’s filed attempt to seize Richmond.
 If he had succeeded in taking Richmond and ended the war in mid 1862- the union would
probably have been restored but slavery would have survived.
The war at Sea
1. The blockade started slowly; it was not clamped down all at once but was extended by degrees.
2. Britain, the greatest maritime nation, recognized the blockade as binding and warned its shippers
to ignore it at their peril.
3. Blockade running was risky but profitable.
4. The Northern navy enforced the blockade with high handed practices.
 Yankee captains would seize British freighters on the high sea if laden with war supplies
for the port of Nassau.
5. The most alarming Confederate threat to the blockade came in 1862.
 Resourceful southerners raised and reconstructed a former wooden U.S. warship. The
Merrimack, and plated its sides with old iron railroad rails.
 The Monitor (from the union) arrived on the scene to fight and then destroy the
Merrimack.
The Pivotal Point: Antietam
1. Robert E. Lee broke the back of McClellan’s assault on Richmond then he moved northward.
Emboldened by this success, Lee daringly thrust into Maryland.
 Events finally converged toward a critical battle at Antietam Creek, Maryland.
2. Lincoln restored McClellan.
 His union soldiers found a copy of Lee’s battle plans wrapped around a packet of three
cigars, dropped by a careless confederate officer.
 He succeeded in halting Lee at Antietam on September 17 th, 1862 in one of the bitterest
and bloodiest days of the war.
3. Bloody Antietam was the long awaited “victory” that Lincoln needed for launching his
Emancipation Proclamation.
 By midsummer of 1862, with the Border States safely in the fold, Lincoln was ready to
move. The halting of Lee’s offensive was just enough of a victory to justify Lincoln’s
issuing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
V.
A Proclamation without Emancipation
1. Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation declared “forever free” the slaves in those confederate areas
still in rebellion.
2. The presidential pen did not formally strike the shackles from a single slave.
 Where Lincoln could presumably free the slaves – in the loyal border states- he refused to
do so, lest he spur even more disunion. But where he couldn’t- The confederate states- he
tried to anyways.
 By his proclamation he addressed the refugee’s plight and strengthened the moral cause
of the union at home and abroad. He also removed any chance of a negotiated settlement
VI.
Black’s Battle Bondage
1. The army contained no blacks at the beginning of the war but manpower ran low, emancipation was
proclaimed and black enlistees were accepted.
 They were accounted for about 10% of total enlistment.
2. Weren’t considered prisoners of war until 1864 by the south and were usually put to death.
3. The confederacy didn’t enlist black slaves until 1 month before he war but it was too late.
 Slaves tried to diminish productivity by revolts, slowdowns and disobedience.
VII.
Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
1. Lincoln replaced McClellan with General A.E. Burnsides as commander of the army.
 He proved unfit for the job when he launched a rash frontal attack where there were more than
10,000 killed or wounded.
2. Joseph Hooker took control next but was attacked by Lee’s army that had split into two.
 “Stonewall” Jackson was killed by his own side accidentally.
 Lee was ready to invade the north again.
3. George G. Meade replaced Hooker and took over a new battle near Gettysburg.
 The union won and from now on the south was doomed.
4. Lincoln went to Gettysburg and gave a two minute speech that wasn’t given much attention to at the time.
VIII. The War in the West
1. Finally the Union found a good general with Ulysses S. Grant
 He had been a heavy drinker with many failed attempts at businesses.
 His first triumph was at fort Henry and fort Donelson in Tennessee
 Lincoln resisted all demands for removal of Grant, there was no evidence that Grant’s drinking
habits seriously impaired him.
2. Union victory at Vicksburg Mississippi, the city surrendered on July 4 th 1863
 The union’s victory stopped any possible help to the south from France and Britain.
IX. Sherman scorches Georgia
1. General Grant won the battle at Chattanooga and Tennessee was cleared of confederates.
 He was made the General in Chief.
2. General William Tecumseh Sherman captured Atlanta and then burned it.
 Destroyed railroads, buildings and valuables to weaken the confederate army and destroy supplies
 His methods were brutal and “Sherman the Brute” was damned in the south.
3. Sherman seized Savannah and marched to South Carolina.
X. The Politics of War
1. The election of 1864 fell in the midst of war.
 The congressional committee on the conduct of war was burdensome- kept pressing on emancipation
2. Most dangerous to the union were the northern democrats
 Their leader-Stephen A. Douglas had died and democrats were divided between the “war democrats”
who supported Lincoln but the peace democrats didn’t.
 The most extreme were the copperheads who were against the union, emancipation, the war and the
draft.
XI. The Election of 1864
1. Fearing defeat the Republicans Joined with war democrats and called themselves the union party.
 Lincoln was re-nominated, but there was some opposition. His running mate was Andrew
Johnson to attract more voters.
2. The copperheads and other democrats nominated the war hero General McClellan.
3. As the war victories mounted, Lincoln pulled through.
XII. Grant outlasts Lee
1. President Lincoln chose General Grant to lead the assault in the confederate capital- Richmond
 His personal motto was, “when in doubt, fight”.
 With 100000 men he engaged Lee in lots of battles in the Virginia wilderness; this was called the
“wilderness campaign”.
2. June 3rd, 1864 Grant ordered a frontal assault where 7000 men were killed in only a few minutes.
 Critics cried that Grant had gone insane but it was actually Lee who had chosen the battle grounds.
3. In February the confederates tried to negotiate for peace between the two countries.
 Lincoln met with a confederate representative to discuss peace terms but he would accept nothing
short of union between both countries and emancipation while the southerners could accept
nothing short of independence.
4. The union cornered the confederates at Appomattox courthouse in Virginia and granted them generous
surrender terms.
 Grant said “The war is over the rebels are our countrymen again”.
XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
1. On April 4th, 1865 only 5 days after Lee’s surrender a half crazed, pro-southern actor- John Wilkes Booth
shot Lincoln in the head at Ford Theater.
2. His dramatic death helped erase the memories of his flaws and made his noble side clearer.
3. At first the south cheered at his death but then realized that their treatment would have been better with
kindhearted Lincoln
4. Andrew Johnson took over as president, was disliked and wasn’t as tactful as Lincoln
XIV. The Aftermath of the Nightmare
1. The Civil war took a huge toll, claimed 600,000 men’s lives.
 The cream of young manhood and leadership was lost and not many babies were made,
2. The war cost over $15 billion
3. English reform bill- Britain became a true political democracy inspired by the US