Chapter 14*:
The Civil War,
1861-1865
I. The Secession Crisis
II. The Mobilization of the North
III. The Mobilization of the South
IV. Strategy and Diplomacy
V. Campaigns and Battles
Alan Brinkley. The Unfinished
Nation. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
The Secession Crisis
Nationalism" – the fireeaters began to demand an end to the
Union after Lincoln’s election as
president
 "Southern
The Secession Crisis:
Withdrawal of the South
 South
Carolina called a special
convention, which voted unanimously
to secede on December 20, 1860,
Mississippi (1/9/1861), Florida
(1/10/1861), Alabama (1/11/1861),
Georgia (1/19/1861), Louisiana
(1/26/1861), and Texas (2/1/1861) had all
seceded by the time Lincoln took office
The Secession Crisis

In February 1861 representatives of the
seven seceded states met in Montgomery,
Alabama to form the Confederate States of
America, sent commissioners to Washington
to ask for the surrender of Sumter; instead
Buchanan ordered a ship of supplies to be
carried to Fort Sumter, Confederate cannons
opened fire on the ship and turned it back,
the first shots between North and South had
been fired
The Process of Secession
The Secession Crisis: The
Failure of Compromise

Crittenden Compromise (proposed by John
J. Crittenden of Kentucky) called for several
Constitutional amendments, which would
guarantee the permanent existence of
slavery in the slave states, reestablish the
Missouri Compromise line in all present and
future territory of the US, keep in place the
Fugitive Slave Law, and protect slavery in
Washington DC, Republicans opposed it
since it would allow slavery to expand
The Secession Crisis

Lincoln’s Inaugural Address – no state could
leave the Union since it was older than the
Constitution, the government would "hold,
occupy and possess" federal property in the
seceded states (Fort Sumter), Lincoln sent a
relief expedition to Fort Sumter explaining to
South Carolina that there would be no
attempt to send troops or munitions unless
the supply ships met with resistance
The Secession Crisis
 Confederate
reaction was to order
General P.G.T. Beauregard to take the
island by force if necessary, Anderson
surrendered after two days of
bombardment (April 12 – 13, 1861) the
Civil War had begun
Reactions:

CSA Sec of State Robert Toombs: warned that
firing on Ft. Sumter would “inaugurate a civil war
greater than any the world has yet seen…You
will wantonly strike a hornet’s nest which
extends from the mountains to the oceans, and
legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to
death. It is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong;
it is fatal.”
 Ralph Waldo Emerson: “…the attack on Fort
Sumter crystallized the north into a unit and the
hope of mankind was saved.”
The Secession Crisis
 Virginia
(4/17/1861), Arkansas
(5/6/1861), Tennessee (6/8/1861), and
North Carolina (5/20/1861) seceded
after the fall of Fort Sumter
The Secession Crisis
 Maryland,
Delaware, Kentucky,
Missouri cast their lot with the Union
under heavy political and military
pressure from Washington DC
The Secession Crisis
Waldo Emerson – “I do not see
how a barbarous community and
civilized community can constitute one
state”
 Ralph
The Secession Crisis
Slaveowner – “These
[Northern] people hate us, annoy us,
and would have us assassinated by our
slaves if they dared. They are a
different people from us, whether better
or worse, and there is no love between
us. Why then continue together?”
 Anonymous
The Secession Crisis: The
Opposing Sides

Northern Advantages – population more then twice
as large as the South (four times as large as the nonslave population) which allowed for more manpower
in the army and more workers/farmers for wartime
production, an advanced industrial system that
allowed the North to manufacture almost all of its
war materials, while the South had to rely on imports
from Europe for most of its material, a better
transportation system with twice as much railroad
trackage as the South and a much better integrated
system of railroad lines
The Secession Crisis

Southern Advantages – fighting was on their own
land with local support and familiarity with the
territory, inadequate transportation for the army of
the North with long lines of communication among a
hostile population, the population of the South
clearly supported the war whereas support for the
war in the North was divided and unsteady, the
South believed that foreign dependence on Southern
cotton production would force England and France
to intervene on the side of the Confederacy
Union and Confederate Resources
Mobilization of the North
 The
Republican Party enacted an
aggressively nationalistic
program to promote economic
development, especially in the
West
Mobilization of the North:
Economic Measures
 Homestead
Act of 1862 –
permitted any citizen or
prospective citizen to claim 160
acres of public land and to
purchase it for a small fee after
living on it for 5 years
Mobilization of the North
 Morrill
Land Grant Act –
transferred substantial public
acreage to the state
governments which were to sell
the land and use proceeds to
finance public education, this
created new state colleges,
universities
Mobilization of the North

Raised tariffs to all time high,
incorporated two federally chartered
corporations (the Union Pacific
Railroad Company – build westward
from Omaha and the Central Pacific
Railroad Company – build eastward
from California) to work on the
completion of the Transcontinental
Railroad, each company was provided
free public lands and generous loans
to complete the project
Mobilization of the North

National Bank Acts of 1863 – 1864
created a new national banking
system, in which existing banks could
join the system if they had enough
capital and were willing to invest
1/3rd of it in government securities,
this system allowed member banks to
issue U.S. Treasury notes as currency
which eliminated much of the chaos
and uncertainty in the nations
currency and created a uniform
system of national bank notes
Mobilization of the North

Financing the war – levied taxes,
issuing paper currency and
borrowing, Congress levied an income
tax for the first time (10% on
incomes over $5,000), Greenbacks
were paper currency, backed not by
gold or silver but by good faith and
credit of the government (in 1864 the
Greenback dollar was worth 39% of a
gold dollar
Mobilization of the North

At the end of the war the Greenback
was worth 67% of a gold dollar), the
government only issued $450 million
worth of paper currency during the
whole war which resulted in inflation,
the Treasury persuaded ordinary
citizens to buy over 400 million worth
of bonds – first example of mass
financing, the total cost of the war
was $2.6 billion which was mostly
financed by banks and large financial
interests
Mobilization of the North:
Raising Union Armies
 In
1861 the U.S. Army consisted
of 16,000 troops, mostly
stationed in the West to protect
settlers from Indians, Lincoln
called for an increase of 23,000
in the regular army, Congress
authorized enlisting 500,000
volunteers for three-year terms,
after an initial rise in enlistments
they gradually began to decline
Mobilization of the North
 In
1863 Congress was forced to
pass National Draft Law, virtually
all adult males were eligible to
be drafted but a man could
escape service by hiring
someone to go in his place or by
paying the government a fee of
$300
Mobilization of the North:
Wartime Politics

Opposition to the draft was widespread
among laborers, and immigrants, a draft riot
broke out in New York City in 1863 and Irish
workers were at the center of the violence
(they were angry that black strikebreakers
has been used against them in a recent
longshoreman’s strike), the Irish blamed the
African Americans for the war and thought
the war was being fought for the benefit of
slaves who would be competing with white
workers for jobs
Mobilization of the North
 Peace
Democrats (Copperheads)
were opposed to the war, feared
that agriculture and the
northwest were losing influence
to the rise of big industry and the
East, and that Republican
Nationalism was eroding states’
rights
Mobilization of the North
 Lincoln
assembled a cabinet
representing every faction of the
Republican Party, sent troops
into battle (it was a domestic
insurrection not a war) without
asking Congress, increased the
size of the regular army without
receiving legislative authority,
unilaterally proclaimed a naval
blockade of the south
Mobilization of the North

Lincoln’s greatest political problem was the
widespread popular opposition to the war
mobilized by the Peace Democrats, so he
ordered military arrests of civilian
dissenters and suspended the rights of
habeas corpus (the right of an arrested
person to a speedy, public trial), at first this
was only used in the border states, but in
1862 Lincoln proclaimed that all persons
who discouraged enlistments or engaged in
disloyal practices were subject to martial
law
Mobilization of the North

In all more than 13,000 people were
arrested and imprisoned for varying
lengths of time, the most prominent
Copperhead (Clement L.
Vallandingham, a member of
Congress from Ohio) was seized by
military authorities and exiled to the
Confederacy after he made a speech
claiming that the purpose of the war
was to free the blacks and enslave the
whites
Mobilization of the North

Lincoln also defied the Supreme
Court, Chief Justice Taney issued a
writ in the case Ex Parte Merryman
requiring Lincoln to release an
imprisoned secessionist leader from
Maryland – Lincoln simply ignored the
writ, after the war in 1866 the
Supreme Court ruled in Ex Parte
Milligan that military trials in areas
where the civil courts existed were
unconstitutional
Mobilization of the North

The Election of 1864 took place amongst
considerable political dissension, the
Republicans had suffered heavy losses in
the Congressional elections of 1862, and in
response Republican leaders combined all
the groups that supported the war into the
Union Party and nominated Lincoln for
president, Andrew Johnson (a war Democrat
from Tennessee who opposed his state's
decision for seceding) for vice president.
Mobilization of the North

The Democrats nominated George B.
McClellan, a celebrated former Union
general who had been relieved of his
command by Lincoln, adopted a
platform of denouncing the war and
calling for a truce (the Democrats
were clearly the peace party in the
campaign), tried to profit from
growing war weariness and from
Union's discouraging military position
in the summer of 1864
Mobilization of the North

Lincoln won the election of 1864 by a
vote of 212 – 21 in the Electoral
College but only by 10% in the
popular vote, his victory was largely
due to Northern military victories (the
capture of Atlanta rejuvenated
Northern morale and boosted
Republican prospects in the election)
and the fact that Lincoln made special
arrangements to allow Union troops
to vote
Sherman’s March to the Sea
Mobilization of the North: The
Politics of Emancipation
 Radical
Republicans – Thaddeus
Stevens (PA), Charles Sumner
(MA), and Benjamin Wade (OH)
wanted to use the war to abolish
slavery immediately and
completely
Mobilization of the North
 Conservative
Republicans –
favored slower, more gradual,
and less disruptive processes of
ending slavery, Lincoln embraced
a cautious view on emancipation
Mobilization of the North
 Confiscation
Act (1861) –
declared all slaves used for
“insurrectionary” purposes (in
support of the Confederate
military effort) would be
considered freed
Mobilization of the North
 Subsequent
laws in the Spring of
1862 abolished slavery in
Washington DC and the western
territories, provided
compensation for owners who
freed their slaves
Mobilization of the North
 Second
Confiscation Act (July
1862) declared free the slaves of
persons aiding and supporting
the insurrection (whether or not
the slaves themselves were
doing so) and authorized the
President to employ African
Americans, including freed
slaves, as soldiers
African-American Troops
Mobilization of the North
 Most
of the North slowly accepts
emancipation as a central war
aim in order to justify the
tremendous sacrifices that were
being made to win the war
Mobilization of the North

Emancipation Proclamation – after the Union
victory at Antietam in September 1862,
Lincoln announced that he would use his
war powers to issue an executive order (to
take effect on January 1, 1863) declaring
forever free slaves in all areas of the
Confederacy except those under Union
control (Tennessee, western Virginia, and
southern Louisiana), the Emancipation
Proclamation did not apply to the border
states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and
Delaware,
Mobilization of the North

The immediate effect of the
Proclamation was limited since it only
applied to slaves still under
Confederate control, but it was very
significant because it showed that the
war was being fought not only to
preserve the union but also to
eliminate slavery, eventually the
Proclamation became a practical
reality and freed thousands of slaves
Mobilization of the North
 By
the end of the war Missouri,
Maryland, Tennessee, Arkansas,
and Louisiana had abolished
slavery, and the final step came
in 1865 when Congress approved
and enough states ratified the
13th Amendment, which
abolished slavery as an
institution in all parts of the
United States
Mobilization of the North

In the first months of the Civil War
blacks were not allowed to serve in
the Union army, there were a few
black regiments that did serve, but
after the Emancipation Proclamation
was issued black enlistment increased
rapidly with 186,000 men eventually
serving in the Union army
Mobilization of the North

Some black regiments were fighting
units (the 54th Massachusetts) with
white commanding officers, but most
black soldiers received menial tasks
behind the lines, black mortality rate
was higher than the rate for white
soldiers because many died from
disease while working in unsanitary
conditions
Mobilization of the North

African American soldiers were paid
1/3rd less than white soldiers (until
the law was changed in 1864), and if
African American soldiers were
captured by the Confederate army
they were either returned to slavery
or executed (at Fort Pillow in
Tennessee 260 African American
soldiers were executed after
surrendering)
Mobilization of the North: The
War and Economic
Development

The Civil War did not industrialize the
North, that had already been
occurring, and in some instance the
war hurt the economic development
of the North by cutting manufacturers
off from their southern markets and
sources of raw materials, also by
diverting needed labor and resources
to military purposes
Mobilization of the North

The Civil War helped the economic
development of the North in some
ways as well, coal production
increased by nearly 20%, railroad
facilities improved through the
adoption of a standard gauge on new
lines being built, the loss of farm
labor forced many farmers to increase
the mechanization of agriculture as
more workers left the farms to fight
in the war
Mobilization of the North

Prices rose by 70% during the war while
wages only rose by 40%, which resulted in
a dramatic loss of purchasing power for
laborers in the North, liberalized
immigration laws allowed a flood of new
workers into the labor market and helped
keep wages low, increasing mechanization
meant that many skilled workers lost their
jobs, this economic environment saw the
first national unions being formed (coal
miners, railroad engineers, and others) and
being bitterly opposed and suppressed by
employers
Mobilization of the North:
Women, Nursing, and the War

Women were thrust into new and
unfamiliar roles during the Civil War,
they took over positions vacated by
men and worked as teachers, retail
clerks, office workers, mill/factory
hands, responding not only to the
demand for labor but also to their
own economic needs, above all
women entered nursing (a field
previously dominated by men)
Mobilization of the North

Dorothea Dix as a member of the U.S.
Sanitary Commission mobilized large
numbers of female nurses to serve in field
hospitals, by the end of the 1800’s nursing
would become an almost entirely female
profession, male doctors during the Civil
War objected to working with female nurses
but women argued that nursing fell within
their appropriate roles since it was a
nurturing and caring profession similar to
the roles they already played as wives and
mothers.
Mobilization of the North
 Eventually
female nurses will
stand up to doctors they feel are
incompetent and challenge the
dominant role of males in
medical professions
Mobilization of the North
 Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony found the
National Woman’s Loyal League
in 1863 worked simultaneously
for the abolition of slavery and
the awarding of suffrage to
women
Mobilization of the North

Clara Barton (who would go on to
form the American Red Cross) said in
1888 “At the war’s end, woman was
at least 50 years in advance of the
normal position which continued
peace would have assigned her.”
Many women looked back on the Civil
War as a crucial moment in the
redefinition of female roles and in the
awakening of a sense of
independence and new possibilities
Mobilization of the North
 Despite
all of the improvements
in nursing and sanitation twice
as many men died of diseases
(malaria, dysentery, typhoid,
gangrene and others) as died in
combat
The Mobilization of the South
 Government
of the
Confederacy was
moved to
Richmond
following the
secession of
Virginia
The Mobilization of the South:
Confederate Government
 The
Confederate Constitution was
almost identical to the Constitution of
US but it did have some notable
exceptions, it acknowledged the
sovereignty of individual states
(although not the right to secession), it
specifically sanctioned slavery and
made abolition practically impossible
The Mobilization of the South
 Jefferson
Davis was elected President,
Alexander Stephens was elected Vice
President without opposition to a sixyear term, Davis was a moderate
secessionist and Stevens actually
argued against secession, the
Confederate government much like the
Union government would be dominated
by moderates throughout the war
The Mobilization of the South
 Jefferson
Davis was a reasonably able
administrator, he encountered
relatively little interference from his
cabinet, he served as his own Secretary
of War, but he rarely provided
genuinely national leadership, he spent
too much time on routine items
The Mobilization of the South
 There
were no formal political parties in
the Confederacy, but the congressional
and popular politics were filled with
dissension, some white southerners
opposed secession and the war
altogether
The Mobilization of the South
 Many
whites in the “backcountry” and
“upcountry” regions refused to
recognize the new Confederate
government or to serve in the
Confederate army, they began to be
more openly critical as the course of
the war turned against the Confederacy
The Mobilization of the South:
Money and Manpower

Financing the Confederate war effort was a
monumental and ultimately impossible task.
The Confederacy faced significant economic
challenges since they were unaccustomed to
significant tax burdens, it depended on a
small and unstable banking system that had
little capital to lend (most wealth was tied up
in slaves and land therefore was not liquid),
the only specie in the South was seized from
U.S.
 Mints located there and was only worth
about $1 million
The Mobilization of the South

The Confederate congress tried not to tax the
people directly instead requisitioned funds
from individual states, most states were
unwilling to tax their citizens and paid their
shares (when they paid them at all) with
bonds or dubious notes, eventually had to
pass an income tax in 1863 which could be
paid by farmers "in kind" or with produce
(the income tax only raised about 1% of the
total costs of the war),
The Mobilization of the South
 The
Confederate government issued
bonds in such great quantities that the
public lost faith in them and stopped
buying them, and attempts to borrow
money from Europe using cotton as
collateral did not work out much better
The Mobilization of the South

As a result, the Confederacy began issuing paper
currency in 1861 (which is the least financially stable
of the financing methods available to them), by 1864
the Confederate government had issued $1.5 billion
in paper money, but did not establish a uniform
system of currency, the national government, states,
cities, and private banks all issued their own bank
notes, produced widespread chaos, and confusion,
resulted in disastrous inflation (prices rose 9,000%
over the course of the war)
The Mobilization of the South
 The
Confederacy began the war by
calling for volunteers to serve in the
army but by the end of 1861 the number
of volunteers was declining,
The Mobilization of the South
Act of 1862 – all white
males between 18-35 were drafted for 3
years of military service, could avoid
service with a substitute and exempted
one white man for every 20 slaves he
owned, poor white southerners
objected to the draft so much so that it
was repealed in 1863, “It’s a rich man’s
war, but a poor man’s fight”
 Conscription
The Mobilization of the South

Slaves were used by the Confederate military
for manual labor, cooking, laundry, and other
menial tasks freeing up white men to fight in
the war, even so they faced a serious
manpower shortage, in 1864 the draft
expanded to include 17 year-olds and
increased the eligible age of service to 50
years-old, by 1865 there were 100,000
desertions prompting the Confederate
congress to draft 300,000 slaves into military
service
The Mobilization of the South:
States’ Rights vs. Centralization

State's Rights enthusiasts obstructed the
conduct of war, they did not like answering
to any national authority, restricted Davis's
ability to impose martial law and suspend
habeas corpus, obstructed conscription,
recalcitrant governors (Joseph Brown in
Georgia, and Zebulon Vance in North
Carolina) tried to keep their own troops apart
from Confederate forces and insisted on
hoarding surplus supplies for their own
states’
The Mobilization of the South
 The
Confederate government enacted a
"food draft" which allowed soldiers to
feed themselves by seizing crops from
farms in their path, impressed slaves
over the objections of their owners to
work as laborers on military projects,
seized control of railroads and
shipping, imposed regulations on
industry, limited corporate profits
The Mobilization of the South:
Economic and Social Effects of
the War
 The
Civil War had devastating
economic effects on the South, it cut
off planters and producers from
markets in the North on which they
depended, it made the sale of cotton
overseas much more difficult, the war
robbed farms and industry of
necessary labor, southern production
declines by 1/3rd during the Civil War
The Mobilization of the South
 Almost
all battles occurred in
Confederacy, railroads destroyed, farm
land ruined, the North’s naval blockade
was so effective that by the end of the
war the South experienced massive
shortages of almost everything (most
devastating was food and medical care)
The Mobilization of the South
 Increasing
instability in Southern
society caused major food riots in
Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and
Richmond, resistance to conscription,
food impressments, and taxation
increased throughout the Confederacy,
hoarding was common and the black
market thrived
The Mobilization of the South
 While
the men were off fighting women
had to run the farms, manage the
slaves, plow fields, harvest crops,
some women worked for the
government in Richmond, others
became nurses or school teachers
The Mobilization of the South
 Women
began to question assumptions
that they were unsuitable for certain
activities, that they were not fit to
participate actively in the public
sphere, the war created a gender
imbalance – woman had no choice but
to find employment (no men left to be
the head of household)
The Mobilization of the South

Confederate leaders were terrified of slave
revolts during the Civil War so they enforced
the slave codes and other regulations with
particular severity, nonetheless many slaves
managed to escape and get to the Union
army in search of freedom, those that did not
escape were certainly resistant to the
authority that was left on the farms and
plantations
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Militarily,
the initiative
in the Civil War lay
with the North since it
needed to defeat the
Confederacy while the
South needed only to
avoid defeat
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Diplomatically,
the initiative
in the Civil War lay with the
South since it needed to enlist
the recognition and support
of foreign governments while
the North wanted only to
preserve the status quo
Strategy and Diplomacy:
The Commanders
 Lincoln’s
realized that numbers
and resources were on his side
and he could take advantage of
the North’s material advantages,
his objectives for the North’s
armies were the destruction of
the Confederate armies, not the
occupation of Southern territory
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Lincoln
first assigned Winfield
Scott as commanding general,
later replaced by McClellan, and
finally found an able general in
Grant in 1864
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Lincoln’s
handling of the war effort
was constantly scrutinized by the
Committee on the Conduct of the
War, which was led by Benjamin
Wade (OH) and it complained
constantly of the insufficient
ruthlessness of Northern generals,
Radicals on the committee believed
that there was a secret sympathy
among the officers for slavery,
often got in the way
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Early
in 1862 Jefferson Davis
named Robert E. Lee as his
principal military adviser, but Lee
quickly left Richmond to lead the
army in the field and Davis
planned military strategy alone
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Many
of the officers on both
sides were graduates of West
Point and Annapolis, were
closely acquainted and in some
cases friendly with their
counterparts on the other side
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Grant
and Sherman were able to
see beyond their academic
training and envision a new kind
of warfare in which destruction
of resources was as important as
battlefield tactics
Strategy and Diplomacy: The
Role of Sea Power
 Union
had an overwhelming
advantage in naval power and
was able to enforce the blockade
of the Southern coast, and
assisted Union armies in field
operations
Strategy and Diplomacy
 The
blockade was never fully
effective but it did have a major
impact on the southern economy,
keeping most ocean going ships
out of southern ports, some
blockade runners got through
but not enough to help the
economy of the South
Strategy and Diplomacy

The South placed iron plating on the hull
of the captured U.S. frigate Merrimac
(the Confederates renamed it the
Virginia), the Virginia left Norfolk in
1862 to attack a blockading squadron of
wooden ships at Hampton Roads, it
destroyed two ships and scattered the
rest, the next day, the Monitor arrived in
Hampton Roads and put an end to the
Virginia’s raids and preserved the
blockade, neither ship could sink the
other
The
Virginia
Theater,
18611863
Strategy and Diplomacy
 The
Confederacy experimented
with small torpedo boats and
hand powered submarines, in
addition the iron-clad Virginia,
but nothing was able to break
the blockade
Strategy and Diplomacy
 The
Union navy was particularly
important in the Western theater
of the war, specifically along the
Mississippi River, where the navy
could transport troops and
supplies to assist the army in
attacking fixed Confederate land
positions
Strategy and Diplomacy: Europe
and the Disunited States

Charles Francis Adams was the
American foreign minister to London,
at the beginning of the war England
and France were sympathetic to the
Confederacy since they imported
much of their cotton from the South
and were eager to weaken the US
(who was rapidly becoming an
economic rival of England), but
France was unwilling to intervene
unless England did so first
Strategy and Diplomacy
 English
liberals considered the
war a struggle between the free
and slave labor, urged their
followers to support the Union
cause, workers who were limited
in their voting rights expressed
sympathy for the North,
especially after the Emancipation
Proclamation
Strategy and Diplomacy
 King
Cotton Diplomacy – the
South argued that access to
Southern cotton was vital to the
England and French textile
industries – failed, English had
surplus of cotton, which was
imported from Egypt, India, and
other sources instead, and no
European nation offered
diplomatic recognition to the
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Neutrality
implied that the two
sides to the conflict had equal
stature, but the Union insisted
that the conflict was a domestic
insurrection, not a war between
two legitimate governments
Strategy and Diplomacy

Trent Affair – two confederate
diplomats slipped through the Union
blockade to Havana, boarded an
English steamer (the Trent) for
England, the San Jacinto stopped the
British vessel and arrested the
diplomats which was a clear violation
of maritime law, eventually the
diplomats were released with an
indirect apology
Strategy and Diplomacy
 The
Confederacy buys six ships
(commerce destroyers) from
British shipyards (the Alabama,
the Florida, the Shenandoah)
which the Union protests is a
violation of neutrality (arming a
belligerent)
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Except
for Texas, which joined
the confederacy, all the western
states and territories remained
officially loyal to the Union,
southerners and southern
sympathizers were active trying
to encourage secession in the
West, attempting to enlist white
settlers and Indian tribes to
support the Confederacy
Strategy and Diplomacy

There was vicious fighting in Kansas
and Missouri, William C. Quantrill
became a captain in the Confederate
army, organized a group of guerilla
fighters and terrorized the KansasMissouri border, Quantrill’s band of
fighters were particularly vicious and
were notorious for killing all in their
path, they killed 150 men, women,
and children in Lawrence, Kansas
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Jayhawkers
were Union
sympathizers in Kansas who
crossed into Missouri and
exacted reprisals for actions of
Quantrill and Confederate
guerillas in Kansas, one Jayhawk
unit was commanded by John
Brown’s son and another by
Susan B. Anthony’s brother
Strategy and Diplomacy
 The
border areas of Kansas and
Missouri were among the
bloodiest and most terrorized
places in the U.S. during the Civil
War
Strategy and Diplomacy
 Confederate
agents attempted to
negotiate alliances with the Five
Civilized Tribes, but the Indians
supported the North due to
general hostility to slavery,
Indian regiments fought for both
sides
Campaigns and Battles
There were was no foreign intervention.
Americans, four long years of bloody combat produced more
carnage than any other war in American history, before or since.
More than 618,000 Americans died in the course of the Civil War,
far more than the 115,000 who perished in WWI or the v318,000
who died in WWII—more, indeed, than died in all other American
wars prior to Vietnam combined.
For every 100,000 people in the population:
In the Civil War, 2,000 died.
In WWI, the number was 109.
In WWII, the number was 241.
CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES
July 1861-July 1862
VIRGINIA THEATER
1863
August-December 1862
Campaigns and Battles:
The Opening Clashes, 1861
The Union and Confederacy fought their first major
battle of the war in northern Virginia. A Union army
of over 30K under the command of General Irvin
McDowell was stationed just outside Washington.
About 30 miles away, at Manassas, was a slightly
smaller Confederate army under PGT Beauregard. If
the Northern army could destroy the Southern one,
Union leaders believed, the war might end at once.
In mid-July, McDowell marched his inexperienced
troops toward Manassas. Beauregard moved his
troops behind Bull Run, a small stream north of
Manassas, and called for reinforcements, which
reached him the day before the battle. The two
armies were now approximately the same size.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Opening Clashes, 1861
On July 21, in the First Battle of Bull Run, McDowell
almost succeeded in dispersing the Confederate forces.
But the Southerns managed to stop a last strong
Union assault and then began a savage counterattack.
The Union troops, exhausted after hours of hot, hard
fighting, suddenly panicked. They broke ranks and
retreated chaotically….The Confederates, as
disorganized by victory as the Union forces were by
defeat, and short of supplies and transportation, did
not pursue. The battle was a severe blow to Union
morale and to the President’s confidence in his
officers. It also dispelled the illusion that the war
would be a quick one.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Opening Clashes, 1861
Elsewhere, in Missouri, rebel forces gathered behind
Governor Claiborne Jackson and other state officials
who wanted to take the state out of the Union.
Nathaniel Lyon, who commanded a small regular
US Army force in St. Louis, moved his troops into
southern Missouri to face the secessionists. On
August 10, at the battle of Wilson’s Creek, he was
defeated and killed—but not before he had
seriously weakened the striking power of the
Confederates. Unionists held the state.
In the western mountains of Virginia, G.B.
McClellan, who had moved east from Ohio,
‘liberated’ the anti-secessionists. They remained
loyal (1863/statehood). This was a propaganda, not
a strategic victory for the Union.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Western Theater, 1862
After the battle at Bull Run, military operations in
the East settled into a long and frustrating
stalemate. The first decisive operations in 1862
occurred, therefore, in the western theater. Here the
Union forces were trying to seize control of the
southern part of the Mississippi River; this would
divide the Confederacy and give the North easy
transportation into the heart of the South. Northern
soldiers advanced on the southern Mississippi from
both the north an south, moving down the river from
Kentucky and up from the Gulf of Mexico toward
New Orleans.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Western Theater, 1862
In April, a Union squadron of ironclads and wooden
vessels commanded by David G. Farragut gathered in
the Gulf of Mexico, then smashed past weak
Confederate forts near the mouth of the Mississippi,
and form there sailed up to New Orleans. The city
was virtually defenseless because the Confederate
high command had expected the attack to come from
the north. The surrender of New Orleans on April 25,
1862, was the first major Union victory and an
important turning point in the war. From then on, the
mouth of the Mississippi was closed to Confederate
trade, and the South’s largest city and most
important banking center was in Union hands.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Western Theater, 1862
Farther north in the western theater, Confederate troops under
the command of Albert Sidney Johnston were stretched out in a
long defensive line, whose center was at two forts in Tennessee,
Fort Henry and Forth Donelson, on the Tennessee and
Cumberland Rivers respectively. But the forts were located well
behind the main Southern flanks, a fatal weakness that Union
commanders recognized and exploited. Early in 1862, US Grant
attacked Fort Henry, whose defenders, awed by the ironclad
riverboats accompanying the Union army, surrendered with
almost no resistance on February 6. Grant then moved both his
naval and ground forces to Fort Donelson, where the
Confedrates put a stronger fight by finally, on February 16, had
to surrender. By cracking the Confederate center, Grant had
gained control of river communications and forced Confederates
out of Kentucky and half of Tennessee.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Western Theater, 1862
With about 40K men, Grant advanced south along
the Tennessee River to seize control of RR lines vital
to the CSA. From Pittsburg Landing, he marched to
nearby Shiloh, Tenn, where a force of almost equal to
his own and commanded by AS Johnston and PGT
Beauregard caught him by surprise. The result was
the Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7. In the first day’s
fighting (ASJ was killed), the Southerners drove
Grant back to the river. But the next day, reinforced
by 25K, Grant recovered the lost ground and forced
PGTB to withdraw. After this narrow Union victory at
Shiloh, Northern forces occupied Corinth, Miss, the
hub of several important RRs, and took control of the
Mississippi River as far south as Memphis
Campaigns and Battles:
The Western Theater, 1862
CSA General Braxton Bragg, now in command of the CSA
army in the west, gathered his forces at Chattanooga
(eastern Tenn) which was still CSA-controlled. He hoped
to win back the rest of he state and then move north into
Kentuky. But first he had to face a Union army
(commanded at first by Don Carlos Buell, but now by
William S Rosecrans), whose assignment was to capture
Chattanooga. The two armies maneuvered for advantage
inconclusively in northern Tennessee and southern
Kentucky for several months until they finally met, on
12.31 to 1.2, in the Battle of Murfreesboro (aka Stone’s
River). Bragg was forced to withdraw to the south, his
campaign a failure. By the end of 1862, the Union was
winning the Western Theater, but struggled in the more
important Eastern Theater.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Virginia Theater, 1862
GB McClellan, commander of the Army of the
Potomac (ATOP) and the most controversial general
of the war, was in command of Union operations as
1862 began. McClellan was a superb trainer of men,
but he often seemed reluctant to commit his troops
to battle. Opportunities for important engagements
came and we, and McClellan seemed never to take
advantage of them—claiming always that he was not
ready or that his troops were VASTLY outnumbered.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Virginia Theater, 1862
During the winter of 1861-1862, McClellan
concentrated on training his army of 150K near
Washington. Finally, he designated a spring campaign
whose purpose was to capture the Confederate
capital at Richmond (why not confront and defeat the
ANV?). But instead of heading overland directly
toward Richmond, McClellan chose a complicated,
roundabout route that he though would circumvent
the Confederate defenses. The navy would carry his
troops down the Potomac to a peninsula east of
Richmond, between the York and James Rivers; the
army would approach the city from there. The
combined operations became known as the
Peninsular campaign. It was a failure.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Virginia Theater, 1862
McClellan began the campaign with only
part of his army. Approximately 100K, but
30K with McDowell remained to defend
Washington. McClellan convinced Lincoln to
send him the remaining troops and that the
capital would be safe, but but before he
could do so, a Confederate force under
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson changed his
plans by staging a rapid march north
through the Shenandoah Valley. Alarmed,
Lincoln dispatched McDowell there instead
but was unsuccessful in defeating or limiting
Jackson’s brilliant “Valley Campaign” of May
4-June 9, 1862.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Virginia Theater, 1862
Meanwhile, CSA troops under JE Johnston were
attacking McClellan’s advancing army near
Richmond. But in the two day Battle of Fair
Oaks (aka Seven Pines, May 31-June 1), they
couldn’t repel the Union forces. Johnston, badly
wounded, was replaced by RE Lee, who then
recalled Stonewall Jackson. With 85K to face
McClellan’s 100K, he launched a new offensive
called the Battle of the Seven Days (June 25July 1). Lee wanted to cut McClellan off from
his base of the York River and then destroy the
isolated AOTP. But McClellan fought his way
across the peninsula and the set up a new base
of supply on the James River. There, with naval
support (fire power and supplies), the ATOP
was safe.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Virginia Theater, 1862
McClellan was now only 25 miles from Richmond,
with a secure line of water communication/supplies.
He should have renewed the offensive---Lincoln
urged it, but he refused. Lincoln was urged to replace
McClellan. They agreed to a retreat to and defend
Washington via joining up with General John Pope’s
forces. Perhaps they could attack Richmond
overland? As the AOTP left the peninsula by water,
Lee moved north with his ANV to strike Pope before
McClellan could join him.
Campaigns and Battles:
The Virginia Theater, 1862
Pope was as rash as McClellan was cautious,
and the attacked the approaching
Confederates without waiting for the arrival of
all of McClellan’s troops. 2nd Battle of Bull Run
(8.29-8.30) Lee threw back the assault and routed
pope’s army, which fled to Washington. With hoes for
an overland campaign against Richmond now in
disarray, Lincoln removed Pope from command and
put McClellan back in charge of all the federal forces
in the region. ****************End of Test #2 Material