The Civil War New Notes Cambridge
The War Begins
1. In Lincoln’s inaugural address, Lincoln assured southerners that he had no
intention of interfering with slavery or any other southern institution.
2. At the same time, he warned, no state had the right to break up the Union. He
concluded by appealing for restraint. “ In your hands, my dissatisfied fellowcountrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The gov’t will
not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors”
Secession of the Upper South
1. Before the attack on Fort Sumter, only seven states of the Deep South had
seceded.
2. After it had become clear that Lincoln would use troops in the crisis, four states of
the Upper South – Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, also
seceded and joined the Confederacy.
3. The capital of the Confederacy was then moved to Richmond, Virginia.
Keeping the Border States in the Union
1. Four other slaveholding states might have seceded, but instead remained in the
Union.
2. The decision of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky not to join the
Confederacy was partly due to Union sentiment in those states and partly the
result of shrewd federal policies.
3. In Maryland, prosecessionist attacked Union troops and threatened the railroad to
Washington.
4. The Union army resorted to martial law to keep the state under federal control.
5. In Missouri, the presence of U.S. troops prevented the pro-South elements in the
state from gaining control, although guerrilla forces sympathetic to the
Confederacy were active throughout the war.
6. In Kentuky, the state legislatures voted to remain neutral in the conflict.
7. Lincoln initially respected its neutrality and waited for the South to violate it
before moving in federal troops.
8. Keeping the border states in the Union was a primary military as well as political
goal for Lincoln.
9. Their loss would have increased the Confederate population by more than 50%
and also would have severely weakened the North’s strategic position for
conducting the war.
10. Not wanting to alienate Unionists in the border states, Lincoln was reluctant to
push for early emancipation.
Wartime Advantages
Military
1. The South entered the war with the advantage of having to fight only a defensive
war to win, while the North had to conquer an area as large as Western Europe.
2. The South had to move troops and supplies shorter distances than the North.
3. It had a long, indented coastline that was difficult to blockade and, most
importantly, experienced military leaders and high troop morale.
4. The North’s hope was that its population of 22 million against the South’s free
population of only 5.5 million free whites would work to its favor in a war
attrition.
5. The North’s advantage was enhanced during the war by 800,000 immigrants who
in large numbers enlisted in the Union cause.
6. Emancipaiton also brought over 180,000 African Americans into the Union army
in a critical final years of the war.
7. The North could also count on a loyal U.S. Navy, which ultimately gave it
command of the rivers and territorial waters.
Economic
1. The North’s great strength was an economy that controlled most of the banking
and capital of the country, over 85% of the factories and manufactured goods,
over 70% of the RRs, and even 65% of the farmlands.
2. The skills of northern clerks and bookkeepers also proved valuable in the
logistical support of large military operations.
3. The hope of the southern economy was that overseas demand for cotton would
bring recognition and financial aid.
4. Hisory supports the belief that outside help is essential if wars for independence
are to be successful.
Political
1. Its struggle for independence may seem to have given the South more motivation
than the North’s task of preserving the Union.
2. However, the South’s ideology of states’ rights proved a serious liability for the
new Confederate gov’t.
3. The irony was that in order to win the war, the South needed a strong central
gov’t with strong public support.
4. The South had neither, while the North had a well-establised central gov’t, and in
Abraham Lincoln and in the Republicans and Democratic parties it had
experienced politicans with a strong popular base.
5. The ultimate hope of the South was that the people of the North would turn
against Lincoln and the Republicans and quit the war because it was too costly.
The Confederate States of America
1. The constitution of the Confederacy was modeled after the U.S. Constitution, but
it provided a nonsuccessive six-year term of the president and vice-president and
presidential item veto.
2. Its constitution denied the Confederate congress the powers to levy a protective
tariff and to appropriate funds internal improvements.
3. It did prohibit the foreign slave trade.
4. President Jefferson Davis tried to increase his executive powers during the war,
but southern governors resisted attempts at centralization, some holding back men
and resources to protect their own states.
5. At one point, VP Alexander H. Stephen, in defense of state’s rights, even urged
secession of Georgia in response to the “ despotic” actions of the Confederate
gov’t.
6. The Confederacy always faced a serious shortage of money.
7. It tried loans, income taxes and even impressment of private property, but these
revenues paid for only a small percentage of the war’s cost.
8. The gov’t was forced to issue more than $ 1 billion in inflationary paper money,
which reduced the value of a Confederate dollar to less than two cents by the
closing days of the war.
9. The Confederate congress nationalized the RRS and encouraged industrial
development.
10. The Confederacy sustained nearly 1 million troops at its peak, but a war of
attrition doomed its effort.
11. The real surprise is that the South was able to persist for four years.
Union Strategy
1. General Winfield Scott, the senior commnader of federal forces, devised a threepart strategy for winning a long war:
A. Use the U.S. navy to blockade southern ports ( Anaconda Plan) and thereby
cut off essential supplies from reaching the South.
B. Divide the Confederacy in two by taking control of the Mississippi River.
C. Raise and train an army 500,000 strong to take Richmond.
Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy
1. The South’s hopes for securing its independence hinged as much on its diplomats
as on its soldiers.
2. Confederate leaders fully expected that cotton would indeed prove to be “ king”
and induce Britain or France, or both, to give direct aid to the South’s war effort.
3. Besides depending on southern cotton for their textile mills, wealthy British
industrialist and members of the British aristocracy looked forward with pleasure
to the breakup of the American democratic experiment.
4. From the North’s point of view, it was critically important to prevent the
Confederacy from gaining the foreign support and recognition that it so
desperately needed.
Trent Affair
1. Britain came close to siding with the Confederacy in late 1861 over an incident at
sea.
2. Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell were traveling to England
on a British steamer, the Trent, on a mission to gain recognition for their gov’t.
3. A Union warship stopped the British ship, removed Mason and Slidell, and
brought them to the United States as prisoners of war.
4. Britain threatened war over the incident unless the two diplomats were released.
5. Although he faced severe public criticism for doing so, Lincoln gave in to British
demands.
6. Mason and Slidell were duly set free, but after again sailing for Europe, they
failed to obtain full recognition of the Confederacy from either Britain or France.
Confederate Raiders
1. The South was able to gain enough recognition as a belligerent to purchase
warships from British shipyards.
2. Confederate commerce-raiders did serious harm to U.S. merchant ships.
3. One of them, the Alabama, captured over 60 vessels before being sunk off the
coast of France by a Union warship.
4. After the war, Great Britain eventually agreed to pay the U.S. $ 15.5 million for
damages caused by the South’s commerce-raiders.
5. The U.S. minister to Britain, Charles Francis Adams, prevented a potentially
much more serious threat.
6. Learning that the Confederacy had arranged to purchase Laird rams ( ships with
iron rams) from the British for use against the North’s naval blockade, Adams
persuaded the British gov’t to cancel the sale rather than risk war with the United
States.
Failure of Cotton Diplomacy
1. King Cotton did not have the power to dictate another nation’s foreign policy,
since Europe quickly found ways of obtaining cotton from other sources.
2. By the time shortages of southern cotton hit the British textile industry, adequate
shipments of cotton began arriving from Egypt and India.
3. Also, materials other than cotton could be used for textiles, and the woolen and
linen industries were not slow to take of advantage of their opportunity.
4. Two other factors went into Britain’s decision not to recognize the Confederacy.
A. General’s Lee setback at Antietam played a role; without a decisive
Confederate military victory, the British gov’t would not risk recognition.
B. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made the end of slavery an objective of
the North, a fact that appealed strongly to Britain’s working class.
5. While conservative leaders of Britain were sympathetic to the South, they could
not defy the pronorthern, antislavery feelings of the British majority.
The End of Slavery
1. As President, Lincoln was hesitant to take any action against slavery.
2. His concerns were A. Keeping the support of the border states B. the
constitutional protections of slavery C. the prejudices of many northerners D. the
fear that premature action could be overturned in the next election.
3. All of these concerns made the timing and method of freeing the slaves fateful
decisions.
4. Slaves were freed during the Civil War as a result of military events, gov’t policy,
and their own actions.
Confiscation Acts
1. Early in the war ( 1861), Union Gen. Benjamin Butler refused to return captured
slaves to their Confederate owners, arguing that they were “ contraband of war”.
2. The power to seize enemy property used to wage war against the U.S. was legal
basis for the first Confiscation Act passed by Congress in August 1861.
3. Soon after the passage of this act, thousands of “ contrabands” were using their
feet to escape slavery by finding their way into Union camps.
4. In July 1862 a second Confiscation Act passed that freed the slaves of persons
engaged in rebellion against the U.S.
5. The law also empowered the president to use freed slaves in the Union army in
any capacity, including battle.
Emancipation Proclamation
1. By July 1862 Lincoln had already decided to use his powers as commander in
chief of the armed forces to free all slaves in the states then at war with the U.S.
2. He would justify his policy by calling it a “ military necessity”.
3. He delayed announcement of the policy, however, until he could win the support
of conservative northerners.
4. He encouraged the border states to come up with plans for emancipating slaves,
with compensation to the owners.
5. After the Battle of Antietam, on September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a warning
that slaves in all states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863 would be then
thenceforward, and forever free.
6. As promised, on the first day of the 1863, the president issued his Emancipation
Proclamation.
Consequences
1. President’s proclamation applied only to slaves residing in Confederate states
outside Union control, it did not immediately free a single slave.
2. Slavery in border states was allowed to continue.
3. The proclamation committed the U.S. gov’t to a policy of abolition in the South,
but also enlarged the purpose of the war.
4. Now, for the first time, Union armies were fighting against slavery, not merely
against secession and rebellion.
5. The proclamation gave added weight to the Confiscation acts, increasing the
number of slaves who sought freedom by fleeing to Union lines.
6. Thus, with each advance of northern troops into the South, more slaves were
liberated.
7. As an added blow to the South, the proclamation also authorized the recruitment
of freed slaves as Union soldiers.
Freedmen in the War
1. After the Emancipation Proclamation ( Jan. 1863), hundreds of thousands of
southern blacks walked away from slavery to seek the protection of the
approaching Union armies.
2. Almost 200,000 African Americans, most of whom were newly freed slaves,
served in the Union army and navy.
3. Segregated into all-black unites, such as the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, black
troops performed courageously under fire and won the respect of northern white
soldiers.
4. Over 37,000 African American soldiers died in what became known as the Army
of Freedom.
The End of the War
1. The effects of the Union blockade, combined with Sherman’s march of
destruction, spread hunger through much of the South in the winter of 1864-1865.
2. On the battlefront in Virginia, Grant continued to outflank Lee’s lines until they
collapsed around Petersburg, resulting in the fall of Richmond, April 3, 1865.
Surrender at Appomattox
1. The Confederate gov’t tried to negotiate for peace, but Lincoln would not accept
nothing short of restoration of the Union and Jefferson Davis nothing less than
independence.
2. Lee retreated from Richmond with an army of less than 30,000 men.
3. He tried to escape to the mountains only to be cut off and forced to surrender to
Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
4. The Union general treated his longtime enemy with respect and allowed Lee’s
men to return to their homes with their horses.
Assassination of Lincoln
1. Only a month before Lee’s surrender, Lincoln delivered one of his greatest
speeches, the second inaugural address.
2. He urged that the defeated South be treated benevolently, “ with malice toward
none; with charity for all”
3. On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth, an embittered actor and southern
sympathizer shot and killed the president while he was attending a performance in
Ford’s Theater in Washington.
4. This shocking event aroused the fury of northerners at the very time that the South
most needed a sympathetic hearing.
Effects of the War on Civilian Life
Political Change
1. The electoral process continued during the war with surprisingly few restrictions.
2. Secession of the southern states had created Republican majorities in both houses
of Congress.
3. Within Republican ranks, however, there were sharp differences between the
radical faction ( those who championed the cause of immediate abolition of
slavery) and the moderate faction ( Free-Soilers who were chiefly concerned
about economic opportunites for whites)
4. Most Democrats supported the war but criticized Lincoln’s conduct of it.
5. Peace Democrats and Copperheads opposed the war and wanted a negotiated
peace.
6. The most notorious Copperhead, Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of
Ohio, was briefly banished from the U.S. for his treasonable, pro-Confederacy
speeches against the war.
Civil Liberties
1. In wartime, governments tend to be more concerned with prosecuting the war
than with protecting citizens’ constitutional rights.
2. Lincoln’s gov’t was no exception.
3. Early in the war, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland and
other states where there was much pro-Confederate sentiment.
4. Suspension of this constitutional right meant that persons could be arrested
without being informed of the charges against them.
5. During the war, an estimated 13,000 people were arrested on suspicion of aiding
the enemy; without a right to habeas corpus, many of them were held without
trail.
The Draft
1. At first, those who fought in the Civil War were volunteers, but as the need for
replacements became acute, both the North and the South resorted to laws for
conscripting, or drafting, men into service.
2. The Congress first Conscription Act, adopted in March 1863, made all men
between the ages of 20 and 45 liable for military service but allowed a draftee to
avoid service by either finding a substitute to serve or paying a $ 300.00
exemption fee.
3. The law provoked fierce opposition among poorer laborers, who feared that if and
when they returned to civilian life, their jobs would be taken by freed African
Americans.
4. In July 1863, riots against the draft erupted in New York City, in which mostly
Irish American mob attacked blacks and wealthy whites.
5. Some 117 people were killed before federal troops and a temporary suspension of
the draft restored order.
Political dominance of the North
1. Important were the long-term effects of the war on the balance of power between
two sectional rivals, the North and the South.
2. With the military triumph of the North came a new definition of the nature of the
federal union.
3. The Southern emphasis on states’ rights and arguments for nullification and
secession ceased to be a major issue.
4. After the Civil War, the supremacy of the federal gov’t over the states was treated
as an established fact.
5. The abolition of slavery, gave new meaning and legitimacy to the concept of
American democracy.
6. Lincoln’s words in the Gettysburg Address changed the fate of people all over the
world.
7. “ Dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” “ A new birth of
freedom”
8. This advanced the cause of democratic gov’t in the U.S. and inspired champions
of democracy around the world.
Economic Change
Financing the War
1. The North financed the war chiefly by borrowing 2.6 billion, obtained through the
sale of gov’t bonds.
2. Congress was forced to resort to raising tariffs ( Morrill Tariff of 1861), adding
excise taxes, and instituting the first income tax.
3. The U.S. Treasury also issued over 430 million in a paper currency known as
Greenbacks.
4. The paper money could not be redeemed in gold, a fact that caused inflation.
5. To handle all the added revenue and moving in and out of the Tresury, Congress
created a National Banking System in 1863.
Modernizing northern society
1. On the negative side, worker’s wages did not keep pace with inflation.
2. Positive is the industrial economy was accelerated by the war.
3. War placed a premium on mass production and complex organization, it speeded
up the consolidation of the North’s manufacturing businesses.
4. War profiteers took advantage of the gov’ts urgent needs for military supplies to
sell shoddy goods at high prices.
5. Fortunes made during the war produced a concentration of capital in the hands of
a new class of millionaires, who would finance the North’s industrialization in the
postwar years.
6. Republican politics played a major role in stimulating the economic growth of the
North and the West.
7. Republicans had the majority in Congress and passed ambitious economic
programs that included a national banking system and the following
A. The Morrill Tariff Act ( 1861) raised tariffs to increase revenue and protect
American manufacturers. Initiated high protective tariffs.
B. The Homestead Act ( 1862) promoted settlement of the Great Plains by
offering parcels of 160 acres of public land free to whatever person of family
would farm that land for at least five years.
C. The Morrill Land Grant Act ( 1862) encouraged states to use the sale of
federal land grants to maintained agricultural and technical colleges.
D. The Pacific Railway Act ( 1862) authorized the building of a transcontinental
railroad over a northern route in order to link the economies of California and
the western territories with the eastern states.
Social Change
1. The most directly affected were women of all ages, whose labors became more
burdensome, and African Americans, who were emancipated from slavery.
Women at work
1. The absence of millions of men from their normal occupations in fields and
factories added to the laborers and responsibilities of women at home.
2. Southern and Northern women alike stepped into the labor vacuum created by the
war.
3. They operated farms and plantations by themselves or, in the cities, took factory
jobs normally held by men.
4. Women also played a critical role as military nurses and as volunteers in soldiers’
aid societies.
5. When the war ended and the war veterans returned home, most urban women
vacated their jobs in gov’t and industry, while rural women gladly accepted male
assistance on the farm.
6. The Civil War had at least two permanent effects on American women.
7. First, the field of nursing was now open to women for the first time: previous this
was a man’s profession.
8. Second, the enormous responsibilities undertaken by women during the war gave
impetus to the movement to obtain equal voting rights for women.
End of Slavery
1. 1865 the 13th Amendment is passed and put into the Constitution.
2. 4 million people were now freed men and women.
3. For these people and their descendants, economic hardship and political
oppression would continue for generations, but even so, the end of slavery
represented a momentous step.
4. Suddenly, slaves with no rights had become free citizens whose rights were
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
5. 620,000 thousands men died, $ 15 billion in war costs and property losses had
enormous effects on the nation.
6. The Civil War destroyed slavery and devastated the southern economy.
7. The war did act as a catalyst to transform America into a complex modern
industrial society of capital, technology, national organizations, and large
corporations.
8. The characteristics of American democracy and its capitalist economy were
strengthen by this second American Revolution.
9.