Civil War
part 1
Prof Jensen
MSUB
2010
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What Caused Civil War?
• One-Cause Models
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States Rights vs Nationalism
Sectionalism (Turner)
Economics: Plantations vs Industry (Beard)
Slavery (neo-abolitionists)
Who best represents American republicanism?
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Response to Ft Sumter in USA
• North galvanized and
united
• Lincoln calls for
75,000 state troops
– to march south & quell
small rebellion
• Northern governors
have already secretly
mobilized
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Border Response to Ft Sumter
• Call for Troops =
illegal invasion
• Upper south sense of
betrayal by Lincoln
– Tyranny is the issue
(not slavery)
– Kentucky neutral;
others try to join CSA
• CSA declares war on
USA (May)
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Strength of North = Long Term
• Vast superiority of manpower,
money, economic modernity;
engineering & organizational
skills
– more food too
– A strong government needed to
realize it
• Business = profit from supporting
war
• Psychology: patriotism, profit,
party, idealism
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Strength of North = Long Term
• Government: national government in place
• Political: vigorous republican party; used
state govt well; private organizations
• Diplomatic: USA = powerful nation, insist
Britain & France stay neutral else war
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Weaknesses of USA
• No unity on war goals; half reject idea of fighting
on behalf of blacks
– Democrats support union in 1861; anti-war 1862-5
• Regular army was far too small & needed on
Indian frontier; Winfield Scott = brilliant, too old
– 1/3 of officers joined the Confederacy
• Solution: create & train a new volunteer army
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Generals = picked by Lincoln
Colonels = selected by governors
Soldiers: volunteers recruited by pols
Equipment: all new
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Strengths of CSA
• Unity; thrill of a new nation; promise of military
glory; defense of homes & way of life
• Fear of destructive Yankees; confidence in own
military prowess and in the moral weakness of
money- grubbing Yankees
• Command experience of slave-owners
• Large, rich nation with experienced leaders
• Geography: vast terrain & much disease
• Supplies: adequate for short war
• Manpower: enough for 2-3 years
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Long-term Weaknesses of CSA
• Fragile economy
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Tredegar factory in
Richmond– the only major
factory in Confederacy
cotton useless
few factories
no gold or real $$$
Weak credit
No foreign trade
Too few cities (big ones
soon captured)
– Weak rail network
– Dependent on sea and river
transport soon controlled by
Yankees
– King cotton fails; false hope
in Europe
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Slaves in South
• Would slaves revolt, or keep on
working?
• Support rebel army as laborers
• Mix of cotton and food
• Zero revolts
• Underutilization of blacks;
delay combat use
• Class tensions; poor white
unrest grows against
slaveowning elite
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CSA Leadership
• Jefferson Davis: president & war leader
– Too self-confident; plays favorites; weak cabinet
– Congress & governors; states rights trouble
– No political parties to rally grass roots support
• Slaveowners as talented leaders with deep
commitment to slavery and Confederacy
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CSA Generals
• Excellent generals &
colonels
• Robert E. Lee t
– tactical genius
– weak strategist
– Revered leader
• Stonewall Jackson
– battlefield genius
– Dead hero
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War Goals: CSA
• Independence, legitimacy, recognition
– Hold Richmond; defend every square mile
• Honor, glory & defense of homes
– Ferocious combat
– Defending your home = desertion?
• Keep slavery? Keep white supremacy!
– Very hostile to armed USA black soldiers
– Delay arming slaves until 1865
• Defense of “rights”
– States rights & local opposition to CSA
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War Goals: USA
• Restore the union
– Destroy CSA, capture Richmond
– No harsh treatment of erring Americans
– Modernized strong state = never happen again
• Republicanism = core value incompatible with
slave power; must be restored in south
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Give political power to loyal republicans in south
Free slaves in CSA; purchase slaves of loyalists
Protect freedmen; keep in south
Blacks must be soldiers to become true republicans
• And should be landowners too
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USA Leadership
• Lincoln: as president, strategist,
moral leader
– Strong cabinet; all GOP factions
– Stanton in war dept
– Wells in navy
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Congress mostly supportive
Radicals say Lincoln too lenient
Governors & GOP powerful
Peace Democrats: tyranny is the
issue
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USA Generals
• George McClellan: planner & trainer
– Career: railroad president; had ‘the
slows’ re combat
• Ulysses Grant: best strategist of war;
vg tactician
– Career: Mexican war; oblivion; return
1861
• William Sherman: slow start, strong
finish
– Career: US army; family = powerful
GOP pols
• West pointers: command nearly all
battles
• Many political generals: John Logan,
Ben Butler
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USA: Dual Armies
• US army ("regular")
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Main use = frontier protection
Combat = artillery
Promotion system slow but permanent
Enlisted men = immigrants; low on patriotism
• US volunteers (temporary) 2 million strong
– Promotion system: fast
• Brevet = temporary rank
– State based regiments; strong home ties
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Army Structure
• Infantry: rifled musket = DEADLY new bullets
– Fighting units; infantry assaults in open field
– Garrison duty = most soldiers spend war in forts
• Cavalry: horse & carbine; intelligence
• Artillery-field: light guns
– Artillery-forts: heavy guns
• Non-combat
– Medical, quartermaster, adjunct (legal)
– Signal (telegraph); engineers ("pioneers")
– Military railroads; raids; destroy rebel RRs
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Army Life
• Finding & training tens of thousands of officers;
hundreds of thousands of soldiers; all volunteers
– Enthusiasm of 1861; few big battles
– Class lines; elect your officers; chain of command
– Camp life: regimental communal experience; drill
• Hygiene: poor, disease serious; more deaths by
disease than battle; battlefield surgery:
amputation; ether shortage
– US sanitary service and volunteer efforts to help; south
lags in medicine, hospitals
• Supplies: excellent for USA; poor for CSA
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Yankee Engineering Superiority
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USA Military Strategy
• Strangle rebels with blockade
– Entice planters to sell cotton for $$
• Capture border states
– Nasty guerilla warfare; assassinations
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"On to Richmond" (1861-65): impossible
Capture Mississippi & split west (1862-3)
Capture Atlanta; march to sea (1864)
Total warfare: mobilize all resources of USA and
destroy all of rebels; destroy rebel nationalism
• Vengeance: soft approach gives way to hard
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CSA Military Strategy
• Make Yankees want peace
– Whip their armies using stronger "spirit"
– High casualty will weaken USA morale
• Defend entire nation = spread thin
– Defend Richmond as symbol of nation
• Force Europe to support CSA by cotton embargo
• Invade north to cause war-weariness
– Hold out until Lincoln defeated at polls
– Count on northern peace democrats
• Failure: defend border, rivers, ports
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USA Controls Border States
• USA controls the border
– Butler defends DC, seizes Maryland
– West Virginia breaks away from Virginia
– Kentucky seeks neutrality, fails
• Anderson, Sherman fail; Grant holds Ky
– Oklahoma: Indians join Confederacy
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1861-62: West: Yankees win
• Halleck controls St
Louis & Missouri
– Grant moves toward
Nashville, Tennessee
– Grant captures Ft
Donelson (Feb 1861)
• First great battle:
Grant @ Shiloh (April
1862)
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1861-62: East: Rebel success
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Lee: Brilliant Tactician at
Fredericksburg & Chancellorsville
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1861-62: few battles
• Political control of
border
• Recruit and train vast
armies
• Build huge new navy
• Build up factories (N)
• No Long term plan on
either side
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USA Strategy: Naval
• Blockade entire coast
• Control Mississippi & major rivers
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No rebel traffic; fast movement for USA
Construct hundreds of armored gunboats
Capture Tennessee & Cumberland rivers (1862)
Capture New Orleans (1862) & Vicksburg
(1863)
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USA Controls the Mississippi
• Grant moves south
from Cairo Illinois
(1861-62)
– Seizes Tennessee and
Cumberland rivers
– Gunboats overwhelm
rebels
• Farragut & navy take
New Orleans (1862)
– "Beast" Butler in N.O.;
Loyal southerners?
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Mississippi River 1862-63
• Grant works on Vicksburg (1862-63)
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Richmond ignores the west
Divided CSA commands; Pemberton
Grant works with the Navy
Grant abandons supply line; stunning victories
Siege of Vicksburg (July 1863)
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Will Europe Intervene?
• King cotton; CSA embargo on cotton
– Legality of Lincoln's blockade
• Recognition of CSA = war with USA
– Mason-Slidell affair; war with USA? No
• France let's help CSA; seizes Mexico
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Britain: opinion divided; peace; wheat
Cotton prices soar; unemployment in mills
Rebel loans in Europe (few)
Brits sell warships; Alabama = raider
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Blockade
• Blockade all southern
ports
– Goal: no cotton out, no
munitions in
– Build 600 ships
steaming back & forth
– Stop blockade runners;
success by 1864
– High seas: sink
Alabama & other
commerce raiders
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Success of Blockade
• 95% of imports cut off; south a prison
– Cotton a liability; Lincoln buys cotton
– Economics of supplies in, cotton out
– Luxuries vs. Medicine & ammo
• Neutral (British & Spanish) bases
– Build fast, small, unarmed blockade runners
– Vast investment by British
• US blockade navy = dull, rewarding work
– Closing the ports; capturing the runners
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Books
• McPherson Online
• Collins, Origins. short
book online
• Civil War on Web -online free for TAH
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