Unit Six
The Civil War
EQ: What advantages did both the
North and South have at the start of
the war?
• Video Clip
• Choices; Robert E. Lee
• The day Virginia seceded, Robert E. Lee was
offered command of the Union troops
• Lee was opposed to secession and considered
slavery a “moral and political evil”
• Lee could not lead the Union Army against his
home state, resigned from the army and
offered his services to the Confederacy
• 100s of military officers had to make the same
choice, support the Union or the Confederacy
• 313 officers about 1/3rd of the officers in the
United States military resigned and joined the
Confederacy
The Confederate Military
• The number of military officers joining the
Confederacy enabled the South to quickly
organize an effective fighting force
• Historically there had been a strong military
tradition in the South
• 1860, 8 military colleges in the US, 7 of those
were located in the South
• The North had a strong naval tradition, 3/4ths of
the naval officers in the US were from the North
• The North had a large group of experienced
sailors for the Union navy
• Most of the Navy’s warships and shipyards
were under Union control
Advantages/Disadvantages
• South, experienced officers to lead troops
• North, economic advantages: population in the
North in 1860 22 million, in the South 9 million of
which 3.5 million were slaves
• The North was able to raise a larger army and had
more support for the war
• The South had a smaller population and about a
third of that was African American slaves, this
required a larger percentage of the Southern
male population to fight, if the South was to
match the North with troop strength
• The south was fighting a defensive war which did
unite most white citizens
• Northern industry, economic advantage over the
South
• 1860 80% of the nation’s factories were located
in the North
• The North produced 90% of the clothing, boots,
shoes
• The North produced 93% of the pig iron used to
make weapons
• Most of the firearms manufacturers were in the
North, DuPont factories in Delaware produced
most of the nation’s gunpowder
• The South had one factory with the ability to
make cannons, Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond,
Va.
• The Confederate Ordinance Bureau set up
armories and foundries in Southern states,
established a large gunpowder mill in Augusta,
Ga.
• By the summer of 1862 the South could produce
enough weapons, gunpowder, and ammunition
to meet the needs of the Confederate forces
• The South was able to produce food, much of the
land in cash crops, farmers did produce large
quantities of rice and corn
• Production was not a problem for the South but
distribution was after the Union Army invaded
the South
• The South had about half as much railroad
track as the North, only one line connected
Memphis to Chattanooga to connect the
western states from the eastern states of the
Confederacy
• This made it easy for the North to disrupt the
Southern rail service and hinder troop and
food shipments
• Early days of the war Jefferson Davis used
feelings of regional identity and patriotism
among a population that felt the South had
been forced to resist northern tyranny
• Most Southerners held great loyalty to own
state and local community- not to a
Confederate nation
• Belief in state’s rights and aristocratic privilege
undermined the Confederate cause
• Southern governors resisted unifying actions such
as moving militias outside their home states
• General taxation was evaded by the rich and poor
• Inequitable draft one of many issues that
convinced ordinary Southerners the war was for
privileged slave owners, not for them
• Leaders and citizens feared centralization would
destroy what was distinctively southern
• Confederacy was unable to mobilize necessary
resources- financial and human that may have
prevented destruction by Northern armies
Paying for the War
• Both sides had to move quickly to generate
money for the war
• North financial advantages: control of the
national treasury, continued revenue from tariffs,
Northern banks had large cash reserves that they
lent to the government by buying bonds
• Citizens worried about the ability of the North to
win the war withdrew gold and silver from the
banks, no gold or silver banks not able to lend to
the government, the government not able to pay
suppliers and troops
• Congress passed the Legal Tender Act, Feb.
1862
• Created a national currency, the government
now able to issue paper money, greenbacks
because of color
• Confederacy in dire financial trouble and the
situation got worse not better
• Southern planters in debt, not able to
purchase bonds
• Southern banks were small with little cash
reserves, unable to purchase bonds in quantities
great enough to help the government pay for the
war
• To generate revenue the Confederacy taxed trade
• Union blockades of Southern ports reduced trade
and revenue
• Confederacy turned to direct taxation of the
citizens
• New taxes on property and farm products
• Citizen resentment grew as did refusal to pay tax
• Unable to generate revenue from bonds or taxes,
the Confederacy printed paper currency to pay
bills
• The printing of paper money resulted in inflation
in the South at a rate of 9,000% compared to an
inflation rate of 80% in the North
Lincoln and Political Parties
• Lincoln had to address division within the
Republican Party at the beginning of the war
• Many Republicans were abolitionists
• Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union even if it
meant allowing the continuation of slavery
• Democrats challenged his policies
• Northern Democrats were divided
• War Democrats supported the war, hoped to
restore the Union to prewar standing, opposed
the abolition of slavery
• Peace Democrats, opposed the war and wanted
to reunite the states through negotiation not
force
• Republicans called the Peace Democrats
Copperheads
• A major area of dispute between Republicans and
Democrats was civil liberties
• Summer 1862, Congress introduced a militia law,
required states to use conscription if need be to
fill regiments
• Democrats opposed the law, riots in
Democratic districts in Indiana, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
• To enforce the militia law, Lincoln suspended
writs of habeas corpus, this allowed for
indefinite imprisonment without a trial
• Lincoln suspended the writ for anyone
supporting the Confederacy or encouraging
others to resist the draft
• Opposition did surface when Davis supported
conscription and established martial law in the
Spring of 1862
• Leaders of NC and Ga. including VP Alexander
Stephens objected to the Confederacy forcing
men to join the army
• Davis also faced opposition with his decision
to suspend writs of habeas corpus
• New taxes also led to complaints
New York Draft Riots
• Spring 1863, protests to the draft across the
North
• Riots in many cities- several federal
enforcement officers were killed
• Worst trouble in New York City, July 13-July 16,
1863
• Working class looting, fighting, lynching
claimed lives of 105 people, many African
American
• Worst rioting to date in U.S. history stopped by
five units of the U.S. Army sent from the
battlefield at Gettysburg
• Causes of the riots; anger at the draft, racial
prejudice, urban growth and tensions’
• Civil War made urban problems worse and
heightened contrast between the lives of the rich
and the poor
• The tensions exploded but were not solved by the
riots
• African American men the favorite target of
the rioter’s anger were a major force in easing
the national crisis over the draft
• African Americans had been barred from the
service until 1863
• African American volunteers filled much of the
manpower gap that the draft was created to
address
Weak Southern Government
• Jefferson Davis faced no organized political
opposition in the South
• Did have political problems
• Confederate Constitution emphasized state’s
rights
• The central government had limited power
• State’s rights often at odds with Davis’ ability to
conduct the war
• Most Southern leaders supported the war
• Opposition did surface when Davis supported
conscription and established martial law in the
Spring of 1862
• Leaders of NC and Ga. including VP Alexander
Stephens objected to the Confederacy forcing
men to join the army
• Davis also faced opposition with his decision
to suspend writs of habeas corpus
• New taxes also led to complaints
The Civil War and Europe
• The Civil War presented problems for the nations
of Europe
• The United States did not want European
interference in the war, wanted Europeans to
respect the naval blockade, did not want
European nations to recognize the Confederate
States of America as an independent nation
• Confederate leaders wanted Europe, especially
Great Britain to formally recognize the
Confederate States of America
• Confederacy wanted Europe to declare the
Union blockade illegal
• Wanted to use the British navy to assist the
South in the war with the North
• Confederate leaders used Europe’s need for
cotton, the South refused to export cotton to
Europe until the Confederacy was formally
recognized- Cotton Diplomacy
• The British and French met unofficially with
Confederate representatives in May 1861
• The French promised to recognize the
Confederacy if the British would
• Britain did not want a war with the US
• Britain would not recognize the Confederacy
until it had several victories, proving a chance
to defeat the North, on occasion actions by
the North almost led to war with Great Britain
• Secretary of State William Seward had the task of
making sure Britain and France did not officially
recognize the Confederacy
• The use of cotton as blackmail did not work for
the Confederacy
• British public opinion had turned against slavery
which had been abolished in the British Empire in
the 1830s
• British cotton manufacturers found alternative
sources of cotton in Egypt and India
• in spite of Union protests the British and French
allowed Confederate vessels to use their ports
• British shipyards sold 6 ships to the Confederacy
• 1863 the Confederate government commissioned
Britain’s Laird shipyard to build two ironclad ships
with pointed bows for ramming Union ships- the
Union threatened war- British government made
sure the Laird ironclads were never delivered
• The Union government did not react when a
bankrupt Mexico suffered a joint invasion by
the British, Spanish, and the French to collect
debts owed by Mexico to them
• Violation of Mexican independence and the
Monroe Doctrine
• French wanted conquest, British and Spanish
withdrew
• Mexican forces drove out the French troops May
5, 1862, El Cinco de Mayo, has been celebrated
ever since in Mexico
• France did win and installed the Austrian
archduke Maximilian as emperor – this could
have led to war with the U.S.
• The Union feared the French would recognize the
Confederacy or invade Texas
• Seward could only refuse to recognize the new
Mexican government
• Five months after the French took Mexico, Union
troops marched into Brownsville, Texas on the
border with Mexico
• Signal to the French to go no further
• 1866 after the Civil War, diplomatic pressure from
Seward made the French withdraw from Mexico
• Seward’s diplomacy of preventing recognition of
the Confederacy by European nations was clear
but for more than 2 years not assured of success
• Only after victories at Vicksburg and
Gettysburg in July, 1863 could Seward be
confident of success
James Mason and John Slidell, the
Trent Affair
• 1861, Confederacy sent James Mason and
John Slidell on a mission to represent the
Confederacy in France and Britain
• The two men slipped past the Union blockade
• Traveled to Havana, Cuba
• Left aboard the Trent, headed for Europe
• The Trent was stopped by a Union vessel and
the Captain Charles Wilkes arrested Mason
and Slidell
• The British demanded the release of Mason and
Slidell, sent troops to Canada and added strength
to the British Atlantic fleet
• The United States and Britain close to war
• Lincoln ordered the two men released
• -”One war at a time”
• Mason and Slidell continued their trip to find
allies for the Confederacy, their arrest made
world news, but the diplomatic mission failed to
get the support the South needed
Military Technology and Tactics
• The Civil War was the first modern war
• Involved huge armies
• Armies made up of volunteers, needed
supplies and equipment
• 1850s new inexpensive bullets for rifles, cone
shaped bullets, accurate at a greater range
• Troops fired upon several times or more while
making a charge on enemy fortifications
• Troops did not stand in line waiting for the
attack
• Use of trenches and barricades meant that
attacking forces suffered higher casualties
• Armies had to keep replacing soldiers,
attrition a problem
• The North with a larger population had more
men to use as replacement troops than the
South
• New weapons:
land mines
submarines
hot air balloons
telegraph
repeating rifles
first machine guns
long range artillery
iron clad ships (Virginia, Monitor)
The Southern Strategy
• Jefferson Davis saw the Southern strategy
similar to Washington’s during the
Revolutionary War
• Generals were to pick battles carefully
• Attack and retreat when necessary
• Avoid large battles to decrease the loss of
large numbers of troops
• South would fight a defensive war of attrition
• Force the Union to spend resources until it tired of war
and agreed to negotiate
• Many in the South opposed Davis’ strategy
• They felt the South had superior fighters
• Against defensive warfare
• When battles took place usually Southern troops were
on the offensive
• 1862-1863, 9 battles the Confederate forces were on
the offensive, in 6 the South lost 20,000 more men
than the Union
• These were losses the South could not afford
The Union’s Anaconda Plan
• The General in Chief of the Union army,
General Winfield Scott proposed a plan to
defeat the South
• Union blockade of Confederate ports on the
Atlantic
• Isolate the Confederacy from European aid
and trade
• Cut off the flow of supplies, equipment,
money, food, and cotton
• Exhaust Southern resources, force surrender
• Control the Mississippi River with gun boats
• Divide the western and eastern parts of the
Confederacy
• Capture New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis
• Cut off shipping to and from the interior
• The South would be separated, run out of
resources and surrender
• Scott admitted it would defeat the South with
the least bloodshed
Reaction to the Anaconda Plan
• Many in the North felt the plan was too slow,
favored a quick invasion of the South
• Northern newspapers called it Scott’s
Anaconda Plan, slowly strangle prey to death
• Lincoln did use Scott’s idea to blockade
Southern ports
• Lincoln hoped for a quick victory over
Confederate forces massing in Virginia
• This would discredit the secessionists and
bring about talks to end the secession crisis
• Lincoln and Northern leaders learned it would
be a long war that destroyed Confederate
forces that had a chance for success
The First Battle of Bull Run
Video Clip
• Early months of the war Confederate forces were
gathering 25miles south of Washington under the
command of General P.G.T. Beauregard, at a the
rail center in northern Virginia, Manassas
Junction
• Lincoln under pressure to strike
• Lincoln approved an assault in hopes of a Union
victory that would quickly end the war
• Union troops pushed the Confederate forces from
behind a stream called Bull Run
• Southern reinforcements moved in
commanded by General Thomas J. Jackson
• Retreating Confederate forces moved past
Jackson’s men, their commander shouted
“There is Jackson standing like a stone wall”,
“rally behind the Virginians”
• Jackson afterward known as Stonewall
Jackson, one of the best of the Confederate
field commanders
• More Confederate reinforcements arrived and
the Union General Irwin McDowell ordered a
Union withdrawal
• The retreat turned to panic
• Confederate troops did not pursue them very
far
The impact of the First Battle of Bull
Run
• The Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run
sent a clear message to the Union
• The North would need a large well-trained
fighting force to defeat the South
• Lincoln originally asked for 75,000 volunteers
for 3 months service, now he asked for
500,000 for 3 years service
Conscription; North and South
• At the beginning of the war men from both
sides volunteered
• As the war went on and causalities increased
fewer volunteered
• Both governments resorted to conscription
• April 1862 the Confederate government
passed conscription laws for all white men 1835
• Key government workers, teachers, and
planters with at least 20 slaves were exempted
• The North encouraged voluntary enlistment
by offering a bounty, a monetary bonus for a 3
year enlistment
• Congress passed the Militia Act July, 1862;
gave Lincoln the power to call state militia
which included troops into federal service
• 1863, Congress passed the first national draft
to raise needed troops
• Substitutes could be paid to serve for another
person
Union Blockade
• April 1861 Lincoln ordered a blockade of all
Confederate ports
• Spring 1862; the Union navy closed off every
major port along the Atlantic coast except
Charlestown, SC and Wilmington, NC
Blockade Runners
• As the war went on the blockade was successful
• But there were not enough ships for the Union to
stop all of the blockade runners
• Blockade runners were smaller, faster vessels
used to smuggle goods past the blockade
• Blockade runners ran the blockade at night
• The use of blockade runners allowed the South to
ship some cotton to Europe and in return got
shoes, rifles, and needed supplies
• The amount of goods that crossed the
blockade was less than the amount shipped
before the blockade
The Alabama and the Florida
• Confederate ships from foreign ports attacked
Northern merchant ships at sea
• The two most famous; Alabama & Florida
• The Confederacy commissioned both to be
built in Great Britain
• The Alabama took 64 ships before it was sunk
by a Union warship off the coast of France
• The Florida destroyed 38 merchant ships
before it was captured at a port in Brazil
• The actions of the two ships hurt the relations
between the United States and Great Britain
• The Union did not feel the British should have
allowed the ships to be built, demanded
British restitution for damages the ships
inflicted
David Farragut and New Orleans
• The Union made plans to take the port of New
Orleans and control the lower Mississippi
River
• Feb. 1862, David G. Farragut took command of
the Union forces including 42 warships and
15,000 soldiers led by General Benjamin
Butler
• Veteran of the Mexican War, born in the
South, a supporter of the Union
• His actions at New Orleans made him a
national hero
• April, 1862 Farragut’s fleet bombarded the
Confederate forts defending the lower
Mississippi River
• The attack did not destroy the forts
• 2:00 AM April 24, 1862 Farragut ordered his
ships upriver past the Confederate forts in a
single file formation
• The forts opened fire
• Confederate gunboats attempted to ram the
fleet, tugboats floated burning rafts in front of
the Union ships
• Farragut lost 4 ships, the fleet continued
upriver
• April 25, 1862 Farragut made it to New
Orleans
• Six days later Butler’s troops took the city
• The South lost it’s largest city and the center
of the cotton trade to Union forces
Fort Henry and Fort Donnellson
• Supported by armored gunboats Grant took
Ft. Henry, the main Confederate fort on the
Tennessee River
• Marched his troops east to surround Ft.
Donnellson on the Cumberland River
• The fall of forts Henry and Donnellson put all
of Kentucky and most of Tennessee under
Union control
Shiloh
• Grant moved up the Tennessee River to attack
Corinth, Mississippi, cut the only Confederate
rail line connecting Mississippi and Western
Tennessee to the East
• April 6, 1862 Confederate forces attack Grant
at a small church named Shiloh
• Union troops were forced back
• Grant established a defensive line that
stopped repeated Confederate attacks
• After the first day of battle Grant’s
commanders advised retreat
• Reinforcements were on the way and Grant
refused to retreat
• The morning of the second day Grant
mounted an offensive
• Surprised the Confederate forces, the
Confederate General Beauregard retreated
• The Battle of Shiloh shocked the North and
the South
• 20,000 troops killed or wounded
• The most lost in any battle to date in the war
• Newspapers demanded Lincoln remove Grant
because of the heavy casualties
• Lincoln responded, “I can’t spare this man, he
fights”
War in the West
• Only one western state seceded, Texas
• Southern hopes of expanding slavery into the
Southwest were re-ignited by the war and
discovery of gold in Colorado- Confederacy
attempted to capture Colorado
• Texas attacked New Mexico and looked to
California and Arizona
• Confederate force led by General Henry H. Sibley
occupied Santa Fe and Albuquerque early in 1862
• Threat to the Southwest by the Confederacy
ended with a group of 950 miners and
adventurers who formed the Colorado Volunteer
Infantry Regiment- marched 400 miles from
Denver in 13 days thru snow and high windsstopped the unsuspecting Confederate troops at
the Battle of Glorieta Pass March 26-28, 1862
• This action along with efforts by California militia
kept Arizona and Utah from seizure by
Confederate sympathizers
• Kept the far West for the Union
• Kansas-Missouri border- brutal warfare
• Confederate William Quantrill’s Raiders attacked
Lawrence, Kansas predawn August, 1863
• Massacred 150 citizens and burned the town
• Indian Territory- southern Indian tribes sympathized
with Confederacy- angry over removal by federal
troops
• John Ross leader of the majority pro-Union Cherokee
fullbloods tried to claim neutrality- later in 1861
bordered by Confederate states and lacking support
from Washington signed a treaty with the Confederacy
• Confederacy wanted Indian support- offered
Indian people representation in the Confederate
Congress
• Many Indians fought for the South
• Union victories at Pea Ridge (northwestern
Arkansas) 1862 and Fort Gibson (in Indian
Territory) 1863 secured the area for the Union
• Did not stop dissension among Indian groups
• Ross captured in 1862 and held at Fort
Leavenworth, never returned to his tribe
• Post Civil War, the federal government used the
tribe’s wartime support for the Confederacy to
justify more land cessions
• In the West Indians found themselves caught up
in a wider war- Santee Sioux uprising in
Minnesota in August, 1862- same time McClellan
lost the Peninsular Campaign
• Whites saw the uprising as a Confederate plotdid not recognize the legitimate Sioux complaints
• In little over a month 500-800 white settlers and a
greater number of Sioux were killed
• 38 Indians were hanged in a mass execution in
Mankato on December 26, 1862- all Sioux were forced
out of Minnesota
• 1863 U.S. Army Colonel Kit Carson invaded Navajo
country in Arizona in retaliation for Indian Raids on U.S.
troops
• 8,000 Navajo were forced on the brutal “Long Walk” to
Bosque Redondo on the Pecos River in New Mexicoheld prisoner until a treaty was signed in 1868
McDowell’s Replacement
• While Grant was fighting in the West, the
Army of the Potomac attempted to capture
Richmond
• McDowell’s failure at the First Battle of Bull
Run led Lincoln to replace him with General
George McClellan and place him in command
of the Army of the Potomac
McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign
• Union forces arrived by ship at the mouth of
the James River southeast of Yorktown,
Virginia
• McClellan was to march up the peninsula to
Richmond
• McClellan too cautious, unwilling to attack
unless he had overwhelming strength over his
opponent
• It took McClellan 30 days to take Yorktown
• Confederate forces moved to defend
Richmond
• As McClellan advanced on Richmond he
allowed his forces to be divided by the
Chickahominy River
• Confederates attack under the command of
General Joe Johnston
• Johnston wounded in battle, replaced by
Robert E. Lee
• June, 1862 Lee started a series of offensive
battles against McClellan
• The Seven Days Battle, Lee could not defeat
the Union forces but did inflict heavy
casualties, forced McClellan to retreat across
the James River
• Lincoln ordered McClellan to withdraw his
troops to Washington
The Second Battle of Bull Run
• As McClellan retreated, Lee attacked Union
forces defending Washington
• The battle took place at Bull Run
• The South forced a Northern retreat
• Confederate troops 20 miles from Washington
• Lee crossed the Potomac River into Maryland
and an invasion of the North began
The Battle of Antietam
• Lee and Davis felt a northern invasion would
convince the North to accept Southern
independence
• A victory on Northern soil would help the South
gain recognition from the British and enable the
Peace Democrats to gain control of Congress in
the next election
• Lee fed his troops from the Northern farms and
hoped to draw Union troops out of Virginia
during the harvest season
• Lee learned McClellan was in pursuit, ordered
his troops to mass at Sharpsburg, Md.
• McClellan took position along Antietam Creek
• Sept. 17, 1862 McClellan ordered an attack
• The bloodiest one day battle in the war and
American history
• 6,000 killed, 16,000 wounded
• The Union did not break Lee’s lines
• Lee decided to retreat to Virginia due to the
heavy casualties
• This was an important Union victory
• The British were ready to step in to mediate
the war if Lee was victorious, planned to
recognize the Confederacy if the North
rejected mediation
• The British waited to see how the war
progressed
• The defeat of the South had a political impact
• Lincoln felt it was time to end slavery in the
South
The Emancipation Proclamation
• Union politicians were divided over the slave
issue
• Democrats opposed ending slavery
• Republicans split on the issue afraid of losing
the Border states
• Northern casualties rising, many in the North
felt slavery needed to end to punish the South
and make sacrifices of the soldiers worthwhile
• War was costing the Union $2.5 million daily
• Sept. 22, 1862 Lincoln announced he would issue
the Emancipation Proclamation
• Free all slaves in states still in active rebellion
after Jan. 1, 1863
• This did not affect the status of slaves in the
Border states
• Lincoln changed the focus of the war from
preserving the Union to a war of liberation for
slaves,
• Northern support for the war increased
Response to the Emancipation
Proclamation
• Lincoln pleased abolitionists by freeing slaves in areas
not under Union control
• Kept conservative support by exempting areas under
Union control and border states
• New Years Day hundreds of African Americans met
outside the White House and cheered Lincoln
• Free African Americans predicted the news would
encourage southern slaves to either flee to Union lines
or refuse to work for masters
• Both were already happening- African Americans
seized wartime changes to reshape white-black
relations in the South
• Abolitionists wanted more from Lincoln- wanted to end
slavery everywhere
• Reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony lobbied and petitioned for a constitutional
amendment to outlaw slavery
• Congress at Lincoln’s request sent to the states a
statement banning slavery throughout the U.S.
• Ratified by Union states in 1865, the statement became
the 13th Amendment
• Lincoln’s support for the amendment was a good
indicator of his feelings about slavery when he was
freed from military or political considerations
The effects of the war on Northern
industry
• The cost of the war kept the North and South
struggling to keep economies working
• South with little industry suffered from
inflation and shortages
• The North with developing industries and
supported by banks, quickly responded to
changes incurred because of the war
Southern Shortages
• Late 1862, Southern economy suffering
• Cotton farms converted to food production
• The collapse of the transportation system and
the presence of Union troops in important
agricultural regions caused severe food
shortages in the winter of 1862
• Food shortages hurt Southern morale
• Southern citizens question the sacrifices they
had to make
• Confederate soldiers began to desert to go
home and help their families
• The food shortages in the Spring of 1863 led
to riots
Union War Boom
• Economic growth in the North due to the war
• Industries supplied troops at the front with
clothing, munitions, and supplies
• Innovations in agriculture offset the loss of
men to work the fields
• Mechanical reapers and mowers made
farming possible with fewer workers
• Women filled labor shortages in the fields and
factories, in clothing and shoemaking
• New sewing machines and women in the
textile industry produced an abundance of
clothes for soldiers
• Industry profited from government contracts
African American Participation in the
Military
• The Emancipation Proclamation allowed African
Americans to serve in the Union Army
• Thousands enlisted
• Hoped that serving in the military would help
African Americans overcome discrimination
• 180,000 served, 9% of the army’s total soldiers
• 10-15,000 served in the Navy
• One of the first black regiments was the 54th
Massachusetts
• They fought at Fort Wagner at Charleston
Harbor, lost almost ½ of the regiment
• Newspaper accounts wrote of the heroism of
the 54th and answered the question as to
whether African Americans could make good
soldiers
• The units were segregated and led by a white
officer
• Frederick Douglass’s sons served
• Military service was not taken lightly by African Americans
• Victims of prejudice within the army- required to prove
themselves on the battlefield
• Performance of black soldiers under fire helped change the
minds of the Union army command
• ….”The bravery of the blacks….completely revolutionized
the sentiment of the army in regard to the employment of
negro troops.” Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana “I
heard prominent officers who formerly in private had
sneered at the idea of negroes fighting express themselves
after that as heartily in favor of it”
• Confederates hated and feared African American
soldiers
• Threatened to treat any captured black soldier as
an escaped slave, subject to execution
• 1864, Confederate soldiers massacred 262 black
soldiers at Fort Pillow Tennessee after they had
surrendered
• Large scale events like Fort Pillow were not
common- especially after Lincoln threatened
retaliation- small isolated events did occur
• Slaves in the South were happy to armed black
men- many former slaves- wearing the uniform of
the army of the Union
• “Wilmington, N.C.- people running the streets
shouting and praising God- could truly see what
we were fighting for
• African American soldiers faced unequal
treatment in the army
• Segregated in camp, assigned the worst jobs, paid
less than white soldiers- $10 a month instead of
$13
• Men of the 54th Massachusetts found ways to
protest unequal wages
• Refused to accept pay- served for free until
the army treated them as free men
• Protest was effective- June, 1864 the War
Department equalized wages of black and
white soldiers
• Army service of black men did help with
northern racism
• Massachusetts, area with the strongest
abolitionist sentiment enacted the first law
forbidding discrimination against African
Americans in public facilities
• San Francisco, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and New
York desegregated streetcars
• Ohio, California, Illinois repealed statutes that
banned black people from testifying court or
serving on juries
• Frederick Douglass saw that military service
changed the status of black men
• “Once let the black man get upon his person
the brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on
his button and musket on his shoulder and
bullets in his pockets,” Douglass said and
“there is no power on earth that can deny that
he has earned the right to citizenship.”
Military Life
• Soldiers on both sides experienced hardships
• Southern soldiers slept without blankets and
walked shoeless
• Northern troops killed and ate cattle they
encountered along the way, no bread or salt
• Soldiers had to eat fast; the food was tasteless
• Union meals; hardtack, potatoes, beans
flavored with salt pork
• Confederate meals; little coffee, bread made
from corn
• Soldiers ate fruit, vegetables taken or
purchased from farms along the way
Battlefield Medicine
• The Civil War produced a large number of
casualties
• The doctors were overwhelmed by the shear
number of the wounded
• Doctors had little understanding of infectious
germs
• Unsterilized instruments were used on patient
after patient
• Infection spread through the field hospitals
• Disease was a problem, in some cases
regiments lost half of their men to illness
before ever going into battle
• Crowded camp conditions, drinking water
unsanitary, illness commonplace, small pox
was deadly, as well as dysentery, typhoid, and
pneumonia
• Doctors amputated arms and legs to prevent
gangrene and other infections from spreading
to other body parts
Women and the War
• Women managed farms and businesses
• Women on the battlefield as nurses, inspired
by Florence Nightingale a British nurse
• 1861, Elizabeth Blackwell, first female
physician in the US started a training program
for nurses
• Her work led to the creation of the United
States Sanitary Commission
• The Commission provided medical assistance and
supplies to army camps and hospitals
• Tens of thousands of women volunteered to work
for the Commission, raising money to send
bandages, medicine, and food to army camps
• Southern women were encouraged to stay at
home, supported the troops by making bandages
and other supplies, founded small hospitals
• The Civil War was a turning point for the
nursing profession
• The courage and energy of women helped
break down the belief that women were
weaker than men
The Early Prisoner of War Policy
• Soldiers captured in battle faced terrible conditions
• In the early stages of the Civil War Generals of the United
States and the Confederacy held formal prisoner of war
exchanges
• July, 1862 Union General John Dix and Confederate General
D.H. Hill exchanged prisoners as followed; one general for
60 enlisted men, one colonel for 15 enlisted men, one
lieutenant for 4 enlisted men and one sergeant for 2
enlisted men
• held formal prisoner of war exchanges
• After the Emancipation Proclamation, the Confederacy
announced it would not exchange freed African Americans
• The Confederacy would re-enslave or execute
all African American troops
• In response Lincoln stopped all prisoner
exchanges
Military Prisons
• The North and the South experienced a
growing number of prisoners of war
• The care for prisoners was difficult, especially
for the South
• Conditions were bad in Northern prisons
• The South could not properly feed prisoners
due to food shortages
• Andersonville in Georgia, an open camp, no
shade, or shelter
• Overcrowding, lack of food, and disease killed
100 men a day during the summer of 1864
• 13,000 of 45,000 prisoners sent to
Andersonville died
• Henry Wirz, the commandant of the prison
was the only person executed after the war
for war crimes
Vicksburg
• After the fall of New Orleans and Memphis
the Union wanted Vicksburg in order to
control the Mississippi and cut the
Confederacy in two
• Vicksburg sat on the east bank of the
Mississippi River
• Grant attacked from the north, swampy area,
heavily wooded, rivers blocked his approach
• Grant moved his troops to the west side of the
river and marched south
• Move below the city cross the river and attack
from the south
• Grant sent Benjamin Grierson and 17,000 troops
on a cavalry raid through Mississippi to conceal
his troop movements
• Grierson went 600 miles in two weeks destroying
railroad track, burnt depots, and fought
skirmishes
• Grierson’s raid distracted Confederate forces
defending Vicksburg
• Allowed Grant to move his troops south of the
city
• Grant’s troops lived off the land, marched east
and captured Jackson, Mississippi and then
turned back on Vicksburg
• Grant drove the Confederate forces into
defensive positions at Vicksburg
• May, 1863 Grant ordered two assaults on
Vicksburg, both failed
• In order to take the city Grant laid siege
• Cut off food and supplies, bombarded the city
until the defenders surrendered
• July 4, 1863 the starving troops under the
Confederate commander at Vicksburg
surrendered, the Confederacy cut in two and
the Union controlled the Mississippi River
Gettysburg
• Dec. 1862 Union commander Ambrose
Burnside led assaults against Lee south of
Fredericksburg, Va.
• Union troops over 12,000 casualties
• Burnside’s failure led to his being replaced by
General Joe Hooker
• Hooker was defeated by Lee on the hills near
Fredericksburg and then again at the
Wilderness
• June 1863 Lee invades the North
• Marched into Pennsylvania, took livestock,
food , and clothing
• Hooker was replaced by General George
Meade
• Lee’s troops head into Gettysburg to find
shoes
• In Gettysburg they encountered Union cavalry
• The Confederate troops pushed the Union
troops out of town and into the hills south of
Gettysburg
• The main forces of both armies hurried to the
battle
• July 2, 1863 Lee attacked but the Union forces
held their lines
• July 3, 1863 Lee ordered 15,000 men under
the command of George Pickett to attack
• On the ridge the Union troops overwhelmed
them
• Lee rallied his troops and withdrew from
Gettysburg and retreated to Virginia
• Union 23,000 casualties, the Confederates
28,000
• Gettysburg was a turning point in the war
• The victory gave political strength to the
Republicans
• The victory also ensured the British would not
recognize the Confederacy
• The remainder of the war Lee fought
defensive battles and slowly gave ground to
the Union Army
Gettysburg Address
• Nov. 1863 Lincoln visited Gettysburg
• Dedicated a portion of the battlefield as a
military cemetery
• Lincoln explained the war was not between
regions but a fight for freedom and equality
Chickamauga
• Summer 1863- Union General William
Rosecrans forced the Confederates led by
General Braxton Bragg to evacuate
Chattanooga without a fight
• Rosecrans advanced, Bragg attacked at
Chickamauga Creek
• Sept. 9, 1863 Bragg broke the Union line
• Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga to be
surrounded by Confederate forces
The Battle of Chattanooga
• Lincoln sent a portion of Meade’s troops to
help Rosecrans
• 20,000 men and equipment arrived by rail
near Chattanooga
• Lincoln placed Grant in command of all forces
in the West
• Grant went to Chattanooga to command the
upcoming battle
• Late November Grant ordered a Union attack of
Confederate forces on Lookout Mt.
• Uphill charge, successfully drove the Southern
troops off the mountain
• Retreating Confederates joined with others at
Missionary Ridge
• Grant did not attack, risk too great
• Ordered General William Tecumseh Sherman to
attack the Confederates on the north end of the
ridge
• Sherman failed to break through, Grant
committed an additional 23,000 men under
the command of George Thomas
• Thomas was to make a frontal diversion attack
• Thomas overran the Confederate forces and
charged the steep hill
• The Confederates retreated and left
Chattanooga to the Union
Grant as Commander in Chief
By the spring of 1864 Grant had captured
Vicksburg, controlled the Mississippi River and
Chattanooga to give the Union control of
Eastern Tennessee
Georgia opened to invasion
Lincoln rewarded Grant by appointing him
General in Chief of the Union forces
Lincoln trusted Grant to win the war
Grant vs. Lee
• Spring 1864, Grant versus Lee
• Grant named Sherman to take over the war in
the West
• Grant engaged Lee first at the Wilderness,
battle lasted 2 days, then pushed to
Spotsylvania Courthouse for 11 days
• Grant’s battle plan, no rest to resupply and
reinforce, constant battle combat, advance,
retreat, dig defensive trenches day and nigh
• Grant could not break Lee’s lines at
Spotsylvania
• Advanced to Cold Harbor, a crossroads
northeast of Richmond
• Grant thought Lee’s troops weakened and
demoralized after relentless attacks
• Launched an all out attack
• Grant lost 7,000 men, Lee lost 1,500
Siege of Petersburg
• Grant was stopped by Lee at Cold Harbor
• Grant ordered General Phillip Sheridan to use
cavalry to raid north and west of Richmond to
distract Lee
• Grant moved his troops to Petersburg
• The city was protected by miles of barricades
and trenches 15 feet deep
• Grant’s troops exhausted and intimidated by
the fortifications
• Grant decided an assault was impossible set
siege to the city
Farragut attacks Mobile
• August 15, 1864 Farragut took 18 ships into
Mobile Bay past three Confederate forts
• As the fleet entered the bay a mine was hit
and the Union ship blew up
• The fleet came to a halt
• Farragut ordered the fleet full speed ahead
“Damn the torpedoes”
• Farragut’s fleet destroyed a Confederate Fleet
defending Mobile Bay
• Farragut did not take Mobile but did close the
Bay
• Blockade runners could no longer use any port
on the Gulf of Mexico
The Fall of Atlanta
• Sherman marched to Atlanta
• Union troops were sent south to cut roads and
railways leading into Atlanta
• The troops heated the railroad tracks and
twisted the rails (Sherman neckties)
• The Confederates under General John B. Hood
evacuated the city to avoid being trapped
• Sherman took Atlanta
• Sherman ordered a march across Georgia
• He ordered the citizens of Atlanta to leave the
city
• Sherman ordered everything in the city of
military value to be set afire
• The fire spread and 1/3rd of the city burnt
Sherman’s Total War
• Sherman was determined to wage total war in
the South
• Take the war to hostile armies and hostile
people, to end the war there was no choice
but to make the old, young, rich, and poor feel
war
Sherman’s March to the Sea
• November 15, 1864 Sherman started his
march to the sea
• Cut a path of destruction through Georgia in
places 60 miles wide
• Plundered homes, burned crops, killed cattle
• Dec. 21, 1864 Sherman’s troops reached the
sea and captured Savannah
• Sherman turned north to South Carolina
• Many thought SC started the war
• The troops burned and pillaged everything in
front of them
• 12 towns were set afire, including Columbia
the capital of South Carolina
• The march demoralized Southerners
The Election of 1864
• Lincoln felt he would be defeated in the election,
he did know the war was almost over
• The Democrats nominated General George
McClellan to run against Lincoln
• McClellan popular despite his dismissal by Lincoln
early in the war
• McClellan promised to stop hostilities and open
negotiations with the South to restore the Union
peacefully
• News of the fall of Atlanta renewed Northern
support for the war
• Lincoln won by a large margin
• Lincoln saw his re-election as a mandate to
end slavery permanently
The 13th Amendment
• To end slavery the US Constitution had to be
amended
• The Republicans in Congress appealed to the
Democrats who opposed slavery to help
• January 31, 1865 the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution banned slavery, just barely
passed the House of Representatives and was
sent to the states for ratification
• The 13th amendment banned slavery and
forced servitude except in the case of
punishment
• Became law December 6, 1865
Appomattox Courthouse
• At Petersburg Lee knew the end was near
• April 1, 1865 Sheridan cut the last rail line into
Petersburg at the Battle of Five Forks
• The next night Lee withdrew from Petersburg
• Lee moved his troops west
• Lee’s retreat failed, Sheridan and his cavalry
cut Lee off and blocked the road at
Appomattox Courthouse
• Lee surrendered to Grant April 9, 1865
• Grant ensured that no Confederate soldiers
would be charged with treason by the United
States
• Grant let the defeated Confederates take their
horses to put in crops and carry their families
through the next winter
• Grant offered very generous terms of
surrender
Lincoln’s Assassination
• The war was over, Lincoln announced plans to
bring the Southern states back into the Union
• Spoke of African Americans in Southern state
governments
• John Wilkes Booth, an actor, heard this and
stated that it was the last speech Lincoln
would make
• Advisors warned Lincoln not to appear in
public unescorted
• Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s theater to
see a play
• Booth slipped behind Lincoln and shot him in
the back of the head
• Lincoln transformed himself from a rustic,
unsophisticated man to the Union’s greatest
champion
• Tens of thousands of men, women, and
children lined the railroad tracks across the
nation as Lincoln’s body was transported back
to Springfield, Illinois
• The Northern victory strengthened the power
of the federal government over the states
• It changed American society, ended slavery
• Left the South socially and economically
devastated