A Divided Nation

Unit 6

vocabulary• Anaconda Plan – The strategy during the Civil War to

blockade goods to the South• Blockade runners – low-lying steamships; painted gray to

match the sea, ran supplies through blockades during the War

• Conscription – compulsory drafting of people to war; military draft

• Decree – an order legislated by a ruler or government authority

• Desert – to leave without permission, as in a soldier leaving the army

• Distiller – someone who brews homemade alcohol• Ironclads – ships heavily armored with iron• Subjugation – bringing a group of people under the control

of another

Theme 1: Civil War Begins

Tension Rises• 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President• South Carolina secedes from the Union• January 1861, five other southern states secede• Texas leaves in February• Seven states formed Confederate States of

America in March• Jefferson Davis elected as President of the CSA

Theme 1

• NC is divided: Union vs. Confederacy• Those for: plantation owners who wanted to

preserve and expand plantation agriculture, which included maintaining slavery. Lincoln seen as a threat

• Those against: most NC residents were independent farmers

• Only one in four NC farmers owned slaves• Only 4K owned more than 20 slaves (considered

plantations)

Theme 1

• NC was willing to wait and see what Lincoln would do regarding slavery

• Said he did not want it to expand, did NOT call for its immediate end

• April 12, 1861, Confederates opened fire at Ft. Sumter, SC

• Lincoln ordered state militias to join the US Army• NC’s governor led the charge to secede.• Strong Union loyalists did not want to fight fellow

Southerners• May 20, 1861 NC secedes from the Union, (next to last)

Theme 1

The First Battles

• Both sides thought war would be brief

Battle of Manassas

• Union confident of victory, citizens came to watch

• Union attack was stopped and pushed back causing 5000 killed or wounded

Theme 1

The Anaconda Plan• Union forces would set up a naval blockade• Union soldiers would capture trading cities on

the coast and Mississippi River ports.• Rather than invade, surround and block any

contact with the outside world• Southern economy was agricultural (they did not

manufacture goods)• No trade = no supplies

Theme 1

Blockades Squeeze North Carolina

• Union troops on the Outer Banks in August 1861

• New Bern captured and used as Union HQ

• Free blacks and escaped slaves flocked to coastal towns

• Assisted the Union troops with war effort

Theme 1: Homework Questions

• What was NC’s reaction to secession?

• What caused NC to finally secede?

• What was the Union’s plan to stop the War?

• How did this plan effect NC?

• How were blacks involved in the war?

Theme 2: War and Politics

Emancipation• Early on Lincoln did not want to alienate border

states who were slave states• Issued the Emancipation Proclamation, January

1, 1863.– Declared all slaves in Confederate States free– Blacks can become Union soldiers– Did NOT free slaves in border states

• Southern states ignored• Northern soldiers now fighting for Union and

slavery, mixed responses

Theme 2

North Carolina’s Black Regiments

• Troops recruited and trained in New Bern

• Around 5K black troops from NC served in the Union army

• Around 200K black troops served in the Union army during the Civil War

Theme 2

Hardships on the Home Front

• Union blockades isolated South from trade with the rest of the world

• Citizens asked to make sacrifices

• Confederacy is seen as a burden to most NC residents who are small farmers

Theme 2

Conscription and Taxes• Conscription (military draft) 18 – 35 were drafted

into the army for 3 years• Tax-in-kind Farmers gave up a portion of their

harvest to feed troops• Small farmers most effected• Depended on family for farm labor• Subsistence farming, grew what they ate• Shortages caused increases in prices

Theme 2

• Laws did not seem fair:• Preserving plantation agriculture helped the

wealthy• Ordinary citizens were effected the most• Planters with more than 20 slaves were exempt

from conscription• Could hire someone to fight in your place• Zebulon B. Vance, NC governor during the War

said conscription made this “A rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight”

Theme 2

Tar Heels Keep Fighting– Tar Heel nickname in colonial era when NC

produces lots of tar and pitch– Others say NC soldiers stuck to their positions

as if they had tar on their heels– After the war used as a negative term for

barefoot, uneducated backwoodsmen– NC slogan after the Civil War: NC troops were

“first at Bethel, farthest at Gettysburg and last at Appomattox.”

Theme 2

Politics at Home• Zebulon Vance, Conservative Party• Whigs and Democrats who opposed secession

and were unhappy with the War• Vance caught between demands of Confederate

government and concerns of the state’s citizens• NC sent more troops to the Confederate army

than any other southern state but none of the leaders were from NC

• Vance corresponded and fought with Jefferson Davis to protect NC as much as possible.

Theme 2

Struggling to Survive• Women and children on small farms suffered the

most; – Had to do all the farm work and provide for families– Wrote letters to husbands and/or Gov. Vance

• Women in towns faired better; – Could find work cooking, sewing uniforms– Nursing became a popular profession– Thousands of sick and wounded soldiers

overwhelmed hospitals in the Union and Confederacy.

Theme 2: Homework Questions

• What new cause did Union soldiers fight for after January 1, 1863?

• Did the Emancipation Proclamation call for the end of slavery in all states?

• What was the southern states response?• What two issues hurt NC’s small farmers the most?• How did plantation owners avoid the draft?• What two groups was Zebulon Vance caught between

while he was governor of NC?• How were women on farms and in cities changed by the

War?

Theme 3: The War Comes to an End

• Soldiers begin to leave• Worrying about family more than war, soldiers

began to desert the army and head home• NC had large numbers of deserters• Had the most troops• Fought in VA, which was close to home• NC provided more troops to the Confederacy

than any other state• Deserters received help from Quakers• Many fled to the mountains where people were

willing to help deserters

Theme 3A Turn for the Worse• Confederacy began to run out of soldiers and resources• War was unpopular on both sides• Confederacy hoped a few big victories would convince Union

leaders to stop fighting– Gettysburg

• Lee goes to Pennsylvania to take the war to Union territory• Single deadliest battle in US history (3 days)• Inspired Gettysburg address one of Lincoln’s greatest speeches• Crushed Lee’s hopes of a quick end to the War

– Vicksburg• Grant captured Vicksburg• the last open port on the Mississippi River• Mississippi River is under control of the Union forces• Northern morale rises, Southern hopes fall

Theme 3

A Movement for Peace• After Union victories some in NC called for

peace• NC was the only Confederate state with an

active peace movement during the War• William Woods Holden proposed keeping

slavery but discussing a return to the Union• Runs against Vance for governor in 1864 but

loses.

Theme 3

• Nearing the End• Confederate army lost men to injury and

disease, no one was left to enlist• Union moving through Confederate territory• Confederates desperate; begin to discuss

allowing slaves to fight• Ft. Fisher falls in January 1865• Union General William Tecumseh Sherman

enters NC

Theme 3

• The March to the Sea• Sherman’s “total war”• Destroy military targets and break civilian morale• Sherman told troops to destroy everything in

their path – homes, crops, livestock and more• Burned Atlanta and marched to the Savannah,

destroying everything along the way• Lived on what they could take and destroyed the

rest• Sherman’s march becomes highly resented for

generations!

Theme 3

• The Final Battle• Bentonville, March 19, 20, 21• Confederate General Johnston attacked

Sherman’s forces• 20K to 60K troops, Confederates overwhelmed• War’s last major battle• April 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses

S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia• Two weeks later Johnston surrenders to

Sherman outside Durham, NC

Theme 3

• Sadness and Joy

• Confederates mourn defeat

• Cities like New Bern, with large black populations, celebrated

• Only 5 days after Lee’s surrender Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

Theme 3

• Effects of the War• Over 40K men in NC were killed or died of

disease• Most soldiers = most deaths in Confederacy• Former soldiers wanted their old lives back• Former slaves were anxious to start their new

lives• NC was in a state of ruined roads, farms, and

economy.