Thanks to:Susan M. Pojer

Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

Following Lincoln’s election in 1860, seven southern states seceded from the Union. Remind us why.

These states formed the

Confederate States of America,

electing former Mississippi

Senator Jefferson Davis as

President, and located their

nation’s capital in Montgomery,

Alabama.

The question for the U.S. government was “What should be done with these states?”

Some argued that the U.S.

should let them go. Good riddance!

The President thought otherwise.

Lincoln believed states did not have the Constitutional right to secede.

Furthermore, secession caused numerous potential problems:

1. Sharing of national debt?2. Splitting territories out West?3. What should be done with fugitive slaves?4. What did secession mean for the experiment of American democracy?

Lincoln would not start a war over

these issues. He said as much in his

first inaugural address. If civil war

was to come, it would have to be the CSA that started it.

That war came at 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861 at Ft. Sumter in Charleston S.C. What was the

immediate cause of the “battle?”

In response to this “act of war” Lincoln issued a call for 75,000

volunteer troops.

The southern response was more secession as VA, AK, NC, and TN joined the CSA. The Confederates then

moved their capital to Richmond, VA.

Both sides began to prepare for war. Who was going to win?

Both sides attempted to develop a strategy to achieve their goals.

Lincoln, and his military, advisors had one immediate goal.

Lincoln’s best general in

1861, Winfield Scott,

developed the three piece “Anaconda

Plan” for the Union.

#1 Scott proposed to use the dominant US navy to blockade the

South. Why?

#2 Next, the navy would take the Mississippi River and split the

Confederacy.

#3 While that was going on, the army would march from Washington

and take Richmond.

As we will see, parts one and two were relatively easy

to achieve compared with part three.

Confederate president Jefferson

Davis seemingly

had the harder task.

The Confederates hoped to take a

page from George Washington during the

Revolution. They didn’t need to win, they just needed

to not lose.

The Confederacy also hope to encourage the border states to secede giving the South a huge

increase in men and in industrial capabilities.

Confederate strategy rested

most squarely upon acquiring a

European ally. However, several factors made this

unlikely.

The majority of Britain’s population

had read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and would not support a government that

perpetuated slavery.

The South believed they had an ace up their sleeve. They were wrong.

1. British warehouses had a surplus of cotton due to large crops grown between 1857 and 1860.

2. As the Union invaded the South and captured cotton they sold it to Europe.

3. Egypt and India ramped up production of cotton of their own which was purchased by Britain.

4. Europe wanted wheat and corn from the North more than it wanted cotton from the South.

While the vast majority of men fighting for the

Union were volunteers, the United States

implemented the first conscription, or draft, in U.S. history

in 1863.

Riots broke out over

the draft in New York in July of

1863. What were

the protestors

angry about?

How did the Confederate draft compare with the conscription in the

Union?

Both sides also had to find a way to pay for

their massive war efforts. Union and

Confederate soldiers needed to be fed, armed equipped,

housed, and paid. None of that stuff

came cheap.

To pay these costs the Union:

1. Increased taxes on tobacco and alcohol.

2. Passed the nation’s first income tax.

3. Passed the Morrill Tariff Act increasing the tariff 5-10%.

To pay these costs the Union:

4. Issued “greenbacks” a national paper currency.

5. Sold over $ 2 billion in government bonds.

6. Established the National Banking system in 1863 to help distribute the national paper money.

To pay these costs the Confederacy:

1. Attempted to collect duties on imported goods. However the Anaconda Plan limited this.

To pay these costs the Confederacy:

2. Sold over $ 400 million in bonds.

3. Imposed a national tax on farm products, although the emphasis on states rights limited this as well.

To pay these costs the Confederacy:

4. Printed over $1 billion in increasingly worthless paper money. The Confederacy suffered over 4000% inflation as a result.

The Union economy expanded as a direct result of the war.

Increased tariffs and wartime

demands allowed for

the growth of a

“millionaire” class of wealthy

industrialists.

A continued increase in

mechanization, both in the factory and on the farm, allowed for

increased production despite a dramatic decrease

in labor as men went off to war.

Other factory jobs were increasingly filled by women. They also found

employment working for the

U.S. government largely in

secretarial or clerking jobs.

Women also proved their worth on the field of battle in medical positions.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell Dorothea Dix Clara Barton

Over the course of the war Lincoln greatly expanded the power of the president:

- He suspended the writ of habeas corpus.

- He imposed martial law in southern cities like Baltimore and New Orleans which were taken by Union forces.

- Arrested citizens without probable cause.

- Shut down newspapers that criticized the government.

As the war progressed, the business of the U.S. Congress continued.

- Morrill Act (1862): Gave federal land to states, who would then sell that land and fund state colleges to teach agricultural science.

- Homestead Act (1862): Gave 160 acres to any settler who would live on it and “improve” it for no less than 5 years.

Overall, it seemed as if the Union had

the larger advantages.

Yet the Confederacy, largely due to the genius of

Robert E. Lee, would

make things interesting.