OR THE WAR OF

NORTHERN AGGRESSION

The American Civil War

North vs. South in 1861

North South

Advantages

Dis-advantages

North's advantages over the South

1. Potential fighting and working force: 20 million citizens, Population: 2.5:1

2. They were much wealthier, about 3:1 the amount of profits were produced.

a. Factory production: 10:1, Iron production: 15:1, and Coal production: 38:1

3. Transportation--superior in every way

a. Railroad mileage: 7:1 and Naval tonnage: 25:1

4. Technology-Lincoln was a fan of the latest and the greatest.

South's advantages over the North

1. Fighting a defensive war. Local support and familiarity with terrain

2. Moral advantage: They were seeking independence

3. Short communication lines and a friendly population

4. United public in contrast to the North. Non-slaveholders eager to volunteer to fight

5. Experienced officer corps--many veterans of the Mexican-American War joined the Confederacy

6. Cotton (24:1 advantage over North.--necessary for textile factories of England and France

Early Strategies of the Opposing Sides

North

1. Capture Richmond and force surrender 2. Expel Confederates from border states 3. Control the Mississippi River 4. Blockade southern ports and stop cotton shipments

South

1. Capture Washington, D.C. 2. Control border states and expel Union troops from South3. Gain England's support

Cartoon of Scott's

'Anaconda Plan,' 1861

I. Northern Domestic Issues

A. Prosperity and expansion--the war provided a stimulant to Northern economic interests

B. Legislation Passed - (Without the Southern

Democrats in Congress)

1. 1861 – Morrill Tariff Act

2. 1862 – Homestead Act

3. 1862 – Legal Tender Act (greenbacks)

4. 1862 – Morrill Land Grant Act

5. 1862 – Emancipation Proclamation(1/1/1863)

6. 1863 – Pacific Railway Act

7. 1863 – National Bank Act

C. Financing the war

1. First income tax (1861): 3% on incomes above $800 2. Borrowing. $6.2 billion through the issuance of bonds

3. Greenbacks--paper currency not supported by specie reserve. Value fluctuated with success of Northern armies. Caused serious inflation problems.

D. Raising the Union army

1. Lincoln issues call for 75,000 volunteers in 1861 to supplement the 16,000-man standing army.

Hire a Substitute: Buy Your Way Out of Military Service

2. Although volunteer call succeeded at first, by 1863 Congress turned to a draft to fill units. States could avoid draft by filling quotas of volunteers.

a. Draft opposed by Peace Democrats, laborers, and immigrants.

E. Lincoln's enormous political problems

1. Seen as inexperienced and unfit, he was challenged by members of his own cabinet, including Chase, Stanton, and Seward.

“Mr. Lincoln keeps a fountain of first-class practical telling wisdom. I do not dwell on the supposed failures of his government; he has shown, I sometimes think, an almost supernatural tact in keeping the ship afloat at all, with head steady, not only not going down, and now certain not to, but with proud and resolute spirit, and flag flying in sight of the world, menacing and high as ever. I say never yet captain, never ruler, had such a perplexing, dangerous task as his, the past two years. I more and more rely upon his idiomatic western genius, careless of court dress or court decorums.”

Walt Whitman, 1863

2. Expansion of war powers

a. Call for troops to repress rebellion without declaration of war b. Proclamation of naval blockade without Congressional approval

c. Suspension of habeas corpus

d. Arrest of unfriendly newspaper editors

e. 13,000 political opponents arrested for varying periods

f. Gen’l Burnside attempted to restrain all Confederate sympathizers residing in the Department of Ohio by issuing General Order 38.

“The habit of declaring sympathy for the enemy will not be allowed in this department. Persons committing such offenses will be at once arrested.”

Clement Vallandigham, a Peace Democrat (called Copperheads), immediately criticized Burnside and

Lincoln. He was arrested and tried. He was not executed or imprisoned, instead he was “exiled” to the Confederacy for the rest of the war. (He made

his way to Canada and ran for the Senate)

3. Presidential Election of 1864

a. Abolitionists urged the Republicans to choose a candidate who would wage total war against the South b. Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson as his running mate to attract "War Democrats" and formed the Union Party.

c. Democrats nominated McClellan and a platform which called for a truce and settlement with the South.

1864 Presidential Election

d. Lincoln once again won in the electoral college, but only had a 400,000 vote majority in the popular vote.

II. Southern Domestic Issues

A. There was a struggle for power between strong-willed states in the South and the Confederate government; they felt the states had more rights.

1. States like Georgia thought the Confederacy was taking over the states’ rights and refused to pay taxes.

2. Texas thought the draft was appalling and refused to send soldiers.

B. They printed money, but the inflation was extreme during the last years of the war.

1. By 1864 a bar of soap sold for $5 and an regular suit of clothes was $270.

C. The Confederacy needed the strong support of its citizens and volunteer soldiers.

1. Bread riots in 1863 were caused by lack of food and inflation.

2. 1864 soldiers were deserting and the citizens were only looking to protect themselves.

III. Foreign Issues

A. Relations with England

1. English support for the Confederacy

a. Upper class felt socially close to the Southern plantation aristocracy, and needed cotton.

2. English support for the Union

a. The middle class hated slavery and supported any country without slavery.

b. The Union threatened war if any country officially recognized the existence of the Confederate States of America (no countries did.)

Secretary of State William Seward, far right, with British Minister Lord Lyons, sitting third from right, and other international diplomats at Trenton Falls, NY.

3. Trent Affair (November 1861.--American warships stopped a British ship and removed two Confederate diplomats.

a. Britain threatened war unless they were released. b. Sec. of State Seward ordered the men released, although Northern sentiment opposed backing down

B. Relations with France

1. Union defeats in 1861 and 1862 convinced France that the South would win.

2. France placed Archduke Maximilian on the Mexican throne in challenge to Monroe Doctrine.

3. Lincoln delayed both France and England's recognition of the Confederacy by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Ft. Sumter under Confederate flag April 4, 1861

IV. Chronology of the War Spring 1861

Lincoln’s election in 1860 and his inauguration in 1861 sparked fears among the South that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. 7 states immediately seceded and 4 more seceded after Ft. Sumter in April of 1861.

East 1861

West 1861

1st Battle of Bull Run July 1861

Judith Carter Henry, 84 or 85 years old and bedridden, refused to leave her upstairs bedroom as the First Battle of Bull Run was fought on the hill surrounding her home. Snipers used the house; Judith Henry was killed by a bullet meant for the snipers. She was the first civilian killed at First Bull Run, July 21, 1861. The Second Battle of Bull Run was also fought on this hill. (Also called the First and Second Battles of Manassas.)

1st Battle of Bull Run July 1861

Union Confederate

Commanders

Irvin McDowell Joseph E. JohnstonP.G.T. Beauregard

Strength

35,000 32,500

Casualties

2,896 (460 killed, 1,124 wounded, 1,312 captured/missing)

1,982 (387 killed, 1,582 wounded, 13 missing)

Location: Northern VirginiaResult: Confederate victory - It psyched out the North

Surprising victory for the South. It demoralized the North and made them realize that this war would be longer than a single battle.

McClellan: I Can Do It All!

East 1862

West 1862

The Monitorvs.

the Merrimac

The Battle of the Ironclads March, 1862

Battle of Shiloh April 1862

Portrait of Pvt. Sampson Altman, Jr., Company C, 29th Regiment Georgia Volunteers, C.S.A.

Battle of Shiloh April 1862

Union Confederate

Commanders

Ulysses S. Grant,Don Carlos Buell

Albert Sidney JohnstonP.G.T. Beauregard

Strength

Army of West Tennessee (48,894), Army of the Ohio (17,918)

Army of Mississippi (44,699)

Casualties

13,047: 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, 2,885 captured/missing

10,699: 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, 959 captured/missing

Location: Tennessee Result: Union victory

Grant wins, barely, and the Confederates were forced to retreat from the bloodiest battle in U.S. history up to that time, ending their hopes that they could block the Union invasion of northern Mississippi and the Mississippi River.

Battle for New Orleans Apr-May 1862

Union Confederate

Commanders

David G. FarragutBenjamin Butler

Mansfield Lovell

Strength

Department of the Gulf Department No. 1

Casualties (no reported data)

0 0

Location: New Orleans, LA Result: Union victory

With this victory the Union gained the vital port of New Orleans, which controls access to the Mississippi River.

Confederate Draft Spring 1862

The Confederate States of America instituted conscription in the Spring of 1862.

Resistance was both widespread and violent, with comparisons made between conscription and slavery. Both sides permitted conscripts to hire substitutes.

The first Confederate conscription law also applied to men between18 and 35.

A revision approved 27 Sept. 1862, raised the age to 45; 5 days later the legislators passed the expanded Exemption Act.

The Conscription Act of Feb. 1864 called all men between 17 and 50. Conscripts accounted for one-fourth to one-third of the Confederate armies east of the Mississippi between Apr. 1864 and early 1865.

Battle of Antietam September 1862

Battle of Antietam September 1862

Union Confederate

Commanders

George B. McClellan Robert E. Lee

Strength

87,000 45,000

Casualties

12,401 (2,108 killed, 9,540 wounded, 753 captured/missing)

10,316 (1,546 killed, 7,752 wounded, 1,018 captured/missing)

Location: Near Sharpsburg, Maryland Result: Tactically inconclusive; strategic Union victory

Antietam was the first major battle in the Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. McClellan’s refusal to pursue Lee after the battle resulted in his dismissal later.

Emancipation Proclamation Winter 1862

The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln .

The first one, in September of 1862, declared the freedom of all slaves in territories of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863, and the second one, issued on January 1, 1863, said the specific territories where it applied.

This was a threat more than a punishment by Lincoln because he could not enforce the terms of the proclamation.

The Emancipation ProclamationJanuary 1, 1863

…"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States … in time of actual armed rebellion …designate as the States … Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, …Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service…

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Emancipation in 1863

African-American Recruiting Poster

Winter 1862

Approximately 180,000 African Americans comprising 163 units served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and many more African Americans served in the Union Navy. Both free African-Americans and runaway slaves joined the fight.

In actual numbers, African American soldiers comprised 10% of the entire Union Army. Losses among African Americans were high, and from all reported casualties, approximately one-third of all African Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives during the Civil War.

CT regiment

Casualty list of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment from the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, July 16-18, 1863

Shown here is one of the 54th's casualty lists with the names of 116 enlisted men who died at Fort Wagner. Of the 600 men that charged Fort Wagner, 272 were killed, wounded, or captured.

Veterans of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry at the dedication of the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the men of the 54th, May 31, 1897

Sgt. Henry Stewart, Company E, 54th Massachusetts InfantryCourtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

African-Americans in Civil War Battles

Battle of Fredericksburg Winter 1862

Union Confederate

Commanders

Ambrose E. Burnside Robert E. Lee

Strength

Army of the Potomac ~114,000 engaged Army of Northern Virginia ~72,500 engaged

Casualties

12,653 (1,284 killed, 9,600 wounded, 1,769 captured/missing)

5,377 (608 killed, 4,116 wounded, 653 captured/missing)

Location: Near Fredericksburg, VirginiaResult: Confederate victory

This was one of the most one-sided battles of the war. The Union Army suffered terrible casualties in futile frontal assaults against the Confederate defenders on the hill behind the city. This ended their campaign against the Confederate capital of Richmond.

Battle of Fredericksburg Winter 1862

East 1863

West 1863

Battle of Chancellorsville April –May 1863

Union Confederate

Commanders

Joseph Hooker Robert E. LeeStonewall Jackson

Strength

133,868 60,892

Casualties

17,197 (1,606 killed, 9,672 wounded, 5,919 missing)

12,764 (1,665 killed, 9,081 wounded, 2,018 missing)

Location: Near Fredericksburg, VirginiaResult: Confederate victory

The superior tactical skills of the Confederate leaders Lee and Jackson plus Hooker's timid performance in combat combined to result in a significant Union defeat. The Army of the Potomac's lack of competent leadership doomed its forces, as in earlier campaigns of the war. Stonewall Jackson was lost to friendly fire, a loss that Lee likened to "losing my right arm.”

Battle of Chancellorsville April –May 1863

Union draft Summer 1863

Resistance to the draft touched off the New York Draft Riots in July 1863.

Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests degraded into civil disorder directed against African Americans.

The city rioted for a week. Over 100 civilians were killed and 300 were injured. The estimated damages were around 1.5 million.

The military was called in to restore order to the city.

Recruiting Irish Immigrants in NYC

NYC Draft Riots, (July 13-16, 1863)

West Virginia secedes from Virginia

When the state convention at Richmond passed an ordinance of secession…it was as valid an act for the people of Virginia as was ever passed by a representative body. The legally expressed decision of the majority was the true voice of the state. When, therefore, disorderly persons in the northwest counties assembled and declared the ordinance of secession "to be null and void," they rose up against the authority of the state. . . . The subsequent organization of the state of West Virginia and its separation from the state of Virginia were acts of secession. Thus we have, in their movements, insurrection, revolution and secession. . . . To admit a state under such a government is entirely unauthorized, revolutionary, subversive of the constitution and destructive of the Union of States.

Jefferson Davis, 1881

Siege of Vicksburg May to July 1863

Siege of Vicksburg May to July 1863

Union Confederate

Commanders

Ulysses S. Grant John C. Pemberton

Strength

77,000 Over 30,000

Casualties

4,855 32,697 (29,495 surrendered)

Location: Vicksburg, MississippiResult: Union Victory

This was the final significant battle to gain control of the Mississippi River. In a series of skilled maneuvers, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his army crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army to defend Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant then besieged the city from May to July of 1863, until it surrendered, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union.

Battle of Gettysburg July 1863

Battle of Gettysburg July 1863

Union Confederate

Commanders

George G. Meade Robert E. Lee

Strength

93,921 71,699

Casualties

23,055(3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured/missing)

23,231(4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured/missing)

Location: Gettysburg, PennsylvaniaResult: Union Victory

This battle is frequently cited as the war's turning point. Union Gen. George Meade's army defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army, ending Lee's invasion of the North.

Said The New York Times: “Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along streets, he has done something very like it.”

Gettysburg Address November 1863

It was delivered at the dedication of a cemetery in Gettysburg four and a half months after the battle.

Lincoln's address becomes known as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln talked about the principles of human equality and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens.

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here, have, this far, so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that, government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

East 1864

West 1864

Prison Campat Point Lookout,

MD for Confederate soldiers

Built to hold 10,000.

Had almost 50,000 at one time.

On 17 April 1864, General Grant ordered that no more Confederate prisoners were to be paroled or exchanged until there were released a sufficient number of Union officers and men to equal the parolees at Vicksburg and Port Hudson and unless the Confederate authorities would agree to make no distinction whatsoever between White and Black prisoners.

Prisoners of War

Prison Camp at Andersonville, GA for Union soldiers

Built to hold 10,000.

Had over 32,000 at one time.

Sherman’s March to the Sea 1864

"We cannot change the hearts and minds of those people of the South, but we can make war so terrible ... [and] make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.“

William Tecumseh Sherman

Sherman’s March to the Sea 1864

Union Confederate

Commanders

William T. Sherman William Hardee

Strength

62, 000 13,000

Casualties

200 approx. 2000 approx.

Location: From Atlanta to Savannah, GeorgiaResult: Union Victory

Sherman's "total war" methods brought a level of destruction upon civilians rarely seen since the Middle Ages. He started open warfare upon civilian populations.

The Progression of the War: 1861-1865

East 1865

West 1865

Siege of Petersburg June 1864 to April 1865

Union Confederate

Commanders

Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee

Strength

67,000 – 125,000 average of 52,000

Casualties

53,386 ~32,000

Location: Petersburg, Virginia (near Richmond)Result: Union victory

General Grant’s army assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully and then constructed trench lines that eventually extended over 30 miles around the eastern and southern outskirts of the city. Petersburg was crucial to the supply of Confederate Gen. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond.Lee finally yielded and abandoned both cities in April 1865, leading to his retreat and surrender at Appomattox.

Siege of Petersburg June 1864 to April 1865

Richmond falls and is destroyed by Union troops April 2, 1865

Lee’s Army Surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse April 9, 1865

1. The Grant-Lee agreement served as a signal that the South had lost the war and most other surrenders offered the same terms.2. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army—surrenders to Sherman on April 26th.3. Jefferson Davis captured in Georgia on May 10th.4. Johnson doesn’t officially declare the war over until August of 1866.

Mary Custis Lee remarked about her husband that "General Lee is not the Confederacy."

The terms of the surrender:a. Confederate soldiers would have to turn in their riflesb. Soldiers were immediately paroled and could return homec. They could keep their horses or mules and were given rations.

Grant recorded in his memoirs an account of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

“When I had left camp that morning I had not expected so soon the result that was then taking place, and consequently was in rough garb. I was without a sword, as I usually was when on horseback on the field, and wore a soldier’s blouse for a coat, with the shoulder straps of my rank to indicate to the army who I was. When I went into the house I found General Lee. We greeted each other, and after shaking hands took our seats. I had my staff with me, a good portion of whom were in the room during the whole of the interview.

What General Lee’s feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and

had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us ...We soon fell into a conversation about old army times. He remarked that he remembered me very well in the old army; and I told him that as a matter of course I remembered him perfectly, but from the difference in our rank and years (there being about sixteen years’ difference in our ages),

I had thought it very likely that I had not attracted his attention sufficiently to be remembered by him after such a long interval. Our conversation grew so pleasant that I almost forgot the object of our meeting. After the conversation had run on in this style for some time, General Lee called my attention to the object of our meeting, and said that he had asked for this interview for the purpose of getting from me the terms I proposed to give his army.”

Casualties on Both Sides

Civil War Casualtiesin Comparison to Other Wars

The Grand Review of the Army in Washington D.C., May 1865.

President Johnson organized a formal review of Federal soldiers in the nation’s capital in order to commemorate the service and sacrifices of the Union armies.

Ford’s Theater (April 14, 1865)

Major Rathbone and his fiancé Clara joined the First Family when

the Grants cancelled.

The Assassination

The Trifecta

Lewis Paine- attacked Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Seward.

George Azterodt- was assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Now He Belongs to the Ages!

Booth, now traveling with David Herold, arrives at Dr. Samuel Mudd’s house in southern Maryland. Dr. Mudd sets Booth’s broken leg.

The ManhuntExile in the

Swamps“After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased by gunboats till I was forced to return wet, cold, and starving, with every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why? For doing what Brutus was honored for.”

John Wilkes Booth

Capture Trial and Execution