US_Ch2_background-info

=**Civil War and Reconstruction Background Information**=

By 1860, at least half of the nation thought slavery was wrong and should be abolished while the South was committed to slavery and nothing could convince them otherwise. The South was lacking power in the Electoral College to elect a president outright and needed to continue with a Northern man with Southern principles. The Democrats needed to win the South and some Northern states. A pro-slavery candidate wouldn't get many (if any) Northern votes and a free soiler from the North would struggle in the South. Martin Van Buren's party structure was breaking down since ideology (slavery) was playing a role rather than party discipline.
 * __Pivotal Election of 1860__:**

Parties began to nominate their candidates. The Democrat Party met in April 1860. **Stephen Douglas** had presidential aspirations and was seeking the Democrat Party nomination. He was a supporter of popular sovereignty. However, Southern Democrats wanted a candidate that favored the Dred Scott decision and walked out of the convention in Charleston, SC. In June, the party reconvened in Baltimore and went with Stephen Douglas on the platform of popular sovereignty (remember the Dred Scott decision ruled against popular sovereignty and many Southerners didn't like slavery depending on a vote...they wanted slavery to be permanent). Southern Democrats held their own convention in Richmond, VA and nominated **John Breckinridge**, the sitting Vice President who supported the Dred Scott decision and slavery. Moderate Southerners and former Whigs who didn't want the nation to fall apart formed the Constitutional Union Party, which avoided issues that divided the North and South and ran on a platform of following the Constitution and keeping the nation together. They went with **John Bell**. The Republican Party was the only party that stood against slavery and they also favored the tariff and a homestead act or sale of western lands (both were old Whig stances). William Seward was the frontrunner but wasn't viewed as one who could have appeal across the nation. The party ended up selecting **Abraham Lincoln**. The election would be sectional with Lincoln and Douglas being the race in the North and Breckinridge and Bell being the race in the South. According to the Constitution, if no candidate receives over 50% of the Electoral vote, then the House of Representatives chooses the president. This was possible with four candidates. Lincoln would have the most difficulty since the Republicans didn't have control of the Congress going into the election. However, by only winning free states, Lincoln was elected president. The South immediately realized that an anti-slave Republican would have control over patronage/spoils system, customs officials in the South, federal contracts, and the attorney general who was in charge of prosecuting those who harbored runaway slaves.

As a result of Lincoln's election in November of 1860, seven states would **secede** from the Union (Southern states left the Union and formed their own nation) before Lincoln would take office (inauguration day back then wasn't till March of the year after being elected...March 1861 for Lincoln). In December of 1860, South Carolina seceded. In January and February of 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas would secede as well. Most in the South viewed their cause as similar to the American Revolution as a way to maintain their rights while those in the North saw slavery as a moral evil and secession as a threat to the American republic. The U.S. government scrambled to find a compromise. Buchanan was still in office when secession first happened and urged Congress to be conciliatory (compromise to avoid disunion or war). Kentucky Senator **John Crittenden** developed a compromise with four parts: (1) restore the Missouri Compromise line and extend it to the Pacific, (2) no slavery on federal property even in South, (3) compensation for owners of runaways, and (4) repeal "personal liberty" laws of the North (these were laws that made it illegal to return runaways to the South). This compromise wasn't accepted by the North as Lincoln urged Republican congressmen not to approve of it saying to do so would "acknowledge that slavery has equal rights with liberty." The South rejected as well as they were already looking at secession.
 * __Confederate States of America__:**

Southern "**fire eaters**" had called for secession immediately following the 1860 election results (Robert Barnwell Rhett, William Yancey, T.R. Cobb). The first seven states seceded between December of 1860 and January and February of 1861. The **Confederate States of America** was formed with **Jefferson Davis** as the president (he favored slavery and did treat his slaves well - he wanted a military position but was chosen as president). The Southern ideals came from three sources: dislike of free soil concepts, support of states' rights, and King Cotton view on economy. The Confederacy was committed to keep their slaves. Confederate Vice President **Alexander Stephens** said "our new government is founded...upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man" which shows how the Confederates felt about slavery - it wasn't only about states' rights...they were committed to keeping the institution of slavery. After Lincoln freed the slaves, Jefferson Davis said that all free Negroes within the limits of the Southern Confederacy will be placed on slave status. Furthermore, the Confederate Constitution said that in order to be a state in the Confederacy, slavery was mandatory. Certainly, the South's goal was to maintain their slave society.

March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln began his presidency. There wasn't a major conflict until April. The first shots of the war were fired on **Fort Sumter** in South Carolina in April of 1861. Southerners took over all but two federal forts in the South, one being Fort Sumter. Lincoln wanted to send supplies to resupply the fort. Lincoln said in his inaugural address that the "union of states was perpetual" and that the articles of secession were null and void. Montgomery, AL (original Confederate capital) ordered General P.G.T. Beauregard to take over the fort, which was accomplished. As a result, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee seceded from the Union bringing the Confederate state totals up to 11 and a new capital was established in Richmond, Virginia. Lincoln recognized the importance of the border states (Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri), which had slaves but were still pro-Union. Lincoln was quoted as saying "I'd like to have God on my side, but I've got to have Kentucky." Early in the war, the Union had passed a law that allowed confiscation of rebel property including slaves. John C. Fremont was commander in the west (Missouri area) and took that law to mean emancipation of slaves. Lincoln told Fremont to stay to the law, which is most likely what kept Kentucky in the Union --- the leadership of Lincoln. Lincoln prevented Maryland from seceding when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus (the writ protects citizens from being put in jail without evidence) and arrested Maryland "fire eaters" and put them in prison to keep them from voting to secede. Chief Justice Roger Taney (a Maryland democrat) sat on the circuit court too and ruled that Lincoln's actions were unconstitutional, but Lincoln ignored Taney in order to keep Maryland (without Maryland, D.C. would not be able to be protected). Early in the war, the 41 counties in the western part of Virginia stayed loyal to the Union and Union soldiers secured the area, which would be a buffer for Ohio. These counties would eventually become West Virginia.
 * __Outbreak of the War__:**

Each side had its own advantages and disadvantages. The South had an abundance of military leadership and the major advantage of having to fight a defensive war. The South had more Mexican War veterans and more West Point graduates than the North. The Union had a numerical advantage with 2.1 million soldiers total to the Confederate's 800,000. The North had a 32-1 advantage in firearm production, 14-1 in merchant shipping, 3-1 in farm acres, 412-1 in wheat, and 2-1 in corn. In addition, 90% of the nation's factories were in the North. Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee command of the Union army but Lee turned him down saying he was going to stay loyal to Virginia. Even though the South only had to survive rather than attack and had the advantage of defense, they were aggressive. Southern officers had a code they followed, which involved being on the front lines in battle, which resulted in the deaths of 55% of Southern generals. Comparing Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, the war's two biggest names in generals - Lee suffered 20% casualties while inflicting 15% whereas Grant suffered 18% casualties while inflicting 30% on his foes. In addition, the South pinned their hopes on help from Britain and/or France. King Cotton diplomacy was expected to gain foreign support since the South believed the world needed cotton. This plan failed. The South was focused more on protecting the cotton crop and so slaves continued to grow cotton instead of being sent to repair railroads or building forts.

The Civil War is often called the first modern war. One reason was technology. New ordinance was being developed that was accurate from longer distances, which is what made charges in the Civil War more deadly than previous wars. The Civil War would also see soldiers using trenches or fortified positions to fight from. In addition, as the war dragged on, attrition became part of war strategy, which is wearing down of one side by the other through exhaustion of soldiers and resources. The telegraph would improve communications and railroads grew for shipping soldiers and supplies. The Union plan would be called the **Anaconda Plan** to take a year to train the soldiers while tightening the blockade on the South and then break the South into sections so they would run out of resources and surrender. The plan was developed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott. It was considered too slow but Lincoln would put in parts of the plan.

The first major battle of the war in the summer of 1861 was the **First Battle of Bull Run** also called First Manassas 25 miles south of D.C. Northerners called for speedy victory to capture Richmond and Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for 3 month enlistments. Union **General Irwin McDowell** marched south against Confederate **General P.G.T. Beauregard**. Confederate cavalry commander General J.E.B. Stuart scouted the Union and was able to help Confederate **General Joseph E. Johnston** get to Manassas to assist Beauregard. In the war, the infantry were the soldiers who marched and fought, the cavalry were the soldiers on horseback mostly used for scouting, and the artillery were the cannons and the cannon crews. Citizens came to the battlefield with picnic baskets to watch the battle. The Union was winning the battle when Confederate **General Thomas Jackson** came with reinforcements and drove the Union back. Jackson earned the nickname "Stonewall" in this battle when a different rebel general rallied his troops by pointing to Jackson holding his ground saying "there stands Jackson like a stone wall." The Confederate victory at First Bull Run ended the Union idea of a quick war by a volunteer army. Also, McDowell was replaced by General George B. McClellan who was having success in the western theater (the geographical line marking eastern and western theaters was the Appalachian Mountains. McClellan came up with the Peninsular Campaign idea to move cautiously toward Richmond. McClellan always wanted more soldiers (wanted a 10:1 ratio). During the campaign Joseph E. Johnston was severly wounded, which brought in **Robert E. Lee** who was able to defeat McClellan. Lee decided to take the war to the North.
 * __North and South in Civil War__:**

In terms of the naval war, Lincoln authorized a blockade of Confederate ports to cut the South off from trade with the rest of the world. As the war went on, the blockade was more effective but was also spread thin, which made it difficult to stop Confederate blockade runners, or small, fast vessels the South used to smuggle goods past the blockade. Part of the effort of the Union blockade was to seize New Orleans, the South's biggest city and a center of the cotton trade. In April of 1862, **Admiral David Farragut** and his warships fought their way up the Mississippi to New Orleans and eventually gained control of the city. Overall, the Union tried to seize forts along the east coast since it would be difficult to patrol the entire eastern seaboard. One famous naval battle was part of McClellan's Peninsular Campaign when the U.S.S. **Monitor** fought the C.S.S. Virginia (use to be U.S.S. **Merrimack**, but sank and the South brought it back up). These two ships were iron clad ships, which would be the future of navies rather than wooden ships. In an event known as the //Trent Affair//, Union navy captain Charles Wilkes boarded the British ship **//Trent//** and took Confederate envoys John Slidell and James Mason as prisoner. The British were upset and sent soldiers to Canada and naval ships into the Atlantic. The Union released the POWs and the British took it as an apology. However, it showed that the Confederacy's goal was to get aid from the British. **Charles Francis Adams** was the Union ambassador to Britain and was to make sure that the British didn't recognize the Confederacy as an independent nation that would receive trade rights.

The western theater of the was the war west of the Appalachian Mountains with the main goal of controlling the Mississippi River but also the Union wanted to secure Kentucky and move into the interior of the Confederacy. **General Ulysses S. Grant** emerged as a successful general in the western theater taking __Fort Henry__ on the Tennessee River and __Fort Donelson__ on the Cumberland River in 1862 (as Farragut was pushing into New Orleans). The fort commander asked Grant for terms of surrender and Grant called for unconditional surrender, which earned Grant the nickname U.S. Grant for "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. Grant also won a key battle in the __Battle of Shiloh__. Union newspapers wanted Grant removed from duty due to high casualties, but Lincoln stayed with Grant saying "I can't spare this man, he fights." Once the Union took Tennessee and opened the Mississippi River and Admiral Farragut took New Orleans, Vicksburg was the key city the stood in the way of complete Union control of the Mississippi River.

The first crucial point of the war was the **Battle of Antietam**, also called the Battle of Sharpsburg. General Lee and Confederate President Davis both thought an invasion of the North in late 1862 would help the South gain foreign recognition. In addition, the South believed a victory would help Peace Democrats gain control of the Union Congress in the 1862 midterm elections. Lee was misled into thinking that Maryland would overwhelmingly support the Confederates. Union **General George B. McClellan** was able to get Lee's plans when a soldier picked up three cigars that fell off of a fallen Rebel. The cigars were wrapped in Lee's plans. However, McClellan moved too cautiously to destroy Lee's forces. The result was a Union victory but not because Union General McClellan broke Lee's lines but because Lee suffered too many casualties that he had to withdraw. McClellan had an opportunity again to destroy Lee's army by attacking as Lee was retreating, but McClellan didn't attack. Nevertheless, it was a Union victory. As a result, the British would not get involved. Also, Union victory in a major battle in the eastern theater allowed President Lincoln to issue the **Emancipation Proclamation**, which freed the slaves in the Confederacy beginning January 1, 1863. **Frederick Douglass** had become good friends with Lincoln and convinced him to free the slaves but Lincoln had to wait until a major victory. Freeing the slaves would hurt the South's economy since planters depended on slave value to secure good loans. Foreign __recognition__ would be less likely since freeing the slaves was a better argument to give Europe over preserving the Union. There would even be an attitude shift in the North as more whites began to favor arming the blacks and Congress passed an equal pay law (for paying soldiers).

Life in the Civil War was better in the North than in the South since the South was having trouble financing the war. Food shortages often struck different Confederate cities as well. Daily life was difficult for the soldiers since they faced disease and if wounded, medical care was tough. Sterilization of instruments and blood types weren't known in the Civil War era. On the subject of the medical field, **Clara Barton** served as a nurse in the Civil War and after the war formed the American Red Cross. Life as a prisoner in the war was difficult too especially in the South. Once the Union stopped prisoner exchanges (since the South re-used captured prisoners after exchanges) Southern prisons were overcrowded. One such prison was **Andersonville Prison** in Georgia, which saw numerous Union deaths due to deplorable conditions. The commander of the prison, **Henry Wirz**, was the only Confederate executed after the war as a war criminal.

The turning point of the Civil War came in July of 1863. After McClellan was removed by Lincoln and replaced by General Ambrose Burnside, the Union attacked the Confederates under Lee in the **Battle of Fredericksburg**. However, the __Confederates were in a fortified position behind a stone wall along a sunken road (Marye's Heights), while the Union had to cross a river on pontoon bridges then charge uphill over open ground__. Obviously, this would be a Southern victory in December of 1862. Lincoln replaced Burnside with General Joseph Hooker. He planned to attack Lee in the **Battle of Chancellorsville**, but key moves by Lee would bring about another Confederate victory (often called Lee's greatest victory). Though the Confederates were winning battles, one of the stats that is often overlooked in casualty counts are those of losses in proportion to army strength. Often, the Union lost more troops than the South, but the Union had more soldiers to begin with. For example, in Chancellorsville (Lee's greatest victory), Lee suffered 18.7% casualties while Hooker, who lost more in total numbers, suffered 11.4%. If such Confederate "victories" continued, they'd be out of soldiers before the North. However, it was a clear Confederate victory, which led Lee to make a very fateful decision --- attack the North. Lee planned an invasion of the North, but he'd have to do it without his most dependable general, Stonewall Jackson, who died from wounds he received at Chancellorsville (Jackson rode ahead of his lines at night to scout the Union and when he was returning he was shot by his own guards who thought he was Union). Going into the **Battle of Gettysburg**, the Army of Northern Virginia (Lee's army) had only three possible options: (1) invade the North and take D.C., which was a remote possibility since the North had forts around D.C. and could get help from the west; (2) if Lee could threaten the North and get the Union people to turn against the war, there would be pressure on the Union government to negotiate, but Lee knew that wasn't going to happen; (3) his only real option was to bring the Union into the open to destroy it in what Lee wanted to be the final battle. One of Lee's most dependable assets was cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart who was very skilled at scouting. Stuart was sent north with the task of confusing federal intelligence. He went far into PA and battled Union cavalry General Alfred Pleasanton and won. He then headed for Union supply lines and continued to ride around the Union. The problem was that he was out of touch with Lee for 10 days...10 important days...in which Lee wasn't aware of the Union strength. Union cavalry **General John Buford** scouted Confederate soldiers coming toward Gettysburg and set up a strategy to protect Cemetery Ridge, Culp's Hill, and the Round Tops, the higher ground at Gettysburg (higher ground gives your army an advantage). The Rebels drove the Union through the city of Gettysburg but after the first day of fighting on July 1, 1863 the Union was on Cemetery Ridge, Culp's Hill, and the Round Tops. On July 2, 1863 **Little Round Top** on the Union left was undefended, which was recognized by Union General Gouverneur Warren who immediately sent the information to new commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, George Meade, who ordered soldiers to the hill. Lee sent his dependable **General James Longstreet** to charge up Little Round Top. The 20th Maine Regiment commanded the left part of the Union line and was under command of **Colonel Joshua Chamberlain**. The 20th Maine was out of ammunition after successfully defending several Confederate charges, but if they retreated then the Union line would cave in and the Confederates would win. Therefore, Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge down the hill, which was successful. For his action, Chamberlain would receive the Medal of Honor. After the second day of battle, Longstreet tried to convince Lee to redeploy to a different position but Lee wanted to attack and rationalized that the Union would be weakest in the center. Therefore, on July 3, 1863 Lee ordered a massive attack on the Union center, which would be **Pickett's Charge**, named after Confederate General George Pickett. It would be defended by Union **General Winfield Scott Hancock**. Gettysburg was a major Union victory and the turning point of the war. On July 4, 1863 Lee retreated out of Gettysburg. July 4, 1863 was also a key date because that was the date that General Grant took **Vicksburg** in the west and therefore gained control of the Mississippi River. Grant would then go on to take Chattanooga later in 1863 securing a key railroad in Tennessee into the deep South to Atlanta. In November of 1863, Lincoln gave his famous **Gettysburg Address** in which he dedicated the battlefield and called the war a test on democracy as to where or not government of, by, and for the people could survive.

In 1864, Lincoln made Grant General-in-Chief in charge of all Union armies and strategy. Grant would make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac and maintain control even though George Meade was still the commander of that one army. Grant and Lee squared off in several battles in which Lee was able to match Grant's moves. Lee had some victories over Grant in Grant's Overland Campaign, with one being the Battle of Cold Harbor in which the Union lost 13,000 to the South's 2,000 (Union troops had even recognized the futility and pinned their names and addresses to their uniforms to make body identification easier. However, Grant was able to lay siege on Petersburg, Virginia, which was an important railroad town with Richmond. Once he gained control of Petersburg, Grant was able to lay siege on Richmond from Petersburg and Lee and Davis had to abandon the Confederate capital. The Union would put forth the policy of total war, or wipe out all Confederate resources and ability to wage war. Grant would continue to pursue Lee where Lee was forced to surrender to Grant in April of 1865 at **Appomattox**. When Grant developed strategy at the beginning of 1864, he sent **General William Tecumseh Sherman** with three armies through the deep South. Sherman captured Atlanta and the got to the coast in his "March to the Sea" when he marched North fighting Confederate Generals John Bell Hood and later Joseph E. Johnston. Sherman forced Johnston to surrender in late April of 1865. Sherman's taking of Atlanta had been important because it helped secure re-election for Lincoln in 1864. Lincoln wasn't a shoe in especially since the war was still going on and Grant's casualties were high in 1864 in his Overland Campaign. However, after Sherman's taking of Atlanta, Farragut's success in the Mississippi River area, and Grant pushing Lee, Lincoln was able to defeat Democrat George B. McClellan. Peace Democrats, called Copperheads, wanted to negotiate a peace with the South, which they had links to (there were secret societies in the North like the Knights of the Golden Circle). Grant had given Lee generous terms of surrender, which became the model for other surrenders. Davis called for massive guerrilla resistance by civilians in his final message, but it didn't happen. Davis was captured May 10, 1865.

Winning re-election in 1864 led Lincoln to believe he had a mandate from the people to free the slaves and led the way to the **13th amendment**, which was added to the Constitution making slavery illegal. With the Union making victory seem more and more inevitable, Lincoln had two goals: (1) make sure the South didn't bring back slavery in some other form (keep this goal in mind when we talk about discrimination and segregation in the South --- slavery in some other form) and (2) bring former rebels back into the Union as quickly and generously as possible. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln said "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." However, a group of Republicans, called **Radical Republicans**, were looking to punish the South. Lincoln had also made a speech talking about African-Americans being involved in Southern state governments. The Radical Republicans were led by Thaddeus Stevens (PA) and Charles Sumner (Massachusetts). One person there to hear the speech, John Wilkes Booth, said "That is the last speech he will ever make." On April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at **Ford's Theater** during a production of Our American Cousin. Booth and other conspirators had planned to also assassinate other top Union officials, but the Lincoln assassination is the only one that took place. The Lincoln assassination would hurt the South in two ways (even though Booth was trying to help the Confederate effort): (1) Radicals now had more reason to punish the South and (2) the new president Andrew Johnson wouldn't be able to ease reconstruction like Lincoln had wanted.

The "Lost Cause" would be a Southern explanation for the war in which Confederate supporters reconstructed their history to put less emphasis on slavery as the reason for their cause, when in reality slavery was the central issue the whole time (if you look at primary source documents quoting the major proponents of secession they all talk about the benefits of slavery; also the Confederate Constitution protected slavery).

The war had taught new skills to the citizens in America. Building railroads, bridges, and other constructions turned some into engineers. Demands of communication introduced many to Morse Code and the telegraph. Being an officer brought clout in politics and business improved if the owner was a veteran. Many stayed in the army since an army would be needed to keep control in the South and also to deal with the Native Americans in the west. The economy would be able to grow after the war (it's a myth that wars improve an economy; this was partly true in WWI and WWII since European nations bought a lot of war supplies from us long before we were fighting in the war ourselves). The economy grew 4.6% from 1840 to 1859; it grew 2% from 1860 to 1869; but grew 4.4% from 1870 to 1879.

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