The Civil War

1
The Civil War

• 1861-1865

2
North v. South, a comparison

• Population
• USA 22 million
• CSA 9 million
• 3.5 million are slaves
• Industry
• Souths factories produce only 7.4 of total
  output
• Norths produce 92.6

3
North v. South, a comparison

• North produces
• 98 of US firearms
• 96 of US rail equipment
• Plenty of food to feed itself and earn money
• Southern agriculture
• Three growing seasons
• Badly managed and planned
• Poor distribution

4
North v. South, a comparison

• Logistics
• North has twice as much RR mileage as South
• Northern rail integrated and efficient
• Souths rail system a hodgepodge
• Souths rail system ineffective militarily
• Right Saint Lazere Station, Paris, by Claude
  Monet, 1877

5
North v. South, a comparison

• Military advantages
• Mainly favor South
• Can fight a defensive war
• North must fight a war of conquest
• Souths military tradition
• Right Blue Ridge in North Carolina, photo by Jan
  van der Crabben

6
Prognosis

• The war is the Unions to loose
• The South can win only if one of two things
  happens
• Foreign intervention
• Union will to fight breaks

7
The Civil War battlefield

• Napoleonic tactics
• Massed men, massed fire, neat battles
• Destroy enemy army
• Initial strategy for North Anaconda Plan
• Proposed by Winfield Scott
• Blockade, cut down river valleys
• Squeeze life out of South
• Expectation everywhere for a short war
• Anaconda Plan ridiculed in North
• Unrealistic expectations on both sides

8
Total war

• Civilians seen as supporting war effort
• Viewed as legitimate target
• Crops destroyed
• Towns burned
• Destroyed infrastructure
• Casualties
• Right Shermans March to the Sea, engraving by
  Alexander Hay Ritchie, 1868

9
Technology

• Made war more impersonal and mechanical
• More deadly
• Armored ships
• Telegraph
• Entrenchments
• Wire entanglements
• Rifled weapons
• Right US Springfield Rifled Musket, 1861 model,
  US Government photo

10
Antietam

• September 17, 1862
• Most significant battle of the war
• Good example of the interplay of military,
  diplomatic and political factors
• Right Battle of Antietam, lithograph by Kurz and
  Allison, Philadelphia, 1888

11
Confederate invasion of the North

• Force a major battle on Northern soil
• Cut off DC from rest of nation
• Inspire Maryland to rise against Union
• Gain British recognition
• Bad news Lees plans fall into federal hands
• Right Robert E. Lee, 1863 photo, Library of
  Congress

12
Union has all advantages

• Knows Lees plans
• Army of the Potomac outnumbers Army of Northern
  Virginia by 3-1
• Maryland does not rise
• Bad news George McClellan commands
• Right George McClellan, 1861 photo by Matthew
  Brady, National Archives

13
Antietam battlefield, map by Hal Jespersen
14
The Cornfield

• First thing that morning
• Back and forth across the field several times
• Thousands flail away at each other
• Union falls back

15
Bloody Lane

• Strike in the middle
• Confederate height advantage
• Union army flanks Confederates
• Center does not break completely
• Left Bloody Lane, modern photo by Steve Kellam,
  2005

16
Burnsides Bridge

• 20,000 Union forces try to cross a bridge
• Opposed by only 800 Confederates
• Takes six hours
• McClellan refuses to commit rest of army
• Stalemate
• 17,000 dead in single day
• Right Burnsides Bridge, modern photo, 1990

17
So What?

• Union declares victory
• Lee retreats to Virginia
• Confederate army lives to fight another day
• But losses are high and cannot be sustained
• Foreign observers scratch their heads
• Not quite sure what to make of it

18
So What?

• Victory at Antietam gives Lincoln political
  leverage for Emancipation Proclamation
• Emancipation leads European powers to reconsider
  intervention
• Confederacy doomed, unless. . . .
• Right Lincoln and Cabinet at First Reading of
  the Emancipation Proclamation, Francis Bicknell
  Carpenter, 1864

19
War and Social Division in North

• Union forces do not consistently do well until
  1864
• Public dissatisfaction and war-weariness a
  constant problem for Lincoln
• Question of status of blacks post-slavery
  troubling for Northern whites
• War could be lost in court of public opinion

20
Republicans turn on Lincoln

• Radical Republicans
• Senior members of congressional leadership
• Wanted abolition and black equality
• Mistrust vigor of wars prosecution
• Feel generals are not aggressive enough
• Mistrust generals ideologically
• Impatient with Lincoln
• Investigative powers to manage war from Congress
• Right Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA), Radical
  Republican, Library of Congress

21
Democrats badly fractured

• War Democrats
• Peace Democrats
• Negotiated settlement with South
• Copperheads
• Open support for South
• Strongest in OH, IN and IL
• Outright treason in some cases
• Right Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, War
  Democrat, Library of Congress

22
Lincolns repressive measures

• Suspends habeas corpus
• 14,000 arrested
• Papers shut down
• Troops in Maryland
• Martial law elsewhere
• Particularly in Copperhead areas
• Congress authorized measures after the fact
• Left Rep. Clement Vallandigham (D-OH),
  Copperhead leader, Library of Congress

23
Much Northern dissent race-based

• Mass desertions after Emancipation Proclamation
• MO, KY, MD, DE troublesome
• New York Draft Riots
• July 13-15, 1863
• Hundreds killed
• Blacks, wealthy and Republicans targeted
• Right Abraham Africanus Copperhead Pamphlet,
  1864

24
Scene from New York Draft Riot
25
Confederacy also rocked by dissent

• Decentralized, disorganized CSA
• Ideology of rebellion makes it difficult to fight
  modern war
• Dissent from three directions
• Radical states rights types
• Unionists
• Yeomen

26
Radical states rights criticism

• Opposed calls for troops from states
• Refusal to share materiel and supplies
• Refusal to enforce Confederate laws
• Refusal to distribute surplus food to soldiers
  families
• Refusal to allow slaves to work on government
  projects

27
Southern Unionists

• All states but SC have Union regiments fighting
  against CSA
• Refusal to conform to Confederate draft
• Dominate certain areas of the South
• CSA reprisals
• Right Union Brig. Gen. Edmund J. Davis of Texas,
  Texas State Library, ca. 1863

28
Yeomen as dissenters

• Backbone of Southern military
• Realize what the war is about too late slavery
• Confederate Draft (1862)
• Taxation
• Families distress
• Richmond Bread Riot (1863)
• Desertions
• Criminality

29
Northern strategy changes in 1864

• Previous battles Confederates usually escape to
  fight again
• Full force of Northern numbers not brought to
  bear
• 1864 U.S. Grant appointed to command in east
• Pursuit of Confederate army
• Terrible casualties
• Left Union General U.S. Grant, Cold Harbor, VA,
  1864, photo by Matthew Brady

30
Casualty rate makes war appear impossible to win

• Public criticism, particularly of Grant
• Democrats look likely to win 1864 election
• George McClellan the nominee
• Congressional gains likely
• Lincoln convinced he will lose
• Left Dead at Gettysburg, PA, 1863, National
  Archives

31
1864 Election the Souths last chance

• Late summer victories save Lincolns bacon
• Atlanta
• Mobile Bay
• 212-21 electoral votes
• Just a matter of time now

32
Southern collapse

• Shermans March to the Sea
• Closing in on Richmond
• April 2 Richmond falls
• April 9 Lee surrenders
• Right Ruins of Richmond, VA, burned by
  Confederate troops, 1865, National Archives

33
Results

• 620,000 killed in combat
• Millions more from disease, starvation, and
  wounds
• Primacy of national government resolved
• Legacies of the rebellion
• Southern poverty
• Southern race relations
• Bitterness
• Drug addiction and depression

34
Lincoln assassinated, April 15, 1865

• Murdered as part of a pro-Confederate conspiracy
• Attempts made/planned on Grant, Seward, others
• Andrew Johnson becomes president
• Uncertainty about what comes next
• Right Likely the last photo of Lincoln, by
  Alexander Garnder, ca. April 1865

35
About your paper. . . .

• 20 of your grade
• Written communication skills are the hallmark of
  an educated person
• High schools arent interested in your written
  communication skills
• This paper is the best shot for racking up points
  in the last weeks
• Some good stuff out there, but some bad stuff, too

36
Standard written English is not an option

• Spelling matters
• Sentence structure matters
• Some common problems
• Celia had a trial, not a trail
• There is not their
• Capitalizing stray words
• Subject/verb noun/pronoun

• Some common problems
• English sentences must have a subject and
  predicate
• If you dont know how to use or , dont
  start now
• Possessives its its not its
• Dont whine to me

37
Stylistic problems

• No contractions, that means you!
• Do not begin sentences with and or also or
  numbers
• Totally
• Colloquialism and cliché
• 3rd person past tense throughout
• No I
• No you

• Non-sequitur
• Sequence
• Did you swallow a thesaurus or something?
• If you want to be taken seriously, be careful of
  your writing.

38
Content problems

• Fitzhugh
• Balance
• Comparison contrast
• Property v. person
• Details
• Analysis
• Clarity

• Seneca Falls
• Exaggeration
• Lack of information
• Failure to explore all issues
• Newsoms daughters
• Complexities

39
My office hours

• Monday think it over
• Tuesday 930-1200 130-230
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• Friday 930-1200 130-230
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