A Nation Torn Apart

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A Nation Torn Apart

• Civil War
• Social and Political History of Civil War
• Wars effect on South
• Wars effect on North
• Emancipation
• Disunity and Tensions

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Early part of Civil War

• Beginning of war in society
• Time of optimism on both sides
• Patriotic sentiments on both sides
• Celebrations
• Rush to volunteer
• Eager to fight
• Romantic notions of war in 1861
• Why this optimism?
• Why early support for war on both sides?

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Military Battles 1861-62

• July 21, 1861 First Battle of Bull Run
  victory for Confederacy
• Union learned lesson from this battle
• Not as easy to win as they fought
• Foreshadowed tough battles ahead
• Advantage in resources but England also had
  advantage in resources at start of Revolutionary
  War

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Military Battles 1861-62

• Both sides stressed importance of the West
  attacks on Indians (fiercer than before and this
  would continue for decades after)
• Coastal war by Union naval forces
• Union remained in control of New Mexico
• 1862 Tennessee victories for Union (Grant)
• Battle of Shiloh no clear victor but both sides
  suffered tremendous losses 24,000 total killed
  out of 100,000 total
• Robert E. Lee in Virginia to counter McClellans
  Union forces
• Lees victories in Virginia after McClellan
  withdrew
• Jefferson Davis wanted to get European
  recognition of Confederacy
• Tried to force war into the north, into Maryland
  and Kentucky
• Offensive failed

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Military Battles 1861-63

• Between 1861 and 1863, the Confederacy won a
  number of important Civil War battles, including
  the war's first major engagement, the First
  Battle of Bull Run.
• Lee did not always succeed, however. His two
  attempted invasions of the North were stopped at
  Antietam and Gettysburg.
• 1863 Grant moved down the Mississippi River and
  took the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg on
  July 4, 1863, an action that effectively cut the
  Confederacy in half. Another victory at Port
  Hudson on July 9 gave the Union control of the
  Mississippi River from Illinois to the Gulf of
  Mexico.
• These victories, combined with the Confederate
  defeat at Gettysburg, seemed to foreshadow the
  Union's ultimate victory, but the South was not
  ready to surrender. The Confederates won a
  desperate victory in the swamps of Chickamauga in
  September 1863, then laid siege to Chattanooga in
  November.
• After three separate attacks, Grant broke the
  siege on November 25, paving the way for William
  T. Sherman's devastating March to the Sea in
  1864, a campaign that left much of Georgia in
  ruins.

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Major Battles 1861-1863
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Gettysburg

• We will be learning about Gettysburg from final
  projects of a few students.

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Military Battles 1864-65

• The last year of the Civil War was marked by
  devastating losses on both sides as the contest
  dragged on to its bloody end.
• General Ulysses S. Grant, supreme commander of
  all Union armies by late 1863, decided to engage
  his Confederate counterpart, General Robert E.
  Lee, in a direct challenge in Virginia.
• Grant assigned General William T. Sherman the
  task of subduing the Deep South by destroying
  Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston's
  Tennessee Army and capturing the industrial
  stronghold of Atlanta. Sherman and Johnston first
  clashed at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on
  June 27, 1864. Despite losing 3,000 troops to
  Johnston, Sherman continued to push toward
  Atlanta. By late August, the Confederates were
  cornered in Atlanta, and on September 2, the
  mayor surrendered the city.
• In November, Sherman began his March to the Sea,
  devastating huge portions of Georgia before
  taking Savannah on December 21. Sherman's troops
  marched through South Carolina and captured the
  ruined city of Charlestonalready evacuated and
  burned in anticipation of the Union advanceon
  February 18, 1865.
• Near the end of 1864, Confederate commander John
  Bell Hood attempted to distract Sherman by
  attacking Union forces in Tennessee. Hood won a
  victory in Franklin on November 30, but was
  crushed when he tried to take the heavily
  fortified Union position at Nashville in December.

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Military history 1864-65

• In Virginia, Grant began his Overland campaign
  (MayJune, 1864) to capture Richmond, the capital
  of the Confederacy.
• Unlike previous Union generals, Grant never
  backed away from Confederate commander Robert E.
  Lee, even when faced with compelling losses.
• During the Overland campaign, the Union lost more
  than 60,000 men at battles like the Wilderness
  (May 56), Spotsylvania (May 1218), and Cold
  Harbor (June 3), where 7,000 Union soldiers fell
  in the space of half an hour.
• Undaunted, Grant pushed on toward Richmond. He
  led his army to Petersburg, 20 miles south of the
  Confederate capital, and laid the groundwork for
  a siege that would last almost a year.
• Lee tried to draw Union troops away from the city
  with a surprise attack at Cedar Creek in October,
  but General Philip Sheridan launched a crushing
  counterattack and held the field. Petersburg
  collapsed in April 1865, and Richmond followed
  soon after.
• On April 9, 1865, Lee formally surrendered to
  Grant at the Appomattox Court House, bringing the
  four-year war to an end.

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Political, Social and Economic histories of the
Civil War

• Battles are taking place in the country, on
  peoples property, on town streets
• War disrupts everything in society social,
  political and economic structures
• Many ideologies are questioned or challenged
• Race, class and gender
• Role of African Americans during war
• Role of working class supplying the war effort
  and begin to demand labor rights
• Role of women new responsibilities and jobs
  during war

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Black Troops Liberate North Carolina Slaves
Date 1864
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Black Children Entertain Union Troops Louisiana,
1861
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War in the SouthSouth Transformed

• With the success of Union Navy in 1861, slave
  society is greatly threatened
• Approach of ships, many planters abandoned land
  and fled
• Confederate forces tried to round up slaves, but
  it became impossible
• Slaves thought the Union navy was there to rescue
  them Runaway salves flocked to Union soldiers
• Union army, in 1861, is not fighting a war on
  slavery so there was confusion and debate about
  what to do
• Did not formally acknowledge slaves as free
• Began to enlist slaves into Union army
• Confusion over how to treat freedmen
• Finally, decided to treat them as contraband
  thus, they did not have to be returned but they
  were still viewed as property

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Southern society during war

• Disruptions in civilian life
• Challenged and changed long-held beliefs and
  traditions
• Preference for local and limited government
• States rights was a formative ideology of
  Confederacy but soon realized that state
  governments were weak and realized need for
  strong, centralized government
• Centralization under Jefferson Davis
• By 1862, spirit of volunteering had died down
• April 1862 first draft law in American history
  enacted by Confederate government
• Mandated switch from cash crops to food crops
  drastic change in farmers lives
• Compelled industry to work on government
  contracts and supplying military

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Southern society during war

• Confederate nationalism
• Culture and ideology of nationalism in an area
  strongly opposed to nationalism
• Forge own symbols and identity to create their
  own history
• Flags, songs, language, seals, school readers
• George Washington as Confederate symbol
  believed they were the side fighting for liberty
  and freedom
• Defense of slavery as benign, protective and idea
  of faithful slave was at heart of nationalist
  sentiment

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Southern society during war

• Role of women during wartime
• Clerks and other Confederate officials in towns
  and cities had always been males
• Now, government girls staffed bureaucracy
• White women gained new public responsibilities
  during war
• Wives and mothers now headed households and
  performed mens work, raising crops and
  livestock
• In cities, white women found jobs denied
  previously
• Female school teachers
• Nursing and other war-related duties

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Southern society during warLife on Homefront

• Cities, towns, factories large increase in
  investment in infrastructure in South to supply
  war
• Mass poverty
• Farm families lost their breadwinner to the war
• Women demanded end to war
• Draft of one craftsman could disrupt entire town
  sparsely populated blacksmiths, physicians,
  wheelwrights in high demand
• High inflation
• Inequities in the Confederate Draft
• Greater class divisions
• Could pay for substitutes if you were drafted
• Exempted from military duty anyone holding at
  least twenty slaves
• Why?
• First time poor whites and free blacks fought
  issue together
• Fear of class warfare
• War magnified existing social tensions in
  Confederacy

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War in the NorthNorthern Economy and Society

• North disrupted as well
• Factories and social organizations rallied to
  support war
• Federal government gained more power
• Industrializing society in north
• War encourages even more industrialization
• High productivity
• Northern farms and factories benefited and
  prospered during war (unlike south)
• Idealism and greed

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Wars effect on Northern economy

• Northern firms lost southern business and
  Southern debt became un-collectable
• Shortage of labor due to army enlistment
• Textile mills, farms and other businesses vital
  to governments war effort
• Wartime partnership between business and
  government
• Iron and steel production greatly enhanced
• Complementary relationship between agriculture
  and industry buy machines to do labor on farms
• Northern farm families whose breadwinners went to
  war did not suffer as much as southern families

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Northern society during war

• Economy is prosperous in North
• Not everyone benefited equally (is this any
  surprise?)
• Industrial workers
• Jobs plentiful but inflation high
• Not livable wages
• Decline in standard of living
• Lost job security

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Northern society during war

• Labor issues in North
• New union activism
• Unions formed by skilled craftsmen
• Unions also formed by unskilled workers and women
• High number of strikes
• Employers viewed this activity as a threat
  blacklists of union activists
• Strikebreakers hired from blacks, immigrants and
  women who could not find jobs elsewhere
• Despite labor activity and protests, businesses
  in North profited considerably from war effort

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Northern society during war

• Lincoln and the expansion of Presidential power
  during wartime
• Far more than in the War of 1812, Lincoln
  expanded Presidential power, often without
  authority, and set precedence for increased power
  of President during war
• Examples suspended writ of habeas corpus in
  Maryland, repeatedly invoked martial law, used
  war department funds to fund political allies in
  state elections

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Northern society during warLife on homefront

• Union Cause - Northern morale high for first 2
  years of war
• Support to preserve Union an abstract idea, but
  at the time meant the preservation of a social
  and political order that people cherished
• Women took on new roles (as in the South)
• Middle and upper class women managed soldiers
  aid societies
• US Sanitary Commission nutritional and medical
  aid to soldiers
• Nurses
• Had to fight for position
• Clara Barton fired in 1863
• Professionalization of medicine and many male
  physicians did not want womens aid
• Civil War nurses left long legacy of supporting
  the professionalization of nurses and established
  nursing schools

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Emancipation

• Varied, diverse group of Union supporters
• Contradictory - Materialism and greed alongside
  idealism, religious conviction and self-sacrifice
• Not all abolitionists Why did we end up with
  emancipation during war?
• Lacked clarity of purpose of war (on both sides)
• Not really sure why we were fighting
• Unsure of purpose, but needed to convince
  citizens that war was necessary
• Slavery issue avoided at first
• Davis wanted to unite south and feared that
  slavery would ignite class conflicts and belief
  that war only being fought for rich slaveholders
• Lincoln did not want to antagonize border slave
  states and he hoped that a pro-Union majority
  would assert itself in south
• Lincoln believed raising the slavery issue would
  undermine a quick end to the war
• Lincoln needed to keep new Republican party
  together not all abolitionists
• No northern consensus on slavery

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Emancipation

• Personally, Lincoln believed slavery wrong but
  politically not ready to enforce this
• Attacked by many abolitionist groups for not
  being a strong supporter
• 1861 Lincoln proposed that states consider
  emancipation and federal government would provide
  monetary support

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Emancipation Proclamation

• Julian, Sumner and Stevens in House and Senate
  strongly believed in emancipation
• Passed Confiscation Acts whereby the Union could
  confiscate property from the south
• Used to capture slaves and set them free
• Lincoln opposed to act
• Lincolns first priority was to save the Union
  slavery came second
• September 22, 1862 Lincoln issued Emancipation
  Proclamation
• On Jan 1, 1863, all slaves in states in rebellion
  would be emancipated
• All areas under Union control or still part of
  the Union were exempted from this slavery was
  not outlawed everywhere in the nation

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Emancipation Proclamation

• On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the
  Emancipation Proclamation, which effectively
  freed slaves in the Confederate states and
  allowed blacks to join the Union Army.
• This popularized version of the document depicts
  newly freed African Americans enjoying their
  new-found freedom. They are shown entering public
  schools, collecting wages, and waving goodbye to
  slave masters.

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Emancipation and the Union

• Emancipation Proclamation
• Did not deal with status of freed blacks
• Only emancipated slaves where he had no power to
  enforce it
• Ambiguous document
• Legally ambiguous, but it was a powerful moral
  and political document
• Abolitionists thrilled war against slavery now
• Lincoln could perform a balancing act between
  reformers and conservatives in support of Union
• Slaves and newly freed slaves celebrated
• Symbolic measure redefined Civil War in public
  opinion to be war against slavery
• June 1864 Lincoln gave support to
  constitutional ban on slavery
• Thirteenth Amendment passed in 1865
• Who freed the slaves?
• Does Lincoln deserve title Great Emancipator?

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Soldiers lives during war

• Experienced first war in modern sense
• New technology rifle, new type of bullet
• Higher death rate because of new weapons
• Soldiers
• Young, average between 18-21
• Small towns and farms
• Life in the military
• Benefit of new canned condensed milk
• Blankets, clothing and arms often poor quality
• Hospitals in poor condition at first remember
  lack of sanitation
• Many soldiers died from disease
• Extensive network of hospitals did come into
  existence
• White and black female volunteers

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Soldiers lives during war

• Learned war was not glorious
• Saw death and destruction for first time
• Violence, bloodshed, horrible conditions
• Yet, developed deep commitments to each other and
  to their task
• Developed deep bonds among soldiers
• Their fellow soldiers became their family

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African American Soldiers

• Union Army
• Racism strong within Union forces
• Refused to fight alongside black soldiers because
  we are too superior a race for that
• Given high death rate and need for troops, black
  soldiers allowed to enlist
• Experience of war also changed some minds about
  racial ideology
• Saw black soldiers fight nobly
• Elevated opinion of blacks abilities
• Officers stated I know that many of them are
  vastly superior to those who would condemn them
  to a life of brutal degradation
• remarkable aptitude for military training
• Black troops crated this change in sentiment
  through their own actions, dedication and strong
  commitment to the Union cause
• Sought to abolish slavery and demonstrate their
  equality
• 54th Massachusetts cavalry

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War and US SocietyDisunity, Tensions, Debates

• South, North and West
• 1864 and 1865
• Time of growing discontent on both sides
• Northerners and southerners opposing war
• Revealed social pressures in all areas of nation
• Why?

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Disunity, Tensions, DebatesSouth

• Southerners felt cost of war more directly than
  northerners (economic costs resources,
  industry, etc)
• Southern class system threatened Confederate
  cause
• Remember past discussions class issues plays a
  large role and after three years of poverty and
  economic pressures, class issues come to forefront

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Disunity, Tensions, DebatesSouth

• Planters upset with government taxes, burning
  of fields, talking slaves for the army
• Centralizing policies unpopular
• Many southerners upset with conscription saw it
  as illegal and unjust
• Farmers upset being forced to switch from cotton
  (cash crop) to food crops
• Food Riots in South
• Desertions from Confederate Army
• Peace movements
• Active dissent and non-support of Confederate
  government took over many towns in South
• Did North win war or did Southerners stop
  fighting?

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Disunity, Tensions, DebatesNorth

• Peace movements developed in North as well
• Opposition to increasingly centralized and
  powerful federal government
• Desertion rate in army high
• Lincoln had more contact with citizens and sought
  to reach out (Davis didnt) and helped to lessen
  some dissent
• Wartime protest largely political
• Democratic party as party of peace and blamed
  Lincoln and Republicans for war

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Disunity, Tensions, DebatesNorth

• Draft Riots in North (especially in New York
  City)
• Draft became law in 1863
• Draftee could pay 300 or provide a substitute to
  get out of serving
• Who was forced to serve?
• Urban poor and immigrants
• Racial, ethnic and class tensions all contributed
  to violent draft riots in July 1863
• Immigrants felt targeted
• Poor could not afford to avoid draft
• Workers afraid of inflow of black labor from South

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Disunity, Tensions, DebatesWest

• Civil War of a different kind on Great Plains and
  in the Southwest
• Full-scale war by union army against Indian
  tribes to eliminate Indians from Colorado
  (Colonel Chivington (Into the West we saw him
  justify the attacks because his soldiers needed
  to do something)
• Sand Creek was supposed to be safe haven as told
  by US government but Sand Creek was attacked
  (this is where Margarets husband died) Sand
  Creek Massacre
• How did this connect to Civil War between North
  and South?
• No region of country left untouched by Civil War

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United States Civil War

• Surrender at Appomattox
• Financial Toll over 20 billion
• Death toll over 620,000
• Casualties on both sides over 1 million
• 360,000 Union soldiers died
• 260,000 Confederate soldiers died
• More soldiers died in Civil War than in all wars
  combined until Vietnam
• Human toll immeasurable

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Legacy of Civil War

• Fundamental battle over nature of the United
  States and nature of liberty itself
• Did liberty extend to all people? What was
  liberty based on? What was personal liberty?
  Race, class, political representation many
  issues at stake
• Altered Americans forever
• Changed Americans perception of themselves, of
  war, of society, of the nation
• What has been the legacy of the Civil War?
• Are we fighting any of the same battles today?

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End of Civil War

• With the end of the Civil War, what happens to
  the country?
• What happens to the hate, resentment, disunity,
  labor issues, racism and various other tensions
  within and among the North, South and West?
• How does the country once again become a United
  States of America?
• How is the nation Reconstructed?