American Civil War Part I 1861-1865

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American Civil WarPart I1861-1865
It is well that war is so terrible we would
grow to fond of it. General Lee There is many
a boy here today who looks on war as all glory,
but boys, it is all hell. General Sherman
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Learning Objectives

• Know the professional development of military
  officers prior to the war.
• Understand the significance of how the
  organizational makeup of both sides affect their
  military styles of leadership.
• Know the different strategies used by the North
  and South.
• Know the tactical and technological advances that
  increased combat effectiveness throughout the
  war.
• Be able to identify the major strengths and
  weaknesses of Grant and Lees strategies.

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PRIOR TO THE WAR

• Professional development of officers.
• 1802 West Point is formed
• In 55 of 60 largest battles, both sides were
  commanded by West Pointers.
• Artillery and Infantry schools opened.
• Professional staff begins in earnest
• Greater independence for military leaders.
• Politicians focus on strategy and are less
  involved in operational and tactical decisions.
• Mexican War
• Many leaders on both sides gain valuable
  experience.
• First great post-Industrial Revolution war.

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Secession
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Roots of Conflict

• Slavery ?
• States Rights?

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Beginnings of the Civil War

• First great conflict of the Steam Age
• The aim of the North was unconditional surrender
  - total victory
• The aim of the South was independence through
  persistence?
• It was a crusade that put to test the military
  development of the industrial revolution
• Therefore, it opened a radically new chapter in
  the history of war

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Ideological and Political Divisions

• Pro-Slavery South

• Free Soil North

• Slavery good institution
• Protected blacks
• Christian institution
• Profited whites
• White male political patriarchy
• States rights to protect slavery
• Western expansion of slavery

• Northern states and territories stronger w/o
  slavery
• Slavery morally and economically corrupt
• Free Soil land of free white laborers
• Freedom from slavery, freedom for whites
• Against western expansion of slavery

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Political Failures and Conflicts

• Constitutional Convention institutionalized
  slavery, did not tackle abolition at the time,
  pushing it on later generations
• Missouri Compromise (1820) free and slave state
  tit-for-tat
• Mexican-American War war of territorial
  expansion
• Compromise of 1850 tried to appease both sides,
  but offended both
• Bleeding Kansas civil war over slave/free state
  status
• Dred Scott Decision blacks had no rights which
  the white man was bound to respect C.J. Taney
• Dred Scott Decision Congress had no right to
  outlaw slavery in territories

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Coordinated and balanced economy vs. distorted,
agriculture-based economy

• NORTH
• 23,000,000 population
• Industrial economy
• 109 manufacturing plants
• 22,000 miles of railroad
• 90 of industrial power

• SOUTH
• 9,000,000
• includes 3.5 M slaves
• Agricultural economy
• Exports, not food.
• 31,000 manufacturing plants
• 9,000 miles of railroad
• mostly export crops (cotton, tobacco) so food was
  scarce

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Military Leadership Generals

• 1,080 officers active
• 286 went South (184 from West Point)
• 900 West Pointers in civilian sector
• 99 joined South
• 55 of 60 largest battles were led by West Point
  graduates
• Three most qualified Union generals joined South
  (Lee and two Johnstons)
• Masters of Napoleonic Warfare
• Interior lines and turning movements for both
  offensive and defensive
• Problem was that both sides used them and they
  were able to predict each others moves
• Emphasis on Engineering as taught at USMA
• Generals from both sides trained and had fought
  together

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Fugitive Slave Act

• The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Compromise
  of 1850, requiring that fugitive slaves be
  returned to owners
• The 1850 statute gave jurisdiction for fugitive
  slave cases to federal commissioners and took it
  away from northern courts
• Southerners supported the fugitive slave act
• The federal commissioners were paid by
  southerners to return blacks back to slave
  catchers regardless if they were free or not
• FSA escalated regional divisions northerners
  feared slave power conspiracy of southern slave
  owners

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Kansas-Nebraska Act

• In 1853 the House of Representative banned
  slavery in Nebraska, however the senate killed
  the bill.
• Stephen Douglas reintroduced the principle of
  popular sovereignty so they (residents of state)
  were able to decide if it was going be a Free
  State or a Slave State.
• Stephen Douglass idea became law free states
  thought that it was pro- slavery, and the
  southerners mistrusted the law.
• Law backfired for Stephen Douglas and the
  northern Democrats in Congress their number fell
  from 91 to 25.
• A major result of this act the emergence of
  Abraham Lincoln tried to reestablish the
  Missouri Compromise
• Lincoln was against slavery because he thought it
  was dehumanizing of slaves, showed greed and
  selfishness.
• This act was a major cause of the Civil War
  because it reopened the controversy of slavery
  and led to battle in Kansas over whether it would
  be a free state or slave state.

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Dred Scott Decision

• The Dred Scott case of 1857 addressed the issue
  of whether a slave was a citizen or property
• Dred Scott, a slave, sued for his freedom based
  on the fact that he had been transported by his
  owner to a free state
• The Supreme Courts Decision Dred Scotts case
  would not be heard b/c he was not a citizen
• The Supreme Court ruled that slaves were property
  and could not hold citizenship, regardless of
  where they resided
• As a result of the Supreme Court's decision,
  slave-states found the legal protection to oppose
  the abolition of slavery
• Supreme Court upheld states rights the federal
  govt. could not infringement on a state's
  sovereignty or an individual's right to hold
  property
• This protection allowed them to draw the
  proverbial line in the sand, which only escalated
  tensions between the north and the south

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John Browns Raid, 1859

• Raided federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, VA (now
  WV)
• Hoped to arm slaves for slave rebellion
• Raid a failure and Brown executed
• Applauded by northerners denounced by
  southerners
• Indicates growing divide, animosity, and hatred
  between regions
• Conspiracy theories on both sides
• Fears of southern Pro-Slavery power
• Fears of northern abolition and slave
  insurrection

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Slaves in the Original Thirteen Colonies
(1750-1860)
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Slaves as Percentage of Southern Population
(1750-1860)
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Slaves as Percentage of Southern Population
(1750-1860
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Slaves in the South (1790-1860)
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Political Divisions 3rd Party System

• Solid South white male Democratic Party
• Northern urban Democrats (immigrants/workers/Irish
  )
• Constitutional Union Party (1860) Whigs,
  Democrats, and Know-Nothings who supported Union,
  but didnt want slavery to be major issue
• New political party Republican Party formed in
  1854 by anti-slavery activists
• Opposition to slavery in Kansas and Nebraska
• Free Soil ideology
• Pro-Union
• Equal rights
• Big Government for social and economic goals

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1860 Election
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The Soldiers

• North (semi-regular)
• Marched Heavy (60 lbs)
• Military rigidity and form of discipline
• Maintaining line in open fields
• Stay in our range but out of theirs
• South (semi-guerrilla)
• Marched Light (30-40 lbs)
• Independent action on the battlefield
• Move forward, back then rush without precision or
  order sweeping everything in front of them
• Stay close to enemy, within our range

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Why Did Northerners Fight?

• Abolitionist minority fund. opposed to slavery
  slavery was an evil, a stain on the nation
  represented belief in full INCLUSION of blacks
  into nation
• Free Labor majority opposed to expansion of
  slavery
• Slavery hurts free labor
• Free labor economic and political independence
• Free people would not allow themselves to be
  enslaved
• Republican and republican
• Pro-Union unification of nation under free
  labor ideals
• Belief a pivot point to judge whether people are
  worthy of citizenship or rights

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Union Strategy

• Aggressive offensive to crush the rebellion.
• Attrition
• Gen Winfield Scotts Anaconda Plan
• Links economics and combat
• Blockade and seizure of ports
• Take Richmond
• Thought to be CSA center of gravity.
• Ironworks
• Urgency (3 month enlistments)
• Dont allow Confederacy to rest.
• Napoleonic tactics.

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Important Points about Civil War

• Change from limited to total war
• First modern technological war
• More casualties (1 million) and deaths (620,000)
  than any other U.S. war
• War for the future of the country
• War of competing ideals
• Would the U.S. live up to the ideals of
  democracy, freedom, and equality?
• Would the union of states survive?

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Confederate Strategy

• Defend and delay until Union gives up.
• Need support/intervention from Europe.
• Emancipation Proclamation made foreign support
  politically unviable.
• Used as a strategic weapon by Union?
• Threaten Washington, and keep the war distanced
  from Richmond.
• Sought decisive battle that would convince the
  Union it wasnt worth it (Gettysburg?).
• Lee favored tactical defense.
• Dug in regiment can tie down a division, allowing
  the remainder of forces to maneuver and attack.

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Fort Sumter, SC

• Confederates fired on U.S. fort on April 12, 1861

Official beginning of the Civil War
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Civil War Casualties by Battle
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Odds of Dying from Combat Wounds
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First Modern War

• Increased death and brutality
• Both sides fighting for causes they believed in
• Length of war increasingly hardened soldiers
• Mentality of victory at all costs
• New military technologies increased deaths and
  casualties
• Long-barreled muskets shot farther and more
  accurately than ever before
• Cannons
• Arms outpaced traditional military strategies
  marching in formation, close-range fighting in
  long lines
• Defensive strategies best, but generals refused
  to give up on charges
• Lag in medical technology lack of sanitation
• Became a total war attacks on civilian
  populations

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WEAPONS

• Rifle (muzzle loader) greatly changes tactics,
  although most leaders are slow to grasp its
  impact.
• 2k dead in twenty minutes, another 5k wounded.
• Calvary is not used to charge/exploit, but to
  scout/skirmish.
• reconnaissance

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Early War 1861-1862

• Idea of limited short war on both sides
• Most northerners fighting to preserve union (the
  nation), not to end slavery believed the war
  would be short quick victory for North
• Most southerners fighting to preserve slave
  system and homeland believed quick victory
  would force north to give in to demands for
  separate country
• General George McClellan, Union military leader,
  believed that quick victories would convince most
  southerners to rejoin the Union but he never
  won those victories and war dragged on
• Became a long, total war

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1861 1862

• JAN - Secession begins in earnest. (SC first
  state to secede in Dec 1860).
• FEB - Davis elected and inaugurated
• MAR- Lincoln inaugurated Constitution of CSA
  passed.
• APR - Ft Sumter seized (12-14 April)
• MAY- CSA declaration of war passed.
• JUL - First Bull Run/Manassas (21st)

• JAN- McClellan fired
• MAR- Monitor and Merrimac
• APR- Shiloh Lee assumes command
• APR-AUG- Peninsular Campaign
• SEPT- Antietam Emancipation Proclamation passed
  (takes effect Jan 63).
• DEC- Fredericksburg

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Major Front Eastern Front

• Most battles fought in Virginia
• The North wanted to capture the Confederate
  capital in Richmond, VA
• Virginia and Richmond defended by Robert E. Lee
  and Army of Northern Virginia
• Lee and Stonewall Jackson effective defenders
• Union General George McClellan overly cautious
  didnt pursue Confederates after victory at
  Antietam in 1862 (bloodiest one-day battle in
  U.S. history)
• McClellan removed from command
• Union defeated at Fredericksburg in next attempt
  to capture Richmond

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Tactics and Cavalry

• Tactics
• Few breech loaded or magazine rifles
• Almost exclusive use of muzzle loaded rifles
• Offensive and defensive entrenchments (Roman
  like)
• Tactical defense was most powerful
• Did not agree with European view that heavy
  cavalry had a role on the battlefield
• Cavalry should not charge rifle-armed infantry
• Both sides had extensive cavalry units, South had
  more
• Dismounted to fight infantry
• Carried Rifles, pistols and sabers
• Rifle gave them a dismounted defensive power

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Civil War Battles Map
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Union Naval Blockade of the South

• Goal cut off south from Atlantic and interstate
  trade
• Goal cut off cotton trade to Europe, limit
  southern war funds, keep Europe out of war

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Major Front Western Front

• Between the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi
  River
• North wanted to capture the MS River and use it
  for invasion of the South
• Succession of Union victories, led by U.S. Grant
• Victories at Shiloh (April 1862), New Orleans
  (April-May 1862)
• Needed to capture Vicksburg, MS to gain control
  of MS River
• Capture of Vicksburg, combined with Emancipation
  Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, turned the tide of
  the war South on the defensive militarily and
  ideologically

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Siege of Vicksburg, MS
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Change in War Goals

• Slaves pushed Union to change war goals
• Contraband slaves fled to Union lines, demanded
  role in war effort, demanded freedom
• Thousands of slaves on the move in the south
• They undermined the Souths ability to sustain
  economy at home on backs of slave labor
• Undermined Souths ability to control population
  and borders
• A revolution from within the Confederacy
• At same time, Radical Republicans pressured
  Lincoln to change goals
• Confederate military victories convinced him of
  necessity of different war strategies

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After Vicksburg, Total War

• Generals Grant and Sherman shifted war goals and
  strategies towards complete subjugation and
  destruction of Confederate ability to fight
• Attacked economic, social, and physical
  infrastructure
• Shermans March to the Sea through the South
  destroyed railroads, farms, towns tried to
  break the will of the people to fight

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Shermans March to the Sea
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Gettysburg, July, 1863

• While Grant and Sherman fought in west and lower
  south, Lee went on offensive
• Lee invaded the north, hoped to relieve pressure
  on Vicksburg
• Met Union forces under George Meade at
  Gettysburg, PA
• Lee was defeated and had to retreat to VA
• Called the high water mark of the Confederacy

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Lincolns Gettysburg Address

• Address delivered Nov. 19, 1863 at dedication of
  Gettysburg National Cemetery
• Two main issues Constitutional Liberties
  Equality
• War for Union, national unity
• War for human equality
• Link to text of Lincolns Gettysburg Address
• Link to video/audio of reading of Gettysburg
  Address
• Link to Library of Congress site on Gettysburg
  Address

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End of the War New Am. Revolution

• Defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg sealed the
  fate of the Confederacy
• War lasted 2 more years, however
• But the Union victory signified a New American
  Revolution
• Hopes of fulfillment of American ideals for all
  Americans
• Questions about fate of freed slaves
• New battles over freedpersons rights,
  citizenship, and economic possibilities
• Reaction of white southerners to black freedom
  battle for soul of the south and the country
• Question of government role in sustaining
  equality and freedom for all Americans Is
  freedom real if the conditions for freedom dont
  exist?

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Tactics and Cavalry

• Cavalry and Strategy
• Light Cavalry
• Reconnaissance
• Raids on railroads and communications
• Confederacy halted two major Union advances by
  raiding their rail communications
• Shock Action as a last resort
• Calvary on Calvary

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Fight for Full Freedom During the War

• Slave efforts
• Fought for or worked for Union victory
• Sought out family members
• Geographic mobility - moved to new areas
• Sought land and economic freedom
• Union confiscation of lands
• General Shermans Field Order 15, Jan. 1865
  Sea Islands and other lands set aside for
  freedpersons
• Goal of 40 acres and a mule
• Northern Republican support for freedmen
  formation of religious and governmental aid
  groups during war

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Black Refugees Seeking Freedom
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Post-Slavery Connections

• Goals of Emancipation continue into the present
• Common goals fight racial and economic
  exploitation fight for democracy and equality
• Public expression and celebrations
• Juneteenth and Emancipation Day celebrations
  throughout the Atlantic
• Radicalism and Reform in the Black Atlantic or
  African-Atlantic
• Anti-colonial activists
• Civil rights activists
• Human rights activists
• Labor activists

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1863 1864

• MAY- Chancellorsville/Siege of Vicksburg begins
• JUN-JUL- Vicksburg falls Gettysburg
• SEPT- Chickamauga
• NOV- Chattanooga

• FEB- Grant assumes command
• MAY - Wilderness Campaign
• JUN - Cold Harbor
• NOV - Shermans March to the Sea Lincoln
  re-elected.

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1865

• APR Lee surrenders at Appomattox (9 April)
  Lincoln assassinated

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Grant

• West Point Class of 1843
• Mexican War
• Spends first three years in West
• Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga
• 1864 Command of all Union forces.
• Clausewitzian (even though On War had not been
  published)
• Aggressively seek out and defeat the enemy by
  finding and destroying his centers of gravity.
• Understood and applied Total War concept
• Economics and combat.

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Lee

• West Point, Class of 1829
• 2d in class w/ no demerits
• Chief of Engineers during Mexican War.
• Very best soldier I ever saw in the field.
  Scott
• Superintendent of West Point in early 50s.
• Led Marines at Harpers Ferry.
• Offered command of Union forces, but first
  loyalty was to his state (Virginia).
• I could take no part in an invasion of the
  Southern states.
• Started war as advisor to President Davis.

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Lee

• Placed in command in June 1862.
• Secrets to success
• Inspired incredible loyalty in his troops.
• Student of military affairs with extensive
  practical experience.
• Knew his opponents.
• Weaknesses
• Apathy about the Big Picture (politics, Western
  Campaign).
• Lack of clear guidance to subordinates and
  reluctance to give course corrections once
  battle started.

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Impact on Future Conflicts

• Expanding battlefield due to new technology.
• Defense is favored.
• fortification.
• Beginnings of trend toward dispersal and
  increased individual combat.
• Shift to Total War
• Whole government had to be removed for success.
• Civil and military targets.
• Shermans March to the Sea.
• Emancipation Proclamation.

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Summary

• 1. The professional development of military
  officers prior to the war.(West Point, Artillery
  and Infantry schools, greater independence for
  military leaders)
• 2. The significance of how the organizational
  makeup of both sides affect their military styles
  of leadership.(Large manufacturing economy vs.
  Smaller agricultural economy)
• 3. The different strategies used by the North
  and South. (North aggressive attrition style to
  crush Confederate center of gravity vs. South
  Defend and delay strategy until a hopefully
  decisive victory could be used as leverage on
  North)
• 4. The tactical and technological advances that
  increased combat effectiveness throughout the
  war.(Rifle, telegraph, and railway)
• 5. The major strengths and weaknesses of Grant
  and Lees strategies. (Grantaggressive total war
  tactics. Lee experienced, but apathetic about
  big pic. And unable to modify orders once fight
  was under way)