Transcript Hist 110 American Civilization I Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer Upper Iowa University.

Hist 110
American Civilization I
Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer
Upper Iowa University
Lecture 14
The Secession Crisis
 Lincoln’s election with only northern
votes and his firm opposition to the
spread of slavery into the territories
convinced Lower South states to secede
South Carolina seceded: Dec. 20, 1860
 Quickly followed by six other Lower
South states
 Feb. 7, 1861: Confederate States of
America formed

 John J. Crittenden of Kentucky
attempted a new compromise but failed
 The new Confederate government seized
federal installations in the South
Federal troops retained Fort Sumter on an
island in Charleston Harbor
 Lincoln decided to try to hold on to this
fort by resupplying the garrison, forcing
the Confederates to act

 Fort Sumter fired on by the
Confederates: April 12, 1861—war
resulted
The attack on Fort Sumter
April 12, 1861
Lecture 14
First Battles
 After the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln
called for 75,000 volunteers for 90 days

Four border (Arkansas, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Virginia) states responded
by seceding and joining the Confederacy
 Bull Run-Manassas (July 21)
First major battle of the war
 Union forces tried to capture a critical
railroad junction leading to the new
Confederate capital at Richmond
 The timely arrival of Confederate
reinforcements won them the battle

 Other notable events
William Rosecrans, under George
McClellan, drove the Confederates from
West Virginia (May-June)
 Wilson’s Creek (August 10): Confederates
won the first major engagement in the Far
West, but failed to capitalize on it
because most of Missouri’s population
remained firmly pro-Union

The Orange and Alexandria
Railroad: used the Confederates
to move troops from the
Shenandoah Valley and win
the First Battle of Bull Run
Lecture 14
Capabilities and Strategies
 Over 90 percent of U.S. industry in
North in 1860
 22 million people in the North vs. 9
million people in the South

Nearly 4 million southerners were slaves
 Lack of southern financial infrastructure

Forced the South to rely mostly on
printing money to finance its war effort
 South had a poorer transportation
network
Less railroad mileage
Poorly maintained, with less uniformity
of gauges
 Made it harder for the Confederates to
shift troops between theaters


 Northern Strategy: Anaconda Plan (1861)
Brainchild of Winfield Scott, became
strategy by default
 Naval blockade of the South
 Capture strategic southern territory,
slowly strangle the South

 Southern Strategy

Exhaust northern resolve, win foreign
recognition
Winfield
Scott
Lecture 14
1862
 Ulysses S. Grant advanced in the western
theater


Captured Forts Henry and Donelson
Battle of Shiloh (April): Grant won the
battle, but nearly lost his command over
high casualties
 George McClellan took charge of the
Union Army in the East
Ulysses
S. Grant
Built the Army of the Potomac
Failed Peninsula campaign: McClellan
dithered in his preparations, overly
cautious in his advance up the peninsula
 Union offensive in the East stopped at the
Seven Days (June-July 1862)
 Robert E. Lee took command


 Confederate offensive into the North
stopped at Battle of Antietam (Sept.
1862)
 The Union defeat at Fredericksburg
prevented the Union from exploiting its
victory at Antietam
George
McClellan
Lecture 14
The Strange Advent of Emancipation
 Both sides tried to ignore slavery at the
beginning

Lincoln was especially eager to do so
because he did not wish to alienate the
remaining loyal slave states
 “Contraband of War”
Union commanders in the field quickly
realized the military value of slaves
 General Benjamin Butler declared slaves
to be “Contraband of War” which meant
that they could be confiscated and put to
work for the Union

 Congress made Butler’s policy law and a
year later authorized freedom for slaves
confiscated from disloyal owners
 Emancipation Proclamation (Sept. 1862)
Border states and occupied South
exempted
 Signaled change in Northern war strategy
 Helped prevent European recognition of
Confederacy

Drawing from a British
illustrated newspaper
depicting slaves seeking
refuge inside Union lines
(c. 1861)
Lecture 14
1863
 Chancellorsville (May): Confederate
victory convinced Robert E. Lee to
mount a new invasion of the North
 Gettysburg (July 1-3)
Three day battle, culminating in a
disastrous Confederate assault on the
center of the Union line (Pickett’s
Charge)
 Lee lost ¼ of his army at Gettysburg and
was forced to retreat back south

 Fall of Vicksburg (July 4)
Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg after
a long and difficult campaign
 Its loss cut the Confederacy in two and
denied them the use of the Mississippi

 Grant followed up his victory at
Vicksburg with a campaign that drove
the Confederates from Tennessee

Lincoln rewarded Grant with a promotion
to Lieutenant General and gave him
overall command of the Union army
Confederate dead after
the Battle of Gettysburg
Lecture 14
Why the Civil War was so Deadly
 620,000 American died in the Civil War
Union deaths: 360,000
 Confederate deaths: 260,000
 Since Confederate forces (820,000) were
much smaller than Union forces (2.1
million) a southern soldiers was more
likely to die in the conflict

 Dirty secret of death in the Civil War:
most soldiers died of disease in camp
rather than because of conflict

A combination of war before germ
theory’s discovery and exposing soldiers
to diseases they wouldn’t have
encountered otherwise
 But the battlefield was more deadly than
in earlier wars because of advances in
military technology
The development of the minie ball
allowed all soldiers to use rifled muskets
 Rifled muskets and artillery expanded the
zone of lethal fire, making Napoleonic
tactics commonly used in the Civil War
largely useless and increasing casualties

Rifling the inside of a
musket barrel made it
considerably more accurate
Over a longer distance than
she previously common
smoothbore musket
“Minie ball” ammunition
was as easy to load in a
rifled musket as roundball
in a smoothbore, making
it a feasible weapon for
ordinary infantry
Lecture 14
1864
 Grant left William Tecumseh Sherman in
charge in the western theater, while he
took personal charge of the eastern
armies
 Grant and Sherman’s approach in 1864
was later called “total war” or “hard war”
Keep engaging Confederate forces to deny
them time to rest, resupply, and regroup
 Destroy anything of value to the
Confederates, even if it meant civilian
suffering

 Grant engaged Lee’s army, maneuvering
until he bogged down in front of
Petersburg, Virginia

Trench warfare until Spring 1865
 Sherman invaded Georgia


Captured Atlanta after a long, difficult
campaign
Then raided through Georgia until he
reached the Atlantic Ocean
 Sherman’s victories and other Union
successes guaranteed Lincoln’s reelection in November 1864
Result showed the North’s resolve to fight
until it had achieved total victory
William
Tecumseh
Sherman
Lecture 14
The Civil War in the Far West
 Both the North and the South coveted
the Far West
Confederate sympathizers throughout the
region, but Union supporters more
prevalent
 Pro-Confederate supporters strongest in
southern New Mexico territory, where
they unsuccessfully tried to establish a
Confederate territorial government

 New Mexico (1862)
Confederate forces invaded New Mexico
territory from Texas in Spring 1862
 They won two tactical victories at Val
Verde (February) and Glorieta Pass
(March) but the destruction of their
supply wagons by Colorado militia forced
them to retreat back to Texas

 Native Americans remained a problem
The Santee Sioux rose up in Minnesota,
forcing Lincoln to divert troops there
 Colorado militia massacred peaceful
Indians at Sand Creek(Nov. 1864)

Glorieta Pass, New Mexico
Site of the western-most
battle of the Civil War
in March 1862
Lecture 14
Final Collapse of the Confederacy
 Confederate situation in early 1865
desperate
Sherman’s army marched through the
Carolinas largely unopposed
 Lee’s army barely held on in front of
Petersburg
 Hungry and increasingly demoralized
his army faced constant desertion

 Confederate Congress votes to arm slaves
(March)
 Lee’s lines collapsed on April 2
Richmond fell (April 3)
 Lee surrenders (April 9)

 Palmetto Ranche (May 13): last land
battle in Texas (a Confederate victory)
 CSS Shenandoah (Nov. 5): Confederate
commerce raider finally ends in
campaign by seeking sanctuary in Great
Britain
Wilmer McLean’s House
Appomattox, Virginia
Site of Lee’s surrender
to Grant
Lecture 14
Why the Union Won
 Superior Resources

With a much greater population, virtually
all the industry, and better financial
resources than the South, the North was
able to recover from its early defeats and
ultimately grind down the South
 Flawed Confederate Approach
The South also often failed to take
advantage of being on the defense, which
would have allowed it conserve its limited
resources and stretch out the war
 Southern public opinion demanded its
armies too often fight aggressively, losing
a greater amount of men and material

 Failed Ideologies
States Rights ideology kept valuable
resources out of the hands of the central
government where they might have done
more good
 Racist ideology prevented the South from
using African Americans as soldiers, while
driving black men to fight for the Union

A busy Union supply depot
at City Point, Virginia, which
kept Grant’s forces well
supplied during the 18641865 campaign against Lee