Chapter 14Two Societies at War

1861-1865

Secession and Military Stalemate, 1861-1862

The Secession Crisis

• The Union collapsed first in South Carolina, the home of John Calhoun, nullification, and southern rights. Secession December 20, 1860.

The Lower South Secedes

• Southerners organized mobs to attack local Union supporters.

• In early 1861 other states joined SC:

• Confederate States of America; Jefferson Davis

• Less support in four states of Middle South (VA, NC, TN, AK) Why?

• White opinion especially divided in four border states (MD, DE, KY, MO)

• President Buchanan’s timidity prompted SC government to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter and cut off its supplies.

The Crittenden Compromise

• President Buchanan’s alternative to send the navy to escort a supply ship to Fort Sumter.

1. Protect slavery from federal interference

2. Extension of Missouri Compromise's line to CA

• Second proposal rejected. Why?

• Lincoln promised to safeguard slavery and prevent its expansion in inaugural address.

• Hold, occupy, and posses federal property in seceded states

• Military force if necessary

The Upper South Chooses Sides

• The war begins: Lincoln dispatched an unarmed ship to resupply Fort Sumter.

• Effect:

• Eight middle and border states

• 3/4th industrial production

• Over half of food production

• Best military leaders (Colonel Robert E. Lee, VA)

• KY bordered Ohio River

• MD bordered capital on 3 sides

• New Confederate states:

• Union states:

• West Virginia broke away from VA (1863)

Setting War Objectives and Devising Strategies

• Jefferson Davis compared the Confederacy to Patriots of 1776. How?

• Lincoln insisted on aggressive military campaign to restore the Union.

Toward Total War• The Civil War resembled “total war” that would come in the 20th century.

• Union centralized vs. Confederate (suspicious of central rule)

Mobilizing Armies and Civilians

• Both armies had eager young volunteers• South: strong military tradition, culture of duty and honor, more trained officers

The Military Draft

• 1862 after Shiloh, the Confederates imposed the first legal American draft.• 18-35/40 years old

• Existing soldiers-

• draftees-

• Two draft loopholes1. 2.

• Confederate constitution vested sovereignty in individual states• Effect-

• Confederate congress overrode state judges’ authority to free conscripted men on the argument of “habeas corpus”

• The Union was more aggressive toward sympathizers.

• Suspended habeas corpus

• Imprisoning 15,000

• Prevented acquittals by sympathetic local judges

• Militia Act of 1862

• Bounties

• Substitutes or pay

• Immigrant dissent

• Enrollment Act of 1863

• Germans and Irish refused to serve. Why?

• New York City Riot 1863

• German and Irish attacked: police, Republicans,

and African Americans

• Burned: homes, draft offices, black orphanages

• Union troops killed over a hundred rioters

• Medical services

• U.S. Sanitary Commission

• Recruit battlefield nurses for Union Army

• 250,000 Union soldiers died from infections

• Confederate conditions were worse

• Death created new industries and cultural rituals

Women in Wartime

• Wage earning work force

• Nurses, clerks, factory operatives

• Dorothea Dix (see Chapter 11)

• Confederate postal service

• Spies, scouts, soldiers

• Clara Barton (Union)-

Mobilizing Resources

• Union had greater resources

• Population, transportation, industrial output

• Confederate was substantial (not weak)

• Richmond manufacturing and gun manufacturing

• Rifles purchased from England

• Slaves

• “King Cotton” exports

Republican Economic and Fiscal Policies

• Neo-mercantalist program of government economics.

• Far surpassed Henry Clay’s American System (1816)

• High protective tariff

• Homestead Act-

• Nationally financed transportation system

• Increased tariffs (20%); bonds (65%); print money (greenbacks 10%)

The South Resorts to Coercion and Inflation

• The Confederacy abandoned its state’s rights philosophy to meet economic demand.

• 10% taxes; 30% loans, 60% printing money

• High inflation led to starvation and theft

• Had to resort to seizing citizens property

The Turning Point: 1863Emancipation

• Activists justified black emancipation on military grounds

“Contrabands”

• Congress passed the Confiscation Act (1861)

• Washington D.C. slavery ends (1862)

• Fugitive slave law ends

The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

• Lincoln linked black freedom with the preservation of the Union

• Rebel states could preserve slavery by renouncing secession

• Slavery continued in border states

• What was immediate reaction?

Vicksburg and Gettysburg

• Union victories at Vicksburg (MI) and Gettysburg (PA) marked a major turning point in the war. Why?

• The British stopped selling weapons to the Confederacy

• King Cotton vs. King Wheat

The Union Victorious, 1864-1865Soldiers and Strategy

• Two developments allowed the Union to prosecute the war vigorously:

The Impact of Black Troops

• Impact of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry

• 200,000

• Segregated, discrimination

Capable Generals Take Command

• General Ulysses S. Grant’s strategy

• Political Effect:

The Election of 1864 and Sherman’s March

The National Union Party vs. the Peace Democrats

• Republican goals:

• New name to attract Democrats and border states

• Andrew Johnson (running mate)

• Peace Democrats

• “cessation of hostilities”; negotiated a peace settlement

The Fall of Atlanta and Lincoln’s Victory

• National Union Party accused Peace Democrats of being “copperheads”

• Lincoln wins election

• Emancipation in the south:

• 13th Amendment

William Sherman: “Hard War” Warrior

• Sherman’s march in Atlanta

• Field Order No. 15

• March in Columbia, SC

The Confederate Collapse

• Rising resentment among poor whites

• By 1865, 100,000 deserters

• Black participation?

• General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House in VA

• Farms and plantations ruined and neglected

• 260,000 Confederate soldiers

• 360,000 Union soldiers