Girding for War: The North and the South

1861-1865

Chapter 20

Menace of SecessionLincoln

“No conflict unless the South provokes it”“Physically speaking, we cannot separate”

DebtNew Territories

North Offensive

South Defensive

Fort Sumter = South CarolinaApril 12, 1861

Lincoln’s inauguration = only 2 significant forts in South remained in Union handsFort Sumter --- Charleston Harbor

Fewer than 100 menDecided to neither abandon nor reinforce

o Only send in food

Fall of Fort Sumter united the NorthLincoln called for volunteer troops

o 75,000 militiao Response overwhelming

Border Blood

Richmond, Virginia = Capital

Boarder States Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, & W. VirginiaLincoln = Publicly announced not fighting to free blacks

Save the Union at all costs

5 Civilized Tribes = Sided with Confederacy

Plain Indians = Union

Brothers War

Balance of forcesUnion and Confederacy were unevenly

matchedUnion

More people = 22 millionMore factoriesGreater food productionMore extensive railroad system = ¾ Economy = Greatest strength = ¾ nations wealthControlled Sea = Blockade

Confederacy“King Cotton”First-rate Generals

Calvary / Foot soldiersMotivated SoldiersEconomy = Greatest weakness

King Cotton

British depended on South 75% of cotton supplies

1857 – 1860Enormous exports of cotton =

surplus in British warehouses

Pinch did not come until mid warAmericans sent over cargoes of

foodNorth captured / bought supplies

of cotton and sent to Britain

War Industries = relieved unemployment

King Wheat – King CornReaperNorth – export huge

quantities of grain

Decisiveness of DiplomacyTrent Affair = 1861

British mail steamer stoppedRemoved 2 Confederate diplomats bound for

EuropeReluctantly released

Britain = Chief naval base of ConfederacyAlabama

Confederate commerce-raiders“British Pirate”Captures 60 Yankee Ships

Laird Rams = 2 Metal shipsNot released by Brits

Limitation on Wartime Liberties

Neither side was completely unifiedNorth = Harbored thousands of Confederate

sympathizersSouth = Had thousands of Union

sympathizers

Lincoln dealt forcefully with disloyalty and dissentSuspended the writ of Habeas Corpus

Holds citizens without formally charging them with crimes

Jefferson Davis also adopted practice

Neither followed Constitution

Volunteers and Draftees1863 = Conscription

Draft – forced men to serve in the army

North = Led to draft riotsNew York Pay your way out = $300

“Three-hundred dollars or you life”

90% of Union Troops were volunteersBounties for enlistments = $1,000Bounty BrokersDeserters

Cont.

South“Cradle and Grave”Rich man could hire a sub = purchase

exemptionSlave owners = 20+ = exemption“Rich man’s war but a poor man’s

fight”Conscription Agents

Sharp shooting mountain whites = Traitors “Yankee lovers”

Economic Stress

NorthExcise Tax

Tobacco and AlcoholIncome Tax Morrill Tariff Act

5 to 10% higherGreenbacks

Inadequately supported by goldValue dropped = inflation

BondsNational Banking system=

1863BondsStandard bank-note currency

SouthIncreased taxesPrint blue backed

paper moneyRunaway inflation

North’s Economic Boom

North prospers during warManufacturers / Businessmen

Millionaire class

Laborsaving machinerySewing machineSizes

Mechanical reapers

Petroleum“Fifty-Niners” = Pennsylvania“Coal Oil Johnnies”

Homestead Act of 1862

Women’s war Industrial employmentU.S. Sanitary

Commission Trained nurses

Clara Barton = Red Cross

Dorothea Dix

Crushed Cotton Kingdom

SouthFought to the point of exhaustionSqueezed the average income Transportation collapsed

Economic cannibalismResourcefulness / Spirit

“Northern Captains of Industry conquered the Southern Lords of the Manor”