The Causes of the Civil War

• The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the Union in 1860–1861.

• The war produced over 970,000 casualties (3.09% of population), including approximately 560,300 deaths (1.78%), a loss of more American lives than any other conflict in history. The causes of the war, and even the name of the war itself, are still debated.

Causes of the Civil War• 1. Economic Differences and sectional

rivalry about slavery and the tariff.• 2. Different beliefs about the nature of

government– A) the South saw it as states’ rights issue– B) The North saw it as a union with a federal

gov’t

3. The election of Abraham Lincoln4. The Struggle for control of the central

gov’t5. Two different ways of Life6. Slavery as a morality issue

• 1. The Growing Division Between North and South—whatever seemed to be good for the North was bad for the South and vice versa. The North had diversification, but the South was trapped economically into King Cotton

• 2. Failure to Compromise—the free v. slave states had kept a dangerous balance, but with “gag” rules and then a Republican win, the South saw its future threatened

• 3. Rising Tide of Violence—more and more incidents occurred which provoked violence and murder

• 4. Secession Crisis—the South always believed that they could simply step away if conditions grew worse. They saw it as their right, where the North saw the Union as indissoluble.

Events leading to the Civil War

• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850• Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852 • John Brown—Bleeding Kansas 1854• Bleeding Sumner1856• The Dred Scott Decision 1857• Lincoln Douglas Debates 1858• John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry 1859• Election of Abe Lincoln 1860• Secession of the Confederacy 1860• Attack on Fort Sumter 1861

Compromise of 1850• Henry Clay, U.S. senator from Kentucky, was determined to find a solution. In 1820

he had resolved a fiery debate over the spread of slavery with his Missouri Compromise. Now, thirty years later, the matter surfaced again within the walls of the Capitol. But this time the stakes were higher -- nothing less than keeping the Union together.

There were several points at issue:

€ The United States had recently acquired a vast territory -- the result of its war with Mexico. Should the territory allow slavery, or should it be declared free? Or maybe the inhabitants should be allowed to choose for themselves?

€ California -- a territory that had grown tremendously with the gold rush of 1849, had recently petitioned Congress to enter the Union as a free state. Should this be allowed? Ever since the Missouri Compromise, the balance between slave states and free states had been maintained; any proposal that threatened this balance would almost certainly not win approval.

€ There was a dispute over land: Texas claimed that its territory extended all the way to Santa Fe.

€ Finally, there was Washington, D.C. Not only did the nation's capital allow slavery, it was home to the largest slave market in North America.

• On January 29, 1850, the 70-year-old Clay presented a compromise. For eight months members of Congress, led by Clay, Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts, and John C. Calhoun, senator from South Carolina, debated the compromise. With the help of Stephen Douglas, a young Democrat from Illinois, a series of bills that would make up the compromise were ushered through Congress.

According to the compromise, Texas would relinquish the land in dispute but, in compensation, be given 10 million dollars -- money it would use to pay off its debt to Mexico.

• Also, the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be organized without mention of slavery.

• (The decision would be made by the territories' inhabitants later, when they applied for statehood—popular sovereignty.)

• Regarding Washington, DC, the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, although slavery would still be permitted.

• Finally, California would be admitted as a free state. To pacify slave-state politicians, who would have objected to the imbalance created by adding another free state, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed.

• Of all the bills that made up the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial. It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial. (Cases would instead be handled by special commissioners -- commissioners who would be paid $5 if an alleged fugitive were released and $10 if he or she were sent away with the claimant.) The act called for changes in filing for a claim, making the process easier for slaveowners. Also, according to the act, there would be more federal officials responsible for enforcing the law.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

• Of all the bills that made up the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial. It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial. (Cases would instead be handled by special commissioners -- commissioners who would be paid $5 if an alleged fugitive were released and $10 if he or she were sent away with the claimant.) The act called for changes in filing for a claim, making the process easier for slaveowners. Also, according to the act, there would be more federal officials responsible for enforcing the law.For slaves attempting to build lives in the North, the new law was disaster. Many left their homes and fled to Canada. During the next ten years, an estimated 20,000 blacks moved to the neighboring country.

• For Harriet Jacobs, a fugitive living in New York, passage of the law was "the beginning of a reign of terror to the colored population." She stayed put, even after learning that slave catchers were hired to track her down. Anthony Burns, a fugitive living in Boston, was one of many who were captured and returned to slavery. Free blacks, too, were captured and sent to the South. With no legal right to plead their cases, they were completely defenseless.

• Private citizens were also obligated to assist in the recapture of runaways. Furthermore, people who were caught helping slaves served jail time as well as pay fines and restitution to the slaveowner. Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act made abolitionists all the more resolved to put an end to slavery. The Underground Railroad became more active, reaching its peak between 1850 and 1860. The act also brought the subject of slavery before the nation. Many who had previously been ambivalent about slavery now took a definitive stance against the institution. The Compromise of 1850 accomplished what it set out to do -- it kept the nation united -- but the solution was only temporary. Over the following decade the country's citizens became further divided over the issue of slavery. The rift would continue to grow until the nation itself divided.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom's Cabin 1852

• HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896) is remembered chiefly for her antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851-1852). But when most people think of the book's famous characters, Uncle Tom, Little Eva, Topsy, and Simon Legree, they are not remembering the book. They are thinking instead of George L. Aiken's play of 1852, or of crude and violent spectacles called "Tom Shows," which played in small towns in the North. Aiken's play and the Tom Shows only faintly suggest Stowe's book.

• Her life. Stowe was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a Presbyterian minister. Stowe was educated at the academy in Litchfield and at Hartford Female Seminary. From 1832 to 1850, she lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, where her father served as president of Lane Theological Seminary. In 1836, she married Calvin Stowe, a member of the Lane faculty. Her years in Cincinnati furnished her with many of the characters and incidents for Uncle Tom's Cabin, which she wrote in Brunswick, Maine. After the publication of the book, Stowe became famous overnight. On a visit to England, she was welcomed by the English abolitionists.

• Stowe was the sister of the clergyman Henry Ward Beecher and the reformer and educator Catharine Beecher. Stowe died on July 1, 1896.

• Uncle Tom's Cabin is melodramatic and sentimental, but it is more than a melodrama. It re-creates characters, scenes, and incidents with humor and realism. It analyzes the issue of slavery in the Midwest, New England, and the South during the days of the Fugitive Slave Law. The book intensified the disagreement between the North and the South which led to the Civil War. Stowe's name became hated in the South.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet, he shook her hand and said: ”So you are the little lady who wrote the book that made this big war.”

Or Life Among the Lowly

John Brown—Bleeding Kansas 1854• JOHN BROWN(1800-1859), was a radical abolitionist

whose attempt to free the slaves cost a number of lives and helped indirectly to bring on the American Civil War. His ancestors had sailed to America in the early colonial period. He was born in Torrington, Connecticut, and lived as a child in Ohio. His two marriages resulted in 20 children. He did various types of work and had several business ventures. He was not a successful businessman, and his family lived insecurely.

• The abolitionist. From his youth, Brown hated slavery and helped fugitive slaves to escape to Canada. He lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, from 1846 to 1849. After he left Springfield, he organized a league among blacks for their protection against slave catchers. In 1849, he moved to North Elba, New York, an area that was settled by blacks. Brown was later buried there.

• In 1855, he followed five of his sons to Kansas. They settled in Osawatomie and worked to keep Kansas from becoming a slave state. In May 1856, proslavery men attacked and burned the nearby town of Lawrence.

• Two days later, Brown led an expedition to Pottawatomie Creek, where his men brutally murdered five proslavery settlers. A number of small but bloody battles broke out between Free State men and those who wanted slavery=Bleeding Kansas. Brown became famous as "Old Osawatomie Brown" after he defended Osawatomie from attack by proslavery men in 1856.

Bleeding Sumner 1856

• On May 19, 1856--two days before the "sack of Lawrence"--Senator Charles Sumner (1811-1874) of Massachusetts began a two-day speech in which he denounced "The Crime Against Kansas." Sumner charged that there was a southern conspiracy to make Kansas a slave state, and proceeded to argue that a number of southern senators, including Andrew Butler (1796-1857) of South Carolina, stood behind this conspiracy. Launching into a bitter personal diatribe, Sumner accused the elderly Senator Butler of taking "the harlot, Slavery," for his "mistress."

• Two days later, Butler's nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks (1819-1857) of South Carolina, entered a nearly empty Senate chamber determined to "avenge the insult to my State." Sighting Sumner at his desk, Brooks charged at him and began striking the Massachusetts senator over the head with a cane. He swung repeatedly and so hard that the cane broke into pieces.

• Although it took Sumner three years to fully recover from his injuries and return to his Senate seat, he promptly became a martyr to the cause of freedom in the North, where a million copies of his "Crime Against Kansas" speech were distributed.

• In the South, Brooks was hailed as a hero. Merchants in Charleston bought the congressman a new gold-headed cane, inscribed "Hit him again." A vote to expel Brooks from Congress failed because every southern representative but one voted against the measure. Instead, Brooks was censured. He promptly resigned his seat and was immediately reelected.

Preston Brooks Canes Charles Sumner

The Dred Scott Decision1857• In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney,

declared that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permitting slavery in all of the country's territories.

The case before the court was that of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott, a slave who had lived in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin before moving back to the slave state of Missouri, had appealed to the Supreme Court in hopes of being granted his freedom.

Taney -- a staunch supporter of slavery and intent on protecting southerners from northern aggression -- wrote in the Court's majority opinion that, because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. The framers of the Constitution, he wrote, believed that blacks "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it."

Referring to the language in the Declaration of Independence that includes the phrase, "all men are created equal," Taney reasoned that "it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration. . . ."

Abolitionists were incensed. Although disappointed, Frederick Douglass, found a bright side to the decision and announced, "my hopes were never brighter than now." For Douglass, the decision would bring slavery to the attention of the nation and was a step toward slavery's ultimate destruction.

The Dred Scott Decision, 1857

• Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's opinion in Dred Scott ranks as the Supreme Court's most infamous majority decision and likely accelerated the breakup of the Union. Taney held that (1) Scott had no standing to bring a legal action in a federal court because blacks could not be citizens under the Constitution, and (2) the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional. Slavery could not be limited—a terrific boost for the pro-Slavery Fire-Eaters, but a horrific blow to Abolitionists.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates1858

• The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of seven formal political debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in a campaign for one of Illinois' two United States Senate seats. Although Lincoln lost the election, these debates launched him into national prominence which eventually led to his election as President of the United States.

• Douglas, a Democrat, was the incumbent Senator, having been elected in 1847. He had chaired the Senate Committee on Territories. He helped enact the Compromise of 1850. Douglas then was a proponent of Popular Popular Sovereignty, and was responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of Sovereignty, and was responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.1854. The legislation led to the violence in Kansas, hence the name "Bleeding Kansas"

• Lincoln was a relative unknown at the beginning of the debates. In contrast to Douglas' Popular Sovereignty stance, Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as half-slave and half-free states. The Lincoln-Douglas debates drew the attention of the entire nation.

• Although Lincoln would lose the Illinois Senate race in 1858, he would beat Douglas out in the 1860 race for the US Presidency as a Republican.

"House Divided" Speech

Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858

• "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.

Pictures of Abe

• It was the fall of 1860. Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee for President of the United States. Election Day was less than a month away. Mr. Lincoln, a lifelong beardless man, received a letter written by Grace Bedell, an 11 year old girl from Westfield, New York. Written October 15th, 1860, the letter urged him to grow a beard.

• Hon A B Lincoln...

Dear SirMy father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chatauque County New York

• I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye

• Grace Bedell

John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry 1859

• Harpers Ferry. Brown had been considering an invasion of the South, and began to collect arms and men for that purpose in 1857. Although he was an outlaw, he received sympathy and aid. Some who helped Brown did not know his plans. His idea seems to have been to raid the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), and then encourage slaves to rebel.

• He and 18 followers captured the arsenal on Oct. 17, 1859. But later that day, the local militia bottled up Brown with his dead, wounded, and a few prisoners in the arsenal. Colonel Robert E. Lee forced the fort open on October 18 and delivered Brown to the state for trial. Brown conducted himself bravely and intelligently. Northern efforts were made to have him declared insane, but he was convicted of treason and hanged on December 2.

• The event inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson to say that Brown would make the gallows "as glorious as a cross." Union troops, when the Civil War began, sang: "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, His soul goes marching on."

HARPERS FERRY

• HARPERS FERRY (pop. 307) is a village in easternmost West Virginia. It lies on the Potomac River, 55 miles (89 kilometers) northwest of Washington, D.C. At Harpers Ferry, the Potomac meets the Shenandoah River. The village was named for Robert Harper, who purchased the site in about 1747 and later operated a ferry across the Potomac.

• The United States government established a federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1796. The town was incorporated in 1852. It became a milling, manufacturing, and transportation center. It was made famous by John Brown's raid in 1859, a critical event preceding the American Civil War.

• At the outbreak of the Civil War, a small Union garrison destroyed buildings and supplies at the arsenal and withdrew. Confederate troops under General Joseph E. Johnston occupied Harpers Ferry from April to June 1861 and then abandoned it. Union soldiers controlled the town until Sept. 15, 1862, when General Stonewall Jackson captured it during General Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland. After Lee's defeat at Antietam, a Union garrison again took charge. During Lee's Gettysburg campaign in July 1863, Confederate troops recaptured Harpers Ferry, but Union troops took it back. It stayed in Union hands during most of the rest of the war.

• In 1867, Storer College opened at Harpers Ferry for the education of freed slaves, and it remained in operation until 1955. A national historical park was established at Harpers Ferry in 1944.

William Lloyd Garrison

• William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) issued the first number of The Liberator on January 1, 1831. The radical tone of the paper was unprecedented because it labeled slave-holding a crime and called for immediate abolition. When the Nat Turner rebellion of August 1831 escalated Southern fears of slave uprisings, some Southern states passed laws making circulation of The Liberator a crime and called for prosecution of Garrison. Although he had detractors, Garrison quickly became a noted leader of the anti- slavery movement and helped launch the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1833. Until he ceased publication in 1865, Garrison employed the Liberator to advance militant anti- slavery views. He especially opposed African colonization, as is shown in the article entitled "Emigration" in column one of this issue.

Election of Abe Lincoln 1860

• The results of the 1860 election put the nation on the path towards war. As the call for secession gained momentum in the South, Lincoln, who won without any support from the region, observed a public silence. When he finally delivered his inaugural address, more than half the southern states had seceded. And though he pledged not to interfere with slavery in the South, he refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of secession and he vowed to take control of federal property in the region. Barely one month later, the first shots rang out at Fort Sumter.

Election of 1860

Senator John J. Crittenden

• Compromise having failed, Crittenden returned to Kentucky, where he actively sought to keep the state from seceding. On April 17, just days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Crittenden again urged his state to remain in the Union. Kentucky's divided loyalties were reflected in Crittenden's own family; two of his sons would lead opposing armies during the Civil War. Kentucky ultimately refused to join the Confederacy, and Crittenden was elected to the Congress, where he introduced resolutions to the effect that the war was to preserve the Union, not to interfere with slavery or to subjugate the South. As the war took a different course, he opposed the confiscation acts and the Emancipation Proclamation. He was preparing to run for reelection to Congress in 1863, when he died in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Crittenden Compromise

The Crittenden proposal consisted of the following six amendments to the Constitution:

Slavery would be prohibited in all territory of the United States "now held, or hereafter acquired," north of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes. In territory south of this line, slavery was "hereby recognized" and could not be interfered with by Congress. Further, property in slaves was to be "protected by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance." States would be admitted to the Union from any territory with or without slavery as their constitutions provided.

Congress was forbidden to abolish slavery in places under its jurisdiction within a slave state, such as a military post.

Congress could not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it existed in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland, and without the consent of the District's inhabitants. Compensation would be given to owners who refused consent to abolition.

Congress could not prohibit or interfere with the interstate slave trade. Congress would provide full compensation to owners of rescued fugitive slaves. Congress was

empowered to sue the county in which obstruction to the fugitive slave laws took place to recover payment; the county, in turn, could sue "the wrong doers or rescuers" who prevented the return of the fugitive.

No future amendment of the Constitution could change these amendments, or authorize or empower Congress to interfere with slavery within any slave state.

Crittenden also offered the following four resolutions: That fugitive slave laws were constitutional and should be faithfully observed and executed. That all state laws which impeded the operation of fugitive slave laws, the so-called "Personal Liberty

laws," were unconstitutional and should be repealed. That the Fugitive Slave act of 1850 should be modified (and rendered less objectionable to the North)

by equalizing the fee schedule for returning or releasing alleged fugitives, and limiting the powers of marshals to summon citizens to aid in their capture.

That laws for the suppression of the African slave trade should be effectively and thoroughly executed.

Secession of the Confederacy 1860

• The presidential election of 1860 culminated more than a decade of increasing sectional conflict between the North and South, and, simultaneously, precipitated a new crisis that ultimately severed the Union. The election of the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, on November 6, 1860, began a chain of events that included the secession of seven deep South states the establishment of the Confederate States of America at Montgomery, Alabama, and the assumption of authority over federal property, such as customhouses and forts. The Confederacy's attempt to extend its sovereignty over forts that remained in Union hands, notably Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor and Fort Pickens at Pensacola, Florida, placed the rival governments on a collision course. These events transpired in the approximately 120 days between Lincoln's election in early November and his inauguration on March 4, 1861.

CSA

The Confederate States of America

11 states would make up the Confederacy:TX, LA, MS, AL, FL, GA, SC, NC, TN, AR,& VA.

Capital: Montgomery, AL, but later changed to Richmond, VA

President: Jefferson DavisVice President: Andrew Stephens

Attack on Fort Sumter 1861• Meanwhile, at Charleston Harbor, a similar situation existed at Fort Sumter. Like Fort

Pickens, Sumter was located offshore, being constructed on an artificial island made from the granite of northern quarries. Nearby fortifications, such as Forts Moultrie and Johnson, and Castle Pinckney, virtually surrounded it. Prior to South Carolina's secession on December 20, 1860, the Buchanan administration declined to reinforce the small federal contingent largely housed at Fort Moultrie, and ordered its commander, Major Robert Anderson, to defend the forts if attacked but not to provoke hostilities. After December 20, Anderson's situation became more difficult. With public sentiment pressing for action, South Carolina sent commissioners to Washington to negotiate the transfer of the forts to the state, and requested immediate control of Fort Sumter. Anderson considered his situation increasingly precarious, indeed untenable if South Carolina occupied Sumter. After nightfall, on the evening of December 26, Anderson moved his small force from Moultrie to the more defensible Sumter.

• Despite South Carolina's insistence that Anderson's action was a hostile act and must be repudiated, President Buchanan refused to order Anderson to return. South Carolina then proceeded to occupy federal property in Charleston, including the military posts surrounding Sumter. By January 1, only Sumter remained a Union outpost in the midst of secessionist South Carolina. Stiffening his resolve to protect Anderson's vulnerable garrison, President Buchanan approved an expedition headed by a chartered merchant steamer, the Star of the West, to re-supply and reinforce Fort Sumter. On January 9, 1861, the ship arrived at Charleston Harbor, but turned back when it was fired upon by South Carolina's batteries. Despite the outbreak of fighting, war did not ensue. The Confederate government, which assumed responsibility for Sumter after its establishment, tightened the noose around the fort, while the Union garrison continued to hold firm. The situation at Sumter received considerably more public attention, both in the North and the South, than that at Pickens. It rapidly became a symbol of rival definitions of sovereignty and honor.

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

• The services of "The Hero of Fort Sumter," Pierre G.T. Beauregard, were not utilized to their fullest due to bad blood between the Confederate general and Jefferson Davis. The native Louisianan had graduated second in the 1838 class at West Point. There he had become a great admirer of Napoleon and was nicknamed "The Little Napoleon." Posted to the artillery, he was transferred to the engineers a week later.

• In 1861 he served the shortest term ever-January 23-28 as superintendent at West Point. On February 20, 1861, he resigned his captaincy in the engineers and offered his services to the South. Placed in charge of the South Carolina troops in Charleston Harbor, he won the nearly bloodless victory at Fort Sumter. "The Little Creole" was hailed throughout the South.

Robert Anderson had been Beauregard’s favorite teacher at West Point.

Beauregard's first assignment from the Confederate Government was command of the forces in Charleston, South Carolina, where on April 12, 1861, he opened fire on the Union-held Fort Sumter, regarded as the start of the Civil War.

Fort Sumter 1861

• History provides us with defining moments from which we judge where we are with where we have been. The Civil War provides the United States with one of its critical defining moments that continues to play a vital role in defining ourselves as a Nation. Fort Sumter is the place where it began. America's most tragic conflict ignited at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, when a chain reaction of social, economic and political events exploded into civil war. At the heart of these events was the issue of states rights versus federal authority flowing over the underlying issue of slavery.

• Fueled by decades of disagreement and confrontation, South Carolina seceded in protest of Lincoln's election and the social and economic changes sure to follow. With Fort Sumter as an unyielding bastion of Federal authority, the war became inevitable.

• A powerful symbol to both the South and the North, Fort Sumter remains a memorial to all that fought to hold it.

Border States• The term border states refers

to five slave states that were on the border between the Northern Union states and the Southern slave-states that formed the Confederate States of America. In some of these states there were both pro-Confederate and pro-Union factions and men (sometimes even from the same family) from these states fought as soldiers on opposite sides in the war.

• The five border states are Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia.

Advantages of the Union

• 1. Union had more population-- 22 million to the South’s 9 million/4 million slaves

• 2. More RxR’s and miles of track—distribution system was better

• 3. More factories for supplies—food, clothing, weapons

• 4. More $$$$ and gold in banks• 5. Navy—control of blockade, trade, supplies• 6. Larger army—more men in the field, lots of

Irish and German immigrants

Advantages of the Confederacy

• 1. The South didn’t have to actually fight—it could merely defend and had advantage of home turf

• 2. Confederacy was a vast amount of land—easy to hide and retreat

• 3. fighting for independence and maintaining their way of life—economically as well as socially

• 4. War of attrition—all they have to do is wear the North down and make them give up

• 5. Robert E. Lee was a bold and brilliant leader who won battles and inspired devotion in his followers

The Anaconda Plan

• A large and imposing figure, Scott as a young man stood six feet, five inches tall and weighed 230 pounds. Horses ran away in fear, but he would have had to be lowered with a crane.

• His career was extraordinarily long, some fifty years, and he was the associate of every President from Thomas Jefferson to Lincoln. Called "Fuss and Feathers" because of his punctiliousness in dress and decorum, his reputation for patriotism and generosity generally won him the trust and loyalty of his troops.

• Now seventy-five years old, Scott requested retirement, and in November 1861, he was retired. Five years later, he died at West Point and was buried in the national cemetery there.

• Lincoln desperately needed a general in the field—Abe’s first choice: Robert E. Lee.

Scott’s plan was a total naval blockade of the South, surrounding them and cutting off their supplies. The North would then gain control of the Mississippi and split the Confederacy in two—squeezing it slowly like a boa constrictor.

Lincoln’s First Choice

• Robert Edward Lee • (1807-1870), American soldier, general in the Confederate States

army, was the youngest son of major-general Henry Lee, called " Light Horse Harry." He was born at Stratford, Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the 19th of January 1807, and entered West Point in 1825. Graduating four years later second in his class, he was given a commission in the U.S. Engineer Corps. In 1831 he married Mary, daughter of G. W. P. Custis, the adopted son of Washington and the grandson of Mrs. Washington. In 1836 he became first lieutenant, and in 1838 captain. In this rank he took part in the Mexican War,repeatedly winning distinction for conduct and bravery.

In 1859, while at Arlington on leave, he was summoned to command the United States troops sent to deal with the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry. In March 1861 he was made colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry; but his career in the old army ended with the secession of Virginia in the following month.

• Lee was strongly adverse to secession, but felt obliged to conform to the action of his own state. The Federal authorities offered Lee the command of the field army about to invade the South, which he refused.

• Resigning his commission, he made his way to Richmond and was at once made a major-general in the Virginian forces. A few weeks later he became a brigadier-general (then the highest rank) in the Confederate service. Lee on Traveler

Lee Quotes

• Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less

• It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it.

Dixie

• I wish I was in land ob cotton,Old times dar am not forgotten,Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.In Dixie Land whar' I was born in,Early on one frosty mornin',Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land. CHORUS:Den I wish I was in Dixie, Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray!In Dixie land, I'll take my stand to lib and die in Dixie;Away, away, away down south in Dixie,Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

•The original Dixie was composed on forty-eight hours’s notice by Dan D. Emmett in September, 1859. He was then under contract with Bryant’ss Minstrels, New York, as musician and composer of “negro melodies and plantation walk-arounds.” On a bleak northern Sunday he composed this “rush order” around the showman’ss autumnal and winter saying, “I wish I was in Dixie.” The rollicking measure scored a natural success with every audience, and the sentiment reinforced its appeal in the South. Sung late in 1860 and early in 1861 at New Orleans, it made an especially sensational “hit” and soon all the

Confederate states rang with it.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

• by: Julia Ward Howe

• Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the LordHe is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword His truth is marching on.

• Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

An American patriotic hymn from the Civil War by Julia Ward Howe, who wrote it after a visit to an encampment of the Union army. The tune is that of “John Brown's Body.”

Gettysburg

• On July 1,1863,UNION GENERAL JOHN BUFORD LEAD HIS CAVALRY AGAINST THE APPROACHING CONFEDERATE ARMY NEAR GETTYSBURG . BUFORD'S DISMOUNTED CAVALRYMEN WERE ABLE TO HOLD THE ENEMY LONG ENOUGH FOR THE UNION infantry and artillery TO REACH THE FIELD, THE 1ST. CORPS UNDER GENERAL JOHN F. REYNOLDS, AND THE 11TH CORPS UNDER GENERAL O.O.HOWARD.

• , General Reynolds was shot in the saddle and died almost instantly. Shot through the neck he reeled from the saddle and was taken to the rear. Buford is in charge again. It is he who takes and holds the high ground.