Transcript The Civil War: Sumter to Antietam

The Civil War: Sumter to Antietam
Recall: The Election of 1860
Lincoln Wins…. BUT:
• Receives less than 50%
of the popular vote
(40%)
• Does not appear on the
ballot in the nine
Southern states!
• Dems are… displeased.
South Carolina: The First Chip to Fall
• November 6, 1860 – Lincoln Elected
• December 20, 1860 – South Carolina
Secedes
• Jan-Feb 1861
• 6 more states secede
• MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX
• Lincoln will not take the oath of office
until March 4, 1861
Northern Attitudes Toward Secession
• Ideological Implications
• The Union is the index of Democracy – if the Union dissolves, democracy and
self-government becomes a failed experiment
• Northerners willing to use force to preserve democracy
• Jackson: “The Federal Union: it must be preserved.”
• Financial Implications
• Northern textile industry depends on raw materials from the South
• Possible tariffs, barriers to trade threaten margins
• Mississippi River navigation threatened
• Southern ports/harbors important to Northern merchants
Southern Attitudes on Secession
• Secession is a proper exercise of Lockean and Jeffersonian
principles
• When a government no longer represents the interests of the
people, parting ways is necessary
• How can a government run by a president/party that campaigns
only in the North represent the interests of the entire country?
• Lincoln Said:
• “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.” – 1858
• “I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist.” – 1858
• Population discrepancies will never restore political equality
Crisis at Fort Sumter
• After secession, US troops
in Charleston occupied
Fort Sumter
• South Carolina Militia
captures federal arsenal on
the mainland, takes
offensive position against
the fort
• Standoff begins in
December 1860… still 3
months before
inauguration day
Meanwhile… The Confederacy is Born
•February 1861
• Constitution of the Confederate
States of America
• Almost Identical to U.S.
Constitution… except:
• No law may be passed against
slavery
• Jefferson Davis elected
President
• Seven member states
Lincoln’s Inauguration and Official Position on
Secession
• “No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union … acts of
violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States
are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances … To the extent
of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon
me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this
I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as
practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the
requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary.”
–March 4, 1861
• What is Lincoln’s official position?
• Secession is not legal or possible without the consent of all the states. South Carolina et.
al remains part of the Union. Secession officials are engaged in illegal insurrection. The
Confederacy is NOT a country.
Lincoln and Fort Sumter
• Lincoln will not allow the South to go
quietly… knows a war is coming
• Also doesn’t want to look like the
aggressor
• Announces a re-supply mission to the
Fort—unarmed vessel
• South Carolina warns against it, but the
order is given anyway
• April 12, 1861: SC Militia opens fire,
shells the fort until its surrender the
following day.
• 3 Union casualties, 0 C.S. Casualties
• Strategically Inconsequential – BUT
Lincoln can play the victim card
Aftermath of Fort Sumter
•2 Days after Ft. Sumter,
Lincoln calls for 75,000
troops
• 4 more southern states
immediately secede:
• VA, AR, NC, TN
Union vs. Confederacy: Summer 1861
•Confederacy
• Eleven States
(All slave states)
•Union
• 20 Free States
• 4 Slave States
The Border States:
Choosing Sides
The Border States: Maryland (Lincoln’s Iron Fist)
• Critical Location
• Baltimore – Very pro-South
• Lincoln suspends Habeas Corpus
• Imprisoned Congressmen, Balt. Mayor,
Balt. Police Chief, Balt. City Council without
trial
• Maryland agrees to stay with the Union
The Border States: Kentucky (Lincoln’s Velvet Glove)
• Geography
• Rivers, Agriculture are important to the
North
• Northern business relationships
important to KY
• But… culturally aligned with the South
• KY issues a declaration of Neutrality
• Lincoln keeps his hands off until the
South invades
• Kentucky decided to stay with the Union
The Border States: DE, MO, WV
• Delaware: Industrial economy, less than
2,000 slaves – never really in doubt
• Missouri: Lincoln seizes arsenal in
St.Louis, forces pro-south governor out
of power
• West Virginia:
• Pro-Union VA counties west of the
Allegheny mountains meet at Wheeling
Convention and vote to secede from VA
and re-join the Union
Balance Sheet of War
North
• Population: 22 Million
South
• Population: 9 Million
• 3 Million are slaves
• Highly Developed Industry
• 110,000 Manufacturing
Establishments
• Almost no industry
• 18,000 Manufacturing
Establishments
Balance Sheet of War:
Railroads/Transportation
• North
• 21,000 miles of railroad
track
• Good network
• Canal system
• Roads
• South
• 9,000 miles of railroad track
• Poor network
Balance Sheet of War: Leadership
North
• President: A. Lincoln
• No military background
• Political track record: not great
• General in Chief: Winfield Scott
• 1812 War Vet (you do the math)
South
• President: Jefferson Davis
•
•
•
•
West Point Grad – 23rd in his class
Colonel in the Mexican War
Senator for MS
Sec. of War under Pierce
• Most notable Army officers in
1861 are from the South:
• R. E. Lee, Thomas J. (Stonewall)
Jackson, Joe Johnston
Military Leadership: Robert E Lee
Background
• Family: Great uncle served as a governor of
Virginia, another uncle sat in VA House of
Burgesses and founded the Ohio Company, Great
grandfather was a delegate to the Cont.
Congress/Dec of Independence and served as
PRESIDENT of the Continental Congress under the
articles of confederation, Dad graduated from
Princeton and was Revolutionary War veteran who
served with Washington and sat as the Governor
of Virginia, Robert E Lee was also married to the
great granddaughter of Martha Washington (she
and GW never had any kids together)
Civil War Participation
• In 1861 Lee denounced the Confederacy
in letters to his wife and said he
believed it to be unconstitutional and
against wishes of the founding fathers
 (he would know!!)
letter
• Lincoln asks Lee to take on the
generalship of the United States Army to
bring back the south and Lee not only
• Resume: Graduated #2 in his class at WestPoint
behind George Mason (emphasis in engineering),
turns it down but resigns from the
served with distinction in the Mexican-American
War, made superintendent at US Military Academy
United States army. What he says:
at WestPoint, moved on to command the US
Calvary in Texas. Captured John Brown at Harpers
Ferry. His beliefs on slavery on controversial,
though in a letter to his wife he does call it an,
‘evil.’
• (During and Post War: his childhood home was
seized by the Union and the land was turned into a
headquarters for the north and later the Arlington
National Cemetery; he goes on to found a college,
Washington Lee University, in Lexington, VA where
he had an office and worked until he died)
•
I look upon secession as anarchy. If I
owned the four millions of slaves in the
South I would sacrifice them all to the
Union; but how can I draw my sword
upon Virginia, my native state?
• He resigns on 4/20 and takes up for
Confederate army on 4/23 as
Commander of the Army of Northern
Virginia
The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved
by the acts of the North, as you say. I feel the
aggression, and am willing to take every proper
step for redress. It is the principle I contend for,
not individual or private benefit. As an
American citizen, I take great pride in my
country, her prosperity and institutions, and
would defend any State if her rights were
invaded. But I can anticipate no greater
calamity for the country than a dissolution of
the Union. It would be an accumulation of all
the evils we complain of, and I am willing to
sacrifice everything but honor for its
preservation. I hope, therefore, that all
constitutional means will be exhausted before
there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing
but revolution. The framers of our Constitution
never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and
forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it
with so many guards and securities, if it was
intended to be broken by every member of the
Confederacy at will. It was intended for
"perpetual union," so expressed in the
preamble, and for the establishment of a
government, not a compact, which can only be
dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all
the people in convention assembled.
Balance Sheet of War: Strategic Objectives
• The North must do more to win
• Must defeat, conquer, and occupy
• Must fight an offensive war
• All the South has to do is outlast Northern will to fight
• Also enjoy the advantage of the defensive
First Land Battle at Bull Run
• After Ft. Sumter, war fervor sweeps the North
• “On to Richmond!”
• Most think the war will be swiftly won
• July 1861 – 35000 Union troops at Washington; 22,000 C.S. troops
at Richmond
• Lincoln, under pressure from Congress, orders an attack
• Union forces are undisciplined, lose badly at Manassas Junction
• Impact:
• Both sides realize this won’t be a quick war
• Wakeup call for the North – step up recruitment,
mobilization
• Confidence boost for the South
• ~4600 combined casualties horrify both sides.
The First Year
• Summer 1861-Spring 1862
goes very badly for the Union
• No significant military victories
• Robert E. Lee fights well on the
defensive
• Union Generals in the East are…
less than competent
• Support for the war begins to
wane…
• “Is the South worth fighting
for?”
Lee’s Strategy
• Lee understands what he’s up against
• Northern resources will outlast Southern
Resources
• Race against time
• Lee hopes for foreign intervention
• Britain? France? Both would benefit from
an independent South. Both are watching
closely
• Believes a decisive victory on UNION soil
will encourage intervention
Battle of Antietam
• September 1862 – Lee crosses
the Potomac River into MD
• Armies meet at Antietam Creek
near Sharpsburg
• September 17, 1862
• Bloodiest single day in American
History
• 22,717 combined casualties
The Battle that Changed the War
• Photography - Alexander Gardner
• Photographed Antietam battlefield 2 days
after battle
• The dead had not yet been
buried/removed
• First time the American people had been
exposed to what war really looked like
Crash Course #20
FRIDAY
The Battle that Changed the War
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Sept 22, 1862
• Lincoln promises to free slaves in rebel states if they do not rejoin the Union
by Jan 1
• Jan 1, 1863: Official Proclamation
Emancipation: Aftermath
• Made the war ABOUT slavery
• Unpopular in the North
• Extremely unpopular in the South
• BUT:
• Strategically Brilliant
• Lincoln knows Britain and France will not enter a war on slavery on the
side of pro-slavery
• Lincoln outwits Lee
• Did it actually free any slaves?