Transcript Chapter 21 The Furnace of Civil War, 1861-1865

Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil War, 1861-1865
A "Ninety-Day War"
• After Fort Sumter, both sides felt they could quickly defeat the other
• Volunteers were plenty with 30,000 marching off to Washington DC
in order to train for the Union
• Lincoln once again announced that he had no intention of ending
slavery; the war would be fought to preserve the Union
• He thought a fast and resounding victory would convince the South
of the folly of secession
• Southerners felt one good defense would keep the North from
bothering them anymore
• Both sides would be very wrong. One of the few to say it would be a
long and devastating war was General William Tecumseh Sherman
who was promptly retired as crazy, then brought back.
The first battle of armies – Bull Run
• Lincoln decided that a small victory near
Richmond, Virginia might be all that was
needed to demonstrate Northern
superiority and lead to a capture of the
Confederate capital
• On July 21, 1861, Yankee recruits headed
off toward Bull Run followed by members
of Congress and others who intended to
watch the little war
• "Stonewall" Jackson (Southern general)
earned his nickname here, as the North
was soundly defeated
General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
• The victory worked against the South as many participants, brimming
with overconfidence, promptly deserted while the number of
enlistments in the Southern army was reduced.
Can I get some help please? Abe Lincoln
• Later in 1861, the Army of the
Potomac (North) was turned
over to General George
McClellan
• McClellan was a master of
training and drilling while also
greatly loved and admired by
those under his command
• In actual battle he proved to be
quite inept, constantly under
the mistaken belief that the
enemy outnumbered him or
perhaps he was just afraid
• Lincoln was constantly agitated
by his generals until the last
year of the war.
Union General George McClellan
The second major skirmish
• Finally, Lincoln ordered McClellan to attack (actually he jokingly
asked if he could borrow it if the General wasn’t going to use it)
• In the spring of 1862 he sailed his troops through the Chesapeake
Bay landing on a peninsula between the James and York rivers just
southeast of Richmond
• The troops worked their way to the very edges of Richmond during
the Peninsula Campaign
• But they were turned away by Robert E. Lee, who had decided to
remain loyal to his state, in the Seven Days' Battles.
The first modern war
• The American Civil War represented many firsts including:
• a new, much more accurate rifle
• the Gatling gun (a primitive machine-gun)
• and "ironclads" (battleships plated with iron)
• The South raised an old wooden U.S. warship, the Merrimack, gave it ten
guns and plated the sides with iron railroad rails.
• When Lincoln learned of this he immediately ordered work on a version
for the Union.
Battle of Ironclads
• On March 8, 1862, the Merrimack sank two Union ships and grounded a third in
the waters off of Virginia
• The next morning the Monitor arrived armed with just two guns that were
mounted on a revolving turret
• The two ships exchanged fire at close range for four hours doing little damage
• The Merrimack was later
destroyed by its' own
Confederate soldiers who
feared it would fall into
Union hands
• England and France were
horrified, as suddenly their
tremendous wooden navies
were rendered obsolete.
The turret topped Monitor rams the Merrimack while both ironclads fire.
The Pivotal Point: Antietam
• After success in the Second Battle of Bull Run, Robert E. Lee
decided to strike inside Northern territory
• He ventured into Maryland hoping to gain support from both the
Border state and Europe
• Lincoln had reluctantly put George McClellan back in command of
the Army of the Potomac
• One of the key developments that enabled McClellan to stop Lee at
Antietam was the fact that Union soldiers had discovered a
dropped copy of Lee's plan
• *not in text - Most historians argue that McClellan failed to take full
advantage of his knowledge
• Militarily the battle was a draw.
Lincoln (top hat) with McClellan
(third from left) shortly after the
conclusion of Antietam. Lincoln
thought McClellan would now
chase Lee and his injured army.
Outcomes of Antietam
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5)
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The border-states remain with the North
England and France do NOT intervene as had been expected
though the Union suffered higher numbers of dead and wounded,
Lee lost approximately 25% of his army
Lincoln had the victory he needed to announce his proclamation
McClellan is removed from his field command once and for all…..
WHAT?
Shortly after the conclusion of the battle, Lincoln visited the site
to survey the damage and speak to McClellan
Lincoln returned to Washington believing that the Army of the
Potomac would follow and attack Lee's retreating army and end
the war
As soon as he got back to his office Lincoln received a telegram
from McClellan explaining he would need 100,000 more soldiers
plus supplies if he was going to chase down Lee
Lincoln could not find a general willing to fight.
The Emancipation Proclamation
• More hype than substance - On
September 23, 1862, Lincoln
announced that as of January
1, 1863, all slaves "in areas of
active rebellion" (not the
border states of the Union) are
forever free
• All-Black units began to fight
for the Union as the North now
had a moral stake in the war.
Lincoln’s Cabinet asked him to wait for a Union victory
War in the West
• For the most part things had gone
better for the Union in the west
• David Farragut seized control of New
Orleans in the spring of 1862
• General Ulysses S. Grant led victories in
Tennessee and Mississippi with one loss
at Shilo
• Now all that was needed was to take the
fortress at Vicksburg and the North
would control the Mississippi River.
Victory came on July 4, 1863 and with it
Northern trade was reopened helping to
silence those pushing for peace in the
North
• Grant returned to Tennessee clearing
out all of the Confederates and opening
the door to Georgia for William
Tecumseh Sherman. Grant would have
done it himself but he was called to the
east to serve as the new general-inchief.
Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the field. He was
known to drink more than he should but presumed
he developed his habit sending so many men to death.
Gettysburg
• The sleepy Pennsylvania town proved to be the South's last
opportunity in a number of ways
• After surprising successful defenses in the Virginia towns of
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee decided to try
another attack on the Union
• While Grant was bombing Vicksburg, Lee launched an offensive on
Northern troops under the command of General George Meade at
Gettysburg
• From July 1-3, 1863, furious fighting was capped by the Southern
mistake of Pickett's Charge. Lee took full responsibility for the loss,
apologizing to retreating troops and offering his resignation to
Jefferson Davis
• Coupled with the loss at Vicksburg, the South now lost all hope of
European recognition and assistance
• About 27,000 confederates were killed, ⅓ of the troops under Lee's
command. Meade failed to follow the retreating South probably
because he had only been in charge for six days and 23,000 of his
men were dead, wounded, or missing.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
• In September, Lincoln visited the site in order to dedicate a
cemetery.
• He followed the 2-hour speech of another orator with a 269-word
address that received little applause from the stunned audience
• Even the photographer only managed to get a shot of the president
sitting back down in his chair. It has since become known as the
Gettysburg Address.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that
field as a final resting place for those who
here gave their lives that that nation might
live It is altogether fitting and proper that ….
Sherman’s March
• In 1864, General Sherman set out
to smash the South to pieces
• Using the unorthodox strategy of
abandoning his supply lines and
living off the land, Sherman and his
60,000 soldiers first swept through
Georgia
• They tore up and melted railroads,
burned entire cities to the ground
including Atlanta, and ate very well
• He next turned his attention to
South Carolina where the
destruction was even more vicious
because the state had been the
first to secede
• His success allowed Lincoln to
announce that the end of the war
was near.
The Election of 1864
• Hardly a given, Lincoln needed Sherman's successes to help push
him past ….George McClellan
• Lincoln (Union Party)
212 – 2,206,938
McClellan (Democrat)
21 – 1,803,787
• McClellan won the states
of Kentucky, Delaware,
and New Jersey
• The seceding states were
not allowed to vote
• To help ensure victory for
Lincoln, absentee ballots
were sent to troops
stationed in the South.
The Election of 1864
• For this one election the
Republican name was
temporarily abandoned
• The Union Party was made up
of Republicans and War
Democrats who supported
Lincoln
• Peace Democrats did not
support Lincoln and voted for
McClellan
• Copperheads were against
Lincoln, the draft,
emancipation, and openly
obstructed the war effort.
Died of a theory Jefferson Davis
• Shortly after the election a
Union victory seemed only
a matter of time
• Unlike past generals, Grant
chased Lee despite heavy
casualties. Richmond fell
and Lee finally surrendered
to Grant at Appomattox on
April 9, 1865.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee
Appomattox Courthouse
Good Friday
• April 14, 1865 - Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes
Booth at Ford's Theater
• It was part of a larger conspiracy to kill Lincoln, Grant
(who was supposed to be at the theater with Lincoln),
VP Andrew Johnson, and William Seward.
• Seward was severely stabbed while lying in bed
recovering from a cart accident but fought off his
attacker and survived
• The man assigned to Johnson lost his nerve
• Booth was hunted down and died in a shootout at a
farm in Virginia on April 26th
• Many were arrested and four were tried and
executed as part of the conspiracy
• As time wore on, increasing numbers of Southerners
perceived that Lincoln's death was a calamity for
them for he had given indications of a “soft-on-theSouth” policy. After his death the Radical Republicans
will spend the next 12 years punishing the South.
John Wilkes Booth
Inside Ford’s Theater