Transcript 1861
The War for the Union The Improvised War, 1861 I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Opening Salvos • Lincoln and the First Shot • Lincoln calls for volunteers • The secession of the Upper South The Problem of Civil War Military History • Is God on the side of the strongest battalions? • Did the North win or the South loose? • Sectional reconciliation and the problem of memory. Relative Advantages North • 3x military population • Food • Railroad mileage— over 3x the CSA • Productive capacity • Industrial capacity • finance South • Defensive war—a win or a tie • Interior Lines • Slavery • Rifle • Knowledge of landscape Holding the Border • Suspension of writ of Habeas Corpus • John C. Fremont in Missouri; William Clarke Quantrill in Missouri • Battle of Wilson’s Creek (August 10, 1861) • Kentucky neutrality • Unionism? in East Tennessee • Naval Blocade Nathaniel Lyon (1818-1861) Benjamin McCulloch (1811-1862) William Clarke Quantrill, 1837-1865 John Ericsson 1803-1889 Organization of CW Armies • • • • • • Company Regiment Brigade Division Corps Armies Company A, 9th Indiana Infantry First Bull Run, July 21, 1861 Henry House Hill and Mighty Stonewall Ball’s Bluff, Oct. 1861 • Col. and Senator Edward D. Baker was killed; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was critically wounded. • 223 Federals killed, 226 wounded, 533 captured. • Gen. Charles P. Stone was blamed for debacle. • Led to creation of Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War Ball’s Bluff—A Reverie One noonday, at my window in the town, I saw a sight — saddest that eyes can see — Young soldiers marching lustily Unto the wars, With fifes, and flags in mottoed pageantry; While all the porches, walks, and doors Were rich with ladies cheering royally. They moved like Juny morning on the wave, Their hearts were fresh as clover in its prime (It was the breezy summer time), Life throbbed so strong, How should they dream that Death in rosy clime Would come to thin their shining throng? Youth feels immortal, like the gods sublime. Weeks passed; and at my window, leaving bed, By nights I mused, of easeful sleep bereft, On those brave boys (Ah War! thy theft); Some marching feet Found pause at last by cliffs Potomac cleft; Wakeful I mused, while in the street Far footfalls died away till none were left. –Walt Whitman Trent Affair (Nov. 8, 1861-Jan. 14, 1862 George B. McClellan • • • • Civil War “problem child” “I can do it all” Training the Army Problems with “the Original Gorilla”, the “Baboon.”