Transcript File - APUSH

Civil War
1861-1868
Lincoln
• Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861 and promised there
would not be any trouble unless initiated by the South
• He did say the nation could not be split either politically,
economically, or geographically
• Lincoln told the Confederate states he would re-supply
Fort Sumter in South Carolina
• The Confederate states saw this as reinforcing the fort
and on April 12, they opened fire
• After 34 hours the fort surrendered
• Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers and started a
blockade of southern ports
• Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina
joined the South, but what about the border states?
• Union sentiment was so strong in western Virginia that
they formed a new state. In 1863 West Virginia was
admitted to the Union
• Kentucky was the home state of Davis and Lincoln and
could have gone either way
• Initially the state legislature declared itself neutral but
confederates captured several towns in 1861 prompting
Gen. Grant to move into the state
• For the rest of the war the state remained in Union
hands
• Missouri was also split, but Union forces captured
confederate sympathizers
• Fighting continued in the state between the two sides
long after the war had ended
• Lincoln declared martial law in Maryland to retain the
state and protect Washington D.C.
• Sent federal troops to western Virginia and Missouri
• The issue was preserving the Union, not slavery
• At the start the South had certain advantages:
a) it could draw or win
b) it could fight on familiar terrain
(defensive)
c) it had the best officers
• But it did not have:
a) factories
b) agriculture
• The South was depending upon foreign intervention, but
England and France had enough cotton
Advantages/Disadvantages
• Population:
Union - 22 million
Confederacy – 9 million (3.5 million slaves)
• Manufacturing:
Union - 90%+
Confederacy – 8%
• Weapons production:
Union – 97%
Confederacy – 3%
• Railroads:
Union – 20,000 miles
Confederacy – 10,000 miles
Trent Affair
• In late 1861 a Union warship stopped the British mail
ship Trent and removed two Confederates
• The British threatened war, but Lincoln released the
two prisoners and the problem passed
• The British also made steel warships for the
Confederacy, but the Union threatened war and British
kept the ships
Other Issues
• Southern soldiers did not want to leave their own state
• The North was more populated and better supplied
• Lincoln often had to violate the Constitution, like
sending troops to the Border states and suspending
habeas corpus so he could arrest anti-unionists
• The Northern draft was unpopular and riots broke out
because it favored the rich who could hire a substitute
for $300
• In the South people with more than 20 slaves were
exempt
The Fighting
• Most people believed the war would only last a
few months
• The first battle was Bull Run – spectators
picnicked watching the battle
• The South won and surprised everyone, but
proved it would be a long war
• The slaughter on both sides was unbelievable –
technology had outpaced tactics
Anaconda Plan
•
•
•
Lincoln wanted to suffocate the South by:
a) blockading the ports
b) control the Mississippi River and the
Confederacy in half
c) capture Richmond
After Antietam in Sept. 1862, Lincoln created
the Emancipation Proclamation which made
the struggle a war over slavery
The Proclamation announced Jan. 1, 1863:
a) freed the slaves in the states still at war
b) caused a major increase in desertion
c) made Southern fear a slave insurrection
Government
• Northern Democrats split between those wanting
peace and those supporting the war
• Copperheads were those totally against the war
• The most famous Copperhead was Clement L.
Vanlandigham who was actually imprisoned and
then banished to the South
• In the South Jefferson Davis had trouble keeping
the Confederacy together
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
• In 1863 Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction
• A Rebel state could rejoin the Union when 10% of those
that voted in 1860 took an oath of allegiance to the
Constitution and the Union – they would then receive a
pardon
• Certain groups were exempt from the pardon: highranking military officers, judges, congressmen,
diplomats, and those who had not treated black soldiers
as prisoners of war
• New governments appeared in Tennessee, Arkansas, and
Louisiana
• Congress refused to recognize the new governments
since the issue was not addressed in the Constitution
• Some moderate Republicans supported Lincoln, but the
Radical Republicans wanted major changes in the
South, especially the removal of the planter aristocracy
• Radicals believed Congress, not the President should
control Reconstruction
• In 1864 Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill:
a majority of white citizens had to swear allegiance, but
only those swearing an “ironclad” oath that they had not
wanted to leave the Union could serve in the state
constitutional convention
• The conventions had to repudiate slavery, deny political
rights to high-ranking Confederates
• Lincoln refused to sign the Bill
Election of 1864
• The Republicans joined the War Democrats to
form the Union Party and re-nominated Lincoln
• The Union Party selected Democrat Andrew
Johnson as running mate to get Democrat votes
• The Copperheads and Peace Democrats
nominated George McClellan
• Lincoln won 212-21
The Death of Lincoln
•
•
•
•
•
•
In 1865 Lincoln was assassinated by John
Wilkes Booth
In death Lincoln achieved heroic status
Initially southerners cheered, but they would be
worse off without him
The war had cost over $15 billion and over
600,000 lives
The new president would be the Democrat,
Andrew Jackson of Tennessee
Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction looked like
Lincoln’s plan
• Johnson was strict believer in the Constitution and that
states should be allowed to return to their former status
because, technically, they had never left the Union
• In 1865 he issued a new Proclamation of Amnesty which
excluded those Lincoln had suggested and those with
property over $20,000
• Johnson detested the southern aristocracy and blamed
them for the the war – but they could request a special
presidential pardon