Transcript The Furnace of Civil War

The Furnace of Civil War
1860-1865
Bull Run Ends the 90-Day War
Union army ill-prepared for battle in 1861
– Attack on smaller Confederate force at Bull
Run would demonstrate superiority
– Could lead to capture of Richmond if
successful
July 21, 1861: spectators crowded to watch
– Confederate reinforcements arrived
– Union troops panic and flee
Bull Run, con’t
Victory worse than defeat for the South
– Inflated a dangerous overconfidence
– Southern enlistments fell off sharply
– Preparations for long conflict waned
Defeat better than victory for the Union
– Dispelled notion of a one-punch war
– North buckled down to preparations
The Peninsula Campaign
Gen. George McClellan command of Army
of the Potomac
– Great organizer and drillmaster, but
overcautious and loathe to sacrifice troops
Moved to Richmond via water in 1862
– Stalled outside city by efforts of Jackson and
Stuart
The Seven Days’ Battles
June 26-July 2, 1862
Gen. Lee launched a counterattack
– Drove McClellan back to sea
Results:
– Lincoln abandoned McClellan as general
– Had McClellan won, the union restored with minimal
disruption
– Lee’s win ensured that war would endure until end of
slavery
– Lincoln began to draft Emancipation Proclamation
Union Strategy
1. Slowly suffocate South by blockading its ports
2. Liberate the slaves and undermine South’s
economy
3. Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing the
Mississippi
4. Chop Confederacy in pieces by sending troops
through GA, SC, NC
5. Capturing Richmond
6. Try everywhere to engage Confederacy’s main
strength
“Anaconda Plan”
Scott's Great Snake
Scott's Great Snake
General Winfield Scott's scheme to surround the South and await a seizure of power
by southern Unionists drew scorn from critics who called it the Anaconda plan. In
this lithograph, the "great snake" prepares to thrust down the Mississippi, seal off the
Confederacy, and crush it. (Library of Congress)
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War at Sea
Blockade of 3500 miles difficult at best
– North converted yachts and ferryboats
– Concentrated on main ports
Britain recognized the blockade as that was
Royal Navy’s best-used weapon
Blockade-running profitable
– Risks great, but high prices brought large
profits
Ironclads
Confederacy plated sides of Merrimack
with iron
– Easily defeated two wooden Union ships
– Threatened Union blockade
March 9, 1862: Merrimack fought Union’s
Monitor to a standstill
– First battle-testing of ironclads spelled doom
for wooden ships
Pivotal Point: Antietam
Lee thrust into Maryland after success of Second
Bull Run
– Wanted to encourage foreign intervention and seduce
Border States to leaving Union
2 Union soldiers found Lee’s plan dropped by
Confederate officer
– Lee halted at Antietam on September 17, 1862 in
bloody battle
– Military draw
Antietam
Antietam
In the photograph of Antietam, dead rebel gunners lie next to the wreckage of their
battery. (Library of Congress)
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Antietam dead, Confederates lined for burial
Antietam dead, Confederates lined for burial
This photograph of corpses awaiting burial was one of ninety-five taken by Mathew
Brady and his assistants of the Antietam battlefield, the bloodiest single day of the
war. It was the first time Americans had seen war depicted so realistically. When
Brady's photographs went on display in New York in 1862, throngs of people waited
in line to see them. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Pivotal Point: Antietam
Results:
– London and Paris declined to help Confederacy
– Lincoln launched his Emancipation
Proclamation
• Announced that as of January 1, 1863, slaves in
rebellious states were “forever free”
• Border States not affected
Proclamation without Emancipation
Thousands of slaves flocked to invading Union
armies
Goal not only to liberate slaves but to strengthen
the Union’s moral cause
– Ardent abolitionists said Lincoln did not do enough
– Those with Southern sympathies felt he went too far
– Diminished moral cause of the South
Freedom to the Slave, 1863
Freedom to the Slave, 1863
This engraving celebrating the
Emancipation Proclamation first
appeared in 1863. While it places a
white Union soldier in the center, it also
portrays the important role of African
American troops and emphasizes the
importance of education and literacy.
(The Library Company of Philadelphia)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Contraband slave group
Contraband slave group
A group of "contrabands" (liberated slaves) photographed at Cumberland Landing,
Virginia, May 14, 1862, at a sensitive point in the war when their legal status was
still not fully determined. The faces of the women, men, and children represent the
human drama of emancipation. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Blacks Battle Bondage
Black enlistees accepted as manpower ran low
– 180,000 served, most from slave states, with 2 full
regiments from MA
– Fought in 500 engagements, high casualties
– Not recognized by CSA as POWs, but as slaves in
rebellion
Confederacy did not use black troops until end of
war
– Most forced to work shoring up defenses
Black Troops from Company E
Black Troops from Company E
Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, photographed at Fort Lincoln, Virginia, in
1864. Nothing so symbolized the new manhood and citizenship among African
Americans in the midst of the war as such young black men in blue. (Chicago
Historical Society)
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Build-up to Gettysburg
Union’s McClellan replaced with Ambrose
Burnside
– Burnside replaced by Joe Hooker after the
defeat at Fredericksburg, VA (12-13-1862)
– Hooker replaced by George Meade after loss at
Chancellorsville, VA (5-2 to 5-4-1863)
Gettysburg
July 1-3, 1863
Outcome in doubt until the end
– Davis sent peace negotiators towards DC in
hope of Confederate victory
– Lincoln refused to allow them past Union lines
Beginning of the end for the Southern cause
A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July 1863
A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July 1863
(Library of Congress)
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War in the West
February 1862: Grant captures Forts Donelson and
Henry
– Bound Kentucky more securely to Union
– Opened gateway to TN & GA
April 1862: Defeated by Confederate forces at
Shiloh
July 4, 1863: Grant captures city of Vicksburg
– Severed the spinal cord of the Confederacy
– Britain stopped delivery of the Laird rams and France
stopped purchase of warships for Confederacy
Sherman Scorches Georgia
Fall 1864: Sherman captures/burns Atlanta
– Major purpose to destroy supplies destined for
Confederacy and weaken moral of men by
waging war on their homes
– Strategy worked: Southerners deserted in
droves
Winter 1865: South Carolina--by-passed
Charleston and burnt Columbia
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea
Determined to "make Georgia howl," William Tecumseh Sherman and his band of
"bummers" slashed their way through the South during the winter of 1864,
destroying military and civilian property along the way. This painting shows
Sherman astride a white horse looking on while his men rip up a rail line and burn
bridges and homes. (Collection of David H. Sherman)
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Atlanta's Depot, 1864
Atlanta's Depot, 1864
Atlanta's depot in ruins after Sherman's
siege of the city in 1864. (Library of
Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Politics of War
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the
War: late 1861
– Radical Republicans resented expansion of political
power
Democrats tainted by the seceders
– Stephen Douglas died before war began
– War Democrats supported Lincoln administration
– Peace Democrats and Copperheads did not
Eagle cartoon
Eagle cartoon
"Annihilation to Traitors," screams the American Eagle as it watches various evil and slimy
creatures hatching in its nest enfolded in the American flag. Various southern secession leaders
are named, some being shown as beasts, while a copperhead snake, the popular cartoon image
representing northerners who sympathized with the southern cause, prepares to strike at the
national symbol. The Union states are represented as healthy eggs, holding out promise for the
future. (Library of Congress)
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Election of 1864
Union Party
– Composed of Republicans and War Democrats
– Republicans temporarily did not exist
– Lincoln/Johnson ticket
Democrats chose McClellan
Lincoln aided by series of Northern successes
– Soldiers furloughed home to vote
– The “Bayonet Vote”
– 212 electoral votes/21
Grant Outlasts Lee
1864: Grant heads towards Richmond
February 1865: Grant meets with Confederate diplomats to
broker peace terms
– Lincoln wanted no less than Union and emancipation
April 1865: Union troops capture Richmond and cornered
Lee at Appomattox Courthouse
April 9: Grant met with Lee,
giving generous terms of
surrender
Lee with his son after the surrender
Lee with his son after the surrender
After opposing secession, General Robert E. Lee accepted a commission in the Confederate
army and commanded the Army of Northern Virginia for most of the war. Photographer
Mathew Brady took this picture of Lee (center), his son Major General G.W.C. Lee (left), and
his aide Colonel Walter Taylor (right) eight days after Lee's surrender to General Grant. The
forlorn expression on the general's face vividly demonstrates the agony of defeat. (Library of
Congress)
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Martyrdom of Lincoln
April 14, 1865: Lincoln assassinated at
Ford’s Theater in DC
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–
–
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John Wilkes Booth
Lincoln’s death calamity for North and South
Increased bitterness in North
Reconstruction more brutal for the South.
Why?
Aftermath of the Nightmare
Over 620,000 died in
action or from disease
– Over a million seriously
injured or dead
Direct costs of $15 million
– Does not include continuing
costs (pensions, etc)
Nullification and
secession laid to rest