Transcript The Furnace of Civil War 1861-1865

The Furnace of Civil War
1861-1865
Chapter 21
A.P. US History
I.
The Eastern Theater 1861-1862
A. First Bull Run to Fredericksburg (cont.)
• Jackson halted the Union
assault and counter
attacked –forcing them
into a panicked retreat all
the way to Washington,
D.C.
• For his actions at ‘First
Manassas’ [First Bull Run],
he earned the nickname
‘Stonewall Jackson’ - but
the greater significance of
Manassas lay in the lessons
both sides drew from it
Major Civil War Battles, 1861-1862
I.
The Eastern Theater 1861-1862
A. First Bull Run to Fredericksburg (cont.)
• Southerners interpreted
their victory as proof of
(1) the superior fighting
ability of Confederate
soldiers, and (2) the
inevitability of
Confederate independence
• Lincoln and his military
leaders learned that victory
would not be quick, easy,
or cheap
I.
The Eastern Theater 1861-1862
A. First Bull Run to Fredericksburg (cont.)
• Lincoln also learned he
needed a new general –
replacing McDowell with
George B. McClellan to
lead the ‘Army of the
Potomac’
• McClellan, a West Point
graduate and superb
organizer, had a high
opinion of himself and a
low opinion of Lincoln –
referring to him as the
“original gorilla”
I.
The Eastern Theater 1861-1862
A. First Bull Run to Fredericksburg (cont.)
• In the ensuing ‘Seven Days
Battles’ [June 25-July 1,
1862], Gen. Lee, assisted
by Gen. ‘Stonewall’
Jackson and James E.B.
(Jeb) Stuart, forced
McClellan’s army to retreat
back down the peninsula –
a strategic victory that
saved Richmond
Peninsula Campaign, 1862
I.
The Eastern Theater 1861-1862
A. First Bull Run to Fredericksburg (cont.)
• Lincoln fired McClellan
following his failed
‘Peninsula Campaign’ –
replacing him with Gen.
John Pope to lead the
‘Army of the Potomac’
• At ‘Second Manassas’
[Second Bull Run, Aug. 2930, 1862] Lee’s smaller
force crushed Pope’s army
– forcing Union troops to
again retreat into Maryland
I.
The Eastern Theater 1861-1862
A. First Bull Run to Fredericksburg (cont.)
 At Antietam, McClellan
came into possession of a
copy of Lee’s orders to his
army – orders that had
been dropped by a careless
Confederate officer before
the battle began
 With this information in
hand, McClellan succeeded
in halting Lee’s invasion –
forcing his battered army to
retreat into Virginia
Major Civil War Battles, 1861-1862
The Aftermath of the ‘Battle of Antietam’ –
September 17, 1862
I.
The Eastern Theater 1861-1862
A. First Bull Run to Fredericksburg (cont.)
• Following ‘Antietam’, President Lincoln removed McClellan
of command for the second and final time – angered at his
failure to aggressively pursue and destroy Lee’s army before
it reached the safety of Virginia
• Still, ‘Antietam’ was one of the most decisive battles in U.S.
history because (1) the Confederacy was never so close to
victory as on that day, (2) it demonstrated unexpected
Union power to the British and French governments which
were considering diplomatic mediation, and (3) it gave
Lincoln the victory he needed to draft a preliminary
‘Emancipation Proclamation’ on September 23, 1862 giving the Union cause the tone of a moral crusade
II.
The Western Theater 1861-1862
A. Fort Henry to Memphis (cont.)
• It was in Tennessee that
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
emerged as the key Union
commander of the war – a
graduate of West Point
and a veteran of the
Mexican War, Grant was
working as a dry-goods
clerk in Galena, Illinois
when the war began
II.
The Western Theater 1861-1862
A. Fort Henry to Memphis (cont.)
• At the ‘Battle of Shiloh’ in
Tennessee [April 6-7,
1862], Grant’s army
repulsed a ferocious attack
by Confederate forces led
by Gen. Albert Sidney
Johnston – a costly victory
which compelled Grant to
conclude the Union could
not be saved except by
total and complete
conquest of the South
Major Civil War Battles, 1861-1862
III.
The Atlantic Theater 1861-1862
A. The War at Sea & Diplomacy
• From the beginning, Union strategy for winning the war
included a complete blockade of the southern coastline
from Virginia to Brownsville, Texas – a distance of 3,500
miles to patrol
• For the North, implementing a blockade was complicated
early on by the lack of enough warships – the U.S. Navy
only had about three dozen ships when the war began
• However, by 1863 the Union blockade proved increasingly
effective as the Navy commissioned a new warship almost
weekly – by 1865, the fleet numbered 150 ships and was
intercepting nearly 50% of the southern blockade runners
IV.
Union and Freedom
C. Blacks Battle Bondage (cont.)
• Black soldiers faced various forms of discrimination,
including (1) segregated black regiments led by white
officers, (2) combat pay of $10/month instead of the $13
earned by white soldiers, (3) no opportunity to become
commissioned officers, (4) punishments similar to those
under slavery, and (5) frequent assignment to labor
battalions instead of combat units
• Notions that black soldiers could not fight were finally
dispelled by their bravery under fire at the battles of Port
Hudson and Milliken’s Bend on the Mississippi River and
the assault on Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor
IV.
Union and Freedom
C. Blacks Battle Bondage (cont.)
• Despite discrimination, (1)
71% of black men
between the ages of 18
and 45 in the free states
served in Union forces, (2)
by war’s end 179,000 black
men had served the Union,
and (3) of those, more
than 38,000 were killed, a
mortality rate higher than
that of white troops based
on numbers alone
V.
The South at War
A. Revolution from Above
• Confederate President Jefferson Davis faced immense
obstacles waging a war against the industrialized North –
among them were (1) recruitment problems to replace
heavy battlefield losses, (2) the Confederate Constitution’s
embodiment of ‘state’s rights’ that made it difficult for
Davis to centralize power, and (3) wartime economic
changes, including high inflation, which hurt the war effort
• Initially, the South was able to build an army relatively easily
as hundreds of officers resigned their commissions to serve
in the Confederate army – hundreds of thousands of young
southern men volunteered to serve as well
V.
The South at War
B. Hardship Below
• In the South, manpower shortages, hyperinflation, and
food shortages were felt by everyone – but they fell hardest
on the poor
• Inflation made necessities like salt outrageously expensive –
in the first year of war salt increased from $2 to $60 a bag
• The South’s heavy draft of military age men depopulated
farms – leaving women and children to grow their own
food, 10% of which was taken by government agents for
military needs
• As the war progressed, hardships and deprivations back
home led increasing numbers of Confederate soldiers to
desert and put family before defense of the ‘cause’
V.
The South at War
B. Hardship Below (cont.)
• President Davis failed to convince most white yeoman
farmers that the war’s burdens were being shared equally – a
hard sell to poor people forced to give up necessities while
the planters only had to make do without luxuries
• The Confederate draft law itself became an issue because
(1) it allowed a man with money to hire a ‘substitute’ to take
his place, a practice also allowed in the Union army, and (2)
it exempted one white man on every plantation with 20 or
more slaves
• Non-slaveholding southern white men considered such
exemptions unjust when poor white women were plowing
fields while they had to serve in the military
VI.
The North at War
B. Women & Work on the Home Front
• With the exception of New England textiles, northern
industries prospered and reaped huge profits during the war
– workers however, hit by rising inflation and taxes, saw
their standard of living fall
• Women in northern cities also moved into jobs vacated by
men drafted into military service – by 1865, they held onethird of the manufacturing jobs, and new positions as
government secretaries and clerks
• Middle-class white women contributed to the war effort in
traditional ways as well – sewing, wrapping bandages, and
selling homemade goods to raise money
VI.
The North at War
B. Women & Work on the Home Front
(cont.)
• In both North and South,
thousands of women
defied traditional notions
of female roles by serving
in army field hospitals
nursing the wounded and
dying – in the North, many
served in the U.S. Sanitary
Commission
U.S. Sanitary Commission
Brandy Station, Virginia, 1863
VI.
The North at War
B. Women & Work on the Home Front
(cont.)
 In April 1861, Dorothea
Dix, a pioneer in pre-war
efforts to reform insane
asylums, became
superintendent of female
nurses – one of many
women who volunteered
and became paid military
nurses
 Clara Barton, another
volunteer field nurse, later
founded the American Red
Cross
Wounded Men at Savage’s Station
Field Hospital
VI.
The North at War
C. Politics & Dissent (cont.)
• Opposition to the draft intensified because (1) a draftee
with money could pay $300 to hire a substitute, and (2)
many Irish and northern Democrats objected to linkage
between the draft and emancipation
• Northern Democrats considered the draft an
unconstitutional law designed to achieve emancipation
which they also considered unconstitutional
• In the summer of 1863, many northern cities, including
New York City, witnessed violent anti-draft and anti-black
riots in which many were killed – the Irish, already suffering
at the bottom of society, were especially opposed to
fighting to free slaves
VI.
The North at War
C. Politics & Dissent (cont.)
• The riots shocked black
Northerners and served
notice that significant
progress toward black
equality would be not be
achieved during the war –
at best it would have to
wait until the war ended
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
A. Chancellorsville to Gettysburg
• In the spring of 1863, the
Confederacy stood at high
tide with victories including
(1) ‘Fredericksburg’
[December 13, 1862] where
Lee defeated Burnside’s
Army of the Potomac in
Virginia, and (2)
‘Chancellorsville’ [May 2-4,
1863] in which Lee and
Jackson again defeated the
Army of the Potomac
commanded by Gen. Hooker
The Road to Gettysburg,
Dec. 1862 – July 1863
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
A. Chancellorsville to Gettysburg (cont.)
• In the West, Gen. Grant
continued efforts to gain
control of the Mississippi
River from Memphis,
Tennessee to New Orleans
– a stretch linking Texas,
Louisiana, and Arkansas to
the rest of the South
• Standing between him and
complete control of the
river stood Vicksburg – a
heavily fortified
Confederate position
The Mississippi River & Tennessee
1862-1863
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
A. Chancellorsville to Gettysburg (cont.)
• Vicksburg, situated high atop a cliff overlooking a horseshoe-shaped bend in the Mississippi, was defended by
swampy terrain to its north and Confederate armies to its
west – southern military leaders considered it
unconquerable
• In May 1863, Gen. Grant initiated an elaborate plan to
capture Vicksburg – marching his entire army more than
100 miles south beyond the western bank of the Mississippi
River
• Then, in a daring move, Union ironclad gunboats ran the
gauntlet of Vicksburg’s guns at night – after meeting up
with Grant’s army they were used to carry his army across
to the eastern side of the river
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
A. Chancellorsville to Gettysburg (cont.)
 Driving west from Jackson,
Mississippi Grant’s army
encircled and besieged
Vicksburg [May 22-July 4,
1863]
 On July 4, 1863, Grant
received the unconditional
surrender of Gen.
Pemberton’s army of
30,000 men at Vicksburg –
that same day, Union forces
defeated Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia at
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
and forced him to retreat
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
A. Chancellorsville to Gettysburg (cont.)
• On June 28, 1863, Gen.
George G. Meade led the
90,000 man Army of the
Potomac into Pennsylvania
to intercept Lee - arriving
first at the town of
Gettysburg, his army
occupied the high ground
along Cemetery Ridge
• In three days of fighting
[July 1-3, 1863], Lee’s
75,000 man army failed to
break the Union lines
Battle of Gettysburg - July 1863
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
B. Chattanooga to Petersburg
• At the ‘Battle of Chattanooga’ [Nov. 23-25, 1863], Grant
broke the siege and routed rebel forces – opening the door
to a northern invasion of Georgia
• In March 1864, President Lincoln appointed Ulysses S.
Grant general-in-chief of all Union armies – rewarding him
for his performance in the West and his ability to win on
the battlefield
• Afterwards, Grant implemented his grand strategy to bring
the war to a rapid conclusion – initiating a war of total
destruction that combined a series of coordinated assaults
against remaining Confederate armies from Virginia to
Louisiana
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
B. Chattanooga to Petersburg (cont.)
• The ‘Siege of Petersburg’
[June 1864-Apr. 1865]
stalled both armies for 9
months – in February,
Lincoln rejected
Confederate efforts to
negotiate a peace treaty
• In May 1864, Grant
ordered Gen. William T.
Sherman and his army of
100,000 men to move
against 65,000 rebels in
northern Georgia
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
B. Chattanooga to Petersburg (cont.)
• At ‘Kennesaw Mountain’
[June 27, 1864], Sherman’s
army won a pitched battle
against the Confederates
and continued moving
south
• In September, Atlanta fell
to Sherman’s powerful
army - on Nov. 15th, he led
an army of 62,000 men
and began his famous
‘March to the Sea’, leaving
behind a path of
destruction 60 miles wide
Sherman’s March Through Georgia
& the Carolina’s 1864-1865
VII.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
B. Chattanooga to Petersburg (cont.)
• By December 22nd,
Sherman’s army had
traveled 285 miles and
entered undefended
Savannah, Georgia on the
Atlantic coast – sparing the
town from burning, he
offered it to President
Lincoln as a Christmas gift
VIII. War Democrats & Peace Democrats
A. The Election of 1864 (cont.)
• Republicans re-nominated Lincoln and changed their name
to the ‘Union Party’ to make it easier for pro-war
Democrats to vote for Lincoln - Andrew Johnson of
Tennessee, a Southerner and Unionist, became his new
running mate
• Northern Democrats nominated Gen. George McClellan, a
war Democrat, to run on a peace platform demanding
immediate cessation of hostilities
• Many voters viewed the Democrat’s peace platform as a
sellout, especially after Sherman’s capture of Atlanta on
September 2nd
VIII. War Democrats & Peace Democrats
A. The Election of 1864 (cont.)
• Lincoln won in a landslide
victory [212 electoral votes
and 55% of the popular
vote to McClellan’s 21] enabling the Republican’s
to pick up voting
majorities in the Congress
• The election returns also
gave Lincoln a political
mandate to pursue the war
until both slavery and the
Confederacy were dead
The Election of 1864
IX.
The Western & Eastern Theaters 1863-1865
A. Nashville to Appomattox (cont.)
• Grant pursued Lee for 100
miles to Appomattox
Court House, Virginia –
there, on April 9, 1865,
Lee surrendered and, with
all hope gone, the
remaining Confederate
armies surrendered within
two weeks
X.
The Aftermath of the Nightmare
B. Comparisons of War Casualties