Transcript Civil War Notes Part II B

Civil War Notes Part II B
Politics and Life
International Affairs
• The CSA was seeking support of GBR.
• GBR had found other areas to meet its
supply needs for cotton
• Crops failed in GBR, and grain and
wheat crops from the Union states
helped
• “Old King Cotton dead and buried”
• GBR decides on neutrality
Trent Affair
• Test of GBR
neutrality
• CSA sends James
Mason and John
Slidell to ask for
British support
• They traveled on a
British ship named
the Trent
• Trent was stopped
by a Union ship and
Mason and Slidell
were arrested
• GBR threatens war
and sends 8,000
troops to Canada
• Lincoln frees the
men and apologizes,
says ship acted
without orders
That Big E Word
• Abolitionists want slavery to end
• Lincoln: Disliked slavery, but did not believe
the government had the power to abolish it
where it already existed
• “My paramount object in this struggle is to
save the Union, and is not either to save or
destroy slavery.”
• Lincoln found he could order the army to
emancipate slaves using war powers
• Europe supported abolition, GBR would be
less likely to help the CSA and slave labor
helped the CSA, so emancipation is used as
weapon of war
Emancipation Proclamation
• Jan. 31, 1863
• Only applied to
slaves in the CSA
• Did not apply to
slave states that did
not secede or
Southern territory
occupied by Union
troops
Reactions
• EP was symbolic
• Turns war into a
fight to free slaves
• Many happy, free
blacks can now
enter the Union
Army
• Many in the North
say this will only
antagonize the
South
• CSA are outraged
• The South knew if it
lost, slavery was
over
• GBR will not enter
the war on the side
of the Confederacy
Political Problems
• Sympathizers in the North and South
• One: How to deal with dissent:
• Lincoln harshly, suspended writ of
habeas corpus (right to appear before a
court), many CSA sympathizers were
arrested and held without bail (many
released)
• Telegraph Offices are seized, Taney
Court says Lincoln is wrong, Lincoln
ignores his order
More Political Problems
• Copperheads, N.
Democrats who
advocated peace with
the S. arrested
• Davis suspends habeas
corpus in the CSA
• Lincoln expanded
presidential powers in a
time of crisis
• Two: Conscription: a
draft that forces people
to serve on both sides
• CSA: Age 18-35, then 17
to 50, rich could hire
subs, slave holders of
20 or more did not have
to serve, mostly draft
army
• Union: white, 20-45, 3
years, could hire subs,
could pay $300 to get
out of serving, mostly
volunteer army
And More Problems
• Most deserters were killed
• Three: Draft Riots: July 13-16, 1863,
New York City, many poor people living
in slums
• White and Immigrant workers did not
feel it was fair to fight to free slaves
who could later compete for their jobs
• Rioted in the streets and attacked the
rich and blacks, more than 100 died
Freedom Fighters
• Black Soldiers: not
accepted when the war
started for either side
• Union will allow it
starting in 1862
• 10% of Union army is
black
• Many are former slaves
• Discrimination,
segregated units led by
white officers
• Could not rise above
rank of Captain
• Earned less than whites
($10 a mos. and no
clothing allowance)
• Pay equalized in 1864
• High mortality rate, due
to disease, if caught
were killed or enslaved
• Fort Pillow Massacre
Resistance
• Union armies pushed into Confederate
Territory
• Many slaves who remained on plantations
used sabotage
• Slaves did not flee with their owners and
waited for Union troops
• Southerners tightened rules for slaves and
spread rumors about how bad Union soldiers
treated slaves
• Plantation system is severely weakened
• Slaves who escaped to the North were called
contraband
Economy
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
North
Economy expanded
Most industries boomed
Wages did not keep up with
prices
Workers strike (guess who
replaces them?)
Women replace men on
farms and other jobs,
become government
workers for the first time
Profit is the motive,
corruption becomes
commonplace
1863: First Income Tax
National Currency
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
South
Economy Suffered
Inflation
Food shortage
Drain of manpower into the
army
Union occupation of food
growing areas
Loss of slaves
Meat is rare, rice and corn
short on supply
Food Rations
Union blockade hurt the
South
Cotton traded by soldiers
with enemy for goods
Money is not backed by gold
or, not national, worthless
Suffering Soldier
• High Casualties
• Poor living conditions,
diet, and medical care
• Body lice, disease, and
diarrhea
• Beans, bacon, hard
biscuits
• “Cush,” small cubes of
beef mixed with
cornbread and bacon
grease
• Coffee: South could not
get it, used (peanuts,
dried apples, corn)
Medicine
•
•
•
•
•
Amputations
Non Sterile equipment
Dangerous Bacterial infections
Chloroform, Opium Pills for Pain
Union: United States Sanitary
Commission: 1) improve hygiene and 2)
recruit and train nurses
• Hospital Trains and Ships to transport
from the battle field
More Medicine
• Dorothea Dix: Head
of nations nurses,
wanted them 30 or
over and plain
looking (why?)
• Clara Barton: cared
for the wounded on
the line, founded
U.S. Red Cross
• CSA did not have a
sanitary
commission
• CSA women
volunteered to be
nurses
• Sally Tompkins:
Hospital in
Richmond, very
successful, stressed
cleanliness, low
death rate, Davis
made her a Captain
Prisons
• Bad medical care and filthy
• Andersonville: CSA prison in Georgia, 33,000
men into 26 acres, no shelter unless they
made it from blankets and sticks, drank from
stream that served as their sewer as well,
1/3rd died, South had little food
• Prisoner exchanges halted, South refused to
return black POWs, North knew South
needed the men to fight
• Union Camps: slightly better, better food and
shelter, more space, but no heat, disease
was rampant, many died
• 15% died in the South, 12% died in the North