AP US

“Girding for War: The North and the South”

1861-1865
The Menace of Secession
-In Lincoln’s inaugural address he said there would be no conflict unless initiated by the
South
-He claimed secession was impractical because “physically speaking, we cannot
separate”
-Secession would cause issues like:
 -What share of the national debt would the South take?
 -What portion of the territories should the Confederate states be allotted?
 -How would the fugitive slave issue be resolved?
 -Wouldn’t the Underground Railroad pick up speed?
-If the US could be divided, the European nations would be delighted
-Europe’s imperialists would be able to seize territory in America
South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter
-When Lincoln took office, there were two forts in the South that ‘still flew the Stars and
Strips’
-Fort Sumter was in Charleston harbor and held less than 100 men
-The fort had enough supplies to last only a few weeks
-Without supplies, he would have to surrender
-Lincoln didn’t this weak idea was equal to his obligation to protect federal properties
-Lincoln decided to notify the South Carolinians would be sent to provide the garrison
but not reinforce it, promising “no effort to throw in men, arms and ammunition”
-Lincoln then sent a Union naval source, which the South saw as an act of aggression
-April 12,1861, Carolinians opened fire on the fort
-After 34 hrs, the garrison surrendered
-Northerners were outraged and said if the Southern states wanted to go, they should
-However the assault provoked the North in thinking that the fort was lost, but the Union
saved
-Southerners had fired upon the Union and so had demanded an armed response
-Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 militiamen
-South was aroused and saw that Lincoln was waging war on the Confederacy
-VA, AK, TN, NC all joined in secession
-Richmond, VA replaced Montgomery, Alabama as Confederate capital
Borthers’ Blood and Border Blood
-Border States were slave states not in the Confederacy: Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland,
Delaware and West Virginia (hill person area that illegally tore itself from Virginia in
1861)
-If the North had initiated war, these states would have joined
Benefits of the Border States:
1. The border group had a white population that was more than half of the
whole Confederacy
2. Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri would increase the horse and mule
supply
3. The Ohio River flowed from Kentucky to West Virginia
 4. The Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers went into Dixieland where the
Confederacy’s grain, gunpowder, and iron was

-Lincoln’s approach:
1. Maryland: declared martial law where needed and sent in troops when the
state threatened to take Washington from the North
2. Deployed Union soldiers in western Virginia and Missouri
3. 3Any antislavery statement from Lincoln would push the states to the North
so he declared that he wasn’t fighting to free the blacks
4. Same feeling in the Butternut region of southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
5. Repeated his goal was to save the Union
-War in the West:
1. Indian territory (Oklahoma) most of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokees,
Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles) sided with the Confederacy
2. Some of the Indians owned slaves
3. Confederacy gov’t agreed to take over federal payments to the tribe and
invited Native American delegates in Congress
4. Tribes supplied troops
-Conflict between “Billy Yank” and “Johnny Reb”
 -Many Northern volunteers from the Southern states and vice versa
 -“Mountain whites” of the South sent north 50,000 men and the loyal
slave states gave 300,000 men to the Union
 -In border states, one brother would go north and the other south
 -Senator Cittenden of Kentucky had two sons: one became a general in the
Union the other in the Confederate
The Balance of Forces
-At first, the South seemed to be in the advantage:
North South
Defense North had to invade the Confederacy could fight
territory, conquer it, then behind the interior lines. South
bring it back to the Union didn’t have to win the war to
win its independence, it only
had to fight the invaders to a
draw. Fighting on their own
soil they were fighting for
self-determination and their
own lives.
Military Much less prepared than the Full of talented officers for
South example General Robert E.
Lots of immigrants Lee. Bred to fight, excellent
Far weaker generals cavalrymen and foot soldiers

Supplies Lacked factories, but seized

federal weapons, ran Union
blockades and developed their
 own ironworks.
Shortages of shoes, uniforms,
blankets
Breakdown of the South’s
transportation system
Economy Biggest strength Biggest weakness
Had both farmland and
factory land
3.4ths of the nation’s wealth
Navy Controlled the sea
Superior navy

Numbers Union had 22 million Confederacy had 9 million,

Immigrants became slaves 3.5 of which were slaves
Dethroning King Cotton
-South was expecting foreign help but didn’t receive any
-Europe’s ruling classes were sympathetic to the Confederate cause, as they didn’t like
the American democratic experiment and preferred the South’s aristocratic social order
-Working people in Britain and France supported the North after reading Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
-Common folk’s hostility towards any British support of the South had an effect on
parliament
-Uncle Tom helped the North by stopping European involvement with the Confederacy
-At the same time, British textile mills were dependent on the American South for 75% of
their cotton supplies
-King Cotton had been so productive between 1857-1860, sending out exports to Britain
and when the shooting began in 1861, the British had an oversupply
-The “cotton famine” in Britain was helped when Americans sent cargoes of foodstuffs
-Union armies would capture supplies of cotton and ship them to Britain
-Cotton growers of Egypt and India increased their output
-During the way, the North produced lots of grain, Britain however suffered from bad
harvests
-Britain imported grain from America that was cheap
The Decisiveness of Diplomacy
First major crisis with Britain: Trent Affair,
When: 1861
What/When/Who: -A Union warship north of Cuba stopped a British mail steamer, the
Trent and removed two Confederacy diplomats going to Europe
Result: Britons were outraged. War preparations buzzed and Yankee troops went to
Canada. The London foreign office prepared to demand surrender of the prisoners and an
apology. Lincoln came to see the Trent prisoners as “white elephants” and released them.
Other example: Alabama
When: 1862
What/When/Who: -A Confederate vessel escaped to the Portuguese Azores where it took
weapons and a crew from the two British ships following it. Though if flew the
Confederate flag and was officered by Confederates, it was manned by Britons and had
never entered a Confederate Port. Britain was the chief naval base of the Confederacy.
This “British pirate” captured over 60 vessels.
Result: British shippers were happy while the North had to divert naval strength from its
blockade to chase the vessel. It was finally destroyed by a Union cruiser of the coast of
France in 1864.
-Forced by the American minister, the British finally decided that allowing such vessels
to be build would someday be used against them
-In 1863, London seized another raider being built for the south
-Confederate commerce-destroyers captured more than 250 Yankee ships
Foreign Flare Ups
Laird Rams
When: 1863
What: Two confederate warships that were designed to destroy the Union’s ships, and far
more dangerous than the Alabama. If they came to the South they would have brought
down the North. At the last minute the London government relented and instead bought
the ships for the Royal Navy. Everyone seemed satisfied. Britain also eventually agreed
to submit the Alabama dispute to arbitration and in 1872 paid American claimants 15.5
million for damages.
-In Canada, Southern agents plotted to burn Northern cities
-Hatred of England was deep in Irish Americans and they used it on Canada, raising
armies to invade Canada (1866 and 1870)
-The Civil War brought a reunited US and a united Canada
Dominion of Canada
When: 1867
What: Established by British Parliament, it was designed to bolster the Canadians against
the US.
-Emperor Napoleon III of France dispatched a French army to occupy Mexico City in
1863 and then put Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico
-This went against he Monroe Doctrine
-Napoleon was expecting the union to collapse
-Washington government gave aid to a resistance movement led by Bunito Juarez,
Mexico’s national hero
-When the shooting stopped in 1865, Secretary Steward, prepared to go south
-Napoleon took “French leave” and soon Maximilian crumpled to a Mexican firing squad
President Davis Versus President Lincoln
-Confederate government had weaknesses:
1. Constitution was directly from the Union and one defect: as it was created by
secession it couldn’t deny future secession to its constituent states
2. President Davis was beaten by states’ rights supporters
3. Richmond regime had issues in persuading state troops to serve outside their
borders
4. Jefferson Davis, was always in trouble as he had no real personal popularity and
no support from his congress
5. Suffering from nervous disorders he overworked himself
-Northern government:
 1. Long established government, stable finances, and fully recognized by foreign
countries
2. Lincoln was superior to Davis, knew how to work public opinion
3. Demonstrated charitableness toward the South
Limitations on Wartime Liberties
Lincoln made some infractions to the Constitution:
 -He proclaimed a blockade then increased the size of the Federal army without
Congress
 -Directed the secretary of the Treasury to advance $2 million without
appropriation or security to three private citizens
 -Suspended privilege of the writ of habeas corpus so that anti-Unionists could be
arrested, defining a ruling by the chief justice that such could only be done by
authorization of Congress
 -Arranged for supervised voting in the Border States
 -Federal officials ordered suspension of certain newspapers and arrested their
editors
Volunteers and Draftees: North and South
-War demanded men
-Northern armies:
 Only volunteers
 After 1863, Congress passed a conscription law for the first time
 Very unfair to the poor
 Rich boys could hire substitutes for $300
 Riot broke out in 1863 in New York (New York Draft Riots) where many blacks
were lynched.
 More than 90% were volunteers
 A smart volunteer could make up to $
 Wise volunteers could make up to $1,000
Southern Armies:
 At first, mainly relying on volunteers
 But since the Confederacy was smaller they found men quicker
 Richmond regime had to turn to conscription in 1862
 Slave-owners or overseers with 20 slaves could claim exemption
 This caused tension amongst the lower classes
Economic Stresses of the War
-Excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol increased by Congress
-Income tax levied for the first time
-Morrill Tariff Act
Who: Congress
When: 1861
What: Increased existing duties some 5 to 10 percent. Similar to that of the Walker Tariff
of 1846. Pushed up by the war and designed to raise additional revenue and provide
protection for manufacturers being hurt by new internal taxes. Protective tariffs were now
identified with the Republican Party.
-Greenbacks
Who: Washington Treasury
What: green backed paper money, almost 450 million issued by WT at face value.
Printing press currency was supported by gold and so its value was determined by the
nations’ credit. Greenbacks fluctuated with the fortune of the Union’s success and at one
low point were worth only 39 cents on the gold dollar. The holders of these notes were
unfairly taxed.
-The federal Treasury netted $2,621,916,786 through sales of bonds
-Treasury forced to market its bonds through the private banking house of Jay Cooke and
Company, which received commission of three-eighths of 1 percent on all sales.
National Banking System
Who: Congress
When: 1863
What: Launched as a stimulant to the sale of government bonds it was meant to establish
a standard bank note currency. Those banks that joined could buy government bonds and
issue sound paper money.
The South’s financial woes:
-Customs duties taken off
-Large issues of Confederate bonds were sold, up to $400 million
-Richmond regime increased taxes and imposed a 10% levy on farm reproduce
-Confederate had to [print blue-blacked paper money
-Confederate paper dollar sank to the point where it was worth only 1.6 cents
Confederacy: 9,000 percent inflation rate
Union: 80 percent inflation rate
The North’s Economic Boom
-The North’s economy did well during the war
-New factories came forth; higher prices hurt the workers but helped the manufacturers
and businesspeople
-Civil War bred a millionaire class for the first time in the US
-This brought a new noisy, gaudy, brassy class
-Yankee “sharpness” was emphasized with dishonest agents and unscrupulous Northern
manufactures
-Newly invented machinery helped the North expand
-Custom-tailored clothing was high in demand
-Discovery of petroleum in 1859 brought “Fifty Niners” to Pennsylvania, causing the
birth of a new industry
-Pioneers kept pushing westward during the war
-People were attracted to the gold and free land of the Homestead Act of 1862.
-Only major Northern industry to suffer was the ocean-carrying trade after the Alabama
issue
-Conflict opened new opportunities for women
-Women took jobs of men in war:
 500 girls became government workers
 More than 400 women dressed as men and accompanied their husbands
 One executed for smuggling gold to the Confederacy
  Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, America’s first female physician helped organize the
US Sanitary Commission that trained nurses, collected medical supplies and
equipped hospitals for the Union armies.
 Clara Barton transformed nursing to a respected profession
 Sally Tompkins ran a Richmond infirmary for wounded Confederate soldiers was
awarded the rank of captain by Jefferson Davis
A Crushed Cotton Kingdom
Effects of the Civil War:
-Before the war: South had 30% of the national wealth (1860)
-After the war: 12% (1870)
-Transportation collapsed
-Kept their spirit

Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil War
1861-1865
-When Lincoln first called his militiamen on April 15, 1861, he thought they would only
serve for 90 days
-The war wasn’t brief.
Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
-Union army of 30,000 men fought near Washington during the summer of 1861
-they weren’t prepared for the battle but the press and the public were supportive
-Lincoln decided on an attack on the smaller Confederate force at Bull Run (Manassas
Junction)
-He thought if it were successful he could prove the power of the Union arms and maybe
then capture the Confederate capital at Richmond
-Yankee recruits came from Washington to Bull Run to watch the ‘show’
-At first the Yankees did well as Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s warriors ‘stood like
a stone wall’
-However Confederate reinforcements soon arrived, Union troopspanicked
-Victory for the Southerners caused an overconfidence:
 Soldiers deserted, thinking the war was over
 Enlistments fell and preparation for conflict fell
-Defeat was good for the Union as it gave them a sort of ‘reality check’
“Tardy George” McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
-General Geroge B. McClellan with the Army of the Potomac was the major Union force
near Washington
-George McClellan was a brilliant West Pointer dubbed the ‘Young Napoleon’, and
involved in the Mexican War and the Crimean War in Russia. He was a good organizer,
morale booster, and idolized by his men.He believed the enemy outnumbered him and
vovercautious.
-McClellan drilled his army without moving it towards Richmond
-At last he decided to approach Richmond (Peninsula Campaign) with 10.000 men.
-Lincoln diverted McClellan’s plans to follow “Stonewall” Jackson who was in trouble in
the Shanendoah valley
-McCellan was frustrated when “Jeb” Stuart’s Confederate cavaly rode around his army
-General Robert E. Lee then launched a counterattack (The Seven Days’ Battles) in
1862 which drove McClellan back to the sea.
-the Union forces abandoned the Peninsula Campaign and Lincoln abandoned McClellan
as the commander of the Army of the Potomac
-Lee had achieved a triumph.
-If McClellan had succeeded in taking Richmond, the Union would have been restored
with minimal disruption
-Slavery would have survived
-Union strategy now turned to toal war
-Northern military plan had six components:
1. Slowly suffocate the South by blockading its coasts
2. Liberate the salves and so undermine the economic foundations of the Old South
3. Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River
4. Send troops through Georgia and the Carolinas to chop the Confederacy
5. Capture the capital at Richmond
6. Try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and so “grind it into
submission”
The War at Sea
-The Northern navy couldn’t control the 3500 miles of coast
-Instead they tired to focus on the man ports and inlets where docks were for cotton
-Normally, the world would’ve been against the blockading, however Britain recognized
it as binding and warned its shippers that they ignored it at their peril
-Britain didn’t want to commit to eh future war by insisting that Lincoln hold high
blockading standards
-Blockade running was risky however it was profitable
-Southern goods drove prices upward
-Leading ‘rendezvous’: West Indies port of Nassau in the Bahamas
-Yankee captains would seize British freighters on the high seas with war supplies for
Nassau
-Justification: obviously these shipments were “ultimately” destined for the Confederacy
-London hesitantly accepted the doctrine of “ultimate destination”
-Southerners raised and reconditioned a former US warship, The Merrimack and then
plated its sides with old iron railroad rails
-Renamed the Virginia, this monster destroyed two wooden ships of the Union navy
-A Union’ ironclad, The Monitor, was built in 100 days and fought the Merrimack to a
standstill
-Later the Confederates destroyed the Merrimack to keep it from the Union troops.
The Pivotal Point: Antietam
-Robert E. Lee, after beating McClellan’s assault on Richmond encountered General
John Pope’s Federal force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
-Pope was overly confident and Lee attacked his troops and defeated him.
-Lee then went to Maryland trying to encourage foreign intervention and seduce the
Bordering States from the Union
-Marylanders didn’t respond positively
-The critical battle of Antietam Creek happened in Maryland.
 -Lincoln restored “little Mac’ to command of the Northern army
 McClellan’s two Union soldiers found a copy of Lee’s battle plans and McClellan
halted Lee at Antietem
 It was a military draw, Lee retired across the Potomac, McClellan was removed
from his field command
 One of the most decisive engagements of world history
 British and French governments were on the verge of diplomatic mediation
 A rebuff from washingtonw ould have spurred Paris and London into armed
collusion with Richmond
 After Antietem both capitals cooled off with the Union’s display of power
 Victory for Lincoln led to his Emancipation Proclamation (announced that on
January 1, 1863 the president would issue a final proclamation)
-With the Border States in the fold, Lincoln was ready to move
-He thought an edict would seem like a confession that the North needed to call upon the
slaves to murder their masters
-He instead decided to wait for the outcome of Lee’s invasion
-The Civil war became more of a moral crusade as the fate of slaverya dn the South it had
sustained was seal
-the war was more of “remorseless revolutionary struggle”

A Proclamation Without Emancipation

-Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 declared the Confederate slaves
“forever free”
-Bondsmen in the Border States weren’t affected nor were those in the conquered areas in
the South
-Lincoln called it “an act of justice”
-Lincoln refused to free the slaves in the areas where he could (Border States), afraid of
disunion
-Thousands of slaves flocked to the invading Union armies
-Their presence in the camps convinced Northern soldiers of slavery’s evils
-Lincoln strengthened the moral cause of the Union at home and abroad
The individual states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment 8 months after the Civil War
ended
-Emancipation Proclamation also ended any chance of a negotiated settlement
-Public reactions were varied, many abolitionists thought Lincoln hadn’t gone far enough
-some thought he had gone too far
-Opposition in the North against an ‘abolition war’
-South thought that Lincoln was trying to ‘stir up the hellish passions’ of a slave
insurrection
-Aristocrats of Europe sympathized with Southern protest
-Old World working classes were determined to oppose intervention
-North now wanted to preserve the Union AND free the slaves.
Blacks Battle Bondage
-Lincoln wanted to emancipate the salves and enlist blacks in the armed forces
-regular army had no blacks and the War Departemnt refused to accept free Northern
blacks
-as manpower declined and emancipation was proclaimed, black enlistees were accepted
-By war’s end, some 180,000 blacks served in the Union army (most from slave states,
but many from the North
-Blacks were 10 % of the total enlistments in the Union forces on land and sea
-Many when captured were put to death as salves in revolt, not until 1864 did the South
recognize them as prisoners of war
-several black soldiers were massacred after they had formally surrendered at Fort Pillow,
Tennessee
-Confederacy couldn’t enlist slaves until a month after the war ended
-tens of thousands were forced into war related labor
-Slaves kept the farms going while the white men fought
-Involuntary labor didn’t mean slave support of the Confederacy
-Fear of slave insurrection caused the Confederate “home guards”
-Everyday forms of slave resistance diminished productivity and undermined discipline
By the end of the war many of the blacks were revolting “with their feet” and abandoning
their platforms.
Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
-Following Antietam, Lincoln replaced McClellan as commander of the Army of the
Potomac with General A. E. Burnside
-Burnside launched a rash attack on Lee’s position at Fredericksburg, VA, on December
13, 1862
-More than 10,000 Northern slaves were killed or wounded
- General Burnside yielded his command to Joseph Hooker
-At Chancellorsville, VA on May 2, 1863, Lee divided his force and sent “Stonewall”
Jackson to attack the Union
-Hooker was beaten
-Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men in the dusk
-Lee now prepared to invade the North again through Pennsylvania
-Three days before the battle was joined, Union general George B Meade replaced
Hooker
-Meade with 81,000 men fought Lee’s 76,000 near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
-The battle went on for three days
-General George Pickett failed in his charge and so broke the Confederate attack
-Pickett’s charge defined the northernmost point reached by the Southern force and the
Confederates’ last chance
-As the battle of Gettysburg continued, a Confederate peace delegation was calling truce
near Norfolk, VA.
-Jefferson Davis thought his negotiators would arrive in Washington from the South just
as Lee’s triumphant army marched on it from Gettysburg north
-The victory at Gettysburg was in reality Lincoln’s as he refused the Confederate peace
mission to pass through Union lines
-Later in 1863, Lincoln read a two minute address, the Gettysburg Address (claimed the
war to be one for liberty)
The War in the West
-Events gave Lincoln the first able general: Ulysses S. Grant
-Grant had been a mediocre student at West Point, fought in the Mexican War, had a
drinking problem, and ended up at working in his father’s leather store in Illinois for $50
a month
-Grant managed to secure a colonelcy in the volunteers
-His first success in northern Tennessee when he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
in Feb 1862
-His success was crucial as it brought Kentucky more securely to the Union and openedt
he gateway to Tennessee, Georgia, and the heart of the Dixie
-Grant then tried to capture the main Confederate railroad junction in the Mississippi
Valley
-a Confederate force foiled his plans in a battle at Shiloh
-Lincoln resisted the demands for removing Grant
-In the spring of 1862, David G. Farragut joined with a Northern army to seize New
Orleans
-General Grant was given command of the Union forces attacking Vicksburg
-He did very well with his siege of Vicksburg
-Five days later came the fall of Port Hudson
-Confederacy was falling apart
-Union victory at Vicksburg came one day after the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg
-Reopening the Mississsipp helped to quell the Nortehrn peace agitation in the Butternut
region of the Ohio River valley
-Confederate control of the Mississippi cut off that region’s usual trade routes down the
Ohio-Mississippi River system to New Orleans
-These victories tipped diplomatic scales towards the North, as Britain stopped delivering
Laird rams to the Confederacy and France stopped a deal to sell six naval vessels to the
Richmond government
Sherman Scorches Georgia
-General Grant after Vicksburg was transferred to Tennessee where Confederates had
brought Union forces into the city of Chattanooga
-Grant won a series of engagements
-Chatanooga was liberated, state was cleared of Confederates and Georgia was wide open
-Georgia’s conquest was given to William Tecumseh Sherman
-He captured Atlanta in September 1863 and then later burned the city
-Left his supply base and lived off the country for some 250 miles and then emerged at
Savannah
-Sherman’s men burned buildings, tore railroads, ran off with valuables throughout
Georgia (Sherman’s march), all meant ‘to destroy the supplies for the Confederate army
and to rewaken the morale of the men at the front by waging war on their homes’
-Sherman was a practitioner of ‘total war’
-He caused increasing numbers of Confederate desertions
-HE shortened the struggle
-After seizing Savannah, Sherman’s army went into SOuthe Carolina
-The capital city, Columbia burst into flames
The Politics of War
-Election of 1864 right in the middle of the War
-Factions within the Northern party
-Salmon Chase, secretary of the Treasury, led a group against Lincoln
-Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War was dominated by radical
Republicans resenting the expansion of presedential power during the War and who
pressed Lincoln on emancipation
-Most dangerous however were the Northern Democrats
-They lacked the talent that had been in the Southern wing and when Stephen A Douglas,
their leader, died, they were divided
-A large group of “
The Election of 186
Grant Outlasts Lee
The Martyrdom of Lincoln