 February 4, 1861—Confederate States of America was born

 Fort Sumter was one of few Union footholds in the South

 Lincoln’s dilemma:
order attack on the fort
evacuate the fort
“food for hungry men”
 Jefferson Davis’ dilemma:
do nothing
order attack on the fort**
 Confederates attacked and the fort fell out of the Union control
 RESULT: United the North; Virginia and other upper Southern
states seceded
*1863: West Virginia was created
 Both sides expected a short, glorious war, but got a blood bath
that lasted until 1865. Both sides were passionate and
thought it was right.
 Davis
Lincoln Not well liked
Limited Mandate – won
Extensive military
only 40% vote experience
Highly skilled lawyer West Point Grad
and politician Fought in
Had an established Mexican/American War
Created government
government
Delegator from scratch
Preserve the Union at all Experienced


Representative and
cost
Senator
Secretary of War
 Writ of habeas corpus
Latin for “you have the body”
Gave judges the power to
command the presence of a person
before court.
Both accused & accuser must appear
before court
It required government to explain WHY a
person was being detained.
 Congress was not in session;
Lincoln acted on his own
authority to suspend habeas
corpus during the Civil War, The Privilege of the Writ
arguing Article I, Section 9 of of Habeas Corpus shall
the Constitution not be suspended,
unless when in Cases of
Rebellion or Invasion
the public Safety may
require it.
Was Lincoln right or wrong to suspend
Habeas Corpus? Have we seen other
presidents suspend certain rights
through times of war?
 Military Strengths Weaknesses Economics
Fighting on home turf •Not enough railroads – Grow their own
Closer to supplies
transporting soldiers / food
supplies Extremely
Fight harder because
•Lower population resourceful
they were protecting •Little Manufacturing  End – built
their homes / way of •No Navy armories,
life •No rifleworks foundries,
Experienced Military
•Gunpowder Imported mills
Leaders and Soldiers •Susceptible to Less Money
7 of 8 Military colleges blockade
in the South •Jefferson Davis
High Morale

(beginning)
 Military Strengths Weaknesses Economics
21 Million People – •Invade, conquer, •More factories
larger army and occupy the •Manufactured more
Established Navy South weapons
5 to 2 advantage of
•Few experienced •Miles of railroads
military leaders •Over 90%
men who could fight
•Fight to maintain manufactured goods
Superior Leadership
Union from the North
- Lincoln •Unfamiliar •More Money
Territory
•Thought war would
be done quickly
 Lincoln appointed him
 Leader of the Army of
General-in-Chief in Northern Virginia
March 1864.
 Offered command of
Union forces
 Grant directed  Opposed secession
Sherman to drive  Believed in the
through the South Constitution and Union
 He pinned down Gen.  Could not go to war
Robert E. Lee's Army of against his own state
Northern Virginia.  Urged others to accept
 Known as a “Butcher” defeat at the end of the
war
Grant Lee
http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history/vi
deos/grant-or-lee
Discussion
Which side had the better
advantages?
 Lincoln’s declaration that freed enslaved people
in the rebelling territory, but not slaves in the
Union or Border States
 Did Lincoln have that authority?
 CONFISCATION ACT: Union army could
confiscate slaves as they invaded South on the
basis they were “contraband” of war
 Many Northerners felt it went too far; opposed fighting an
“abolition war”
 Desertions increased from Border States
 Republicans lost mid-term elections
 Abolitionists thought Lincoln did not go far enough; though
some pleased
 South accused Lincoln of trying to stir up a slave
insurrection
• Union military strategy to
strangle the South by
blockading its coasts
• Control the Mississippi to
cut of Confederacy in half
• Sherman’s March to the Sea
• Capture key cities in the
South: Richmond, Atlanta,
Charleston
 South – King Cotton Plan
The Confederacy adopted a defensive
strategy and attempted to secure alliances
with more powerful countries such as
Britain and France. To do that, the South
needed to show it could win the war. As a
result, the Confederate army attacked
Union territory to draw Union troops away
from the South and to impress potential
allies. As the war continued, the Southern
strategy became one of evading the Union
army, prolonging the war, and inflicting
casualties to demoralize the North.
• Trent Affair: CSA sent delegates to Great Britain for
recognition of the CSA. Union stopped ship & delegates
held prisoner who were later released but never gained
recognition

• Raiders: CSA was purchasing old ships from GB, Union

stopped future sales by threatening war with GB

• “King Cotton”: GB found other sources for its demand of

cotton (Egypt, India)
1. Failure of clear CSA
victory at Antietam
2. Emancipation
Proclamation made
ending slavery the
main objective for
the Union. This
appealed to British
working class.

'Over the Way', 1861. At the time the American Civil War began, Britain imported the bulk of its cotton from the United
States. President Lincoln's blockade of the Southern ports caused Britain to suffer a 'cotton famine' which caused
great distress to the workers in the mill towns of Lancashire. By early 1862, some quarter of a million workers in
Lancashire were out of work and fresh sources of cotton, mainly from India, were sought. Here we see Presidents
Lincoln and Davis fightin in their shop doorway and John Bull impatiently tells them that he will go over the road to the
Indian supplier instead. From Punch, or the London Charivari, November 16, 1861.
 What factors led to the South’s loss of the
Civil War?
 After the E.P., hundreds
of thousands of southern
slaves walked away from
slavery to seek protection
from approaching Union
armies.
 200K African Americans
fought in segregated
regiments in the Union
army and navy
◦ Ex: Massachusetts 54th
Regiment (Glory)
 Effects of blockade, Sherman,
spread hunger in much of the
South
 Grant continued to outflank
Lee’s army until they collapsed
@ Petersburg followed by
Richmond (April 1865)
 Confederate army surrounded
near Appomattox Court House
in VA
 April 9, 1865Lee surrendered
to Grant
 April 14, 1865 John
Wilkes Booth shot
Lincoln @ the Ford’s
Theater
◦ Conspirator attacked
Sec. of State Seward
 The assassination
royally screwed over the
South for
Reconstruction. More
on that later.