CH15.PPTSECESSION AND THE CIVIL WAR
America: Past and Present
Chapter 15
The Storm Gathers
- Secession does not necessarily mean war
- One last attempt to reconcile North & South
- Federal response to secession debated
The Deep South Secedes
- December 20,1860--South Carolina secedes
- February 1861--Confederate States of America formed
included South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas
Secession
The Deep South Secedes (2)
- Government headed by moderates
- Confederate constitution resembles U.S.
- Aim to restore pre-Republican Party Union
- Southerners hope to attract Northern states into Confederacy
The Failure of Compromise
- Crittenden Plan: extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
- Lincoln rejects
does not think it will end secession
viewed as repudiation of Republican principles
- Buchanan takes no action to stop secession
- Some wish to “let the South depart in peace”
And the War Came
- North seeks action to preserve Union
- April 13, 1861--Fort Sumter, S.C, falls
- April 15--Lincoln calls out Northern state militias to suppress Southern insurrection
- April-May--Upper South secedes
- Border states--slave states remain in Union
- War defined as effort to preserve Union
Adjusting to Total War
- North must win by destroying will to resist
- Total War--a test of societies, economies, political systems as well as armies
Resources of the Union and the Confederacy, 1861
Prospects, Plans, and Expectations
- South adopts defensive strategy--North must fight in unfamiliar, hostile terrain
- Lincoln adopts two-front strategy
capture Confederate capital, Richmond, Va.
seize control of the Mississippi River
deploy navy to blockade Southern ports
Overview of Civil War Strategy
Mobilizing the Home Fronts
- 1862--North & South begin conscription
- Northern mobilization
finance war through taxes, bonds, paper money
private industry supplies Union armies well
- Confederate mobilization
government arsenals supply Confederate armies
efforts to finance lead to runaway inflation
transportation system inadequate
Political Leadership: Northern Success and Southern Failure
- Lincoln expands wartime powers
declares martial law
imprisons 10,000 "subversives" without trial
briefly closed down a few newspapers
- Jefferson Davis
concerned mainly with military duties
neglects civilian morale, economy
lacks influence with state governments
Early Campaigns and Battles
- Northern achievements by 1862
total naval supremacy
Confederate troops cleared from West Virginia, Kentucky, much of Tennessee
New Orleans captured
- Confederate achievements by 1862
stall campaign for the Mississippi at Shiloh
defend Richmond from capture
Civil War, 1861-1862
The Diplomatic Struggle
- England
belligerent rights extended to Confederacy
conditions recognition of independence on proof that South can win independence
- France--Confederacy not recognized unless England does so first
- "King Cotton" has little influence on foreign policy of other nations
Fight to the Finish
- North adopts radical measures to win
- 1863--war turns against South
- Southern resistance continues
The Coming of Emancipation
- September 22, 1862--Antietam prompts preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
surrender in 100 days or lose slaves
- January 1, 1863--Proclamation put into effect for areas still in rebellion
- African Americans flee to Union lines
- Confederacy loses thousands of laborers
African Americans and the War
- 200,000 African American Union troops
- Many others labor in Northern war effort
- Lincoln pushes further for black rights
organizes governments in conquered Southern states that abolish slavery
Maryland, Missouri abolish slavery
January 31, 1865--13th Amendment passed
The Tide Turns
- May, 1863--war-weariness
New York riots against conscription
Grant seems bogged down at Vicksburg
Union defeated at Chancellorsville
Democrats attack Lincoln
- July, 1863
Lee loses Battle of Gettysburg
Vicksburg falls, North holds the Mississippi
Last Stages of the Conflict
- March 9, 1864--Grant made supreme commander of Union armies
- Union invades the South on all fronts
William Sherman marches through Georgia
Grant lays siege to Richmond, Petersburg
- September 2--Sherman takes Atlanta
- November 8--Lincoln reelected
Civil War, 1863-1865
Last Stages of the Conflict
- April 9, 1865--Lee surrenders
- April 14--Lincoln assassinated
- May 26--Final capitulation of Confederacy
Effects of the War
- 618,000 troops dead
- Bereft women seek non-domestic roles
- Four million African Americans free, not equal
- Industrial workers face wartime inflation
Casualties of War
Effects of the War (2)
- Federal government predominant over states
- Federal government takes activist role in the economy
- higher tariffs, free land, national banking system
An Organizational Revolution
- Modern bureaucratic state emerges
- Individualism gives way to organized, cooperative activity
- Catalyst for transformation of American society in the late nineteenth century
