History 1301- U.S. History 1

History 1301- U.S. History 1 Chapter Fourteen I. Introduction: Marcus Spiegel A. The German Jewish immigrant explains why he fought for the Union side during the conflict. II. The First Modern War A. The Two Combatants 1. The Union had many advantages (e.g., manufacturing, railroad mileage, and financial resources), but it would need to conquer an area larger than western Europe to win. 2. Confederate soldiers were highly motivated fighters. 3. On both sides, the outbreak of war stirred powerful feelings of patriotism. 4. Recruits were not ready for regimentation. 5. One estimate had the Army of the Potomac only fighting thirty days in the first two years of the war. 6. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature) provides a portion of a letter by plantation owner Thomas Drayton, who explains the Confederate cause to his Union navy brother in 1861. B. The Technology of War 1. Railroads were vital to the war effort. 2. Ironclads were superior to wooden ships and revolutionized naval warfare. 3. Introduction of the rifle changed the nature of combat. a. The most recent estimate has 750,000 soldiers killed. 4. Wars in other countries in the same general time period were deadly, too. a. China lost 23 million in the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864). b. Paraguay lost more than 250,000 in war against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. C. The Public and the War 1. Both sides were assisted by a vast propaganda effort to mobilize public opinion. 2. The war was brought to the people via newspapers and photographs. a. Matthew Brady b. The Civil War was a turning point for photography as an art and a business. D. Mobilizing Resources 1. The outbreak of the war found both sides unprepared. 2. Feeding and supplying armies was a challenge for both sides. 3. Despite the North’s advantages, victory on the battlefield was elusive. E. Military Strategies 1. The Confederacy adopted a defensive strategy. 2. Lincoln’s early generals did not successfully use the North’s advantages in manpower and technology. 3. Lincoln realized that his armies had to defeat the Confederacy’s armies and dismantle slavery. F. The War Begins 1. In the East, most of the war’s fighting took place in a narrow corridor between Washington and Richmond. 2. The First Battle of Bull Run, a Confederate victory, shattered any illusions that war was romantic. 3. After First Bull Run, George McClellan assumed command of the Union army of the Potomac. G. The War in the East in 1862 1. General Lee blunted McClellan’s attacks in Virginia and forced him to withdraw to the vicinity of Washington. 2. Successful on the defensive, Lee now launched an invasion of the North. 3. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac stopped Lee at the Battle of Antietam (Maryland), the single bloodiest day in U.S. history (September 17, 1862). 4. Ambrose Burnside replaced McClellan after Antietam. 5. Burnside’s assault on Lee at Fredericksburg, Virginia, resulted in a disastrous Union defeat (December 1862). H. The War in the West 1. Ulysses S. Grant was the architect of early success in the West. 2. In February 1862, Grant won the Union’s first significant victory when he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee. 3. Grant withstood a surprise Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh (Tennessee). III. The Coming of Emancipation A. Slavery and the War 1. In numbers, scale, and the economic power of the institution of slavery, American emancipation dwarfed that of any other country. 2. At the outset of the war, Lincoln invoked time-honored northern values to mobilize public support. 3. Lincoln initially insisted that slavery was irrelevant to the conflict. a. He feared four border states would leave the Union. B. The Unraveling of Slavery 1. Early in the war, Congress adopted a resolution proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, which affirmed that the Union had no intention of interfering with slavery. 2. The policy of ignoring slavery unraveled, and by the end of 1861, the military began treating escaped blacks as contraband of war (property of military value subject to confiscation). 3. Blacks called the conflict a "freedom war." C. Steps toward Emancipation 1. Because slavery was the foundation of the southern economy, antislavery northerners insisted that emancipation was necessary to weaken the South’s ability to sustain the war. 2. Throughout 1861 and 1862, Lincoln struggled to retain control of the emancipation issue. a. Union general John C. Frémont issued a proclamation freeing slaves in Missouri (August 1861). b. Fearing the negative impact on loyal border states, Lincoln rescinded Frémont’s order. c. Lincoln proposed gradual emancipation and colonization for border-state slaves. D. Lincoln’s Decision 1. During the summer of 1862, Lincoln concluded that emancipation had become a political and military necessity. 2. Upon Secretary of State William Seward’s advice, he delayed announcing emancipation until a Union victory. 3. On September 22, 1862, five days after Antietam, Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. 4. The initial northern reaction was not encouraging, with important Democratic wins in the fall elections. E. The Emancipation Proclamation 1. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free. 2. Despite its limitations, the proclamation set off scenes of jubilation among free blacks and abolitionists in the North and "contrabands" and slaves in the South. 3. The Emancipation Proclamation not only altered the nature of the Civil War and the course of American history but also represented a turning point in Lincoln’s own thinking. F. Enlisting Black Troops 1. Of the proclamation’s provisions, few were more radical in their implications than the enrollment of blacks into military service. 2. It was initially not done because the Union army feared that white soldiers would not fight alongside blacks and border states would be alienated. 3. By the end of the war, over 180,000 black men had served in the Union army and 24,000 in the navy. 4. Most black soldiers were emancipated slaves who joined the army in the South. G. The Black Soldier 1. For black soldiers, military service proved to be a liberating experience. a. At least 130 former soldiers served in political office after the Civil War. 2. The Union navy treated black sailors much the same as white sailors. 3. Within the army, black soldiers did not receive equal treatment to white soldiers. 4. Black soldiers played a crucial role not only in winning the Civil War but also in defining the war’s consequences. 5. The service of black soldiers affected Lincoln’s own outlook. a. They had to be treated the same as whites when captured. b. They had to be part of prisoner exchanges. IV. The Second American Revolution A. Liberty and Union 1. The Union’s triumph consolidated the northern understanding of freedom as the national norm. 2. Emancipation offered proof of the progressive nature and global significance of the country’s history. B. Lincoln’s Vision 1. The U.S. Civil War took place as modern states around the world consolidated their power and reduced local autonomy. a. Japan b. Argentina c. Italy d. Germany 2. To Lincoln, the American nation embodied a set of universal ideas, centered on political democracy and human liberty. 3. The Gettysburg Address identified the nation’s mission with the principle that "all men are created equal." 4. The war forged a new national self-consciousness, reflected in the increasing use of the word "nation"—a unified political entity—in place of the older "Union" of separate states. 5. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature) focuses on President Lincoln’s definition of freedom given at his Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, in 1864. C. The War and American Religion 1. Northern Protestantism combined Christianity and patriotism in a civic religion that saw the war as transforming the United States into a true land of freedom. 2. Lincoln shrewdly used religious symbolism to generate public support. 3. Southern clergy preached about the Confederate cause as being God’s will. 4. Religion helped Americans to cope with unprecedented mass death. a. "Transformation of heaven": equated heaven with family gatherings in middle-class living rooms b. Heightened popularity of spiritualism (communication with the dead) 5. New government action to deal with death a. Systems for recording deaths and other casualties b. National military cemeteries were only for Union soldiers, not Confederates. D. Liberty in Wartime 1. Republicans saw criticism of the war effort or Lincoln’s policies as equivalent to treason. 2. Lincoln consolidated executive power and twice suspended the writ of habeas corpus throughout the entire Union for those accused of "disloyal activities." 3. After the war, the Supreme Court made it clear that the Constitution was not suspended in wartime (Ex parte Milligan, 1866). 4. Lincoln was not a despot, but the Civil War showed that civil liberties were curbed with demands for patriotism and national unity. E. The North’s Transformation 1. The rising class of capitalist entrepreneurs gained power. 2. The North experienced the war as a time of prosperity. a. Industry benefited from inflation and government contracts. F. Government and the Economy 1. Congress adopted policies that promoted economic growth and permanently altered the nation’s financial system. a. The Homestead Act b. The Morrill Land-Grant College Act 2. Congress passed land grants for railroads. 3. The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. a. Its labor force included thousands of Chinese. b. National markets were expanded. G. The West and the War 1. The Union victory at Glorieta Pass (March 1862) ended Confederate plans to take western territory for the southern version of manifest destiny. 2. The withdrawal of troops from the West increased conflict between Indians and white settlers. a. Sioux attack in Minnesota b. Chivington’s massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, Colorado 3. The Union campaign against the Navajo led to the tribe’s Long Walk, or removal to a reservation. 4. Confederates treated Indians better than did the United States. a. The Confederate Constitution allowed Indian tribes to elect congressional representatives. b. Slave-owning tribes, such as the Cherokee, sided with the Confederacy. H. A New Financial System 1. The need to pay for the war produced dramatic changes in U.S. financial policy: a. Increased tariff b. New taxes on goods c. First income tax d. Bonds 2. Wartime economic policies greatly benefited northern manufacturers, railroad men, and financiers. 3. Taken together, the Union’s economic policies vastly increased the power and size of the federal government. I. Women and the War 1. Women stepped into the workforce as nurses, factory workers, and government clerks. 2. Hundreds of thousands of northern women took part in humanitarian organizations. a. Women played leading roles in organizing sanitary fairs. 3. Northern women were brought into the public sphere, and war work offered them a taste of independence. a. Clara Barton, president of the American National Red Cross, lobbied for the United States to endorse the First Geneva Convention of 1864. J. The Divided North 1. Republicans labeled those opposed to the war "Copperheads." 2. The war heightened existing social tensions and created new ones. a. The New York City draft riot killed more than 100 people. b. The mob was largely composed of Irish immigrants. c. Targets were draft offices, the wealthy, industrial sites, and blacks. V. The Confederate Nation A. Leadership and Government 1. Jefferson Davis proved unable to communicate the war’s meaning effectively to ordinary men and women. 2. Under Davis, the Confederate nation became far more centralized than the Old South had been. a. The Confederate government controlled the railroads. b. The Confederate government built factories. 3. "King Cotton diplomacy" sought to pressure Europeans to side with the Confederacy, but this failed. 4. Davis did not deal effectively with obstructionist governors. B. The Inner Civil War 1. Social change and internal turmoil engulfed much of the Confederacy. 2. The draft encouraged class divisions among whites. a. Wealthy slaveowners received draft exemptions for having twenty or more slaves. b. Many southern yeomen started to see the conflict as "a rich man’s war and poor man’s fight." C. Economic Problems 1. The South’s economy, unlike the North’s, was in crisis during the war. 2. Numerous yeoman families, many of whom had gone to war to preserve their economic independence, sank into poverty and debt. a. Food riots occurred in many places. 3. By the war’s end, over 100,000 southern men had deserted. D. Southern Unionists 1. Southerners loyal to the Union made a significant contribution to Union victory. a. At least 50,000 southern white men fought for the Union. 2. Virginian Elizabeth Van Lew provided vital information to Union forces. E. Women and the Confederacy 1. Even more than in the North, the war placed unprecedented burdens on southern white women. a. Rose Greenhow served as a Confederate spy. 2. The war led to the first political mobilization of non-slaveholding white women. 3. The growing disaffection of southern white women contributed to the decline in home front morale and encouraged desertion from the army. F. Black Soldiers for the Confederacy 1. A shortage of manpower led the Confederate Congress in March 1865 to authorize the arming of slaves. 2. The war ended before substantial recruitment of blacks as Confederate soldiers. a. Only two companies reached the front in Richmond, and the war ended several days later. 3. The South’s decision to use black troops undermined proslavery ideology. VI. Turning Points A. Gettysburg and Vicksburg 1. Lee advanced onto northern soil in Pennsylvania but was held back by Union forces under the command of General George Meade at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863). a. Pickett’s Charge failed and was Lee’s greatest blunder. 2. General Grant secured a Union victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi (July 1863). B. 1864 1. Grant began a war of attrition against Lee’s army in Virginia. 2. At the end of six weeks of fighting, Grant’s casualties stood at 60,000—almost the size of Lee’s entire army—while Lee had lost 30,000 men. a. In the fall of 1864, Grant began a siege of Lee at Petersburg, Virginia. 3. General William T. Sherman entered Atlanta, seizing Georgia’s main railroad center. 4. Some Radical Republicans nominated John C. Frémont on a platform calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery, federal protection of the freed people’s rights, and confiscation of the land of leading Confederates. 5. The Democratic candidate for president was General George B. McClellan. 6. Lincoln won, aided by Frémont’s withdrawal and Sherman’s capture of Atlanta. VII. Rehearsals for Reconstruction and the End of the War A. The Sea Island Experiment 1. The Union occupied the Sea Islands (off South Carolina’s coast) in November 1861. 2. Women took the lead as teachers in educating the freed slaves of the islands. a. Charlotte Forten and Laura Towne 3. By 1865, black families were working for wages, acquiring education, and enjoying better shelter and clothing and a more varied diet than they had under slavery. a. This introduced the contentious issue of whether land ownership should be part of black freedom. B. Wartime Reconstruction in the West 1. After the capture of Vicksburg, the Union army established regulations for plantation labor. a. Freed people signed labor contracts and were paid wages. 2. Neither side was satisfied with the new labor system. 3. At Davis Bend, Grant established a "negro paradise." C. The Politics of Wartime Reconstruction 1. In 1863, Lincoln announced his Ten-Percent Plan of Reconstruction. a. No role for blacks b. Leniency toward the South 2. Free blacks in New Orleans complained about the Ten-Percent Plan and found sympathy from Radical Republicans. 3. The Wade-Davis Bill was offered as an alternative plan. a. It required most of a state’s voters to pledge loyalty. b. Lincoln vetoed the plan. D. Victory at Last 1. Sherman marched from Atlanta to the sea in November–December 1864 and then headed into South Carolina, bringing even greater destruction. 2. The Thirteenth Amendment was approved on January 31, 1865. 3. On April 3, 1865, Grant took Richmond. 4. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9. 5. Lincoln was shot on April 14 and died the next morning. E. The War and the World 1. Grant’s post-presidential world tour illustrates how non-Americans saw the war. a. England’s Duke of Wellington hailed Grant as a military genius. b. English workers saw the war as having saved the leading experiment in democracy and vindicated free labor principles. c. German chancellor Bismarck saw nation-building as the war’s central achievement. i. Grant told Bismarck that the war was also "to destroy slavery." F. The War in American History 1. The Civil War laid the foundation for modern America, preserving the Union, destroying slavery, and shifting power from southern planters to northern capitalists. 2. Both sides lost something they had gone to war to defend. a. The Confederacy lost slavery. b. The war hastened the transformation of Lincoln’s America of free labor, small shops, and independent farmers into an industrial giant. 3. The work of achieving equality for blacks remained to be done.