4. PRECIVIL WAR AND CIVIL WAR READING

WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?

DAY 1

If you visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History, you will see a new exhibit on the Paradox of American freedom. It is officially called "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello". On the right side of exhibit facing the entrance (pictures below), you will see a picture of Thomas Jefferson with a bigger than life Declaration of Independence in the background. Over the

course of 15 minutes, I saw 10 or more people stand next to the face of Jefferson and have their picture taken. Not one person, until I asked my granddaughter to do so, stood next to the portrait on the left, the portrait of a slave. There, behind the portrait, was a list of names and dates of acquisitions of all the slaves that Thomas Jefferson owned, Paradox, indeed, Jefferson once said that slavery was like having a wolf by the ears; beautiful to look at, but you do not dare let it go.

Complicated man? You bet! Unlike Washington, who freed all his slaves after his wife's death,  Jefferson only included 6 of his 160 slaves to receive independence upon his death. Tragically, although Jefferson was great with words and inspiring people to do great things, he was a financial disaster. He spent on his home, his books, and paid no attention to the debt. When he died, he owed more than $100,000 (several million in today's terms). Jefferson, for all of his wealth and power, lost almost everything. Five of his six children died at an early age as did his wife Martha soon after giving birth to their last child. At the end of his life, he hoped to save Monticello, his beloved home, for his daughter and her family to live after his death as well as all the "fine men and women (slaves)" in his service. His solution was to create a lottery of some sort. How this lottery would work was never explained. It did not work as six months after Jefferson's death (1826), the executors of his will were forced to sell all of his lands, and property (this includes slaves). In the Smithsonian is a copy of the advertisement that tells of the "fine Negroes to be auctioned". The families were split up and separated. The exhibition attempts to trace where the individual slaves went after this event. Two of those set free were light skinned slaves with the last name of Hemming, children of Sally Hemming, his slave and half-sister of his wife Martha. There is still a debate whether or not these were Jefferson's children but the exhibition seems to indicate that they were. Somehow, Jefferson never quite lived up to "all men are created equal" and how "a little revolution every once in a while" is good for the order. He would have never tolerated a slave rebellion over the tyranny that befell them as a race.

     Some of the Founding Fathers hoped that slavery would die out soon after it became illegal to import slaves from outside the United States (1808). This, however, did not happen. One word could sum it up and made this impossible; cotton. Cotton was hard on the land. It needed

a lot of land, depleted the land, slaves to tend the fields while it grew and harvest it just at the right moment when it was ready.

   

  In the late 1700's, it took an entire day for an experienced slave to clean the seeds out of one pound of cotton. Then in the late 1790's, a new machine revolutionized this process. The cotton gin by Eli Whitney could clean 50 times that in a day. So the small farms of the South became like the European villa; lavish but filled with workers to support the lifestyle.      In the northern states, a young Englishman, Samuel Slater, fled England and had brought a fortunate secret with him...the secret of how to build the weaving machines that one saw in England that had made the English very rich. Cotton could only grow in certain climates, and soils, and America had these conditions. So together, the North with its demand for cotton for the new mills that sat on the raging streams and rivers, and the South who could supply it, began to feed the giant slavery machine. Now, Blacks were bred like livestock to handle the work, and perform whatever task the owners needed. So slavery grew. By 1820, there was close to 700,000 black slaves in the United States. Not every Southerner owned a slave or wanted to, nor was the North slave free. There was, however, a dramatic line that divided the Northerner from the Southerner in so many ways.

     Slavery from its very beginning in the 1500's first by the Spanish and then the English in 1610 in Jamestown Virginia was the one issue politically and morally that began to tear America apart. When I was younger, I was taught that the reason there was a Civil War in the United States was that the North wanted to preserve the Union, and the South wanted big government out of their business. This was far from the truth. It was pure and simple economic and slavery. The economy could not survive without it. The North could not indirectly survive without it and used the issue to argue that politically they could not get any issue passed unless they agreed to some type of compromise that would give slave owners more power and more land. 

     Southerners argued that slaves were their property. The Constitution had guaranteed that Congress could not deprive a man of his property without just cause and due process. At one point, the Supreme Court (Dredd Scott case) agreed. 

Religion enters into the picture. Is it moral to own another person? The argument was this; Were Blacks actually human? Were the Whites civilizing them and saving their soul? Could Northerners who had no use for Blacks free or slave survive without the cotton they produced? These were questions asked by many at the time.

  

 Jefferson wrote extensively how the issue of slavery bothered him. He hoped it would die on its own. He could see it as a vampire, slowly destroying America. On the other hand, 160 slaves were sold after his death, families separated. And as recently as 1994, the Hemming family fought the descendants of the Jeffersons to be buried in the graveyard in Monticello. After a long, lengthy court battle, the Hemming family was denied that right once again. I wonder what Jefferson would say!

DAY 2-The Ingredients for a Civil War are there.....

     What brings a man to war? Seriously, what would make humans hate each other so much that they felt that the only way to solve the problem was to take up a weapon and fight until only one side is left standing? In 1861, young men from the North and South reported for duty. Both knew it would be a short war. Both knew they were superior and had might, right, and God on their side. Both were sure that they would win.

In 1865, this war finally ended. Nothing had gone the way anyone predicted or expected. Almost 700,000 Americans were dead from battle and disease. Entire cities, once thriving, were burned to the ground.

    In that year, two men very sadly traveled the streets of Richmond Virginia, now a beaten down ghost town. One was a tall gangly gentleman with his young son by the hand, walking briskly toward a building that used to be the office of Jefferson Davis, President of the American Confederacy. The man was stopped briefly when an old black gentleman came out into the street and said, "Thank you sir" and a few other words. The tall man, Abraham Lincoln, humbled by the event, spoke briefly with the slave-no-more and he and his son then continued on. They would inspect the office of his rival, Davis, and then move sadly back to his office in Washington DC. Lincoln would only live a few days after this scene.

     The other gentleman, General Robert E. Lee, would ride through the streets of

Richmond on his white horse, profoundly sad. Sad that he had lost his homestead, and that it became a cemetery for United States soldiers and sailors (Arlington National Cemetery), sad that he was no longer the supreme commander of the Southern troops, he found within himself a profound sadness that far surpassed the others. He noted in his journal that he had to share the streets with some sense of equality with the poor whites and possibly the free Blacks. ; The South and the Southerner were left stripped of their wealth, power, class structure, and slave system. The South would have to reinvent itself and General Robert E. Lee could not do it. He had till the brink of the war served as a proud officer in the Union Army. He was offered the commander position in the North. He did, however, turn it down for a command in the Confederate Army. He was utterly, completely defeated.

      So what brings men to this point, brings men to the point of war and beyond? Over the next several weeks, we will examine what brought the North and South to mass destruction. It begins with slavery. We will look at this process, event building upon the event, human pushing against human toward the edge of destruction. Please pay close attention to this reading. It will match up with your book to some degree. You will be asked to bring your book every day for this reason.

RED BADGE OF COURAGE

This novel about how common man feels about the war. 

TO HEAR THE TOTAL BOOK, HEAR THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, CLICK HERE 

PART THREE- WHAT IS THE MEANING OF A UNION?

       Every day, one can hear people talk about what they are interested in…. who should be President of the United States, who is taking and who is giving? This is a common theme throughout time. Humans often have “God on their side”, cursing the other side, and talking about an “ideal” in which all problems would no longer exist. Niccolò Machiavelli, a civil servant who had been expelled from the government in Florence Italy in the early 1500’s upon suspicion of being involved in a plot to overthrow the ruler, wrote a little book of rules to educate and shock his former boss. The work was called The Prince, a small rulebook that what you would like the government to be will probably never be because you do not play the game, but this is really how the game is played. Now deal with it. Play the game or get out. Your Utopia (perfect society) will never survive. Both Northern citizens and Southern citizens had their ideas of what a perfect Union should be….There was a major catch. Neither side was realistic in their expectations as Machiavelli claimed. Neither side could maintain power or their way of life if they could not “convert” the other side to believe and accept what they believed. So if the "United" States were to survive, a civil war was inevitable.

       One of the major questions asked then and now was is this a union of people or a union of separate states? Southern states argued that if they did not like a federal law or regulation for whatever reason, they had the right to NULLIFY or cancel it. In the 1830’s, Daniel Webster argued that if a state disagreed with the Constitution, then they needed to amend the Constitution or take the point to the Supreme Court. The Union, Webster argued, gave America power against all threats and challenges and if it were only individual states acting on their own, it would be weak.

    By 1850, the Union was weak at best. The South felt that TRADITION was important, and that their very existence depended upon it. Even the Southern poor were proud to be Southern. The South valued land, and property. The North valued progress and technology, welcoming immigrants who were willing to work in conditions little better than a slave. Pollution and poor living conditions were the prices of progress. The North claimed that change was the constant in our lives, not tradition,  and at least the workers were free to leave if they chose to. The North told stories of the poor boy making it rich through hard work. Both sides cited Bible verses that said that God was on their side, and why their actions were “humanitarian” for the Black man, as well as the immigrant. A wide gulf was beginning between North and South.

     The fight carried into Congress where new political parties appeared and disappeared. Each party claimed that they had “the answer. Even the Republican party and Whigs at one point proposed sending Blacks back to Africa. A small colony of ex-slaves settled along the west coast of the African coastline and the country Liberia was born. Few free blacks found the idea appealing who were as American as any white man, or with slave owners who saw the slaves as property. 

     Then came the abolitionist. They felt that God did not like any human to be enslaved and wanted total freedom for all slaves today. This also did not work. Northerners could not see the Blacks moving North and taking their jobs, and Southerners hated the idea that anyone would tell them how to live or what they could own or not own. So the line was drawn. Who would have more power in Congress? Who would win in the question, would the states be United or not?

HERE IS A TIMELINE OF EVENTS WITH THE BOOK PAGE NUMBER NEXT TO IT THAT TAKE US TO THE NEXT STEP

Event notes 

1787-88 

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson got together over dinner to help get the Constitution passed, and make Washington DC the city of the nation- the Capital

1.Great Compromise or Three-Fifths Compromise- 

A. Compromise lets the US Constitution become the law of the land.

B. South said that slaves were property, and should be counted in

          representation.          

       C. North said that slaves should not be property but if they were,

            they were to be taxed.

        D. Instead agreed that slaves would be considered 3/5 of a person

            in matters of taxation and representation.

        E. 1860, 22 million people living in Northern states and 9 

            million in the South; 4 million were slaves. Imported Slavesoutlawed in 1807.

2.Customs and Duties or Tariffs- the tax on imported goods to give America the advantage

3.Implied powers- Certain powers not spelled out by the Constitution

1792

4. Fight over National Bank, a plan formed by Alexander Hamilton and whether the government has the power to do that or should states or localities have power. This fight continued through Andrew Jackson.

Early 1800’s

5. SEE CARTOON #. Cotton Gin and King Cotton- The South was agricultural, and got its wealth from the land and what it grew on it. The three crops that made people extremely wealthy were tobacco, rice, and cotton. The North had a lot of farmers but also had more developed cities that soon became industrialized. 

The money was in the cloth mills and other “factories” that needed workers by the thousands to make them run.

Here are some of the things that lead to this:

Early 1800’s

6A Turnpikes and canals (Erie) are built mostly in the North to bring goods to many in the nation.  Steamships and early trains begin to move people. They expand trade more and more. In the 1840's, the word "millionaire" is used for the first time ever.

6B Sectionalism, state sovereignty, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay,

Daniel Webster, Missouri Compromise, American System,

McCullough v. Maryland, Jackson in east Florida –Seminole

Indians, Monroe Doctrine

1816

7. Monroe Doctrine (Europe, stay away) were important to our country. Many European countries were into IMPERIALISM or making countries in parts of Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East part of their empire. James Monroe said that Europeans should back away, not interfere. 

1825

8. Sectionalism becomes intense- Southerners were for slavery and states rights. If states made up the Union, why couldn't they decide for themselves? 

SEE CARTOON #2

1825-1861

9. State or Popular Sovereignty backed by John C. Calhoun and South said that states had the right to make up their mind and that new territories should have right to vote SLAVE or FREE. Against tariffs, improvements not in their territory or state, and National Bank.

10. Daniel Webster spoke out for national interests, states second. Spoke for tariffs. Northerners were mostly in favor of tariffs for protection of their products.

1811-1850

11. Henry Clay known as the Great Compromiser put together Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 hoping to keep the nation in one piece.

1824

12. Henry Clay also put together the American System; 

1) Protective tariff to help the Northern industry 

2) Program of national internal improvements (i.e. canals, turnpikes, bridges, and eventually railroads)  

3) National Bank

1820

13. Missouri Compromise of 1820 -which new states would be slave and which free therefore upsetting the balance of power- eventually Missouri is admitted slave and Maine is free. Anything north of the 36 30 parallel in the Louisiana Territory was to be free and anything south was to be slave.  SEE CARTOONS#

1819

14. Agreement that USA and Great Britain co-own Oregon Territory and work out border

1829-1837 

14B. Andrew Jackson 7th president takes land from Indians, closes National Bank, redefines Presidency. 

1837

15. Panic and Depression of 1837 sends people West. In prairie schooners (covered wagons), they walked the Oregon Trail West.

 

1840

16. John O Sullivan, newspaperman, coins the phrase "Manifest Destiny" - the United States was destined by God to own everything to the Pacific for a special purpose.

SEE CARTOON 2 AND 5 

 17. Other trails and ways of moving people west develop. Western Movement, Oregon Trail, Sante Fe Trail, Mormon Trail and the Railroad,

CARTOON 5

1835-1845

18. READ THIS- PAGE 100 ONLINE FOR TEXAS INDEPENDENCE, Read pages 369-371 in your text

1844-1846

19. Mexican War- California, New Mexico Texas Mexico border and Arizona join union  http://youtu.be/uMg1FIh9I6E 

    

1849

20. California Gold Rush (read online below)

1830-1840

21. Joseph Smith and the Mormons (copy notes from 383) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

1830's

1800-1860

22. SOUTHERN POPULATION-classes

1830-1860

23. Read worksheet on industrialization in packet- North is filled with factories and interchangeable parts, immigrants and large cities as well as rich farmland that grows food. South has little or no industrialization and must appeal and buy from other countries when they begin the Civil War. The South is land rich and dollar poor. 

COTTON IN THE SOUTH-FACTORIES IN THE NORTH

1830-1860

24. Slave codes- fugitive slave acts, etc. Blacks forbidden to learn to read and write, could not assemble in large groups, leaving the property without written permission. Could not marry, give children their name. Mostly written to prevent a slave rebellion. Eventually, slave owners were allowed to go to a free territory to retrieve runaways.  Sometimes free Blacks were taken. 

 

1831

25. Nat Turner Rebellion -black slave, self-educated, said God wanted him to lead a rebellion. He led slaves on a rampage through Virginia killing 55 whites. Turner hanged and rebellion led to stricter rules.

1840-1865

26. Slavery movements

Harriet Tubman (known as Grandma Moses) escaped and led slaves to freedom  Frederick Douglass-taught to read by white mistress and escaped to read and write to help abolition movement-met with Lincoln several times to give advice. Underground Railroad -series of locations and houses that kept runaway slaves safe until they could move to a safer location.

 

1840-1860

27. Abolitionists-People in both North and South that wanted to end slavery immediately and to punish those that owned slaves.

 **William Lloyd Garrison started an abolitionist paper "The Liberator" that stirs up emotions in the north. 

**Frederick Douglas was a former black slave who writes articles against slavery. 

**Harriet Beecher Stowe writes a fictional novel called "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which gets many Northerners stirred up about slavery. Her brother sends "Kansas bibles (rifles)" to abolitionists. Her family sends all kinds of aid to abolitionists to do God's work. 

28.

A. Clashes in North - Afraid Blacks take away jobs

B. Underground railroad-Series of safe houses for runaway slaves. Harriet Tubman was a former slave that escapes the South, but returns numerous times to bring many slaves to freedom in North or Canada

29. Southern reaction-Said slaves were treated better than some factory workers, and that their live was better 

30. Free Soil Party - Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men to address slavery issue in 1848 election

1850

31. COMPROMISE OF 1850- Henry Clay

A. California free state 1849

B. Southerners wanted fugitive slave law and got with this law

C. Popular (state) sovereignty on remaining territories

1850

32. Fugitive Slave Act-SEE FILM ABOVE

A. Required all citizens North or South help capture runaways

B. Anyone who helped could be imprisoned or fined

C. Bounty hunters carried off runaways and free Blacks- Blacks had no recourse

1854

33. Kansas Nebraska Act - Letting states have popular sovereignty-decide for themselves whether they will be slave or free

1856

34. Bleeding Kansas- Read below also- SEE FILM ABOVE

 

1. Pro-slavery Missourians crossed the border into Kansas and cast vote for slavery

2. 1856- Rival governments in Kansas- one for slavery and one against

3. May 1856- 800 pro-slavery men attacked Lawrence Kansas

4. John Brown led abolitionists and roving band fought each other

5. IN CONGRESS, SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER was beaten by Southern Senator Preston Brooks with his cane for being against slavery

 35. Dred Scott Case slave of a doctor moved to Wisconsin, a free state, decided that 

1854

36. Formation of Republican Party -anti-slavery forces joined together to form Republican Party (Whig Party, Democratic, and Free Soilers join together)

1856

37. James Buchanan (Democrat-) elected President- Supports all aspects of slave codes, etc.

 

1858

 38. Harpers Ferry-John Brown and five sons (wanted to lead slave rebellion) captured- eventually hung

A. To South, he was terrorist

B. To North, he was a martyr

1860-1861 

39.  Lincoln Douglass debate-Election Lincoln in 1860 -

A. Republicans promised not to disturb slavery where it  existed- tried to contain it within those territoriesB. Try to compromise but South said no

1861

40. Feb. 1861-->South Carolina secedes, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia secede and become CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA WITH JEFFERSON DAVIS AS THEIR PRESIDENT- this is before Lincoln becomes President- argue for states rights

41. READ ARTICLE ON LINCOLN- pink article on radical Lincoln

 March 4, 1861 

42.  Lincoln begins troubled Presidency

A. President Buchanan does not respond to secession

B. Lincoln has to sneak into Washington DC because of assassination attempts

C. Lincoln promises not to disturb slavery in Inaugural Address- South does not trust

C. South does not trust Republicans-- more states join South Carolina

April 1861

43. SEE  at the bottom, look at Ken Burn's features

Watch The Civil War: Fort Sumter on PBS. See more from Ken Burns.

A. South Carolina secedes from the Union

B. Sends supplies to South Carolina

C. Surrounds US fort- especially FORT SUMTER IN CHARLESTON S. C. harbor

D. Lincoln orders 75,000 troops called up to help the fort-South firing on Fort Sumter-Civil War begins- North calls it the Civil War, South calls it the War of Northern Aggression. 

1861

Wilbur McClean had had enough. Moved to Manassas 

APRIL is a wicked month. Much has happened in history that has often brought death and destruction. In the 1860's, this was especially true. The war started in April of 1861 and ended in April of 1865. Lincoln was shot and killed in April 1865, four day

Fort Sumter Attacked

1861

44. Border states bitterly divided. Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland

45. North had 22 million, South 9 million (4 million slaves)

46. Read page 477-479

War was called and had 

Summer 1861

47 A. July 4, 1861- 

Lincoln, in a speech to Congress, states the war is..."a People's contest...a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men..." The Congress authorizes a call for 500,000 men.

First Battle First Bull Run

- Manassas Virginia- men wore wool uniforms- died of heat exhaustion

47B. The rest of the year...

48.  Commander in Chief South after Johnston was killed. The new commander is  General Robert E. Lee-defensive strategies- let the North come after us....

1861-1862

Second Battle of Bull Run

August 29/30, 1862-

September 4-9, 1862- 

September 22, 1862-

November 7, 1862- 

Fredericksburg

December 13, 1862-

49. War for Mississippi River -

   U.S. Grant (Northern general) Spinal chord of the US- Grant aggressive at capturing all towns along the river. The US in Grant's name stands for Unconditional Surrender- Fort Donelson.

1862

50. Battle of Ironclad ships-Monitor vs. Merrimac ended in stalemate- ended sailing vessels as war ships- armory bounced off both ships

 April 6/7, 1862

51. Shiloh- 23000 dies, narrow victory for Union, took Memphis and New Orleans. -Union controlled much of Mississippi- a Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates, more men than in all previous American wars combined. The president is then pressured to relieve Grant but resists. "I can't spare this man; he fights," Lincoln says.

1861-1862

52 A.. War in the East- Southern troops stayed South for the most part and knew the terrain, South won many battles because of outdated techniques

52 B- Battle of Antietam (Maryland)- 

September 17, 1862-

September 22, 1862

53. Emancipation Proclamation- proposed July 1862 and released September 22, 1862

1863

54. North defeated at Seven Days battle, Second Battle of Bull Run, and Fredericksburg- General Hood, northern general, led men in head-on charge up a hill- mountains of bodies-

1862-1863

55. Lee tries 2 Northern attacks at Antietam (his battle plans are accidentally found by Northern soldier), and Gettysburg -badly beaten- over 20,000 casualties in each one -

 GETTYSBURG- 50000 MEN ARE LOST IN A 3 DAY BATTLE

  

1860-1865

56. Life during the Civil War

1863

 57. Read this- Weak union generals- Union generals timid, wanted time to recover and let enemy slip away, or General Hood issued his own Emancipation Proclamation without Lincoln's permission or knowledge. Caused major problems.

1863

58.  54th Massachusetts  first all-black unit for North -see film Glory

1863

59. Read Gettysburg- 502-503- the accidental battle

Vicksburg Siege- finally North had control of Mississippi River

http://youtu.be/S31KamHHr_k 

 

1863

60.Gettysburg Address.....Read this on page 504 About one month after the battle, Lincoln delivers this 269-word speech as an afterthought to Edward Everett's 2-hour speech, dedicating the Union Cemetery. It was hot. There were still unburied bodies and bloated horse carcasses that dotted the fields. The battle had been so devastating that it took months to clean up the area. Many of the men were only identified if they had written their name on their uniform or pinned a piece of paper with their name on it. Lincoln had recently lost a son to typhus fever, but made his way to the battlefield all the same and delivered this elegant piece. Notice his piece about the equality of all men which affirms now that all Blacks should be free. This was new and revolutionary.

 GETTYSBURG ADDRESS by Abraham Lincoln

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

When Lincoln left Gettysburg, he boarded his train for Washington and crawled into bed. He was exhausted and did not feel well. William Johnson, a black friend since Lincoln's Illinois law practice, spent considerable time with the President and was with him in Gettysburg. The date was Nov. 18, 1863. Johnson never left his friends side caring for him at the White House. Lincoln had smallpox. On January 12, 1864, Lincoln was becoming better, but Johnson fell ill. Johnson died on January 28. 

Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler. The text above is from the so-called "Bliss Copy," one of several versions which Lincoln wrote, and believed to be the final version. For additional versions, you may search The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln through the courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

1864

61. General William Sherman (north)- Moving troops toward the South, and began to use scorched earth policy to discourage any fight from the South. 

1863

62. Ulysses Grant becomes commander of Union army-constant warfare. He uses all out warfare to bring the enemy to submission. 

1863

63. Men writing (North) names all over their clothing so someone could tell who they were if dead. There were no dog tags. This is the first time that undertakers began to use complex chemicals to preserve dead body to bring some men home for burial. 

1864

64. Sherman's (Northern general) war in Georgia- total war- burned down Atlanta and then the entire 230 miles to Savannah who surrendered- the path was 60 miles wide. Here was scorched earth....no mercy to get people to surrender. 

1864

 65. Lincoln wins election 1864 because of these victories. Now puts Grant in charge and lets him use all-out war. When others complained that Lincoln had allowed Grant (who won many of his battles) to drink too much whiskey, Lincoln said, "Whatever the man is drinking, send all my generals a barrel." 

66. Grant burns out the Shenandoah Valley and then pushes Lee's remaining ragged starving troops into a situation where 1000's were surrendered or deserted because they were starving and without hope.

 1865

67. Lee retreats- and Richmond falls- Rebel troops are starving and deserting or surrendering by the thousands....Lee is surrounded....

April 9, 1865

68. Appomattox Court House Virginia- Lee surrendered to Grant

Grant gave rations and soldiers could keep small arms, and officers their horses. 

 69. FINAL TALLY- 675000 SOLDIERS DIED, 50000 CIVILIANS- much of the South in ruins

April 15, 1865 

70. Lincoln decides to do something that he did a lot to relax; takes his wife to the theater. At Ford's Theater, Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth who said in Latin as he jumped from Lincoln's box, "Death to tyrants."

ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN 2

71. LOOK AT LINCOLN'S 2ND INAUGURAL ADDRESS- A little over a month after this speech was delivered, Lincoln was dead.

"With malice toward none...."

Fellow-Countrymen:

  AT this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

 One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always  ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

CNN "4 Ways We Are Still Fighting the Civil War"

Read "Are We Still Fighting the Civil War?"  in Time magazine

 The latest revision of Ohio state standards was on 3/13/12 and I have been checking these off as they are accomplished. Here it is....

1. Original issues-compromises and court cases that shaped America

2. Slavery vs. non-slavery

3. Explain the course and consequences of the Civil War with emphasis on:

4. Analyze the consequences of Reconstruction with emphasis on:

5. The Reconstruction period resulted in changes to the U.S. Constitution, an affirmation of federal authority and lingering social and political differences

 -CIVIL-WAR.pdf

Timelines and death in the Civil War 

Jump To:Fort Sumter Attacked-First Bull Run-Shiloh-Second Bull Run-Antietam-Fredericksburg-Chancellorsville-Gettysburg-Chickamauga-Chattanooga-Cold Harbor-March to the Sea-Lee Surrenders-Lincoln Shot

TIMELINE FOR THE CIVIL WAR

from http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/

1862