Summary: The Civil War was the culmination of nearly 40 years of tensions between the North and the South. Northern abolitionists looked forward to the war with great anticipation: victory over the South would finally allow the dreaded institution of slavery to be eliminated. Northern industrialists saw the war as an opportunity, at long last, to expand their control of American industry. The majority of Southerners rejoiced at the onset of war; they perceived that victory would allow the "Southern way of life" to continue without constant criticism from the North. As in many wars, politicians and generals on both sides predicted a quick victory. Newspapers in both the North and the South declared that the war would be over by Christmas of 1861.
To state that the Civil War was just about slavery is an oversimplification. Certainly, criticism by Northern abolitionists of the "peculiar institution" of slavery, and Southern responses to that criticism, were important factors. However, other tensions between the North and the South also existed. The future of the American economy as seen by Northern industrialists differed drastically from the desires and needs of the leaders of the Southern plantation society. Most importantly, the Southern view of "states' rights" differed most dramatically from the view of the Union held in the North. By 1861, many political leaders in the South fervently espoused the views that John C. Calhoun had formulated decades earlier. It was up to the individual state to decide on the validity of any federal law or federal action for that state. This position was intolerable to President Lincoln and most political leaders in the North. If anything, it was debate over the state's rights issue that made the Civil War inevitable.
Other factors increased the animosity between the North and the South. By this point, slavery was synonymous with Southern identity; in Southern eyes, any attack on slavery was an attack on the South as a whole. The fact that this struggles between the North and the South had gone on for 40 years served to harden positions on both sides. In addition, by this point the population of the North was greater than the population of the South, and the number of free states was greater than the number of slave states. As a result, Southerners knew that Northern antislave interests would control the Congress (and the ability to influence Supreme Court appointments) and the Electoral College for the foreseeable future.
Keywords
First Battle of Bull Run (1861): early Civil War engagement ending in defeat for the Union army; this battle convinced many in the North that victory over the Confederacy would not be as easy as they first thought it would be.
Emancipation Proclamation: January 1, 1863, proclamation that freed slaves in Southern territories that was controlled by the Union army; this executive proclamation by President Lincoln also committed the Union to the abolition of slavery.
Battle of Gettysburg (1863): the bloodiest overall battle of the Civil War; many historians claim that the Southern defeat in this battle was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.
Appomattox: Virginia courthouse where General Robert E. Lee surrendered Confederate forces on April 9, 1865.
ADVANTAGES OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH IN THE WAR
Many Southerners were very excited when the Civil War finally began, yet there were some harsh realities facing them as the war commenced. Most of the nation's wealth was situated in the North; the industrialization of the North would give Northerners an advantage in producing guns, bullets, and other materials needed for warfare. The Northern railway system was far superior to the existing railways in the South. Most influential banks and financial markets were located in the North. More people (by a nearly 3-to-1 margin) lived in the North. The South could at least say that they were larger than the North; conquering the South would be a formidable task. At the outset of the war, Southerners also felt that their officer corps, led by men such as Robert E. Lee, was superior to the officer corps of the Union, led by Winfield Scott.
The Aftermath of Secession
As mentioned in the previous chapter, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, and Alabama all voted to secede from the Union in late 1860 or early 1861. In February 1861, the Confederate States of America was officially created. States in the Upper South (such as Virginia and Kentucky) were not eager to join the secessionist movement (there were fewer slaves in these states). Leaders of Kentucky and Maryland proposed that Congress in Washington enact legislation that would protect slavery in any territory or state where it already existed; the desire of these leaders was the preservation of the Union. President James Buchanan did little to aid the situation. Buchanan stated in December 1860 that secession from the Union was illegal, but that nowhere in the Constitution was it stated that any state could be forced to remain in the Union.
Politicians in South Carolina and elsewhere in the South interpreted Buchanan's statement as, in essence, stating that he would do nothing to bring back the seceded states and that they were now independent. Leaders in South Carolina demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter, a federal fort located in Charleston harbor. To test the will of the leaders of South Carolina, Buchanan sent an unarmed merchant ship to bring supplies to the fort in January 1861. When the ship was fired on, Buchanan did not send the navy in (which many in South Carolina were sure he would do); "patriots" in South Carolina and elsewhere in the South now felt certain that independence was theirs.
As the crisis continued at Fort Sumter, Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky emerged with a compromise plan. The Crittenden Plan proposed that the federal government guarantee the existence of slavery in any state where it existed, and that the line of the Missouri Compromise be extended all the way to the Pacific, with territories to the north of the line being free from slavery and those south of the line having slavery. Republicans in Congress rejected this plan, since it went away from the concept of "free soil" that president-elect Lincoln had just been elected on.
THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER AND THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR
Abraham Lincoln had to walk a political tightrope upon his inauguration in March 1861. It was necessary to maintain the authority of the federal government, but at the same time to do nothing that would provoke war with the South. Many of Lincoln's advisors thought that negotiations could bring at least some of the states that had seceded back into the Union. In his inauguration speech, however, Lincoln stated that force would be used if necessary to preserve the Union.
The skill of Lincoln as president was immediately called upon. In April 1861, Lincoln sent another ship to supply Fort Sumter. The government of South Carolina was informed the ship would be arriving and that no troops would land unless the delivery of these supplies was interfered with. Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government saw this as an opportunity to strike against the Union. Confederate guns bombed Fort Sumter for two days, and on April 14 the fort surrendered. Davis was hopeful that the early victory would force states in the Upper South to turn to the Confederate cause; Confederates also hoped to obtain British and French assistance. Any thought of compromise between North and South ended with the attack on Fort Sumter.
Three days after the surrender of the fort, Virginia passed a resolution favoring secession. On the same day, Robert E. Lee rejected an offer to command the Union army, resigned from the Union army, and took control of the Confederate army. In the end, Lincoln was able to keep four of the states of the Upper South in the Union (Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware).
WAR AIMS AND STRATEGIES
From the beginning of the war, the Southern defense of the slave system was unrelenting. This position greatly undermined the possibility of the Confederacy receiving aid from the French and the English. Economically, European support of the Confederacy would have made sense; European nations were dependent on cotton cultivated in the American South. However, both France and England firmly opposed slavery and had outlawed it in their countries decades earlier. The South also overestimated the British need for Southern cotton; Britain soon proved that it could get cotton elsewhere.
Both sides began recruiting armies in the spring and early summer of 1861. Lincoln was able to summon support in the Northern states not from speeches on slavery but from the simple claim that the actions of the South was an attack on the very principles of the republican form of government. Both sides predicted early victory. The capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, Virginia, after Virginia joined the Confederacy; cries of "On to Richmond!" filled the Northern newspapers. For political reasons, Lincoln pushed for an early attack against the South (Winfield Scott presented an alternative proposal, stating that the best policy for the North would be to blockade all Southern ports and starve the South into submission). A Union army advanced on Richmond. On July 21, 1861, at the First Battle of Bull Run, Union forces retreated in chaos back toward Washington. After this battle, Northern political leaders and generals conceded that victory in this war would not be as easy as they initially thought it might be.
The Effects of Bull Run
The Battle of Bull Run showed both sides that new tactics would be necessary for victory. The plan proposed by Winfield Scott, now referred to as the Anaconda Plan, was reviewed more carefully by Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had the United States Navy blockade Southern ports; as the war wore on, this became increasingly important. Industrial goods that the South had imported from the industrial North in earlier years now could not be obtained from Europe either. Later in the war, Confederate states could not export cotton to Europe for very badly needed currency. Another part of the Anaconda Plan called for Northern naval forces to control the Mississippi River. The Union made major headway with this part of the plan in April 1862 when a Union naval force captured New Orleans.
The Confederacy also made a major foreign trading mistake in early 1862. Cotton-producing states were convinced not to export cotton to England and France. Confederate leaders thought that textile factory owners in those countries would be so affected by this that they would pressure their governments to help the Confederacy and get their cotton back. Instead, Europeans turned elsewhere for cotton (especially India). As stated previously, when the South wanted to export cotton later in the war, they couldn't because of the naval blockade. It also became obvious that the organization of the South into a confederacy during a period of war was a disadvantage; individual state governments had the constitutional right to block critical tax programs and requisitions. The decision of the Confederacy to print paper money with no secure backing also would prove to be detrimental.
The Union Triumphant in the West
The Confederacy won several more battles in 1862, including the Second Battle of Bull Run. General George McClellan was named commander of the Union army and began formulating a plan to attack the Confederacy from the west. In February 1862, forces commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, in Tennessee. Forces on both sides realized the importance of these victories. Grant continued to conquer Southern territory from this position. On April 6, 1862, the incredibly bloody but inconclusive Battle of Shiloh was fought. Up until this point, it was the bloodiest battle ever fought in America. McClellan began to develop the reputation as a commander who was afraid to enter his troops into battle, even though the situation warranted it.
The Confederacy attempted to use technology to defeat the Northern naval blockade. In March 1862, they presented their very first ironclad ship, the Merrimack. Shortly after, the Union displayed the first Union ironclad, the Monitor. The two ironclads met once in battle, with neither ship able to do much damage to the other.
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SOUTH AND IN THE NORTH
Being a nation founded on the principle of states' rights was often a disadvantage for the Confederacy. Many Confederate soldiers who enlisted for one year in 1861 appeared ready to return home in 1862. General Robert E. Lee insisted that a system of conscription be introduced to ensure a steady supply of soldiers. In April 1862, the Confederate legislature passed laws requiring three years in the army for all white men from ages 18 to 35 (after the horrible losses of Antietam, this was extended to 45). Many advocates of states' rights violently objected to these regulations. Three Southern governors tried to block the conscription law in their states, saying that only the individual states had the right to make such laws. In some sections of the South, nearly 60 percent of available manpower never served in the army. The Confederacy also adopted a plan to pay plantation owners who released their slaves to serve in the army; this was largely resisted because it was economically harmful to slave owners.
By late 1862, severe shortages of food and other materials began to spread throughout the South. Prices skyrocketed. Many soldiers deserted the army to return home to help their families through these difficult times. Large numbers of deserters and those who had resisted the draft became a problem in some sections of the South. The Confederacy instituted an income tax in order to get needed income for the government. Under existing circumstances, the actual collection of this money was sometimes difficult.
Many similar tensions existed in the North. In 1863, a system of conscription was introduced, requiring service of all men from ages 20 through 45. As in the South, draft dodgers could be found in the North. A provision of the Northern draft law that was very unpopular with many allowed a drafted person to avoid service by hiring a substitute or by paying the government $300; many of the "replacement" soldiers were Irish immigrants. Draft riots took place in New York City in July 1863, with nearly 200 people dying in these protests. Many taking part in the riots were Irish Americans, and many of those killed were black. Draft offices and other buildings were destroyed; Irish Americans did not want to take part in a war that would free the slaves, whom they perceived would be their competitors for jobs.
The North also had trouble financing the war. In 1861, a federal income tax was instituted. Still short of money, the government began issuing "greenbacks" in 1862; this money, not backed by gold, was considered official legal tender until the end of the war.
In every wartime setting in American history, the power of the chief executive was expanded. This was certainly true in the Civil War. President Lincoln assumed powers that no previous president had even considered. By executive order, parts of Kentucky were placed under martial law for much of the war. Some Democrats in the North, nicknamed Copperheads, vigorously opposed the war, stating that it would lead to masses of freed slaves coming North and taking jobs. Copperheads were sometimes arrested, and three of them were actually deported from the North. Over 14,000 who opposed the war were imprisoned without trial. In several cases, Lincoln ordered the writ of habeas corpus suspended.
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
When he was elected president, Abraham Lincoln had no thought whatsoever of freeing the slaves; he repeatedly stated that he had no constitutional right to do that. However, on a practical level Lincoln realized that the continued existence of slavery in the South would make Northern victory harder; the existence of slavery allowed Southern landowners to leave their fields and fight in the Confederate army.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863. The timing of this was a brilliant political move. Support for the war in the North had been waning; the Emancipation Proclamation gave Northerners a moral justification to continue fighting. This measure was received by different groups in predictable ways. Northern blacks were heartened by it. Southerners condemned it, and in Southern territories controlled by the Union army, slaves were actually freed. Many in England agreed with the proclamation; any last hopes that England might enter the war to aid the Confederacy were dashed at this point. Some whites in the North feared that ex-slaves would end up taking their jobs, and as a result, in the 1862 congressional elections, Democrats picked up seats.
Blacks were not accepted into the Union army at the beginning of the war. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many ex-slaves from Southern territories and free blacks from the North joined the Union army. By 1865, blacks made up almost 10 percent of the entire Union army. Black soldiers traditionally served in all-black units with white officers. (The heroism of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry can be seen in the movie Glory.)
1863: THE WAR TIPS TO THE NORTH
The darkest days of the war for the Union occurred in late 1862 and early 1863. The Union army suffered major defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862) and at the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1 to 3, 1863). Competent leadership of the Union army remained a major problem.
Yet, time was an enemy of the Confederate army. As commander, General Robert E. Lee found it increasingly difficult to get men and resources (the Northern naval blockade definitely was affecting Southern military efforts by this point). In June 1863, Lee decided to move the Confederate army out of Virginia into Pennsylvania. At the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 to 3, 1863), Lee was defeated by the Union army, commanded by General George Meade. This was the bloodiest overall battle of the war, with 24,000 casualties suffered by the North and 28,000 by the South. Lee's army was forced to retreat to Virginia and would never again be able to mount an attack into Northern territory. Some military historians claim that the fate of the Confederate army was sealed by their defeat at Gettysburg.
The tide of the war continued to swing to the North as a result of several victories by armies commanded by Ulysses S. Grant. On July 4, 1863, Grant completed his victory at Vicksburg, ending a siege of the city that lasted six weeks. Victory at Vicksburg gave the Union virtual control of the Mississippi River. In November, Grant was victorious at the Battle of Chattanooga (November 23 to 25, 1863). Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address had been given four days earlier. In January 1864, Grant was made commander of the Union army. At the same time, some in the Confederate government began speaking of the need for peace negotiations with the North.
Grant and the army of the Potomac began to advance toward Richmond in the spring of 1864, while an army commanded by William T. Sherman began to advance toward Atlanta.
WAR WEARINESS IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH
In both the North and the South, the pressures of a long war were obvious by 1864. To many in the South, it was clear that the Confederacy would be defeated. Severe food and material shortages continued. In the North, the presidential campaign of 1864 produced little excitement. Lincoln's Democratic opponent was General George McClellan. In early September 1864, Lincoln confided to friends that he thought he would lose the presidency. However, word arrived that General Sherman had taken the key Confederate city of Atlanta. That, along with little real enthusiasm for (and by) McClellan, allowed Lincoln to easily win reelection.
THE END OF THE CONFEDERACY
Sherman employed a scorched earth policy as he marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, in November and December 1864. In early April 1865, General Lee took the Confederate army from Richmond and tried to escape to the South. The Union army caught up to him, and he finally surrendered on April 9, 1865, at the courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia. By the first week of June, all other Confederate forces also surrendered and began to return to oftentimes devastated homelands.
Lincoln only had time to begin to plan for what a post-Civil War America would look like. On April 14, 1865, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater. Booth was a pro-Southerner. He and a group of coconspirators also planned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and other members of the Lincoln cabinet. Booth was hunted down several days later and was killed by gunfire; several others conspiring with him were found and, after trials by military tribunals, hanged. The incredibly difficult task of reconstruction would have to be handled by the new president, Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee Democrat whom Lincoln had chosen to be his vice president.
CHAPTER REVIEW
To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:
~By 1861, various social, political, economic, and cultural factors made conflict between the North and the South inevitable.
~The North had numerous industrial, transportation, and financial advantages that they utilized throughout the Civil War.
~The Confederate States of America was created in February 1861; the fact that these states were organized as a confederacy had several disadvantages that would become obvious as the war progressed.
~Success for the Confederacy depended on European aid; Southerners overestimated the dependence of Europe on Southern crops.
~Confederate generals proved much more competent than their Union counterparts in several key battles in the first years of the war.
~By late 1862, the war had produced severe effects on the home fronts; food shortages were occurring in the South, and President Lincoln imposed martial law in several locations and suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the cases of some of his political opponents.
~The Emancipation Proclamation provided a moral justification for Northerners to continue the war.
~The war shifted decisively in favor of the North in 1863, with the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg proving to be critical victories for the North.
~The surrender of the Confederacy in April 1865 was caused by a severe lack of morale, manpower, and economic stability in the South.
Time Line
1860: Lincoln elected president / South Carolina secedes from the Union
1861: Confederate States of America created / Attack on Fort Sumter / First Battle of Bull Run / Union begins blockade of Southern ports
1862: New Orleans captured by Union navy / Battle of Shiloh / Conscription begins in Confederate states / Emancipation of slaves in Southern states begins / Battle of Antietam / British announce they will not aid the Confederacy in any substantial way
1863: Emancipation Proclamation / Conscription begins in the North: draftees may hire "replacements / First black soldiers enlist in Union army / Crucial Union victory at Gettysburg / Crucial Union victory at Vicksburg / Draft riots in New York City
1864: Abraham Lincoln reelected / General Sherman carries out his "march to the sea" / Desertion becomes a major problem in the Confederate army
1865: General Lee surrenders at Appomattox / Abraham Lincoln assassinated