The Civil War

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The Civil War

• Why Fought?
• How Fought?
• Results or Consequences?
• Impact on the Homefront?

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I. Formation of the Confederacy

• Secession of the Deep South
• New Confederate government
• Confederate Constitution (Feb., 1861)
• A Conservative Revolution

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II. The Question of War
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A. Compromise Fails

• Crittenden Compromise
• Lincolns Response
• Willard Hotel Peace Conference (Feb., 1861)
• Proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution

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B. Firing on Fort Sumter

• Lincolns Inauguration
• Challenges facing the new President
• Four southern forts still in Union hands
• Shelling of Sumter
• Lincoln calls for 90-day enlistments
• Upper South secedes

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C. Border State Loyalty?

• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Missouri
• Delaware

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III. Assessing the Two Contenders

• Northern Advantages?
• --industrial might
• --population size
• --railroad mileage
• --better navy
• Southern Advantages?
• --familiar ground
• --stronger motivation
• --defensive tactics
• --better military leadership at first

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IV. Northern Military Strategy

• Direct Strike at Richmond
• --Manassas, Peninsula Campaign, Cold Harbor
• Anaconda Plan
• Two-Front war to put both strategies into action

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V. Mobilizing the Home Fronts

• Volunteers at firsta draft later
• Reliance on private industry
• Feeding the troops on both sides
• Attempts to pay for the war North and South
• Southern railroad difficulties

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V. Mobilizing the Home Front (cont)

• Early problems with discipline of troops
• A rich mans war and a poor mans fight
• The problem of local regiments
• War disrupted the lives of most civilians

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VI. Analysis of Presidents

• Some doubt about Lincolns leadership abilities
• Reasons for Lincolns effectiveness
• Lincoln allowed dissent
• Davis liabilities as a leader

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VII. Life in the Civil War Army
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A. A Soldiers Experience

• Life of tedium
• Poor medical conditions
• Food complaints
• Southern veterans make up for fewer numbers
• Seeing the Elephant

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A. A Soldiers Experience (cont.)

• A Brothers War
• Early problems with fraternization between the
  two armies
• Constant battle with lice
• Importance of letter writing
• Premonitions of death

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B. The Changing Face of Battle

• Early Union naval victories
• Lincolns Early Search for a General who can
  produce victories
• Turning Point Victories in 1863
• Grants Victory at Chattanooga

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B. Changing Face of Battle (cont.)

• Shermans March on Atlanta and then his March to
  the Sea
• The early face of battle First Manassas (Bull
  Run)July, 1861
• -- The Great Skedaddle

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B. Changing Face of Battle (cont.)

• Changes in Weaponry
• Battles late in the War Cold HarborJune, 1864
• Grants Strategy in 1864-1865
• -- The Butcher
• Changing Notion of Courage

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VIII. Foreign Diplomacy

• Southerners employ a voluntary embargo on cotton
• Europeans waiting on a crucial southern victory
• Europeans fear war with the U.S. and need
  northern wheat
• French invasion of Mexico in 1863

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IX. The African-American War Experience

• Timing of the Emancipation Proclamation
• Lincolns justification of emancipation
• Slavery was already falling apart in the south
• Running away to Union lines
• Word reaches southern slaves of emancipation

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IX. African-American War Experience (cont.)

• 54th Massachusetts Regiment
• --Robert Gould Shaw
• --Assault on Fort Wagner
• Pay and activities of the Black soldiers
• Dangers facing Black soldiers
• --Battle of the Crater outside of Petersburg, Va.

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IX. African-American Experience (cont.)

• Emancipation Proclamation and using northern
  Black soldiers turned the war into a racial
  revolution
• Northern racism declines
• Southern organization of Black troops

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X. War as Social Disorder

• Civil War ruined southern economy and society
  based on the institution of slavery
• Guerilla warfare in the south
• Southern bread riots in the spring of 1863
• New York City Draft Riot of July, 1863

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XI. Election of 1864 and Final Days of the War

• The Election of 1864
• Grants Siege of Petersburg
• Importance of Shermans Capture of Atlanta
• The end at Appomattox Court House

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XI. Final Days of the War (cont.)

• Lincolns Assassination at Fords Theater in
  Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865
• Surrender of Fort Sumter to the U.S. on the same
  day
• First occupation troops to Charleston, S.C. in
  February of 1865 were Black troops

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XII. Effects of the War

• Temporary gain for women
• --U.S. Sanitary Commission
• --Nurses like Clara Barton
• Freedom for Blacks, but still a long way to go
• Decrease in Nativism
• States Rights was deadFederal Authority expanded
• Northern organizational revolution