Main Ideas
- The plan to resupply Fort Sumter triggered the beginning of the Civil War.
- The North and South each had distinct advantages and disadvantages at the beginning of the Civil War.
- With Union casualties rising, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. With the help of key victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the North defeated the South after four long years of fighting.
Vocabulary
martial law, greenback, conscription, habeas corpus, attrition, siege, mandate
Reading Objectives
- Contrast the political situations of the Union and Confederacy.
- Identify the major battles of the war, and assess their impact.
- Discuss Lee’s surrender and the events of the war’s aftermath.
The Civil War Begins
- In his inaugural speech, Lincoln told seceding states that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed, but he said, “the Union of these States is perpetual.” He also said that the Union would hold on to the federal property in the seceding states.
- President Lincoln announced that he would resupply Fort Sumter. Confederate President Jefferson Davis demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter, but the fort’s commander, U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson, refused. Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter and, after 33 hours, Anderson surrendered. The Civil War had begun.
- President Lincoln asked for 75,000 volunteers to serve in the Union army. States in the Upper South seceded, beginning with Virginia. The capital of the Confederacy immediately was changed to Richmond, Virginia.
- Lincoln did not want the border states to secede, especially Maryland. Since Virginia had seceded, he did not want Washington, D.C., to be surrounded by Confederate territory. Martial law was imposed in Baltimore to prevent Maryland’s secession. Under martial law, the military takes control of an area and suspends certain civil rights. Kentucky was important to the Union because it controlled the Ohio River’s south bank. Kentucky remained neutral until the Confederate forces invaded it. Then Kentucky’s legislature voted to stay in the Union. Missouri voted to stay with the Union, but needed the support of federal forces.
The Opposing Sides
- General Winfield Scott asked Robert E. Lee to command Union troops. Lee was one of the best senior officers in the United States Army. Lee, however, was from Virginia, so when his state voted to secede, Lee chose to support the Confederacy. Hundreds of other military officers chose to support the Confederacy.
- The South had a strong military tradition. Seven of the eight military colleges were in the South. So the South had a large number of trained army officers.
- The North had a strong naval tradition. Three-fourths of the U.S. Navy’s officers were from the North. The North had a large pool of trained sailors from merchant ships.
- The North’s population was more than twice as large as the South’s population. This gave the North an advantage in raising an army and in supporting the war.
- The North’s industries gave it an economic advantage over the South. The North had almost 90 percent of the country’s factories, and it could provide ammunition and other supplies more easily.
- The South had only one railroad line connecting the western states of the Confederacy to the east. Northern troops easily disrupted the South’s rail system and prevented the distribution of supplies and troops.
- The North had several financial advantages over the South. The North controlled the national treasury and was able to continue collecting money from tariffs. Northern banks loaned the federal government money by buying government bonds. Congress passed the Legal Tender Act in February 1862. This created a national currency and allowed the government to issue green-colored paper money known as greenbacks.
- The Confederacy’s financial situation was not good to start, and continued to worsen. Southern planters and banks could not buy bonds. The Union Navy blockaded Southern ports, so money raised by taxing trade was greatly reduced. To raise money, the South taxed its own people. Many Southerners refused to pay the taxes. The South was forced to print its own paper money, which caused rapid inflation in the South.
- As the Civil War began, there were many Republicans and Northern Democrats who challenged Lincoln’s policies. Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union, even if that meant allowing slavery to continue.
- In 1862 Congress introduced a militia law that allowed states to use conscription—the drafting of people for military service—to fill their regiments. Many Democrats opposed the law, and riots erupted in many cities.
- To enforce the militia law, Lincoln suspended writs of habeas corpus—a person’s right not to be imprisoned unless charged with a crime and given a trial.
- The Confederate Constitution’s commitment to states’ rights limited president Jefferson Davis’s ability to conduct the war.
- Many Southern leaders opposed president Jefferson Davis’s policies. They objected to the Confederacy forcing people to join the army. They also opposed suspending writs of habeas corpus.
- The United States did not want Europeans to recognize the Confederate States of America as an independent country.
- The South wanted Europeans to recognize the Confederacy and provide it with military assistance. To pressure France and Britain, Southern planters stopped selling cotton to these countries.
- Despite pressure, both Great Britain and France chose not to go to war against the United States.
- The Civil War was the first modern war. The war involved huge armies made up of mostly civilian volunteers who required vast amounts of supplies and equipment.
- The new military technologies, including cone-shaped bullets, and tactics caused attacking forces to suffer high casualties. Attrition—the wearing down of one side by the other through exhaustion of soldiers and resources—meant that the armies had to keep replacing their soldiers.
- Jefferson Davis wanted to wage a defensive war of attrition against the Union. Southerners scorned defensive warfare, however. Southern troops instead often went on the offensive, charging enemy lines and suffering large numbers of casualties.
- The Union implemented the Anaconda Plan. This strategy, proposed by Winfield Scott, included a blockade of Confederate ports and sending gunboats down the Mississippi to divide the Confederacy.
The Early Stages
- Confederate reinforcements at the First Battle of Bull Run turned the tide for the Confederacy in the first major battle. The reinforcing troops were led by Thomas J. Jackson—”Stonewall” Jackson. He became one of the most effective commanders in the Confederate Army.
- At first many Northern and Southern men enlisted in the armies. As the war dragged on, fewer young men enlisted. The North tried to get volunteers to enlist by offering a bounty—an amount of money given as a bonus—to men who enlisted for three years of military service.
- Eventually both the Confederacy and the Union instituted the draft.
- Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of all Confederate ports in an effort to cut the South’s trade with the world.
- The Union blockade became increasingly effective as the war went on. The Union navy, however, could not stop all of the blockade runners, or small, fast vessels used by the South to smuggle goods past the blockade.
- A fleet of Union ships, led by David G. Farragut, captured New Orleans and gained control of the lower Mississippi River in April 1862. The South’s largest city, and a center of the cotton trade, was now in Union hands.
- In February 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant began a campaign to control the Cumberland River and the Tennessee River. Control of the rivers cut Tennessee in two and gave the Union a river route deep into Confederate territory.
- Grant had victories at Forts Henry and Donelson. He and his troops advanced down the Tennessee River until the Confederates held a surprise attack at Shiloh. The Union army won the Battle of Shiloh, but twenty thousand troops were killed or wounded.
- In June 1862, Robert E. Lee began a series of attacks on the Union army known as the Seven Days’ Battle. Lee inflicted heavy casualties on the Union army and forced them to retreat.
- As Union troops withdrew, Lee attacked the Union forces defending Washington. This became the Second Battle of Bull Run. The South forced the North to retreat. Confederate troops were just 20 miles from Washington.
- Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis believed that an invasion of the North was the only way to convince the Union to accept the South’s independence, gain help from Great Britain, and help the Peace Democrats win control of Congress in upcoming elections. So Lee and his troops invaded Maryland. McClellan and his troops took position along Antietam Creek, east of Lee.
- The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle of the war. McClellan inflicted so many casualties on the Confederate army that Lee decided to retreat to Virginia. This was an important victory for the Union. The South lost its best chance to gain international recognition and support. The defeat convinced Lincoln that it was time to end slavery in the South.
- Democrats opposed the end of slavery. Republicans were divided on the issue. Many were abolitionists. Others, like Lincoln, did not want to lose the loyalty of the slaveholding border states. As Union casualties rose, however, Northerners began to agree that slavery should end.
- In September of 1862, Abraham Lincoln, encouraged by the Union victory at Antietam, announced that he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This decree would free all enslaved persons in states still in rebellion after January 1, 1863.
- The Emancipation Proclamation changed the Civil War from a conflict over preserving the Union to a war to free the slaves.
- As a result of the collapse of the South’s transportation system and the presence of Union troops in many agricultural regions, the South suffered severe food shortages by the winter of 1862. The food shortages hurt Southern morale and led to riots. Rapid inflation drove up prices.
- The North had an economic boom because of the war. The large, well-established banking industry made raising money for the war easier. The increased use of mechanical reapers and mowers made farming possible with fewer workers. Women entered the workforce to fill labor shortages.
- Even outside of battle, both Union and Confederate soldiers suffered hardships during the war. Life was even worse for prisoners of war captured by the enemy.
- African Americans were officially allowed to enlist in the Union army and navy, as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. Thousands of African Americans joined the military.
- Besides managing family farms and businesses, women contributed to the Civil War by serving as nurses and doctors to the wounded at the battlefield.
- Clara Barton and many other women in both the North and the South nursed soldiers in the battlefield.
- The Civil War was a turning point for the nursing profession in the United States.
The Turning Point
Union forces wanted to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, in order to gain control of the Mississippi River and cut the South in two.
Grant and his Union forces put Vicksburg under siege—cut off its food and supplies and bombarded the city—until the Confederate troops surrendered on July 4, 1863. The Union victory cut the Confederacy in two.
In June 1863, Lee invaded the North. There Lee’s army met the Union cavalry. On July 1, 1863, the Confederates pushed the Union troops out of Gettysburg.
On July 2, Lee attacked. The Union forces held their ground. On July 3, Lee ordered 15,000 men under the command of General George E. Pickett and General A. P. Hill to attack the Union troops. This became known as Pickett’s Charge. In less than half an hour of fighting, the Union forces used cannons and guns to inflict 7,000 casualties on the Confederate force.
The Union forces had 23,000 casualties at Gettysburg. The Confederates had 28,000 casualties—more than one-third of Lee’s army. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the war in the east. Lee’s forces remained on the defensive, the Republicans were strengthened, and the battle ensured that the British would not recognize the Confederacy.
President Lincoln came to Gettysburg in November 1863, to dedicate part of the battlefield as a military cemetery. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address became one of the best-known speeches in American history.
The Union wanted to capture Chattanooga in order to control a major railroad running south to Atlanta, Georgia.
Following several battles, the Union army forced the Confederates to evacuate Chattanooga.
Lincoln appointed General Grant general in chief of the Union forces as a result of Grant’s important victories at Vicksburg and at Chattanooga.
In 1864 General Grant started a campaign against General Robert E. Lee’s forces. The first battle was fought in the Wilderness near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Next, Grant and his forces battled the Confederates near Spotsylvania. Grant was unable to break the Confederate lines there, so he headed toward Cold Harbor, an important crossroads northeast of Richmond. Grant launched an all-out assault on Lee’s forces. Lee stopped Grant, whose army had suffered heavy casualties.
General Grant ordered General Philip Sheridan and his cavalry to raid north and west of Richmond. Grant then headed south past Richmond to cross the James River. Grant ordered his troops to put Petersburg under siege.
On August 5, 1864, the Union navy led by David Farragut closed the port of Mobile, Alabama. It was the last major Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River.
Union General Sherman marched his troops from Chattanooga toward Atlanta in late August 1864. To avoid being trapped in the city, Confederate General John B. Hood evacuated Atlanta.
On November 15, 1864, Sherman began his March to the Sea. His troops cut a path of destruction through Georgia in which they ransacked homes, burned crops, and killed cattle. They reached the coast and seized Savannah on December 21, 1864.
After reaching the sea, Sherman and his troops turned north toward South Carolina. The Union troops pillaged, or looted, almost everything in their path. They burned at least 12 cities, including South Carolina’s capital—Columbia.
The capture of Atlanta came in time for Lincoln’s re-election. Lincoln considered his reelection a mandate, a clear sign from the voters, to end slavery by amending the Constitution.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, banning slavery in the United States, passed the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865.
General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
The terms of surrender guaranteed that the United States would not prosecute Confederate soldiers for treason.
Lincoln gave a speech in which he explained his plan for restoring the Southern states in the Union.
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot and killed Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater.
The Civil War saved the Union and strengthened the power of the federal government over the states. It changed American society by ending the enslavement of African Americans. The South’s society and economy were devastated.
