CIVIL WAR
Dec 23, 2015
CIVIL WAR
ELECTION OF 1860 AND SECESSION WINTER
Abraham Lincoln’s name did not appear on the ballot in ten states
Lincoln won all free states except New Jersey
John C. Breckinridge, with a southern-rights platform, won the entire Lower South
Lincoln won in the Electoral College by 28 votes
SECESSION OF THE LOWER SOUTH DEC 1860-FEB 1861
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICAAlso known as the Confederacy, was a government set up in 1861 by seven southern slave states that had declared their secession from the U.S..
Jefferson Davis
UPPER SOUTH CHOOSES SIDES
• Would it fight against the Lower South or the Union?
• Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia joined the Confederacy of Texas, So. Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas
• Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri?
• In the end 11 of the 15 slave states joined the Confederate States of America; four of the seceding Upper South states contained significant numbers of people who felt little affection for the Confederacy
ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER
• Spring 1861 occupied by 80 US soldiers
• It is at the entrance to Charleston Harbor
• For the south it represented the nation they had abandoned
• For the North it was a symbol of federal sovereignty in the seceded states
DAVIS SENT CONFEDERATE TROOPS TO BOMBARD THE FORT
Lincoln had to provision it, but did not send troops
For Jefferson Davis the territorial integrity of the Confederacy demanded the end of the US presence;
He sent troops against advice of his colleagues
CONFEDERACY SUCCESSFUL
Anderson surrendered
Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve for 90 days to put down the rebellion
THE COMBATANTSNORTH
Expecting to win• Lincoln strategy
applied pressure at many points, and blocked the export and sale of the South’s cotton crop
• Neither side predicted the magnitude and duration of the war
SOUTH
• South believed it would triumph despite enormous advantages of the Union
• South believed North was dependent on its cotton crop,
• South believed cotton would make Europe its ally
• Confederacy military strategy of the South to stay at home, blunt invasions, avoid battles that risk its army, and outlast the North’s will to fight
BLOODY MISSOURI
• Southern sympathizers roamed Missouri for the duration of the conflict
• In the border states, it became a ‘brothers’ war” dividing families over the issue of slavery
1861-1862
MOBILIZING
At first it appeared the South had the advantageLincoln had little military experience but he made up for it with wise cabinet choices; his rhetorical skills roused the North
Davis turned out to be quarrelsome and proud and made some enemies
ADVERSARIES
1863-1865
ORDNANCE
NAVY
UNION BLACK INFANTRY
BLACK UNION SOLDIER
BLACK UNION SOLDIER
GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE
UNION VICTORIES IN WEST
Rivers key to military situation
• Mississippi• Tennessee• Cumberland
Missouri Battle of Pea Ridge left the state free of Confederates army
Rebel failures in the far West meant there would be no Confederate empire beyond Texas
‘EXCEPT BY COMPLETE CONQUEST’
• Principal western battles took place in Tennessee where General Ulysses S. Grant emerged as the key northern commander
• Feb 1862 Grant captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, forcing Confederates to withdraw from all of Kentucky and most of Tennessee
• April, Union forces prevailed at the costly battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, and Grant realized the Union would not be victorious ‘except by complete conquest.’
ATLANTIC THEATER• Union Navy—three dozen ships on 3,500 miles of coastline• Eventually grew to 150 blockade ships• Confederates could not compete with a conventional Navy, so
improvised, ironclad warship, and underwater vessels
ULYSSES S. GRANT
INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY
Confederates sought foreign help, hoping cotton-starved Europeans would help
No other country challenged the Union blockade or recognized the Confederate States of America as a nation
Lincoln announced that an alliance with the Confederacy was an alliance with slavery
GETTYSBURG
DOROTHEA DIX
CLARA BARTON
WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN
MARCH TO THE SEA
SCORCHED EARTH
LEVELED TOWNS
LEE SURRENDER TO GRANT
LINCOLN FUNERAL PROCESSION WASHINGTON, DC
HEARSE CARRYING LINCOLN’S BODY