US history survey May 15, 2012 Civil War battles aftermath of war
Nov 01, 2014
US history survey
May 15, 2012Civil War battlesaftermath of war
announcements
• final class: Tuesday, May 22.
• paper # 2 due Tuesday, May 22.
• I added 10 points to all midterm exams.
• final exam: Tuesday, May 29, noon. Eat first or bring a snack with you.
1861
battles of Civil War
• where did most of the fighting happen?
fighting 1861 – 1863
• Lincoln thought one battle would defeat S & war would end.
• fighting in N Virginia; N goal to capture Richmond, Confederate capital.
• neither side strong enough to win; both sides too strong to be defeated.
• N strategy: control Mississippi River & blockade S by ocean.
• N seized islands of N & S Carolina & captured New Orleans.
historical re-enactors
fugitive slaves = “contrabands”
• slaves fled to Union armies when they reached their areas.
• slave owner demanded return, but union commander refused, said they were “contrabands of war.”
• built fortifications, cooked, did other work.• Contraband Relief Association, Washington,
DC, founded by Elizabeth Keckley, ex-slave, seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln.
contrabands, Virginia
Elizabeth Keckley, Contraband Relief Association
Corinth,Mississippi
• Contraband Camp at Shiloh Battlefield, National Park.
• 6,000 ex-slaves lived there.
contrabands employed by 13th Massachusetts Infantry, 1862
Antietam, MD, 9/1862Union victory
Emancipation Proclamation
• after Antietam victory, Lincoln stated, unless rebellious states returned to Union by 1/1/1863, he would declare their slaves free.
• “If I could save the Union w/o freeing any slave, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. If I could free some & leave others alone, I would also do that.”
• freed only slaves in areas of rebellion, not areas Union controlled or in border states.
• recruited Black soldiers for 1st time.
Gettysburg, PA, 7/1 – 7/3/1863
• 160,000 troops; 51,000 dead, wounded, missing, captured.
• could not ride across field on horse, so many bodies.
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 11/1863, dedication of cemetery.
1864
• Sherman captures Atlanta.• Lincoln wins re-election. • voters supported his new policy of
unconditional surrender – no negotiated peace.
• war continued.
Sherman’s marchto the sea
• destruction of Atlanta & RR.
• 11 & 12/1864
Sherman’s march to the sea, 1864
• 60,000 troops. • to cut off Mississippi,
Alabama, Georgia from rest of Confederacy.
• seize, burn, destroy everything; don’t harm civilians.
• 400,000 acres to be given to freed slaves, 40-acre plots.
Petersburg, VA, 1865, before battle
soldiers’ daily lives
• volunteers w/ little military training.
• marched w/ 50 – 60 pound packs.
• disease, hunger.• 1/9 Confederates & 1/7
Union soldiers deserted. Also AWOL.
• early in the war, fraternization between battles.
• by end, Confederate troops starving.
• Confederacy considered arming slaves near end.
• “If slaves make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong. (Confederate Congressman).
Black men picking up bones of dead
surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 9, 1865
• Confederate government fled Richmond, early April.
• Lee surrendered to Grant.
• Grant gave Confederate troops parole – could not be prosecuted for treason.
• Jefferson Davis, Conf. President, captured May 10.
enormous death toll of war – N & S
• improved weapons, but generals still relied on old military doctrine of massed infantry offensives (learned at West Point).
• medical ignorance – gangrene (infected wounds) & disease (smallpox, dysentery, typhoid, pneumonia, malaria).
• unprepared for health & supply needs.• Andersonville, GA – Confederate prison camp for
Union soldiers. 100 died daily, summer 1864.
620,000 military deaths =2% of population
• equal to total fatalities of Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War, Spanish-American War, WW I & II, & Korean War combined.
• 1/5 white S men of military age died; 3 times rate of N men.
• 2.1 million N & 880,000 S soldiers = 3 million combatants.
• American Rev. – largest army was 30,000.
assassination of Lincoln, 4/14/1865
plans for Reconstruction
• Lincoln wanted to bring seceded states back to Union asap (as soon as possible).
• respect private property (except slavery).• full pardon if swear oath of allegiance.• 10% Plan – once 10% swore allegiance, could
establish state government & ask to return.• Congress disagreed; Lincoln vetoed 50% plan. • Freedmen’s Bureau established 1865.
Freedmen’s Bureau school
Freedmen’s Bureau, 3/1865
• food, clothing, fuel to destitute.• managed abandoned lands.• could lease 40 acres abandoned or confiscated
land to freed slaves or white Unionists.
• 13th Amendment passed & ratified, 12/1865.• abolished slavery.
plans change – President Andrew Johnson
• only S Senator loyal to US, Democrat; VP ‘64.
• Reconstruction belonged to executive, not legislative branch.
• blamed planter elite.
• granted amnesty & pardons for officers.
• fall 1865, 10/11 S states claimed they had met requirements.
• Johnson opposed to political rights for freedmen.
Radical Republicans
• federal govt. should remake S society, especially civil rights & suffrage for freedmen.
• S states passed Black codes, 1865, to restrict freedom & keep as close to slavery as possible.
• Civil Rights Bill, 1866 – citizenship & rights of citizens for Black people.
• enlarged Freedmen’s Bureau to schools & courts.• Congress overrode Johnson’s veto of both.• 14th Amendment – citizenship & due process of law cannot
be denied based on previous condition of servitude.
Congressional Reconstruction
• 1st Reconstruction Act, 1867 – S divided into 5 military districts, under martial law.
• states had to call new constitutional conventions, w/ universal manhood suffrage, ratify 14th Amendment. Then readmitted.
• 7 states readmitted by 1868.• Grant (Union commander) elected president.• 15th Amendment, Black male suffrage, passed
1869, ratified 1870.
“40 acres & a mule”
• economic necessity for freedom.• too radical to be implemented by Congress. • former slave owners wanted compensation for
lost property (enslaved human beings).
Ku Klux Klan, 1866• threatened, whipped,
murdered Black & white Republicans in S to prevent voting.
• violence in 1868 election.
• KKK Act, 1871 – violent infringement of civil & political rights a federal crime.
• Mississippi, Texas, Virginia required to ratify 14th & 15th Amendments.
• all states readmitted by 1870.
meanwhile, elsewhere
• US purchases Alaska from Russia, 1867.
1st transcontinental RR, 1869
• Chinese workers started in California.
• Irish immigrant workers started in Omaha, Nebraska.
• also Black workers.
Promontory Point, Utah, 1869
announcements
• final class: Tuesday, May 22.
• paper # 2 due Tuesday, May 22.
• I added 10 points to all midterm exams.
• final exam: Tuesday, May 29, noon. Eat first or bring a snack with you.