The American Civil War: War Begins

• The Civil War (1861–1865) resulted in 750,000 deaths and is considered the most destructive war in the Western Hemisphere.
• The Civil War freed 4 million people from slavery and accelerated industrialization and modernization in the North.
• Some historians refer to the Civil War as the Second American Revolution.

The War Begins

• In March 1861, Lincoln assured Southerners he would not interfere with slavery, but warned against breaking up the Union in his inaugural address.
• Lincoln stated that the government would not attack first, and the South would be the aggressors if conflict occurred.
• The status of Fort Sumter was critical because it was a federal fort in a seceded state.
• Lincoln sent provisions to the fort, giving South Carolina the choice to allow the fort to hold out or open fire.
• On April 12, 1861, Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter, initiating the war and uniting Northerners to save the Union.

Use of Executive Power

• Lincoln acted in unprecedented ways, exercising powers as chief executive and commander in chief without Congressional approval.
• Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, authorized war spending, and suspended habeas corpus after the Fort Sumter crisis.
• Lincoln justified his actions due to the absence of Congress, declaring these measures indispensable to public safety.

Secession of the Upper South

• After Lincoln's intention to use troops was clear, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy.
• The Confederate capital moved to Richmond, Virginia, while western Virginia remained loyal to the Union and became a separate state in 1863.

Keeping the Border States in the Union

• Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky remained in the Union, influenced by Union sentiment and federal policies.
• In Maryland, the Union army used martial law to control pro-secessionists.
• In Missouri, U.S. troops prevented pro-South elements from gaining control, while guerrilla forces remained active.
• Kentucky initially remained neutral, with Lincoln respecting neutrality until the South violated it.
• Keeping the border states was a primary military and political goal for Lincoln, as their loss would have significantly increased Confederate population and weakened the North.

Wartime Advantages

• The Confederacy had to fight a defensive war, had shorter supply lines, a difficult coastline to blockade, experienced military leaders, and high troop morale.
• The Union had a larger population (22 million vs. 5.5 million free whites), enhanced by 800,000 immigrants and 180,000 African American soldiers.
• The Union Navy gave it command of the rivers and territorial waters.

Economic Advantages

• The Union dominated the economy, controlling most banking, factories (85%), railroads (70%), and farmland (65%).
• Northern clerks and bookkeepers provided logistical support.
• The Confederates hoped for European support due to cotton demand, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.

Political Advantages

• The Confederacy aimed for independence, while the Union fought to preserve the Union.
• States' rights proved a liability for the Confederacy, needing a strong central government, which it lacked.
• The Union had a well-established government and experienced politicians.
• The Confederates hoped the Union population would turn against Lincoln and quit the war.

The Confederate States of America

• The Confederate constitution was modeled after the U.S. Constitution, featuring a single six-year presidential term and an item veto.
• It prohibited protective tariffs and funding for internal improvements but banned the foreign slave trade.
• President Jefferson Davis' attempts to increase executive powers were resisted by Southern governors.

Financial Shortages

• The Confederacy chronically lacked money and faced inflation.
• It tried loans, income taxes, and impressment, but revenues remained low.
• The government issued over $1 billion in paper money, devaluing the Confederate dollar to less than two cents by war's end.
• The Confederate congress nationalized railroads and encouraged industrial development, but a war of attrition doomed its efforts.

First Years of a Long War: 1861-1862

• Initial expectations of a short war were quickly dispelled.
• The First Battle of Bull Run (July 1861) resulted in a Confederate victory, ending the illusion of a short war and reinforcing the myth of Rebel invincibility.
• General Winfield Scott devised a three-part Union strategy: blockade Southern ports, control the Mississippi River, and conquer Richmond.
• The first two parts of the strategy proved easier to achieve.

Peninsula Campaign

• General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign was stopped by Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
• McClellan was forced to retreat and was replaced by General John Pope.

Second Battle of Bull Run

• General Lee exploited the change in Union generals, striking quickly at Pope's army in Northern Virginia.
• Lee forced the Union army to retreat to Washington.

Antietam

• Lee led his army into Maryland, hoping a major victory would gain British recognition.
• McClellan, restored to command, knew Lee's battle plan due to a captured copy.
• The Union army intercepted the Confederates at Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland.
• The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single day of combat, with over 22,000 casualties.
• Lee retreated, and Lincoln removed McClellan for failing to pursue the weakened Confederate army.
• Antietam was decisive, preventing Confederate recognition from foreign powers.
• Lincoln used Antietam to announce plans for a direct assault on slavery.

Fredericksburg

• Replacing McClellan with General Ambrose Burnside led to a Union defeat at Fredericksburg, with heavy losses.
• Improved weaponry made heroic charges against entrenched positions futile.
• By the end of 1862, the magnitude of the war was clear, with no prospect of military victory for either side.

Monitor vs. Merrimac

• The Union's hopes rested on maximizing economic and naval advantages through a blockade.
• The Confederate ironclad Merrimac (Virginia) threatened the Union blockade, but the Union's Monitor engaged it in a draw.
• The battle marked a turning point in naval warfare, with ironclads replacing wooden ships.

Grant in the West

• Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in early 1862, with 14,000 Confederates taken prisoner.
• Grant's drive down the Mississippi was complemented in April 1862 by the capture of New Orleans by the Union navy.

Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy

• The Confederacy sought independence through diplomacy, expecting cotton to induce Britain or France to provide aid.
• This was a failure, as the Union prevented the Confederacy from gaining foreign support and recognition.

Trent Affair

• Britain nearly sided with the Confederacy in late 1861 after the Trent Affair.
• Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell were removed from a British ship by a Union warship.
• Britain threatened war, but Lincoln released the diplomats.

Confederate Raiders

• The Confederates purchased warships from British shipyards, damaging U.S. merchant ships.
• The Alabama captured over 60 vessels before being sunk, Great Britain eventually paid $15.5 million for damages caused by commerce-raiders.
• Charles Francis Adams prevented the Confederacy from purchasing Laird rams from Britain.

Failure of Cotton Diplomacy

• European intervention was thwarted because Europe found alternative cotton sources.
• General Lee's setback at Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation were factors in Britain's decision not to recognize the Confederacy.

The End of Slavery

• Lincoln was initially hesitant to act against slavery because of border states, constitutional protections, Northern prejudice, and fear of political backlash.
• Enslaved individuals were freed through military events, governmental policy, and their own actions.

Confiscation Acts

• Union General Benjamin Butler declared captured slaves "contraband of war."
• The first Confiscation Act (August 1861) allowed the seizure of enemy property used to wage war.
• The second Confiscation Act (July 1862) freed slaves of those in rebellion against the United States and authorized their use in the Union army.

Emancipation Proclamation

• Lincoln decided in July 1862 to free enslaved persons in states at war with the U.S. as a “military necessity".
• Lincoln delayed announcement until he could secure support in the North and encouraged border states to create compensated emancipation plans.
• Following the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued a warning on September 22, 1862, declaring that enslaved people in rebellious states would be free on January 1, 1863.

Consequences

• The Emancipation Proclamation only freed about 1% of slaves.
• It enlarged the purpose of the war, making it a fight against slavery.
• It increased the number of slaves fleeing to Union lines and authorized the use of freed slaves as Union soldiers.

Thirteenth Amendment

• The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery in the United States: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall exist within the United States."

Freedmen in the War

• After the Emancipation Proclamation, hundreds of thousands of Southern blacks sought protection from Union armies.
• Almost 200,000 African Americans served in the Union army and navy, gaining respect of white soldiers.

The Union Triumphs, 1863–1865

• By 1863, the war was turning against the Confederates due to economic struggles and troop desertions.

Turning Point

• The turning point came in July with two Union victories.
• Union forces gained full control of the Mississippi by capturing Vicksburg, Mississippi.
• Union forces defeated Lee's army at Gettysburg, resulting in over 50,000 casualties for both sides.

Grant in Command

• Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies in 1864.
• Grant used a strategy of attrition, aiming to wear down Confederate armies and destroy supply lines.
• Grant forced Lee into a defensive line around Richmond, foreshadowing trench warfare.

Sherman's March

• General William Tecumseh Sherman led a destructive campaign through Georgia and South Carolina.
• Sherman's troops ruined everything in their path, destroying anything the enemy might be able to use.
• He took Atlanta in September 1864 and set fire to Columbia, the capital of South Carolina.
• Sherman's march broke the Confederacy's spirit.

The Election of 1864

• The Democrat nominee, General George McClellan, ran on a peace platform.
• Republicans renamed their party the Unionist party, attracting War Democrats.
• Lincoln was reelected, winning 212 electoral votes.

The End of the War

• The Union blockade and Sherman's march caused widespread hunger in the South.
• Grant continued to outflank Lee's lines, leading to the fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865.
• Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Assassination of Lincoln

• On April 14, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln in Ford's Theater.
• A co-conspirator attacked Secretary of State William Seward.

Effects of the War on Civilian Life

• The war brought deep changes to American society.

Political Change

• Secession created Republican majorities in Congress.
• Differences arose between radical abolitionists and Free-Soilers.
• Peace Democrats and Copperheads opposed the war.
• Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham was banished for pro-Confederacy speeches.

Civil Liberties

• Lincoln prioritized prosecuting the war over protecting civil liberties.
• He suspended habeas corpus in pro-Confederate states, allowing arrests without charges.
• Approximately 13,000 people were arrested for aiding the enemy, many held without trial.
• After the war, Ex Parte Milligan (1866) ruled that military trials for civilians were improper where civilian courts were available.

The Draft

• The Union's Conscription Act (1863) made men between 20 and 45 liable for military service, but allowed draftees to avoid service by finding a substitute or paying the government a $300 exemption fee.
• Draft riots against draft erupted in New York City in July 1863, with significant casualties.

Political Dominance of the North

• The war resulted in a new definition of the federal union.
• Arguments for nullification and secession ended.
• Federal government supremacy over the states was accepted.
• Abolition of slavery legitimized American democracy.
• Lincoln rallied Americans with the Gettysburg Address, promoting equality.

Economic Change

• The war costs were staggering and led to extraordinary measures by both the Union and Confederate legislatures.
• The Union financed the war mainly by borrowing $2.6 billion and raising tariffs, added excise taxes, and instituted income tax.
• The U.S. Treasury issued Greenbacks, paper currency that contributed to creeping inflation.
• In 1863, Congress created a national banking system.

Modernizing Northern Society

• The war had a dramatic impact on the Northern economy.
• Modern industrial economy aspects were accelerated, including mass production and business consolidation.
• War profiteers sold shoddy goods at high prices.
• Republicans stimulated economic growth in North and West by passing protective tariffs (Morrill Tariff Act) and promoted settlement of the Great Plains (Homestead Act).
• They encouraged states to use federal land grants for agricultural colleges(Morrill Land Grant Act) and authorized a transcontinental railroad(Pacific Railway Act).

Social Change

• The most directly affected were women and African Americans.
• Women took on new roles in fields, factories, military nursing, and volunteer work.
• The Civil War opened the field of nursing to women and gave impetus to the women's rights movement.
• Ratification of the 13th Amendment freed 4 million slaves, but did not protect them from economic hardship and political oppression for decades.
• The Civil War strengthened American democracy and capitalism.