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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1861 CIVIL WAR (North) 1865 1861 􀃕CIVIL WAR 􀃕1865 􀃕 “You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot rene it.” William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) in a leer to James M. Calhoun, mayor of Atlanta, and others, 12 September 1864. CAMPAIGNS There were 25 campaigns in the Civil War. e streamers are equally divided with blue and gray. Units that received campaign credit as a confederate unit use the same ribbon with the colors reversed. Blue refers to Federal Service and gray is indicative of the Confederacy, joined together they represent the unication of the country aer the Civil War. 􀃕 SUMTER 1861 􀃕 BULL RUN 1861 􀃕 HENRY & DONELSON 1862 􀃕􀀃MISSISSIPPI RIVER 1862-1863 􀃕􀀃PENINSULA 1862 􀃕􀀃SHILOH 1862 􀃕􀀃VALLEY 1862 􀃕􀀃MANASSAS 1862 􀃕􀀃ANTIETAM 1862 􀃕􀀃FREDERICKSBURG 1862 􀃕􀀃MURFREESBOROUGH 1862-1863 􀃕􀀃CHANCELLORSVILLE 1863 􀃕􀀃GEYSBURG 1863 􀃕􀀃VICKSBURG 1863 􀃕􀀃CHICMAUGA 1863 􀃕􀀃CHAANOOGA 1863 􀃕􀀃WILDERNESS 1864 􀃕􀀃ATLANTA 1864 􀃕􀀃SPOTSYLVANIA 1864 􀃕􀀃COLD HARBOR 1864 􀃕􀀃PETERSBURG 1864-1865 􀃕􀀃SHENANDOAH 1864 􀃕􀀃FNKLIN 1864 􀃕􀀃NASHVILLE 1864 􀃕􀀃APPOMAOX 1865 BELLIGERENTS 􀃕􀀃United States (Union) VERSUS 􀃕􀀃Confederate States of America (Confederacy)South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina. STATISTICS 􀃕􀀃Total Service Members (Union) 1,050,000 􀃕􀀃Bale Deaths 110,000 􀃕􀀃Wounded in Action 275,000 􀃕 Deaths from Disease 224,000 Americans began debating if the United States was a compact of sovereign states or an indivisible Union soon aer states ratied the Constitution of 1787. If the nation was a loose compact, states could secede or leave the Union. By the 1840s many Americans in the North and some in the South decided that the nation had evolved into an unbreakable Union that united “the people” of all the states as well as the states themselves. In contrast, many southerners still supported the concept of secession if states’ rights appeared threatened. Debates over secession oen related to the subject of slavery. Americans agreed that individual states possessed the right to legally establish or reject slavery. By the 1840s some northerners questioned if the nation’s future included slavery. If slavery eventually might be abolished, many northerners contended that slavery should be restricted to states that approved it rather than allowing it to move into the western territories. By contrast, some southern leaders advocated expanding slavery into the West. In the 1850s a new northern liberal political party, the Republicans, proposed blocking slavery’s expansion and other controversial steps by the federal government. First, Republicans wanted to encourage selement of the Trans-Mississippi West by giving each head of household 600 acres of surplus federal land. Opponents admied that encouraging selement seemed nationalistic but advocated that the government sell the land, not give it away. Republicans also proposed encouraging selement by granting surplus federal lands to companies that built railroads into the territories, but this undermined the right of future states to charter railroads. Furthermore, Republicans proposed federal assistance to one college in each state by granting surplus federal land to support education in agricultural and mechanical subjects. Detractors contended it was the right of each state to choose college programs. Most controversial, Republicans proposed federal action to block slavery’s expansion into U. S. territories. Opponents countered that property owners should be allowed to take their slave property anywhere and that slavery was supposed to be leup to each state when it entered the Union. Even some northerners believed that, if implemented, the Republicans’ proposals strengthened the federal government at the expense of states’ rights. A few Republicans created more controversy by advocating abolition—ending slavery everywhere right away. In the presidential election of 1860 the nation’s relations with European nations, and authorized the Treasury Department to print a new national currency (“Greenbacks”). Northern industries converted to war production. With most southerners out of the U.S. Congress, Republicans soon passed four nationalistic proposals—the Homestead Act, the Transcontinental Railroad Act, the Land Grant College Act, and prohibition of slavery in the territories. During 1862 Lincoln’s cordon oensive appeared to be winning. Federal forces won campaigns in New Mexico, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana, and seized state capitals in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana, where Union troops also occupied New Orleans, the C. S. A.’s biggest city. In the East, Federals captured coastal bases in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. A large Federal army under General George B. McClellan maneuvered across the Virginia Peninsula. reatening Richmond, the Confederacy’s capital, McClellan was caught oguard by Confederate counteraacks, directed principally by General Robert E. Lee. McClellan’s campaign ground to a halt. Lincoln lost condence in McClellan and removed him from command. Lee’s Confederates swept to victory at Second Manassas (August 1862) and then went on the oensive into Maryland. Lincoln restored McClellan to command and his army won a strategic victory at the Bale of Antietam (Sharpsburg) in September. Antietam allowed Lincoln to change his war goals. In addition to reuniting the Union, in September Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which had the goal to free all the slaves in the Confederacy. Moreover, in 1863 Lincoln approved enlisting African-American men into the Union army. Eventually black men comprised 10 percent of Federal soldiers and 15 percent of sailors. eir enlistment portended a social transformation in America. In 1863 Lincoln ordered the cordon oensives to resume. A major goal was winning control of the Mississippi River, supplemented by taking more C.S.A. state capitals, tightening the blockade, defeating Lee’s army, and capturing Richmond. While one Union army under General Ulysses S. Grant pointed at Vicksburg, Mississippi, another approached Port Hudson, Louisiana. A third Union army scrambled to block Lee’s oensive into Pennsylvania. In early July these campaigns culminated with Federal victories in the East and the West. Federals forced Lee to retreat from Geysburg, Pennsylvania, and gained control of the Mississippi River by capturing Vicksburg and Port Hudson. ese events marked a signicant turning point. Moreover, Union troops occupied two more state capitals, Lile Rock, Arkansas, and Jackson, future regarding slavery and federal authority were signicant issues. e Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, a former congressman from Illinois. Lincoln was not an abolitionist, but said publicly that he opposed slavery’s expansion and believed that it eventually would be abolished. Lincoln’s views alienated most southern voters, who divided amongthree other candidates and asserted that if Lincoln won they supported secession. Stephen Douglas, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois, championed the Union but was ambiguous about slavery; he nished second in the national popular vote. Another Democrat, Vice President John Breckinridge, a slave owner from Kentucky, strongly supported slavery’s expansion; he nished second in the Electoral College. Another candidate, slave owner John Bell of Tennessee, ranked the Union rst and slavery second; he tallied the most votes in the slave states of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. Lincoln won the election, nishing rst in the Electoral College and rst in the popular vote. Distressing many Americans, secession began aer the election. South Carolina seceded in December 1860, followed in early 1861 by ve other states. ey formed the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.) and added Texas to their number. erefore, before Lincoln became president on 4 March 1861 seven southern slave states had seceded. Secession presented challenges to Lincoln and his Cabinet. Secessionists had seized all Federal buildings in the C.S.A except two: Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, and Fort Pickens at Pensacola, Florida. Lincoln had the option to abandon those forts and acknowledge secession as a fact. Instead, he vowed to hold the forts and sent a supply ship to Charleston, prompting Confederates to re cannon on Fort Sumter. It surrendered. Lincoln called for states to provide 75,000 militia to suppress a rebellion. Six other slave states seceded and joined the C.S.A.--Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Missouri. In response, Lincoln conceded that these states were “out of their proper relationship with the Union.” He asserted that secession was invalid, refused to recognize the C.S.A.and did not delete any stars from the United States ag. Stressing reuniting the nation, Lincoln developed a cordon oensive strategy: he planned for multiple Union armies to move into the South, defeat Confederate armies and restore Federal authority. He also established a naval blockade of the southern coast. In the East, Federal forces were defeated at Manassas (Bull Run) in July 1861. Northern critics doubted if Lincoln’s cordon strategy would restore the Union, but he recruited more troops, maintained diplomatic Mississippi. Lincoln was dismayed that this string of Union victories did not bring Confederate leaders to realize that their cause was lost. In the U. S. presidential election of November 1864, Republicans again nominated Lincoln and Democrats nominated George McClellan. If Federal forces did not win more bales, some supporters of the Union worried that McClellan might call an armistice, open negotiations, and recognize Confederate independence. Instead, the Union army and navy won major victories at Mobile, Alabama, in August, Atlanta, Georgia, in September, and in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in October. ese Union military victories supported Lincoln’s reelection. Combined with northern industrial production, control of the Mississippi, and the tightening blockade, other campaigns marked the path to Union victory. Fighting a series of bier bales les against Lee’s army in Virginia, Gen. Grant pushed the Confederates back into trenches defending Richmond. Conducting a controversial march across Georgia, General William T. Sherman led another Union army that destroyed Georgia’s factories, military depots, railroads, and crops. In December Sherman’s army captured the port of Savannah. When the Confederate congress considered enlisting African-American troops, many supporters of the Union saw the end of the war was near. Grant anticipated that Lee might try to escape from Richmond’s defenses and prepared for a eld campaign. Assigning Federal African-American troops to block Lee’s path at Appomaox, Virginia, Grant received Lee’s surrender there on 9 April. In the next few weeks, other Confederate generals accepted Lee’s example and surrendered in North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas. e Civil War had ended. A watershed in American history, the Civil War produced important results. e war’s outcome cancelled the concept of secession. Ratied by the states in December 1865, the irteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution abolished slavery. e Fourteenth Amendment made former slaves U. S. citizens in 1868. Although he had led Federal armies to victory and been elected president (serving 1869-1877), Ulysses S. Grant never achieved the heroic status of his main opponent, Robert E. Lee. e war and postwar Reconstruction lea legacy of bierness between northerners and southerners that did not heal until World War II. Idealistic and full of promise, the restored United States remained a beacon of hope and representative democracy for the world. “Bale of Hampton Road 1865,” by Kurz and Allison, c. 1920. Union soldier with musket. “Let us have peace,” by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1865. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomaox, Virginia. Union cap and bugle. General William Tecumseh Sherman by Mahew Brady. Springeld rie, 1864. Joseph G. Dawson III, PhD, Texas A&M University President Abraham Lincoln 1861 -1865 by George H. Story Civil War 35-star ag 􀃕 􀃕 􀃕 ©2010 Memorial for all Veterans of the Brazos Valley, Inc. Le-Write Ink Admiral David Glasgow Farragut Napoleon cannon and 12 pound cannon ball.