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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1861 CIVIL WAR (South) 1865 1861 􀃕CIVIL WAR 􀃕1865 􀃕 “e time for compromise has now passed, and the South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel.” Jeerson Davis , inaugural speech, 16 February 1861, Montgomery, Alabama. Individual state’s rights or states’ rights collectively have enlivened American politics. Before, during and following the Civil War, many Confederates asserted that the conict was over states’ rights. Americans disagreed if secession (for a state to leave the Union) was one of those rights. ey agreed that states‘ rights included funding a militia; operating schools and colleges; seing residency requirements for voters; supervising elections; chartering railroad companies; and, most important, rejecting or authorizing slavery as a legal social system. A states’ rights aitude maintained the federal government should not intrude into political, social, or economic areas that belonged to the states. Aer 1820, when Missouri Territory requested admission into the Union as a slave state, issues concerning slavery divided Americans. As a moral question (was it right for one human being to own another?) or as a way to exclude additional African-American residents, northern states individually outlawed slavery around 1810. In the South, white southerners overwhelmingly passed state laws maintaining slavery. Economically, a major portion of coon and other crops came from large plantations using slave labor. Politically, slaveowners dominated southern legislatures and governorships. Socially, most white southerners did not own slaves and operated small or modest farms, but envisioned no social system other than slavery for 3.5 million African-Americans held in bondage. In the 1840s, some southern leaders complicated maers by advocating slavery’s expansion into America’s western territories. In the 1850s opponents of slavery’s expansion formed the Republican party and also proposed other controversial steps by the federal government. White southerners countered that slavery was supposed to be leup to each state when it entered the Union and the federal government was supposed to protect citizens’ property rights, including slave property. Republicans also gained supporters by draing proposals submied to Congress to encourage selement of the Trans-Mississippi West, such as a Homestead bill for selers, a Trans-Continental Railroad bill to construct railroads into the territories, and a Land Grant College bill to boost the study of agricultural and mechanical programs. Many white southerners (and some northerners) believed that, if implemented, the Republicans’ proposals strengthened the federal government at the expense of states’ 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 􀃕 FIRST MANASSAS 1861 􀃕 HENRY & DONELSON 1862 􀃕􀀃MISSISSIPPI RIVER 1862-1863 􀃕􀀃PENINSULA 1862 􀃕􀀃SHILOH 1862 􀃕􀀃SHENANDOAH VALLEY 1862 􀃕􀀃SECOND MANASSAS 1862 􀃕􀀃SHARPSBURG 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, Kentucky, Missouri. STATISTICS 􀃕􀀃Total Service Members (Conf.) 1,050,000 􀃕􀀃Bale Deaths 94,000 􀃕􀀃Wounded in action 194,000 􀃕 Deaths from disease 164,000 “Civil War.” Six other states seceded and joined the C.S.A.—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Missouri, puing 13 stars on the Confederate ag. Areas of the new nation remained pro-Union, including western Virginia, eastern Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Louisiana, and portions of Kentucky and Missouri. Governors of two states, Joseph Brown of Georgia and Zebulon Vance of North Carolina, emphasized state’s rights over Confederate nationalism. Stressing defense, Jeerson Davis announced that the C.S.A. only wanted to be lealone but he authorized a Confederate military expedition into the Union’s New Mexico Territory. ousands of white southerners rushed to enlist in the Confederate army and navy, and the government impressed thousands of slaves and free blacks to work as civilian laborers on fortications and railroads. When a Federal army marched into Virginia in July 1861, Confederates defeated it at Manassas (Bull Run). Undaunted, Lincoln called for more Federal troops to put down rebellion and, inspired, Davis urged Confederates to ght for independence. No compromise appeared possible: the war would either reunite the United States or produce two separate nations. During 1862 the tide of war seemed to favor the Union. Federal forces won campaigns in New Mexico, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana, and seized state capitals in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana. In the East, Union troops captured coastal bases in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. Federals occupied New Orleans, the C.S.A.’s biggest city and largest port. Suddenly changing the outlook, a Confederate army under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Gen. Robert E. Lee turned back a large Federal army outside Richmond, Virginia, the C.S.A. capital. Aer Johnston was wounded, Lee became the Confederacy’s premier general and national symbol. Switching from defense to oense and assisted by his talented subordinate, omas “Stonewall” Jackson, Lee led his army to victory at Second Manassas and into Maryland. In September Lee’s drive northward stalled at the Bale of Sharpsburg (Antietam) and Federals forced him to retreat. e Confederate defeat at Sharpsburg led Lincoln to change his war goals. Reuniting the Union remained paramount, but in September, Lincoln added the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, to free all the slaves in the Confederacy. Lincoln’s proclamation put Confederates in the position of defending slavery. In 1863 Union armies entered or occupied portions of every Confederate state. Aempting to oset Federal gains, Lee persuaded Davis to permit another Confederate oensive into the North, where he wanted a victory on northern soil to undermine Union rights; Congress passed none of the bills. Opposition solidied among most southern whites when a few Republicans advocated abolition—ending slavery everywhere right away. Arguments over slavery and federal authority in the nation’s future—to conne it to states that legally permied it, expand it into the West, or abolish it—aected 1860’s presidential election. Some southern leaders linked the arguments to the existence of the nation: if the federal government blocked slavery’s expansion or tried to abolish slavery, were the slave states going to stay in the Union? 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. He also strongly supported the Republican proposals. Lincoln’s views alienated most southern voters. ey asserted that if Lincoln won they supported secession and divided among three other candidates. 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 slaveowner from Kentucky, strongly supported slavery’s expansion; he nished second in the Electoral College. Another candidate, slaveowner John Bell of Tennessee, ranked keeping the nation together 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. Secession began aer the election. South Carolina seceded rst in December 1860, followed in early 1861 by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. “Secession commissioners” from those states gave public speeches stressing Republican threats to slavery as a reason for seceding. Elected delegates from seceded states assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new government, called the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.). Delegates draed a new constitution, printed a national currency, and selected a president, Jeerson Davis of Mississippi. Soon, Texas seceded and joined the C.S.A., but other slave states awaited future developments. Davis picked cabinet members and hoped that Lincoln and northerners would peacefully accept secession and the C.S.A.’s existence. Seceded states took over all Federal buildings and installations, except two: U.S. soldiers refused to leave forts at Charleston, South Carolina, and Pensacola, Florida. Aer Lincoln sent a supply ship to Charleston, Confederates red cannon on Fort Sumter and seized it, starting, what Davis called, a General Robert E. Lee Lieutenant General omas J. “Stonewall” President Jeerson Davis Jackson 1861 -1865 Jackson’s ank aack, 2 May 1863. Confederate ocers Springeld rie musket and bayonet, model 1855 Sharps Carbine, model 1852 morale and gain European support for the C.S.A. Lee’s oensive culminated in July at Geysburg, Pennsylvania, where his army was defeated and lost one third of its strength. Lee never went on the oensive again. Also in July Federals forced the surrender of two Confederate bastions, Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana, cuing the Confederacy in two and giving the Union control of the Mississippi River. ese events marked a signicant turning point. Moreover, Union troops occupied two more state capitals, Lile Rock, Arkansas, and Jackson, Mississippi. Mississippi. Resolute and not defeated, the Confederate high command looked ahead to the U.S. presidential election of November 1864. If Confederates appeared capable of continuing the war indenitely while inicting high casualties on Federal armies, Union supporters might grow discouraged and Lincoln might lose the election. A new president might negotiate to recognize Confederate independence. Instead, Confederates suered defeats at Mobile, Alabama, in August, Atlanta, Georgia, in September, and in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in October. ese Confederate defeats contributed to Lincoln’s reelection. Other campaigns indicated disaster. Fighting a series of bales against a Union army led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Lee and his army retreated across Virginia and into trenches defending Richmond. Confederates appeared defenseless against Gen. William T. Sherman’s Union army as it marched across Georgia and captured the port of Savannah in December. “Sherman’s March” provoked distress and discouragement among southern civilians and desertions from Confederate armies. In April, Lee tried to restore a war of maneuver by breaking out of Richmond’s trenches but Grant’s army pursued him and forced him to surrender at Appomaox, Virginia, on 9 April. With hopes for independence gone, other Confederate generals followed Lee’s example and surrendered in North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas. e Civil War and the Confederacy had come to an end. e Confederacy’s collapse produced signicant results. e concept of secession evaporated from U.S. politics and the former Confederate states rejoined the Union. Although the states ratied the irteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery in 1865 and the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to former slaves in 1868, another century passed before African-Americans began to possess citizenship rights nationwide. It took the South seventy years to recover from the Civil War’s economic damage. For demonstrating remarkable generalship, Robert E. Lee remained revered among southerners and respected by northerners. Myths and wishful thinking enveloped the Confederacy and created the “Lost Cause” legend in American social, cultural, and political life. Joseph G. Dawson III, PhD, Texas A&M University General Joseph E. Johnston, Harper’s Weekly, 5 October 1861. Confederate bale ag 􀃕 􀃕 􀃕 © 2010 e Memorial for all Veterans of the Brazos Valley, Inc. Le-Write Ink Confederate belt buckle Confederate Washington Artillery Cannoneers. David E. Dance’s personal revolver #10 , .44 cal., with walnut grips. Made by the Dance brothers in Anderson, Texas. Courtesy L.J. McNeill III.