United States CIVIL WAR

1. United StatesCIVIL WAR

2. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Issues and Events • America’s greatest national trauma! • First time conflict met definition of total war • Bloodiest war in American history, must count both sides • 600,000 dead, 500,000 wounded • Fought/led by men on both sides with no combat experience (Mexican War very small, 1848) • Most trained officers fight for the South • Mostly untrained militia, who could not drill or fire a gun or farmers/hunters that could shoot, but not in mass • 4 issues that caused the war; right of state to leave union, slavery, economic interests, and Abraham Lincoln

3. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Issues and Events • Slavery and Abolition • Labor was major issue • Plantation system sustained Southern economy • Cotton was labor intensive, no training or efficiency required, all work done by hand • Cotton Gin available, but not used much • Unpaid labor kept costs low enough for profit • North becoming a modern industrial state • North society steadily progressed, many immigrants and middle class • South societystagnated, little or no development • Urban working/merchant class, industrial entrepreneurs (North) vs. aristocrats, farmers, slaves (South) • High tariffs (North) vs. no tariffs (South) • American ships only (North) vs. lowest cost shipping (South)

4. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Issues and Events • Slavery issue boiling for some time • Missouri Compromise of 1820 • 11 free states and 11 slave states • Maine (free); Missouri (slave) added to U.S. • Repealed, 1854 and declared unconstitutional, 1857 • Arkansas/Michigan, Florida/Iowa; Texas/Wisconsin • Great Compromise of 1850 • New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah territories (TBD) • California (free) • Washington D.C. slave market • Fugitive Slave Act • $5 each to set free; $10 each to return to slavery • Underground railroad becomes more active • Flee to Canada or risk getting sent back South

5. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) Comparison of Union and CSA Union CSA Total population 22,000,000 (71%) 9,000,000 (29%) Free population 22,000,000 5,500,000 1860 Border state slaves 432,586 NA 1860 Southern slaves NA 3,500,000 Soldiers 2,200,000 (67%) 1,064,000 (33%) Railroad miles 21,788 (71%) 8,838 (29%) Manufactured items 90% 10% Firearm production 97% 3% Bales of cotton in 1860 Negligible 4,500,000 Bales of cotton in 1864 Negligible 300,000 Pre-war U.S. exports 30% 70%

6. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Issues and Events • Abolition of slavery in Southern states was not major Northern issue • Most Northerners, including Lincoln, generally accepted slavery in South • Many Northerners didn’t think slavery in South worth fighting about • Issue was expansion of slavery into new territories

7. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Issues and Events • John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry • Fanatic farmer, began guerilla warfare in Kansas to free slaves • Badly defeated in Kansas • Oct 1859, seized U.S. Armory with 18 followers atHarper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) • Col Robert E. Lee sent to capture John Brown • Captured, convicted of murder, hanged

8. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Issues and Events • Lincoln • Personally thought slavery morally wrong and an injustice, determined to limit it to existing states • Recognized constitutional right of slavery in Southern states; Corwin amendment (original 13th amendment) • 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery, 1868 • Conflict came to boil with Lincoln’s election, 1860 • Southern states begin to secede • South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas • Feb 1861, Confederate States of America • Former U.S. senator, Jefferson Davis, elected President

9. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Issues and Events • States’ Rights • North wanted strong central government • South wanted strong state government • North wanted development of national policies that were favorable to continued growth • South feared strong central government would adopt legislation directly attacking Southern institutions

10. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Political Objectives • Lincoln: #1 goal was to reestablish union, by force if necessary • Many others: secession was states’ right, opportunity to give problem away, or not worth fighting over • Public support was major Northern problem entire war • Freedom for slaves was political attempt to get support for war; Emancipation Proclamation • Because the North was not winning at this point it had little or no impact in the South • South simply ignored it • Southern objectives were very popular in South • Only needed to defend South from invasion

11. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Military Objectives and Strategy • Both North and South needed quick, decisive win • Neither North or South very well prepared • Lincoln wanted offensive pressure all around the edges, all at once • Actually, got 2 fronts divided by Appalachian Mountains • South only needed to defend itself, BUT • Didn’t have population (5:2) • Didn’t have heavy industry (firearms/railroads) • Depended on export of cotton and tobacco • Never developed centralized organization

12. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Military Technology and Technique • Railroads • North had extensive rail network • South had series of independent railroads built to get products to port cities • One trunk rail line connecting east to west • Chattanooga, Atlanta, Petersburg

13. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Military Technology and Technique • Communication • Telegraph • Weapons • Riffled musket (.58 and .50 caliber) and artillery, extended range for both and small explosive charge for artillery • Rapid fire weapons appear • First submarines,armored ships

14. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Military Technology and Technique • Rifled Smoothbore Smoothbore w/3 buckshot • 100 yards, 50, 48/50 37/43 79/84 of 200 • 200 yards, 50, 32/41 18/24 18/22 19/31(some did • 300 yards, 50, 23/29 <9 not penetrate target) • 500 yards, 50, 12/21 • Infantry vs. cavalry, at 500 yards with a rifle-musket, the sight on the gun ``is elevated to the third notch-the horses now get over 4 yards per second so that the dangerous space is passed in seven seconds'' To have accurate fire at a closer range it would have been necessary to lower the sight as the enemy closed, therefore wait until the enemy are within point blank range • Infantry vs. infantry, combat occurs at a slower pace, but the same principals can be applied…as the enemy gets closer, the man armed with a rifle-musket must change how he aims or he will miss, but the man armed with a smoothbore has to do nothing except wait for the enemy to get closer and then he can fire effectively, for all he has to do is load, point, and shoot

15. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Military Technology and Technique • Little time or ammunition allocated to actual range practice • Many recruits into battle without firing 1 practice round • Men knew how to load weapons, maintain the weapons, and fire the weapons in theory, but didn't know anything about using them in actual combat • 24th Michigan - sent to front within a very few weeks of its formation in July 1862 • In its only recorded target practice during that time, three men were wounded and one died of a heart attack • Only target practice until four months later, which again wasn't followed up • Gettysburg where the unit suffered 80 percent casualties, serious target practice was given the men

16. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Military Technology and Technique • Forces • Infantry, cavalry and artillery • Union army had small balloon corps • Main source of troops still state militia • Fire power • Sometimes 80% casualties • “Attack by rushes” • Limited medical care made impact greater • Wound in “truck” of body was usually fatal • Wound in limbs usually meant amputation • Instruments often not washed between patients

17. CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865) • Military Forces • Union Army • Formal entry of Black troops into army • 186,000 served in 120 infantry, 7 cavalry and 13 artillery regiments; but white officers • Continued after war with “buffalo soldiers” • Confederate Army • Senior leaders mostly West Point grads • Naval Forces • Union; 42 warships • Grew to 700 ships • Confederate; almost none

18. MILITARY CONDUCT • First Shots • South fires first shots at Fort Sumter, S.C. • Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina vote to join Confederacy • North tries to capture railroad junction at Manassas Junction, Confederates stop them at Bull Run, major Confederate victory • Civilians from Washington D.C. with picnic baskets went to watch, only about 30 miles from town • Set pattern for rest of war • Poorly led Northern armies often outmaneuvered by smaller, faster-moving Southern forces • Better generals; Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson

19. MILITARY CONDUCT • Neither side expects long war, months at worst • War goes back and forth until end of 1863 • Emancipation Proclamation, Jan 1863 • Major political move, but didn’t free slaves • Lee winning in Virginia • Grant winning in West • Gen Ulysses S. Grant takes command of Union Army (East), March 1864 • Gen William T. Sherman takes command in West • Grant leads war of attrition • enemy must be worn down to the point of collapse by continuous losses in personnel and materiel, usually be won by the side with greater replacements • More than 1 million total casualties • Problems of Peace more difficult than war

20. BETWEEN WARS • After the war • North wanted to transformation South into something resembling rest of country • No one knew what to do, North had no plan • Millions of homeless • Thousands crippled • Farm production ruined • Nothing Southerners could accept or embrace • Reconciliation (rebuild) or Punitive (punish) • Northerners often imposed policies without convincing Southerners they were proper • Many former slaves had to work for white land owners, either as tenant farmers, sharecroppers, or laborers • Cotton production rebounds in 20 years to pre-war levels

21. AFTER THE WAR • After the war • Harshness of reconstruction fostered hostility towards Blacks - KKK • North mostly indifferent towards freed slaves • No education, no land, no money, no anything except in small quantities • Most former slaves no better off than before, except family members could not be taken away • Only work was the same as before, except now paid, but not much because land owners didn’t have money • Called reconstruction, but little done to improve conditions • Lincoln wanted minimum of conditions