Civil War Review

The Biggest Even in American History (seriously).

What were the long term causes of the Civil War?

• There had always been a debate over slavery in the U.S., but for most of the early history of the country, both pro-slavery forces and anti-slavery forces were willing to compromise on the issue. With Nat Turner’s Rebellion, the rise of abolitionist movement in the North, the publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, the Dread Scott Case, the Fugitive Slave Act, The Kansas-Nebraska Act etc, the North and South became more and more divided.

• Virtually the entire Southern economy was dependent on slavery, and many Southerners felt their right to slavery had to be protected at all costs.

• Many in the North wanted to ensure that slavery would come to an end, and the political influence of these people was increasing.

What was the immediate cause of the Civil War?

• After years of compromise on the slavery issue, the South felt the election of Abraham Lincoln proved that the Northern states could effectively control the government without any Southern approval. They figured it was only a matter of time before slavery would be limited or abolished, so 11 states seceded from the union.

• Some in the South supported secession because they felt that the Northern states and the federal government were gaining too much power. These people weren’t necessarily motivated by slavery, as much as they were the desire for “state’s rights” or “small government”.*

* Many historians believe this viewpoint is over emphasized as an apology for the South.

Beginning

• After Lincoln was elected, South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas did so by February 1, 1861.

• When Confederate troops fired on Ft. Sumter, and Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas also seceded, bringing the total of seceding states to 11. Kentucky, Delaware, Missouri, and Maryland did not secede, despite their status as slave states.

C.S.A

Trouble in Command

• Immediately Lincoln had problems with his generals. They were often not aggressive enough, or were needlessly reckless.

• Throughout the war he had as commanders: Winfield Scott, Irvin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, George Meade, and Ulysses S. Grant. None was effective except for Grant, who did not take complete command until 1864.

Lincoln’s Generals

The Confederates

• Jefferson Davis, and former U.S. Senator was the president of the Confederacy.

• The South was terribly disadvantaged by their smaller population and their lack of major industry.

• The place that the South had an advantage was in military leadership, as most of the senior officers in the U.S. Army before the war left to fight for their native states, including:

The Generals of the South

Bloody Combat

At the time it was fought, the Civil War was the bloodiest war in history. To this day, the Civil War is the most costly in American History. Why?

• New technology, especially the rifled muskets that used paper cartridges and rifled canons gave soldiers the ability to fire much more accurately.

• While the technology advanced, the Generals and officers in charge, still used the tactics that had been effective in previous wars with the old technology. Thus, men were still ordered to charge well fortified positions that they really had no chance of taking.

• Medical care was still quite primitive, and basic sanitation was still not widely practiced.

Weapons of the Civil War

Trouble for the North

• Union forces fared poorly in the war at first, with disastrous losses at both Battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

• Even when the Union troops did well, they could not capitalize on their success in the Peninsula Campaign or at Antietam. Both times Union troops were close to victory, but failed to take the initiative.

• The worst example for this was after the victory at Gettysburg, when Union forces won what proved to be the decisive victory of the war. After the battle, Meade failed to follow up Lee’s forces and finish them off. This ensured the war would go on for another year and a half.

Turning it Around

• Union troops were successful though, in the Western Campaigns at Shiloh and Vicksburg, the latter of which gave them control of the Mississippi.

• Eventually Lincoln realized that Ulysses S. Grant is the right general to lead the whole Union Army, as he had been so successful in the West.

• Grant adopts Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan, which he first put into place by capturing Vicksburg. He next sent William Tecumseh Sherman to capture Atlanta and then march to the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, he attacks Robert E. Lee in the vicious campaign of 1864. This campaign ended in the siege of Petersburg that summer.

The End

• Sherman captured Atlanta and marched to Savannah, and was in the process of invading the Carolinas by the Spring of 1865, using “total warfare” Sherman’s March is remembered very bitterly in the South.

• Phillip Sheridan laid waste to the Shenandoah Valley, destroying much valuable farmland, again using ‘total warfare”

• The Army of the Potomac finally ended the siege of Petersburg, and eventually forced the Army of Northern Virginia to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The rest of the Confederates surrendered within a short while.

Surrender