Unit Twelve: The Civil War

Union Vs. Confederacy

Civil War

• The Civil War, also known as the War Between the States was between the “separated” Southern states (Confederacy) and the Northern states (Union). (“Johnny Reb” vs. “Billy Yank”) (Blue vs. Grey)

• When the war started both sides thought that it would be a short war (90 days war) and the South would either be allowed to leave or would be forced by subjugation to remain in the union. (Many northerners favored a simple split of ways, until Fort Sumter)

• The Civil War developed into a five year long war that led to the decimation of the South and birth of a new age of modern warfare.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages• The North and South had their advantages and disadvantages,

but the “odds” were stacked in the North’s favor.

UNION

Advantages

Disadvantages

Advantages Disadvantages

CONFEDERACY

• Large amount of industry • Large Population• Established government• Extensive transportation systems • Competent leadership•Established Military •Large amount of capital and money

•Split support politically and citizens •Inferior officers •Fighting on “foreign soil”

•Fighting on home soil

•Experienced intelligent officers

•Unified sentiment

•Small population

•Little industry

•Newly created government

•Disconnected transportation systems

•Small amount of “capital” and money

Union vs. Confederacy

Union vs. Confederacy

Advantages vs. Disadvantages• Population:

– The North had a population of 22 million and growing due to immigration into the North from European countries. (Ireland especially)

– The South had a population of 9 million with 4 million made up of slaves, without the hope of growth due to little immigration into the South. (The South could only pull from 1,280,000 men between the ages of 15 and 50 for the military)

• Population Sentiment:– In the North the people were split over wanting to go to war with

the South or to simply let them go their own way. (This also caused soldiers to question why they were fighting, because many agreed with the South’s right to leave the Union)

– In the South the people were also split over many issues concerning secession and how the new government should run. In the war effort many agreed to fight for and against the union, but questioned Davis’s leadership. (Although there were many differences, many agreed that it was a fight for Southern culture and a way of life)

Advantages vs. Disadvantages• Political Parties:

– The North was split between the Republican party (war to preserve the union) and the Northern Democrats (split over war).

– The Northern Democrats were split between the War Democrats (agreed with Lincoln) and the Peace Democrats (Copperheads) who sympathized with the South and did not want war.

– The South did not have any political parties, so elected officials were able to act out of their own conscience. (Most all were for war)

Advantages vs. Disadvantages• Industry:

– The North had over 80 of the nation’s factories (including cotton cloth, shoes, and etc.), 95 percent of the blast furnaces, and all major ordinance (war material) factories.

– The North also had new machinery like the mechanical reaper by Cyrus McCormick to save labor and time to produce more food.

– The South only had a small manufacturing base with only one cannon foundry at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, two small gunpowder factories, and no factories capable of making large orders of uniforms among other things. (The South built many factories during the war and by 1862 were able to meet their own needs, but could not get them transported where they needed to go.)

Northern Dominance

Southern Advantage

32 to 1 Firearms Production14 to 1 merchant shipping 3 to 1 farm acreage 412 to 1 wheat 2 to 1 corn New machinery (mechanical reaper)

24: 1Cotton

Advantages vs. Disadvantages• Transportation System:

– Going into the war the North had the majority of the nation’s railroads, canals, and roads which made troop transport, supply transport, and communication fast and efficient.

– During the war Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act that called for a standard gauge train track on all Federally funded tracks (became popular among all railroads)

– The South did not develop major road or canal projects due to taxes and because of the dependence on the extensive natural river systems in the South.

– Most railroads in the South were not the same gauge, only ran East and West, and most connected rivers not each other.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages• Military:

– Both the North and the South pulled from the same pool of military officers to carry out the war, which many had attended West Point. (7 out of the 8 military academies were in the South)

– The average age of infantry (foot soldiers) was 25 and by the end of the war most 21 or under. (most on both sides were farmers)

– The North had an already established army and navy to conduct the war, but had to call for inexperienced volunteers usually from more urban areas.

– The South had to raise an army from state militias and only had a small navy throughout the war, but had a more experienced pool of civilians to get soldiers, due to the South’s overrepresentation in the military and ability of southerners to adapt quickly to military life.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages

• Government: – The North had an already established

government to run the civilian and military effort to win the war.

– The South had to create a new government to run the civilian and military effort, but throughout the war was hampered by the idea of state’s rights and sovereignty which led to many issues hurting the CSA’s overall war effort and ability to run the South.

The Confederacy "died of states' rights".--State Rights and the Confederacy by Frank Owsley

Advantages vs. Disadvantages• Foreign Diplomacy:

– The North needed to keep foreign countries out of the war effort for multiple reasons: to keep the CSA from being recognized as a nation, to keep the weakened nation from being attacked during the war or after, and for a tactical advantage over the South. (Secretary of State William H. Seward)

– The South needed foreign intervention for recognition as a nation, aid during the war for items not produced in the South, and naval assistance to break blockades. (The South believed it had the major bargaining chip in “King Cotton” over the North and Great Britain”

I firmly believe that the slave-holding South is now the controlling power of the world--that no other power would face us in hostility. Cotton, rice, tobacco, and naval stores command the word; and we have sense to know it, and are sufficiently Teutonic to carry it out successfully. The North without us would be a motherless calf, bleating about, and die of mange and starvation.”… “You dare not make war upon our cotton. No power on earth dares make war on it. Cotton is King”-----Senator James H. Hammond of South Carolina------

Leadership: Lincoln vs. Davis

• The differences between the North and South extended to the leaders of the U.S. and C.S.A. (Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis)

• Abraham Lincoln during the war enjoyed the ability of an already established government, with control over most aspects of the war effort either as commander in chief of the military or through expanding the presidential powers over Congress.

• Lincoln was also very good at delegating authority and getting people to see his point of view. (save the union at any cost)

Leadership: Lincoln vs. Davis

• Jefferson Davis though was better suited to be a general than the President of the Confederacy.

• Davis had to start a government from scratch, run it, and deal with all the problems of the war.

• Many people did not like Davis which included most state governors and Confederate Congressmen.

• Davis was hard working, but did not like to delegate authority and due to the Confederate Constitution the central government did not have the power necessary to win the war.

Lincoln Vs. Davis “My paramount object is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery… If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving other alone, I would also do that.”

“I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came.”

“If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.”

Leadership: Lincoln vs. Davis

1. Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War2. Salmon P. Chase Secretary of Treasury 3. Abraham Lincoln President 4. William H. Seward Secretary of State

5. Edward Bates Attorney General 6. Gideon Welles Secretary of Navy 7. Montgomery Blair Post Master General

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2

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5

1. Attorney-General Judah P. Benjamin2. Navy Secretary Stephan Mallory3. Treasury Secretary Christopher Memminger4. Vice-President Alexander Stephens5. War Secretary LeRoy Pope Walker 6. President Jefferson Davis 7. Secretary of State Robert Toombs

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2

3

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5

67

Both Constantly Changed

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War Strategies

• The North and the South had to fight in a sense two different types of wars to win, in the South a defensive and in the North an offensive war.

• All the South needed to do was sit back, fortify its lands, and wait for the “enemy”; making the North invade a hostile unfamiliar land which would take a long time wearing down the Northern populations’ will to fight and then the South could sue for a peace settlement.

War Strategies • The North to bring the wayward states back would have to

invade the South and force it to surrender, which developed into the Anaconda Plan made by General Winfield Scott. (His plan was first rejected and he was forced into retirement, but after Bull Run it became the main plan.

• The Anaconda Plan called for:

Mobilization for War

• In the north, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers with more to come to start the war, which many believed would not last long (90 day service contracts).

• Lincoln and others offered bounty (enlistment bonus) to get people to enlist.

• Lincoln also with Congress passed the Militia Act of 1862 allowing for African-Americans to serve in the military in auxiliary (non-combat) roles. (later allowed to fight in combat roles too)

Mobilization for War

• In the South local volunteer militias were raised and were the primary force of the Confederate Army during the war.

• The South did not allow African Americans to fight in the war, but were used in labor battalions. (At the end, the Confederate Congress did vote on allowing slaves to join the army.)

• Both the Union and the Confederacy passed Conscription laws (a military draft forcing people to serve in the military)

• Both allowed the wealthier class to exempt (South land and slave qualifications) or allow for a substitute (North 300 dollars). {Rich Man’s War and A Poor Man’s Fight}

Foreign Diplomacy

• During the Civil War foreign diplomacy was a major issue for both sides.

• The major issue dividing most European nations and their people was Slavery.

• One early major issue was the Trent Affair (1861) when the British vessel, the Trent, was forcibly boarded by a Union warship seizing two Confederate diplomats to Britain, James Mason and John Slidell. (Outraged British government, Lincoln apologized and released the prisoners)

Foreign Diplomacy • Lincoln sent Charles Francis Adams as minister

to Britain, who worked to keep the British from recognizing the Confederacy and to stay “neutral”.

• The British did allow Confederate ships to use their ports, built Confederate commerce raiders (CSS Alabama), allowed Confederacy to carry out raids from Canada, and even had plans to construct Laird Rams (blockade destroyer warships) but then never sold them to the South.

• Canada was also used by the Confederacy to conduct small raids into the union.

Foreign Diplomacy

• During the war the French leader Napoleon III sent fleet of ships and men to conquer Mexico, which it did installing Archduke Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico.

• Neither the Confederacy nor the Union were happy with this due to the threat of attack, but it could be used by the South for aid and recognition. (Mexico was able to take back its country in 1867)

Financing a War

• In the North Lincoln and Congress used many ways to fund the war effort: – 1.) Morrill Tariff (protective tariff to bring in

more income from imports) – 2.) The National Banking System (established

to create a standard uniformed currency) – 3.) Greenbacks (paper bank notes that could

be printed to allow for more “money”) – 4.) War (government) bonds – 5.) Income Tax (first tax on a person’s income

in American history)

Financing a War

• In the South, Davis and the Confederation Congress had the problems of starting a whole new financial system at the same time of funding a major war.

• The Confederacy started the printing of its own money and sold government bonds.

• The Confederacy as the war drug on due to printing too much money, the south was plagued with hyperinflation. ( 9000% inflation)

The War!

• With both sides set to win for their cause the Civil War developed into the bloodiest and most devastating war in American history, due to the overconfidence of the South and the determination of the North to settle the issue of Federal Power and State Sovereignty.

• After the war the nation would be rebuilt into something new, but at this time no one knew what that would be.