Chapter Fourteen

The Civil War

1861-1865
The War Begins
 Fort Sumter
• Fort Sumter was located in Charleston, South
Carolina
• Instead of starting a war over it, Lincoln sent
food to the fort
• The south opened fire on Lincoln’s troops
• The Civil War began in April 12th, 1861
 Use of Executive Power
• Lincoln made use of his ‘executive’ power in
the Civil war by…
– Drafting 75 thousand volunteers to help Fort
Sumter
– Spent money for the war
– Suspended habeas corpus
 Secession of the Upper South
• After Lincoln responded to the attack by the
Deep South, the rest of the south, Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas,
seceded
• Richmond was named the capital of the
confederacy
Keeping the Border States in the Union
• Lincoln used martial law and guerrilla forces to
keep the border states as part of the union
 Wartime Advantages
• Military
– The south only had to defend, while the north had to
take over the entire southern states
– The north had 22 million people against the south’s 5
million
• Economy
– The north controlled 85% of the factories, 70% of the
railroads, and 65% of the farms
• Political
– The south had no government or public support, while
the north had both
The Confederate States of America
• Nonsuccessive 6 year terms for the president
• Protective tariffs
• No foreign slave trade
• Always in debt
• Inflammation advanced to a dollar being
worth only 2 cents
First Years of a Long War – 1861-1862
• The First Battle of Bull Run
– 30,000 union troops attacked Manassas, Virginia
– Stonewall Jackson brought reinforcements and
kicked the Union back to Washington
• Union Strategy
– General Winfield Scott
• Blockade southern sea ports
• Take the Mississippi river to split the CSA apart
• Make an enormous army to swarm Richmond
 Battles Continued
• Peninsula Campaign
– General McClellan
• Invaded Virginia
• Stopped by Robert E. Lee
• McClellan replaced by General John Pope
• Second Battle of Bull Run
– Lee attacked Pope’s flank
• Antietam
– McClellan was restored
– Union stopped Lee at Antietam, and 22,000 were killed
– Lee retreated
 Battles Continued
• Fredericksburg
– Burnside (Union) attacked Lee at Fredericksburg
– 12,000 Union casualties
• Moniter vs. Merrimac
– Merrimac was a Confederate ship, and Moniter was a
Union ship
– Ended in a draw
• Grant in the West
– Ulysses S. Grant fought to take the Mississippi River
– Albert Johnston attacked Grant
– Union held, and defeated the Confederates
Foreign Affairs
 Trent Affair
• Confederate Diplomats Mason and Slidell
were taken prisoner by the Union on a ship to
Britain
• Britain threatened military action unless they
were returned
• Lincoln gave into demands
 Confederate Raiders
• The Confederates bought warships from
Britain
• After the war, Great Britain shelled out 15
million for damages to the Union
• Charles Adams, the diplomat to the British,
prevented them from selling ships with rams
to Britain
 Failure of Cotton Diplomacy
• Europe found other sources of cotton
• The CSA lost at Antietam, which made the
British look down on them
• The Emancipation Proclamation made the
British look down on the CSA more
The End of Slavery
 Confiscation Acts
• General Benjamin Butler (Union) refused to grant
captured slaves to their southernly owners. This
was known as the Confiscation Act
• The Second Confiscation Act freed all slaves in the
confederacy.
• Hand in hand with the Emancipation
Proclamation
• Consequences
– Slavery inside the Union continued
– Increased the seriousness of the war
– Used slaves as soldiers
 Thirteenth Amendment
• Abolished slavery from the constitution
• Ratified in December 1865
 Freedmen in the War
• 200,000 African Americans joined the Union
Army under the 54th Regiment
• Known as the ‘Army of Courage’
The Union Triumphs
 Turning Point
• Vicksburg
– Union attacked Vicksburg for 7 weeks
– CSA surrendered
– Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas were cut off
• Gettysburg
– Lee attacked Maryland and Pennsylvania
– Lee epic-failed and ran back to Virginia, his tail
between his legs
 Grant in Command
• His idea was just to beat Lee in an endurance
run
• Destroyed Lee’s army
 Sherman’s March
• General Sherman took Chattanooga,
Tennessee, then Georgia, then South Carolina
• Burned everything
• Took Atlanta in September 1864
• Took Columbia in February 1865
 Election of 1864
• Democratic
– General McClellan
– Called for peace
• Republicans / Unionist
– Lincoln, Andrew Johnson as VP

– Lincoln won 
The End of the War
 Surrender at Appomattox
• Grant routed Lee, and made him surrender at
Appomattox Court House on April 9th, 1865
• Lee was allowed to return home alive
 Assassination of Lincoln
• On April 14th, Lincoln was assassinated by
John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater
Effects of the War on Civilian Life
 Political Change
• The secession of the South lead to a majority
of republicans
– Radical Republicans
• Favored immediate abolition of slavery
– Moderate
• Best opportunities for whites
– Peace Democrats and Copperheads
• Supported the war but complained about how it was
done
 Civil Liberties
• Habeas Corpus
– Habeas Corpus had been suspended
– The Court declared the suspension of Habeas
Corpus legal
• The Draft
– Originally volunteers
– Later, laws came into place for the Draft
– Draft riots occurred frequently
 Economic Change
• Financing
– 2.6 billion dollars were borrowed to fund the war
– The government raised tariffs to fund the rest of
the war
– Prices rose 80%
– National Banking System in 1863
 Modernizing Northern Society
• The Morrill Tariff Act of 1861
– Increased the national tariffs to fund the war and
provide insurance to manufacturers in America
• The Homestead Act of 1862
– Sold land in the Great Plains for free
• The Morrill Land Grant of 1862
– Made the use of federal land grants legal
• The Pacific Railway Act of 1862
– Made a transcontinental railroad legal
 Social Change
• Women
– Were able to get jobs
– Lost their jobs as soon as the men returned
– Nursing became a new occupation, even after the
men returned
– Began equal rights movement
• End of Slavery
– 4 million slaves were freed