THE FURNACE OF CIVIL WAR

INTRODUCTION

When President Lincoln issued a call to the states for 75 thousand men, he thought that they

would only be serving for 90 days. The war

was neither brief nor limited, and when

four years have passed, thousands of men lay dead on both

sides.

BULL RUN ENDS THE 90 DAY WAR The Union army of some 30

thousand men drilled near Washington in the summer of 1861. They were ill-prepared for battle, but the press and the public clamored for action. Lincoln concluded that an attack on a smaller confederate force met at Bull Run. This battle took place just 30 miles just outside Washington.

If the Union army was successful, then it would show just how powerful they were. The battle of Bull Run started on July 21, 1861, where congressmen and spectators trailed along with their lunch baskets to witness the fun.

BULL RUN ENDS THE 90 DAY WAR

Confederate forces arrived unexpectedly and panic seized the Union troops. The confederate forces were too confused and feasted on captured lunches. The Military Picnic at Bull Run bore political and physiological consequences. Victory was worse than defeat for the South, because it created overconfidence.

Defeat was better than victory for the Union, because it dispelled all illusions for a one-punch war and caused Northerners to buckle down to the task at hand. It also set the stage for a war that would be waged not merely for the cause of Union but also, eventually, for the abolitionist’s ideal of emancipation.

TARDY GEORGE MCCLELLAN AND THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

In 1861, George McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac, as the major Union force near Washington. He was a red-haired and red-mustached, who is strong and stocky, and he was also brilliant, a West Point graduate, and 34 years old.

As a military leader he was a curious mixture of virtues and defects. He was a great organizer, and drillmaster. He hated to sacrifice and he was loved by his men. He was a perfectionist, who seems not to have realized that an army is never ready to run without risks. He always believed that he was outnumbered, and he spoke to the President with an arrogant tone. Privately the general referred to his chief as a baboon.

TARDY GEORGE MCCLELLAN AND THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

McClellan at last decided to approach Richmond, which lies by the James and York rivers. This encounter was called the Peninsula Campaign. McClellan inched closer to the capital of the Confederate capital with about 100 thousand men; Lincoln then made McClellan move toward Stonewall Jackson.

Stonewall Jackson was making a move into Washington DC. As McClellan was waiting, General Lee made a surprising counter attack and pushed back the Union forces back into the sea, which ended this Campaign. This campaign was a huge failure, and Lincoln temporarily abandoned McClellan as the commander.

TARDY GEORGE MCCLELLAN AND THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN

Lee had suffered 20 thousand deaths, while McClellan lost 10 thousand men. Lee triumphed and stopped McClellan from taking the Confederate capital, which would have ended the war. Slavery survived for a time, and Lee had in effect ensured that the war would endure until slavery was uprooted and the Old South would have been destroyed.

Lincoln had an unwillingness to deal with slavery, until now. He now has to deal with the issue of slavery and he began to draft an emancipation proclamation. Union strategy now turned toward total war: They now had six

solutions to win the war. 1- Slowly suffocate the South with the blockade

2- Liberate the slaves and hence undermine the very economic foundations of the old south.

3- Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River backbone.

4- Chop the Confederacy to pieces by sending troops through Georgia and the Carolinas.

5- Capture the capital 6- Try and gage the enemy’s main strength and grind it into submission.

THE WAR AT SEA The blockade was not clamped

down, and a watertight patrol of some 35 hundred miles of coast was impossible for the Union navy. The Union navy decided to concentrate on important ports and docks were they would load the bales of cotton.

The Northern navy enforced the blockade. The most alarming threat from the Confederacy was an old US warship called the Merrimack, which was later named the Virginia. This ship destroyed 2 wooden ships of the Union navy in the Chesapeake Bay: it also threatened the Union blockade.

A tiny Union ironclad, the Monitor, but in about 100 days, arrived on the scene. For 4 hours the monitor withstood the Confederate Merrimack. A few months later the historic battle destroyed this ship to keep it from the grasp of advancing Union troops.

THE PIVOTAL POINT: ANTIETAM Lee moved northward, and had

the second battle of Bull Run; he encountered a federal force under General John Pope. In this encounter, pope was very talkative about always seeing the backs of people, and now meeting Lee, he attacked Pope, inflicting a crushing blow.

In Lee’s success, he now turned to Maryland. He would hope to strike a blow that would encourage foreign intervention. Those who were in Maryland did not respond to Lee.  

These events led to a crucial battle in Antietam. This battle was the bitterest and bloodiest days of the war. Antietam was more or less a draw militarily. But Lee retired across the Potomac, and McClellan was removed from the field.

THE PIVOTAL POINT: ANTIETAM The battle of Antietam was one of the most decisive

engagements of world history, and maybe during the whole Civil War. The union army was close to victory, but the Union army displayed unexpected power at Antietam, and the threat of European powers stepping in, and this launched Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation.

Bloody Antietam was also the long-awaited victory that Lincoln needed for launching the proclamation. He believed that he needed to issue the proclamation on the heels of this victory, and was forced to call upon the slaves to murder their masters. Lincoln therefore decided to wait for the outcome of Lee’s invasion.

The halting victory of Lee’s offensive was just enough to justify Lincoln’s issuing. This hope giving document announced that on January 1, 1863, the president would issue a final proclamation.

Now the civil war was now on a moral crusade, and the character of the war will be changed. It will be one of subjugation…the old south is to be destroyed and replaced by new propositions and ideas, according to Lincoln.

A PROCLAMATION WITHOUT EMANCIPATION

Lincoln’s emancipation declared that slaves were forever free, but the presidential pen did not formally strike the shackles from a single slave. The proclamation was stronger than the emancipation.  

What did happen is that some liberation did take place. Thousands of slaves flocked to the Union armies. One in seven slaves ran away to Union camps. Their presence in the camps and their perseverance against all odds convinced many Northern soldiers of slavery evils and helped put the emancipation atop Lincoln’s agenda.

Lincoln’s proclamation is going to clearly foreshadow the ultimate doom of slavery, which was the 13th Amendment.

Many believed that the proclamation did not go far enough, but some say that he way too far. The Proclamation cause an outcry to rise from the South that Lincoln was trying to stir things up, and European powers were inclined to sympathize with Southern protests

The North now had a stronger moral cause. In addition to preserving the Union, it had committed itself to freeing the slaves. The moral position of the South was correspondingly diminished.

BLACKS BATTLE BONDAGE

Lincoln took steps to enlist blacks in the armed forces. In previous wars there were a few blacks enlisted, but the War Department refused to accept free Northern blacks who tried to volunteer. They would most likely find black volunteers as mainly cooks, stewards, and firemen.

As manpower ran low, blacks were now accepted in the Confederacy, but sometimes with many protestors from the North and mostly the south. By war’s end, there were 180,000 blacks in the Union army. Blacks accounted for 10 percent of the total enlistments, including the two Massachusetts regiments raised largely through the efforts of Fredrick Douglas, who was an ex-slave.

BLACKS BATTLE BONDAGE Blacks in the civil war: Blacks in the civil war offered a

chance to prove their manhood and to claim their full citizenship. Their participation in 500 engagements they received 22 Congressional Medals of Honor, which is the highest military honor. The casualties were high: most of them died from battle, sickness, or reprisals from vengeful masters. Many were captured and even put to death.

The South recognized them as prisoners of war. Some were even massacred after they had surrendered, many black soldiers vowed to take no prisoners.

The South could not bring itself to have slaves in their army, and by the time that they wanted to enlist it was too late. Many of the slaves were forced into labor battalions, and the building of fortifications, the re-supplying of armies. Some kept the white man’s farm running while they were fighting.

LEE’S LAST LUNGE AT GETTYSBURG After Antietam, Lincoln replaced McClellan and put in

Burnside, who was known as sideburns. He proved himself at a frontal attack against Lee in Fredericksburg. More than 10 thousand soldiers were wounded and even killed, and because of this slaughter Burnside yielded command to Joseph Hooker.

Lee split his army and sent Stonewall Jackson to attack the Union flank. Stonewall beat Hooker, and this victory in Chancellorsville, Virginia was lee’s most brilliant strategy, but Stonewall Jackson was killed a few days after this battle. Lee lost his right arm when Jackson died.

Lee is now preparing to attack the North again, and this time through Pennsylvania. This victory would help bring foreign countries to help the South. General Meade will now take the place of General Hooker, and by accident he will take his place atop of a low ridge flanking a shallow valley near Gettysburg.

LEE’S LAST LUNGE AT GETTYSBURG Meade had 92,000 men in blue locked into combat with

Lee’s 76,000 men. This battle took place for 3 days, and the outcome was in doubt until the very end. General Pickett charge finally broke the back on the Confederate attack and broke the heart of the Confederate charge.

Pickett’s charge has been called the high tide of the Confederacy. It defined both the northern reaching point and the Southern force and last real chance for the Confederates to win the war.

The victory belonged to Lincoln, who refused to allow the Confederate peace mission to pass through Union lines. From this day on, the Southern cause was doomed.

Later, Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg to dedicate the cemetery. He read a 2 minute address, followed by a 2 hour speech. The Gettysburg address did little at the time, but the President was speaking for the ages.

THE ELECTION OF 1864

The election of 1864, was at first was in doubt. The war was going badly and Lincoln was thinking that some were going to dump him and put someone else into place. The President pulled through. At election time many Northern soldiers were sent home to support Lincoln at the polls. Other Northern soldiers were permitted to cast their ballots at the front.  

Lincoln won 212 to 21 electoral votes. He netted 45 percent of the popular vote as well. The Confederacy was hoping that with the removal of Lincoln, they would be finally being free of him. When Lincoln triumphed, desertions from the sinking Southern ship increased dramatically.

GRANT OUTLASTS LEE After Gettysburg, Grant was brought in from the West over

Meade. Meade was blamed for failing to pursue the defeated but always dangerous Lee. Grant was determined and with more than 100,000 men, went to Richmond. He engaged Lee in a series of furious battles in the Wilderness of Virginia.

Grant ordered a frontal assault, and in a few minutes, about seven thousand men were killed or wounded. People in the North were furious with this type of fighting. But Lee’s rate of loss was the highest of any general in the war. Grant lost one in ten, while Lee lost one in five. With this loss Lee could not seize the offensive anymore.

In February 1865 the Confederates tasted defeat. Lincoln himself with the Confederate reps went abroad a Union ship at the Hampton Roads to discuss peace terms. But Lincoln could accept nothing short of Union and emancipation, and the Southerners could accept nothing short of independence.

GRANT OUTLASTS LEE

The end came when Northern troops captured Richmond and cornered Lee at Appomattox Courthouse. Grant met with Lee and he accepted generous terms of surrender. The Union soldiers cheered, while Grant reminded them that the rebels are our countrymen again.

Lincoln traveled to conquer Richmond and sat in Jefferson Davis’s evacuated office just 40 hours after the Confederate president had left it. Lincoln Quote: “Thank God I have lived to see this.”

THE MARTYRDOM OF LINCOLN On the night of April 14, 1865,

only five days after Lee’s surrender, Ford’s Theatre in Washington its most sensational drama. John Wilkes Booth slipped behind

Lincoln as he sat in his box and shot him in the head. After lying

unconscious all night, he passed away.

A large number of his countrymen had not suspected his greatness,

and many others had even doubted his ability. But his dramatic death helped to erase the memory of his

shortcomings and caused his nobler qualities to stand out in clearer relief.

Andrew Johnson now happily the president by bullet, was crucified in Lincoln’s stead. The implication is that if he had lived; he would suffer Johnson’s fate of being

impeached by members of his own party. The reason being was

because they wanted the South to suffer, while Johnson offered them

forbearance.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE NIGHTMARE The Civil War took a toll on America. Over 600,000 men died in

action of disease, and in all over a million were killed or seriously wounded. The number of dead was 2 percent of the entire nation’s population, which greatly exceeded that of American’s killed in WWII. This would equal 6 million Americans today. In addition, tens of thousands of babies went unborn because potential fathers were at the front.

Direct costs of the war were 15 billion. This did not include continuing expenses. Those costs were dislocations, disunities, wasted energies, lowered ethics, blasted lives, bitter memories, and burning hate.

The lost cause of the south was lost, but few Americans today would say that the result was not for the best. African Americans were at last in a position to claim their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

America still had a long way to go to make the promises of freedom a reality for all its citizens, black and white. But emancipation laid the necessary groundwork, and a united and democratic United States was free to fulfill its destiny as the dominant republic of the hemisphere-and will be for the world.