The Civil War Era1845-1865

U.S. History 1Coach Pritch, J5

Essential Questions• Was the Civil War “unavoidable”?• Was the Civil War fought to end slavery?• Are we still fighting the Civil War today?• What was the greatest cause of the Civil War and

why?• How did the Civil War “make” modern America?• What if the Confederacy had won the war?

Fundamental Causes of the War• Sectionalism and states’ rights

• Federalism • Slavery • Economic issues

The Dividing Union• Missouri Compromise (1820)• Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law• Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854)• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Cartoon criticizing the Fugitive Slave Law

Dred Scott

The Election of 1860Abraham

Lincoln

John C. Breckin-

ridge

Stephen A. Douglas

John Bell

Electoral Votes in 1860

Secession• South Carolina

was first to secede

• Several other states followed soon after

• Virginia seceded after the Battle of Fort Sumter

Seceding states appear in green

Discussion Questions1. What were the three fundamental causes of the Civil

War? Which do you think was the most important? Why?

2. How did the Dred Scott decision help bring the country closer to civil war? Do you think the decision made civil war inevitable? Why or why not?

3. While running for president, Abraham Lincoln said that he had no plans to abolish slavery. Why then did Southerners fear his election so much?

The Creation of the Confederacy• Delegates met in

Montgomery, Alabama• Formed the Confederate

States of America• Jefferson Davis elected

president, with Alexander Stephens as vice president

CSA President Jefferson Davis

Buchanan’s Inaction• Believed secession was

illegal, but that acting to prevent it was also illegal

• Decided to let the incoming administration handle the problem

President James Buchanan

Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address• March 4, 1861• Promised not to

interfere with slavery where it already existed

• Attempted to reconcile with the South

A crowd listens to Lincoln’s speech at the Capitol building

Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

• “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”

• “I take the official oath today with no mental reservations and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.”

Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

• “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it’... We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln and Fort Sumter• Confederates demanded that the fort be surrendered• Lincoln received urgent message from Ft. Sumter’s

commander • Lincoln faced with dilemma of resupplying Sumter• Decided to send only “food for hungry men”

Fort Sumter

The War Begins• Bombardment began on April 12, 1861• Anderson surrendered to Gen. Beauregard, a close

friend and colleague

Painting depicting the bombardment of Fort Sumter

The “Anaconda Plan”The Union’s strategy:

• Naval blockade from Louisiana to Virginia

• Control of the Mississippi River

Confederate strategy primarily defensive

Cartoon about the “Anaconda Plan”

Advantages & Disadvantages: The Union

Advantages:• Industry and railroads• Larger population• Legitimate government• Strong political

leadershipDisadvantages:

• Funding difficulties• Offensive war• Lack of skilled

military leaders

A Massachusetts factory

Advantages & Disadvantages: The ConfederacyAdvantages:

• Defensive war on home turf• Common cause• Strong military tradition and

outstanding leadersDisadvantages:

• Weak economy• Smaller population• Ineffective central

government and leadership

Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson

War Aims: North and South• The North: to preserve the Union• The South: safeguarding states’ rights, as well as

protecting the South from “Northern aggression”

Horace Greeley

Abraham Lincoln

Discussion Questions1. Pretend you are a member of Buchanan’s cabinet.

How would you advise him to deal with the secession crisis in the period before the next president took office?

2. Do you think the “Anaconda Plan” was an effective strategy for subduing the Confederacy? If not, what strategy would you have recommended?

3. Which side’s goals for the war seem more reasonable to you? Why?

Prelude to Emancipation• At first, Lincoln did not

believe he had the authority to end slavery

• However, every slave working on a plantation allowed a white Southerner to fight

• Lincoln saw emancipation as a strategic issue as well as a moral one

Slaves on a South Carolina plantation, 1862

Advantages to Emancipation• Cause “union” in

the North by linking the war to abolishing slavery

• Cause disorder in the South as slaves were freed

• Kept Britain out of the warLincoln discussing emancipation with his cabinet

The Emancipation Proclamation• Lincoln announced

proclamation after Antietam• Took effect on January 1, 1863• Freed slaves only in “territories

in rebellion”

A cartoon celebrating emancipation

Dealing With Dissent• Copperheads • Led by Rep. Clement

Vallandigham of Ohio• Lincoln suspends

habeas corpus

Rep. Clement Vallandigham

Manpower for the War• Mostly volunteers • Conscription needed to

sustain troop levels• In the North, draftees

could hire substitutes or pay $300 to opt out

An illustrated sheet music cover protesting the inequities of the draft

New York Draft Riots• July 1863• Rioters mainly poor

whites and Irish immigrants

• Opposed to freeing slaves

• More than 100 people killed

Rioters loot a New York store

African American Enlistment• Congress allowed black

enlistment in 1862• 54th Massachusetts

commanded by Colonel Shaw

• Half of 54th killed in assault on Ft. Wagner

• Helped spur further enlistment

Col. Robert Gould Shaw

Memorial to the 54th Massachusetts

The Sanitary Commission• Poor health conditions in

army camps• U.S. Sanitary

Commission created• Purposes included

improving hygiene and recruiting nurses

• Developed better methods of transporting wounded to hospitals

A Civil War field hospital

Civil War Medicine• Infection often deadlier

than the wounds• Amputations more

common • Anesthesia widely used

A surgeon at the Camp Letterman field hospital at Gettysburg prepares for an

amputation

Andersonville• Confederate POW camp

in Georgia• 32,000 prisoners

jammed into 26 acres• One-third of all

prisoners died• Superintendent was

executed as a war criminal Severely emaciated POWs rescued

from Andersonville

The Gettysburg Address• Lincoln invited to attend

cemetery dedication• Everett the principal

speaker• At the time, Lincoln’s

two-minute speech was considered great by some, a failure by others

The only known picture of Lincoln (lower center) at the Gettysburg

Cemetery dedication

Election of 1864• Lincoln sought

reelection• Democrats

nominated McClellan

• Union victories helped Republican campaign

• Lincoln won by large margin

A political cartoon shows Lincoln and Davis tearing a U.S. map while McClellan tries to intercede

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

Lincoln addresses the crowd at his second inauguration. It is believed that John Wilkes Booth is the figure at top row center.

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

• “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."