The Civil War

Rebellion, Insurgency, Revolution

STAARS Readiness and Supporting Standards

• Reporting Category 1: History– (6) History: Westward Expansion• (B) Readiness, (C) Supporting, (D)Readiness, (E) Supporting

– (7) History: Growth of Sectionalism• (A) Supporting, (B)Supporting, (C) Readiness

– (8) History: Civil War Individuals, Events, and Issues• (A) Supporting, (B) Readiness

– (12) Economics: Different Patterns of Economic Activity• (A) Supporting, (B) Readiness

A Few Questions

• Did slavery cause the war, was the war about slavery, or was “slavery not the cause, but the occasion?”

• Who were the revolutionaries: The South and their bid for independence, or the North and their desire for a more robust Federal compact?

• The War: Could the South have won? Was a Northern Victory inevitable?

Slavery: Driven by expansion

Fueled by Demand

Territorial Expansion

Balance of Power

Politics out of Control

FederalismPower divided between central government and regional governments

• Co-Operative Federalism: Federal and State governments are equal partners;• Dual Federalism: Federal and State governments operate separate from each

other;• Creative Federalism: Common planning and decision making at state and federal

level;• Horizontal Federalism: Common programs and interactions among all the states• Marble Cake Federalism: Intermingling of all levels of government (federal,

state, local) for policy and programs• Picket-Fence Federalism: Federal programs determined by bureaucracies and

constituents• Vertical Federalism: National government is supreme within constitutional limits

. . .

Abolitionist Moral Certainty

• Slavery is Evil

• Our cause is righteous

• We love liberty, and are good Americans

• Therefore, slave owners are evil . . .

• Your cause is evil . . .

• You love bondage, so could not be good Americans

Therein lies the rub . . .

• What is permissible under the Constitution?

• What if the Constitution is broadly interpreted? Who arbitrates?

• How are minority rights protected?

• Is the Constitution a document that limits powers held by states?

• Is the Constitution a document that grants powers from the collected states to the Federal government?

Economics

• Tariffs – Import Duties– Allows manufacturers

to raise prices while also edging out competition

• National Policy• Hurts some states,

favors others

• Help establish local industries

• Hurts consumers who do not participate in manufacturing

• Federally imposed burden to some, boost to others

• Government picks winners and losers

Domestic Terrorism

Radical Paramilitaries

Limits of Democracy

• The face of a purely sectional party• Alignment of the West (Midwest) with the

Northeast for purposes of spending the public trust on infrastructure that favored the North

• Alignment of the executive branch with the legislative branch

• Opposed the spread of slavery• Might secretly oppose slavery anywhere

So . . . What’s So Bad About Lincoln?

What, then, is the Union?

• Republicans win a huge victory– 60% of popular vote in the North– Lincoln only failed to carry 24 counties– 75% of Republican Senators and Congressmen coming

into office represent an anti-slavery bias• Constitutional inertia led to creative workarounds

under the heading of “Loose Interpretation” and “Elasticity”

• Strict Constructionists fear that laws—and the Constitution—will be ignored

Ominous Developments

• "A party founded on the single sentiment... of hatred of African slavery, is now the controlling power.“– Richmond Examiner

• The Black Republican party is . . . in fact, essentially, a revolutionary party.“– New Orleans Delta

A Blue Christmas

• South Carolina, December 20, 1860• Mississippi, January 9, 1861• Florida, January 10, 1861• Alabama, January 11, 1861• Georgia, January 19, 1861• Louisiana, January 26, 1861• Texas, February 1, 1861

Jefferson Davis watched the storm brewing . . .

Forming the Confederacy

Convention HeldFebruary 4, 1861

Montgomery, Alabama

Lincoln Sworn

Federal Property in the South, 1861

Fort Sumter, Saturday-Monday, April 12-14

The Rest of Secession

The IDEA of the Confederacy

• a guileless people attacked by a voracious neighbor;• an 'established' nation in some temporary difficulty;• a collection of bucolic aristocrats making a romantic stand

against the banalities of industrial democracy;• a cabal of commercial farmers seeking to make a pawn of

King Cotton;• an apotheosis of nineteenth-century nationalism and

revolutionary liberalism;• Believers in States’ Rights over The Leviathan• THESE United States over THE United States• Or . . . mere reactionaries

A Nation from the Ground Up

• No true political unity• No manufacturing base• No Coercive power• Faulty economic assumptions (King Cotton)• Emotions running high• Need to manufacture a national identity• Need to manufacture national coercive power,

i.e. an army . . .

The Rush to the Colors

Border States

INVASION

Lee’s Battles defending Virginia, 1862

Union150,000 Men

(approx)

3,458 KIA 16,438 WIA 12,013 C/M----------------------31,927 Total

21%

Confederacy 90,000 Men (approx)

4,975 KIA 23,385 WIA 1,041 C/M---------------------- 29,401 Total

33%

Slavery: The Rebel Humpty

Dumpty

Preliminary Proclamation

presented July 22

The elephant in the room

Rebels Turn the Tables

CSA Losses in 1863

109,000

82,000USA Losses in 1863

New Team in Place

Impact

• 180,000 (10% of Union Army)• 37,000 died

Federal Casualties in Virginia, 1864

• The Wilderness, May 5-7: 17,666• Spotsylvania, May 10 and 12: 10,920• Drewry's Bluff, May 12-16: 4,160• Cold Harbor, June 1-3: 12,000• Petersburg, June 15-30: 16,569

• TOTAL 61,315• 1,075 a day

Sherman Makes Georgia Howl

Lincoln Enters Richmond, April 4

Lee’s Surrender, April 9

Lincoln Assassinated, April 14

Johnston Quits, April 26

Jeff Davis Captured,

THE END

The Civil War in Four Minutes