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| :''"The Civil War" is the most common term in the United States of America for this conflict. See ].'' | |||
| {{Infobox Military Conflict| | |||
| image=]| | |||
| caption=(clockwise from upper right) Confederate prisoners at ]; ], Arkansas; ] at ], Tennessee| | |||
| conflict=American Civil War| | |||
| partof=| | |||
| date= ], ] – ], ]| | |||
| place=Principally in the ]| | |||
| Southwestern regions| | |||
| casus = ]| result=] victory; ]; ] abolished| | |||
| combatant1=] ] (]) | | |||
| combatant2=] ] ]| | |||
| commander1=], President<br>], General| | |||
| commander2=], President<br>], General| | |||
| strength1=2,200,000 | | |||
| strength2=1,064,000| | |||
| casualties1=110,000 ],<br>360,000 total dead,<br>275,200 wounded| | |||
| casualties2=93,000 killed in action,<br>258,000 total dead<br>137,000+ wounded| | |||
| }} | |||
| {{Campaignbox American Civil War}} | |||
| The '''American Civil War''' (1861–1865) was a war between the United States Federal government (the "]") and eleven ] ] that declared their ] and formed the ], led by ] ]. The ], led by ] ] and the ], opposed the expansion of slavery and rejected any right of secession. Fighting commenced on ], ], when Confederate forces attacked a Federal military installation at ] in ]. | |||
| During the first year, the Union asserted control of the border states and established a ] as both sides raised large armies. In 1862 the large, bloody battles began. In September 1862, Lincoln's ] made the freeing of the slaves a war goal, despite opposition from northern ] who tolerated secession and slavery. Emancipation ensured that ] and ] would not intervene to help the Confederacy. In addition, the goal also allowed the Union to recruit African-Americans for reinforcements, a resource that the Confederacy did not dare exploit until it was too late. ] reluctantly accepted emancipation as part of total war needed to save the Union. In the East, ] rolled up a series of Confederate victories over the ], but his best general, ], was killed at the ] in May 1863. Lee's invasion of the North was repulsed at the ] in Pennsylvania in July 1863; he barely managed to escape back to Virginia. In the West, the ] captured the port of ] in 1862, and ] seized control of the ] by capturing ] in July 1863, thus splitting the Confederacy. | |||
| By 1864, long-term Union advantages in geography, manpower, industry, finance, political organization and transportation were overwhelming the Confederacy. Grant fought a number of bloody battles with Lee in Virginia in the summer of 1864. Lee won most of the battles in a tactical sense but on the whole lost strategically, as he could not replace his casualties and was forced to retreat into trenches around his capital, ]. Meanwhile, ] captured ]. ] destroyed a hundred-mile-wide swath of Georgia. In 1865, the Confederacy collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at ] and the slaves were freed. | |||
| The full restoration of the Union was the work of a highly contentious postwar era known as ]. The war produced about 970,000 casualties (3% of the population), including approximately 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease. <ref>http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/other/stats/warcost.htm</ref> The ], the reasons for its outcome, and even ] are subjects of lingering controversy even today. The main results of the war were the restoration and strengthening of the Union, and the end of ] in the United States. | |||
| {{TOCright}} | |||
| ==Causes of the Giant Penis== | |||
| :''Main articles: ], ]'' | |||
| Secession was caused by the coexistence of a slave-owning South and an increasingly anti-slavery North. Lincoln did not propose federal laws making slavery unlawful where it already existed, but he had, in his 1858 ], envisioned it as being set on "the course of ultimate extinction". Much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories. Both North and South assumed that if slavery could not expand it would wither and die. | |||
| Well-founded Southern fears of losing control of the Federal government to antislavery forces, and northern fears that the ] already controlled the government, brought the crisis to a head in the late 1850s. Sectional disagreements over the morality of slavery, the scope of democracy and the economic merits of free labor vs. slave plantations caused the ] and "]" parties to collapse, and new ones to arise (the ] in 1848, the ] in 1854, ] in 1860). In 1860, the last remaining national political party, the ], split along sectional lines. | |||
| Other factors include ], modernization, sectionalism, the nullification crisis and economic differences between the North and South. | |||
| ===Note on causes=== | |||
| Civil rights and voting rights for blacks were not major issues before the Civil War; they became important afterward during Reconstruction. The issue of maltreatment of slaves was promoted by abolitionists (especially in the novel and play "''Uncle Tom's Cabin''"), but was not one of the main causes of secession or the war itself. Slavery was at the root of economic, moral and political differences that led to control issues, states' rights and secession of seven states. The creation of an independent Confederate nation in defiance of the United States was the main reason for the war. That is, secession itself triggered the war. The secession of four more states was (from the Southern point of view) a protest against Lincoln's call to invade the South. From the North's point of view it was an attempt to defend the nation after it was attacked at Fort Sumter. Lincoln's war goals evolved, and were separate from causes of the war. He did not emphasize national unity during the 1860 campaign but brought it to the front in his March, 1861, inaugural address. At first Lincoln stressed the Union as a war goal to unite the War Democrats, border states and Republicans. In 1862 he added emancipation because it would weaken the Confederacy and permanently remove a divisive issue. In his 1863 Gettysburg Address he tied preserving democracy to emancipation and the Union as a war goal. | |||
| ===Slavery in the territories=== | |||
| The specific political crisis that led to secession stemmed from a dispute over the expansion of slavery into new territories. The Republicans, while maintaining that Congress had no power over slavery in the states, asserted that it did have power to ban slavery in the territories. The ] of 1820 maintained the balance of power in Congress by adding Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. It prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of 36°30'N lat. (the southern boundary of Missouri). The acquisition of vast new lands after the ] (1846–1848), however, reopened the debate—now focused on the proposed ], which would have banned slavery in territories annexed from Mexico. Though it never passed, the Wilmot Proviso aroused angry debate. Northerners argued that slavery would provide unfair competition for free migrants to the territories; slaveholders claimed Congress had no right to discriminate against them by preventing them from bringing their legal property there. | |||
| The dispute led to open warfare in the ] after it was organized by the ] of 1854. This act repealed the prohibition on slavery there under the Missouri Compromise, and put the fate of slavery in the hands of the territory's settlers, a process known as "]". Fighting erupted between proslavery "border ruffians" from neighboring Missouri and antislavery immigrants from the North (including ], among other abolitionists). Tensions between North and South now were violent. | |||
| ===Slavery and antislavery=== | |||
| The institution of slavery, introduced into colonial North America in 1619, had become a contentious issue between the North and the South early in the 1800s. The ] included a new, stronger ] that required federal agents to capture and return slaves that escaped into northern free states. | |||
| The Supreme Court decision of 1857 in ] added to the controversy. ] decision said that slaves "have no rights which any white man is bound to respect",<ref>Dred Scott v. Sandford, U. S. Supreme Court, Roger Taney's decision, 1857</ref> and that slaves could be taken to free states and territories. Lincoln warned that "the next ''Dred Scott'' decision"<ref>First Lincoln Douglas Debate at Ottawa, Illinois August 21, 1858</ref> could threaten northern states with slavery. | |||
| Since fewer than 800 of the almost 4 million<ref></ref> slaves escaped in 1860, the fugitive slave controversy was not a practical reason for secession. (More had escaped in previous years; see ].) The number that escaped was offset by free Northern blacks who were kidnapped as slaves. And secession only did away with enforcement of the fugitive slave law altogether. Kansas had only two slaves in 1860 because the territories had the wrong soil and climate for labor-intensive forms of agriculture.<ref>J. G. Randall, ''Lincoln the President,'' (1997), vol 1, pages 237-241 </ref> Allan Nevins summarizes this argument by concluding that "Both sides were equally guilty of hysteria." <ref>Nevins, ''Ordeal of the Union'' 1:383; Pressly, 123-33, 278-81</ref> | |||
| There was a strong correlation between the number of plantations in a region and the degree of support for secession. The states of the deep south had the greatest concentration of plantations and were the first to secede. The upper South slave states of ], ], ], and ] had fewer plantations and rejected secession until the ] crisis forced them to choose sides. Border states had fewer plantations still and never seceded.<ref>James M. McPherson, ''Battle Cry of Freedom'' 1988 p 242, 255, 282-83. Maps on page 101 (The Southern Economy) and page 236 (The Progress of Secession) are also relevant</ref> | |||
| ===Rejection of compromise=== | |||
| Until ], ], the political system had always successfully handled inter-regional crises. All but one crisis involved slavery, starting with debates on the three-fifths clause in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Congress had solved the crisis over the admission of Missouri as a slave state in 1819-21, the controversy over South Carolina's nullification of the tariff in 1832, the acquisition of ] in 1845, and the status of slavery in the territory acquired from ] in 1850.<ref> William E. Gienapp, "The Crisis of American Democracy: The Political System and the Coming of the Civil War." in Boritt ed. ''Why the Civil War Came'' 79-123</ref> | |||
| ]]] | |||
| However, in 1854, the old ] broke down after passage of the ]. The ] disappeared, and the new ] arose in its place. It was the nation's first major party with only sectional appeal and a commitment to stop the expansion of slavery. | |||
| One Republican leader, ] ], was violently attacked and nearly killed at his desk in the Senate by ] ] of South Carolina. Brooks attacked Sumner with a gold-knobbed ] cane, which his Southern admirers replaced with similar canes with inscriptions like "Hit him again."<ref>Fox Butterfield; ''All God's Children'' page 17</ref> | |||
| Open warfare in the ] ("]"), the ] of 1857, ] in 1859 and the split in the ] in 1860 polarized the nation between North and South. The ] was the final trigger for secession. During the secession crisis, many sought compromise—of these attempts, the best known was the "]"—but all failed. | |||
| A deeper reason for the rejection of compromise was the fear that conspiracies threatened to destroy the republic. By the 1850s, two loomed most threatening: the South feared the supposedly abolitionist Republican Party (the "Black Republicans"); Republicans in the North feared what they called the ].<ref> Gienapp, "Crisis of American Democracy" p. 92; McPherson, pp 228-9</ref> | |||
| ===Abolitionism=== | |||
| The ] of the 1820s and 1830s in religion inspired reform movements, one of the most notable of which was the abolitionists; these were later supported by ]. Unfortunately, "abolitionist" had several meanings at the time, and still retains some ambiguity. The followers of ], including ] and ], demanded the "immediate abolition of slavery", hence the name. Others, like ] and ], wanted immediate action, but that action might well be a program of gradual emancipation, with a long intermediate stage. "Antislavery men", like ], did what they could to limit slavery and end it where possible. In the last years before the war, "antislavery" could mean the Northern majority, like ], who opposed ''expansion'' of slavery or its influence, as by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, or the Fugitive Slave Act. Many Southerners called all these abolitionists, without distinguishing them from the Garrisonians. | |||
| ] explains the abolitionists' deep beliefs: "All people were equal in God's sight; the souls of black folks were as valuable as those of whites; for one of God's children to enslave another was a violation of the Higher Law, even if it was sanctioned by the Constitution."<ref>McPherson, ''Battle Cry'' p. 8; James Brewer Stewart, ''Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery'' (1976); Pressly, 270ff</ref> | |||
| Slaveowners were angry over the attacks on their "peculiar institution" of slavery. Starting in the 1830s, there was a vehement and growing ideological defense of slavery.<ref> David Brion Davis, ''Inhuman Bondage'' (2006) pp 186-192.</ref> Slaveowners claimed that slavery was a positive good for masters and slaves alike, and that it was explicitly sanctioned by God. Biblical arguments were made in defense of slavery by religious leaders such as the Rev. Fred A. Ross and political leaders such as ].<ref>Mitchell Snay, "American Thought and Southern Distinctiveness: The Southern Clergy and the Sanctification of Slavery," ''Civil War History'' (1989) 35(4): 311-328; Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene D. Genovese, ''The Mind of the Master Class: History and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders' Worldview'' (2005), pp 505-27. </ref> | |||
| Beginning in the 1830s, the U.S. ] refused to allow the mails to carry abolition pamphlets to the South.<ref>Schlesinger ''Age of Jackson'', p.190</ref> Northern teachers suspected of any tinge of abolitionism were expelled from the South, and abolitionist literature was banned. Southerners rejected the denials of Republicans that they were abolitionists, and pointed to ] attempt in 1859 to start a slave uprising as proof that multiple Northern conspiracies were afoot to ignite bloody slave rebellions. Although some abolitionists did call for slave revolts, no evidence of any other actual Brown-like conspiracy has been discovered.<ref> David Brion Davis, ''Inhuman Bondage'' (2006) p 197, 409; Stanley Harrold, ''The Abolitionists and the South, 1831-1861'' (1995) p. 62; Jane H. and William H. Pease, "Confrontation and Abolition in the 1850's" ''Journal of American History'' (1972) 58(4): 923-937. </ref> The North felt threatened as well, for as Eric Foner concludes, "Northerners came to view slavery as the very antithesis of the good society, as well as a threat to their own fundamental values and interests".<ref> Eric Foner. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War'' (1970), p. 9</ref> | |||
| ===''Uncle Tom’s Cabin''=== | |||
| The most famous antislavery novel was ] (]) by ]. Inspired by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which made the escape narrative part of everyday news, Stowe emphasized the horrors that abolitionists had long claimed about slavery. Her depiction of the evil slaveowner Simon Legree, a transplanted Yankee who kills the ]-like Uncle Tom, outraged slaveowners.<ref>Curti, p. 381; Heidler, pp 1991-3.</ref> Stowe made Simon Legree a transplanted Yankee to show that she was attacking not the southern people but slavery as an institution. She published a Key to ''Uncle Tom’s Cabin'' to prove that, even though the book was fiction, many events in the book were based on fact.<ref>McPherson, ''Battle Cry'' pages 88-91</ref><ref> Most of her slaveowners are "decent, honorable people, themselves victims" of that institution. Much of her description was based on personal observation, and the descriptions of Southerners; she herself calls them and Legree representatives of different types of masters.;Gerson, ''Harriet Beecher Stowe'', p.68; Stowe, ''Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1953) p. 39</ref> According to Stowe's son, when President Lincoln met her in 1862, he commented, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!"<ref> Charles Edward Stowe, ''Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Story of Her Life'' (1911) p. 203. Historians are undecided whether Lincoln said the line. </ref> In response to Stowe's book, novelist ] published a widely-read, but largely now forgotten, work entitled ''The Planter's Northern Bride'' in 1854, countering many of Stowe's depictions of the slavery institution. | |||
| ===John Brown=== | |||
| ] | |||
| ] has been called "the most controversial of all nineteenth-century Americans."<ref>Frederick J. Blue in ''American Historical Review'' (April 2006) v. 111 p 481-2.</ref> His attempt to start a slave rebellion in 1859 electrified the nation. Uniquely among the Garrisonians, he resorted to violence. Most historians depict Brown as a bloodthirsty zealot and madman who briefly stepped into history but did little to influence it. Some scholars, however, glorify Brown, giving him credit for starting the Civil War and arguing "it is misleading to identify Brown with modern terrorists."<ref> David S. Reynolds, ''John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights'' (2005). </ref> | |||
| John Brown started his fight against slavery in Kansas in 1856, during the ] crisis. ]s used bowie knives and vote fraud to establish a pro-slavery government at ]. There was Border Ruffian violence in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1855 and 1856 (see ]). And Border Ruffians kidnapped and killed six Free-State men. In response, Brown and his band killed five pro-slavery people at ]. | |||
| His famous raid in October 1859, involved a band of 22 men who seized the federal arsenal at ] knowing it contained tens of thousands of weapons. Brown, like his Boston supporters, believed that the South was on the verge of a gigantic slave uprising and that one spark would set it off. Brown's raid, says historian David Potter, "was meant to be of vast magnitude and to produce a revolutionary slave uprising throughout the South." The raid was a fiasco. Not a single slave revolted. Instead, Brown was quickly captured, tried for treason (against the state of Virginia) and hanged. At his trial, Brown exuded a remarkable strength of character that impressed Southerners, even as they feared he might be right about an impending slave revolt. Shortly before his execution, Brown prophesied, "the crimes of this guilty land : will never be purged away; but with Blood."<ref>David Potter, ''The Impending Crisis: 1848-1861'' (1976), chapter 14, quote from p. 367. Allan Nevins, ''Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing,'' pages 472-477 and ''The Emergence of Lincoln,'' vol 2, pages 71-97</ref> | |||
| ===Arguments for and against slavery=== | |||
| William Lloyd Garrison, the leading abolitionist, was motivated by a belief in the growth of democracy. Because the Constitution had a three-fifths clause, a fugitive slave clause and a 20-year extension of the Atlantic slave trade, Garrison once publicly burned a copy of the ] and called it "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell."<ref>''Against Slavery: An Abolitionist Reader,'' (2000), page 26</ref> | |||
| In 1854, he said<blockquote>I am a believer in that portion of the Declaration of American Independence in which it is set forth, as among self-evident truths, "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Hence, I am an abolitionist. Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form—and most of all, that which turns a man into a thing—with indignation and abhorrence.<ref>http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/garrison.html</ref></blockquote> | |||
| ], one of the most ardent abolitionists, attacked the ] and presaged disunion as early as 1845: | |||
| <blockquote> The experience of the fifty years… shows us the slaves trebling in numbers—slaveholders monopolizing the offices and dictating the policy of the Government—prostituting the strength and influence of the Nation to the support of slavery here and elsewhere—trampling on the rights of the free States, and making the courts of the country their tools. To continue this disastrous alliance longer is madness.… Why prolong the experiment?<ref> Wendell Phillips, "No Union With Slaveholders," Jan. 15, 1845, in Louis Ruchames, ed. ''The Abolitionists'' (1963) p. 196. </ref> </blockquote> | |||
| Confederate ] ] said that the cornerstone of the South was "That the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition."<ref> Alexander Stephen's Cornerstone Speech, Savannah; Georgia, March 21, 1861</ref> | |||
| Jefferson Davis said slavery "…was established by decree of Almighty God… it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation… it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts."<ref>Dunbar Rowland, ''Jefferson Davis,'' Vol. 1, pages 286 and 316-317</ref> | |||
| Robert E. Lee said, "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil."<ref>http://www.civilwarhome.com/leepierce.htm 1856 letter by Lee in which he further states that slavery is worse for the white man than for the black, and that the blacks are better off in the US than in Africa</ref> | |||
| ===State Rights=== | |||
| The "]" debate cut across the issues. Southerners argued that the federal government was strictly limited and could not abridge the rights of states as reserved in ], and so had no power to prevent slaves from being carried into new territories.<ref>Resolved, That the union of these States rests on the equality of rights and privileges among its members, and that it is especially the duty of the Senate, which represents the States in their sovereign capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate either in relation to person or property, so as, in the Territories -- which are the common possession of the United States -- to give advantages to the citizens of one State which are not equally secured to those of every other State. Jefferson Davis' Resolutions on the Relations of States, Senate Chamber, U.S. Capitol, February 2, 1860, From ''The Papers of Jefferson Davis,'' Volume 6, pp. 273-76. Transcribed from the ''Congressional Globe, 36th Congress, 1st Session,'' pp. 658-59.</ref> States' rights advocates also cited the fugitive slave clause in the Constitution to demand federal jurisdiction over slaves who escaped into the North. Anti-slavery forces took reversed stances on these issues. | |||
| Jefferson Davis said that a "disparaging discrimination" and a fight for "liberty" against "the tyranny of an unbridled majority" gave the Confederate states a right to secede.<ref> Jefferson Davis' Second Inaugural Address, Virginia Capitol, Richmond, February 22, 1862 Transcribed from Dunbar Rowland, ed., ''Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist,'' Volume 5, pp. 198-203. Summarized in ''The Papers of Jefferson Davis,'' Volume 8, p. 55.</ref> | |||
| South Carolina's "Declaration of the Immediate Causes for Secession" started with an argument for states' rights for slaveowners in the South, followed by a complaint about states' rights in the North (such as granting blacks citizenship, or hampering the extradition of slaves), claiming that Northern states were not fulfilling their federal obligations.<ref>Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union - Adopted December 24, 1860 </ref> | |||
| In 1860, Congressman ] of South Carolina said, "The anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States."<ref> Lawrence Keitt, Congressman from South Carolina, in a speech to the House on January 25, 1860: ''Congressional Globe.'' </ref> | |||
| The South defined equality in terms of the equal rights of states,<ref>"Who has been in advance of him in the fiery charge on the rights of the States, and in assuming to the Federal Government the power to crush and to coerce them? Even to-day he has repeated his doctrines. He tells us this is a Government which we will learn is not merely a Government of the States, but a Government of each individual of the people of the United States.", Jefferson Davis' reply in the Senate to William H. Seward, Senate Chamber, U.S. Capitol, February 29, 1860, From ''The Papers of Jefferson Davis,'' Volume 6, pp. 277-84. Transcribed from the ''Congressional Globe, 36th Congress, 1st Session,'' pp. 916-18.</ref> and opposed the declaration that all men are created equal.<ref>"We recognize the fact of the inferiority stamped upon that race of men by the Creator, and from the cradle to the grave, our Government, as a civil institution, marks that inferiority." - Jefferson Davis' reply in the Senate to William H. Seward, Senate Chamber, U.S. Capitol, February 29, 1860, - From ''The Papers of Jefferson Davis,'' Volume 6, pp. 277-84. Transcribed from the ''Congressional Globe, 36th Congress, 1st Session,'' pp. 916-18.</ref> | |||
| ===Economics=== | |||
| ]'''<br>16th President (1861–1865)]] | |||
| ====Regional economic differences==== | |||
| The South, Midwest, and Northeast had quite different economic structures. ] in the 1920s made a highly influential argument to the effect that these differences caused the war (rather than slavery or constitutional debates). He saw the industrial Northeast forming a coalition with the agrarian Midwest against the Plantation South. Critics pointed out that his image of a unified Northeast was incorrect because the region was highly diverse with many different competing economic interests. In 1860-61, most business interests in the Northeast opposed war. After 1950, only a few historians accepted the Beard interpretation, though it was picked up by libertarian economists.<ref> Woodworth, ed. ''The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research'' (1996), 145 151 505 512 554 557 684; Richard Hofstadter, ''The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Parrington'' (1969); for one dissenter see Marc Egnal, . "The Beards Were Right: Parties in the North, 1840-1860." ''Civil War History'' 47, no. 1. (2001): 30-56.</ref> As Historian Kenneth Stampp—who abandoned Beardianism after 1950, sums up the scholarly consensus:<ref> Kenneth M. Stampp, ''The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War'' (1981) p 198</ref><blockquote> | |||
| Most historians of the sectional conflict, whatever differences they may have on other matters, now see no compelling reason why the divergent economies of the North and South should have led to disunion and ]; rather, they find stronger practical reasons why the sections, whose economies neatly complemented one another, should have found it advantageous to remain united. Beard oversimplified the controversies relating to federal economic policy, for neither section unanimously supported or opposed measures such as the protective tariff, appropriations for internal improvements, or the creation of a national banking system. Except for the nullification crisis of 1832-33, economic issues, though sometimes present, were not crucial in the various sectional confrontations. During the 1850s, Federal economic policy gave no substantial cause for southern disaffection, for policy was largely determined by pro-Southern Congresses and administrations. Finally, the characteristic posture of the conservative northeastern business community was far from anti-Southern. Most merchants, bankers, and manufacturers were outspoken in their hostility to antislavery agitation and eager for sectional compromise in order to maintain their profitable business connections with the South. The conclusion seems inescapable that if economic differences, real though they were, had been all that troubled relations between North and South, there would be no substantial basis for the idea of an irrepressible conflict.</blockquote> | |||
| The regional economic differences of the North and South frequently appeared in the government's ] policy. As ] observed, "In the years between 1832 and 1860 there was great vacillation in the tariff policy of the United States." The debate centered around whether the tariff schedule should favor ] and duties for revenue only, or ] to encourage factories for manufactured goods. As the northeastern economy industrialized, protective tariffs were sought by the iron mills of Pennsylvania, western Virginia (West Virginia) and New Jersey and the textile factories of New England. Most northern merchants, bankers and especially railroads wanted low tariffs.<ref>Richard Hofstadter, "The Tariff Issue on the Eve of the Civil War," ''The American Historical Review'' Vol. 44, No. 1 (Oct., 1938), pp. 50-55 </ref> | |||
| Meanwhile, the South, in addition to much subsistence agriculture, depended upon large-scale production of export crops, primarily cotton and (to a lesser extent) tobacco, raised by slaves. The slaveowning plantations—which comprised less than a third of the white population—were export-dependent. Plantation owners typically accepted the theory that protective tariffs on iron and textiles hurt them, though they bought very little iron and only the cheapest cloth for the slaves. They believed cotton was in such heavy demand that Britain and France had no choice but to buy expensive southern cotton. Cotton fed industrial production and profits everywhere it was sent, to Europe or the northeastern United States. James M. McPherson suggests that what South Carolina nullifiers really feared was not so much high tariffs but centralization of Federal government power, which might eventually threaten slavery itself.<ref>McPherson, ''Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction'' (1992)</ref> | |||
| Douglas Irwin notes that antebellum tariff policy was often determined by the crucial swing vote of the Midwest. The Midwest supported the low ] in 1846 and a further reduction in the ]. This section had an export economy of food crops giving them reason to side with the South at times, and its numerous railroads opposed tariffs on iron. Notably, there was no unanimity of support for a single tariff program even within each region. Northern farmers also depended upon exports; early railroad managers desired reduced tariffs on imported iron; many Northern Democrats opposed any federal role in the nation's infrastructure, and Southern Whigs such as ] favored it. Throughout the antebellum period though, majorities in the southern congressional delegation favored free trade while majorities from northeastern industrial states such as Pennsylvania consistently sought protection. | |||
| Tariffs were low and did not protect northern industry before 1861. The Tariff of 1857 was the lowest since 1816 and a great victory for the South. However the ] energized the iron protectionists to fight back. <ref>Huston, James L. ''The Panic of 1857 and The Coming of the Civil War'' (1987)</ref> The ] passed the House of Representatives on a strictly sectional vote on ], ]. Pressures to pass the bill in the Senate quickly became a campaign issue for the Republican Party in the Northeast, while Southerners delayed voting on the tariff in the Senate until the following year. A heated battle of rhetoric from both sides compounded the tariff issue. Economist ] led the protectionist charge in Northern newspapers by blaming free trade for the economic recession and accompanying budget shortfalls. Southerners circulated copies of ]'s 1857 book ''Southern Wealth and Northern Profits'', which argued that protective tariffs unduly burdened the slave states to the benefit of the north. The Morrill Tariff did not pass until after the deep South seceded—it was signed by ] (a Democrat) in March 1861 and took effect in April, the same month the fighting started. The tariff was rarely mentioned in the heated debates of 1860-61 over secession, although ] of Georgia did denounce "the infamous Morrill bill" as where "the robber and the incendiary struck hands, and united in joint raid against the South." The tariff also appeared in two secession documents of the states. South Carolina's secession convention published a declaration by ] that listed as its reason for secession "the consolidation of the North to rule the South, by the tariff and Slavery issues." Georgia also published a declaration listing economic grievances such as the tariff , though it emphasized the future of slavery as the main cause. | |||
| Alexander Stephens, for example, mentioned tariffs in his "Cornerstone Speech", but said the main cause was slavery. Stephens had been previously sympathetic to tariffs though, and had argued against Toombs's critique of the Morrill bill (as well as secession itself) a few months prior. | |||
| The many compromises proposed to resolve the crisis in 1860-61 never included the tariff, but instead always focused on the slavery issue.<ref> Donald 2001 pp 134-38</ref> Economic historian Lee A. Craig points out, "In fact, numerous studies by economic historians over the past several decades reveal that economic conflict was not an inherent condition of North-South relations during the antebellum era and did not cause the Civil War."<ref> Woodworth, ed. ''The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research'' (1996), p. 505</ref> | |||
| ====Free labor vs. pro-slavery arguments==== | |||
| Historian ] (1970) has argued that a free-labor ideology dominated thinking in the North, which emphasized economic opportunity. By contrast, Southerners described free labor as "greasy mechanics, filthy operators, small-fisted farmers, and moonstruck theorists."<ref>Stephen B. Oates, ''Abraham Lincoln, The Man Behind the Myths,'' 1994, page 69</ref> They strongly opposed the homestead laws that were proposed to give free farms in the west, fearing the small farmers would oppose plantation slavery. Indeed, opposition to homestead laws was far more common in ] rhetoric than opposition to tariffs. <ref> Richard Hofstadter, "The Tariff Issue on the Eve of the Civil War," ''The American Historical Review'' Vol. 44, No. 1 (1938), pp. 50-55 </ref> | |||
| They argued that only a slave-owning society allowed the leisure for education and cultural refinement. They depicted slavery as a positive good for the slaves themselves, especially the Christianizing that had rescued them from the paganism of Africa. | |||
| ===Southern fears of modernization=== | |||
| In a broader sense, the North was rapidly modernizing in a manner deeply threatening to the South, for the North was not only becoming more economically powerful; it was developing new modernizing, urban values while the South was clinging more and more to the old rural traditional values of the Jeffersonian yeoman.<ref>J. Mills Thornton III, ''Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800-1860'' (1978)</ref> As James McPherson argues:<ref>James McPherson, "Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question," ''Civil War History'' 29 (Sept. 1983)</ref> | |||
| : The ascension to power of the Republican Party, with its ideology of competitive, egalitarian free-labor capitalism, was a signal to the South that the Northern majority had turned irrevocably towards this frightening, revolutionary future. | |||
| ===Southern fears of Republican control=== | |||
| Southern secession was triggered by the election of Republican ] because regional leaders feared that he would make good on his promise to stop the expansion of slavery and would thus put it on a course toward extinction. Many Southerners thought that even if Lincoln did not abolish slavery, sooner or later another Northerner would do so, and that it was thus time to quit the Union. The slave states, which had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, were now facing a future as a perpetual minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. | |||
| ==A house divided against itself== | |||
| [[Image:Secession Map of the United States, 1861.png|250px|thumb|right|Status of the states, 1861. | |||
| {{legend|#37A54A|States that seceded before April 15, 1861}} | |||
| {{legend|#79B322|States that seceded after April 15, 1861}} | |||
| {{legend|#A6C02F|Union states that permitted slavery}} | |||
| {{legend|#AE0000|Union states that banned slavery}} | |||
| {{legend|#CCCCCC|Territories}}]] | |||
| [[Image:American Civil War map.png|250px|thumb|right|State and territory boundaries, 1864-5. | |||
| {{legend|#00f|] states}} | |||
| {{legend|#0080ff|Union territories}} | |||
| <br> | |||
| {{legend|#f00|Union border states that permitted slavery}} | |||
| {{legend|#8000ff|], which entered the Union as a free state after the ] crisis}} | |||
| <br> | |||
| {{legend|#c60|]}} | |||
| {{legend|#cd9453|Confederate claimed and sometimes held territories}}]] | |||
| ===Secession winter=== | |||
| Before Lincoln took office, seven states declared their secession from the Union, and established a Southern government, the ] on ], ]. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan, whose term ended on ], ]. Buchanan asserted, "The South has no right to secede, but I have no power to prevent them." One quarter of the U.S. Army—the entire garrison in Texas—was surrendered to state forces by its commanding general, ], who then joined the Confederacy. By seceding, the rebel states would reduce the strength of their claim to the Western territories that were in dispute, cancel any obligation for the North to return fugitive slaves to the Confederacy, and assure easy passage in Congress of many bills and amendments they had long opposed. | |||
| ===The Confederacy=== | |||
| {{main|Confederate States of America}} | |||
| Seven ] cotton states seceded by February 1861, starting with ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. These seven states formed the ] (] ]), with ] as president, and a ] closely modeled on the ]. In April and May 1861, four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy: ], ], ] and ]. Virginia was split in two, with the eastern portion of that state seceding to the Confederacy and the northwestern part joining the Union as the new state of ] on June 20, 1863. | |||
| ===The Union states=== | |||
| {{main|Union (American Civil War)}} | |||
| There were 23 states that remained loyal to the Union during the war: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. During the war, ] and ] joined as new states of the Union. ] and ] were returned to Union control early in the war. | |||
| The territories of ], ], ], ], ], ], and ] fought on the Union side. Several slave-holding ] tribes supported the Confederacy, giving the Indian territory (now ]) a small bloody civil war. | |||
| ===Border states=== | |||
| ''Main article: ]'' | |||
| The ] in the Union comprised ] (which broke away from Virginia and became a separate state), and four of the five northernmost slave states (], ], ], and ]). | |||
| ] had numerous pro-Confederate officials who tolerated anti-Union ] and the burning of bridges. Lincoln responded with ] and called for troops. Militia units that had been drilling in the North rushed toward Washington and Baltimore. Before the Confederate government realized what was happening, Lincoln had seized firm control of Maryland (and the separate ]), by arresting the entire Maryland statehouse and holding them without trial. | |||
| In Missouri, an elected convention on secession voted decisively to remain within the Union. When pro-Confederate Governor ] called out the state militia, it was attacked by federal forces under General ], who chased the governor and the rest of the State Guard to the southwestern corner of the state. (''See also: ]''). In the resulting vacuum the convention on secession reconvened and took power as the Unionist provisional government of Missouri. | |||
| Kentucky did not secede; for a time, it declared itself neutral. However, the Confederates broke the neutrality by seizing ] in September 1861. That turned opinion against the Confederacy, and the state reaffirmed its loyal status, while trying to maintain slavery. During a brief invasion by Confederate forces, Confederate sympathizers organized a secession convention, inaugurated a governor, and gained recognition from the Confederacy. The rebel government soon went into exile and never controlled the state. | |||
| Counties in the northwestern portion of Virginia opposed secession and formed a pro-Union government shortly after Richmond's secession in 1861. Unlike the remainder of Virginia, residents in this mountainous region were poor subsistence farmers. These counties were admitted to the Union in 1863 as ]. Similar secessions appeared in ], but were suppressed by the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis arrested over 3,000 men suspected of being loyal to the Union and held them without trial.<ref>Mark Neely, ''Confederate Bastille: Jefferson Davis and Civil Liberties'' 1993 p. 10-11</ref> | |||
| ==Overview== | |||
| ] Union army chaplain celebrating a Mass.]] | |||
| Some 10,000 military engagements took place during the war, 40% of them in Virginia and Tennessee.<ref> Gabor Boritt, ed. ''War Comes Again'' (1995) p 247</ref> Separate articles deal with every major battle and some minor ones. This article only gives the broad outline. For more information see ]. | |||
| ===The war begins=== | |||
| :''For more details on this topic, see ]'' | |||
| Lincoln's victory in the ] triggered South Carolina's declaration of secession from the Union. By February 1861, six more Southern states made similar declarations. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the ] and established their temporary capital at ]. A pre-war February ] met in Washington in a failed attempt at resolving the crisis. The remaining eight slave states rejected pleas to join the Confederacy. Confederate forces seized all but three Federal forts within their boundaries (they did not take Fort Sumter); President Buchanan protested but made no military response aside from a failed attempt to resupply Fort Sumter via the ship ], and no serious military preparations. However, governors in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania began buying weapons and training militia units to ready them for immediate action. | |||
| On ], ], Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President. In his ], he argued that the Constitution was a '']'' than the earlier ], that it was a binding contract, and called any secession "legally void". He stated he had no intent to invade Southern states, nor did he intend to end slavery where it existed, but that he would use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. | |||
| The South sent delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. Lincoln rejected any negotiations with Confederate agents on the grounds that the Confederacy was not a legitimate government, and that making any treaty with it would be tantamount to recognition of it as a sovereign government. | |||
| ] in Charleston, South Carolina, was one of the three remaining Union-held forts in the Confederacy, and Lincoln was determined to hold it. Under orders from Confederate President ], Confederates under ] bombarded the fort with artillery on ], forcing ]. Northerners reacted quickly to this attack on the flag, and rallied behind Lincoln, who called for all of the states to send troops to recapture the forts and to preserve the Union. With the scale of the rebellion apparently small so far, Lincoln called for 74,000 volunteers for 90 days. For months before that, several Northern governors had discreetly readied their state militias; they began to move forces the next day. | |||
| Four states in the upper South (Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia) which had repeatedly rejected Confederate overtures, now refused to send forces against their neighbors, declared their secession, and joined the Confederacy. To reward Virginia, the Confederate capital was moved to ]. The city was the symbol of the Confederacy; if it fell, the new nation would lose legitimacy. Richmond was in a highly vulnerable location at the end of a tortuous supply line. | |||
| ===Anaconda Plan and blockade, 1861=== | |||
| :''For more details on this topic, see ], ] and ]'' | |||
| ]"]] | |||
| ], the commanding general of the U.S. Army, devised the ] to win the war with as little bloodshed as possible. His idea was that a ] of the main ports would strangle the rebel economy; then the capture of the Mississippi River would split the South. Lincoln adopted the plan, but overruled Scott's warnings against an immediate attack on Richmond. | |||
| In May 1861, Lincoln proclaimed the ] of all southern ports, which immediately shut down almost all international shipping to the Confederate ports. Violators risked seizure of the ship and cargo, and insurance probably would not cover the losses. Almost no large ships were owned by Confederate interests. By late 1861, the blockade shut down most local port-to-port traffic as well. Although few naval battles were fought and few men were killed, the blockade shut down ] and ruined the southern economy. Some British investors built small, very fast "blockade runners" that brought in military supplies (and civilian luxuries) from Cuba and the Bahamas and took out some cotton and tobacco. When the U.S. Navy did capture blockade runners, the ships and cargo were sold and the proceeds given to the Union sailors. The British crews were released. The ironclad ] maiden voyage sank the blockade ship ] and burned the ] on her "trial run." The second day, the ] took place between the ironclads ] and the CSS ''Virginia'' in March 1862, ending in a tactical draw; it was a strategic Union victory, for the blockade was sustained. Other naval battles included ], ], ], ], and ]. The ] virtually ended blockade running. | |||
| ===Eastern Theater 1861–1863=== | |||
| {{see details|Eastern Theater of the American Civil War}} | |||
| Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Confederate forces at ], in July 1861, a march by Union troops under the command of ] ] on the Confederate forces there was halted in the ], or ''First Manassas'', whereupon they were forced back to ], by Confederate troops under the command of Generals ] and P.G.T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General ] received the ] of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the ] passed the ] on ] of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. | |||
| Maj. Gen. ] took command of the Union ] on ] (he was briefly general-in-chief of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. ]), and the war began in earnest in 1862. | |||
| Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan attacked Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the ] between the ] and ], southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the ], Confederate General ] halted his advance at the ], then General ] defeated him in the ] and forced his retreat. McClellan was stripped of many of his troops to reinforce General ] Union ]. Pope was beaten spectacularly by Lee in the ] and the ] in August. | |||
| ] | |||
| Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 45,000 men of the ] across the ] into Maryland on ]. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the ] near ], on ] ], the bloodiest single day in United States military history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided an opportunity for Lincoln to announce his ]. | |||
| When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen.]. Burnside was soon defeated at the ] on ], ], when over twelve thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. ]. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the ] in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. ] during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. Meade defeated Lee at the ] (] to ], ]), the bloodiest battle in United States history, which is sometimes considered the war's ]. ] on ] is often recalled as the high-water mark of the Confederacy, not just because it signaled the end of Lee's plan to pressure Washington from the north, but also because Vicksburg, Mississippi, the key stronghold to control of the Mississippi fell the following day. Lee's army suffered some 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000). However, Lincoln was angry that Meade failed to intercept Lee's retreat, and after Meade's inconclusive fall campaign, Lincoln decided to turn to the Western Theater for new leadership. | |||
| ===Western Theater 1861–1863=== | |||
| {{see details|Western Theater of the American Civil War}} | |||
| While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern theater, they crucially failed in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as a result of the ]. ]'s invasion of ] enraged the citizens there who previously had declared neutrality in the war, turning that state against the Confederacy. | |||
| ], fell to the Union early in 1862. Most of the ] was opened with the taking of ] and ], and then ]. The ] captured ] without a major fight in May 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well. Only the fortress city of ], prevented unchallenged Union control of the entire river. | |||
| General ]'s second Confederate invasion of Kentucky was repulsed by Maj. Gen. ] at the confused and bloody ], and he was narrowly defeated by Maj. Gen. ] at the ] in ]. | |||
| The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the ]. Bragg, reinforced by Lt. Gen. ]'s corps (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of Maj. Gen. ]. Rosecrans retreated to ], which Bragg then besieged. | |||
| The Union's key strategist and tactician in the West was Maj. Gen. ], who won victories at Forts ] and ], by which the Union seized control of the ] and ] Rivers; ]; the ], cementing Union control of the Mississippi River and considered one of the ] of the war. Grant marched to the relief of Rosecrans and defeated Bragg at the ], driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening a route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy. | |||
| ===Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861–1865=== | |||
| {{see details| Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War}} | |||
| Though geographically isolated from the battles to the east, a few small-scale military actions took place west of the Mississippi River. Confederate incursions into Arizona and New Mexico were repulsed in 1862. ] activity turned much of Missouri and Indian Territory (Oklahoma) into a battleground. Late in the war, the Union ] was a failure. Texas remained in Confederate hands throughout the war, but was cut off from the rest of the Confederacy after the capture of Vicksburg in 1863 gave the Union control of the Mississippi River. | |||
| ===End of the war 1864–1865=== | |||
| ], first and only President of the ]]] | |||
| At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies. Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, and put Maj. Gen. ] in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of ] and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war.<ref>Mark E. Neely Jr.; "Was the Civil War a Total War?" ''Civil War History'', Vol. 50, 2004 pp 434+</ref> | |||
| Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions: Generals George Meade and ] were ordered to move against Lee near Richmond; General ] (and later ]) were to ]; General Sherman was to capture ] and march to the sea (Atlantic ocean); Generals ] and ] were to operate against railroad supply lines in ]; and Maj. Gen. ] was to capture ]. | |||
| Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase ("Grant's ]") of the Eastern campaign. Grant's battles of attrition at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor resulted in heavy Union losses, but forced Lee's Confederates to fall back again and again. An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the ] river bend. Grant was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 66,000 casualties in six weeks), kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia back to Richmond. He pinned down the Confederate army in the ], where the two armies engaged in ] for over nine months. | |||
| Grant finally found a commander, General ], aggressive enough to prevail in the ]. Sheridan proved to be more than a match for Maj. Gen. ], and defeated him in a series of battles, including a final decisive defeat at ]. Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural base of the ], a strategy similar to the tactics Sherman later employed in Georgia. | |||
| Meanwhile, Sherman marched from Chattanooga to Atlanta, defeating Confederate Generals ] and ] along the way. ], on ], ], was a significant factor in the reelection of Lincoln as president. Hood left the Atlanta area to menace Sherman's supply lines and invade Tennessee in the ]. Union Maj. Gen. ] defeated Hood at ], and George H. "Pap" Thomas dealt Hood a massive defeat at ], effectively destroying Hood's army. | |||
| Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched with an unknown destination, laying waste to about 20% of the farms in Georgia in his celebrated "]". He reached the Atlantic Ocean at ] in December 1864. Sherman's army was followed by thousands of freed slaves; there were no major battles along the March. When Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and his men. | |||
| Lee's army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was now much smaller than Grant's. Union forces won a decisive victory at the ] on April 1, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond. The Confederate capital fell to the ], comprised of black troops. The remaining Confederate units fled west and after a defeat at ], it became clear to Robert E. Lee that continued fighting against the United States was both tactically and logistically impossible. | |||
| Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on ], ], at ]. In an untraditional gesture and as a sign of Grant's respect and anticipation of folding the Confederacy back into the Union with dignity and peace, Lee was permitted to keep his officer's saber and his near-legendary horse, ]. Johnston surrendered his troops to Sherman on ], ], in ]. On ], ], at ] in the Choctaw Nations' area of the ], ] signed a cease-fire agreement with Union representatives, becoming the last Confederate general in the field to stand down. The last Confederate naval force to surrender was the ] on ], ], in ], ]. | |||
| ==Slavery during the war== | |||
| {{main|History of slavery in the United States}} | |||
| Lincoln initially declared his official purpose to be the preservation of the Union, not emancipation. He had no wish to alienate the thousands of slaveholders in the Union border states. | |||
| The issue of what to do with Southern slaves, however, would not go away: As early as May 1861, some slaves working on Confederate fortifications escaped to the Union lines, and their owner, a Confederate colonel, demanded their return under the Fugitive Slave Act. The response was to declare them "contraband of war"—effectively freeing them. Congress eventually approved this for slaves used by the Confederate military. | |||
| By 1862, when it became clear that this would be a long war, the question became more general. The Southern economy and military effort depended on slave labor; was it reasonable to protect slavery while blockading Southern commerce and destroying Southern production? As one Congressman put it, the slaves "…cannot be neutral. As laborers, if not as soldiers, they will be allies of the rebels, or of the Union."<ref>MacPherson, ''Battle Cry of Freedom'' page 495</ref> | |||
| There was a range of positions on the final settlement of slavery; the same Congressman—and his fellow radicals—felt the victory would be profitless if the Slave Power continued. Conservative Republicans still hoped that the states could end slavery and send the freedmen abroad. Lincoln, and many others, agreed with both the aversion to slavery and to colonization; but all factions came rapidly to agree that the slaves of Confederates must be freed.<ref>McPherson, ''Battle Cry'' page 355, 494-6, quote from ] on 495. </ref> | |||
| At first, Lincoln reversed attempts at emancipation by Secretary of War Cameron and Generals Fremont and Hunter in order to keep the loyalty of the border states and the War Democrats. Lincoln then tried to persuade the border states to accept his plan of gradual, compensated emancipation and voluntary colonization, while warning them that stronger measures would be needed if the moderate approach was rejected. Only the District of Columbia accepted Lincoln's gradual plan, and Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1 of 1863. In his letter to Hodges, Lincoln explained his belief that "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong … And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling ... I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."<ref> Lincoln's Letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864</ref> | |||
| The Emancipation Proclamation, announced in September 1862 and put into effect four months later, ended the Confederacy's hope of getting aid from Britain or France. Lincoln's moderate approach succeeded in getting border states, War Democrats and emancipated slaves fighting on the same side for the Union. | |||
| The Union-controlled border states (Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia) were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation. All abolished slavery on their own, except Kentucky. The great majority of the 4 million slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, as Union armies moved South. The ], ratified ], ], finally freed the remaining 40,000 slaves in Kentucky, as well as 1,000 or so in Delaware. | |||
| ==Threat of international intervention == | |||
| The best chance for Confederate victory was entry into the war by Britain and France. The Union, under Lincoln and Secretary of State ] worked to block this, and threatened war if any country officially recognized the existence of the Confederate States of America. (None ever did.) In 1861, Southerners voluntarily embargoed cotton shipments, hoping to start an economic depression in Europe that would force Britain to enter the war in order to get cotton. ] proved a failure as Europe had a surplus of cotton, while the 1860-62 crop failures in Europe made the North's grain exports of critical importance. It was said that "King Corn was more powerful than King Cotton", as US grain went from a quarter of the British import trade to almost half.<ref> McPherson, ''Battle Cry'' 386</ref> | |||
| When the UK did face a cotton shortage, it was temporary; being replaced by increased cultivation in Egypt and India. The war created employment for arms makers, iron workers, and British ships to transport weapons.<ref>Allen Nevins, ''War for the Union 1862-1863,'' pages 263-264</ref> | |||
| Lincoln's announcement of a ], a clear act of war, enabled Britain—followed by other European powers—to announce their neutrality in the dispute. This in turn enabled the Confederacy to begin to attempt to gain support and funds in Europe. President Jefferson Davis replaced his first two secretaries of state (] and ]) with ] in early 1862. Although Benjamin had more international knowledge and legal experience, he failed to create a dynamic foreign policy for the Confederacy. | |||
| The first attempts to achieve European recognition of the Confederacy were dispatched on ], ], and led by ], ], and ]. The British foreign minister ] met with them, and the French foreign minister ] received the group unofficially. Neither Britain nor France ever promised formal recognition, for that meant war with the Union. | |||
| ] proved particularly adept as ] to Britain for the Union, and Britain was reluctant to boldly challenge the Union's blockade. Independent British maritime interests spent hundreds of millions of pounds to build and operate highly profitable ] — commercial ships flying the British flag and carrying supplies to the Confederacy by slipping through the blockade. The officers and crews were British and when captured they were released. The Confederacy purchased several warships from commercial ship builders in Britain; the most famous, the ], did considerable damage and led to serious | |||
| ]. The Confederacy sent journalists ] and ] to open propaganda stations to feed news media in Paris and London. However, public opinion against slavery created a political liability for European politicians, especially in Britain. War loomed in late 1861 between the U.S. and Britain over the ], involving the Union boarding of a British mail steamer to seize two Confederate diplomats. However, London and Washington were able to smooth over the problem after Lincoln released the two diplomats. | |||
| In 1862, the British considered mediation—though even such an offer would have risked war with the U.S. ] read '']'' three times when deciding on this. The Union victory in the ] caused them to delay this decision. The ] further reinforced the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. As the war continued, the Confederacy's chances with Britain grew hopeless, and they focused increasingly on France. ] proposed to offer mediation in January 1863, but this was dismissed by Seward. Despite some sympathy for the Confederacy, France's own ] ultimately deterred them from war with the Union. Confederate offers late in the war to end slavery in return for diplomatic recognition were not seriously considered by London or Paris. | |||
| ==Analysis of the Outcome== | |||
| Could the South have won? A significant number of scholars believe that the Union held an insurmountable advantage over the Confederacy in terms of industrial strength, population, and the determination to win. Confederate actions, they argue, could only delay defeat. Southern historian ] expressed this view succinctly in Ken Burns's television series on the Civil War: "I think that the North fought that war with one hand behind its back.… If there had been more Southern victories, and a lot more, the North simply would have brought that other hand out from behind its back. I don't think the South ever had a chance to win that War."<ref>Ward 1990 p 272</ref> After Lincoln defeated McClellan in the election of 1864, the threat of a political victory for the South was ended. At this point, Lincoln had succeeded in getting the support of the border states, War Democrats, Republicans, emancipated slaves and Britain and France. By defeating the Democrats and McClellan, he also defeated the ] and their secessionist party platform. And he found military leaders like Grant and Sherman that were a match for Lee. From the end of 1864 on, there was no hope for the South. | |||
| The goals were not symmetric. To win independence, the South had to convince the North it could not win, but did ''not'' have to invade the North. To restore the Union, the North had to conquer vast stretches of territory. In the short run (a matter of months), the two sides were evenly matched. But in the long run (a matter of years), the North had advantages that increasingly came into play, while it prevented the South from gaining diplomatic recognition in Europe. | |||
| ===Long-term economic factors=== | |||
| Both sides had long-term advantages but the Union had more. To win the Union had to use its long-term resources to accomplish multiple goals, including control of the entire coastline, control of most of the population centers, control of the main rivers (especially the Mississippi and Tennessee), defeat of all the main Confederate armies, and finally seizure of Richmond. As the occupying force they had to station hundreds of thousands of soldiers to control railroads, supply lines, and major towns and cities. The long-term advantages widely credited by historians to have contributed to the Union's success include: | |||
| ] | |||
| *The more industrialized economy of the North aided in the production of arms, munitions and supplies, as well as finances, and transportation. The graph shows the relative advantage of the USA over the Confederate States of America (CSA) at the start of the war. The advantages widened rapidly during the war, as the Northern economy grew, and Confederate territory shrank and its economy weakened. | |||
| *The Union population was 22 million and the South 9 million in 1861; the Southern population included more than 3.5 million slaves thus leaving the South's white population outnumbered by a ratio of more than four to one. The disparity grew as the Union controlled more and more southern territory with garrisons, and cut off the trans-Mississippi part of the Confederacy. | |||
| *The Union at the start controlled over 80% of the shipyards, steamships, river boats, and the Navy. It augmented these by a massive shipbuilding program. This enabled the Union to control the river systems and to blockade the entire southern coastline.<ref> McPherson 313-16, 392-3</ref> | |||
| *Excellent railroad links between Union cities allowed for the quick and cheap movement of troops and supplies. Transportation was much slower and more difficult in the South which was unable to augment its much smaller rail system, repair damage, or even perform routine maintenance.<ref>Heidler, 1591-98 | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ===Political and diplomatic factors=== | |||
| *The Union's more established government, particularly a mature executive branch which accumulated even greater power during wartime, gave a more streamlined conduct of the war, with minimal bickering between Lincoln and the governors. The failure of Davis to maintain positive and productive relationships with state governors damaged his ability to draw on regional resources.<ref> McPherson 432-44</ref> | |||
| *A strong ] enabled the Republicans to mobilize soldiers and support at the grass roots, even when the war became unpopular. The Confederacy deliberately did not use parties.<ref>Eric L. McKitrick, "Party Politics and the Union and Confederate War Efforts," in William Nisbet Chambers and Walter Dean Burnham, eds. ''The American party Systems'' (1965); Beringer 1988 p 93</ref> | |||
| *The failure to win diplomatic or military support from any foreign powers cut the Confederacy from access to markets and to most imports. Its "]" misperception of the world economy led to bad diplomacy, such as the refusal to ship cotton before the blockade started.<ref>Heidler, 598-603</ref> | |||
| ===Military factors=== | |||
| *Strategically, the location of the capital Richmond tied Lee to a highly exposed position at the end of supply lines. Loss of its national capital was unthinkable for the Confederacy, for it would lose legitimacy as an independent nation. Washington was equally vulnerable, but if it had been captured, the Union would not have collapsed. <ref>Heidler, 1643-47</ref> | |||
| *The Confederacy's tactic of invading the North (Antietam 1862, Gettysburg 1863, Nashville 1864) drained manpower strength, when it could not replace its losses.<ref> Grady McWhiney and Perry D. Jamieson. '' Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage'' (1982)</ref> | |||
| *The Union devoted much more of its resources to medical needs, thereby overcoming the unhealthy disease environment that sickened (and killed) more soldiers than combat did.<ref> Resch 2: 112-14; Heidler, 603-4</ref> | |||
| *Despite the Union's many tactical blunders (like the ]), those committed by Confederate generals (such as Lee's miscalculations at the Battles of ] and ]) were far more serious—if for no other reason than that the Confederates could so little afford the losses.<ref> Grady McWhiney and Perry D. Jamieson. '' Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage'' (1982)</ref> | |||
| *Lincoln proved more adept than Davis in replacing unsuccessful generals with better ones.<ref>Weigley</ref> | |||
| *Lincoln grew as a grand strategist, in contrast to Davis. The Confederacy never developed an overall strategy. It never had a plan to deal with the blockade. Davis failed to respond in a coordinated fashion to serious threats (such as Grant's campaign against Vicksburg in 1863; in the face of which, he allowed Lee to invade Pennsylvania).<ref>Heidler, 564-72, 1185-90; T. Harry Williams, ''Lincoln and His Generals'' (1952)</ref> | |||
| * The Emancipation Proclamation enabled African-Americans, both free blacks and escaped slaves, to join the Union Army. About 190,000 volunteered, further enhancing the numerical advantage the Union armies enjoyed over the Confederates. They fought in several key battles in the last two years of the war. <ref> John Hope Franklin, ''The Emancipation Proclamation'' (1965) </ref> | |||
| * Finally, the Confederacy may have lacked the total commitment needed to win the war.<ref>Beringer et al (1986)</ref> Lincoln and his team never wavered in their commitment to victory. | |||
| ==Civil War leaders and soldiers== | |||
| :''For more details on this topic, see ]'' | |||
| Most of the important generals on both sides had formerly served in the ]—some, including ] and ], during the ] between 1846 and 1848. Most were graduates of the ] at West Point. | |||
| The senior Southern military commanders and strategists included ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. | |||
| The senior Northern military commanders and strategists included ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. | |||
| After 1980, scholarly attention turned to ordinary soldiers, women, and African Americans involved with the War. As James McPherson observed "The profound irony of the Civil War was that Confederate and Union soldiers… interpreted the heritage of 1776 in opposite ways. Confederates fought for liberty and independence from what they regarded as a tyrannical government; Unionists fought to preserve the nation created by the founders from dismemberment and destruction."<ref>McPherson 1994 p 24.</ref> | |||
| ==Nature of the war== | |||
| The traditional definition of a ] is a war in which two governments fight for control over the same state. The Government of ] viewed the conflict as a Civil War, with both sides fighting to govern the ]. The other side, the Government of ], viewed it as a war in which one sovereign nation (the United States) invaded another (the ]). | |||
| ==Aftermath== | |||
| The fighting ended with the surrender of the conventional Confederate forces. There was no significant guerrilla warfare. Many senior Confederate leaders escaped to ], to ], or even to ]; Davis was captured and imprisoned for two years, but never brought to trial. Indeed, there were no ] trials for anyone. | |||
| ===Reconstruction=== | |||
| {{main|Reconstruction}} | |||
| Northern leaders agreed that victory would require more than the end of fighting. It had to encompass the two war goals: Southern nationalism had to be totally repudiated, and all forms of slavery had to be eliminated. They disagreed sharply on the criteria for these goals. They also disagreed on the degree of federal control that should be imposed on the South, and the process by which Southern states should be reintegrated into the Union. | |||
| Reconstruction, which began early in the war and ended in 1877, involved a complex and rapidly changing series of federal and state policies. The long-term result came in the three "Civil War" amendments to the ] (the XIII, which abolished slavery, the XIV, which extended federal legal protections to citizens regardless of race, and the XV, which abolished racial restrictions on voting). Reconstruction ended in the different states at different times, the last three by the ]. For details on why the ] and ] were largely ineffective until the ], see ], ], ], ], ] and ]. | |||
| ===Memories of the war=== | |||
| The war had a lasting impact on United States culture. Lincoln and Lee became iconic heroes. Every town and city built memorials to its heroic soldiers, battlefields became sacred places, and stories of the war became part of national folklore. By the 1890s, the veterans of the North and South had reconciled and were holding joint reunions. The South's strong support for the ] in 1898 convinced the remaining doubters that the South was patriotic.<ref>Paul Herman Buck, ''The Road to Reunion, 1865-1900'' (1937)</ref> | |||
| ], ] depicts a Union and Confederate soldier shaking hands.]] | |||
| However, for decades after the war, some Republican politicians "waved the ]," bringing up wartime casualties as an electoral tactic. Memories of the war and Reconstruction held the segregated South together as a Democratic block—the "]"—in national politics for another century. A few debates surrounding the legacy of the war continue into the 21st century, especially regarding memorials and celebrations of Confederate heroes and ]. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| <references/> | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==References== | |||
| ===Overviews=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| * Beringer, Richard E., Archer Jones, and Herman Hattaway, ''Why the South Lost the Civil War'' (1986) influential analysis of factors; ''The Elements of Confederate Defeat: Nationalism, War Aims, and Religion'' (1988), abridged version, more readily available | |||
| * ], ''The Civil War'', American Heritage, 1960, ISBN 0-8281-0305-4, illustrated narrative | |||
| * Donald, David ed. ''Why the North Won the Civil War'' (1977) (ISBN 0-02-031660-7), short interpretive essays | |||
| * Donald, David ''et al.'' ''The Civil War and Reconstruction'' (latest edition 2001); 700 page survey | |||
| * Eicher, David J., ''The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War'', (2001), ISBN 0-684-84944-5. | |||
| * Fellman, Michael ''et al.'' ''This Terrible War: The Civil War and its Aftermath'' (2003), 400 page survey | |||
| * ]. '']'' (3 volumes), (1974), ISBN 0-394-74913-8. Highly detailed narrative covering all fronts | |||
| * ] ''Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era'' (1988), 900 page survey; Pulitzer prize | |||
| * ]. '']'', an 8-volume set (1947-1971). the most detailed political, economic and military narrative; by Pulitzer Prize winner | |||
| ** 1. Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852; 2. A House Dividing, 1852-1857; 3. Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857-1859; 4. Prologue to Civil War, 1859-1861; 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865 | |||
| * {{cite book | |||
| | title = Abraham Lincoln: a History | |||
| | year = 1890 | |||
| | first = John | |||
| | last = Hay | |||
| | authorlink = John Hay | |||
| | coauthors= ] | |||
| }} | |||
| ** {{cite web | |||
| | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6812 | |||
| | title = Volume 1 | |||
| }} to 1856; strong coverage of national politics | |||
| ** {{cite web | |||
| | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11708 | |||
| | title = Volume 2 | |||
| }} covers 1856 to early 1861; very detailed coverage of national politics; part of 10 volume "life and times" written by Lincoln's top aides | |||
| * Rhodes, James Ford. , Pulitzer Prize; a short version of his 5-volume history | |||
| * Ward, Geoffrey C. ''The Civil War'' (Alfred Knopf, 1990), based on PBS series by ]; visual emphasis | |||
| * Weigley, Russell Frank. ''A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865'' (2004); primarily military | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Reference books and bibliographies=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| * Blair, Jayne E. ''The Essential Civil War: A Handbook to the Battles, Armies, Navies And Commanders'' (2006) | |||
| * Carter, Alice E. and Richard Jensen. ''The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites-'' 2nd ed. (2003) | |||
| * Current, Richard N., et al eds. ''Encyclopedia of the Confederacy'' (1993) (4 Volume set; also 1 vol abridged version) (ISBN 0-13-275991-8) | |||
| * Faust, Patricia L. (ed.) ''Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War'' (1986) (ISBN 0-06-181261-7) 2000 short entries | |||
| * Fuller, J.F.C., General, B.A. ''Military History of the Western World''. (1957) Brief article on the war. | |||
| * Esposito, Vincent J. , these maps are online | |||
| * Heidler, David Stephen, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History'' (2002), 1600 entries in 2700 pages in 5 vol or 1-vol editions | |||
| * Resch, John P. ''et al.'', ''Americans at War: Society, Culture and the Homefront vol 2: 1816-1900'' (2005) | |||
| * Tulloch, Hugh. ''The Debate on the American Civil War Era'' (1999), historiography | |||
| * Wagner, Margaret E. Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman, eds. ''The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference'' (2002) | |||
| * Woodworth, Steven E. ed. ''American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research'' (1996) (ISBN 0-313-29019-9), 750 pages of historiography and bibliography | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Biographies=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| * Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders'', Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0822-7 | |||
| * Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders'', Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5 | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Soldiers=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| * Frank, Joseph Allan and George A. Reaves. ''Seeing the Elephant: Raw Recruits at the Battle of Shiloh'' (1989) | |||
| * Hess, Earl J. ''The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat'' (1997) | |||
| * McPherson, James. ''What They Fought For, 1861-1865'' (Louisiana State University Press, 1994) | |||
| * McPherson, James. ''For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War '' (1998) | |||
| * Wiley, Bell Irvin. ''The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy'' (1962) (ISBN 0-8071-0475-2) | |||
| * Wiley, Bell Irvin. ''Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union'' (1952) (ISBN 0-8071-0476-0) | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Primary sources=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| * U.S. War Dept., , U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. 70 very large volumes of letters and reports written by both armies. Online at | |||
| * , a remarkable collection of reports on each state, Congress, and military activities, and many other topics; annual issues from 1861 to 1901 in major libraries | |||
| * Commager, Henry Steele (ed.). ''The Blue and the Gray. The Story of the Civil War as Told by Participants.'' (1950), excerpts from primary sources | |||
| * Eisenschiml, Otto; Ralph Newman; eds. ''The American Iliad: The Epic Story of the Civil War as Narrated by Eyewitnesses and Contemporaries'' (1947), excerpts from primary sources | |||
| * Hesseltine, William B. ed.; ''The Tragic Conflict: The Civil War and Reconstruction'' (1962), excerpts from primary sources | |||
| *Woodword, C. Vann, Ed., ''Mary Chesnut's Civil War'', Yale University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-300-02979-9 Pulitzer Prize | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Novels about the war=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], ''The Titans'' ISBN 0-515-04827-5 | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], ] | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], ] | |||
| *], ''Flight to Canada'' | |||
| *], ''Freedom: A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War'' (1987) ISBN 0-385-15903-X | |||
| *], '']''; '']'' | |||
| *], '']'' | |||
| *], ''By Valour and Arms'' | |||
| *], ''Fort Pillow'' | |||
| *], '']'' (''Nord Contre Sud'') | |||
| *], ''Lincoln'' | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Poems about the war=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| *], ''John Brown's Body'' | |||
| *], , currently a work-in-progress | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Songs about the war=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| *The final three songs of ], an album from the American heavy metal band ], form a trilogy entitled "Gettysburg (1863)." They each represent one day in the Battle of Gettysburg. | |||
| *The song "]" by country songwriter ] and popularised by ] is about the American Civil War. | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==Cinema and television== | |||
| ===Films about the war=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| *'']'' (1915) | |||
| *'']'' (1939) | |||
| *'']'' (1956) | |||
| *'']'' (1966) | |||
| *'']'' (1982) | |||
| *'']'' (1989) | |||
| *'']'' (1993) | |||
| *'']'' (1999) | |||
| *'']'' (2003) | |||
| *'']'' (2003) | |||
| </div> | |||
| ===Documentaries about the war=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| *'']'', directed by ] | |||
| *'']'', directed by ] | |||
| </div> | |||
| * '', featuring Civil War expert Wynn Ward, produced by Tom Pieper and J. L. Palermo | |||
| {{American Civil War Menu}} | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *, from U Tennessee | |||
| * | |||
| * at the ] | |||
| * | |||
| * at the ] | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *, a ] documentary by ] | |||
| * Individual state's contributions to the Civil War: , , , , , | |||
| *State declarations of the causes of secession: , , , | |||
| * | |||
| * — A project to map out sites related to the Civil War in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * A digital collection of first person narrative accounts from Wisconsin soldiers and citizens, documenting their wartime experiences. | |||
| * | |||
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| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
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