Civil War
Antietam
(September 17, 1862) - The first major war captured in photographs, Antietam was the bloodiest single day in American history, with 23,000 casualties. Though McClellan possessed superior numbers, he failed to shatter Lee's Army, though he did block his invasion of Maryland. However, the timid McClellan allowed Lee to retreat without interference, and, though ordered by Lincoln to attack, waited 28 days to pursue. Why: However, though inconclusive, the tactical victory had major consequences. Lincoln finally relieved McClellan from command one and a half months later, and was given the confidence and environment in which to announce the Emancipation Proclamation. Additionally, the southern retreat forestalled foreign recognition of the Confederacy. MAJOR TURNING POINT.
Dred Scott Decision
1857 court case ruled by Chief Justice Taney (see term below), established 3 things, 1) blacks were not citizens and therefore did not have the right to sue in federal court, thus the court did not have jurisdiction, 2) if he did have jurisdiction, would time on free soil have prevailed? No, suggested that slavery extended into all territory, laws that protect slavery extended everywhere, 3) did Congress have the right to determine slavery in territories? No, would violate the 5th amendment, meant that the Missouri Compromise had never been constitutional nor were any popular sovereignty votes against slavery, 6-3 vote Why: huge victory for the south, fit with the slave power conspiracy theory, Black Republican Party conspiracy, greatly polarized the nation, Republicans were shocked, northerners felt threatened by an encroaching South. It ended moderation and radicalized both sides.
New York City Draft Riots
(July 13-16, 1863) - A series of violent riots in New York City that were the culmination of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the Civil War. Lincoln sent several thousand troops to control the city. The rioters were predominantly Irish. The protests degraded quickly into civil disorder against African Americans. The military had to suppress the mob using artillery and fixed bayonets. Many rioters were driven by racism and a belief that the draft was unfair and that the war was a poor man's fight, based on the controversial $300 commutation fee, which they viewed as an instrument of class privilege.
Virginia Campaign of 1864
: The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, in the American Civil War. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all Union armies, directed the actions of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, and other forces against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Although Grant suffered severe losses during the campaign, it was a strategic Union victory, maneuvering Lee into a siege at Petersburg, Virginia in just over eight weeks. The siege at Petersburg lasted into 1865 and eventually ended the war. So What: The campaign in VA in 1864 was imported because it played a large part in ending the war, along with Sherman taking Atlanta and marching to the sea. However, as important as the victory itself was the realization that it would taking nothing less than the destruction and surrender of Lee's army in order to garner a defeat in both the hearts and minds of the Confederacy.
King Cotton
A phrase used mainly by Southern politicians who wanted to illustrate the importance of cotton to the southern economy and to the world. On the eve of the Civil War, the belief that England could not survive economically without southern cotton pervaded southern though and strengthened the hand of the secessionists. James Henry Hammond: "Cotton is King." Southerners knew their survival depended on the sympathy of Europe to offset Union power. They believed that cotton was so essential to the European powers that they would intervene in any civil war. Why: tragic blunder during the Civil War was the southern expectation that Britain and possibility France would intervene on behalf of the Confederacy rather than lose cotton supply, Britain did not enter the war and the South lost millions on their crop
Charles Sumner
A politician from Massachusetts, Sumner was a leader of antislavery forces before the war and of Radical Reconstruction, with Thaddeus Stevens. He devoted himself to the destruction of the Slave Power. He is famous for having delivered a speech entitled "The Crime Against Kansas," on May 22, 1856, which provoked Representative Preston Brooks to beat him unconscious with a walking stick. After years in recovery, Sumner returned to the Senate to help lead Congress through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Why: polarized and escalated the conflict, Northerners were indignant and used the attack as an example of the uncivilized, primitive nature of the southerners and the slave power conspiracy, southerners celebrated the attack as an example of southerners sticking up for their rights
Wilmot Proviso
A rider to appropriations bill for the war. David Wilmot was an obscure and somewhat lazy Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania when, in 1846, he gained instant notoriety by introducing an amendment to an appropriation bill requested by President James K. Polk to promote peace negotiations with Mexico. Wilmot's amendment, which reflected growing northern resentment over the proslavery policies of Polk and his advisors, prohibited slavery from any territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican War. Known henceforth as the Wilmot Proviso, his amendment attracted considerable support from northern congressmen and passed the House several times, although the Senate always rejected it. Though the Proviso was expressly repudiated by the Compromise of 1850 and outlawed by Dred Scott, it formed the basis for the Free Soil Party and was later adopted by the Republican Party. Why: represents one of the many options facing the nation, what is the extent of federal power in relation to slavery? Can the federal government regulate slavery in the territories? Coming out of the Mexican American War (ending in 1848), slavery was the contentious issue because no one knew whether or not slavery would be allowed in the territories
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, during his inauguration at the start of his second term as President of the United States. At a time when victory over the secessionists in the American Civil War was within days and slavery was near an end, Lincoln did not speak of happiness, but of sadness. Some see this speech as a defense of his pragmatic approach to Reconstruction, in which he sought to avoid harsh treatment of the defeated South by reminding his listeners of how wrong both sides had been in imagining what lay before them when the war began four years earlier. Lincoln balanced that rejection of triumphalism, however, with recognition of the unmistakable evil of slavery, which he described in the most concrete terms possible. So What: Speech does a few things. Provides with insights of Lincoln's approaches to R-N. Mentions slavery as a cause of the war, and cements the centrality of the issue of slavery to the war as a whole in paragraph number three. The speech is also a plea for a generous peace and an effort to remember that all the states are a part of the same country. Fredrick Douglass was so pleased by the speech that he made sure to seek out Lincoln at the reception afterwards in order to approve of the remarks, despite the need that he needed to break into the White House to do so.
Siege of Atlanta
At the Battle of Atlanta (July 22, 1864), the Union suffered 3,641 casualties, the Confederates 8,500. This was a devastating loss for the already reduced Confederate Army, but they still held the city. Sherman settled into a siege of Atlanta, shelling the city and sending raids west and south of the city to cut off the supply lines from Macon, Georgia. Finally, on August 31 at Jonesborough, Georgia, Sherman's army captured the railroad track from Macon, pushing the confederates to Lovejoy Station. Union forces in Jonesborough could hear the explosions from Atlanta throughout the night as Hood pulled his troops out of Atlanta the next day, destroying supply depots as he left to prevent them from falling into Union hands. On September 2, a committee of Mayor James Calhoun and Union-leaning citizens William Markham, Jonathan Norcross, and Edward Rawson met a captain on the staff of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum and surrendered the city. Sherman sent a telegram to Washington reading, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won" and he established his headquarters there on September 7, where he stayed for two months. He ordered the evacuation of the entire city population. The army then burned several buildings and departed east on what would become known as Sherman's March to the Sea. The fall of Atlanta was especially noteworthy for its political ramifications. Former Union General George B. McClellan was running against President Lincoln on a peace platform in the 1864 election. Part of the Democratic platform called for a truce with the Confederates. Had this truce been achieved, it is highly unlikely that the war could ever have been restarted. However, the capture of Atlanta and Hood's burning of many military facilities as he evacuated were extensively covered by Northern newspapers, and significantly boosted Northern morale. Lincoln was re-elected by a comfortable margin.
Garrison Frazier
Black leader from Georgia. After Sherman marched through Georgia spreading truth and goodwill, and arrived at Savannah, he didn't know what to do with the slaves who were traveling with him. He held a meeting on January 12, 1865 along with Secretary of War Stanton and invited 20 Black leaders who chose Frazier as their leader. Stanton asked Frazier 12 questions with Sherman by his side. Frazier asked for the federal governments to give them civil rights, protect those civil rights, and then leave them alone. He questions ranged from the definition of slavery to if freed slaves could take care of themselves and ended with what Frazier thought of Sherman (who was a virulent racist). Frazier said that he was a "Providence of God...a friend and a gentleman." It is in these answers, that the meaning of the war can be truly understood. Frazier gave eloquent answers to some of the most difficult, complicated questions of the day. To me this event is important because it shows how the fully the war was now about slavery. Even the vile racist Sherman was seen as a divine liberator by the newly freed slaves. One could also argue that Frazier also prophesied much of the problems with reconstruction because he talked about how difficult it would be to integrate Blacks into the racist Southern culture.
Confederate Nationalism
Blight talked about this a lot. The South argued that they seceded against a tyrannical, centralized government, so creating a centralized state to fight a war created some tension. Blight argued that the South ultimately lost because they never formed a revolutionary form of "mystical nationalism." Southern nationalism was built more on hatred and as a countermovement to Union/Northern nationalism than on their own history, which was a problem. Also, the South was a 1 party system, which made governance difficult. Davis and most of the Confederate Congress never had to face re-election. On the other hand, in The Confederate War, Gallagher argues that Southern nationalism partially allowed the Confederacy to survive as long as it did.
Sherman's March to the Sea
Conducted in late 1864 by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. Began from Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and finished with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. Sapped morale from among even the most optimistic Southerners. Sherman decided to cut loose from his communication and supply lines and live purely off the land as he marched 300 miles to the coast through enemy territory, while burning in his wake anything that could be used by the Confederates. Sherman's policy constituted total war: destroying your enemy's ability to wage war. Cut a swath 50 miles wide. "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it."
Stephen Douglas
Democrat, 1813-1861, from Illinois, synonymous with doctrine of popular sovereignty, responsible for the Compromise of 1850, reopened issue of slavery with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, took part in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates that led up to the Senate election, Freeport Doctrine: from the second debate, said that popular sovereignty was still permissible despite Taney's ruling in Dred Scott, accused Lincoln of wanting equality for blacks, won the 1858 Senate election but lost to Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election running as the Northern Democrat candidate (only received 12 electoral votes in comparison to Lincoln's 180) Why: Douglas represents a great deal: he was the driving force behind the ideal of popular sovereignty, he pushed these "compromises" through Congress, his failure in the 1860 election represents the splintering of the nation as the Democrats split (Breckinridge and Douglas) along sectional lines, he had been the most famous Democrat in the nation but he had opposed slavery in Bleeding Kansas and thus alienated southerners.
Election of 1856
First time out for Republicans. Their platform was radical—written by a group of Abolitionists. They nominated John C. Freemont and used Sumner's speech as a slogan. The Know-Nothing Party nominated Millard Freemont—the former President. They softened their anti-immigrant stance and said they stood for moderation and union. The Democrats went the safe route and nominated Buchanan. Buchanan was a northerner with southern sympathies. He had been in Great Britain as an ambassador for several years and was not stained with the controversies of the early 1850's. The election was very sectionalized. Buchannan held every slave state except for Maryland, and carried enough Border States to win. Freemont won all the free states. Although the Republicans were hammered the Electoral College, they called it a victory within defeat. The Republican Party and the Know-Nothing Party combined for 400,000 more votes than the Democrats. Why: The Republican Party was here to stay. Despite a brand-new, inexperienced, and often inept organization, Fremont received a full third of the nation's popular vote. It indicated that slavery had become the most important question posed in national politics and therefore the decisive criterion in determining one's party loyalties.
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay—kind of anti-slavery—invited Webster over in early 1850 and proposed to the great Massachusetts Whig that if he was able to pull New England votes, they could work a compromise. Conditions: 1. California will be free, 2. Texas will move border back enabling New Mexico/Arizona to be potential slave states, 3. Slave trade in D.C. will be abolished, 4. A more aggressive fugitive slave law, 5. Slavery would exist on a basis of popular sovereignty in any new state created in the west out of the Mexican cession. Webster—a champion of moderate anti-slavery and unionism ideology-- gave Seventh of March speech. Calhoun died but his speech was read. Stephen Douglas weaved bill's provisions through congress one by one. Why: like the other acts of Congress, this contributed to the heightened sectional conflict and tension between north and south, anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces in the nation, cemented popular sovereignty as the policy of the government (until Dred Scott), Fugitive Slave Act forced white northerners to take part in the perpetuation of slavery, gave it a human face, made them more anti-slavery, the federal government could be viewed as anti-slavery because it abolished the slave trade, reinforced the conspiracies of Black northerners and Slave Power
Contraband
In May 1861, General Benjamin F. Butler was assigned command of the Union forces at Fort Monroe on the Virginia coast. Almost immediately, slaves from the area began entering his military lines. Since the federal government had not devised any policy concerning such slaves, Butler declared the slaves to be contrabands of war. Butler's action garnered great publicity and received general approval in the North, and the War Department declined to overturn his policy. Butler's action marked the first step on the long road to emancipation.
General Benjamin Butler
In May 1861, General Benjamin F. Butler was assigned command of the Union forces at Fort Monroe on the Virginia coast. Almost immediately, slaves from the area began entering his military lines. Since the federal government had not devised any policy concerning such slaves, Butler declared the slaves to be contrabands of war. Butler's action garnered great publicity and received general approval in the North, and the War Department declined to overturn his policy. Butler's action marked the first step on the long road to emancipation. Butler also served as the chief prosecutor in the Senate trial of the impeachment of President Johnson.
First Reconstruction Act
It divided the Confederate states into five military districts under commanders empowered to employ the army to protect life and property. Laid out the steps by which new state governments could be recognized by congress. Requiring congressional approval for new state constitutions (which were required for Confederate states to rejoin the Union). Confederate states give voting rights to all men. All former Confederate states must ratify the 14th Amendment. This act was vetoed by Johnson; however, the veto was overridden by Congress illustrating the beginning of a large rift between congressional policy and the wishes of the president. So What: This act is an illustration of the broad and lofty plans held by the Radical republicans, who laid out legislation to make sure that equal rights for all would be obtained, even if the use of force was necessary in order to protect blacks from former confederates in the south. In addition, the veto by Johnson and the subsequent override by Congress is an illustration of the divergent path that congress and the president were on, and a sign of the coming troubles for Johnson and his eventual departure from office.
Shiloh
It was the first great battle of the Civil War. The southern attack was a surprise to northern forces. Confederate General Johnson waged one of the most successful sneak attacks every by such a huge unwieldy army. The first day of Shiloh was the bloodiest day of the war up to that point. Almost nobody had been in combat before. General Johnson died in the battle and command passed to General Beauregard. During the night after the first day of battle, reinforcements came for the north. At dawn, 70,000 union soldiers attacked 30,000 confederates. There were 23,000 causalities in all in this battle. Why: Shiloh sobered nation into the realization that there was a bloody affair ahead. Grant later wrote in his memories that it was after that battle that he realized that the Union could never be preserved except by complete and total conquest.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act: What: 1854, written by Democrat Stephen Douglas, question of slavery expanding into the territories was the main question at hand for Congress, repealed the Missouri Compromise regardless. It included a specific repeal of the Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty would now determine the slavery question in the territories rather than the Missouri Compromise, the votes: Northern Democrats voted 44-42 for KNA, Southern Democrats voted 57-2 for KNA, Northern Whigs voted 45-0 against KNA, Southern Whigs voted 12-7 for KNA, overall 113-110 (an addiction that politicaisn were split by region not by party affiliation in regards to the slavery question). The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in March of 1854, with Stephen Douglas as its chief architect and proponent. The primary function of the K-N Act was to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (36-30 parallel), to create the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and, most importantly, to provide for a popular sovereignty in these territories to decide whether they would be slave or free. Many Republicans did not like the bill, as it permitted the possible extension of slavery above the 36-30 parallel. Southerners supported it staunchly. KN Act was met with major resistance throughout the North—seen as a violation of an important covenant. The result was Bloody Kansas, with thousands of Northerners and Southerners (mainly from Missouri), pouring into Kansas to try to sway the vote one way or the other. It was in this environment that John Brown first rose to fame. Numerous bloody skirmishes took place. Political aftermath was a serious blow for the Democratic party, which was viewed as being associated with Kansas-Nebraska the Bloody Kansas. The Republican Party was born in the following summer. The first Kansas legislature was pro-slavery, but the free-soilers believed the result was not lawful and so set up their own legislature with their own constitution. Into 1856, there remained two governments in Kansas. Finally, the pro-slavery element passed the Lecompton Constitution—which was to make slavery exist in perpetuity in Kansas, as well as prevent free blacks from living there forever—and sent it to DC. President Buchanan tried to push it through Congress, but Stephen Douglas reverses course and refused to support it, saying it is a travesty. The Lecompton Constitution became another rallying cry of the Republicans, fitting within their "slave power conspiracy" myth perfectly.
Self-Emancipation
Many slaves ran away from their masters during the Civil War and crossed Union lines. They became refugees, and many later became soldiers in the Union Army. This activity, called self-emancipation, presented a problem to the Union Army. Were these black people free, or enslaved? Should they be returned to their Southern masters under the fugitive slave laws? Some military leaders had already tried to deal with this dilemma. Benjamin F. Butler, a Northern general stationed in Virginia, claimed that he would not return slaves to their masters because they were property, and in wartime, the enemy's property can be seized. The Lincoln Administration agreed with Butler's policy.
Election of 1864
President Abraham Lincoln faced negative public opinion and difficulties in the war going into the fall of 1864. He seriously believed he would lose the election, and was such a weak candidate that the Republican Party nominated Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, as his VP, over the incumbent Hamlin. He faced his former General McClellan, who ran against Lincoln's mishandling of the war for the Democratic Party, who had nominated a war candidate on a peace platform. To reconcile this difficulty, McClellan appealed to voters' racism, running a campaign entirely upon fear of blacks and white supremacy. However, a series of victories culminating in Sherman's capture of Atlanta, Georgia turned the tide of the war, and allowed the Republicans to ridicule the Democrat's pacifist platform. Lincoln easily clinched an electoral majority. Importantly, Lincoln received more than ¾ of the soldiers' vote.
The Narrow View of Impeachment
Real Reasons for Impeachment: 1. Johnson's personal behavior--he was drunk at inaugural and called Stevens a traitor several times; 2. Conflict between President and Congress—Johnson vetoed many bills; 3. Old fashion, unadulterated partisan politics—President Pro Tempore was the Radical Republican Benjamin Wade; 4. Johnson's commitment to white supremacy—he would not compromise on black rights, especially suffrage. Action: Congress in 1867 required that General Grant approve all ordered to subordinate army commanders and , in the Tenure of Office Act, authorized officials appointed with the Senate's consent to remain in office until a successor had been approved. It was intended primarily to protect lower-level patronage functionaries, the law also barred the removal, without Senate approval, of Cabinet members during the term of the President who had appointed them. Johnson suspended Stanton while Congress was not in session, pending a vote on his permanent removal once the Senate reconvened. When the Senate refused to concur in Stanton's removal, Johnson ousted him from office. With unanimous Republican support, the House voted to impeach the President. Johnson promised not to obstruct Republican southern policy if acquitted. His acquittal weakened the Radical's position within the party and made the nomination of Ulysses S. Grant inevitable.
Free Labor Ideology
Stressed upward mobility and a "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality. Slavery destroyed personal initiative and threatened free labor, so free labor ideology led to political movements opposed to slavery, such as the Free Soil Party and the Republican Party. The South was dragging down the American economy by removing all incentives. Blacks were not paid wages and so had no incentive other than physical abuse and torture. There was no flexibility in hiring or firing. Slavery limited the south's ability to invest capital in other improvements since its constraints as a labor system drained away most of the region's capital. Slavery created no incentive to increase productivity and education among workers. Why: The inherently opposing world views of economy between the north and south created a situation of irreconcilable differences, there was no way that a union could exist between two cultures that had completely different ideas of how an economy could function or what the composition of slavery should be
Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania was the most important Radical Republican leader in the House of Representatives in the years immediately after the war. He was a shrewd parliamentary manager with a sharp and acid tongue that made him a feared and formidable debater. Stevens was much more advanced than most of his colleagues in his views on racial equality and his willingness to use federal power to assist the freedpeople in the South. Yet, he also harbored a powerful vindictiveness toward southern whites, particularly former slaveholders. For Stevens, political and legal reform in the South was insufficient unless accompanied by fundamental social and economic change. Stevens called for the seizure of 400 million acres belonging to the wealthiest ten percent of Southerners to break the power of the South's traditional ruling class, transform the Southern social structure and create a triumphant Southern Republicans party composed of black and white yeoman and Northern purchasers of planter land. So What: Stevens represents the view that the war was a "radical revolution" that could bring an effort to "remodel our institutions." Represented the radical set of Congress, who were able to seize power from Johnson, and in many ways, control the legislative activity until the southern states were able to claw back control of their governments from the Republicans, radical and otherwise, that ruled the South after the war. In many ways, Stevens more than anyone else personified the fear, anger, and hatred of the south after the death of Lincoln.
Know-Nothing Party (American Party)
The Kansas Nebraska Act fueled the creation (and then collapse as they went into the republican party) of the Know-Nothing/American Party. When the Whig Party dissolved, there was room for competing parties, and the Republicans Party and Know-Nothing Party came into the spotlight. It was a nativist political party of the 1850s that formed in fear of being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants, and who drew its name from the fact that membership was secret and members were supposed to profess ignorance. Acted upon the willingness of many Americans to blame their grievances on "alien" influences in American life. Antislavery Know-Nothings were able to accuse immigrants of propping up the Democratic party, while pro-slavery members could accuse the immigrants of having ignorance and a lack of respect for American institutions. The party's leadership did its best to mute the slavery issue. However, no group as heterogeneous as the Know-Nothings could remain united for long. Slavery ultimately trumped nativism as a primary political issue, dooming the party.
Fort Sumter
The Union held a coastal fortification in Charleston Harbor known as Fort Sumter. Lincoln knew that he needed to provide reinforcements for the federal troops blockaded in the Fort, only wanted to resupply with provisions only, Confederates opened fire on fort to stop the reinforcements from coming to resupply the unarmed men, Anderson and his men eventually surrendered On April 12, the Confederate Army bombarded Fort Sumter under the command of PGT Beauregard. The Union surrendered Fort Sumter on April 13. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the first military action of the American Civil War. Following the surrender, Northerners rallied behind Lincoln's call for all of the states to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. With the scale of the rebellion apparently small so far, Lincoln called for 75,000 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
Second Confiscation Act
The act stated that the slaves of any Confederate official, military or civilian, who did not surrender within 60 days of the act's passage, would be freed. However, this act was only applicable in Confederate areas, which had already been occupied by the Union Army. All slaves taking refuge in Union areas were "captives of war" and would be set free. Why: Contained the first definite provisions for emancipating slaves in the rebellious states. It offered no guarantee of civil rights. It paved the way for the Emancipation Proclamation.
Gettysburg
The battle of Gettysburg pit Union General Meade against Confederate General Lee from July 1-3, 1863. Lee hoped to drive his army through the north, perhaps as far as Philadelphia, to convince Northern politicians to give up the war. The bloodiest battle of the civil war, the Union victory effectively ended Lee's invasion of the North. Though both sides lossed a staggering number of soldiers, the South had fewer reserves at home and could not replace the men lost at Gettysburg. Lee's daring invasion gamble had failed in every respect and lost him a third of his Army. Northerners expressed rare optimism heading into the fall of 1863, after dealing the Confederacy such a severe blow.
Loss of Will Thesis
The idea that the South lost the Civil War because they lost the will to win. This is directly opposed to what Gary Gallagher argues in Confederate War. An example of a historian who espouses the "Loss of Will Thesis" is Drew Faust, who avers that Confederate women grew increasingly fed up with the war and thus contributed significantly to the South's ultimate defeat. Similarly, Richard Beringer in Why the South Lost the Civil War argues that the South lost the Civil War because they never developed a sense of mystical nationalism that made them want to fight on until the end.
Southern Yeoman Farmers
The middle class of the white south. They were the majority of the white population in the south. They owned their own property and tended not to own slaves, but the slave class in this population was fluid—in a good crop year, these farmers might buy a few slaves. They bore the majority of the burden of the Civil War even though they were fighting for an institution that for the most part did not improve or constitute their lives, unfair taxation, enlisted or conscripted; during Reconstruction, wanted to preserve black landlessness and create a dependent class. Why: Represents that not everyone in the South fought to withhold their slaves. Their status also creates the context of southern economy before the war: social structure (elites/planters, yeomen, poor whites), agricultural dependence, cotton boom further underscored economic disparities and class bitterness
Wartime Southern Womanhood
This ID is closely tied with the home front and all of the theories that go along with it. Blight said that women became so disgusted with war, so frightened, that they advocated that men give it up. In Mothers of Invention, Faust argues that women made important contributions to the war effort but were often overwhelmed and disillusioned with the new roles they were forced into. Especially in the South, the war removed so many men from the households that the men were not able to shield women from public life, which broke from the understood patriarchal household of the time. It's important to note that Faust's study only focused on women of the plantation class.
Robert E. Lee
Thought that his experiences during the Mexican-American war were where Lee first gained his aggressive style. Lee's greatest victories were the Seven Days Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the Battle of Chancellorsville, but both of his campaigns to invade the North ended in failure. Barely escaping defeat at the Battle of Antietam in 1862, Lee was forced to return to the South. In early July 1863, Lee was decisively defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. However, due to ineffectual pursuit by the commander of Union forces, Major General George Meade, Lee escaped again to Virginia. In the spring of 1864, the new Union commander, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, began a series of campaigns to wear down Lee's army. In the Overland Campaign of 1864 and the Siege of Petersburg in 1864-1865, Lee inflicted heavy casualties on Grant's larger army, but was unable to replace his own losses. In early April 1865, Lee's depleted forces were turned from their entrenchments near the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and he began a strategic retreat. Lee's subsequent surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865 represented the loss of only one of the remaining Confederate field armies, but it was a psychological blow from which the South could not recover. So What: Lee above any figure in the CSA commanded the respect of the people in the South. Until he was vanquished, the South always felt as if they had a chance to succeed, because Lee's reputation and the belief of both his men and his nation in his greatness and ability. Because of Lee's reputation, Grant realized the importance of Lee's surrender to the end of the war itself, and therefore placed a priority on pursuing Lee until Lee did indeed surrender. Moreover, though his surrender at Appomattox was not officially the close of the CW, it spelled the end in the eyes of most of its citizens.
Total War
Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a belligerent engages in a mobilization of all available resources at their disposal, whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise, in order to entirely destroy or render beyond use their rival's capacity to continue resistance. Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman's 'March to the Sea' in November/December 1864 destroyed the resources required for the South to make war. Sherman is considered one of the first military commanders to deliberately and consciously use total war as a military strategy. General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln initially opposed the plan until Sherman convinced them of its necessity.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
What: 1858, seven debates between Lincoln (Republican) and Douglas (Democrat) leading up to the election for Illinois seat in the Senate, acted as a precursor to their debates during the 1860 presidential election, huge press following, Lincoln edited the text of his speeches following his loss and published them in a book, topics of the debate: question of Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty, Black Republican Party, references to House Divided Speech (half Slave and half Free), debate over the Dred Scott decision, accused Lincoln of wanting equal rights for blacks, Lincoln denied this, Why: serves as a lens through which we can understand the major issues plaguing the nation
Election of 1860
What: 4-way election, Lincoln (Republican, 180 electoral votes and 40% popular vote), Breckinridge (Democrat, southern, 72 electoral votes, 18% popular vote), Douglas (Democrat, Northern, 12 electoral votes, 30% popular vote), Bell (Constitutional Union, 39 electoral vote, 12% popular vote) Democrats: The Democratic Party held its national convention in Charleston, South Carolina—the hotbed of secession. Southern delegates demanded a promise of federal protection of slavery in all the territories and a de fact veto in the selection of the party's presidential candidate (in order to block Douglas's nomination). When northern delegates rejected that ultimatum, Southerners bolted. Northern Democrats reconvened in Baltimore and nominated Douglas. The Southern Democrats went to Richmond and nomination Kentucky's John Breckinridge (Buchanan's VP). Constitutional Union Party: The Constitutional Union Party was created in 1860 from conservative Whig and Know-Nothing fragments and promised to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution (ignored the whole debate on what the Constitution meant)—they nominate John Bell. Republican Party: Republican platform declared slavery unconstitutional in the territories and demanded Kansas be free. Lincoln's speech at Cooper Union in New York catapulted him to nomination. Lincoln was a middle-of the-road former Whig who was neither too radical nor too conservative on the slavery issue. Lincoln won 40% of the vote—the quintessential minority President. Why: Lincoln's victory pushed the Deep South over the edge, ignored his appeals that he was not going to legislate on slavery but only restrict, led to the secession of 7 states in the Deep South
Slave Society
What: In the antebellum Southern Society, everyone was dependent on or affected by slavery, everyone developed in relation to racial slavery, slavery literally permeated every aspect of southern society, cotton boom reinforced the value of slavery—while the rest of the world was hit with abolitionism, the US developed new means to institutionalize slavery and made it more efficient and profitable. The possibility of expansion into the west pitted the northern free market society versus slave society. Some statistics: 4.1 million slaves by 1860 valued at 3.7 billion dollars Why: Underscores the difficulties that sectionalism represented, the North and South were literally conditioned to view the world, society, and the economy in completely different manners, why the North and South could simply not agree to just coexist because they had inherently opposing world views
Harpers Ferry Raid
What: October 16, 1859, interracial vigilante group of 21, led by John Brown, the goal of the raid was to make news and draw attention to the abolition cause, Brown expected an army to materialize but it never did, left unsupported, 2 army units came and killed most of Brown's men, Brown escaped and was tried for treason, Henry Wise conducted a fair trial and was found guilty of treason and trying to incite a slave insurrection Why: Brown and his vigilantes were canonized as martyrs by Revered Martin in northern church, divided opinion and exacerbated sectional tension, scared white southerners and made them scared for slave insurrections, northerners were also for the most part turned off by Brown's radicalism and use of violence, received large amounts of attention and made the issue seem more pressing than it might have actually been—there wasn't actually a revolution festering among slave communities
Slave-Power Conspiracy
What: This was a northern fear that the South was slowly infiltrating the North and was planning on spreading slavery all the way to the North and control the federal government (or that they already had taken control of the government), fear of centralized power in the hands of the few, examples of "slave-power": Dred Scott decision, Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, Bleeding Kansas and the Lecompton Constitution Why: Suspicion that the balance of power had shifted towards the south, created a sense of desperation otherwise the south would impose its will upon the north, polarized the country, and spurred on more extreme action to protect sectional interests
John Brown
What: extremist who used violence to enact change, vehement abolitionist, moved to Kansas with his sons following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (political climate: Sumner's "The Crime Against Kansas" speech), blacks connected with Brown because he practiced what he preached, planned to invade the south with his interracial vigilante group, October 1859: raid on Harpers Ferry, VA, escaped wounded and was tried for treason, executed Why: helpful lens through which we can look at the antebellum crisis, viewed violence and revolution as an appropriate means to enact change, brought great press to the issue of abolitionism, used violence to gain media attention and scare the south, put southerners on the defensive, canonized as a martyr for the anti-slavery cause, precursor to the extreme violence that the Civil War would bring, bridged the gulf between black and white abolitionism (blacks wanted more pragmatic results, real change whereas whites just wanted to talk about morality and the philosophy of slavery)
The "Shrinking South"
What: fear in the South that slavery would get pushed down only into the Deep South with the rise of the Republican Party, fear of slave insurrections and federal regulation of slavery with Lincoln, believers equated anti-slavery politics like Lincoln's moderation with Brown and Garrison's radicalism (more dangerous because they actually had governmental power whereas radicals were always kept out of office) Why: This fear of federal oppression led to extremism and desperate measures on the part of southerners, led them to secede from the Union in order to protect slave society and slave interests
Frederick Douglas
What: former slave who ran away to the North, published The Slave Narratives in which he accounts his experience as a slave, brutal whippings, the family dynamics in a slave holding society, was not a pacifist, wanted aggressive abolitionist campaign, talented orator and often gave apocalyptic speeches (Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society July 4, 1952), viewed slavery as a total system of oppression: psychological, physical, emotional, called the Civil War a "war between men of thought and action, a war of ideas", met with Lincoln a few times: involved in the National Freemen's Loan Society (which never actually came to fruition but was the precursor to the Freedmen's Bureau), thought that the US didn't learn from the experience of the Civil War, 1884 speech that uses Biblical language (Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead), and found Reconstruction to be a total disaster that did not address the "black question", "buried under the rubbish... he only sleeps." Why: Significant because he represents the power of blacks to use books and literature to catalyze the abolitionist movement in the north during the antebellum period, an exceptional example of a black man who was able to use his experience in slavery to catapult himself into politics and change, urged Lincoln and others to address blacks and slavery head on, sometimes thought that Lincoln wasn't radical enough, reveals common thought that reconstruction merely brushed important questions under the table rather than addressing them or fixing the nation's problems, wanted a more interventionist government that would support blacks as they reintegrated into society after freedom (expansionist federal government)
Secession Comissioners
What: from the book, "Apostles of Disunion" by Dew, old South finally decided to have a revolution and strike for Southern independence to preserve a slave-labor society and the racial system on which that system was based, racial control, 52 men right after Lincoln's election, they very clearly thought that secession would be about slavery rather than just state rights, this was to be a final judgment on slavery, clear attitude that blacks were inferior: VP's "Cornerstone Speech", called the Republican Part the Black Republican Party, promoted idea of Black Republican Party conspiracy Why: These commissioners gauged the interest of southerners in seceding from the Union, their work contributed to the eventual secession of many southern states.
Pro-Slavery Ideology
What: there were varied arguments that supported a pro-slavery ideology, 1) cynical: only morality in the world is power, must keep power, slavery isn't something positive, but it does lead to less evil than would exist otherwise, society and human nature are fraught with evil anyways and a system of slavery contains this evil, anti-natural rights, 2) A-moral: morality doesn't belong in the debate, 3) Racial: blacks were inherently inferior, paternalistic outlook which called on whites to take care of blacks because they wouldn't be able to care for themselves, parallel to parent-child relationship, 4) Utopian: Henry Hughes, perfect slavery, hated individualism, strong federal system, like a social contract between government and citizens and slaves for protection, perfectionist, welfare state (preserve racial purity) 5. Positive Good Defense
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison: Boston editor William Lloyd Garrison was the most famous abolitionist in the country before the Civil War, and his newspaper, The Liberator, was an important source of antislavery opinion. In the columns of The Liberator, Garrison defined the central tenets of the new, more militant movement known as abolitionism. He was also a co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison quickly became the most hated man in the south, and rewards were offered to anyone who would kidnap him and bring him to the South for trial. Why: very polarizing character. He represents just one form of abolitionism. He was rather ahead of his time because he started his abolitionist efforts in the early 30's whereas most others did not pick up momentum for anti-slavery cause until a lot later due to gradualism. He can be considered part of the "immediatism" movement because he was radical, personal and public commitment to abolition
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book was originally serialized in the abolitionist National Era from mid-1851 through the spring of 1852. Within another year, a bound edition sold 1.2 million copies, making it one of the best-selling novels of its time and surely the most effective piece of antislavery literature every written. It was published in wake of stricter fugitive slave law. In 1852, for every one vote for Pierce, one copy of the book was sold. Far from anesthetizing northern antislavery feelings, the new fugitive slave law had helped to inflame them. Why: made slavery more personal for northern whites, provoked widespread anger towards the South, cruel institution, made slavery tangible during time of heightened political tension, catalyzed the anti-slavery forces in the North, really intensified the sectional conflict in similar ways as the political climate, put southerners on the defensive of slavery and their peculiar institution, also reinforced black stereotypes (like Mammy and watermelons...) that would come back to haunt many blacks during the reconstruction and post-reconstruction periods
George B. McClellan
a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union. However, although McClellan was meticulous in his planning and preparations, these attributes may have hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment. He chronically overestimated the strength of enemy units and was reluctant to apply principles of mass, frequently leaving large portions of his army unengaged at decisive points. Failed in the Peninsular Campaign; and Lincoln famously said of him: "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time." Ran for President as a Democrat in 1864 and was, in the end, soundly defeated by Lincoln. So what: A figure of failure and lack of action in the early part of the civil war. A source of contention for Lincoln, and also a rallying point for Lincoln and his cabinet at a time when the cabinet tended to question Lincoln on many issues. Serves as a foil to the style of Grant. In 64, Lincoln's overwhelming support from the military in the face of opposition from McClellan despite McClellan's popularity with his troops served as a referendum for the continuation of the war.
"Mexican Cession"
ceded to the US by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War. Included all of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The land was extremely important for the fact that the focus of the slavery issue was on its expansion into the territories. Both sides acknowledged that slavery was either going to expand or crumble and die. The territories therefore lay at the heart of the slavery issue. The territories had already prompted the introduction of the controversial Wilmot Proviso, which proposed an absolute ban on slavery in the territories. However, the Compromise of 1850 attempted to find an in between ground, allowing California admission to the Union as a free state, and providing for non-intervention in the rest of the territories.
William H. Seward
was a Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. An outspoken opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was a dominant figure in the Republican Party in its formative years, and was widely regarded as the leading contender for the party's presidential nomination in 1860 - yet his very outspokenness may have cost him the nomination. Despite his loss, he became a loyal member of Lincoln's wartime cabinet, and played a role in preventing foreign intervention early in the war. So What: Initially the favorite for the nomination of 1860, Seward was deemed by some to be too radical in his beliefs and ideas on slavery. Seward hailed from western New York, an area that was a hotbed for radical and antislavery thoughts (burned over district). Eventually, Seward became the most instrumental advisor to Lincoln, helping him with his first inaugural throughout the entirety of Lincoln's life.
Ulysses S. Grant
was general-in-chief of the Union Army from 1864 to 1865 during the American Civil War and the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877. Appointed brigadier general of volunteers in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln, Grant claimed the first major Union victories of the war in 1862, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. He was surprised by a Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh, and although he emerged victorious, the severe casualties on both sides prompted a public outcry and he was temporarily removed from army command. Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg, following a long campaign with many initial setbacks, and his rescue of the besieged Union army at Chattanooga, established his reputation as Lincoln's most aggressive and successful general. Named lieutenant general and general-in-chief of the Army in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks aimed at destroying the South's armies and its economy's ability to sustain its forces. In 1865, after mounting a successful war of attrition against his Confederate opponents, he accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House. Popular due to the Union victory in the Civil War, Grant was elected President of the United States as a Republican in 1868 and was re-elected in 1872, the first President to serve for two full terms since Andrew Jackson forty years before. As President, Grant led Reconstruction and built a powerful patronage-based Republican Party in the South, straining relations between the North and former Confederates. His administration was marred by scandal, sometimes the product of nepotism, and the neologism Grantism was coined to describe political corruption. So What: Did more than any general, with the possible exception of Sherman, to turn the tide of the war effort. Redefined the style of attack employed by the Union, and helped to change the morale of the entire army. Politically, was supportive of Reconstruction, although not nearly to the extent of the radicals. His administration and Republicanism in general became concerned with economic matters in 1873 with the coming of a huge economic depression. This event, along with scandals involving railroads, defined the Grant administration while violence in the South that was destroying the efforts of R-N was not properly dealt with.
