“A Great Civil War”

1861-1865

Why did the North fight?

• Secession did not necessarily entail Civil War; some advised “Let the wayward sisters depart in peace.”

• Lincoln believed he had to “preserve the Union.”

• Northerners believed it was their patriotic and moral [religious] duty.

Lincoln’s first days

• Fort Sumter Crisis• Struggles with Seward• Fort Sumter shelled—April 12, 1861• Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers• Secession of the Upper South• L. holds the border• L. suspends writ of Habeas Corpus• Ex parte Merryman

The Balance Sheet

• Is God on the side of the strongest battalions?

• Vietnam experience

• Did the North win or the South loose?

Advantages

• North• 3x military population• Food• Railroad mileage—

over 3x the CSA• Productive capacity• Industrial capacity• finance

• South• Defensive war—a win

or a tie• Interior Lines• Slavery• Rifle• Knowledge of

landscape

Opening Salvo—Bull Run

• Union Commander Irwin McDowell

• Southern Commanders Joseph Johnston, P. G. T. Beauregard

• “Stonewall” Jackson

• Confederacy was disorganized by victory as much as the Union was disorganized by victory.

Battle at Bull Run

Naval Action--Blockade

War in the East

Lincoln Searches for a General

Peninsular Campaign

• Closest to Richmond that A of P came until 1865

• Showed flaws in McClellan and in L.s relationship with his generals

• Battle of Fair Oaks brought Lee to the fore

Robert Edward Lee

Road to Antietam

• L. brings John Pope from west and Pope looses 2d Manassas

• Lee Invades Maryland

• L. relies on McClellan

• Battle-9-17-62 is stalemate

• L. issues preliminary EP on 9/22 and fires McClellan in November

Lincoln’s Search for a General

• McClellan had the slows and wouldn’t go where Lee seemed to go.

• L. tried McClellan, Pope, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, Grant

• Burnside blundered at Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg

Hooker Failed at Chancellorsville

• Lee and Jackson executed brilliant flanking maneuver

• Hooker lost his nerve

• L. backed Hooker until the end of June

• Lee lost his best general—Jackson died on May 10: “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”

Lee, Jackson, and Hooker

Gettysburg

• Overdone in “memory”, but it really mattered

• Pickett’s charge on July 3, 1863 was dramatic

• Lincoln though was more concerned with the west and thought that Meade had not pursued Lee vigorously enough.

Pickett and Meade

Gettysburg

Lincoln’s Answers Lay in the West

• Union was largely successful in opening up the western Rivers.

• Tennessee was liberated by 1862– Forts Henry and Donelson– Shiloh– Rise of Grant

U. S. Grant

Campaign for Vicksburg

• Unconventional tactics

• Vicksburg taken after a 47 day siege

• “The father of waters now flows unvexed to the Sea.”

Vicksburg Siege

Vicksburg Battlefield and Pemberton

Grant to the East

• Grant oversaw the conquest of CSA rail center at Chattanooga—Arthur MacArthur, father of Doug, won Medal of Honor

• Sherman left in charge of Army of the Tennessee

• Grant made Lt. General and camped with Army of Potomac

War in West: Atlanta and march to the Sea

Why did this matter?

• Weakened CSA morale in Ga. Homefront

• Helped L. win 1864 election

• Demonstrated power of total war.

Wilderness and Cold Harbor

• Grant the Butcher

• Lee the King of Spades

• End Run to Petersburg

Siege of Petersburg

Appomattox

• Grant was magnanimous

• “Damn me if I ever love another country.

• Lincoln knew “thing had been pressed.”

• Lincoln toured burned out Richmond

Richmond, 1865