A New Birth of Freedom, 1862-1865 (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved Chapter 16

A New Birth of Freedom, 1862-1865

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Chapter 16Chapter 16

Slavery and the War

• At outset: both Union and Confederate leaders tried to keep the issue of slavery out of the war– South: if slavery is an issue, Southern non-

slaveholders would not be committed to cause– North: if slavery is an issue, Democrats and

border-state Unionists would not fight

• Frederick Douglass


The “Contrabands”

• As Union forces moved into the South, many slaves fled on foot over to Union lines

• Most Union commanders allowed escaped slaves to enter their camps– General Benjamin Butler– Slaves considered “contraband of war”


The Border States

• Freemont frees slaves of Missouri rebels, Lincoln hastily countermands that

• Lincoln’s offer of “compensated emancipation” to the border states– Congressional resolution offering federal

compensation to states that voluntarily abolished slavery

– Border states rejected Lincoln’s ultimatum


The Decision for Emancipation

• Pushed by other Republicans and field commanders• Compromise with border states was futile• Lincoln: prepared his Emancipation Proclamation• Peace Democrats

– “Copperheads”

• Cabinet supports Lincoln almost unanimously


New Calls for Troops

• Lincoln called for 300,000 new 3-year volunteers for the army

• Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus– Rioters and antiwar activists arrested


The Battle of Antietam

• George B. McClellan– Union soldiers found copy of Lee’s orders– A cautious leader

• Robert E. Lee

• Sharpsburg, Maryland– Union forces outnumbered Confederates– 23,000 casualties in total


The Emancipation Proclamation

• Lincoln portrayed emancipation as a means to saving the Union

• Did not go into effect until 1-1-1863

• Only freed slaves in areas under rebellion– Excluded states that did not secede– Excluded states that were occupied already-


A Winter of Discontent

• Ambrose E. Burnside– Fredericksburg, Va.

• Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman– Vicksburg, MS

• William S. Rosecrans vs. Braxton Bragg– Stones River (Murfreesboro)

• Joseph Hooker


The Rise of the Copperheads

• Lincoln’s support waned significantly in winter, 1863

• Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio– Powerful Peace Democratic spokesman

– Arrested and convicted for treason and aiding and abetting the enemy

– Banished to the Confederacy for his sentence

– Runs for governor of Ohio from exile in Canada, but loses


Economic Problems in the South

• South suffered from food shortages and hyperinflation

• Richmond Bread Riot (1863)


The Wartime Draft and Class Tensions

• Confederate draft– Paid substitutes– Twenty Negro Law– “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”

• Union draft– Bounty jumpers– Substitutes– Democrats inflame tensions over draft– New York City Draft Riot (1863)

• Class tensions


A Poor Man’s Fight?

• Property, excise and income taxes required for war efforts weighed more on the wealthy than the poor

• Wealthy southerners lost more than poor• Southern planter class and northern middle

class volunteered in high numbers• Substitution in the Confederacy• Commutation fees


Blueprint for Modern America

• 37th Congress– Homestead Act – Morrill Land-Grant College Act – Pacific Railroad Act


Women and the War

• Female casualties• Clerical jobs open to women in the north• Clara Barton• Women’s Central Association for Relief

– Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell– United States Sanitary Commission

• National Woman Suffrage Association– Elizabeth Cady Stanton– Susan B. Anthony


The Battle of Chancellorsville

• Army of the Potomac

• Army of Northern Virginia– Won battle– Lost “Stonewall” Jackson


The Gettysburg Campaign

• Lee invades north June 1863• Lee’s forces meet Union army under George

Gordon Meade 7-1-1863• James Longstreet• Lee orders attacks on union flanks, they fail • “Pickett’s Charge”: attack in the center, it fails• Lee retreats 7-4-1863


The Vicksburg Campaign

• Grant’s campaign and control of the Mississippi River

• Joseph Johnston– Confederate leader– Surrendered Vicksburg 7-4-1863


Chickamauga and Chattanooga

• Confederates abandon Knoxville and Chattanooga, losing only East-West rail link

• Chickamauga: Confederate ambush

• Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge

• Grant appoint general-in-chief of union army


Black Men in Blue

• Frederick Douglass– Blacks fighting for union would guarantee

citizenship

• Field commanders start forming Black regiments from slaves they freed– Non-combat roles– Paid less than whites– Officers were white


Black Men in Combat

• Port Hudson

• Milliken’s Bend

• 54th Massachusetts Infantry– Robert Gould Shaw

Emancipation Confirmed

• 1863 elections endorse Emancipation

• Thirteenth Amendment– Final Congressional passage after 1864

elections– Ratified by states December 1865


The Year of Decision

• Southern defeatism

• Political uncertainty in the Confederacy– Hostility towards Davis administration


Out of the Wilderness

• Spring of 1864: renewed determination in the Confederacy– War of attrition

• Grant vs. Lee in Virginia– The Wilderness

• Sherman vs. Johnston in Georgia


Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor

• Trench warfare

• Stalemate in Spotsylvania

• Lee skillfully anticipated Grant’s move and blocked his offensive strikes

• Cold Harbor


Stalemate in Virginia

• Confederates hold at Petersburg

• Grant continued to move on the offensive

• Huge Union losses:– 65,000 casualties in only 6 weeks– Siege instead of offensive


The Atlanta Campaign

• Sherman’s army in Georgia– Accomplished more at less cost than Grant

• Kennesaw Mountain

• John Bell Hood– Replaced Johnston– Three counterattacks left Confederates defeated


Peace Overtures

• Horace Greeley– U.S. sentiments yearned for peace

• Lincoln refused to drop the Emancipation Proclamation as a condition of peace

• Democrats nominated McClellan for President– Peace campaign


The Prisoner-Exchange Controversy

• Prisoner exchanges for 1st part of war, no large prison camps needed

• Exchange ends after Confederates threat to kill Black soldiers and their white officers– Fort Pillow Massacre– Generally not enforced, Blacks returned to their masters

• Prison camps– Overcrowded, poorly constructed– 12% of Confederate prisoners died, 16% of Union– Andersonville

• Lincoln refuses to renew exchanges unless Black and White prisoners treated the same


The Issue of Black Soldiers in the Confederate Army

• Winter of 1864-65: Confederates desperate

• Confederate government agrees to recruit slaves


Lincoln’s Reelection and the End of the Confederacy

• Voters made choice based on battlefield situation

• Fall of 1864 better for Union armies

The Capture of Atlanta

• Month-long stalemate at Atlanta front

• Sherman’s army attacked and captured railroad into Atlanta

• Atlanta falls to Sherman September 1864


The Shenandoah Valley

• Philip Sheridan vs. Jubal Early

• Fisher’s Hill

• Union destroys Shenandoah Valley crops

• Cedar Creek

• Lincoln reelected– Sherman and Sheridan’s victories– Large absentee soldier vote for Lincoln


From Atlanta to the Sea

• Union armies destroy Confederate property, railroads, factories, farms that supported the Southern Army

• Sherman’s forces burned one-third of Atlanta and marched to Savannah, wrecking most everything along the way


The Battles of Franklin and Nashville

• Hood invades Tennessee, hoping to win it for the Confederacy– Disastrous defeat


Fort Fisher and Sherman’s March through the Carolinas

• Fall of Fort Fisher ends blockade running

• Sherman’s march of destruction from Savannah into South Carolina

• War could not end until Confederate forces surrendered


The Road to Appomattox

• Sheridan’s cavalry and Five Forks

• Lee Abandons Richmond and Petersburg

• Lee surrenders to Grant– Wilmer McLean


The Assassination of Lincoln

• Ford’s Theatre, April 1865

• John Wilkes Booth

• Confederate armies continued to surrender April – June

• Jefferson Davis: captured in Georgia


Conclusion

• Civil War cost 625,000 lives

• Since 1865, no state has seriously threatened secession

• 1865: Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and ensured liberty of all Americans

• Regional transfer of power from South to North


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A New Birth of Freedom, 1862-1865 (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved Chapter 16