THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1492-1877

Lecture 9The Civil War

„there is nothing civil about war”

• CAUSES OF THE WAR:• Slavery controversy• Failure of compromises• Lack of strong presidential leadership, James

Buchanan• Differing development of regions

PRESIDENT BUCHANAN

AMERICA AT THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR

• North: more people, railroads, iron, money, soldiers

• Strategy: blockade ports, take Mississippi River, take Richmond, confederate capital,

• South: defend their own land, fighting spirit, just war, Better generals: Robert E. Lee, Thomas Stonewall Jackson, educated at West Point

• Less population, less iron, railroads• Strategy: war of attrition, hoping for French or

British help, invasion of the North

THOMAS STONEWALL JACKSON

MILITARY, POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

• USA Lincoln, Washington D.C, • CSA Jefferson Davis, Richmond• 1861 March 4, Lincoln’s inauguration• “no intention of interfering with slavery in the

states where it exists.• But: “union of the states is perpetual”• Secession of South Carolina, blockade of Fort

Sumter

FORT SUMTER

MILITARY POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

• Lincoln: calls for 75,000 volunteers, announces blockade of Southern ports

• 1861 July 21 Bull Run• 1862 September: Antietam• 1863: Vicksburg, Gettysburg

BULL RUN

MILITARY, POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

• Gettysburg Address,• Reference to Declaration of Independence,

connecting the Civil War to Revolutionary War, consensual government, sacred document of American democracy

• „Fourscore and seven years ago, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth”

LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG

MILITARY, POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

• 1864: Sherman’s march to the sea• Burning of Atlanta in M. Mitchell’s Gone With

the Wind• 1865: Appomatox• Lee surrenders to Grant

ATLANTA BURNING

THE FIRST MODERN WAR• Over 620,000 dead, 1.5 million wounded, frequent

amputation of wounded• -total war, impacting the home front• not armies but whole societies were fighting against

each other• utilizing contemporary developments of technology

(submarine, railroad, telegraph, armed trains)• Institution of the draft,• Confederates first to adopt conscription• substitutes, “Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” • 1863 New York Draft Riots

SUBMARINES IN THE CIVIL WAR

IMPACT ON SLAVERY• Emancipation Proclamation:• Lincoln’s aim: keeping the Union together with or without

slavery• Issued on 9-22-1862• “As of January 1, 1863 all slaves in Confederate states or

areas still under active rebellion would be thenceforward and forever free”

• Reasons:• Military: elimination of potential armed forces• Economic: depriving the South from its labor force• Diplomatic: isolation of the South, Britain freed slaves in

1833

IMPACT ON THE PRESIDENCY• Lincoln: constitutional dictatorship• Basis: presidential oath, power as commander in

chief• Violation of the Constitution, in order to protect

it• -calling for volunteers—declares war• -suspension of habeas corpus, (protection against

unlawful arrests)• -military courts take over civilian courts Ex parte

Milligan

IMPACT ON U.S. HISTORY

• A watershed, a dividing line• End of slavery Thirteenth Amendment, • End of the states rights movement• Test for the Union, expression of the unity,

“the United States is”• Test for the Constitution• The beginning of modern America