INTERACT

W I TH H I STO RY

The year is 1861. Seven Southern

states have seceded from the Union
over the issues of slavery and states
rights. They have formed their own
government, called the Confederacy,
and raised an army. In March, the
Confederate army attacks and seizes
Fort Sumter, a Union stronghold in
South Carolina. President Lincoln
responds by issuing a call for volun-
teers to serve in the Union army.

Can the use of

force preserve
a nation?
Examine the Issues
• Can diplomacy prevent a war
between the states?
• What makes a civil war different
from a foreign war?
• How might a civil war affect
society and the U.S. economy?

RESEARCH LINKS [Link]

Visit the Chapter 11 links for more information
about The Civil War.

1864 The 1865 Lee surrenders to Grant

Confederate vessel 1864 at Appomattox.
Hunley makes Abraham
the first successful Lincoln is 1865 Andrew Johnson becomes
submarine attack in history. reelected. president after Lincoln’s assassination.

1863 1864 1865

1864 Leo Tolstoy 1865 Joseph Lister

writes War and pioneers antiseptic
Peace. surgery.

The Civil War 337

 The Civil War Begins
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names

The secession of Southern The nation’s identity was •Fort Sumter •Shiloh
states caused the North and forged in part by the Civil War. •Anaconda plan •David G. Farragut
the South to take up arms. •Bull Run •Monitor
•Stonewall •Merrimack
Jackson •Robert E. Lee
•George McClellan •Antietam
•Ulysses S. Grant

One American's Story

On April 18, 1861, the federal supply ship Baltic dropped anchor off the coast of
New Jersey. Aboard was Major Robert Anderson, a 35-year army veteran on his way
from Charleston, South Carolina, to New York City. That day, Anderson wrote out
a report to the secretary of war, describing his
most recent command.

A PERSONAL VOICE
ROBERT ANDERSON
“ Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four
hours, until the quarters were entirely
burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, . . .
the magazine surrounded by flames, . . . four
barrels and three cartridges of powder only
being available, and no provisions but pork
remaining, I accepted terms of evacuation . . .
and marched out of the fort . . . with colors
flying and drums beating . . . and saluting my
flag with fifty guns.”
—quoted in Fifty Basic Civil War Documents
▼
The flag that Major Anderson saluted was the Stars and Stripes. After it came Major Anderson
down, the Confederates raised their own flag, the Stars and Bars. The confederate (far left) and Fort
attack on Fort Sumter signaled the start of the Civil War. Sumter’s Union
troops

Confederates Fire on Fort Sumter

The seven southernmost states that had already seceded formed the Confederate
States of America on February 4, 1861. Confederate soldiers immediately began
taking over federal installations in their states—courthouses, post offices, and
especially forts. By the time of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, only
two Southern forts remained in Union hands. The more important was South
Carolina’s Fort Sumter, on an island in Charleston harbor.

338 CHAPTER 11
 The day after his inauguration, the new president received an urgent dispatch
from the fort’s commander, Major Anderson. The Confederacy was demanding
that he surrender or face an attack, and his supplies of food and ammunition
would last six weeks at the most.
LINCOLN’S DILEMMA The news presented Lincoln with a dilemma. If he
ordered the navy to shoot its way into Charleston harbor and reinforce Fort
Sumter, he would be responsible for starting hostilities, which might prompt the
slave states still in the Union to secede. If he ordered the fort evacuated, he would
be treating the Confederacy as a legitimate nation. Such an action would anger
the Republican Party, weaken his administration, and endanger the Union.
FIRST SHOTS Lincoln executed a clever political maneuver. He would not aban-
don Fort Sumter, but neither would he reinforce it. He would merely send in
“food for hungry men.”
Now it was Jefferson Davis who faced a dilemma. If he did nothing, he would
damage the image of the Confederacy as a sovereign, independent nation. On the
other hand, if he ordered an attack on Fort Sumter, he would turn peaceful seces-
MAIN IDEA sion into war. Davis chose war. At 4:30 A.M. on April 12, Confederate batteries
Analyzing
began thundering away. Charleston’s citizens watched and cheered as though it
Causes were a fireworks display. The South Carolinians bombarded the fort with more
A Why did than 4,000 rounds before Anderson surrendered. A
Jefferson Davis
choose to go to VIRGINIA SECEDES News of Fort Sumter’s fall united the North. When Lincoln
war? called for 75,000 volunteers to serve for three months, the response was over-
whelming. In Iowa, 20 times the state’s quota rushed to enlist.
Lincoln’s call for troops provoked a very different reaction in the states of the
upper South. On April 17, Virginia, unwilling to fight against other Southern
states, seceded—a terrible loss to the Union. Virginia was the most heavily popu-
lated state in the South and the most industrialized (with a crucial ironworks and
navy yard). In May, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina followed Virginia,
bringing the number of Confederate states to 11. However, the western counties
Most Union of Virginia were antislavery, so they seceded from Virginia and were admitted into Most Confederate
troops saw the the Union as West Virginia in 1863. The four remaining slave states—Maryland, soldiers fought to
war as a struggle protect the South
Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri—remained in the Union, although many of
to preserve the from Northern
the citizens in those states fought for the Confederacy.
Union. aggression.
▼ ▼
Northern and Southern Resources, 1861

Military Strength Population

25 4 4
Naval Ship
Tonnage
20
Population (in millions)

Population (in millions)

Population (in millions)

25 to 1 3 3

Iron 15
Production 2 2
15 to 1 10

1 1
Firearms 5
Production
32 to 1 0 0 0
Total Eligible for Industrial
North Population Military Workers
Source: Times Atlas of World
History, 1989 South Source: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1884–1888; reprinted ed., 1956)

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Graphs

1. Which side—North or South—had the advantage in terms of industrial production?
2. What do the overall data suggest about the eventual outcome of the war?

The Civil War 339

 Americans Expect a Short War
Northerners and Confederates alike expected a short, glorious war. Soldiers left for
the front with bands playing and crowds cheering. Both sides felt that right was
on their side.
UNION AND CONFEDERATE STRATEGIES In reality the two sides were uneven-
ly matched. The Union enjoyed enormous advantages in resources over the
South—more fighting power, more factories, greater food production, and a more
extensive railroad system. In addition, Lincoln proved to be a decisive yet patient
leader, skillful at balancing political factions.
“ The die was The Confederacy likewise enjoyed some advantages, notably “King
Cotton” (and the profits it earned on the world market), first-rate generals,
cast; war was
a strong military tradition, and soldiers who were highly motivated because
declared . . .
they were defending their homeland. However, the South had a tradition
and we were all of local and limited government, and there was resistance to the central-
afraid it would ization of government necessary to run a war. Several Southern governors MAIN IDEA
be over and we were so obstinate in their assertion of states’ rights that they refused to Contrasting
[would] not be cooperate with the Confederate government. B B Contrast the
strengths of the
in the fight.” The two sides pursued different military strategies. The Union, which
North and the
SAM WATKINS, had to conquer the South to win, devised a three-part plan: (1) the Union
South.
CONFEDERATE SOLDIER navy would blockade Southern ports, so they could neither export cotton nor
import much-needed manufactured goods, (2) Union riverboats and armies
would move down the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two, and (3)
Union armies would capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia.

Battles of the West

Civil War, 1861–1862

.
oR
ILLINOIS

hi
Mi IND. O
N ssi
ssi
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Area controlled by Union pp
i R.
s

Grant & KY.

ti

MISSOURI
Cur

E
Foote
Area won by Union, 1861–1862 Ft. Henry
S Pope
40°N Feb. 1862
Area controlled by Confederacy
Union troop movements Pea Ridge Ft. Donelson
Mar. 1862 Feb. 1862
Grant

Confederate troop movements ll TENN.

Bue
Union victory Shiloh
Apr. 1862
Confederate victory
Corinth Jo
Fort ARK. h n sto n

Capital 0 50 100 miles

0 50 100 kilometers MISS. ALA.

0 200 400 miles

0 200 400 kilometers

Fall of New Orleans
30°N
Vicksburg
LOUISIANA ALA.
MISS.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER
F a rr
M is

1. Region In which region of the country ut

ag
siss

did Northern forces have the most

ip p

R.
i

success? New Orleans

2. Place In which states did Confederate April 1862
troops attempt invasions of the North? 0 50 100 miles Gulf of Mexico
0 50 100 kilometers
130°W 120°W

340 CHAPTER 11
 Northern newspapers dubbed the strategy the
Anaconda plan, after a snake that suffocates its victims in HISTORICAL
its coils. Because the Confederacy’s goal was its own sur-
vival as a nation, its strategy was mostly defensive. S P O TLIG H T
However, Southern leaders encouraged their generals to
attack—and even to invade the North—if the opportunity PICNIC AT BULL RUN
arose. Before the First Battle of Bull Run,
BULL RUN The first major bloodshed occurred on July 21, the inexperienced soldiers weren’t
the only ones who expected the
about three months after Fort Sumter fell. An army of
war to be a “picnic.” In Washing-
30,000 inexperienced Union soldiers on its way toward the ton, ladies and gentlemen put on
Confederate capital at Richmond, only 100 miles from their best clothes and mounted
Washington, D.C., came upon an equally inexperienced their carriages. Carrying baskets
Confederate army encamped near the little creek of Bull of food and iced champagne,
they rode out to observe the first
Run, just 25 miles from the Union capital. Lincoln com-
encounter of the war.
manded General Irvin McDowell to attack, noting, “You are The battle did not turn out to
green, it is true, but they are green also.” be the entertainment viewers
The battle was a seesaw affair. In the morning the expected. When the Confederates
Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates forced the Union to retreat, the
held firm, inspired by General Thomas J. Jackson. “There is Northerners were blocked by the
carriages of the panicking civil-
Jackson standing like a stone wall!” another general shout- ians. After that disaster, no one
ed, originating the nickname Stonewall Jackson. In the in the North predicted that the
afternoon Confederate reinforcements arrived and turned war would be over after just one
the tide of battle into the first victory for the South. The skirmish.
routed Union troops began a panicky retreat to the capital.

MAINE

ior
Battles of the East
uper
L .S VT.
N.H.
L. H
MINN. ur NEW PENNSYLVANIA
t a rio YORK MASS.
on

n
L. O mac R
oto
L. Michigan

WISCONSIN Sharpsburg
Mis CONN. R.I. N.J.
P

sis Antietam
si
MICHIGAN
Mc MARYLAND
Sept. 17, 1862
ppi

rie
Cle

E PENNSYLVANIA e
L.
R.

Le

llan

N.J. Harpers Ferry

y Pope Washington, D.C.
Lee

OHIO MD. le
IOWA DEL.
al Bull Run DEL.
V

INDIANA Washington, D.C. July 1861 and

ILLINOIS O h io R .
Manassas Aug. 1862
Richmond Jct. Fredericksburg
h
oa

VIRGINIA Dec. 1862

L ee
and

KENTUCKY
Che

MISSOURI Ra
NORTH pp
sap

ah
Shen

Ft. Henry CAROLINA

e a ke

VIRGINIA
an
kade

Ft. Donelson
no

TENN.
ck

SOUTH
B ay
R.

CAROLINA
Bloc

Richmond Mc
Charleston C
ARKANSAS Corinth
ion

le
lla

GEORGIA Fort Seven Days’ Jam

Un

ALABAMA Sumter June–July 1862 es

MISSISSIPPI R
.

AT L A N T I C 0 25 50 miles
TEXAS OCEAN
New Orleans 0 25 50 kilometers
LOUISIANA FLORIDA
Gulf of Mexico

90°W 80°W 70°W 60°W

The Civil War 341

n cer
Tropic of Ca
 A newspaper reporter described the chaos at the scene.

A PERSONAL VOICE
“ I saw officers . . . —majors and colonels who had deserted their commands—
pass me galloping as if for dear life. . . . For three miles, hosts of Federal troops . .
. all mingled in one disorderly rout. Wounded men lying along the banks . . .
appealed with raised hands to those who rode horses, begging to be lifted behind,
but few regarded such petitions.”
MAIN IDEA
—correspondent, New York World, July 21, 1861
Analyzing
Fortunately for the Union, the Confederates were too exhausted and disorga- Effects
C How did
nized to attack Washington. Still, Confederate morale soared. Bull Run “has
Southerners react
secured our independence,” declared a Georgia secessionist, and many Southern to the outcome of
soldiers, confident that the war was over, left the army and went home. C Bull Run?

Union Armies in the West

Lincoln responded to the defeat at Bull Run by calling for the enlistment of
500,000 men to serve for three years instead of three months. Three days later, he
called for an additional 500,000 men. He also appointed General George
McClellan to lead this new Union army, encamped near Washington. While
McClellan drilled his men—soon to be known as the Army of the Potomac—the
Union forces in the West began the fight for control of the Mississippi.
“ No terms except FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON In February 1862 a Union army in-
unconditional vaded western Tennessee. At its head was General Ulysses S. Grant, a
and immediate rumpled West Point graduate who had failed at everything he had tried in
civilian life—whether as farmer, bill collector, real estate agent, or store
surrender . . .”
clerk. He was, however, a brave, tough, and decisive military commander.
ULYSSES S. GRANT
In just 11 days, Grant’s forces captured two Confederate forts that held
strategic positions on important rivers, Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and
Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. In the latter victory, Grant informed the
Southern commander that “no terms except unconditional and immediate
surrender can be accepted.” The Confederates surrendered and, from then on,
people said that Grant’s initials stood for “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.
SHILOH One month after the victories at Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson, in late March of 1862, Grant gathered his troops near
a small Tennessee church named Shiloh, which was close to the
Mississippi border. On April 6 thousands of yelling Confederate
soldiers surprised the Union forces. Many Union troops were shot
while making coffee; some died while they were still lying in their
blankets. With Union forces on the edge of disaster, Grant reorga-
nized his troops, ordered up reinforcements, and counterattacked
at dawn the following day. By midafternoon the Confederate
forces were in retreat. The Battle of Shiloh taught both sides a
strategic lesson. Generals now realized that they had to send out
scouts, dig trenches, and build fortifications. Shiloh also demon-
strated how bloody the war might become, as nearly one-fourth
of the battle’s 100,000 troops were killed, wounded, or captured. MAIN IDEA
Although the battle seemed to be a draw, it had a long-range Summarizing
impact on the war. The Confederate failure to hold on to its Ohio- D What did the
battle of Shiloh
▼ Kentucky frontier showed that at least part of the Union’s three-
show about the
Grant, at Shiloh in way strategy, the drive to take the Mississippi and split the future course of
1862 Confederacy, might succeed. D the Civil War?

342 CHAPTER 11
 FARRAGUT ON THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI As Grant pushed toward the
Mississippi River, a Union fleet of about 40 ships approached the river’s mouth in
Louisiana. Its commander was sixty-year-old David G. Farragut; its assign-
ment, to seize New Orleans, the Confederacy’s largest city and busiest port.
On April 24, Farragut ran his fleet past two Confederate forts in spite of
booming enemy guns and fire rafts heaped with burning pitch. Five days later,
the U.S. flag flew over New Orleans. During the next two months, Farragut took
control of Baton Rouge and Natchez. If the Union captured all the major cities
along the lower Mississippi, then Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee
would be cut off. Only Port Hudson, Louisiana, and Vicksburg, Mississippi,
perched high on a bluff above the river, still stood in the way.

A Revolution in Warfare
Instrumental in the successes of Grant and Farragut in the West was a new type
of war machine: the ironclad ship. This and other advances in technology
changed military strategy and contributed to the war’s high casualty rate.
IRONCLADS The ironclad ship could splinter wooden ships, withstand cannon
fire, and resist burning. Grant used four ironclad ships when he captured Forts Henry
and Donelson. On March 9, 1862, two ironclads, the North’s Monitor and the
South’s Merrimack (renamed by the South as the Virginia) fought an historic duel.
A Union steam frigate, the Merrimack, had sunk off the coast of Virginia in
1861. The Confederates recovered the ship, and Confederate secretary of the navy
Stephen R. Mallory put engineers to work plating it with iron. When Union sec-
retary of the navy Gideon Welles heard of this development, he was determined
to respond in kind. Naval engineer John Ericsson designed a ship, the Monitor,
that resembled a “gigantic cheese box” on an “immense shingle,” with two guns
mounted on a revolving turret. On March 8, 1862, the Merrimack attacked three
wooden Union warships, sinking the first, burning the second, and driving the
MAIN IDEA third aground. The Monitor arrived and, the following day, engaged the
Evaluating Confederate vessel. Although the battle was a draw, the era of wooden fighting
E What ships was over. E
advantages did
ironclad ships NEW WEAPONS Even more deadly than the development of ironclad ships was
have over wooden the invention of the rifle and the minié ball. Rifles were more accurate than old-
ships? fashioned muskets, and soldiers could load rifles more quickly and therefore fire
more rounds during battle. The minié ball was a soft lead bullet that was more
destructive than earlier bullets. Troops in the Civil War also used primitive hand
grenades and land mines.
An engagement
▼

between the
Monitor and
the Merrimack,
March, 9, 1862,
painted by J. G.
Tanner

343
 The new technology gradually changed MAIN IDEA
military strategy. Because the rifle and the
Analyzing
minié could kill far more people than older Effects
weapons, soldiers fighting from inside trenches F How did
or behind barricades had a great advantage in technology affect
mass infantry attacks. F military strategy
during the Civil
War?

The War for the Capitals

As the campaign in the west progressed and
the Union navy tightened its blockade of
Southern ports, the third part of the North’s
HISTORICAL three-part strategy—the plan to capture the

S P O TLIG H T
Confederate capital at Richmond—faltered.
One of the problems was General McClellan.
Although he was an excellent administrator and popu-
BOYS IN WAR
lar with his troops, McClellan was extremely cautious. After
Both the Union and Confederate
five full months of training an army of 120,000 men, he
armies had soldiers who were
under 18 years of age. Union insisted that he could not move against Richmond until he
soldier Arthur MacArthur (father had 270,000 men. He complained that there were only two
of World War II hero Douglas bridges across the Potomac, not enough for an orderly
MacArthur) became a colonel retreat should the Confederates repulse the Federals.
when he was only 19.
Northern newspapers began to mock his daily bulletins of
Examination of some Confeder-
ate recruiting lists for 1861–1862 “All quiet on the Potomac,” and even the patient Lincoln MAIN IDEA
reveals that approximately 5 per- commented that he would like to “borrow McClellan’s Contrasting
cent were 17 or younger—with army if the general himself was not going to use it.” G G Contrast
some as young as 13. The per- Grant and
centage of boys in the Union
“ON TO RICHMOND” After dawdling all winter, McClellan McClellan as
army was lower, perhaps 1.5 per- finally got under way in the spring of 1862. He transported generals.
cent. These figures, however, do the Army of the Potomac slowly toward the Confederate
not count the great number of capital. On the way he encountered a Confederate army
boys who ran away to follow each commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. After a series of
army without officially enlisting.
battles, Johnston was wounded, and command of the army
The young man pictured above
was killed at Petersburg, Virginia, passed to Robert E. Lee.
shortly before the end of the war. Lee was very different from McClellan—modest rather
than vain, and willing to go beyond military textbooks in
his tactics. He had opposed secession. However, he declined
an offer to head the Union army and cast his lot with his beloved state of Virginia.
Determined to save Richmond, Lee moved against McClellan in a series of
battles known collectively as the Seven Days’ Battles, fought from June 25 to
July 1, 1862. Although the Confederates had fewer soldiers and suffered higher
casualties, Lee’s determination and unorthodox tactics so unnerved McClellan
that he backed away from Richmond and headed down the peninsula to the sea.
ANTIETAM Now Lee moved against the enemy’s capital. On August 29 and 30,
his troops won a resounding victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run. A few days
later, they crossed the Potomac into the Union state of Maryland. A resident of
one Potomac River town described the starving Confederate troops.

A PERSONAL VOICE MARY BEDINGER MITCHELL

“ All day they crowded to the doors of our houses, with always the same drawling
complaint: ‘I’ve been a-marchin’ and a-fightin’ for six weeks stiddy, and I ain’t had
n-a-r-thin’ to eat ’cept green apples an’ green cawn, an’ I wish you’d please to
gimme a bite to eat.’ . . . That they could march or fight at all seemed incredible.”
—quoted in Battle Cry of Freedom

344 CHAPTER 11
 At this point McClellan had a
tremendous stroke of luck. A
Union corporal, exploring a
meadow where the Confederates
had camped, found a copy of Lee’s
army orders wrapped around a
bunch of cigars! The plan revealed
that Lee’s and Stonewall Jackson’s
armies were separated for the
moment.
For once McClellan acted
aggressively and ordered his men
forward after Lee. The two armies
fought on September 17 beside
a sluggish creek called the
Antietam (Bn-tCPtEm). The clash
proved to be the bloodiest single-
day battle in American history.
Casualties totaled more than
26,000, as many as in the War of
1812 and the war with Mexico
combined. Instead of pursuing the
battered Confederate army and
possibly ending the Civil War,
however, McClellan, cautious as ▼
always, did nothing. Though the battle itself was a standoff, the South, which had Lincoln and
lost a quarter of its men, retreated the next day across the Potomac into Virginia. McClellan confer
On November 7, 1862, Lincoln fired McClellan. This solved one problem by at Antietam in
getting rid of the general whom Lincoln characterized as having “the slows.” 1862.
However, the president would soon face a diplomatic conflict with Britain and
increased pressure from abolitionists.

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
•Fort Sumter •Stonewall Jackson •Shiloh •Merrimack
•Anaconda plan •George McClellan •David G. Farragut •Robert E. Lee
•Bull Run •Ulysses S. Grant •Monitor •Antietam

MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING

2. TAKING NOTES 3. HYPOTHESIZING 4. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
For each month listed below, create What if Virginia had not seceded What do you think were General
a newspaper headline summarizing from the Union in 1861? Speculate McClellan’s major tactical errors?
a key Civil War battle that occurred. on how this might have affected the Support your response with details
Write your headlines in a chart like course of the war. Support your from the text.
the one shown. answer with examples. Think About:
5. EVALUATING DECISIONS
1861 • Virginia’s influence on other Do you think Lincoln’s decision to
Month Headline Southern states fire McClellan was a good one? Why
•April • Virginia’s location and its human or why not?
•July and material resources
1862 • how the North’s military strategy
Month Headline might have been different
•February
•April
•September

The Civil War 345

 The Politics of War
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names

By issuing the Emancipation The Proclamation was a first •Emancipation •Copperhead

Proclamation, President step toward improving the Proclamation •conscription
Lincoln made slavery the status of African Americans. •habeas corpus
focus of the war.

One American's Story

Shortly after the Civil War began, William Yancey of Alabama and
two other Confederate diplomats asked Britain—a major importer
of Southern cotton—to formally recognize the Confederacy as an
independent nation. The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs met with them twice, but in May 1861, Britain announced
its neutrality. Insulted, Yancey returned home and told his fellow
Southerners not to hope for British aid.

A PERSONAL VOICE WILLIAM YANCEY

“ You have no friends in Europe. . . . The sentiment of Europe is
anti-slavery, and that portion of public opinion which forms, and is
represented by, the government of Great Britain, is abolition. They
will never recognize our independence until our conquering sword
hangs dripping over the prostrate heads of the North. . . . It is an
error to say that ‘Cotton is King.’ It is not. It is a great and influen-
tial factor in commerce, but not its dictator.”
—quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative
William Yancey,
In spite of Yancey’s words, many Southerners continued to hope that eco- 1851

nomic necessity would force Britain to come to their aid. Meanwhile, abolitionists
waged a public opinion war against slavery, not only in Europe, but in the North.

Britain Remains Neutral

A number of economic factors made Britain no longer dependent on Southern
cotton. Not only had Britain accumulated a huge cotton inventory just before the
outbreak of war, it also found new sources of cotton in Egypt and India. Moreover,
when Europe’s wheat crop failed, Northern wheat and corn replaced cotton as an
essential import. As one magazine put it, “Old King Cotton’s dead and buried.”
Britain decided that neutrality was the best policy—at least for a while.
THE TRENT AFFAIR In the fall of 1861, an incident occurred to test that neu-
trality. The Confederate government sent two diplomats, James Mason and John
Slidell, in a second attempt to gain support from Britain and France. The two men

346 CHAPTER 11
 traveled aboard a British merchant ship, the Trent. Captain Charles Wilkes of the The first page of
American warship San Jacinto stopped the Trent and arrested the two men. The Lincoln’s hand-
British threatened war against the Union and dispatched 8,000 troops to Canada. written copy of
the Emancipation
Aware of the need to fight just “one war at a time,” Lincoln freed the two prison-
Proclamation ▼
ers, publicly claiming that Wilkes had acted without orders. Britain was as relieved
as the United States was to find a peaceful way out of the crisis.

Proclaiming Emancipation
As the South struggled in vain to gain foreign recognition, aboli-
tionist feeling grew in the North. Some Northerners believed that
just winning the war would not be enough if the issue of slavery
was not permanently settled.
LINCOLN’S VIEW OF SLAVERY Although Lincoln disliked
slavery, he did not believe that the federal government had the
power to abolish it where it already existed. When Horace
Greeley urged him in 1862 to transform the war into an aboli-
tionist crusade, Lincoln replied that although it was his person-
al wish that all men could be free, his official duty was differ-
ent: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union,
and is not either to save or destroy Slavery.”
As the war progressed, however, Lincoln did find a way to
use his constitutional war powers to end slavery. Slave labor
built fortifications and grew food for the Confederacy. As
commander in chief, Lincoln decided that, just as he could
order the Union army to seize Confederate supplies, he could
also authorize the army to emancipate slaves.
Emancipation offered a strategic benefit. The abolitionist
MAIN IDEA movement was strong in Britain, and emancipation would
Summarizing discourage Britain from supporting the Confederacy.
A In what Emancipation was not just a moral issue; it became a weapon of war. A
way was the
Emancipation
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his
Proclamation a Emancipation Proclamation. The following portion captured national attention.
part of Lincoln’s
military strategy?
from THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION ABRAHAM LINCOLN
“ All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, Lincoln presents
thenceforward, and forever free. . . . And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an the Emancipation
act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the Proclamation to
considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.” his cabinet, 1862.
▼
The Proclamation did not
free any slaves immediately
because it applied only to
areas behind Confederate
lines, outside Union control.
Since the Proclamation was a
military action aimed at the
states in rebellion, it did not
apply to Southern territory
already occupied by Union
troops nor to the slave states
that had not seceded.
 REACTIONS TO THE PROCLAMATION Although the Proclamation did not
have much practical effect, it had immense symbolic importance. For many, the
Proclamation gave the war a high moral purpose by turning the struggle into a
fight to free the slaves. In Washington, D.C., the Reverend Henry M. Turner, a
free-born African American, watched the capital’s inhabitants receive the news of
emancipation.

A PERSONAL VOICE HENRY M. TURNER

“ Men squealed, women fainted, dogs barked, white and colored people shook hands,
songs were sung, and by this time cannons began to fire at the navy yard. . . .
Great processions of colored and white men marched to and fro and passed in
front of the White House. . . . The President came to the window . . . and thou-
sands told him, if he would come out of that palace, they would hug him to death.”
—quoted in Voices from the Civil War

Free blacks also welcomed the section of the Proclamation that allowed them
to enlist in the Union army. Even though many had volunteered at the beginning
of the war, the regular army had
refused to take them. Now they

KEY PLAYERS could fight and help put an end

to slavery.
Not everyone in the North
approved of the Emancipation
Proclamation, however. The
Democrats claimed that it would
only prolong the war by antag-
onizing the South. Many Union
soldiers accepted it grudgingly,
saying they had no love for abo-
litionists or African Americans,
but they would support eman-
cipation if that was what it took
to reunify the nation.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN JEFFERSON DAVIS Confederates reacted to the
1809–1865 1808–1889
Proclamation with outrage.
Abraham Lincoln was born to Jefferson Davis, who was
Jefferson Davis called it the
illiterate parents, and once said named after Thomas
that in his boyhood there was Jefferson, was born in “most execrable [hateful] mea-
“absolutely nothing to excite Kentucky and grew up in sure recorded in the history of
ambition for education.” Yet Mississippi. After graduating guilty man.” As Northern
he hungered for knowledge. from West Point, he served in Democrats had predicted, the
He educated himself and, the army and then became a
Proclamation had made the
after working as rail-splitter, planter. He was elected to
storekeeper, and surveyor, he the U.S. Senate in 1846 and Confederacy more determined
taught himself law. This led to again in 1856, resigning than ever to fight to preserve its
a career in politics—and when Mississippi seceded. way of life.
eventually to the White His election as president of After the Emancipation
House. In Europe at that the Confederacy dismayed Proclamation, compromise was
time, people were more or him. As his wife Varina wrote,
less fixed in the station into “I thought his genius was mil-
no longer an option. The
which they had been born. In itary, but as a party manager Confederacy knew that if it lost, MAIN IDEA
the United States, Lincoln he would not succeed.” its slave-holding society would Analyzing
was free to achieve whatever Varina was right. Davis had perish, and the Union knew that Effects
he could. Small wonder that poor relations with many it could win only by complete- B What effects
he fought to preserve the Confederate leaders, causing did the
ly defeating the Confederacy.
nation he described as “the them to put their states’ wel- Emancipation
last best hope of earth.” fare above the Confederacy’s. From January 1863 on, it was a Proclamation have
fight to the death. B on the war?

348 CHAPTER 11
 Both Sides Face Political Problems
Neither side in the Civil War was completely unified. There were Confederate sym-
pathizers in the North, and Union sympathizers in the South. Such divided loyal-
ties created two problems: How should the respective governments handle their
critics? How could they ensure a steady supply of fighting men for their armies?
DEALING WITH DISSENT Lincoln dealt forcefully with disloyalty. For example,
when a Baltimore crowd attacked a Union regiment a week after Fort Sumter,
Lincoln sent federal troops to Maryland. He also suspended in that state the writ
of habeas corpus, a court order that requires authorities to bring a person held
in jail before the court to determine why he or she is being jailed. Lincoln used
this same strategy later in the war to deal with dissent in other states. As a result,
more than 13,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers in the Union were arrest-
ed and held without trial, although most were quickly released. The president also
seized telegraph offices to make sure no one used the wires for subversion. When
Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that Lincoln had gone beyond
Background his constitutional powers, the president ignored his ruling.
A copperhead is a Those arrested included Copperheads, or Northern Democrats who advo-
poisonous snake cated peace with the South. Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham was the
with natural
most famous Copperhead. Vallandigham was tried and con-
camouflage.
victed by a military court for urging Union soldiers to desert
and for advocating an armistice. ANOTHER

P E R S P EC T I V E
Jefferson Davis at first denounced Lincoln’s suspension
of civil liberties. Later, however, Davis found it necessary to
follow the Union president’s example. In 1862, he sus-
THE CHEROKEE
pended habeas corpus in the Confederacy. AND THE WAR
Lincoln’s action in dramatically expanding presidential Another nation divided by the
MAIN IDEA powers to meet the crises of wartime set a precedent in U.S. Civil War was the Cherokee
Evaluating history. Since then, some presidents have cited war or Nation. Both the North and the
Leadership “national security” as a reason to expand the powers of the South wanted the Cherokee on
C What actions their side. This was because the
executive branch of government. C
did Lincoln take to Cherokee Nation was located in
deal with dissent? CONSCRIPTION Although both armies originally relied on the Indian Territory, an excellent
volunteers, it didn’t take long before heavy casualties and grain- and livestock-producing
area. For their part, the Cherokee
widespread desertions led to conscription, a draft that
felt drawn to both sides—to the
would force certain members of the population to serve in Union because federal treaties
the army. The Confederacy passed a draft law in 1862, and guaranteed Cherokee rights, and
the Union followed suit in 1863. Both laws ran into trouble. to the Confederacy because
The Confederate law drafted all able-bodied white men many Cherokee owned slaves.
between the ages of 18 and 35. (In 1864, as the Confederacy The Cherokee signed a treaty
with the South in October 1861.
suffered more losses, the limits changed to 17 and 50.)
However, the alliance did not last.
However, those who could afford to were allowed to hire Efforts by the pro-Confederate
substitutes to serve in their places. The law also exempted leader Stand Watie (below) to
planters who owned 20 or more slaves. Poor Confederates govern the Cherokee Nation
howled that it was a “rich man’s war but a poor man’s failed, and federal troops
invaded Indian Territory.
fight.” In spite of these protests, almost 90 percent of eligi-
Many Cherokee
ble Southern men served in the Confederate army. deserted from the
The Union law drafted white men between 20 and 45 Confederate army;
Vocabulary for three years, although it, too, allowed draftees to hire some joined the
commutation: the substitutes. It also provided for commutation, or paying a Union. In February
substitution of one 1863, the pro-Union
$300 fee to avoid conscription altogether. In the end, only
kind of payment Cherokee revoked
46,000 draftees actually went into the army. Ninety-two the Confederate
for another
percent of the approximately 2 million soldiers who served treaty.
in the Union army were volunteers—180,000 of them
African-American.

The Civil War 349

 ▼
DRAFT RIOTS In 1863 New York City was a tinderbox waiting to explode. Poor In New York City
people were crowded into slums, crime and disease ran rampant, and poverty was in July 1863, draft
ever-present. Poor white workers—especially Irish immigrants—thought it unfair rioters vented
their anger on
that they should have to fight a war to free slaves. The white workers feared that
African-American
Southern blacks would come north and compete for jobs. When officials began to institutions such
draw names for the draft, angry men gathered all over the city to complain. as this orphanage.
For four days, July 13–16, mobs rampaged through the city. The rioters
wrecked draft offices, Republican newspaper offices, and the homes of antislavery
leaders. They attacked well-dressed men on the street (those likely to be able to
pay the $300 commutation fee) and attacked African Americans. By the time fed-
eral troops ended the melee, more than 100 persons lay dead.
The draft riots were not the only dramatic development away from the
battlefield. Society was also experiencing other types of unrest.

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
•Emancipation Proclamation •habeas corpus •Copperhead •conscription

MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING

2. TAKING NOTES 3. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP 4. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES
In a diagram like the one shown, Do you think that Lincoln’s measures “ To fight against slaveholders,
note the political measures that to deal with disloyalty and dissent
without fighting against slavery,
Lincoln took to solve each problem. represented an abuse of power?
Why or why not? Think About: is but a half-hearted business,
Slavery and paralyzes the hands engaged
• conditions of wartime versus
peacetime in it.”
—Frederick Douglass, quoted in
Dissent • Lincoln’s primary goal Battle Cry of Freedom
• Supreme Court Justice Roger
Shortage of Taney’s view of Lincoln’s powers How do you think Lincoln would have
soldiers replied to Douglass?

350 CHAPTER 11
 Life During Wartime
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names

The Civil War brought about The expansion of roles for African •Fort Pillow •Clara Barton
dramatic social and Americans and women set the •income tax •Andersonville
economic changes in stage for later equalities of
American society. opportunity.

One American's Story

Mary Chesnut, a well-born Southerner whose husband

served in the Confederate government, kept a diary
describing key war events, such as the attack on Fort
Sumter. Her diary paints a vivid picture as well of the
marriages and flirtations, hospital work, and dinner par-
ties that comprised daily life in the South.
In 1864, Chesnut found that her social standing could
no longer protect her from the economic effects of the war.

A PERSONAL VOICE MARY CHESNUT

“ September 19th . . . My pink silk dress I have sold for six
hundred dollars, to be paid in installments, two hundred a
month for three months. And I sell my eggs and butter from
home for two hundred dollars a month. Does it not sound well—
four hundred dollars a month, regularly? In what? ‘In
Confederate money.’ Hélas! [Alas!]” WAR OUTSIDE
—quoted in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War MY WINDOW
Mary Chesnut’s
Diary of the
The “Confederate money” Chesnut received was almost
Civil War
worthless. Inflation, or a sharp increase in the cost of living, had
devalued Confederate currency to such an extent that $400 was worth only a
dollar or two compared to prewar currency. Not all the effects of the Civil War
were economic—the war also caused profound social changes.

African Americans Fight for Freedom

African Americans played an important role in the struggle to end slavery. Some
served as soldiers, while others took action away from the battlefield.
AFRICAN–AMERICAN SOLDIERS When the Civil War started, it was a white
man’s war. Neither the Union nor the Confederacy officially accepted African
Americans as soldiers.
In 1862, Congress passed a law allowing African Americans to serve in the
military. It was only after the Emancipation Proclamation was decreed, however,

The Civil War 351

 that large-scale enlistment occurred.
Although African Americans made up
only 1 percent of the North’s popula-
tion, by war’s end nearly 10 percent of
the Union army was African American.
The majority were former slaves from
Virginia and other slave states, both
Confederate and Union.
Although accepted as soldiers, African
Americans suffered discrimination. They
served in separate regiments commanded by
▼ white officers. Usually African Americans could not
rise above the rank of captain—although Alexander T.
Battery A of the
2nd United States
Augustana, a surgeon, did attain the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. White privates
Colored Artillery earned $13 a month, plus a $3.50 clothing allowance. Black privates earned only
at gun drill $10 a month, with no clothing allowance. Blacks protested, and several regiments
served without pay for months rather than accept the lesser amount. Congress
finally equalized the pay of white and African-American soldiers in 1864.
The mortality rate for African-American soldiers was
higher than that for white soldiers, primarily because
HISTORICAL many African Americans were assigned to labor duty in the

S P O TLIG H T
garrisons, where they were likely to catch typhoid, pneu-
monia, malaria, or some other deadly disease. Then, too,
the Confederacy would not treat captured African-
American soldiers as prisoners of war. Many were executed
on the spot, and those who were not killed were returned
to slavery. A particularly gruesome massacre occurred at
Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in 1864. Confederate troops
killed over 200 African-American prisoners and some
whites as they begged for their lives.
Even though most Southerners opposed the idea of
GLORY FOR THE African-American soldiers, the Confederacy did consider
54TH MASSACHUSETTS drafting slaves and free blacks in 1863 and again in 1864.
In July 1863, the African-American One Louisiana planter argued that since slaves “caused the
54th Massachusetts Infantry, fight,” they should share in the burden of battle. Georgia
including two sons of Frederick
general Howell Cobb responded, “If slaves will make good
Douglass, led an assault on Fort
Wagner, near Charleston harbor. soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong.”
The attack failed. More than 40 SLAVE RESISTANCE IN THE CONFEDERACY As Union
percent of the soldiers were
forces pushed deeper into Confederate territory, thousands
killed. Confederates found the
regiment’s flag (above) under a of slaves sought freedom behind the lines of the Union
pile of dead soldiers. Among the army. Those who remained on plantations sometimes
dead was the white commander, engaged in sabotage, breaking plows, destroying fences,
Colonel Robert G. Shaw. Among and neglecting livestock. When Southern plantation own- MAIN IDEA
the survivors were Douglass’s
ers fled before approaching Union troops, many slaves Drawing
sons and Sergeant William Carney,
the first African American to win a refused to be dragged along. They waited to welcome the Conclusions
Congressional Medal of Honor. Yankees, who had the power to liberate them. A A How did
As the New York Tribune pointed For whites on farms and plantations in the South, slave African Americans
out, “If this Massachusetts 54th contribute to the
resistance compounded the stresses and privations of the struggle to end
had faltered when its trial came,
war. Fearful of a general slave uprising, Southerners tightened slavery?
200,000 troops for whom it was
a pioneer would never have put slave patrols and spread rumors about how Union soldiers
into the field.” Shaw’s father abused runaways. No general uprising occurred, but slave
declared that his son lay “with his resistance gradually weakened the plantation system. By 1864
brave, devoted followers. . . . even many Confederates realized that slavery was doomed.
what a bodyguard he has!”

352 CHAPTER 11
 The War Affects Regional Economies
The decline of the plantation system was not the only economic effect that the
Civil War caused. Other effects included inflation and a new type of federal tax.
In general, the war expanded the North’s economy while shattering that of the
South.
SOUTHERN SHORTAGES The Confederacy soon faced a food shortage due to
three factors: the drain of manpower into the army, the Union occupation of food-
growing areas, and the loss of slaves to work in the fields. Meat became a once-a-
week luxury at best, and even such staples as rice and corn were in short supply.
Food prices skyrocketed. In 1861 the average family spent $6.65 a month on food.
MAIN IDEA By mid-1863, it was spending $68 a month—if it could find any food to buy. The
situation grew so desperate that in 1863 hundreds of women and children—and
Analyzing
Causes some men—stormed bakeries and rioted for bread. Mrs. Roger A. Pryor remembered
B What caused talking to an 18-year-old member of a mob in Richmond on April 2, 1863. B
food shortages in
the South?
A PERSONAL VOICE MRS. ROGER A. PRYOR
ECONOMIC
“ As she raised her hand to remove her sunbonnet, her
loose calico sleeve slipped up, and revealed a mere skele-
ton of an arm. She perceived my expression as I looked at
it, and hastily pulled down her sleeve with a short laugh.
‘This is all that’s left of me!’ she said. ‘It seems real funny, CURRENCY AND INFLATION
don’t it? . . . We are going to the bakeries and each of us To raise revenue, both the Union
will take a loaf of bread. That is little enough for the gov- and the Confederacy issued
ernment to give us after it has taken all our men.’” paper money. The Union passed
—quoted in Battle Cry of Freedom
a law declaring that its currency
was legal tender, so everyone
had to accept it. This national
The mob broke up only when President Jefferson Davis
currency succeeded because the
climbed up on a cart, threw down all the money he had, public maintained confidence in
and ordered the crowd to disperse or be shot. The next day, the Northern economy.
the Confederate government distributed some of its stocks The currency issued by the
of rice. Confederate treasury (pictured
The Union blockade of Southern ports created shortages below) was unbacked by gold.
Added to this, each state in the
of other items, too, including salt, sugar, coffee, nails, nee- Confederacy continued to use its
dles, and medicines. One result was that many Confederates own currency. Because of the
smuggled cotton into the North in exchange for gold, food, war-weakened Southern economy,
and other goods. Deploring this trade with the enemy, one the public lost faith in Confeder-
Confederate general raged that cotton had made “more ate currency—its value plummet-
ed, and prices soared. The
damn rascals on both sides than anything else.”
Confederacy’s war inflation rate
NORTHERN ECONOMIC GROWTH Overall, the war’s reached close to 7,000 percent;
effect on the economy of the North was much more posi- prices were 70 times higher at
the end of the war than at the
tive. Although a few industries, such as cotton textiles,
beginning. The Union inflation
declined, most boomed. The army’s need for uniforms, rate was 80 percent. (See
shoes, guns, and other supplies supported woolen mills, inflation, on page R42 of the
steel foundries, coal mines, and many other industries. Economics Handbook.)
MAIN IDEA Because the draft reduced the available work force, western
wheat farmers bought reapers and other labor-saving
Analyzing
Causes machines, which benefited the companies that manufac-
C Why was the tured those machines. C
war less damaging The economic boom had a dark side, though. Wages
to the economy of
did not keep up with prices, and many people’s standard of
the North than to
that of the South? living declined. When white male workers went out on
strike, employers hired free blacks, immigrants, women,
and boys to replace them for lower pay.

The Civil War 353

 Northern women—who like many Southern women replaced men on farms
and in city jobs—also obtained government jobs for the first time. They worked
mostly as clerks, copying ledgers and letters by hand. Although they earned less than
men, they remained a regular part of the Washington work force after the war.
Because of the booming economy and rising prices, many businesses in the
North made immense profits. This was especially true of those with government
contracts, mostly because such contractors often cheated. They supplied uniforms
and blankets made of “shoddy”—fibers reclaimed from rags—that came apart in
the rain. They passed off spoiled meat as fresh and demanded twice the usual
price for guns. This corruption spilled over into the general society. The New York
Herald commented on the changes in the American character: “The individual
who makes the most money—no matter how—and spends the most—no matter
for what—is considered the greatest man. . . . The world has seen its iron age, its
silver age, its golden age, and its brazen age. This is the age of shoddy.”
Congress decided to help pay for the war by tapping its citizens’ wealth. In
1863 Congress enacted the tax law that authorized the nation’s first income tax,
a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual’s income.

Soldiers Suffer on Both Sides

Both Union and Confederate soldiers had marched off to war thinking it would
prove to be a glorious affair. They were soon disillusioned, not just by heavy casu-
alties but also by poor living conditions, diet, and medical care.
LIVES ON THE LINES Garbage disposal and latrines in army camps were almost
unknown. Although army regulations called for washing one’s hands and face every
day and taking a complete bath once a week, many soldiers failed to do so. As a
result, body lice, dysentery, and diarrhea were common.
Army rations were far from appealing. Union troops subsisted on beans,
bacon, and hardtack—square biscuits that were supposedly hard enough to stop
a bullet. As one Northerner wrote:
Wounded Union
The soldiers’ fare is very rough,
troops recuperate
after battle near a The bread is hard, the beef is tough;
makeshift field If they can stand it, it will be,
hospital. Through love of God, a mystery.
▼
 Science

BATTLEFIELD MEDICINE Clara Barton

▼
In the Civil War, weapons technology overtook medical technol- As a war nurse, Clara
ogy. Minié balls, soft lead bullets, caused traumatic wounds Barton collected and dis-
that could often be treated only by amputation. As the effects of tributed supplies and dug
bacteria were not yet known, surgeons never sterilized instru- bullets out of soldiers’
ments, making infection one of soldiers’ worst enemies. bodies with her penknife.
Barton was particularly
Field Hospitals ▼ good at anticipating troop
The badly wounded were taken to field hospitals, movements and sometimes
like this one at Gettysburg. The surgeon is arrived at the battlefield before
preparing for an amputation; the fighting had even begun. Most
the man behind the patient women, however, served in hospitals rather than at the
administers an anesthetic, front lines. On the battlefield soldiers were usually
probably chloroform. attended by male medics.

Surgeon’s Tools ▼
A surgeon’s kit might con-
tain cloth for bandages or
administering chloroform,
opium pills to kill pain,
forceps and knives for
cleaning wounds, and
saws for amputa-
tions.

Confederate troops fared equally poorly. A common food was “cush,” a stew
of small cubes of beef and crumbled cornbread mixed with bacon grease. Fresh
vegetables were hardly ever available. Both sides loved coffee, but Southern sol-
diers had only substitutes brewed from peanuts, dried apples, or corn.
CIVIL WAR MEDICINE Soon after Fort Sumter fell, the federal government set up
the United States Sanitary Commission. Its task was twofold: to improve the
hygienic conditions of army camps and to recruit and train nurses. The “Sanitary”
proved a great success. It sent out agents to teach soldiers such things as how to
avoid polluting their water supply. It developed hospital trains and hospital ships
to transport wounded men from the battlefield.
At the age of 60, Dorothea Dix became the nation’s first superintendent of
women nurses. To discourage women looking for romance, Dix insisted applicants
be at least 30 and “very plain-looking.” Impressed by the work of women nurses
he observed, the surgeon general required that at least one-third of Union hospi-
tal nurses be women; some 3,000 served. Union nurse Clara Barton often cared
for the sick and wounded at the front lines. After her courage under fire at
MAIN IDEA Antietam, a surgeon described her as the “angel of the battlefield.”
Summarizing As a result of the Sanitary Commission’s work, the death rate among Union
D How did wounded, although terrible by 20th-century standards, showed considerable
the Sanitary improvement over that of previous wars. D
Commission
The Confederacy did not have a Sanitary Commission, but thousands of Southern
improve medical
treatment during women volunteered as nurses. Sally Tompkins, for example, performed so heroically
the war? in her hospital duties that she eventually was commissioned as a captain.

The Civil War 355

The Confederate
prison at
Andersonville,
Georgia, in 1864
▼

PRISONS Improvements in hygiene and nursing did not reach the war prisons,
where conditions were even worse than in army camps. The worst Confederate
prison, at Andersonville, Georgia, jammed 33,000 men into 26 acres, or about
34 square feet per man. The prisoners had no shelter from the broiling sun or
chilling rain except what they made themselves by rigging primitive tents of blan-
kets and sticks. They drank from the same stream that served as their sewer. About
a third of Andersonville’s prisoners died. Part of the blame rested with the camp’s
commander, Henry Wirz (whom the North eventually executed as a war crimi-
nal). The South’s lack of food and tent canvas also contributed to the appalling
conditions. In addition, the prisons were overcrowded because the North had
halted prisoner exchanges when the South refused to return African-American
soldiers who had been captured in battle.
Prison camps in the North—such as those at Elmira, New York, and at Camp
Douglas, Illinois—were only slightly better. Northern prisons provided about five
times as much space per man, barracks for sleeping, and adequate food. However,
thousands of Confederates, housed in quarters with little or no heat, contracted
pneumonia and died. Hundreds of others suffered from dysentery and malnutri-
tion, from which some did not recover. Historians estimate that 15 percent of
Union prisoners in Southern prisons died, while 12 percent of Confederate pris-
oners died in Northern prisons.
A series of battles in the Mississippi Valley and in the East soon sent a fresh
wave of prisoners of war flooding into prison camps.

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
•Fort Pillow •income tax •Clara Barton •Andersonville

MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING

2. TAKING NOTES 3. ANALYZING EFFECTS 4. SYNTHESIZING
In a two-column chart, list the What effects did the Civil War have Imagine you were one of the
economic changes that occurred in on women and African Americans? Northern women and doctors
the North and South as a result of Think About: who convinced the government to
the Civil War. Explain how these • new opportunities in both the establish the Sanitary Commission.
changes affected the two regions. North and the South What reasons would you have
ECONOMIC CHANGES • discriminatory practices that per- offered to justify this commission?
sisted for both groups Use details from the text to support
North South
your response.

356 CHAPTER 11
 The North
Takes Charge
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names

Key victories at Vicksburg These victories clinched the •Gettysburg •William Tecumseh
and Gettysburg helped the North’s win and led to the •Chancellorsville Sherman
Union wear down the preservation of the Union. •Vicksburg •Appomattox
Confederacy. •Gettysburg Court House
Address

One American's Story

Shortly after three o’clock on the

afternoon of July 3, 1863, from
behind a stone wall on a ridge south
of the little town of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, Union troops watched
thousands of Confederate soldiers
advance toward them across an open
field. Union officer Frank Aretas
Haskell described the scene.

A PERSONAL VOICE
FRANK ARETAS HASKELL
“ More than half a mile their front
extends . . . man touching man, rank
▼
pressing rank. . . . The red flags wave, their horsemen gallop up and down, the A Confederate
arms of [thirteen] thousand men, barrel and bayonet, gleam in the sun, a sloping charge during the
forest of flashing steel. Right on they move, as with one soul, in perfect order battle of
Gettysburg
without impediment of ditch, or wall, or stream, over ridge and slope, through
orchard and meadow, and cornfield, magnificent, grim, irresistible.”
—quoted in The Civil War: An Illustrated History

An hour later, half of the Confederate force lay dead or wounded, cut down
by crossfire from massed Union guns. Because of the North’s heavy weaponry, it
had become suicide for unprotected troops to assault a strongly fortified position.

Armies Clash at Gettysburg

The July 3 infantry charge was part of a three-day battle at Gettysburg, which
many historians consider the turning point of the Civil War. The battle of
Gettysburg crippled the South so badly that General Lee would never again pos-
sess sufficient forces to invade a Northern state.

The Civil War 357

 Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863
NEW
PENNSYLVANIA JERSEY
Gettysburg

OHIO MARYLAND
DELAWARE
Washington, D.C.
College
WEST VIRGINIA
Gettysburg VIRGINIA
Richmond ATLANTIC
OCEAN
KENTUCKY

Seminary

R ock
NORTH
CAROLINA Union
Run

Cemetery

Creek
E
DG

Hill
Confederate
by

RI

ug h
illo SOUTH CAROLINA
RY

W
INA

C E M ETERY RIDGE
S EM

wheat
field

July 1 July 2 July 3

N
Confederate
Little Round
Top positions
peach W E
orchard Union positions
S Roads
Round Top
Railroad
Confederate assaults
GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER
0 .5 1 mile
1. Movement Which side clearly took the offensive in
the battle of Gettysburg? 0 .5 1 kilometer
2. Location Based on the information in the larger map,
what factor may have made it easier for reinforcements
to enter the Gettysburg area?

PRELUDE TO GETTYSBURG The year 1863 actually had gone well for the South.
During the first four days of May, the South defeated the North at
Chancellorsville, Virginia. Lee outmaneuvered Union general Joseph Hooker and
forced the Union army to retreat. The North’s only consolation after
Chancellorsville came as the result of an accident. As General Stonewall Jackson
returned from a patrol on May 2, Confederate guards mistook him for a Yankee and
shot him in the left arm. A surgeon amputated his arm the following day. When Lee
heard the news, he exclaimed, “He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.”
But the true loss was still to come; Jackson caught pneumonia and died May 10.
Despite Jackson’s tragic death, Lee decided to press his military advantage and
invade the North. He needed supplies, he hoped that an invasion would force
Lincoln to pull troops away from Vicksburg, and he thought that a major MAIN IDEA
Confederate victory on Northern soil might tip the political balance of power in
Analyzing
the Union to pro-Southern Democrats. Accordingly, he crossed the Potomac into Motives
Maryland and then pushed on into Pennsylvania. A A What did Lee
hope to gain by
GETTYSBURG The most decisive battle of the war was fought near Gettysburg, invading the
Pennsylvania. The town was an unlikely spot for a bloody battle—and indeed, no North?
one planned to fight there.
Confederate soldiers led by A. P. Hill, many of them barefoot, heard there was
a supply of footwear in Gettysburg and went to find it, and also to meet up with
forces under General Lee. When Hill’s troops marched toward Gettysburg, they
ran into a couple of brigades of Union cavalry under the command of John
Buford, an experienced officer from Illinois.

358 CHAPTER 11
 Buford ordered his men to take defensive positions on the hills and ridges sur-
rounding the town, from which they engaged Hill’s troops. The shooting attract-
ed more troops and each side sent for reinforcements.
The Northern armies, now under the command of General George Meade,
MAIN IDEA that were north and west of Gettysburg began to fall back under a furious rebel
assault. The Confederates took control of the town. Lee knew, however, that the
Analyzing
Effects battle would not be won unless the Northerners were also forced to yield their
B Why was it positions on Cemetery Ridge, the high ground south of Gettysburg. B
important that the
Union held on to THE SECOND DAY On July 2, almost 90,000 Yankees and 75,000 Confederates
the high ground in stood ready to fight for Gettysburg. Lee ordered General James Longstreet to
Gettysburg? attack Cemetery Ridge, which was held by Union troops. At about 4:00 P.M.,
Longstreet’s troops advanced from Seminary Ridge, through the peach orchard
and wheat field that stood between them and the Union position.
The yelling Rebels overran Union troops who had mistakenly left their posi-
tions on Little Round Top, a hill that overlooked much of the southern portion
of the battlefield. As a brigade of Alabamans approached the hill, however, Union
leaders noticed the undefended position. Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, who had
been a language professor before the war, led his Maine troops to meet the Rebels,
and succeeded in repulsing repeated Confederate attacks. When his soldiers ran
short of ammunition and more than a third of the brigade had fallen,
Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge at the Confederates.
The Rebels, exhausted by the uphill fighting and the 25-
mile march of the previous day, were shocked by the Union History Through
assault and surrendered in droves. Chamberlain and his men
succeeded in saving the Union lines from certain rebel artillery
attacks from Little Round Top. Although the Union troops had
GETTYSBURG CYCLORAMA
given some ground, their lines still held at the close of day.
(detail) (1884)
THE THIRD DAY Lee was optimistic, however. With one more Twenty years after the fact,
day of determined attack, he felt he could break the Union French artist Paul Philippoteaux
depicted the battle of Gettysburg
defenses. Early in the afternoon of July 3, Lee ordered an
in a giant painting. To ensure
artillery barrage on the middle of the Union lines. For two that the 360-foot-long and 26-
hours, the two armies fired at one another in a vicious foot-high work was realistic,
exchange that could be heard in Pittsburgh. When the Union Philippoteaux studied the battle
site and interviewed survivors.
What details in the painting
contribute to its realism and
sense of action?
 “ It’s all my fault” artillery fell silent, Lee insisted that Longstreet press forward.
GEN. ROBERT E. LEE ON THE
Longstreet reluctantly ordered his men, including those under the
FAILURE OF PICKETT’S CHARGE command of General Pickett, to attack the center of the Union lines.
Deliberately, they marched across the farmland toward the Union
high ground. Suddenly, Northern artillery renewed its barrage. Some of the
Confederates had nearly reached the Union lines when Yankee infantry fired on
them as well. Devastated, the Confederates staggered back. The Northerners had
succeeded in holding the high ground south of Gettysburg.
Lee sent cavalry led by General James E. B. (Jeb) Stuart circling around the
right flank of Meade’s forces, hoping they would surprise the Union troops from
the rear and meet Longstreet’s men in the middle. Stuart’s campaign stalled, how-
ever, when his men clashed with Union forces under David Gregg three miles away.
Not knowing that Gregg had stopped Stuart nor that Lee’s army was severely
weakened, Union general Meade never ordered a counterattack. After the battle,
Lee gave up any hopes of invading the North and led his army in a long, painful
retreat back to Virginia through a pelting rain.
The three-day battle produced staggering losses. Total casualties were more MAIN IDEA
than 30 percent. Union losses included 23,000 men killed or wounded. For the Analyzing
Confederacy, approximately 28,000 were killed or wounded. Fly-infested corpses Effects
C Why was
lay everywhere in the July heat; the stench was unbearable. Lee would continue
the battle of
to lead his men brilliantly in the next two years of the war, but neither he nor the Gettysburg a
Confederacy would ever recover from the loss at Gettysburg or the surrender of disaster for the
Vicksburg, which occured the very next day. C South?

Grant Wins at Vicksburg

While the Army of the Potomac was turning back the Confederates in central
Pennsylvania, Union general Ulysses S. Grant continued his campaign in the
U. S. Grant, west. Vicksburg, Mississippi, was one of only two Confederate holdouts pre-
photographed in venting the Union from taking complete control of the Mississippi River, an
August 1864 ▼ important waterway for transporting goods.
VICKSBURG UNDER SIEGE In the spring of 1863, Grant
sent a cavalry brigade to destroy rail lines in central
Mississippi and draw attention away from the port city.
While the Confederate forces were distracted, Grant was
able to land infantry south of Vicksburg late on April 30. In
18 days, Union forces whipped several rebel units and
sacked Jackson, the capital of the state.
Their confidence growing with every victory, Grant
and his troops rushed to Vicksburg. Two frontal assaults on
the city failed; so, in the last week of May 1863, Grant set-
tled in for a siege. He set up a steady barrage of artillery,
shelling the city from both the river and the land for sever-
al hours a day and forcing its residents to take shelter in
caves that they dug out of the yellow clay hillsides.
Food supplies ran so low that people ate dogs and
mules. At last some of the starving Confederate soldiers
defending Vicksburg sent their commander a petition say-
ing, “If you can’t feed us, you’d better surrender.”
On July 3, 1863, the same day as Pickett’s charge, the
Confederate commander of Vicksburg asked Grant for terms
of surrender. The city fell on July 4. Five days later Port
Hudson, Louisiana, the last Confederate holdout on the
Mississippi, also fell—and the Confederacy was cut in two.
 Union forces
Union positions Vicksburg Campaign, April–July 1863
Confederate forces

er
Confederate positions

R iv
oo
i lli

M
Union victory k en’s Be MISSISSIPPI

az
nd Y
Railroad
0 10 20 miles an
erm J o h n sto n
Duckport Sh Big Black
0 10 20 kilometers Canal Bolton
IIIII River,
May 17 Bridgeport Depot
Clinton
G rant
April 20

II
II
Grant moves main body Champion and
Williams-Grant
Hill, Sherman

er
of Union forces south. Canal
May 16 McPherson Jackson,

R iv
i Siege of Vicksburg n
N ipp begins May 19. r ma Raymond, May 14
iss She May 12
City surrenders d

Miss
July 4. an
W E nd
na
C ler
S
New Carthage Mc
ant
Gr R iv e
r
ck
LOUISIANA Bla
Bi
g GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER
Rocky Springs 1. Movement How many days did
Hard
Times it take Union forces to reach
e Vicksburg after the victory at
Big B a y o u Pierr
April 30 Jackson?
Grant’s army crosses 2. Location Which river lies just
Mississippi unopposed. Port Gibson,
Bruinsburg May 1 to the east of Vicksburg?

The Gettysburg Address

In November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg. The
first speaker was Edward Everett, a noted orator, who gave a flowery two-hour
oration. Then Abraham Lincoln spoke for a little more than two minutes.
According to the historian Garry Wills, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address “remade
America.” Before the war, people said, “The United States are.” After Lincoln’s
speech, they said, “The United States is.”

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS ABRAHAM LINCOLN

“ Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new
nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final
resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can
not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It
MAIN IDEA is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
Summarizing who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedi-
D What beliefs cated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take
about the United
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devo-
States did Lincoln
express in the tion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that
Gettysburg this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of
Address? the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” D
—The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

The Civil War 361

 The Confederacy Wears Down
The twin defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg cost the South much of its limited
fighting power. The Confederacy was already low on food, shoes, uniforms, guns,
and ammunition. No longer able to attack, it could hope only to hang on long
enough to destroy Northern morale and work toward an armistice—a cease-fire
agreement based on mutual consent—rather than a surrender. That plan proved
increasingly unlikely, however. Southern newspapers, state legislatures, and indi-
viduals began to call openly for an end to the hostilities, and President Lincoln
finally found not just one but two generals who would fight.
CONFEDERATE MORALE As war progressed, morale on the Confederacy’s
home front deteriorated. The Confederate Congress passed a weak resolution in
1863 urging planters to grow fewer cash crops like cotton and tobacco and
increase production of food. Farmers resented the tax that took part of their pro-
duce and livestock, especially since many rich planters continued to cultivate cot-
ton and tobacco—in some cases
even selling crops to the North.

KEY PLAYERS Many soldiers deserted after

receiving letters from home
about the lack of food and the
shortage of farm labor to work
the farms. In every Southern
state except South Carolina,
there were soldiers who decided
to turn and fight for the North—
for example, 2,400 Floridians
served in the Union army.
Discord in the Confederate
government made it impossible
for Jefferson Davis to govern
effectively. Members of the
ULYSSES S. GRANT ROBERT E. LEE Confederate Congress squab-
1822–1885 1807–1870 bled among themselves. In
U. S. Grant once said of him- Lee was an aristocrat. His South Carolina, the governor
self, “A military life had no father had been one of
charms for me.” Yet, a military George Washington’s best
was upset when troops from his
man was what he was des- generals, and his wife was state were placed under the
tined to be. He fought in the the great-granddaughter of command of officers from
war with Mexico—even though Martha Washington. As a another state.
he termed it “wicked”— man who believed slavery In 1863, North Carolinians
because he believed his duty was evil, Lee nonetheless
who wanted peace held more
was to serve his country. His fought for the Confederacy
next post was in the West, out of loyalty to his beloved than 100 open meetings in their
where Grant grew so lonely home state of Virginia. “I did state. A similar peace movement
for his family that he resigned. only what my duty demanded. sprang up in Georgia in early
When the Civil War began, I could have taken no other 1864. Although these move-
Grant served as colonel of the course without dishonor,” he
ments failed, by mid-1864,
Illinois volunteers because said.
General McClellan had been As a general, Lee was Assistant Secretary of War John
too busy to see him! brilliant, but he seldom chal- Campbell was forced to acknowl- MAIN IDEA
However, once Grant began lenged civilian leaders about edge that active opposition to
Analyzing
fighting in Tennessee, Lincoln their failure to provide his the war “in the mountain dis- Effects
recognized his abilities. When army with adequate supplies. E How did
tricts of North Carolina, South
newspapers demanded Grant’s His soldiers—who called him discontent among
dismissal after Shiloh, Lincoln Uncle Robert—almost wor- Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama
members of the
replied, “I can’t spare this shiped him because he insist- menaces the existence of the
Confederate
man. He fights.” ed on sharing their hardships. Confederacy as fatally as . . . the Congress affect
armies of the United States.” E the war?

362 CHAPTER 11
 or
ke
La
Lak
eH
WISC.
io
nta r

uro
Lake Michigan
L. O

n
Area controlled by Union
Area won by Union New York City
40°N Civil War, 1863–1865
MICHIGAN
ie
Area controlled by Confederacy Er PENN.
ke NEW JERSEY
La
Union forces Gettysburg,
Philadelphia PENNSYLVANIA July 1–3, 1863
Confederate forces
IOWA OHIO MD. DELAWARE
Union victory IND. Washington, D.C.
ILL. to MARYLAND

Po
ma

Lee
Confederate victory O h io R . VIRGINIA c
R.
Washington, D.C.
Union blockade Charleston Richmond

G r a nt
Capital KENTUCKY The Wilderness, Chancellorsville,
MO. May 5–7, 1864 May 1–5, 1863
Raleigh
0 150 300 miles Nashville Chattanooga– Apr. 13, 1865 Rap

Che
Dec. 15–16, 1864 Lookout N.C. e pa
h an
0 150 300 kilometers TENN. Mountain

Le

sap
no
Nov. 25, 1863 Wilmington Spotsylvania ck
R.

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an Court House, James
erm Feb. 22, 1865
Memphis Sh May 8–19, 1864 R.
Ho Atlanta S.C.
od VIRGINIA Richmond

ay
Sept. 2, 1864 Lee
Mississippi R.

Chickamauga Sh Appomattox
nt

ARK. Court House, Cold Harbor,

Gra

Sept. 19–20, 1863 erm 30°N

MISS. GA. an Savannah Apr. 9, 1865– Gra nt June 3, 1864
Vicksburg Montgomery Dec. 21, 1864 Lee surrenders Petersburg,
Apr.–July, to Grant June 1864–
TEXAS 1863 ALA. April 1865
LA. N
Mobile Pensacola
E
Port Hudson
July 8, 1863 Farragu Mobile Bay W
t
New Orleans Aug. 5, 1864
FLORIDA S
ATL A NT IC OCEAN

Gulf of Mexico GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER

1. Movement What route did General
Sherman and his troops follow from
Chattanooga?
90°W 80°W
2. Movement After what battle did Grant and
Lee go to Appomattox?

GRANT APPOINTS SHERMAN In March 1864, President Lincoln appointed

Ulysses S. Grant, the hero of the battle at Vicksburg, commander of all Union
armies. Grant in turn appointed William Tecumseh Sherman as commander
of the military division of the Mississippi. These two appointments would change
the course of the war.
Old friends and comrades in arms, both men believed in total war. They
believed that it was essential to fight not only the South’s armies and government
but its civilian population as well. They reasoned, first, that civilians produced the
weapons, grew the food, and transported the goods on which the armies relied,
and, second, that the strength of the people’s will kept the war going. If the
Union destroyed that will to fight, the Confederacy would collapse.
GRANT AND LEE IN VIRGINIA Grant’s overall strategy was to immobilize Lee’s
army in Virginia while Sherman raided Georgia. Even if Grant’s casualties ran
twice as high as those of Lee—and they did—the North could afford it. The South
could not.
Starting in May 1864, Grant threw his troops into battle after battle, the first
in a wooded area, known as the Wilderness, near Fredericksburg, Virginia. The
fighting was brutal, made even more so by the fires spreading through the thick
trees. The string of battles continued at Spotsylvania, at Cold Harbor (where
Grant lost 7,000 men in one hour), and finally at Petersburg, which would remain
under Union attack from June 1864 to April 1865.
During the period from May 4 to June 18, 1864, Grant lost nearly 60,000
men—which the North could replace—to Lee’s 32,000 men—which the South
could not replace. Democrats and Northern newspapers called Grant a butcher.
However, Grant kept going because he had promised Lincoln, “Whatever hap-
pens, there will be no turning back.”

The Civil War 363

 SHERMAN’S MARCH After Sherman’s
army occupied the transportation cen-
ter of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, a
Confederate army tried to circle around
him and cut his railroad supply lines.
Sherman decided to fight a different
battle. He would abandon his supply
lines and march southeast through
Georgia, creating a wide path of
destruction and living off the land as
he went. He would make Southerners
“so sick of war that generations would
pass away before they would again
appeal to it.” In mid-November he
burned most of Atlanta and set out
toward the coast. A Georgia girl
described the result.

A PERSONAL VOICE ELIZA FRANCES ANDREWS

“ The fields were trampled down and the road was lined with carcasses of horses,
▼ hogs, and cattle that the invaders, unable either to consume or to carry away with
them, had wantonly shot down, to starve out the people and prevent them from
Sherman (front)
instructed his making their crops. . . . The dwellings that were standing all showed signs of pil-
troops in Atlanta lage . . . while here and there lone chimney stacks, ‘Sherman’s sentinels,’ told of
to destroy train homes laid in ashes.”
tracks by heating —quoted in Voices from the Civil War
and bending the
metal rails. After taking Savannah just before Christmas, Sherman’s troops turned
north to help Grant “wipe out Lee.” Following behind them now were about
25,000 former slaves eager for freedom. As the army marched through South
Carolina in 1865, it inflicted even more destruction than it had in Georgia. As
one Union private exclaimed, “Here is where treason began and, by God, here
is where it shall end!” The army burned almost every house in its path. In MAIN IDEA
contrast, when Sherman’s forces entered North Carolina, which had been the Analyzing
last state to secede, they stopped destroying private homes and—anticipating Motives
the end of the war—began handing out food and other supplies. F F What were
Sherman’s
THE ELECTION OF 1864 As the 1864 presidential election approached, Lincoln objectives in
faced heavy opposition. Many Democrats, dismayed at the war’s length, its high marching his
casualty rates, and recent Union losses, joined pro-Southern party members to troops from
Atlanta to
nominate George McClellan on a platform of an immediate armistice. Still resent-
Savannah?
ful over having been fired by Lincoln, McClellan was delighted to run.
Lincoln’s other opponents, the Radical Republicans, favored a harsher pro-
posal than Lincoln’s for readmitting the Confederate states. They formed a third
political party and nominated John C. Frémont as their candidate. To attract
Democrats, Lincoln’s supporters dropped the Republican name, retitled them-
selves the National Union Party, and chose Andrew Johnson, a pro-Union
Democrat from Tennessee, as Lincoln’s running mate.
Lincoln was pessimistic about his chances. “I am going to be beaten,” he said
in August, “and unless some great change takes place, badly beaten.” However,
some great change did take place. On August 5, Admiral David Farragut entered
Mobile Bay in Alabama and within three weeks shut down that major Southern
port. On September 2, Sherman telegraphed, “Atlanta is ours.” By month’s end,
Frémont had withdrawn from the presidential race. On October 19, General

364 CHAPTER 11
 Thomas Lovell’s

▼
Surrender at
Appomattox is a
modern rendering
of Lee’s surrender
to Grant.
Philip Sheridan finally chased the Confederates out of the Shenandoah Valley in
northern Virginia. The victories buoyed the North, and with the help of absentee
ballots cast by Union soldiers, Lincoln won a second term.
THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX By late March 1865, it was clear that the
end of the Confederacy was near. Grant and Sheridan were approaching
Richmond from the west, while Sherman was approaching from the south. On
April 2—in response to news that Lee and his troops had been overcome by
Grant’s forces at Petersburg—President Davis and his government abandoned
their capital, setting it afire to keep the Northerners from taking it. Despite the
fire-fighting efforts of Union troops, flames destroyed some 900 buildings and
damaged hundreds more.
Lee and Grant met to arrange a Confederate surrender on April 9, 1865, in a
Virginia village called Appomattox (BpQE-mBtPEks) Court House. At Lincoln’s
request, the terms were generous. Grant paroled Lee’s soldiers and sent them
home with their personal possessions, horses, and three days’ rations. Officers
were permitted to keep their side arms. Within two months all remaining
Confederate resistance collapsed. After four long years, at tremendous human and
economic costs, the Civil War was over.

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
•Gettysburg •Vicksburg •William Tecumseh Sherman •Appomattox Court House
•Chancellorsville •Gettysburg Address

MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING

2. TAKING NOTES 3. EVALUATING 4. EVALUATING DECISIONS
Create a time line of the major Do you think that a general’s win- Grant and Sherman presented a
battles and political events relating loss record on the battlefield is logical rationale for using the
to the final two years of the Civil the best gauge of measuring strategy of total war. Do you
War. Use the dates already plotted greatness as a military leader? think the end—defeating the
on the time line below as a guide. Why or why not? Think About: Confederacy—justified the means—
• Grant’s campaign in Virginia, causing harm to civilians? Explain.
May March April Sherman’s march to Atlanta, 5. ANALYZING MOTIVES
and Lee’s surrender Why do you think Lincoln urged
1863 1864 1865
• Democrats’ and Northern news- generous terms for a Confederate
Which event was the turning point? papers’ criticism of Grant surrender?
Why? • the criteria you would use to
evaluate a military leader

The Civil War 365

 The Legacy
of the War
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names

The Civil War settled long- The federal government •National Bank •Red Cross
standing disputes over established supreme authority, Act •John Wilkes
states’ rights and slavery. and no state has threatened •Thirteenth Booth
secession since. Amendment

One American's Story

Garland H. White, a former slave from Virginia,

marched with other Yankee soldiers into the
Confederate capital of Richmond after it fell. Now
chaplain of the 28th United States Colored troops,
White was returning to the state where he had
once served in bondage. As the soldiers marched
along the city streets, thousands of African
Americans cheered. A large crowd of soldiers and
civilians gathered in the neighborhood where the
slave market had been. Garland White remem-
bered the scene.

A PERSONAL VOICE GARLAND H. WHITE

“ I marched at the head of the column, and soon
I found myself called upon by the officers and
men of my regiment to make a speech, with
which, of course, I readily complied. A vast multi- ▼
tude assembled on Broad Street, and I was aroused amid the shouts of 10,000
Union troops in
voices, and proclaimed for the first time in that city freedom to all [humankind].”
the South
—quoted in Been in the Storm So Long sometimes came
upon slave
Freedom for slaves was not the only legacy of the Civil War. The struggle markets like this
transformed the nation’s economy, its government, the conduct of warfare, and one.
the future careers of many of its participants.

The War Changes the Nation

In 1869 Professor George Ticknor of Harvard commented that since the Civil War,
“It does not seem to me as if I were living in the country in which I was born.”
The Civil War caused tremendous political, economic, technological, and social
change in the United States. It also exacted a high price in the cost of human life.

366 CHAPTER 11
 POLITICAL CHANGES Decades before the war, Southern states had threatened
secession when federal policies angered them. After the war, the federal government
assumed supreme national authority and no state has ever seceded again. The states’
rights issue did not go away; it simply led in a different direction from secession.
Today, arguments about states’ rights versus federal control focus on such issues as
whether the state or national government should determine how to use local funds.
In addition to ending the threat of secession, the war greatly increased the fed-
eral government’s power. Before the Civil War, the federal government had little
impact on most people’s daily lives. Most citizens dealt only with their county
governments. During the war, however, the federal government reached into
people’s pockets, taxing private incomes. It also required everyone to accept its
MAIN IDEA new paper currency (even those who had previously contracted to be repaid in
Analyzing
coins). Most dramatically, the federal government tore reluctant men from their
Effects families to fight in the war. After the war, U.S. citizens could no longer assume that
A How did the the national government in Washington was too far away to bother them. A
power of the
federal government ECONOMIC CHANGES The Civil War had a profound impact on the nation’s
increase during economy. Between 1861 and 1865, the federal government did much to help
the war? business, in part through subsidizing construction of a national railroad system.
The government also passed the National Bank Act of 1863, which set up a sys-
tem of federally chartered banks, set requirements for loans, and provided for
banks to be inspected. These measures helped make banking safer for investors.
The economy of the Northern states boomed. Northern entrepreneurs had
grown rich selling war supplies to the government and thus had money to invest
in new businesses after the war. As army recruitment created a labor shortage in
the North, the sale of labor-saving agricultural tools such as the reaper increased
dramatically. By war’s end, large-scale commercial agriculture had taken hold.
Though both
Union and
The war devastated the South economically. It took away the South’s source
Confederate of cheap labor—slavery—and also wrecked most of the region’s industry. It wiped
soldiers were out 40 percent of the livestock, destroyed much of the South’s farm machinery
lucky to escape and railroads, and left thousands of acres of land uncultivated.
the war with their The economic gap between North and South had widened drastically. Before
lives, thousands— the war, Southern states held 30 percent of the national wealth; in 1870 they held
like this young
amputee—faced
an uncertain The Costs of the Civil War
future.
▼ Casualties Economic Costs
800
•Union war costs totaled $2.3 billion.
700
•Confederate war costs ran to $1 billion.
Casualties (in thousands)

600
•Union war costs increased the national
500 debt from $65 million in 1860 to
400 $2.7 billion in 1865.
300 • Confederate debt ran over $1.8 billion
200 in 1864.

100 • Union inflation peaked at 182% in 1864.

0 •Confederate inflation rose to 7,000%.
Civil War: Civil War: All Other
Union Confederacy U.S. Wars
Sources: The World Book Encyclopedia; Historical Statistics of the United
States: Colonial Times to 1970; The United States Civil War Center

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Data

1. Based on the bar graph, how did the combined Union and Confederate
losses compare with those of other wars?
2. Why was inflation worse in the Confederacy than in the Union?

The Civil War 367

 only 12 percent. In 1860, Southerners earned about 70 percent of the Northern
average; in 1870, they earned less than 40 percent. This economic disparity
between the regions would not diminish until the 20th century.
COSTS OF THE WAR The human costs of the Civil War were staggering. They
affected almost every American family. Approximately 360,000 Union soldiers
and 260,000 Confederates died, nearly as many as in all other American wars
combined. Another 275,000 Union soldiers and 225,000 Confederates were
wounded. Veterans with missing limbs became a common sight nation wide. In
addition, military service had occupied some 2,400,000 men—nearly 10 percent
of the nation’s population of approximately 31,000,000—for four long years. It
disrupted their education, their careers, and their families.
The Civil War’s economic costs were just as extensive. Historians estimate
that the Union and the Confederate governments spent a combined total of
about $3.3 billion during the four years of war, or more than twice what the gov-
ernment had spent in the previous 80 years! The costs did not stop when the war
ended. Twenty years later, interest payments on the war debt plus veterans’ pen-
sions still accounted for almost two-thirds of the federal budget.

The War Changes Lives

The war not only impacted the nation’s economy and politics, it also changed
individual lives. Perhaps the biggest change came for African Americans.
NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM The Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln
A store in
had issued under his war powers, freed only those slaves who lived in the states
Richmond,
Virginia, that were behind Confederate lines and not yet under Union control. The govern-
decorated in ment had to decide what to do about the border states, where slavery was still legal.
celebration of The president believed that the only solution would be a constitutional
Liberation Day, amendment abolishing slavery. The Republican-controlled Senate approved an
the anniversary of amendment in the summer of 1864, but the House, with its large Democratic
the Emancipation membership, did not. After Lincoln’s reelection, the amendment was reintro-
Proclamation
duced in the House in January of 1865. This time the administration convinced
▼
a few Democrats to vote in its
favor with promises of govern-
ment jobs after they left office.
The amendment passed with
two votes to spare. Spectators—
many of them African
Americans who were now
allowed to sit in the congres-
sional galleries—burst into
cheers, while Republicans on
the floor shouted in triumph.
By year’s end 27 states,
including 8 from the South,
had ratified the Thirteenth
Amendment. The U.S. Consti-
tution now stated that “Neither
slavery nor involuntary servi-
tude, except as a punishment
for crime whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United
States.”
History Through

MATHEW BRADY’S PHOTOGRAPHS

The Civil War marked the first time in United In this 1864 photograph Brady posed a kneeling soldier,
States history that photography, a resource offering a canteen of water, beside a wounded soldier with
since 1839, played a major role in a military his arm in a sling. Images like this, showing the wounded or
conflict. Hundreds of photographers traveled the dead, brought home the harsh reality of war to the
with the troops, working both privately and for civilian population.
the military. The most famous Civil War pho- ▼
tographer was Mathew Brady, who employed
about 20 photographers to meet the public
demand for pictures from the battlefront. This
was the beginning of American news photography,
or photojournalism.
Many of Brady’s photographs are a mix of
realism and artificiality. Due to the primitive
level of photographic technology, subjects had
to be carefully posed and remain still during
the long exposure times.

▼
“Encampment of the Army of the Potomac” (May 1862). Few
SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Visual Sources
photographs of the Civil War are as convincing in their naturalism 1. What elements in the smaller photograph seem
as this view over a Union encampment. Simply by positioning the posed or contrived? What elements are more
camera behind the soldiers, the photographer draws the viewer into realistic?
the composition. Although we cannot see the soldiers’ faces, we 2. How do these photographs compare with more
are compelled to see through their eyes. heroic imagery of traditional history painting?
SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.

The Civil War 369

 CIVILIANS FOLLOW NEW PATHS After the war ended,

N OW THEN those who had served—Northerners and Southerners

alike—had to find new directions for their lives.
Some war leaders continued their military careers,
while others returned to civilian life. William Tecumseh
Sherman remained in the army and spent most of his time
fighting Native Americans in the West. Robert E. Lee lost
Arlington, his plantation, which the Secretary of War of
the Union had turned into a cemetery for Union dead. Lee
became president of Washington College in Virginia, now
known as Washington and Lee University. Lee swore
renewed allegiance to the United States, but Congress acci-
dentally neglected to restore his citizenship (until 1975).
Still, Lee never spoke bitterly of Northerners or the Union.
Many veterans returned to their small towns and farms
after the war. Others, as Grant noted, “found they were not
satisfied with the farm, the store, or the workshop of the vil-
lages, but wanted larger fields.” Many moved to the bur-
THE RED CROSS geoning cities or went west in search of opportunity.
Civil War nurse Clara Barton led Others tried to turn their wartime experience to good.
the American branch of the Red The horrors that Union nurse Clara Barton witnessed during
Cross for 23 years. Today’s the war inspired her to spend her life helping others. In 1869,
International Red Cross can be
Barton went to Europe to rest and recuperate from her work
found wherever human suffering
occurs, not just in conventional during the war. She became involved in the activities of the
armed conflicts. In Fiji in June International Committee of the Red Cross during the Franco- MAIN IDEA
2000, rebels took the country’s Prussian War. Returning to the United States, Barton helped Summarizing
prime minister and 30 members found the American Red Cross in 1881. B B What were
of parliament hostage. The Red some effects that
Cross employee above was given THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN Whatever plans the war had on
safe passage to give hostages Lincoln had to reunify the nation after the war, he never got individuals?
medical attention, mattresses, to implement them. On April 14, 1865, five days after Lee
and blankets.
surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln
Swiss businessman Henri
Dunant first had the idea for the and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to see a
Red Cross when, in 1859, he saw British comedy, Our American Cousin. During the play’s third
injured soldiers abandoned on the act, a man silently opened the unguarded doors to the pres-
battlefield in Italy. Horrified, he idential box. He crept up behind Lincoln, raised a pistol, and
organized local people to provide fired, hitting the president in the back of the head.
aid to the wounded. Back in
Switzerland, Dunant, and a group
The assassin, John Wilkes Booth—a 26-year-old actor
of lawyers and doctors, founded and Southern sympathizer—then leaped down to the stage. In
an international committee for doing so, he caught his spur on one of the flags draped across
the relief of wounded soldiers. the front of the box. Booth landed hard on his left leg and
broke it. He rose and said something that the audience had
trouble understanding. Some thought it was the state motto
of Virginia, “Sic semper tyrannis”—in English “Thus be it ever to tyrants.” Others
thought he said, “The South is avenged!” Then he limped offstage into the wings.
Despite a broken leg, Booth managed to escape. Twelve days later, Union
cavalry trapped him in a Virginia tobacco barn, and set the building on fire.
When Booth still refused to surrender, a shot was fired. He may have been shot
by cavalry or by himself, but the cavalry dragged him out. Booth is said to have
whispered, “Tell my mother I died for my country. I did what I thought was
best.” His last words were “Useless, useless.”
After Lincoln was shot, he remained unconscious through the night. He died
at 7:22 A.M. the following morning, April 15. It was the first time a president of
the United States had been assassinated. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
recorded the public’s immediate reactions in his diary.

370 CHAPTER 11
 A PERSONAL VOICE
GIDEON WELLES
“ It was a dark and gloomy morning,
and rain set in. . . . On the Avenue in
front of the White House were several
hundred colored people, mostly women
and children, weeping and wailing their
loss. This crowd did not appear to
diminish through the whole of that cold,
wet day; they seemed not to know what
was to be their fate since their great
benefactor was dead, and their hope-
less grief affected me more than almost
anything else, though strong and brave
men wept when I met them.”
—quoted in Voices from the Civil War

The funeral train that carried

Lincoln’s body from Washington to his
hometown of Springfield, Illinois, took
14 days for its journey. Approximately
7 million Americans, or almost one-
third of the entire Union population,
turned out to publicly mourn the
martyred leader.
The Civil War had ended. Slavery
and secession were no more. Now the
country faced two different problems: ▼
how to restore the Southern states to the Union and how to integrate approxi-
Lincoln’s body lies
mately 4 million newly freed African Americans into national life. in state.

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
•National Bank Act •Thirteenth Amendment •Red Cross •John Wilkes Booth

MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING

2. TAKING NOTES 3. HYPOTHESIZING 4. ANALYZING ISSUES
Copy the multiple-effects chart Imagine that you are a member of a What political and social issues
below on your paper and fill it in group of Southern leaders who must from the Civil War era do you think
with consequences of the Civil War. rebuild the South after the war. are still issues today? Use details
What would you recommend that the from the text to support your
Political government do to help the South? answer.
Think About:
5. SYNTHESIZING
• the economic devastation of the Write three questions that you have
Economic South
Consequences about the lives of African Americans
• the human costs of the war after the Civil War.
of the Civil War
Technological • the numbers of newly freed
slaves
Social

The Civil War 371

CHAPTER ASSESSMENT

TERMS & NAMES

For each term or name below, write a sentence explaining its
VISUAL SUMMARY connection to the Civil War.
1. Ulysses S. Grant 6. Andersonville
THE CIVIL WAR 2.
3.
Robert E. Lee
Emancipation Proclamation
7.
8.
Gettysburg Address
Appomattox Court House
4. conscription 9. Thirteenth Amendment
5. income tax 10. John Wilkes Booth
LONG-TERM CAUSES

• Conflict over slavery in territories MAIN IDEAS

• Economic differences between North Use your notes and the information in the chapter to answer
and South the following questions.
• Conflict between states’ rights and
federal control The Civil War Begins (pages 338–345)
1. What were the military strategies of the North and South at
the outset of the Civil War?
2. What advantages did the North have over the South?
IMMEDIATE CAUSES
The Politics of War (pages 346–350)
• Election of Lincoln 3. How did different groups react to the Emancipation
• Secession of southern states Proclamation? Give examples.
• Firing on Fort Sumter Life During Wartime (pages 351–356)
4. What acts of protest occurred in both the North and South?
The North Takes Charge (pages 357–365)
5. In what ways did the South’s morale deteriorate?
6. What was Grant and Sherman’s rationale for using the
strategy of total war?
The Legacy of the War (pages 366–371)
THE CIVIL WAR
7. How did the Civil War provide the economic foundation for
the United States to become an industrial giant?

CRITICAL THINKING
IMMEDIATE EFFECTS 1. USING YOUR NOTES On a continuum like the one shown,
mark where Abraham Lincoln’s and Jefferson Davis’s policies
• Abolition of slavery would fall. Support your ratings with evidence from the text.
• Widening gap between economies of
North and South
less federal control more federal control
▼

▼
• Physical devastation of the South
• Reunification of the country 2. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES Poet Walt Whitman made
the following observation about Lincoln.

“ He leaves for America’s history and biography, so far, not only

LONG-TERM EFFECTS its most dramatic reminiscence—he leaves, in my opinion, the
• Reconstruction of the South greatest . . . personality. . . . By many has this Union been . . .
help’d; but if one name, one man, must be pick’d out, he, most
• Industrial boom
of all, is the conservator of it, to the future. He was assassin-
• Increased federal authority
ated—but the Union is not assassinated.”
—Walt Whitman, Specimen Days

Do you agree or disagree about Lincoln’s legacy? Explain why.

3. INTERPRETING MAPS Compare the maps on pages 340–341
and 363. What do they tell you about the progress of the Civil
War from 1861–1865? Explain your answer.

372 CHAPTER 11
 Standardized Test Practice

Use the cartoon and your knowledge of U.S. history 2. What technological advance contributed most to
to answer question 1. the Civil War’s high casualty rate?
F the ironclad ship
G the minié ball
H the land mine
J the camera

3. Which pair of events are listed in the order in

which they occurred?
A Battle of Gettysburg; Battle of Antietam
B New York City draft riots; First Battle of Bull Run
C Battle of Gettysburg; fall of Atlanta
D First Battle of Bull Run; firing on Fort Sumter

4. Which of the following is not true of the South

after the Civil War?
F It held 30 percent of the national wealth.
G Most of its industry was destroyed.
H Its labor system was dismantled.
J As much as 40 percent of its livestock was
wiped out.
1. According to the cartoon, President Lincoln’s “two
difficulties” are how to —
A pay government salaries and build support in
Congress.
ADDITIONAL TEST PRACTICE, pages S1–S33.
B reduce taxes and find good generals.
C avoid bankruptcy and stop the draft riots.
D finance the war and find enough soldiers to ITEST PRACTICE [Link]
fight.

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT
1. INTERACT Recall your discussion of 2. LEARNING FROM MEDIA View the
W I T H H I S T O RY the question on page 337: American Stories video, “War Outside
My Window: Mary Chesnut’s Diary of the Civil War.”
Can the use of force preserve a Discuss the following questions with a small group;
then do the activity.
nation?
• What is Mary Chesnut’s attitude toward the
Write a short editorial—either supporting or North?
opposing the war—for an 1861 newspaper. In
light of what you now know about the Civil War, • What similarities and differences might you find
reconsider the question, along with the following between Mar y Chesnut’s diar y and the diar y
points. of an upper-class woman living in the North during
the war?
• What might have happened if the North had
allowed the South to secede? Cooperative Learning Activity As a group, create
several diary entries that Mary Chesnut might have
• Could war have been avoided? written. Make sure the entries are in keeping with
• Did the eventual result of the war justify its cost? her personality and writing style. Each entry should
refer to significant events, issues, or people of the
Civil War. Share your entries with the class.

The Civil War 373