HIST 1301 Part Four 15: The Civil War
Secession 1860-1861
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. A..line has been drawn across the Union and all states north of that line have united in the election of a man whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. --Declaration of South Carolina, December 24, 1860
Seven southern states seceded before Lincoln took office; four more after he became president. (Total: 11) Four slaveholding states did NOT secede and one new slave state (West Virginia) was admitted to the Union in 1863.
Two days before Lincoln was inaugurated, Congress adopted the Corwin Amendment, which proposed to protect slavery where it already existed, but it was never ratified. No Amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State. --Joint Resolution of Congress, Adopted March 2, 1861
The Confederacy is Formed
Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the Confederate States of America, at Montgomery, Alabama, February 18, 1861. For secessionists, the Corwin Amendment was too little, too late.
Our new government was founded, its foundations are laid, [and] its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man. That slavery, submission to a superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This is our new government. --Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, March 21, 1861
The Confederate Constitution differed from the Federal Constitution in that it mentioned God in the preamble and also protected slavery. Preamble: We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America. Article IV, Sec. 2 (1) The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired. Article 1, Sec. 9 (4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.
Fellow citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. Let me tell you what I see coming. Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of a bayonet. You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives win Southern independence but I doubt it. -- Sam Houston, Governor of Texas (Deposed March 16, 1861)
The Opening Shots
Lincoln s First Inauguration, March 4, 1861 I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary. --Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861
The Fort Sumter Crisis: Buchanan did nothing. I would most respectfully, and from a sincere devotion to the public peace, request that you would allow me to send a small force, not exceeding twenty-five men and an officer, to take possession of Fort Sumter immediately If something of the kind be not done, I cannot answer for the consequences. --Governor Pickens of South Carolina
4 min. 57 sec. Major Robert Anderson Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, S.C., April 12-14, 1861
The First Years of the War 1861-1862
April 15, 1861: Lincoln declares a state of rebellion exists in the South Lincoln s original objective: to save the Union.
The North s Advantages Over the South 1 min. 50 sec. More money More soldiers More armaments More factories More railroads Larger Navy
President Lincoln At the start of the war, Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee command of the Union Army. Lee declined the offer and became the leading general of the Confederacy instead. I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword.
1. McClellan 5. Grant 3. Hooker 2. Burnside 4. Meade Lincoln s Generals
Why did non-slave holding Southerners fight? The apprehension those poor men had of the consequences of the emancipation of four million of negro slaves in their midst, and they to be given the franchise and elevated to political and social equality with the whites, was horrifying to their proud spirits, and those who never owned a slave fought for slavery to avoid such direful consequences. Southern pride was offended and the blood made to boil at the idea of enforced equality of an inferior race. --Col. William C. Oates, 15 th Alabama Infantry
First Bull Run or the Battle of Manassas, Virginia, July 21, 1861, was the first major land battle and a Confederate victory. 7 min. 45 sec. Gen. Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson More Civil War Battles were fought in Virginia than any other state.
The Battle of Antietam, Maryland, Sept. 17, 1862, was a Union victory.
The victory at Antietam led Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863. 2 min. 28 sec.
About 180,000 African-American troops served in the Union Army. 7 min. 56 sec. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass Who would be free themselves must strike the blow! --- Frederick Douglass
The Turning Point 1863
The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, was the Turning Point of the War Meade Lee
166,000 troops (94,000 Union, 72,000 Confederate) fought for 3 days at Gettysburg.
Pickett s Charge, on July 3, was the last attempt by Lee s army to achieve victory at Gettysburg. It failed. 8 min. 27 sec. Nearly 50,000 men were killed or wounded at Gettysburg. Lee s army retreated on July 4, 1863
Grant s Victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi July 4, 1863
4 min. 08 sec. Lincoln s Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863
The Beginning of the End 1864
Grant assumed command of the Army of the Potomac in 1864. If I knew what brand of whisky he drank, I d buy all my generals a bottle of it. -- Abraham Lincoln
In 1864 Union General Wm. T. Sherman s March to the Sea left a path of destruction in Georgia. 3 min. 13 sec.
From May 1864 to April 1865, Lee and Grant battled it out in Virginia.
In 1864, when he ran for reelection, Lincoln urged the National Union party to adopt a resolution calling for a Constitutional amendment ending slavery.
Lincoln defeated Democratic opponent George McClellan in a landslide.
The Final Act 1865
On January 31, 1865 the 13 th Amendment, ending slavery in the United States, was passed by Congress and signed by Lincoln (but not ratified until December).
Lincoln s Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865 [When the war began] One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease.
The Fall of Richmond, April 4, 1865, signaled the war s end.
Lee Surrenders to Grant, April 9, 1865 Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia 7 min. 51 sec.
Lincoln s Assassination, April 14, 1865 Ford s Theater, Washington, D.C.
David Herold George Atzerodt Johnny Surratt Mary Surratt Lincoln Assassin John Wilkes Booth and Accomplices Lewis Powell (a.k.a. Payne or Paine)
8 min. 6 sec. Assasin John Wilkes Booth was killed by soldiers on April 26, 1865. He never stood trial.
Hanging the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators ---Atzerodt, Herold, Paine, and Mary Surratt -- July 7, 1865
Following the Civil War, only one former Confederate Official was imprisoned: Jefferson Davis. Davis was released after 2 years and charges of treason eventually dropped.
The14 th Amendment All persons born in the U.S. are citizens and no state may make a law denying citizens their constitutional rights. A state s representation in Congress shall be based on its whole population except that if a state denies the right to vote to any of the male population, its representation may reduced proportionally. No person can hold Federal office who held office under the Confederacy. The Confederate war debt is invalid and no one may be compensated for the loss of slaves. 4 min. 49 sec.
In 1870, the 15th Amendment, protecting black men s right to vote, was ratified.