🤺 Civil War

December 4, 2022

Early Civil War

What the War Was
  • Settles Hamilton v. Jefferson debates
  • Hinge of our history → “modern” America is born

Early Phases
  • Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda Plan”
  • Naval blockage of the south
    • South was reliant on importing European goods
  • South → Survive
    • The south wanted to survive until European recognition/support

First Conflicts
  • April 1861 → Fort Sumter
  • April 1861 → Baltimore Riots
    • Lincoln suspends Habeas Corpus (”seize the body”) between D.C and Philadelphia
    • prevents people from being arrested for no reason
  • June/July 1861 → First Manassas
    • CSA (South) wins; ends thoughts of a short war
    • Confederacy used trains to move troops

The USA Loses “The West” - 1862
  • The western civil war theater is ignored/forgotten
  • Only 1 major USA victory → Chickamauga (1863)
  • USA lost all momentum in the western theater in 1862
    • February 1862 → Fort Henry & Fort Donelson (Big L’s)
    • April 1862 → Shiloh

Battle of Antietam

Morality Change

Sept 1862 → East
  • Lee’s first Northern Invasion (Lee trying to influence MD (Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus)
  • The single bloodiest day in U.S. history. (Dunker Church, Cornfield, Westwoods, Sunken Road, Burnside’s Bridge)
    1. It gave Lincoln the opportunity to announce the Emancipation Proclamation. (only freed Confederate slaves)
  • Impacts
  • Battle a draw; Lee’s invasion stopped.
  • Lincoln seizes political opportunity.

Emancipation Proc.

  • Freed Confederate State Army’s slaves/not border state slaves.
  • Turned war’s morality, now a war of liberation.

Lee's Two Masterpiece Victories
  • Two victories in Virginia catapulted CSA commander Robert E. Lee into an almost mythological regard.

Fredericksburg (December 1862)
  • A defensive masterpiece for Lee, crafted by James Longstreet.
  • Around 200,000 men engaged, largest of the war.
  • Lee's defensive position on Marie's Heights decimates the attacking Federal army. Lincoln fires another commander.

Chancellorsville (May 1863)
  • Lee divides his small army twice, which is bold, and attacks a much larger Federal force under Joseph Hooker.
  • Lee allows Stonewall Jackson to attempt an audacious nighttime flanking march, it works, the Federal army is routed, but...

Impacts
  • Lincoln fires another commander.
  • Lee's army is victorious, but beat up, this would catch up to him at Gettysburg later that summer.
  • Lee is emboldened, plans 2nd Northern invasion.
  • Stonewall Jackson, perhaps Lee's best field commander, dies via friendly fire while scouting after the battle.
  • Lee loses an important commander, Jackson becomes a CSA martyr.
  • This makes him a PROMINENT figure in the Confederate "Lost Cause" Movement that emerged after the war and continues to this day.

Lost Cause Myth
  • Today, the Lost Cause’s historical and cultural claims have been rejected by historians and museum professionals as a narrow distortion of history at best and a lie at worst, but many of its cultural tropes and political assumptions occasionally thrive, not only in the American South, but across the country.
  • By the twentieth century, the Lost Cause became enshrined as part of the national story of slavery and the American Civil War era, and it evolved through that century’s most important revolutions. It was never just about the Civil War, but about slavery, Reconstruction, southern race relations, the place of the South in national life, and Americans’ self-identity.
  • Describe the basic tenets/beliefs of the Lost Cause Movement that emerged following the American Civil War. Also, explain at least one example of how the Lost Cause Movement has manifested itself over time in American politics or pop culture.
    • Sought to justify the Confederacy; romanticized the view of the Confederacy.
    • One example in politics is the use of the Confederate flag in politics and as a sign of “cultural identity”.
    • One example in pop culture is the portrayal of Confederate soldiers/leaders during in books (Thomas Nelson Page)

Gettysburg (July 3rd → 4th 1863)
  • July 4th 1863
    • Siege of the confederates ends
    • Last C.S.A stronghold on the Mississippi river falls
  • In a matter of 24 hours, Lee’s second Northern invasion was stopped.
  • Approximately 50 thousand casualties

Late Civil War + American Modernity

Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign (Georgia)
  • Helped to guarantee Lincoln's re-election.
    • Without this, Lincoln’s 1864 re-election is questionable.
  • Trench warfare, civilian targets, collateral damage.
  • War focused on railroad targets.
  • March to the Sea → Total war, trying to break the people’s will to fight

Grant’s Overland Campaign (Virginia)
  • Grant realizes that troops were resources, he can replace his and Lee can’t.
  • The war becomes a war of attrition.
    • Body count rises astronomically.

Siege of Petersburg (Virginia)
  • Full-out trench warfare, modern warfare