Contents
Publisher’s Note ...... vii Introduction...... ix Contributors ...... xii Maps...... xiii
The Approaching Storm ...... 1
Speeches for and against the Compromise of 1850...... 3 Speech Against the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Abraham Lincoln at Peoria, IL, Oct. 16, 1854...... 15 Dred Scott Decision, 1857...... 26 Abraham Lincoln's House Divided speech ...... 35 Lincoln-Douglas Debates, excerpts...... 37 John Brown's Harpers Ferry Raid...... 44
Disunion: The Sectional Crisis ...... 56
Cooper Union Address...... 65 Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address...... 75 The Cornerstone of the Confederacy ...... 83 South Carolina convention...... 94 Jefferson Davis, Inaugural Address as president of Provisional Confederate Government...... 103
The Politics of War ...... 111
The Chicago Tribune: “Help from England” ...... 119 Special Message to Congress: Habeas Corpus...... 129 Presidential Proclamations on Blockade and Commercial Trade No. 81, No. 82, and No. 86 ...... 131 Speech on the Trent Affair ...... 141 Habeas Corpus Suspension Act ...... 152 General Orders No. 100: Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field...... 162 Hard War...... 171 Governor’s Message on the Suspension of Writ of Habeas Corpus to the General Assembly of North Carolina...... 173 President Abraham Lincoln’s Blind Memorandum ...... 182 Ex Parte Milligan ...... 191 Jefferson Davis's address to Confederate Congress...... 200 Jefferson Davis, Inaugural Address as Elected President of Confederacy...... 211
War Stories...... 227
General Burnside’s Army and the Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony ...... 238 Captain Richard W. Burt on the Battle of Vicksburg...... 247 On Blockade Duty: Letters from a Lieutenant on the USS Gettysburg...... 249 “The Most Terrible Sight I Ever Saw”...... 259 Henry Sheperd's "Narrative of Prison Life"...... 278
The Home Front ...... 296
“Luxuries Have Been Given Up Long Ago”...... 305 The Military Hospitals in Washington...... 307 “The Shadows Are Darkening . . . Jackson Is Certainly Dead” ...... 316 The Draft Riots...... 327 “There Has Been a Great Deal of Sickness in My Neighborhood” ...... 337 Gettysburg Address ...... 349 Reception to the Enlistment of Black Soldiers...... 358 Abraham Lincoln’s Last Public Address...... 367 Walt Whitman: Military Hospitals ...... 375 Samuel Wilkeson: Details on Gettysburg...... 384 Katherine Prescott Wormeley: Letters from Transport Nurse...... 393 Eliza Andrews: Shattered Remains of Lee's Army...... 402 Kate Stone: Conquered, Submission, Subjugation ...... 411
The Destruction of Slavery ...... 420
The Confiscation Acts ...... 429 Treaty between the United States and Great Britain for the Suppression of the Slave Trade (Lyons-Seward Treaty of 1862) ...... 438 The Emancipation Proclamation...... 447 War Department General Order 143...... 456 General Sherman Interviews the Freedmen Ministers in Savannah ...... 465 Special Field Order No. 15: Forty Acres and a Mule...... 473 Postwar: The Politics of Race ...... 482 Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution ...... 491 A Contested Election: Report to Congress on the Activities of the Ku Klux Klan ...... 500 Letter to Senator Joseph C. Abbott on the Ku Klux Klan...... 509 United States v. Cruikshank...... 518 Lincoln to Greeley, Aug. 22, 1862...... 527 Frederick Douglass: "Men of Color, To Arms!" ...... 536 Lindley Miller: Song of the First of Arkansas...... 545 Susy King Taylor: Reminiscences of Life in Camp...... 554 General Patrick Cleburne proposes black soldiers for the Confederacy...... 563 Jefferson Davis on the Employment of Slaves ...... 572 Gen. Robert E. Lee on Black Confederate Soldiers...... 580 Confederate Congress passes law authorizing slave soldiers...... 589
Postwar: Politics of Race and Reconstruction...... 591
39 Congress: Freedmen's Bureau Bill ...... 600 Frederick Douglass: Freedmen's Monument Speech...... 609 Martin Delany: Prospects for the Freedmen ...... 618 Edmonia Highgate: Activist Educator...... 627 40 Congress: Reconstruction Acts of 1867 ...... 636 House of Representatives: Articles of Impeachment ...... 645 Selection of Black Codes in South ...... 654 Hiram Revels: North Owes Colored Race ...... 663 Ulysses S. Grant: To the Hon. D.H. Chamberlain ...... 672
Appendixes...... 680
Chronological List ...... 681 Historical Timeline...... 683 Web Resources...... 685 Bibliography...... 687 Index ...... 689