Civil War Supplement

The Civil War rederick Douglass was a famous abolitionist and powerful orator who was born into In 1860 there were two nations in America? The Washington Times Times The Washington slavery in 1817. Four years after he escaped Compare the facts and discover Ffrom slavery at the age of twenty, Douglass at- tended a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slav- how different they were. ery Society, where he spoke for the first time about his life as a slave and his escape. His elo- quent words so impressed the group that he was hired as a full-time speaker. Douglass would Eductaional Supplement to to Eductaional Supplement often begin his speeches with these provocative An words: “I appear this evening as a thief and a robber. I stole this head, these limbs, this body from my master, and ran off with them.” He also edited and published the influential abolitionist newspaper The North Star for 17 years. After the war began, Douglass worked hard to convince blacks to join the Union Army. These words were first published as an editorial in March 1863 in The North Star and soon after became a recruiting UNITED CONFEDERATE flyer for the famed Massachusetts 54th Colored STATES OF AMERICA STATES OF AMERICA Infantry as “Men of Color to Arms.” 23 states and eight territories Eleven states What are these 2 million men joined the Union Army and 850,000 men joined the Confederate words asking Navy Army and Navy you to do? 1860 CENSUS: 1860 CENSUS: “Who would be free Population: 22 million (4 million of Population: Nine million, including 4 whom were men of fighting age) million slaves (1,140,000 men of must themselves combat age) strike the blow. Bet- ter die free, than to 100,000 factories employing over a million 20,000 factories employed estimated live slaves . workers 100,000 workers I urge you to fly to 9,000 miles of railroad track Frederick Douglass arms, and smite 20,000 miles of railroad track — more with death the power that would bury the than the rest of the world combined! — government and your liberty in the same and 96% of U.S. RR equipment hopeless grave. $189 million in bank deposits (with By 1860, the Southern states produced al- The day dawns; the morning star is bright Union banks holding 81% of the most three-fourths of the raw cotton used upon the horizon! The iron gate of our prison nation’s bank deposits and almost around the world — an estimated 1 bil- stands half open. One gallant rush by the $56 million in gold) lion pounds a year! North will fling it wide open, while four mil- Combined population of Southern cities lion of our brothers and sisters shall march New York City’s population in 1860 was 800,000 — the largest city in the Western New Orleans (150,000), Charleston, Rich- out into liberty. .” hemisphere. mond, and Savannah in 1860 was 270,000. CREATED BY THE NEWSPAPER IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF THE FRESNO BEE IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE FRESNO CITY AND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY NIE activities provided in part, by Diane Kannenberg, Kannenberg Consulting Page 2 The Civil War An STATES STATES OF THE to Educational Supplement OF THE UNION CONFEDERACY California Alabama Connecticut Arkansas Illinois Florida Indiana Iowa Georgia Kansas Louisiana Maine Mississippi Times The Washington Massachusetts North Carolina Michigan Minnesota South Carolina Nevada Tennessee (added as free state in 1864) Texas New Hampshire New Jersey Virginia New York Ohio U.S. TERRITORIES BORDER STATES Oregon Arizona Slave States that remained Pennsylvania Colorado in the Union Rhode Island New Mexico Delaware Utah Vermont Kentucky Nebraska West Virginia Maryland (added as free state in 1863) Washington Wisconsin Indian Territory Missouri CONFEDERATE UNION NAMES FOR THE WAR NAMES FOR THE WAR The Civil War The War Between the States The War for the Union WHAT’S The War for States’ Rights The Southern Rebellion IN A The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance The War for Southern Independence The War for Abolition NAME? The Yankee Invasion The War Against Slavery ? WHAT’S IN A NAME – It is likely the phrase that would best describe our current ages courtesy of the Library of Congress. Im United States will go to war over the recent situation. Write it down. Compare yours NEWSPAPER ACTIVITIES attack on the East Coast. Look through your with the class and take a class vote. newspaper and come up with a name or Page 3 The Civil War OF BILLY YANK & JOHNNY REB The Washington Times Times The Washington ife in the army camps of the Civil War was a tedious one of drill sessions, maintaining the sanitation and readiness of the camp, Im andL somehow enduring the daily boredom. ages courtesy of the Library of Congress. Eductaional Supplement to to Eductaional Supplement One soldier described his days in camp with An one word: “The first thing in the morning is drill. Then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly drill.” OREDOM emotions of loneliness and home- large cone of canvas, 18 feet in diameter and 12 B sickness were assuaged by put- feet tall, and supported by a center pole, the tent “One everlasting monotone, yesterday, today, ting pen to paper in a private had a circular opening at the top for ventilation and tomorrow.” diary entry or to tell a and cone-shaped stove for heat. Designed to fit When not faced with the sheer terror of beloved wife, child or a dozen men, army regulations assigned 20 men battle, which was about 75 percent of the time, parent of the challenges to each tent. These extremely cramped quarters days in camp tended to drag on endlessly. To and fears of soldiering. became unbearable when the ventilation flap fight the numbing tedium, the troops filled the Whittling, drawing and painting was closed during cold or rainy days – soldiers time between drilling with — rarely had access to clean water in which to Games such as checkers, chess, dice, domi- bathe. Reading – Literacy was noes, and cards quite high in Civil War As the war dragged on, the Sibley was re- America. In the South, Baseball – The most popular sport was a at least 70 percent of ball game known as “one old cat” with three the white male popula- bases. New rules evolved during the conflict tion could read, and in the North the that the soldiers took home with them after ability to read may have been as high as 90 per- the war. cent. Soldiers were absorbed by literature such Boxing matches, cock fights, . and one as Charles Dicken’s Nicholas Nickelby and competition involved racing lice or cock- James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer,pop- roaches across a strip of canvas! ular fiction, religious writings, and newspapers. Singing was very popular. Soldiers’ fa- Letter and journal writing – The twin vorites were sentimental ballads rather than patriotic tunes and included “Just Before the Battle, Mother,” “Somebody’s Darling,”and “Aura Lea.” “All Quiet on the Potomac” was a rebel standard while the Yankees favored placed with smaller tents. The Union armies “Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground.” favored the wedge tent, a six-foot length of canvas draped over a horizontal ridgepole and “TENTING TONIGHT” staked to the ground at the sides with flaps that closed off one end. When canvas became At the beginning of the scarce in the South, Confederates were forced war, both sides used the Sib- to rig open-air beds by heaping straw or leaves ley tent, named after its in- between two logs. In winter, units lucky ventor Henry H. Sibley enough to find wood built crude huts and (who later became a Confed- made mattresses from pine needles. erate brigadier general). A Page 4 The Civil War “SEEING THE ELEPHANT” This phrase became the soldiers’ code word for describing the experience of battle and was seen as a young man’s rite of passage – to pass the test of man- An hood posed by battle. Once they had “seen the ele- to Educational Supplement phant,”however, the romance, adventure and glory of war quickly disappeared. Here is how Private J.W. Reid, 4th Regiment of the South Carolina Volunteers described “seeing the elephant.” The Washington Times The Washington “I cannot give you an idea of the terrors of this battle. I believe it was as hard a contested battle as was ever fought on the American continent, or perhaps any- where else....For ten long hours. .the firing did not HARDTACK AND COFFEE Hardtack – The Union soldier’s sta- cease for a moment. Try to picture. .one hundred ple, a dry flour and salt cracker so At the onset of the war, thousand men, all loading and firing as fast as they hard that it often had to be broken soldiers on both sides were could. .The sight of the dead, the cries of the with a rifle butt and soaked in cof- relatively well-fed. fee to be edible. While the high salt wounded, the thundering noise of the battle, can never The mandated daily ration for a content did not attract mice and be put on paper. .The dead, the dying and the Union soldier in 1861 was a veri- cockroaches, weevils laid their lar- table banquet of at least 20 wounded. .all mixed up together, friend and foe em- vae in the cracker inspiring nick- ounces of fresh or salt beef (or braced in death; some crying for water; some praying names such as “worm castles.” Bully 12 ounces of salt pork called their last prayers; some trying to whisper to a friend soup, hellfire stew and skillygallee are only sowbelly or salt horse), more than their last farewell message to their loved ones at home.

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