Chapter #20: Girding for War: The North and the South – Big Picture Themes

1. After Ft. Sumter started the war, keeping the border states were Abe’s top concern. These were slave states that hadn’t left the nation. Throughout the war, Abe would make concessions to “keep them happy.” The border states never left.

2. All along the South felt that England would help them. The idea was that King Cotton’s dominance would force the English into helping the Southerners. This never happened, largely because Uncle Tom’s Cabin had convinced the English people of slavery’s horrors.

3. The North had the advantage in almost every category: population, industry, money, navy.

4. Both sides turned to a draft, the nation’s first. The draft was very unpopular and many riots broke out.

IDENTIFICATIONS:

Election of 1860 set the stage for the Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the 1850s on questions of expanding slavery and the rights of slave owners. In 1860, this issue finally came to a head, split the political system into four parties. The Democratic Party broke into Northern and Southern factions, and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared, The Republican Party was dominant in the North and won the electoral votes to put Abraham Lincoln in the White House with very little support from the South. The Southern response was declarations of secession by South Carolina and six other southern states, but secession was rejected as illegal by outgoing President James Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln. Eight other southern states did not secede before the Battle of Fort Sumter.

William Seward Senator from New York. Senator who was for antislavery, was very religious, would not compromise. Later became the major rival of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. When Lincoln won the presidency, he became the secretary of state for him. Had a nickname called "Higher Law" due to his religious beliefs in Christianity.

Edwin M. Stanton He was a politician who seceded Simon Cameron as secretary of war c1860. He caused a kind of civil war within Congress by opposing Lincoln at almost every turn. This only added to the problems that Lincoln had to deal with during the Civil War.

Emancipation Proclamation September 22, 1862 - Lincoln freed all slaves in the states that had seceded, after the Northern victory at the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln had no power to enforce the law.

Trent Affair A Union frigate stopped the Trent, a British steamer and abducted two Confederate ambassadors aboard it. The Alabama was a British-made vessel and fought for the Confederacy, destroying over 60 Northern ships in 22 months. The Laird rams were ships specifically designed to break blockades; the English prevented them from being sold to the South.

Merrimack and Monitor First engagement ever between two iron-clad naval vessels. The two ships battled in a portion of the Cheasepeake Bay known as Hampton Roads for five hours on March 9, 1862, ending in a draw. Monitor - Union. Merrimac - Confederacy. Historians use the name of the original ship Merrimac on whose hull the Southern ironclad was constructed, even though the official Confederate name for their ship was the CSS Virginia.

Anaconda Plan The name widely applied to an outline strategy for subduing the seceding states in the American Civil War. Proposed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized the blockade of the Southern ports, and called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two. Because the blockade would be rather passive, it was widely derided by the vociferous faction who wanted a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and who likened it to the coils of an anaconda suffocating its victim. The snake image caught on, giving the proposal its popular name.

Border States States bordering the North: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. They were slave states, but did not secede.

Appomattox Robert E. Lee, refusing to see his troops suffer any further, surrenders to Grant. Southern troops given generous terms of surrender Appomattox Court House, Virginia April 9, 1865

Election of 1864 Lincoln ran against Democrat General McClellan. (Lincoln had fired McClellan from his position in the war.) Lincoln received 55% of the popular vote and 212 electoral votes. Republicans made sure the Union soldiers had a chance to vote, which put Lincoln over the top. “With malice toward none…” Lincoln appealed to the country to not seek revenge

GUIDED READING QUESTIONS:

The Menace of Secession 1. What practical problems would occur if the United States became two nations?

South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter Know: Fort Sumter, Col. Robert Anderson 2. What action did Lincoln take that provoked a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter? What effects did the South's attack have?

Brothers' Blood and Border Blood Know: Border States, Billy Yank, Johnny Reb 3. How did the border states affect northern conduct of the war?

The Balance of Forces Know: Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson 4. What advantages did the South have? The North? (This answer should consider several different facets of comparison – economic, political, and social)

Limitations on Wartime Liberties Know: Habeas Corpus 5. Give examples of constitutionally questionable actions taken by Lincoln. Why did he act with arbitrary power?

Volunteers and Draftees: North and South Know: Conscription, Three-hundred-dollar-men, bounty jumpers 6. Was the Civil War "a rich man's war but a poor man's fight?" Explain.

The Economic Stresses of War Know: Income Tax, Morrill Tariff Act, Greenbacks, National Banking Act, inflation 7. What was the effect of paper money on both North and South?