Civil War Overview

1
Civil War Overview

• Lesson 6

2
Civil War Block

• Lesson 6- Overview
• Lesson 7- Valley Campaign, Peninsula Campaign,
  Chancellorsville
• Lesson 8- Vicksburg and Gettysburg
• Lesson 9- Grant and Sherman

3
Civil War Causes

• Slavery
• States rights vs centralized government
• Agrarian vs industrialized way of life
• Cultural differences

(Doughty, 102)
4
Road to War

• Nullification Crisis (1832) -- Responding to a
  high cotton tariff, South Carolina declares a
  state can void any act of Congress it feels is
  unconstitutional
• Mexican War (1846-1848) -- viewed by some as a
  Southern attempt to expand slavery
• Wilmot Proviso (1846) fails. Would have formally
  renounced any intention to introduce slavery into
  lands seized from Mexico

5
Road to War (cont)

• Missouri Compromise (1820) -- Maine admitted as a
  free state and Missouri as a slave, but no other
  slave states from the Louisiana Purchase
  territory would be allowed north of Missouris
  southern boundary
• Compromise of 1850-- California admitted as a
  free state slavery in New Mexico and Utah
  territories to be determined by popular
  sovereignty the prohibition of the slave trade
  prohibited in the District of Columbia a more
  stringent fugitive slave law

6
Road to War (cont)

• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) -- popular
  sovereignty effectively overturns Missouri
  Compromise
• Harpers Ferry and John Brown (1859)
• South Carolina votes to secede (20 Dec 1860)
• Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia,
  Florida, and Texas follow
• Lincoln takes office (4 March 1861)
• Fort Sumter (12 April 1861)
• Lincoln requests 75,000 three-month volunteers
  (15 April 1862)
• Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee
  secede

7
States in the Civil War
8
Objectives

• North
• Restore Union
• Therefore couldnt completely alienate or destroy
  the South or the Southern people

• South
• Hold on to de facto independence
• Continue the struggle long enough for the North
  to tire of it
• Similar to American colonists

9
Strategy

• North
• Secure border states
• Still need to go on offensive to win
• Anaconda Plan
• Blockade
• Secure the Mississippi River and cut the South in
  two
• Wait
• Capture Richmond
• Anaconda Plan would take too long
• In June 1861, Lincoln orders an advance on
  Richmond

• South
• Defend at the border
• Political pressure to defend all territory
• Maintain legitimacy through territorial integrity
• Protect slavery
• Offensive-defensive
• Allow Northern thrust to develop
• Determine the main axis
• Concentrate and counterattack at an advantageous
  time

10
Comparison

• North
• 20 million people
• 110,000 manufacturing establishments
• 22,000 miles of railroad
• 75 of nations total wealth
• 16,000 man Army and 90 ship Navy

• South
• 9 million people (5.5 million whites)
• 18,000 manufacturing establishments
• 8,500 miles of railroad
• Wealth lay in land and slaves (non-liquid)
• No existing military

(Doughty, 107-108)
11
Comparison

• North
• Had to project forces across large and hostile
  territory
• Requirement for offense
• Had to maintain supply lines
• Fighting to regain preexisting status quo

• South
• Could take advantage of interior lines
• Could win by only succeeding on the defense
• Friendly territory and population
• Fighting for homeland and independence

(Doughty, 108)
12
Homework

• Read Doughty, p. 129-141, 161-168.