Battle Cries and Freedom Songs:

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Chapter 15 Battle Cries and Freedom Songs The
Civil War 18611865
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Key Questions

• How did the economic and human resources of the
  North and South compare?
• What were the Confederate and Union military
  strategies?
• What were the steps leading to the Emancipation
  Proclamation?
• What was the impact of the war on Northern
  political, economic, and social life?
• How did military reversals affect Confederate
  political and economic life and civilian morale?
• What was the meaning of the Civil War for the
  nation and its citizens?

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CIVIL WAR (1861-1865)

• The sides in the war
• First Battle of Bull Run, July 1861 (Manassas)
• 1862
• 1863
• 1864-65
• Outcome of War

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I. The Sides in the War

• Political Leaders
• Abraham Lincoln
• Jefferson Davis
• Advantages
• Tactics and Strategy
• Military Commanders McClellan, Grant, Lee

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II. First Battle of Bull Run, July 1861 (Manassas)
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III. 1862

• War in the West
• Shiloh (April)
• War in the East
• Peninsular Campaign
• March Monitor v Merrimac
• Ultimately fails
• September Antietam
• Emancipation Proclamation

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IV. 1863

• May Chancellorsville
• July 1-3 Gettysburg
• July 4 Fall of Vicksburg
• Sept-Oct Fighting in Tennessee

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V. 1864-1865

• Shermans march to sea
• Grant in command in east hammers Lee
• Lee surrenders at Appamattox Courthouse on April
  9, 1865
• Lincoln assassinated April 14, 1865

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VI. Outcome of War
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Mobilization, North and South

• War Fever
• After the fall of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln
  mobilized state militias for 90 days but
  Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee
  seceded from the Union.
• The general belief was that the war would be
  brief and both northerners and southerners
  strongly supported their governments.
• War fever led many to volunteer for military
  service.
• The initial enthusiasm for serving faded, leading
  to drafts by both the Union and Confederacy

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Mobilization, North and South, contd.

• The Norths advantage in resources
• The North had human and economic advantages over
  the South.
• Approximately half the men of military age fought
  in the North and their numbers were supplemented
  by African Americans. In the South, 90 percent of
  the eligible population served.
• At the beginning of the war, the North controlled
  90 percent of the nations industrial
  capacity.The northern railroad system was twice
  that of the South.
• The North has more abundant financial resources
  than the South.

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Mobilization, North and South, contd.

• Leaders, governments, and strategies
• Jefferson Davis had to build a government from
  scratch while Lincoln had an established
  structure and organization. Lincolns personality
  was better fit for leadership than the aloof,
  uncompromising Davis.
• Lincoln adopted a soft strategy to keep the
  border states in the Union. Maryland and Kentucky
  never seceded while a guerilla war broke out in
  Missouri.
• The North had to conquer the South while the
  southerners had to defend their territory.

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The Early War, 18611862

• First Bull Run
• Union forces under McDowell confronted
  Confederate soldiers under Beauregard at
  Manassas, Virginia.
• At the First Battle of Bull Run, the Union seemed
  headed toward victory but wound up losing.
• Bull Run dispelled some illusions about the war
  but also boosted southern confidence in their
  superior military ability.
• Map From Bull Run to Antietam, p. 427.

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The Early War, 18611862, contd.

• The war in the West
• Forces under general Ulysses S. Grant captured
  the strategic forts Henry and Donelson.
• Grant moved south and won victories at Shiloh
  Church, Tennessee and Corinth, Mississippi.
• Admiral David Farragut led a naval force that
  captured New Orleans.
• The fall of Memphis meant the only major river
  town remaining in Confederate hands was
  Vicksburg.
• Map The War in the West, 1861-1862, p. 428.

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The Early War, 18611862, contd.

• Reassessing the war the human toll
• The heavy losses at Shiloh changed the soldiers
  view of the war. The early bravado and enthusiasm
  was replaced by the sobering prospect of death.
• The conditions of medical care did not improve a
  wounded soldiers survival chances. Women on both
  sides played major roles in tending the wounded.
• Disease was also a major cause of death.
• Religion provided some solace to the soldiers.

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The Early War, 18611862, contd.

• The war in the East
• General George McClellan assumed command of the
  Union army in the east while General Robert E.
  Lee was named head of the Confederate Army of
  Northern Virginia.
• Lee attacked McClellans forces twice and was
  repulsed both times but casualties numbered in
  the tens of thousands.
• When McClellan withdrew, Lincoln replaced him
  with John Pope who lost the Second battle of Bull
  Run to Lee.

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Turning Points, 18621863

• The naval and the diplomatic war
• The Union naval strategy was to blockade the
  southern coast and capture its key seaports and
  river towns, destroying the Souths ability to
  carry on the war.

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Turning Points, 18621863, contd.

• Antietam
• Recognizing that the South could not sustain a
  prolonged conflict, Lee moved into Maryland in
  September 1862, hoping to cut railroad links in
  Pennsylvania. Copies of Lees orders fell into
  Union hands and McClellan pursued Lee.
• The Battle of Antietam caused thousands of
  casualties, was a tactical draw, and forced Lee
  back into Virginia.
• Antietam was a turning point because it kept Lee
  from threatening Northern industry and financial
  institutions. It also prompted Britain and France
  to abandon plans to recognize the Confederacy and
  allowed Lincoln to announce the abolition of
  slavery.

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Turning Points, 18621863, contd.

• Emancipation
• Pressure had mounted in the North during 1862 for
  some form of emancipation but it was not favored
  by a majority of northerners. But freeing the
  slaves would appeal to the British.
• The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in
  the states still in rebellion against the Union.
• The proclamation raced through the slave
  grapevine and continued the process of running
  away to Union camps that had begun earlier.
• Of the approximately 180,000 black soldiers and
  20,000 black sailors who fought for the Union,
  over 80 percent were from the South. Many faced
  discrimination but fought valiantly.

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Turning Points, 18621863, contd.

• From Fredericksburg to Gettysburg
• General Ambrose Burnside replaced McClellan and
  moved against Lees army, but was repelled at the
  Battle of Fredericksburg.
• General Joseph Hooker replaced Burnside but was
  defeated by Lee at Chancellorsville, leading Lee
  to plan a bold move north.
• General George Meade replaced Hooker. At the
  three-day Battle of Gettysburg, the Union army
  defeated Lees forces. It was the bloodiest
  battle of the war, boosting Union morale but
  draining Lee of men and materiel.
• Map From Fredericksburg to Gettysburg, p. 434
• Map The Battle of Gettysburg, p. 436

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Turning Points, 18621863, contd.

• Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and the West
• Grant captured Vicksburg after a siege.
• Confederate forces confined a Union army at
  Chattanooga, but Union reinforcements divided the
  Confederate army and broke the siege forcing the
  Confederate army to retreat into Georgia.
• In the Trans-Mississippi West, several Native
  American tribes battled Union forces for land and
  resources.
• Confederate hopes for securing Texas fell short
  as the naval blockade tightened.
• Map Vicksburg and Chattanooga, p. 438

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War Transforms the North

• Wartime legislation and politics
• Lincoln used executive authority to silence
  opposition through several controversial actions,
  including suspending the writ of habeas corpus.
• To boost the economy, Congress passed the
  Homestead Act of 1862 and the Land Grant College
  Act. A protective tariff helped manufacturers and
  the National Banking Act of 1863 established a
  uniform national currency.
• The draft aroused conflicts including the New
  York Draft Riot that began with an Irish mob
  protesting conscription.

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War Transforms the North, contd.

• The northern economy
• Though wages increased during the war, prices
  rose higher, reviving the trade union movement.
  By 1865, 200,000 northern workers belonged to
  unions.
• The northern economy however fed, clothed, and
  armed the Union soldiers as well keeping most
  civilians employed and well fed.

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War Transforms the North, contd.

• Northern women and the war
• More than 100,00 northern women worked in various
  industries during the war.
• Women also worked in the expanding government as
  nurses.
• The new economic opportunities created by the war
  opened up womens options, including admission to
  higher education.

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The Confederacy Disintegrates

• Southern politics
• Southern politics was hindered by dissent that
  grew stronger as the Confederacys fortunes
  declined.
• States rights was a major obstacle to the
  development of central authority.
• Because their were no political parties, Davis
  could not appeal to party loyalty to control
  dissent.
• Calls for peace arose as early as 1863.
• Attempts by Davis and other Confederate leaders
  to build a strong sense of Confederate
  nationalism failed.

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The Confederacy Disintegrates, contd.

• The Southern economy
• By 1863, the South experienced difficulty feeding
  its population. Bread riots broke out in Mobile,
  Atlanta, and Richmond.
• As the war progressed, Southern soldiers had
  threadbare uniforms with many garments and arms
  taken from the Union. Their families suffered
  under similar conditions.
• The Union and Confederate armies threatened
  civilians with robbery, rape, and murder.
• Many slaves stopped working and abandoned the
  plantations.

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The Confederacy Disintegrates, contd.

• Southern women and the war
• Southern women managed plantations, working in
  fields alongside slaves.
• Southern women also worked in factories making
  uniforms and munitions, government offices and
  they taught school.
• As the war continued, many women helped their
  deserting husbands and relatives elude
  Confederate authorities.
• By 1864, many southern women had tired of the
  war.

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The Union Prevails, 18641865

• Grants plan to end the war
• Grant was appointed commander of the Union
  forces. He coordinated the Union war effort and
  changed the tempo of the war.
• Grants strategy was to hammer the enemy
  continuously. Sherman was advancing through
  Georgia and Grants major focus was on Lee.
• At the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant surprised
  Lee by not withdrawing after both sides endured
  heavy casualties. Grant pursued Lee fighting at
  Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor but heavy casualties
  led to criticism.
• Sherman moved through Georgia and captured
  Atlanta.
• Map Grant and Lee in Virginia, p. 445

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The Union Prevails, 18641865, contd.

• The election of 1864 and Shermans march
• George McClellan opposed Lincoln in the 1864
  election.
• The fall of Atlanta and later victories boosted
  support for Lincoln who won the election.
• The Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery was
  passed in 1865.
• Sherman marched from Atlanta to the sea leaving
  ruin and devastation in his wake.
• Some Confederate leaders proposed arming slaves
  but the slaves responded with little enthusiasm.

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The Union Prevails, 18641865, contd.

• The road to Appomattox and the death of Lincoln
• Lees army remained the obstacle to Union
  victory. He abandoned the defense of Richmond
  which fell to Union forces.
• Grants army caught up with Lees forces at
  Appomattox Court House in Virginia where Lee
  surrendered, ending the war.
• In Washington, celebration greeted the
  Confederate surrender but it was muted by the
  assassination of Lincoln.

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Conclusion

• The Civil War caused over one million casualties,
  dead and wounded.
• It left the South devastated. One in four men
  between 20 and 40 died. Forty percent of the
  livestock were lost and so was half the farm
  machinery.
• The Union victory solved the constitutional
  problem of secession and ended slavery.
• For black Southerners, emancipation was the
  conflicts most important result.
• The Civil War also stimulated a host of diverse
  changes that unfolded over time.

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MAP 151 From First Bull Run to Antietam The War
in the East, 18611862 The early stages of the
war demonstrated the strategies of the
Confederacy and the Union. Federal troops stormed
into Virginia hoping to capture Richmond and
bring a quick end to the war. Through a
combination of poor generalship and Confederate
tenacity, they failed. Confederate troops hoped
to defend their territory, prolong the war, and
eventually win their independence as northern
patience evaporated. They proved successful
initially, but, with the abandonment of the
defensive strategy and the invasion of Maryland
in the fall of 1862, the Confederates suffered a
political and morale setback at Antietam.
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MAP 152 The War in the West, 18611862 Because
of the early Union emphasis on capturing
Richmond, the war in the West seemed less
important to northerners. But from a strategic
standpoint, the victories at Forts Henry and
Donelson, which drove a wedge into southern
territory and closed the Confederacys quickest
path to the West from Virginia and the Carolinas,
and the capture of New Orleans and its
Mississippi River port were crucial and set the
stage for greater federal success in the West in
1863.
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MAP 153 From Fredericksburg to Gettysburg The
War in the East, December 1862July 1863 By all
logic, the increasingly outgunned and outfinanced
Confederacy should have been showing signs of
faltering by 1863. But bungling by Union generals
at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville sustained
southern fortunes and encouraged Robert E. Lee to
attempt another invasion of the North.
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MAP 154 The Battle of Gettysburg, July 13, 1863
In a war that lasted four years, it is difficult
to point to the decisive battle. But clearly, the
outcome during those hot July days at Gettysburg
set the tone for the rest of the war. The result
was unclear until the final day of battle, and
even then it might have gone either way. Winning
by a whisker was enough to propel Union armies to
a string of victories over the next year and to
throw Confederate forces back on their defenses
among an increasingly despairing population.
Gettysburg marked the last major southern
invasion of the North.
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MAP 155 Vicksburg and Chattanooga The War in
the West, 1863 Devising a brilliant strategy,
Union General Ulysses S. Grant took the last
major Mississippi River stronghold from
Confederate hands on July 4, 1863, dealing a
significant economic and morale blow to the
South. Coupled with the defeat at Gettysburg a
day earlier, the fall of Vicksburg portended a
bitter finale to hopes for southern independence.
Grant completed his domination of the West by
joining forces with several Union generals
to capture Chattanooga and push Confederate
forces into Georgia, setting the stage for
the capture of that key southern state in 1864.
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MAP 156 Grant and Lee in Virginia, 18641865 The
engagements in Virginia from May 1864 to April
1865 between the two great generals proved
decisive in ending the Civil War. Although Lee
fared well enough in the Wilderness,
Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor campaigns, the
sheer might and relentlessness of Grant and his
army wore down the Confederate forces. When
Petersburg fell after a prolonged siege on April
2, 1865, Richmond, Appomattox, and dreams of
southern independence soon fell as well.
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MAP 157 The Atlanta Campaign and Shermans
March, 18641865 General William T. Sherman, a
brilliant tactician who generally refused to be
goaded into a frontal assault, danced with
Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston until an
impatient Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with
Hood, and soon Atlanta was in federal hands. The
fall of Atlanta opened the way to the rest of
Georgia, a key supply state for the Confederacy.
With orders not to harm the civilian population.
Shermans men took their wrath out on property as
they made their way through Georgia and South
Carolina.
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Awaiting combat, 1861 Union Soldiers from New
York relax at camp awaiting orders to move to the
front. The young men show great confidence and
determination for their coming engagements,
though one fellow to the left of the tent,
perhaps a teenager far from home, seems to long
for something as he stares beyond the camera. At
this early stage of the war, a combination of
romance and apprehension enveloped these hopeful
recruits. Note the young African American with a
broom sitting apart from the soldiers.
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A rousing send-off for the 7th New York Regiment
in 1861 reflects the optimism and enthusiasm of
citizens at the beginning of the war. Departure
of the 7th Regiment, N.Y.S.M., April 19, 1861,
George Hayward, American (born England) about
18001872 (?). Graphite pencil, transparent and
opaque watercolor on paper, Karolik cat. no 961,
fig 194, Sheet 36.7 51.3 cm (14 7/6 20 3/16
in), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, M. and M.
Karolik Collection of American Watercolors and
Drawings, 18001875, 51.2785. 2003 Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston.
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FIGURE 151 A Comparison of the Union and
Confederate Control of Key Resources at the
Outset of the Civil War
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Several hundred women, disguised as men, made
their contribution to the war effort by
enlisting. Frances Clalin served with Federal
forces in Missouri. Many were found out after
suffering wounds or illness.
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A career army officer who resigned his commission
to serve his state and new country, General
Robert E. Lees quiet courage and sense of duty
inspired his men.
44
Even before the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves
throughout the South stole their freedom. After
the Proclamation, the trickle of black slaves
abandoning their masters became a flood as they
sought freedom behind Union lines. Theo Kaufman,
On to Liberty, 1867, oil on canvas, 36ö 56ö. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Irving and
Joyce Wolf, 1982 (1982.443.3). Photograph 1982
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
45
Once orders were issued allowing the recruitment
of black troops, posters like this one appeared
throughout the North. The illustrations stressed
the dignity and manhood of military service but
also showed segregated soldiers and white
officers. Lithograph ICHi-22051 Come and Join
Us Brothers, Civil War Philadelphia ca. 1863.
Creator P. S. Duval Son. Chicago Historical
Society.
46
The lynching of a black New Yorker during the
Draft Riot in July 1863. The violence against
black people during the riot reflected decades of
racial tension, especially between Irish
immigrants and black residents, over jobs and
housing.
47
Nurse Ann Bell tends a fallen Union soldier.
Although medical practices were primitive and
many young men died from poorly treated wounds or
disease, the U.S. Sanitary Commission attempted
to improve care in Union hospitals during the
war. The war helped open nursing as a respectable
occupation for women.
48
Wartime food shortages, skyrocketing inflation,
and rumors of hoarding and price-gouging drove
women in several southern cities to protest
violently. Demonstrations like the 1863 food riot
shown here reflected a larger rending of southern
society as Confederate losses and casualties
mounted on the battlefield. Some southern women
placed survival and providing for their families
ahead of boosting morale and silently supporting
a war effort that had taken their men away. Their
defection hurt the Confederate cause.
49
White family refugeeing. In advance of Union
armies, tens of thousands of southern families
fled to safer locales, a bitter exodus that
fulfilled the Federals vow to bring the war to
the Souths civilian population.
50
General Ulysses S. Grant had the pews from a
local church moved to a grove of trees where he
and his officers planned the following days
assault on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor,
Virginia. Grant appears at the left of the
photograph, leaning over a bench and studying a
map.
51
Shermans March reached a triumphant conclusion
in February 1865 when black Federal troops of the
55th Massachusetts Regiment marched into battered
Charleston. The illustration captures both the
destructiveness of the total war General Sherman
waged on Georgia and South Carolina and the hope
among former slaves for a new birth of freedom.
52
This photograph of Abraham Lincoln was taken four
days before John Wilkes Booth assassinated him in
Fords Theatre.