The Legacy of the Civil War

1) Federal government assumes supreme national authority  Southern states had previously used threat of secession  No state ever used this threat again

2) State’s rights issue never went away– just took a different direction  Should the state or national government determine how to use local resources?  What is left up to the states?

3) Increased the power of the federal government  Federal government used to have little impact on daily lives; mostly left up to local governments  Passed laws that gave it more control over citizens  Taxing private incomes  Required to accept new paper currency  Tore men from families to fight the war-- the draft

1) National Bank Act of 1863  Set up a system of federally chartered banks  Set up rules for loans  Banks must be inspected  Banking system much safer for investors

2) Industry—way up or way down  Cotton textile industry showed a 74% decline  War-related industries grew rapidly

3) Opportunities for entrepreneurs  Many government suppliers grew rich and had money to invest in their own businesses after the war

4) Northern economy booms, Southern economy devastated  Marked the end of slavery as a labor system  Wiped out livestock  Destroyed farm machinery and railroads  Uncultivated farmland becomes weeds

5) Economic gap widened drastically  Southern states now hold 12% of nation’s wealth.

6) Cost of War  Spent $3.3 billion on war  More than twice what the government had spent in the last 80 years.  Costs did not stop when war ended-  Interest payments on war debts  Veteran’s pensions  Accounted for 2/3 federal budget for twenty years

1) Human costs are staggering  360,000 Union and 260,000 Confederates dead  275,000 Union and 260,000 Confederates wounded  One soldier killed: Four slaves freed  Armless and legless veterans everywhere  Disrupted education, careers, families

2) Thirteenth Amendment “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”  Lincoln needs to decide what to do about the slaves in the border states  Needs amendment abolishing slavery altogether

3) Veterans Return  Veterans returned to their small towns and farms  Many moved to the burgeoning cities in search of opportunity or went west to build railroads/search for gold

1) Modern military technology  Rifle and minie ball  Rifle- more accurate and faster to load  Minie ball- soft lead bullet more destructive, higher casualty rate  Grenades and land mines  Ironclad ships  Withstand cannon fire, resist burning  End of wooden warships

2) Strategy- mass assaults  Pickett’s Charge proves mass assaults are not effective  Horses became much less important  Longer range accuracy, no need for cavalry charge

3) Strategy- trench warfare  Provides protection from deadly new rifle  Used in WW1

4) Strategy- total war  Used in WW1 and WW2