1. The Furnace of Civil War
Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil War
Pages

2. The Army of the Potomac Marching Up Pennsylvania Avenue 1861

3. Bull Run Ends the "Ninety-day War"
When President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen on April 15, 1861, he and just about everyone else in the North expected a swift war lasting about 90 days, with a quick suppression of the South to prove the North’s superiority and end this “foolishness”.
On July 21, 1861, ill-trained Yankee recruits swaggered out toward Bull Run to engage a smaller Confederate unit. They expected one big battle and a quick victory for the war.
Lincoln hoped that a Union victory at Bull Run would lead to the capture of the Confederate capital at Richmond.
The atmosphere was like that of a sporting event, as spectators gathered in picnics to watch. However, after initial success by the Union, Confederate reinforcements arrived and, coupled with Stonewall Jackson’s line holding in dramatic fashion, sent the Union soldiers into disarray and retreat.

4. “Stonewall” Jackson at Bull Run

5. “Yankee” soldiers vs “Rebel” soldiers
The Battle of Bull Run showed the North that this would not be a short, easy war and swelled the South’s already too-large ego.
The Union’s defeat in battle at Bull Run in 1861 was actually better than a victory because the defeat caused Northerners to face up to the reality of a long, difficult war.
“Yankee” soldiers vs “Rebel” soldiers

6. "Tardy George" McClellan
Later in 1861, command of the Army of the Potomac (name of the Union army) was given to 34 year old General George B. McClellan, an excellent drillmaster and organizer of troops.
But he was also a perfectionist who constantly believed that he was outnumbered, rarely took risks, and held the army without moving for months before finally ordered by Lincoln to advance.
At best, McClellan should be described as cautious.
and the Peninsula Campaign

8. At Lincoln’s urging, McClellan finally decided upon a water-borne approach to Richmond (the South’s capital). Called the Peninsula Campaign, it took him about a month to capture Yorktown before finally making it to Richmond.
At just this time, President Lincoln diverted McClellan’s expected reinforcements and sent them chasing Stonewall Jackson (right) who was seemingly threatening attacks on D.C.
After “Jeb” Stuart’s Confederate cavalry rode completely around McClellan’s army, further frustrating McClellan, Southern General Robert E. Lee launched a devastating counterattack in defense of Richmond—known as the
Seven Days’ Battle—lasting from June 26 to July 2 of 1862.

9. Peninsula Campaign

11. Civil War Scene
A Federal brigade repulses
a Confederate assault at
Williamsburg, Virginia, in
1862, as the Peninsula
Campaign presses toward
Richmond. General Winfield
Scott Hancock commanded
the troops. For his success in
this action, Hancock earned
the nickname “The Superb.”

12. Lee achieved a brilliant, if bloody, triumph at Richmond, yet the ironies of his accomplishment are striking.
By his successful defense of Richmond, and defeat of McClellan, Lee had in effect ensured that the war would endure until slavery was uprooted and the Old South thoroughly destroyed.
Lincoln stated that the South could not expect to return now unpunished and, for the first time, began to draft an emancipation proclamation - while patiently waiting for an opportune time to officially release it.

13. With the Peninsula Campaign a failure, the Union strategy now turned to total war. Summed up, the plan was to blockade, divide, and conquer. The plan included:
Suffocate the South through an oceanic naval blockade.
Free the slaves to undermine the South’s very economic foundations.
Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River.
Chop the Confederacy to pieces by marching through Georgia and the Carolinas.
Capture its capital, Richmond, Virginia.
Try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and grind it to submission.
This was essentially General Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda Plan.”

15. War At Sea
The Union blockade was quite “leaky” at first, but it later clamped down by principally concentrating on the major inlets and port cities responsible for loading cotton in bulk.
Britain, who would ordinarily protest such interference in the seas that she “owned,” recognized the blockade as binding, since Britain herself often used blockades in her wars (and might want to continue doing so in future ones).
Blockade-running, or the process of smuggling materials through the blockade, was a risky but profitable business, but the Union navy also seized British ships, citing “ultimate destination” (to the South) as their justification for doing so.

16. The biggest Confederate threat to the Union blockade came in the form of the ironclad Merrimack, an old U.S. warship reconditioned and plated with iron railroad rails (the Confederates had renamed it the Virginia).
Fortunately, the Union’s own ironclad, the Monitor, arrived just in time to fight the Merrimack to a standstill in one of the most memorable battles of the war.
The Confederate ship was later destroyed by the South in order to save it from being captured the North.
The lessons of the Monitor vs. the Merrimack were that boats needed to be steam-powered and armored, henceforth. The day of wooden battleships was dead.