1. America’s History Seventh Edition
James A. Henretta
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Seventh Edition
CHAPTER 14
Two Societies at War
Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. 1. Consider Timothy O’Sullivan’s image of dead soldiers at Antietam, Maryland. In your opinion, what did O’Sullivan hope to convey to the newspaper-reading American public with this and other battlefield photographs?
(Answer: image juxtaposes the tranquility of life in an agricultural community – the house, fencing, and wagon wheels – with the consequences of the war; showed the American public the horrible reality of war and death.)

3. I. Secession and Military Stalemate, 1861-1862
The Secession Crisis
1. The Lower South Secedes
2. The Crittenden Compromise
Secession and Military Stalemate,
The Secession Crisis
The Lower South Secedes – SC seceded first in December 1860 fearing a Lincoln presidency would end slavery; fire-eaters called on their states to hold conventions to consider following SC; MISS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX followed by February; declared Confederate States of America (CSA) with Jefferson Davis as president; Buchanan did not act decisively, claimed no power to force SC to state in the Union.
The Crittenden Compromise – president asked Congress to act; Sen. Crittenden (KY) proposed: 1) constitutional amendment to protect slavery from government interference where it already existed (approved), 2) expand the Missouri Compromise line to the CA border with North being free, South slave (rejected by Republicans); fears that pro-slavery forces would desire land beyond the borders (ex: Cuba); Lincoln’s inaugural address called the Union “perpetual” and secession illegal.

4. 1. Examine these advocates for secession
1. Examine these advocates for secession. What does this image tell us about those who supported the cause?
(Answer: all men, well-dressed, clearly of wealth; those in political power were male, white, and of the middle and upper classes.)

6. I. Secession and Military Stalemate, 1861-1862
The Upper South Chooses Sides
1. Union Responds
2. Middle and Border States
Secession and Military Stalemate,
The Upper South Chooses Sides
Union Responds – northerners joined the war effort quickly; OH was asked for 13 regiments, supplied 20; northern Democrats supported Lincoln (including Stephen Douglas); Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to serve for 90 days.
Middle and Border States – eight border and middle states included 2/3 white people in the slaveholding states; VA sided with Confederacy as did AK, TN, NC; in northwestern VA yeomen broke away and became part of Union (admitted in 1863 as WV); DE and MO sided with Union, MD forced by Unionists who seized the state’s government; negotiation kept KY in Union. 6

8. I. Secession and Military Stalemate, 1861-1862
C. Setting War Objectives and Devising Strategies 1. Union Thrusts Toward Richmond 2. Lee Moves North: Antietam 3 The War in the Mississippi Valley
Secession and Military Stalemate,
Setting War Objectives and Devising Strategies
Union Thrusts Toward Richmond – Lincoln rejected a plan (Gen. Scott) for economic sanctions and a naval blockade, wanted aggressive military action against Richmond; attack at Manassas (Bull Run) led to panic among Union soldiers who retreated; Union enlisted a million more men with a plan for them to serve army for three years; 1862 Gen. McClellan launched major assault but Confederates fought back; war continued and Richmond was still secure.
Lee Moves North: Antietam – CSA Gen. Lee began offensive; Second Battle of Bull Run (1862); into western MD; delays on the Union side kept Lee moving towards Antietam Creek (MD); horrible Union casualties and savage warfare; September 17, 1862, bloodiest day in US military history: 4800 dead, 18,500 wounded (3000 of whom later died); because of Lee’s retreat, Lincoln claimed a victory but problems continued.
The War in the Mississippi Valley – Union had success in the Midwest gaining the TN and Mississippi Rivers; Union naval forces into the Gulf of Mexico, took control of New Orleans (1500 plantations and 50,000 slaves); looting of plantation homes.

11. II. Toward Total War Mobilizing Armies and Civilians
1. The Military Draft
2. Women in Wartime
Toward Total War
Mobilizing Armies and Civilians
The Military Draft – initially men on both sides willingly joined the effort; death toll discouraged enlistment, draft needed; April 1862 Confederate States of America imposed first draft in U.S. history: existing soldiers would serve duration of war, men would serve three years (increased to 45 after 1862), for every 20 slaves supplied one white man would be exempt, men could hire a substitute; Union taxed those who refused to serve or sympathized with the CSA; suspended habeas corpus, approximately 15,000 people imprisoned without trial; northerners could provide a substitute or pay a fee not to fight; Enrollment Act of 1863 in the North led to immigrants refusing to serve; New York City had draft riots (Irish and German workers) in which black workers were lynched and harassed; 1861 U.S. Sanitary Commission established in NY to aid in the care of soldiers on the battlefield and in Union hospitals; industries created around death (ex: embalming).
Women in Wartime – approximately 200,000 women volunteered for Sanitary Commission and the Freedman’s Aid Society; nursed family members; worked as paid nurses, clerks, factory operatives; Dorothea Dix named superintendent of female nurses; took over farm tasks, classrooms; worked as spies, scouts, soldiers (in disguise).

12. 1. The nursing profession was opened to women during the Civil War
1. The nursing profession was opened to women during the Civil War. Why were women considered to be well-suited to this work?
(Answer: much of the work that women did in the home already involved nursing: caring for young children, aiding and medicating family members and neighbors in illness or injury, attending to women in childbirth, cleaning, cooking.)
2. How did serving as a nurse during the war change a young woman’s life?
(Answer: young women left home for the first time when they went to work in war-time hospitals; Louisa May Alcott [Hospital Sketches] and others have described such life-altering experiences in their writings; no parents or husband to watch over them, controlling their movement and actions; independent for the first, and sometimes, only time in her life during the war-time experience.)
3. Dorothea Dix, the Superintendent of Nurses for the Union Army, maintained strict rules for her nurses’ appearance and character. Consider this image of a nurse caring for Union soldiers in Tennessee. In your opinion, was it necessary for Dix to maintain stringent control over her charges? Why/why not?
(Answer: concerns about the physical proximity young, single women would have to young, single men mixed with fears of relationships between soldiers and nurses; concerns over modesty.)

14. II. Toward Total War Mobilizing Resources
1. Republican Economic and Fiscal Policies
2. The South Resorts to Coercion and Inflation
Toward Total War
Mobilizing Resources
Republican Economic and Fiscal Policies – northern economy was stronger than South’s: more output, 2/3 of railroads, 2/3 of population; Southerners hoped to trade cotton for much needed supplies; “neo-mercantilist” program passed by Congress with high tariffs, “free land” to farmers through the Homestead Act (1862), closed local banks and forced the states/people to accept federal charters and regulations; plans for a transcontinental railroad; industries grew to feed/clothe the soldiers; Union spending increased dramatically; Legal Tender Act of 1862 introduced “greenbacks” into economy.
The South Resorts to Coercion and Inflation – CSA left economic matters to state governments in the beginning; eventually had to build and operate shipyards, armories, textile mils; commandeered food, coal, iron, copper, lead; reluctant to tax slaves and cotton; paid 60% of war by printing paper money, led to massive price inflation, food rioting. 14

16. 1. Describe the central action of this image.
(Answer: two women prepare a horse-drawn cart for a journey; two children are seated at the back of the cart full of furniture; men and children stand nearby.)
2. What does this image teach us about the lives of American women during the Civil War?
(Answer: the military service of men left women with all familial and economic responsibilities; here women are packing up and moving the family on their own, a level of independence that would have been unacceptable in peacetime; southern women were vulnerable to the hardship as the war forced families off of their plantations.)

17. III. The Turning Point: 1863 Emancipation 1. “Contrabands”
2. The Emancipation Proclamation
Vicksburg and Gettysburg
1. The Battle for Mississippi
2. Lee’s Advance and Defeat
The Turning Point: 1863
Emancipation
“Contrabands” – abolitionists began to demand emancipation as part of war effort; slaves who escaped to Union Army called “contraband of war”; Confiscation Act of 1861: authorized seizure of property used to support the rebellion; Radical Republicans worked for legislation that would end slavery in the rebellious states and outlaw slavery in the federal territories.
The Emancipation Proclamation – Lincoln initially rejected the idea, but by late 1862 was linking emancipation with the war; slavery could continue in those states that had not rebelled (MD, MO) and areas held by the Union Army (parts of TN, western VA, southern LA); Lincoln called the proclamation “an act of justice.”
Vicksburg and Gettysburg
The Battle for Mississippi – Gen. Grant sought to split the Confederate Army; achieved the surrender at Vicksburg, MS; took regions of Louisiana; slaves began deserting region Gulf of Mexico.
Lee’s Advance and Defeat – Gettysburg, PA, July 1863; Union victory was hard won; after three days 28,000 CSA deaths, 23,000 Union deaths; last effort by the CSA to invade the North; increased the power of Republican Party and its supporters.

21. 1. In your opinion, how might southern white people have responded to this image during the Civil War? What emotions might this photograph have evoked?
(Answer: the sight of black men, in government-issued uniforms, with weapons would have been upsetting to southern white people before, during and after the war; the notion of this group of men representing the government, having power and authority might have evoked anger, frustration.)
2. Consider the perspectives of the men of the 107th Colored Infantry pictured here. How might service in the Union Army have affected these men’s expectations of the United States government after the Civil War?
(Answer: similar to those who fought in the American Revolution, military service to the country most likely would create in the men a sense that something was owed to them by the government and the people; post-war expectations of political rights, economic opportunity, respect from the people and the government would no doubt have increased.)

22. IV. The Union Victorious, 1864-1865
Soldiers and Strategy
1. The Impact of Black Troops
2. Capable Generals Take Command
3. Stalemate
The Union Victorious,
Soldiers and Strategy
The Impact of Black Troops – many northern whites offended by blacks fighting for the Union; Emancipation Proclamation changed public thinking on this issue, northern whites now accepted that blacks would fight and die for the cause; th Massachusetts Infantry’s attack on Ft. Wagner (SC) was critical in changing perspective on black soldiers; discrimination widespread, but changes to pay were achieved.
Capable Generals Take Command – Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (March 1864) implemented president’s new strategy; Grant focused not just on battles but on mobilization against southern society (disruption); two major offensives.
Stalemate – psychological toll of fighting was enormous on both sides; trench warfare, scorched-earth campaign revealed desperation to end the war.

23. 1. Identify the instruments of nineteenth-century warfare present in this image.
(Answer: men, horses, wagons, uniforms, swords, guns, maps, newspapers.)

25. IV. The Union Victorious, 1864-1865
The Election of 1864 and Sherman’s March
1. The National Union Party versus the Peace Democrats
2. The Fall of Atlanta and Lincoln’s Victory
3. William Tecumseh Sherman: “Hard War” Warrior
4. The Confederate Collapse
The Union Victorious,
The Election of 1864 and Sherman’s March
The National Union Party versus the Peace Democrats – Republican Party supported Lincoln for reelection, called for end to slavery and the surrender of the CSA; Republicans called themselves the National Union Party; Democrats did not want emancipation, but were split over the war.
The Fall of Atlanta and Lincoln’s Victory – after taking control of Atlanta, Lincoln promised the war would continue; National Union Party called Peace Democrats “copperheads” (poisonous snakes); Lincoln won; 1864 Maryland and Missouri changed their state constitutions and called for emancipation.
William Tecumseh Sherman: “Hard War” Warrior – commanded the Union Army in Tennessee; moved South with his army demolishing whatever was in their path; many CSA soldiers were demoralized and abandoned; treated as a savior by Georgia’s black population; issued “Special Field Order No 15” to set aside 400,000 acres for the use of freedmen; invaded South Carolina and met up with Gen. Grant in North Carolina to fight Gen. Lee.
The Confederate Collapse – class resentment among the CSA weakened the army; desertions increased; Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, VA.

29. Ask your students to compare this image and the following image in the presentation.
1. Compare the conditions of the prisoners of war depicted in these two images. What factors might account for the physical differences between these prisoners?
(Answer: Union soldier held by Confederate Army is completely emaciated, has not been fed or properly cared for; Confederate soldier seated with Custer looks healthy – ability and/or willingness of the two armies to care for prisoners and provide reasonable living conditions; not clear how long the two men have been held prisoner.)
2. What is the significance of the African-American child pictured with the two men?
(Answer: Is this child the slave of the Confederate prisoner? Is he a camp follower of the Union Army? Is he an escaped slave?)

30. Ask your students to compare this image and the previous image in the presentation.
1. Compare the conditions of the prisoners of war depicted in these two images. What factors might account for the physical differences between these prisoners?
(Answer: Union soldier held by Confederate Army is completely emaciated, has not been fed or properly cared for; Confederate soldier seated with Custer looks healthy – ability and/or willingness of the two armies to care for prisoners and provide reasonable living conditions; not clear how long the two men have been held prisoner.)
2. What is the significance of the African-American child pictured with the two men?
(Answer: Is this child the slave of the Confederate prisoner? Is he a camp follower of the Union Army? Is he an escaped slave?)

31. 1. Describe this family and their surroundings.
(Answer: curtain is ripped and tattered, damage to furnishings, window is broken, debris on the floor; four members of the family are clearly in shock at what has occurred and not sure how they will move forward from this situation.)
2. In your opinion, what did the term “reconstruction” mean for southern families such as the one depicted in the painting The Return to Fredericksburg after the Battle? How might the post-war experience have been different for families of different social classes? For white families or black families?
(Answer: politicians debated the re-admission of states to the Union while families like those depicted here physically re-built their homes and lives; war impacted every aspect of life for southern families; loss of wealth, property, labor (slaves); loss of family members to war-injuries and disease; families with wealth before the war found that they had lost much during the war; newly free families sought land, work, stability.)