Colin Ulmer

APUSH Conley
9/10
Two Societies at War, 1861 - 1865
APUSH Chapter 14 Notes
I. Secession and Military Stalemate, 18611862
Questions:
How was secession determined?
What is the Crittenden Compromise?
How did the upper south choose a side?
A. The Secession Crisis
On December 20, 1860, the South Carolina convention voted to secede
from the Union
Named Jefferson Davis as its president.
In December 1860 President James Buchanan declared secession illegal
but denied that the federal government had the authority to restore the
Union by force.
South Carolina demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter, a federal
garrison in Charleston Harbor.
In response, President Buchanan ordered the resupply of the fort by an
unarmed merchant ship.When South Carolinians fired on the ship,
Buchanan refused to order the navy to escort it into the harbor.
Congress responded with a compromise the Crittenden planwhich
called for a constitutional amendment that would permanently protect
slavery from federal interference in any state where it already existed and
for the westward extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the
California border. Slavery would be barred north of the line and protected
to the south, including any territories hereafter acquired.
Lincoln upheld the first part of the Crittenden plan to protect slavery
where it already existed but was not willing to extend the Missouri
Compromise line to the California border.
Lincoln declared that secession was illegal and that acts against the
Union constituted insurrection; he would enforce federal laws as well as
continue to possess federal property in seceded states.
B. The Upper South Chooses Sides
Jefferson Davis forced the surrender of Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861;
Lincoln called in state militiamen to put down the insurrection.
Although some Northerners were wary of Lincolns Republican
administration, they remained supportive of the Union cause and
responded positively to Lincolns call for the mobilization of the militias.
The states of Middle and Border South were forced to choose sides in the

dispute. Support from these states was crucial to the Confederacy

because of these states high populations and access to industry and fuel.
Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the
Confederacy after the fall of Fort Sumter. After Lincoln intervened,
Missouri, Delaware,Maryland, and Kentucky stayed with the Union.

C. Setting War Objectives and Devising Strategies

Jefferson Daviss focus was on the defense of the Confederacy rather
than conquering western territories; the Confederacy only needed a
military stalemate to guarantee independence.
Lincoln portrayed secession as an attack on popular government, and he
insisted on an aggressive military strategy and a policy of unconditional
surrender.
In July 1861 General Irwin McDowells troops were routed by P. G. T.
Beauregards Confederate troops near Manassas Creek (also called Bull
Run).
Lincoln replaced McDowell with George B. McClellan and enlisted an
additional million men, who would serve for three years in the newly
created Army of the Potomac.
In 1862 McClellan launched a thrust toward Richmond, Virginia, the
Confederate capital, but he moved too slowly and allowed the
Confederates to mount a counterattack.
Washington was threatened when a Confederate army under Stonewall
Jackson marched north up the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia;
Jackson won a series of small engagements, tying down the larger Union
forces.
General Robert E. Lee launched an attack outside Richmond and
suffered heavy casualties, but McClellan failed to exploit the advantage,
and Richmond remained secure.
Jackson and Lee routed a Union army in the Second Battle of Bull Run in
August 1862.
The battle at Antietam Creek on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest
single day in U.S. military history; Jacksons troops arrived just in time to
save Lees troops from defeat.
Lincoln replaced General McClellan with Ambrose E. Burnside, who later
resigned and was replaced by Joseph (Fighting Joe) Hooker.
The Union dominated the Ohio River Valley, and in 1862 General Ulysses
S. Grant took Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on
the Cumberland River.
In April a Confederate army caught Grant by surprise near Shiloh; Grant
forced a Confederate withdrawal but suffered a great number of
casualties.
Union naval forces commanded by David G. Farragut captured New
Orleans, the Souths financial center and largest city, giving it a base for

future naval operations.

Union victories in the West had significantly undermined Confederate
strength in the Mississippi Valley.

Summary:
The south unanimously voted to secede at the South Carolina Convention. The Crittenden
Compromise declared that the federal government could not interfere with slavery in any state
where it already existed. The confederacy won Fort Sumter. The Confederacys military goal
was a stalemate with the Union for Independence.
II. Toward Total War
Questions:
Who was allowed to enter the Draft? (Race and Gender wise)
What is Habeas Corpus?
What did women do?
How did the south fund their side of the war?
A. Mobilizing Armies and Civilians
The military carnage of 1862 forced both sides into total war, utilizing all
of the resources of both nations to win at all costs.
After the defeat at Shiloh in April 1862, the Confederate Congress
imposed the first legally binding draft in American history.
The Confederate draft had two loopholes: it exempted one white man for
each twenty slaves on a plantation, and it allowed drafted men to hire
substitutes.
Some Southerners refused to serve, and the Confederate government
lacked the power to compel them; the Confederate Congress overrode
state judges orders to free conscripted men.
To prevent sabotage and concerted resistance to the war effort in the
Union, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and imprisoned about 15,000
Confederate sympathizers without trial. He also extended martial law to
civilians who discouraged enlistment or resisted the draft.
The Union governments Militia Act of 1862 set a quota of volunteers for
each state, which was increased by the Enrollment Act of 1863;
Northerners, too, could hire replacements.
Hostility to the Enrollment Act of 1863 draft and to African Americans
spilled into the streets of New York City when Irish and German workers
sacked the homes of Republicans, killed a dozen African Americans, and
forced hundreds of black families from their homes. Lincoln rushed in
Union troops to suppress the insurrection.
The Union Army Medical Bureau and the United States Sanitary
Commission provided medical services to the soldiers and tried to prevent
deaths from disease, which killed more men than did the fighting.
The Confederate health system was poorly organized, and soldiers died
from camp diseases at a higher rate than Union soldiers.
Women took a leading role in the Sanitary Commission and other wartime

agencies; Dorothea Dix was the first woman to receive a major federal
appointment.
Women staffed growing bureaucracies, volunteered to serve as nurses,
and filled positions traditionally held by men.
A number of women took on military duties as spies, scouts, and
(disguised as men) soldiers.
B. Mobilizing Resources
The Union entered the war with a distinct advantage; its economy was far
superior to the Souths, and its arms factories were equipped for mass
production.
The Confederates had substantial industrial capacity, and by 1863 they
were able to provide every infantryman with a modern rifled-musket.
Confederate leaders counted on King Cotton to provide revenue to
purchase clothes, boots, blankets, and weapons from abroad.
The British government never recognized the independence of the
Confederacy, but it did recognize the rebel government as a belligerent
power with the right under international law to borrow money and
purchase weapons.
To sustain the allegiance of Northerners to their party while bolstering the
Unions ability to fight the war, the Republicans raised tariffs; created a
national banking system; devised a system of internal improvements,
especially railroads; and developed the Homestead Act of 1862.
The Confederate governments economic policy was less coherent. The
Davis administration built and operated shipyards, armories, foundries,
and textile mills; commandeered food and raw materials; and
requisitioned slaves to work on forts.
The Union government created a modern nation-state that raised revenue
for the war by imposing broad-based taxes, borrowing from the middle
classes, and creating a national monetary system based on the Legal
Tender Act of 1862, which authored the issue of $150 million in treasury
notes, soon to be known as greenbacks.
The Confederacy lacked a central government. It financed about 60
percent of its expenses with unbacked paper money, which created
inflation; citizens property rights were violated in order to sustain the war.
Summary:
Total war started and all efforts went to winning the war. The Confederacy enacted the first draft
with loopholes to get people out of service, some refused to serve and the government lacked
the power to make them. Militia Act of 1862 by the Union required a quota of soldiers from each
state, they too could hire a replacement for the war. Women mainly handled the medical and
sanitary work for the soldiers to prevent death by disease. The union government and Economy
was much more equipped for wartime needs while the Confederacy government and Economy
was sketchy.

III. The Turning Point: 1863

Questions:
What are Contrabands?
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
A. Emancipation
As war casualties mounted in 1862, Lincoln and some Republican
leaders accepted Frederick Douglasss argument and began to redefine
the war as a struggle against slavery.
Exploiting the disorder of wartime, tens of thousands of slaves escaped
and sought refuge behind Union lines, where they were known as
contrabands.
Congress passed the First Confiscation Act in 1861, which authorized the
seizure of all propertyincluding slavesused to support the rebellion.
In April 1862 Congress enacted legislation ending slavery in the District of
Columbia, and in June it enacted the Wilmot Proviso.
In July 1862 the Second Confiscation Act declared forever free all
fugitive slaves and all slaves captured by the Union army.
Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, changed the
nature of the conflict: Union troops became agents of liberation.
To reassure Northerners who sympathized with the South or feared race
warfare, Lincoln urged slaves to abstain from all violence.
B. Vicksburg and Gettysburg
Vicksburg,Mississippi, surrendered to the Union army on July 4, 1863,
followed by Port Hudson, Louisiana, five days later, establishing Union
control of the Mississippi.
Grant had cut off Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas from the rest of the
Confederacy; hundreds of slaves deserted their plantations.
The battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a great Union victory and the
most lethal battle of the Civil War.
After Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Republicans reaped
political gains in their elections, while Confederate elections went sharply
against politicians who supported Davis.
The Confederates defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg ended their
prospect of winning foreign recognition and acquiring advanced weapons
from the British.
British manufacturers were no longer dependent on the South for cotton;
however, they were dependent on the North for cheap wheat. Also, the
British championed the abolitionist cause and wanted to avoid provoking
a well-armed United States.
Summary:
War became recognized as a struggle for slavery. Slaves escape to behind Union lines, these
slaves were then known as, Contrabands. The First Confiscation Act in 1861 let Congress
take any property, even slaves, as they saw fit. The Second Confiscation Act let escaped slaves
and captured slaves from the South be forever free. The Union takes Vicksburg and wins

Gettysburg.
IV. The Union Victorious, 18641865
Questions:
Were black troops allowed to serve?
What was Shermans March?
Who was the National Party?
A. Soldiers and Strategy
Lincoln initially refused to consider blacks for military service;
nonetheless, by 1862, some African Americans had formed their own
regiments in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Kansas.
The Emancipation Proclamation changed popular thinking and military
policy; some northern whites argued that if blacks were to benefit from a
Union victory, they should share in the fighting and dying.
As white resistance to conscription increased, the Lincoln administration
was recruiting as many African Americans as it could.
Military service did not end racial discrimination, yet African Americans
volunteered for Union military service in disproportionate numbers.
Lincoln put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of all Union armies and directed
him to advance against all major Confederate forces simultaneously; they
wanted a decisive victory before the election of 1864.
Grant knew how to fight a modern war that relied on technology and
focused on an entire society, and was willing to accept heavy casualties
in assaults on strongly defended positions in the belief that attempts of
earlier Union commanders to conserve life through cautious tactics had
prolonged the war.
Lee was narrowly victorious in the battles of the Wilderness and
Spotsylvania Court House. At Cold Harbor, Grant eroded Lees forces,
yet the Union losses were even greater.
Union and Confederate soldiers suffered through protracted trench
warfare around Richmond and Petersburg; the enormous casualties and
military stalemate threatened Lincoln with defeat in the November 1864
election.
To punish farmers who provided a base for Jubal Early and food for Lees
army, Grant ordered General Philip H. Sheridan to turn the region into a
barren waste.
Grants decision to carry the war to Confederate civilians changed the
definition of conventional warfare.
B. The Election of 1864 and Shermans March
In June 1864 the Republican convention endorsed Lincolns war
measures, demanded the surrender of the Confederacy, and called for a
constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.
The Republican Party temporarily renamed itself the National Union Party

and nominated Democrat Andrew Johnson for vice president.

The Democratic convention nominated General George McClellan, who
promised to recommend an immediate armistice and peace convention if
elected.
On September 2, 1864,William T. Sherman forced the surrender of
Atlanta, Georgia; Shermans success gave Lincoln a victory in November.
The pace of emancipation accelerated; Maryland and Missouri freed their
slaves, followed by Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
On January 31, 1865, the Republican dominated Congress approved the
Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited slavery throughout the United
States.
Sherman declined to follow the Confederate army into Tennessee after
the capture of Atlanta; instead he wanted to cut a swath through sea
that would devastate Georgia and score a psychological victory.
After burning Atlanta, Sherman destroyed railroads, property, and
supplies during his march to the sea; many Confederate soldiers deserted
and fled home to protect their farms and families.
In February 1865, Sherman invaded South Carolina with a desire to
wreak vengeance upon the state where secession had begun.
Because of class resentment from poor whites, the Confederacy had
such a manpower shortage that they were going to arm the slaves in
exchange for their freedom; the war ended before this had a chance to
transpire.
The symbolic end to the war occurred on April 9, 1865, when Lee
surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia; by May the
Confederate army and government had dissolved.
For the South, the Union armies had destroyed slavery as well as the
Confederacy and much of the Souths economy. Almost 260,000
Confederate soldiers paid for secession with their lives.
For the North, the struggle had preserved the Union and destroyed
slavery, but the cost of victory was enormous in terms of money,
resources, and lives, with 360,000 Union soldiers dead and hundreds of
thousands maimed.

Summary:
African Americans were not originally allowed to fight, yet they made their own regiments.
People figured if a Union win benefitted them they should share in the dying. Grant is put in
charge of all Union Armies. January 31, 1865, the Republican dominated Congress approved
the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery. Sherman's march was to destroy the
Confederacys will to fight. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The
Union Wins the war.