American Civil War Part I

• The Early Events, the Abolitionist Movement
  
• The Events After 1860 Election
  
• The Start Of The Four Year War
  
• The Emancipation Proclamation
  
• The End Of The Four Year War
  
• Abraham Lincoln Words
  
• Video Confederate Song TO ARMS IN DIXIE
  
• Video Confederate Song THE YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS
  
• Video the Confederate Soldier Song JOHNNY REB
  
• Vote On Other Patriotic Lenses
  
• American Civil War On Books
  
• Can We Learn From History?
  
• About Michey
  
• My Lensography

The Republic was founded upon principals of human freedom, but 7 decades of slavery started to erode the political system.

The Slavery in South rose to anti-slavery movement in North. In 1830 the abolitionists group grew in power and activities, they divided along radical and moderate, but they managed to:

• Become a great force of growing influence in north
• Provoke a pro-slavery reaction in southern whites
• The western territories settled with a compromise that provoked some crises as well.
  Two now territory was created with the popular sovereignty in mind: Kansas and Nebraska. They suppose to decide by themselves to admit or reject slavery.

Shortly the Kansas became a battleground as the violent frictions erupted between armed pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups.
Under those circumstances the previous compromises on slavery issue were in jeopardy.

The division between Northern and Southern wings were deeper then never, the Democrats were hostile in South, in the North a new Republican party was formed.

This new party gained a lot of ground and in the next 2 years, their programs expended and attracted now groups and formed a powerful anti-slavery group.

An incident in 1857 Dred Scott Case went as far as the Supreme Court. Scot was a slave who sued for his freedom, as his owner had taken him to live for 5 years in a free state in North.The Chief Justice R. Taney denied Scott freedom, and went so far that he declared that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in the territories, even if people from the territories desired the prohibition.

I think this provoked some domino effect.
New conflicts with Kansas followed. In 1858 Douglas vs. Lincoln debate for a Senate seat ended up with Douglas kept his Senate seat, but Lincoln's declarations on slavery made him a national figure.

Lincoln became a preeminent figure for the 1860 election.




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I think what made South weaker was the division between moderate opposition and radical abolitionism within the Southern Democratic Party. Their division persisted even in the platform of the two candidates for 1860.

At the Republican Convention in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate.

In November 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President elect of the United States Of America.

First, South Carolina's legislature called a special convention that met in Charleston and on 20 December the convention unanimously chose to secede from the Union. Other 6 South states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) had followed South Carolina, by February 1861.
Representatives from all those states met on Montgomery AL to form the Confederate States of America and choose their president Jefferson Davis from Mississippi.

It was a good moment for secessionists as Lincoln would not take office until March 1861. The old president James Buchanan rejected the idea that secession was legal, he hoped that compromise and reconciliation would avert the storm. All the efforts failed as Lincoln declared his opposition to it on grounds that its previsions would violate Republican idea to halt the spread of slavery into the territories.

The 23 Union states which remained loyal to the Union during the war: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

This is the United States map of 1861, it shows affiliation of states and territories regarding the Secession War:

• Dark Red - States that seceded before April 15, 1861
• Red - States that seceded after April 15, 1861
• Yellow - Union states that permitted slavery
• Blue - Union states that forbade slavery
• Light gray - Territories, unaffiliated yet

Lincoln was inaugurated and he hoped that reconciliation was still possible, he continued Buchanan's policy, but the Republic remained divided.
Seceding states had taken over almost all U. S. properties within their borders; only 2 garrisons in the South remained in federal possession.
Lincoln wanted to send supplies to them but Confederate Government considered this an act of aggression.

Lincoln assembled a volunteers army of 75,000 men to suppress the secessionists ; it was more a group than a trained army, .

On 19th April 1861 proclaimed a blockade of Southern Seaports, ending international shipments to the Confederacy. This was called Anaconda Plan.

The Civil War had begun, sometime brothers braced to strike down brothers.

Winfield Scott was commander general of the U.S. Army, he hoped that

• Anaconda Plan could win the war without bloodshed
• Union blockade of the main ports would weaken the Confederate economy
• He could capture the Mississippi River and he would split the South.

In reality, none of those happen.

This was an unpredictable war, which tested the limits of country endurance and produced a lot of surprises and ups and downs and was an extremely bloody war.

Soon after the Blocade:

• Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina joined the Confederacy, even though was done but with a lot of anxiety. The West part of Virginia refused to joint East part of Virginia in secession and ended up seceded from Virginia in middle of 1861. This is now West Virginia.
• The border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware did not secede and the Confederacy was thus deprived of Border States factories, and the control of strategic waterways such as the Ohio River
• From the Ohio, the Cumberland and Tennessee River would provide ways of invasion for Union gunboats
• To protect the Capital Lincoln imposed martial law in parts of Maryland, he was neutral about Kentucky; he sent troops to western Virginia and Missouri to aid Unionists in protecting their regions for the Union.All those areas, but especially Missouri, would experience an incredible ugly aspect of the Civil War when guerrilla warfare erupted

In the coming conflict, the Confederacy had the advantage of interior lines, and the Union faced the hard task of conquering and occupying a huge territory.

War facts:

• In May the Confederacy government moved its capital from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia
• Strangely, instead to go directly to Richmond, Lincoln chose a small battle at Bull Run and Manassas which ended with a Confederacy victory
• This was the wake up event for Lincoln and he decided to dedicate all Northern resources for winning this war, the Anaconda plan was modified and the new plan was to cut the Confederacy in half by controlling the Mississippi River
• Finally Ulysses Grant, a genius strategist, decided to simultaneously engage the South on as many fronts as possible and forced South on capitulation
• Lincoln made George McClellan general in Chief of all Union armies. To win Richmond, McClellan planned a waterborne approach. In the spring of 1862 McClellan's large army, 100,000 was ferried to Virginia's York Peninsula end started to move slowly up toward Richmond, nothing spectacular happened. Robert Lee, a brilliant Confederacy general, the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia conducted "the Seven Day battles" and drove McClellan away from Richmond
• The Union had a little more success in West, in Feb 1862 general Ulysses Grant captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee river and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River and Grant pierced the Confederate defense
• Grant move on railroad junction at Corinth, Mississippi, and he had an unexpected setback, the Confederate forces almost destroyed Grant Army at Shiloh on 6 April 1862
• Also in West in 1862 David Farragut's naval forces wanted to capture New Orleans, and the Confederacy made a huge effort to keep available the supplies for Louisiana and Texas
• A decisive battle was at Antietam Creek 17 Sept 1862, it was the bloodiest one day fight in which Lee was forced to move back across the Patomac, his invasion was a failure.

Lee plan included a Confederate diplomatic efforts to secure foreign recognition, but after Antietam battle, his objective was not materialized.

Lincoln used the Antietam success to announced the Emancipation Proclamation on 23 September 1862.

Union Troops Battling Their Way across Burnside Bridge in the Battle of Antietam Giclee Print

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The Antietam Battle made Britain to had seconds thoughts about the potential for Confederate military success, and Lincoln took advantage of the new turn of events.

Lincoln promised that should the rebellion continue, on 1st January 1863 emancipation would become final.
At this point, Civil War became a moral crusade, and a revolution growing out to suppress a "rebellion".

Napoleon in France followed the British, refusing to recognize the Confederacy.

Domestically, the Emancipation Proclamation changed almost everything. Its limited scope of freeing slaves only in rebellion areas changed almost nothing, at least at that point. But it paved the way for the enlistment of a significant numbers of African- Americans into the N. S. military.

Public reactions to the Proclamation were mixed, in spite of that Lincoln moved the war from a limited political goal of preserving the Union to its larger meaning as a fight for democracy and human freedom. Emancipation and all its ramifications were played out in the context of striving for Union victory.

General Lee believed that another invasion of the North was necesary to win a conclusive victory on Union soil and that would secure Southern independence and end the war.

Lincoln was busy in his search for a general to win the war, and Lee moved briskly into Pennsylvania and the Union Arny and Confederacy Army clashed again in the small town of Gettysburg.

Confederate Charge Up Little Round Top, Battle of Gettysburg, c.1863 Giclee Print

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At this point a domino effect started:

• On 3 July 1863, Lee was forced to retreat south of the Potomac River
• In the same time the Confederacy tried to protect the single remaining route to its western regions for their indispensable supplies. At Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union General Ulysses Grant captured the town with a military masterpieces maneuver. On 4th July 1863, the day after Lee's defeat in Pennsylvania, Vicksburg and its garrison surrendered.
• On 9 July, Port Huston fell and the entire Mississippi River was in Union hands.
• The British government seized warships apparently slated for delivery to the Confederate navy
• Napoleon halted the Confederacy request to purchase naval vessels from France
• A bright spot for Confederacy was on Chattanooga, Georgia where Braxton Bragg defeated Union forces.Not for a long time, Lincoln ordered Grant to take charge in east Tennessee, reinforcements were rapidly transported toward Chattanooga and Grant was able to score a great victory in November

Finally Lincoln found his winning general. He named Grant general-in-chief.

Grant proved himself willing to use all the weapons in the North's arsenal in conjunction with economic, and man-power resources.
Grant was able to endured enormous casualties in applying remorseless pressure on Confederacy.

Lincoln and Grant both realized that the distraction of the Confederacy military presence would end the war.

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The domino effect continued:

• Sherman would invade Georgia to seize an important rail center at Atlanta. In spring 1864, Sherman forces had a deadly confrontation with Confederacy General Hood, and Sherman was able to capture Atlanta in September 1864
• In spring 1864, Lee army was definitely overpowered by Grant's army of more then, 100,000 men
• In June 1864, a Union assault at Cold Harbor left almost 7,000 Union soldiers killed or wounded in minutes
• ,b>Lincoln was re-election in November 1864
• Sherman was able to march to Savannah and destroyed in his way anything that could be of military value to the Confederacy
• For the first time, southern solders began to leave their posts and bead for their homes
• From Savannah Sherman marched north into South Carolina with the same purpose in momd
• In Virginia's Shenandoah Valley Union smashed one of Lee's most important source of supply

In spring of 1865, Grant overwhelmingly broke Lee's lines at Petersburg. What remained of the Confederate Government fled, Lee tried to run west, but he was trapped near Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

On 9th April, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant. In the weeks that followed, other Confederate forces in the field also surrendered.

The fighting of the Civil War was over.

1) I present a book which I believe it offers a great perspective Augustus Dickert's "The History of Kershaw's Brigade".

2) Steve Hyslop's Eyewitness to the Civil War. Hyslop presents a clear, comprehensive discussion that addresses every military, political, and social aspect of this crucial period.

History of Kershaw's Brigade

Kershaw's Brigade
volume 1
South Carolina's Regiments in the American Civil War
Manassas, Seven Pines, Sharpsburg
(Antietam), Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, ... Chattanooga, Fort Sanders & Bean Station.

Kershaw's Brigade
volume 2
South Carolina's Regiments in the American Civil War
at the Wilderness, Cold Harbour, Petersburg, The Shenandoah Valley & Cedar Creek

Eyewitness to the Civil War

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