This paper is about the civil war and about how it ended slavery with the
emancipation
proclomation. I will also talk abou the physical loses of the war.
The South, overwhelmingly agricultural, produced cash crops such ascotton, tobacco
and
sugarcane for export to the North or to Europe, but it depended on the North for
manufactures and for the financial and commercial services essential to trade. Slaves
were
the largest single investment in the South, and the fear of slave unrest ensured the
loyalty of
nonslaveholders to the economic and social system.
To maintain peace between the Southern and Northern supporters in the Democratic
and Whig parties, political leaders tried to avoid the slavery question. But with growing
opposition in the North to the extension of slavery into the new territories, evasion of
the
issue became increasingly difficult. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily settled
the issue by establishing the 36? 30' parallel as the line separating free and slave
territory in
the Louisiana Purchase. Conflict resumed, however, when the United States boundaries
were extended westward to the Pacific. The Compromise Measures of 1850 provided for
the admission of California as a free state and the organization of two new
territories-Utah
and New Mexico-from the balance of the land acquired in the Mexican War. The principle
of popular sovereignty would be applied there, permitting the territorial legislatures to
decide
the status of slavery when they applied for statehood.
Despite the Compromise of 1850, conflict persisted. The South had become a minority
section, and its leaders viewed the actions of the U.S. Congress, over which they had
lost
control, with growing concern. The Northeast demanded for its industrial growth a
protective tariff, federal subsidies for shipping and internal improvements, and a sound
banking and currency system. The Northwest looked to Congress for free homesteads and
federal aid for its roads and waterways. The South, however, regarded such measures as
discriminatory, favoring Northern commercial interests, and it found the rise of
antislavery
agitation in the North intolerable. Many free states, for example, passed personal
liberty
laws in an effort to frustrate enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act .
The increasing frequency with which "free soilers," politicians who argued that no
more slave states should be admitted to the Union, won elective office in the North also
worried Southerners. The issue of slavery expansion erupted again in 1854, when Senator
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois pushed through Congress a bill establishing two new
territories -Kansas and Nebraska -and applying to both the principle of popular
sovereignty. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, by voiding the Missouri Compromise, produced a
wave of protest in the North, including the organization of the Republican party.
Opposing
any further expansion of slavery, the new party became so strong in the North by 1856
that
it nearly elected its candidate, John C. Fremont, to the presidency. Meanwhile, in the
contest
for control of Kansas, Democratic President James Buchanan asked Congress to admit
Kansas to the Union as a slave state, a proposal that outraged Northerners. Adding to
their
anger, the U.S. Supreme Court, on March 7, 1857, ruled in the Dred Scott case that the
U.S. Constitution gave Congress no authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. Two
years
later, on October 16, 1859, John Brown, an uncompromising opponent of slavery, raided
the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virgini , in an attempt to promote a general slave
uprising. That raid, along with Northern condemnation of the Dred Scott decision, helped
to
convince Southerners of their growing insecurity within the Union.
In the presidential election of 1860, a split in Democratic party ranks resulted in
the
nomination by the Southern wing of John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky and the nomination
by the Northern wing of Stephen Douglas. The newly formed Constitutional Union party,
reflecting the compromise sentiment still strong in the border states, nominated John
Bell of
Tennessee. The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln on a platform that opposed the
further expansion of slavery and endorsed a protective tariff, federal subsidies for
internal
improvements, and a homestead act. The Democratic split virtually assured Lincoln's
election, and this in turn convinced the South to make a bid for independence rather than
face political encirclement. By March 1861, when Lincoln was inaugurated, seven
states-South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and
Texas-had adopted ordinances of secession, and the Confederate States of America, with
Jefferson Davis as president, had been formed.
In his inaugural address, Lincoln held that secession was illegal and stated that he
intended
to maintain federal possessions in the South. On April 12, 1861, when an attempt was made
to resupply Fort Sumter, a federal installation in the harbor at Charleston, South
Carolina,
Southern artillery opened fire. Three days later, Lincoln called for troops to put down
the
rebellion. In response, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee also joined the
Confederacy.
Neither the North nor the South was prepared in 1861 to wage a war. With a
population
of 22 million, the North had a greater military potential. The South had a population of
9
million, but of that number, nearly 4 million were enslaved blacks whose loyalty to the
Confederate cause was always in doubt. Although they initially relied on volunteers,
necessity eventually forced both sides to resort to a military draft to raise an army.
Before
the war ended, the South had enlisted about 900,000 white males, and the Union had
enrolled about 2 million men (including 186,000 blacks), nearly half of them toward the
end
of the war.
In addition, the North possessed clear material advantages-in money and credit,
factories, food production, mineral resources, and transport-that proved decisive. The
South's ability to fight was hampered by chronic shortages of food, clothing, medicine,
and
heavy artillery, as well as by war weariness and the unpredictability of its black labor
force.
Even with its superior manpower and resources, however, the North did not achieve the
quick victory it had expected. To raise, train, and equip a massive fighting force from
inexperienced volunteers and to find efficient military leadership proved a formidable
and
time-consuming task.
Only through trial and error did Lincoln find comparable military leaders, such as
Ulysses
S. Grant and William T. Sherman. On August 30, in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the
combined Confederate forces of Lee, Jackson, and General James Longstreet inflicted
heavy casualties on Union troops and sent them reeling back to Washington, where Pope
was relieved of his command. Following up on this victory, Lee in September 1862 startled
the North by invading Maryland with some 50,000 troops. Not only did he expect this bold
move to demoralize Northerners, he hoped a victory on Union soil would encourage foreign
recognition of the Confederacy.
McClellan, with 90,000 men, moved to check Lee's advance. On September 17, in the
bloody Battle of Antietam, some 12,000 Northerners and 12,700 Southerners were killed
or wounded. Lee was forced back to Virginia; Lincoln, angered that McClellan made no
effort to cut off Lee's retreat, relieved the general of his command.
In late 1862, the Army of the Potomac resumed its offensive toward Richmond, this
time
under the command of General Ambrose E. Burnside. On December 13, he unwisely chose
to challenge Lee's nearly impregnable defenses around Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the
Rappahannock River. In still another disaster, Union forces suffered more than 10,000
killed
or wounded and were forced to retreat to Washington. Burnside too was relieved of his
command.
On May 1 Union troops under General Benjamin F. Butler moved into the
largest city and principal port. During the last months of 1862, Grant consolidated his
position along the Mississippi. Buell, ordered to move on Chattanooga, Tennessee, clashed
indecisively with Confederate forces under General Braxton Bragg. In December, General
William S. Rosecrans, who had replaced Buell, confronted Bragg's troops in a three-day
battle on the Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, forcing them to retreat.
Meanwhile, Grant prepared for an assault on Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last remaining
Confederate stronghold in the West, high on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River.
Considered by the Confederates an impregnable fortress, Vicksburg resisted Union attacks,
and Grant's army bogged down in the rugged terrain guarding the north and east approaches
to the city. Encouraged by the victory, Lee seized the initiative and moved his army
into the
North.
Such an action, he hoped, would relieve the pressure on beleaguered Confederate
forces
in the West and induce a war-weary North to agree to a negotiated peace. In June, a
Confederate army of 75,000 men marched through the Shenandoah Valley into southern
Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac, numbering about 85,000 and now commanded by
General George G. Meade, moved to check Lee's advance. These two massive armies
converged on the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and on July 1 a battle began
that
many observers consider a turning point of the Civil War.
In maneuvering for position, Union forces managed to occupy strategic high ground
south
of Gettysburg. Lee's army attacked the position at various points, only to be thrown
back.
On July 3, after an intensive artillery duel, Lee ordered General George E. Pickett to
charge
the center of the Union lines at Cemetery Ridge, Pennsylvania. The attack failed. With
his
army suffering heavy casualties, Lee retreated, only to be blocked by the flooded Potomac
River. Much to Lincoln's dismay, however, Meade failed to exploit his advantage, and
Lee's
shattered army was eventually able to retreat into northern Virginia. Yet again, Lee had
sacrificed an enormous portion of his army in the ill-fated attack. In late March, the
Army
of the Potomac, numbering 115,000 men, began its march.
When it reached a desolate area near Chancellorsville, known as the Wilderness, the
Union forces encountered Lee's army of
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