1860

South Carolina is first

By the time Lincoln is elected: FL GA LA MS TX AL

1861

Confederate States of America

--> Not enough power to take over:

-Fort Sumter, SC

-Fort Pickens, FL

Sen John Crittenden (KY)

-proposes constitutional amendments for permanent slavery in slave states and the return of the fugitive slave act (reinstitute Missouri Compromise Line)

Republican reject it

Lincoln: Union older than Constitution therefore: succession = insurrection

-Low supplies at fort; supplies to be sent

--> South doesnt want to look weak so:

Gen Beauregard captures fort

-AR VA TN NC secede

- MD DE KY MO stay

People in North and South believe the two societies are incompatable

North: double the population, industry, better transportation (railroads)

South: defensive war (on own turf), strong popular support

- Homestead Act 1862 -> land to settlers for little $

- Morril Land Grant Act -> give states land for edu $

- High Tariffs support U.S. industry

- Transcont. RR: Union Pacific builds from Omaha

Central Pacific builds from CA

- National Bank Acts 1863/4 -> banks can join if invest in gov't in turn can issue US Treasure notes

- Gov't finances war through taxes 1861 income tax

- "Greenbacks" paper $ not backed by gold/silver, mostly through bonds etc.

- Congress authorizes enlisting 500K volunteers

- 1863 National Draft Law - can buy out

- Widespread Opposition:

->laborers

->immigrants

->"Peace Democrats"

- Lincoln appts cabinets all repubs.

- Ignores Const. (asking congress to declare war would acknowledge the confederacy as a separate nation)

- War opposition from democratic "Copperheads"

--> fear of agri. and loss of NW influence           (loss of state rights)

- Lincoln suspends Habeas Corpus and imprisons resistors and sympathizers

- Lincoln defies Sup. Court (he won't release Ex Parte Merryman)

- Military courts declared unconst. after war (Ex Parte Milligan)

- 1864 Repub & war Dems nominate Lincoln

--> he wins b/c N victories (capture of ATL)

(opponent is George McClellan -> wants truce)

Repubs Disagree:

-radicals: (incl. Sen Charles Sumner) abolish

-conservatives: slower process

1861 Confiscation Act -> freedom if for insurrection

1862 Confiscation Act -> free supporters of insurr.

North accepts emancipation as goal

--> Rising radical republican power

Lincoln leads antislavery: 1862 Emanc. Proc.

-> frees confederate not union slaves

-> after success in the Battle of Antienam

1865 13th amend. ends all slavery

180K free blacks serve for the Union

At the start they were excluded

Many join after Emanc. Proc.

Women take mens' positions

Nursing is taken over by women

-> counters resistance by saying Nurse=Care=Fem.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B Anthony:

National Women's Loyal League - 1863

-> suffrage movements

Similar to US Constitution but emphasize State Sov

- Sanction Slavery, made abolition impossible

President is William David (MS)

-> Like N. leaders is from the West not East

Need revenue system

Not used to taxes; most money in land/slaves

Gov't requests $ from states -> shady bonds

Issue more $ (diff. currency) = 9000% inflation

At first all volunteers

1862 Conscription Act

Loss of source of men b/c N victories

1864 shortage widens draft -> doesnt work

States' rights obstruct martial law and conscription

Centralized gov't regulates industry

Devastating to econ.:

-planters cut off from foreign markets

-Industries w/o large slave forces suffered

-production down by 33%

-destroyed RR and farmland

-Food shortage due to naval blockage: because land is for cotton

-Few doctors because of conscription

Women now question role as the inferior

Gender imbalance b/c many unmarried/widowed

Whites feared slave revolts while men are away

NORTH

Commander-in-chief = Lincoln

N had trouble finding suitable commanders:

-> Gen Winifield Scott, Gen George McCllellan, Gen Henry Halleck

-> finally Gen Ulysses S Grant (target army and resources not the land)

Criticized by Congress’ Committee on the Conduct of the War (Sen Ben. Wade) for lack of ruthlessness

SOUTH

Commander-in-chief Pres. Davis

Chief Mil Adv. Gen Robert E Lee

1864 Gen Braxton Bragg -> Mil Adv.

1865 Gen Lee -> General-in-chief

Most commanders from both sides had attended military academies, but south had more of them.

Union has naval advantage

Naval Blockade on South

South tries to end blockade with Ironclad "Merrimac"

--> Stopped by union Ironclad "Monitor"

Judith P Benjamin was Sec of State in Confed

William Seward was Sec of State in Union

France and Britain favor south b/c textiles

Britain doesn't act b/c people support Union

South tries to use "King Cotton Dipolmacy"

-> Fails; there's cotton in Egypt & India too

No European nation acknowledges Confed as nation

1861 Trent Affair: Union arrests Confed diplomats aboard an English steamer from Cuba

Crisis over sale of British ships to the South

Most are loyal to Union (except TX)

Fighting between Unionists and Successionists:

-Confed William Quantrill leads guerillas

-Union Jayhawkers in KS

Confed. tries to ally with "Five Civilized Tribes"

The indians never pick sides

Repeating weapons:

1835 Samuel Colt - repeating revolver

Less use of formations

More use of trenches/fortifications

Ironclad ships appear

Railroads are important

Telegraphs are of little importance

First Battle of Bull Run VA: 1861

->Union Gen Irvin McDowell v Con. Gen Beauregard

-> Union loses; dispell illusion of quick war

1863

Union army "liberates" unionists in western virginia

-->admit to union at West Virginia

-->Gen George McClellan

1862 Union captures New Orleans

-prevents Confed. use of the Mississippi

-takes away south banking captial

-takes away biggest port city

Grant forces the Confederacy out of KY and TN

-Defeated Gen Albert Johnston

Grant then defeats Gen Sydney and Beauregard at the Battle of Shiloh

-Union captures southern railroads

1862

McClellan in charge (hesitant to put troops into battle)

-plans peninsular campaign (against Richmond)

Gen Stonewall Jackson defeats Union on Potomac then withraws

McClellan defeats confed. Gen Johnston at Battle of Fair Oaks

Johnston is replaced by General Lee

Lee prevents McClellan from advancing to Richmond in the Battle of Seven Days

Lee attacks after Lincoln orders McCellan to let Gen John Pope go to VA in the Second Battle of Bull Run

New Union Commander Gen Hooker attacked by Gen Lee and Johnson at Battle of Chancellorsville

Confed stronghold in MI surrenders to Grant

->Union controls all of the Mississippi divides Con.

Lee tries to invade PA; defeated by Gen Meade

Union wins battle of Chattanooga (TN) with Grant

1864 Grand is union Gen-in-Chief

-> two front plan

-attack Richmond

-Gen Sherman attack Atlanta

Lee wins three battles: Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Battle of Cold Harbor

Sherman takes control of Atlanta

->union rallies behind Lincoln

Grant bypasses Richmond and wins control of Petersburg RR in 1865

Sherman defeated at the Battle of Nashville

->later captured Savannah GA and went Carolinas

Lee is surrounded and cut off; he surrenders Appomatix Court House April 9 1865

April 18 1865 Johnston surrenders to Sherman

Jefferson Davis refused to accept end of war

-> he flees Richmond

-> he's captured in GA

-Southern land/town destroyed

-Huge death toll

-Emancipated slaves have nothing

Blacks: end of inequality, injustice & humiliation; more rights and protections/citizenship

Blacks differ over how to get freedom:

-economic redistribution (land too)

-legal equality/oppertunity

Planters want blacks still tied to plantations

1865 Congress creats Freedmen's Bureau:

-distribute food, $, edu to poor whites and blacks

How should the South reenter the Union:

-Punishment?

Republican Schizm

Conservatives: abolition but lax on readmission

Radicals: (lead by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner) punish southerners, protect black legal rights, confiscate property/land

Lincoln proposed lenient plan in 1863:

- amnesty exept for big leaders in south

- if 10% take oath then you get state gov't again

- ignores issue of freedom

LA, AR and TN rejoin union under the plan in 1864

Radicals are unhappy with the plan:

Wade-Davis Bill 1864

-> governor for each state

->readmission only when majority takes oath

->Lincoln pocket vetoed

April 14, 1865

assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

Hysteria & accusations of conspiracy

Leads Moderates and Conservatives

- enacted "restoration plan" in 1865:

->amnesty w/ oath

->high official need special presidential pardon

-> provisional governors

-> abolish slavery

By the end of 1865 all seceded states have gov't

-> Radicals resist to let Johnson's gov'ts in

1865/6 southern states want legislation close to slavery

Congress responds with 1866 Civil Rights Act:

-Blacks become full citizens

-The government gained the right to intervene

Johnson tried to veto but is overridden

Defines citizenship: anyone born in the US or naturalized

Forbids restrictions on male suffurage

Confed leaders cannot hold office

Radicals offer to readmit states that ratify it

establish 3 plans by 1867

TN is the only state readmitted to the Union

5 military districts formed with one commander each to distribute voting rights

after the state constitution was drafted it needed to be congressionally approved/ state must ratify 14th amendment

Tenure of Office Act 1867:

-pres cant remove civil officials w/o senate apprv

Command of the Army Act:

no military orders except for commanding general army or with senate approval

Supreme Court case:

military tribunals are unconsitutional

--> radicals become afraid it will apply to military districts too so they set up legislation to block the court and the court does not see reconstruction cases for 2 years

He is an obstacle to radical administration

Nearly impeached 1868 for violation of the Tenure of Office Act in dismissing Sec of War Stanton

Acquitted by one vote

1/4 of citizens in readmitted states can't vote

"Scalawags" -> southern wealth who vote with reps

"Carpetbaggers" -> northerners who move south to take advantage

Most republicans are freedmen

-> tremendous unity (church, gov't, etc.)

Improvements benefit whites and blacks

Segregated schooling

In early years there was land redistribution but Johnson gave all the land back

White landownership decreases (debts etc)

Black land ownership increases

Sharecropping becomes popular

Blacks are not as poor, but are still poor.

A lot of people are in debt so they had to pay for things using lien (claims to future crops)

Decline in agricultural diversity because many turn to $ earning cash crops

Huge efforts to rebuild families, leave plantations

Women do more domestic work, not field work

Many women must have a side job for income (laundering clothes, servitude, etc)

Accepts republican nomination for president in 1868

-> No political experience

->appoints bad cabinet members

->relies on party leaders/spoils system

Alienates northerners

"Liberal Republicans" support dem candidate Horace Greeley in 1872 -> Grant wins again

-French-owned Mobilier construction company helps Union Pacific RR, excess money is spent. Stock is paid to congress members to silence their reactions

"Whiskey ring" finds officers helping distillers get out of taxes

Panic of 1873

-> failure of investment banks

->many want to cash in war bonds w/ greenbacks

Gant and other repubs want money based on gold; dont want to print more paper currency

1875 Specie Resumption Act:

->pegged greenback dollars to the price of gold

Johnson and Grant administrations have successful foreign affairs because of secs of state

Sec of State Seward brought in Russian Alaska & annex midway islands

Sec of State Hamilton Fish resolves dispute over British violating neurtrality by building ships for the south

By 1872 nearly all whites have suffrage again

-> Work to overthrow Republicans

Whites use intimidation/violence to dissuade blacks from voting

Led by former confed. Gen Nathan Forrest

Worked to advance white supremacy

1870 Enforcement Acts - prevent voting discrimination, allows the president to use military force to ensure voting rights protection

Used by Grant in 1871 for lawless counties in SC

Enforcement Acts are the peak of republican actvt.

After 1870 15th amend blacks should take care self

Panic of 1873 spreads social darwinism -> applies to blacks

Congressional elections of 1874 Dems win majority

Grant uses army to maintain repub control in SC FL LA

In 1876 repubs want new candidte to distance from corruption and attract more liberals

-Rutherford B. Hayes

-Dems pick Sam Tilden

Tilden wins popular majority and 1 away from electoral majority

Disputed electoral votes in 3 states

Special Congressional Election Comittee votes 8-7 for Hayes -> He is pres.

Agree that:

Hayes removes all remaining troops

Dems don't filibuster

Industrialize the South (transcontinental in S)

Fails to resolve issues of race

Creates bitterness

by 1877 all troops gone and all southern governments are redeemed

"redeemers"/"burbons" are the new elite

Dems lower gov't taxes and reduce services

Dissenters protest service cuts and redeemer govt commitment to pay war and reconstruction debts (VA readjuster movement)

Want industrialization & Lost Cause

-> Joel Chandler Harris 1880 "Uncle Remus"

Growth of Textile manufacturing, Tobacco processing and Iron and Steel due to:

-water power

-cheap labor

-low taxes

1886 change in RR gauge reintegrates the south

Still not as industrial as the north

Tenants and Sharecroppers

Crop-Lien system results in tenant farmers

Fencelaws prevent raising of live stock

Cash-crops are the only way out of poverty

Blacks in the New South

attracted to New South ideals of progress + self improvement

some middle class business men

-> believed education vital to future of race- supported black colleges

Booker T Washington (founder of Tuskegee Institute)

- believed blacks should attend school and learn skills

- win respect of white population by adopting middle class standards of dress.

- “Atlanta Compromise” forgo political rights, concentrate on self-improvement and economic gains to earn recognition

The Birth of Jim Crow

Pullout of fed troops, loss of interest in Congress, and Supreme Court decisions regarding 14th & 15th Amdts (private organizations of individuals can still discriminate)

segregated almost every area of southern life.

1890s increased violence inhibit black movement for equal rights.

anti-lynching movement led by Ida B. Wells to pass national law enabling fed got to punish those responsible for lynchings

Economic issues played secondary role to race, distracting ppl from social inequalities that affected blacks and whites

Plessy v Ferguson

Cumming v County Board of Education

1899- laws for separate schools valid even if no comparable school for blacks existed