The Civil War and Reconstruction
I. Causes of the Civil War
A. Sectionalism
1. the greater loyalty many Americans felt toward their own section (region) than to the country as a whole
2. The Northeast
a. Center of manufacturing, shipping, fishing, and small farms
b. New class of factory workers
3. The South
a. Slavery is an institution
b. Profits based on products from slave labor
c. Large plantations
d. Exports like cotton
4. The Northwest
a. Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio
b. Bread basket
c. Small farms
B. States’ Rights
1. the idea that since the states had created the federal government, each state could reject federal laws within its territory or even leave the Union if it wanted to
2. south believed most in this
3. north believed that states did not have the right to leave the union
C. Slavery
1. Abolitionists
a. People who wanted to end slavery
b. Frederick Douglass, a former slave
c. Sojourner Truth
d. Harriet Tubman, a former slave
e. William Lloyd Garrison
2. new territories bring up what to do with slavery
a. southerners wanted slavery to expand
b. Northerners did not want it to expand
c. Balance between free and slave states sought
II. Events Leading Up to the Conflict
A. Missouri Compromise of 1820
1. Missouri enters as slave state
2. Maine enters as free state
3. prohibit slavery north of the 36’30” line in the Western Territory
B. Compromise of 1850
1. California enters as a free state
2. Fugitive Slave Law is passed
a. Required Northerners to help return slaves
3. system of popular sovereignty applied to all incoming states in the West
a. people choose if they want slavery or not
C. Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
1. law allowing the settlers in these areas to decide on slavery
2. each side brought in their supporters to try to win the issue
3. result in blood shed between the two sides
a. “Bleeding Kansas”
D. Dred Scott Decision 1857
1. Supreme Court Case
a. Dred Scott was a slave
b. Lived in North for a while, thinking this made him free
c. Sued his owner for right to be free
2. congress could not prohibit slavery in new territories
3. slaves were property
E. John Brown’s Raid 1859
1. John Brown was an abolitionist
2. began a slave revolt
3. Brown captured a federal arsenal
4. Brown was hanged
5. fear of more slave revolts grew
F. Election of Abraham Lincoln
1. Republican Party candidate
a. Republican Party founded in 1854
b. Purpose: oppose slavery in new terrorizes
2. when elected most southern states seceded (withdrew) from the Union
a. formed the Confederate States of America
3. Lincoln refuses to recognize the CSA
a. Try to preserve the union
III. Fighting the Civil War
A. Major Battles
1. April 1861 CSA fires on Fort Sumter, SC
2. Bull Run, Manassas VA July 21,1961
a. Both sides expecting a short war
b. People come out to watch the fight
c. Northerners lose and retreat to Washington, DC
3. Shiloh, Tennessee April 7, 1862
a. Ambush of the Union troops on April 6
b. Grant regroups troops next day
c. Confederate troops retreat
d. Teaches the generals to prepare for war
e. ¼ of the men who fought there were killed
4. Antietam, Maryland September 17, 1862
a. Lee wins second battle of Bull Run and moves into Maryland
b. Armies meet near Antietam Creek
c. Single bloodiest day of civil war
d. No winner
e. South retreats
5. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania July 1-3,1863
a. Three day battle
b. Bloodiest Battle in the Civil War
c. Pickett’s Charge (Lee orders Confederates to charge Union forces thinking the artillery had been knocked out, but it hadn’t)
d. 30% loss of troops
e. 23,000 Union killed or wounded
f. 28,000 Confederates killed or wounded
6. Vicksburg, Mississippi July 3, 1863
a. Important city on the Mississippi River
b. Under siege for almost two months
c. People ran out of food
d. Many reduced to eating dogs, rats, and mules
e. July 4, 1863 Confederate troops surrender to Grant
7. Sherman’s March to the Sea
a. March 1864, Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman are appointed as commenader of the armies
b. Believe in total war. They must fight the people as well as the army
c. Sherman marches to Atlanta in September 4, 1863
d. Rather than be cut off by Confederate Army, he moves south toward Savannah destroying all in his path
e. Lived off the land
B. Major Events
1. Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863
a. All enslaved people in states fighting against the union were free on January 1, 1863
b. Slavery remained in border states (Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware
c. Gave moral purpose to the fight
d. Weakened the Confederacy by giving slaves incentive to join the Union army
2. Conscription and Draft Riots
a. Confederate Law 1862 required all white men between the ages of 18 and 35 (later 17 and 50)
b. Confederate law exempted those who owned 20 or more slaves as well as allowed people to hire substitutes
c. Union drafted men between 20 and 45
d. Union also allowed people to hire substitutes
e. Draft Riots in opposition
f. NY Draft Riot July 13-16, 1863, Irish immigrants burned, looted, and attacked the wealthy, abolitionists, and African Americans
3. Gettysburg Address, November 19,1863
a. Dedication ceremony for cemetery at Gettysburg
b. Lincoln not main speaker
c. Reunified the nation
d. “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
4. Election of 1864
a. Opposition to the war leads to many candidates
b. Union battle victories that summer gave Lincoln boost
c. Democrat challenger was George McClellan who had been fired by Abraham Lincoln
d. Lincoln wins with 55% of the popular vote
5. Surrender at Appomattox, April 9, 1865
a. Confederacy was loosing badly
b. Richmond, VA the capital about to be surrounded
c. April 2, 1865 Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his government flee and burn the city
d. April 9, 1865 Lee and Grant meet at Appomattox Court House for surrender
e. Grant allows Lee and his soldiers to return home
f. Resistance against the Union dies down within a month
6. Lincoln’s Assassination April 14, 1865
a.
Lincoln is at Ford’s Theatre seeing a play Our American
Cousin
b.
John Wilkes Booth shoots him from the behind and jumps on
stage
c.
Breaks his leg in jump
d.
Lincoln dies April 15, 1865
e.
Booth is captured and dies on April 26
IV. Reconstruction (1865-1877)
A. Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
1. Ten Percent Plan, December 1863
a. Pardon all confederates if swear allegiance to Union and obey its laws
b. High ranking officials and those accused or war crimes not allowed
c. As soon as 10% of those on the voting lists of 1860 took oath, state could form new government
2. Under this plan four states moved toward readmission
a. Arkansas
b. Lousiana
c. Tennessee
d. Virginia
3. Not well received by the Radical Republicans
4. Wade-Davis Bill is passed in July 1864
a. Congress not the president by responsible for Reconstruction
b. For new state government a majority of 1860 voters had to swear
c. Lincoln used pocket veto to kill it
5. Battle over Reconstruction is set
a. Congress vs. President
B. Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction
1. Presidental Plan
a. Continuation of Lincoln’s plan
b. set critera for states to be re-admitted
i. declare seccession illegal
ii. swear allegiance to Union
iii. ratify 13th Amendment (abolished slavery)
2. the remaining states start to comply and set up governments
3. Johnson pardoned many high ranking Confederate officials who had been elected to serve in Congress
a. Radical Republicans are furious
4. Congress passes legislation to help African-Americans
a. Enlarged the Freedmen’s Bureau
i. Assisted former slaves and poor whites
ii. Gave out clothes and food
iii. Started hospitals and schools
b. Civil Rights Acts of 1866
i. Gave African-Americans citizenship
ii. Forbade discriminatory laws (Black Codes)
c. Johnson vetoed both
C. Congressional Reconstruction
1. Overrode Johnson’s Veto on Civil Rights Act of 1866
2. Drafted the Fourteenth Amendment