Today's Points

1. Starting in 1862, the Civil War transformed on the battlefield into escalating violence & death. This change was set in motion by the strategic goals of each side as well as by new war technology.
2. The war also transformed politically - with new laws & policy - as the Union struggled to meet the challenge of a costly, long, and unpopular struggle.
3. As a result, the issue of slavery reemerged at the center of the Union's war effort, fundamentally redefining the conflict and its meaning.

Part I - Strategies of Frustration

A. Theaters of Battle

• North had to move south, which was a challenge. Union is kind of set up to fail because "invasion is difficult"

Eastern Theater

Richmond named confederate capital. Most of this takes place near DC in Virginia

• Focused on cities, harbors, and transportation
• Concentrated strategic targets
  • They knew all of em

Union Failure in the East

• George B. McClellan
  • Great bureaucrat, applied to west point at 12, passed exam, graduated college and then went at 16. Whiz kid of the army. Great general.
  • A couple years out of west point, US gov sends him to observe Crimean war (around 1850)
  • Disadvantage bc he is not fighting aggressively -- confederacy attacked him aggressively bc of this, played him like a fiddle
• Joseph E. Johnston
  • Top Confederate Commander until injured in May 1862
• Thomas Jackson

Western Theater (west of Appalachians)

Targets are the river systems, therefore spread out.
Ag economies use the rivers for transport, so not as many railroads or pikes (highways)
Union had the advantage since they army was larger, spreading confederacy too thin

• used iron clads (metal boats) n stuff
• Focused on Tennessee and Mississippi river networks
• Dispersed strategic targets

Union Success in the West

• Grant captures fort Donelson (feb 1862)
  • Captured through Siege: Surrounds fort and prevent movement to and from, causing attrition to force surrender
• US Navy Captures New Orleans & Memphis (May - June 1862)
• No one expected much from the western theater in the Union
• Ulysses S. Grant
  • Union General, first union victory
• William T. Sherman
  War inconclusive as of 1862

Part II - Death on a Massive Scale, 1862

A. Shiloh

• Western Theater battle directly out of Grant's success
• 42,000 soldiers under Grant's command
• Told to invade Tennessee and in to Mississippi
• Need to take this railroad town, Corinth Mississippi
• Buell and Grant armies supposed to combine and siege Corinth
• Top confederate commander in the western theater, Albert S. Johnston, stationed in SF, CA before civil war, learns about this.
  • He gets 40,000 soldiers to go on the offensive and stop the two Union armies from meeting up
  • Problem: he doesn't know where the army is and sends out spies.
  • Grant's soldiers give away their location, because they inexperienced newbies
    • They shoot at a bunch of animals cus they hungry
  • April 6-7, confederates launch surprise attack and catch Grant's army off guard.
    • They panic, union soldiers split, some jump in the river to escape
    • Johnston (confederate general) shot in knee and bled to death leading to command struggles, they dont secure the victory
    • Union victory because of the other union army arriving
    • Confederates pull off a successful retreat
    • 23,000 casualties in 1.5 days
      • 16,000 of which is wounded
    • relative casualties, confederacy was hit harder, though in just numbers they were 50/50 in casualties
  • After this battle, Grant is stripped of field command

B. Antietam

September 17, 1862; Maryland
23,000 Casualties in 8 hours
Bloodiest day in US Military History
McCllellan is fired

C. Fredericksburg

• Dec 13-14 1862, Virginia
• Burnside is new union general whom replaced McClellan
• Union tried crossing the river and distracted the confederates
• Confederates distracted by fane, but crossing river takes too long, and lee figured out Fredericksburg was the target
• Confederate army sets fire to the town and leaves, letting the union just come in
• 18,000 total casualties (12,600 Union)
• 6-8,000 Union casualties at Marye's Heights (about the size of a football field)
• Union used textbook fighting methods, human wall
• Confederacy had an actual wall and artillery

Death & the Changing Technology of War

• Q. What has charged about warfare that makes it so much more lethal?
  • Accurate firearms
  • Minie Ball (Bulletish) which is actual accurate with spin stabilization
  • Technology is called rifilling
  • "It was not warfare. It was simply murder."

Part III - The Slavery Issue Reemerges

A. Union Strategy in Crisis

1. Military Problem - Long-term fight & occupation necessary (people aren't signing up for military)
2. Political Problem - Declining Support at home
3. European intervention? -- Britain and France

B. "Contrabands"

• Confiscation Act of 1861
  • Law of US Congress, spelled out what the US Army could take from southern civilians and confederate army
  • Slaves left off the list, americans aren't really thinking about the issue
  • Still enforcing fugitive slave law
  • Slave states still loyal, linclon doesnt want to lose em
  • Putting slaves on the list would be calling slaves property, which they believe they aren't
• Confiscation Acts of 1862
  • Includes slaves, but not under property, Under "laborers"
  • 100,000 slaves run away and say they are "contraband" and that they wish to be seized
  • Lincoln believes it's unconstitutional, questions if Congress has the authority to do this, so Lincoln decides he's going to create his own policy as Commander and Chief in the Army and President during a state of emergency

C. Emancipation Policy

• the Emancipation Proclaimation(s)
  • September 22, 1862
    • First comes right after battle of antietam
    • tries to get slaves to fight for union
  • Jan 1st, 1863
    • More famous emancipaition proclaimation of the two