CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

 

 

 

During the period of slavery in the United States, there were three noteworthy planned slave rebellions or actual rebellions:

Gabriel Prosser’s Rebellion, 1800

• Was a planned rebellion by Gabriel.
• It failed as what he planned was revealed before the revolt could occur
• He was caught and hanged.

Denmark Vesey’s Conspiracy, 1822

• This was a planned rebellion intended to take over the city of Charleston, South Carolina; a loyal slave told his owner about it.
• Charleston authorities arrested Vesey and 36 who planned to help him and they were hanged after a quick trial.
• Vesey became a hero.

Nat Turner Rebellion: 

• On August 22, 1831, Turner and 6 friends went on a rampage.   They took an ax to their master’s head, Joseph Travis.  By noon had slaughtered 57 whites.  All but Turner were captured or killed the next day.  Turner was captured after 10 weeks of hiding and was hanged o November 11, his body skinned, beheaded, and quartered.

Southerners blamed black writers and abolitionists for the slave uprisings.

• 1829, David Walker, who was born free, lived in Boston and published, Appeal . . .to the Coloured Citizens of the World.  It was calling upon slaves to rebel.
• 1831, William Lloyd Garrison who was a white abolitionist from Boston published his first issue of his paper, “The Liberator.”  In it, he called for an end to slavery.

 

LEADING ABOLITIONISTS OF THE ANTEBELLUM (Pre-Civil War) PERIOD (These are but a few.)

• William Lloyd Garrison:  Google him
• David Walker:  Google him
• Sojourner Truth:  Google her
• Martin Delaney, a black leader who advocated re-colonization to Africa.
• Frederick Douglas, is considered the greatest of black abolitionists
• Reverend Elijah Lovejoy:  was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in 1837 when he defended his anti-slavery newspaper, “The Saint Louis Observer” and this strengthens the abolitionist cause
• Harriett Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Harriet Tubman;  a key “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, a network of hiding places for escaped slaves from the South who were attempting to escape to the North or Canada. 

 

ELECTION OF 1856

• Republicans nominated Captain John C. Fremont; their platform was against the extension of slavery into the territories
• Democrats nominated James Buchanan; their platform supported popular sovereignty
• American or Know-Nothing party nominated Millard Fillmore; this party was anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant; the party split when the most of the northerners walked out due to the Know-Nothings endorsement of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
• Buchanan elected because of very strong sectional divisions; will be the last Democrat President for 28 years.

 

ELECTION OF 1860

o       Republicans: Nominated Abraham Lincoln

o       Supported non-extension of slavery, protective tariff, immigrant rights, a Pacific railroad, internal improvements, free homesteads

o       Democrats: Met in Charleston, South Carolina; deeply divided

o       Southern democrats walk out of convention; don’t like Stephen A. Douglas who was the leading candidate

o       Hold a second convention in Baltimore, Maryland; southern dems walk out again;  Douglas nominated

o       Southern Democrats will meet and nominate John C. Breckinridge, a moderate from Kentucky

o       Democrats support popular sovereignty and to appease southern democrats, they would not obstruct the Fugitive Slave Law

o       Constitutional Union :  Nominated John Bell of Tennessee

o       Organized by angry southern Democrats

o       Favored extension of slavery into the territories and the annexation of Cuba

o       Made up of former Whigs and Know-Nothings

o       Strongly supported the Union

o       Democrats very divided

o       In the South, there were those who supported secession and let it be known that if Lincoln was elected it would break up the Union

o       LINCOLN WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT as a minority president.

o       DECEMBER, 1860:  SOUTH CAROLINA VOTED TO SECEDE and six other states will follow over the next six weeks.

 

February, 1861:  seven southern states that had seceded met in MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA and formed the CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA  and elected JEFFERSON DAVIS AS PRESIDENT and ALEXANDER STEPHENS as Vice-President.  James Buchanan was still President at this time; he did not believe the southern states could legally secede but he could find no authority in the Constitution to stop them and he was not willing to use force.

 

Lincoln will take office in March 4, 1861.  He said there would be no conflict unless the South provoked it; neither did he believe the South could secede.

 

Crittenden Compromise:   an effort to end secession and stop war:  READ ABOUT IT; Lincoln will reject this compromise; With his rejection it is said that all hope of compromise was lost

 

 

It will be the matter of the federal forts in the South that will bring the issue to the point of war.  When Lincoln decided to re-supply the federal fort in Charleston, SC, the south sees this as reinforcement of the fort. 

 

Eventually ELEVEN southern states will secede.

 

WAR STARTED on April 12, 1861 when the federal fort in the harbor at Charleston, SC, FORT SUMTER, was fired upon by cadets from the Citadel in Charleston.  Lincoln will declare an insurrection in the South.  HIS REASON FOR FIGHTING WILL BE TO PRESERVE THE UNION.  He did not fight to end slavery at this time.

 

Lincoln called for 75 thousand militiamen; Lincoln also ordered a blockade of southern ports.  With Lincoln’s actions, the South saw this as Lincoln waging war on the Confederacy. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina will secede and now there are ELEVEN Confederate states. 

 

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA REPLACES MONTGOMERY AS THE CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY.

 

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA:  South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida

 

The border states of Missouri, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky became very important to Lincoln; he did not want them to secede; they would give the South some very important advantages; Causes Lincoln to maintain that his purpose for fighting is to preserve the Union. 

 

The South’s greatest advantage was that it did not have to fight outside of its own soil and the South also had the most talented military leadership.  ROBERT E. LEE and THOMAS J. (STONEWALL) JACKSON WERE TWO OF THESE.

 

SOUTH’S GREATEST WEAKNESS WAS IT’S ECONOMY. 

 

FIRST MAJOR BATTLE:  Bull Run in Virginia; was a southern victory.

 

Lincoln gives command of the Army of the Potomac to General George B. McClellan who will finally decide to attack Richmond, but Lee drives McClellan’s forces back  to the sea; key battles in this were the Seven Days’ Battles, June 26-July 2, 1862. 

 

Results in the Union now changing its military strategy. 

 

The first metal ships, the Confederate ironclad, the “Virginia,” formerly the “Merrimack” and the Union ironclad, the “Monitor,” fought on March 9, 1862, with neither winning. 

 

After the Second Battle of Bull Run, lee decides to move to Maryland and at the Battle of ANTIETAM, Lee was stopped.  This was a pivotal battle in the Civil War.  Neither side won, but it results in the British and French deciding not to assist the South and it results in LINCOLN ISSUING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION ON JANUARY 1, 1863. 

 

*****READ ABOUT THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION:  it will actually free only the slaves in those states that had seceded and had not yet been controlled by the Union army; the Union army had no power in these states to enforce the proclamation. 

 

The Emancipation Proclamation changed the Union’s reason for fighting,  It now became also to end slavery. 

 

Lincoln will replace General McClellan with General A. E. Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac.  Lincoln will change this command several times as the commanders would not lead as Lincoln felt they should.  Lincoln will finally settle on General Ulysses S. Grant and that makes a major difference for the Union army.  Grant will fight!!!

 

General Lee won a major victory for the South at Chancellorsville, but lost Stonewall Jackson who was shot by one of his own men who thought Jackson was an enemy soldier.  Lee said, “I have lost my right arm.”

 

There are considered to be two “turning point” battles of the Civil War.  They are:

1.      Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863

2.      Vicksburg, July 4, 1863 (This was after a long siege of Vicksburg which is located on the Mississippi River.  This was part of the Union army’s strategy to divide the South into two parts. 

3.      Both of the above battles will be Union victories and will change the course of the war.

 

ELECTION OF 1864:  Lincoln re-elected as President

 

One of the Union’s key generals was William Tecumseh Sherman.  Sherman will lead the infamous march across Georgia.  In September, 1864, he took Atlanta.  The South lost a key industrial city with Atlanta’s fall.  Sherman then began his march to the sea and left a path of destruction 60 miles wide and 300 miles long from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia.  His purpose was to cut the upper South from the lower South.

 

After a series of horribly bloody battles around the Confederate capital of Richmond in 1864-1865, General Lee will SURRENDER TO GRANT AT APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, VIRGINIA ON APRIL 9, 1865.  Grant said, “The war is over; the rebels are our countrymen again.”  Grant was very generous in his surrender terms to General Lee and his soldiers.

 

Lincoln went to Richmond and walked through the city which had been devastated from the fighting.  It is said that freed slaves began to recognize him and ran to see and touch him.  One black man fell to his knees before him, and Lincoln said to him, “Don’t kneel to me.  This is not right.  You must kneel to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you will enjoy hereafter.”

 

Just to give you some idea of how horribly deadly this war was, in May, 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, Grant lost an estimated 30,000 men and Lee lost approximately 20,000.  In June, 1864 at Cold Harbor, Grant lost 8,000 in a few hours and another 8,000 at Petersburg in four days of fighting.  This does not include all the Confederate losses. 

 

I maintain that this next event is the worst thing that could have happened for the South.  On April 14, 1865, while attending the play, “Our American Cousin,” at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C., Lincoln was SHOT by JOHN WILKES BOOTH.  Lincoln died shortly after.  His Vice-president, Andrew Johnson, was sworn in as President. 

 

RESULTS OF THE WAR:  Over 600,000 men died of war or disease.  Overall, over a million were killed or wounded.  Monetary cost:  about 15 billion dollars.  Lincoln saw the Union victory as a “victory of federalism over states’ rights.”  Also, slavery was brought to an end.

 

Both the North and the South had drafted men into their armies after approximately a year of fighting.  Volunteerism had been used in the beginning. 

 

The Union army financed the war by a tariff, excise tax, our first income tax, bonds, and by issuing “greenbacks.” 

 

The Confederacy initially attempted to finance the war by exporting cotton to Europe, but the Union blockade stopped this.  The South also used a sales tax, bonds, and issuing paper money.

 

Lincoln had had to deal with a group of Republicans that opposed Lincoln’s efforts.  These are known as RADICAL REPUBLICANS.  Some of them were Benjamin F. Wade, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens.  They had wanted Lincoln to abolish slavery at the beginning of the war.

 

There were also the “Peace Democrats” who were also called “Copperheads.”  Lincoln had made a Democrat, Edwin M. Stanton, his Secretary of War in 1862. 

 

RECONSTRUCTION

 

There will be two types of Reconstruction:  Presidential and Congressional

 

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION:  Is that period of Reconstruction when the President controlled it.

Lincoln had developed a plan for bringing the defeated southern states back into the Union once they had been defeated.  This plan was known as Reconstruction.  It was the rebuilding of the South politically, physically, economically, and socially.  The process started as early as 1863 when some of the Confederate states were defeated.  The official period of Reconstruction is 1865-1877. 

 

Lincoln’s plan will we known as the Ten Percent Plan.  When 10% of the 1860 electorate  of the defeated Confederate state had taken an oath of loyalty to the Union and recognized emancipation, that state could be re-admitted to the Union.  This was a very LENIENT plan, and was such because Lincoln had believed that the southern states had never left the Union.  The Radical Republicans do not like this.  They believed the southern states should be punished severely.  Lincoln has to contend with them.

 

After Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson has his own plan which was as LENIENT as Lincoln’s. 

 

The Radicals will offer their own plan, the Wade-Davis Bill, but Lincoln rejects (pocket-vetoes) this bill.  It called for a majority of the 1860 electorate to take an oath of loyalty. 

 

You have developing a conflict between Congress and the President as to who has the authority to administer Reconstruction. 

 

After Lincoln’s death, President Johnson finds himself in constant conflict with the Radical Republicans, and he make the situation worse with some of his actions that greatly angered the Radicals. 

 

The CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS OF 1866:  In these congressional elections, the Radicals in congress won a majority and this allows them to now CONTROL RECONSTRUCTION.

 

CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION 

 

One their first actions was the passage of the Reconstruction Act of 1867.  It divided the 10 states that had not been reconstructed at this time into 5 military districts with an army general to administer these and military troops to carry out his orders. (GOOGLE THIS ACT)  This certainly angered the white south. 

 

There will be numerous acts passed by Congress during this period.

 

THREE IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS DURING RECONSTRUCTION

13^th Amendment:  abolishes slavery

14^th Amendment:  guarantees citizenship to the former slaves

15^th Amendment:  guarantees the right to vote

 

African-Americans gained the right to vote and many African-Americans were elected to public office for the first time.  Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels were two black senators elected from Mississippi. 

 

Two groups who were strongly disliked by white southerners during this period were the carpetbaggers and scalawags.  Carpetbaggers where northerners who had come to the South during Reconstruction supposedly carrying all they owned in a carpetbag. Some came seeking business and political opportunities; some were dishonest.    A scalawag was a white southerner who supported the Republican Party 

 

The Republican Party was strongly disliked in the South because it was the party that had franchised blacks and disfranchised many whites.  It was the party of Reconstruction.  African-Americans supported the Republican Party, which is understandable, along with the carpetbaggers and scalawags. 

 

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866 and becomes a powerful group among whites opposed to the changes brought by the Republican Party during Reconstruction.

 

Toward the end of Reconstruction, whites in the South began to regain much of the political power they had lost.  They did so through various tactics such as the “grandfather clause” and the “poll tax” which placed voting requirements on African-Americans.  In other words, the gains that African-Americans had made during Reconstruction were being lost. 

 

READ ABOUT THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON

 

READ ABOUT THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU

 

ELECTION OF 1868:  Ulysses S. Grant elected President and again in 1872.

 

ELECTION OF 1876:  This election resulted in some disputed ballots that were cast and resulted in a compromise between the Republicans and the Democrats.  Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate was chosen by a special Electoral Commission chosen by Congress to be President.  The compromise that resulted in Hayes being chosen will be known as the COMPROMISE OF 1877.  It will effectively bring RECONSTRUCTION to an end. 

 

READ ABOUT THE ELECTION OF 1876 AND THE COMPROMISE OF