Ch 20: Girding for War: The North and the South (1861-1865)
non-military aspects of war showed that South was bound to loseA) The Start of the War1. Lincoln’s inauguration (Mar 4, 1861)
B) Chances for S Independence favorable, but in the long run, N strengths were brought to bear.
1. Confederate Advantages
C) The Foreign Intervention that Never Came
1. Dethroning King Cotton
D) Wartime Liberties
1. Lincoln took several questional wartime liberties:
E) Union & Confederate Conscription
F) The Union Rode thru Financial Breakers while the Confederacy Didn’t
1. How the Union paid for the war
- 7 states had already left the Union and 8 more teetered on the edge.
- Inaugural address stated there would be no conflict unless S provoked it; secession= impractical bc: geography, nat’l debt, fed territories, fug slav issue, and protectn from Eur aggression
- Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor SC was one of 2 significant forts in S that flew Union flag
- N sent ships to provision it--> S’ers see this as act of aggression & bombarded it until surrender
- N provoked to fighting pitchà many militia volunteers & ALinc proclaimed blockade of S ports
- VA, AR, TN (previously voted down secession) joined S--> Richmond, VA=capital of Confed
- If N had fired firstà border states would have secedeà Confed would have won
- They contained Ohio River, vital necessity for both N & S
- ALinc declared martial law in MD (threatened to cut DC from N) & deployed troops in MO & WV
- To prevent secession, ALinc declared he wasn’t fighting to free blacks—only to save Union.
B) Chances for S Independence favorable, but in the long run, N strengths were brought to bear.
1. Confederate Advantages
- didn’t have to win; just had to fight off invaders to a draw
- fought on own soil for self-determination & preservation of their way of life--> high morale
- most talented officers: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson
- ordinary S’ers accustomed to managing horses & bearing arms from boyhood
- Possible foreign intervention (didn’t happen)
- Scarcity of factories--> grave shortage of food & supplies esp when supply lines cut off
- Pop’n: 9 mn ppl, including 3.5 mn slaves
- Disunited: created by secession, it couldn’t deny secession to states--> states’ righters fought Pres Davis bitterly to the end. Eg: Davis had a hard time getting state troops to serve outside borders
- Davis also had frequent disputes w. congress--> at times there was serious talk of impeachment
- 3/4ths of nation’s wealth: Adequate supplies of food (from farms) and supplies (from factories)
- Control of sea & naval superiority that est suffocating blockade on S & enabled trade w. Eur
- Much larger reserve of manpower: 22 mn ppl + immigrants from Eur who enlisted
- long-est govt, financially stable & fully recognized at home & abroad
- Ordinary ppl much less prepared than S counterparts for mil life; yet they adjusted to soldiering
- Less able commanders; ALinc forced to costly trial&error to find effective leaders
C) The Foreign Intervention that Never Came
1. Dethroning King Cotton
- Confed expected foreign aid to win war b/c the world depended on its cotton, but it didn’t happen
- Eur commoners prevented sympathetic ruling classes from breaking blockade to aid Confed
- Surplus of cotton had developed in Brit 1857-1860, tho it ran out by 1861
- U sent captured cotton to Brit, Egypt/India incrd output, good war industries relieved unemploymt
- Trent Affair 1861: U warship stopped Brit steamer Trent & removed 2 Eur-bound Confed dip-lomatsàBrit sent troops to Can but the situation ended when Lincoln freed the Confed prisoners
- Brit was unknowingly producing Conf commerce-raiders like the Alabama:left ports unarmed, picked up arms elsewhere, and captured Union ships; a decade later, Brit paid $15.5 mn back
- 2 powerful Conf warships that could destroy U blockade were built in Brit--> Union infuriatedàBrit govt relented & bought them for Royal Navy
- Am rancor directed at Can: S agents raided N cities from Can, Irish Ams invaded Canà 1867 Brit est Dominion of Canada to bolster Can agst possible vengeance of US
D) Wartime Liberties
1. Lincoln took several questional wartime liberties:
- Cong not in session when war eruptedà ALinc proclaimed blockade (later upheld by Sup Ct)
- Arbitrarily increased size of Fed army, which only approved by cong (later upheld by Cong)
- Directed sec of Treasury to advance $2mn to 3 private citizens for military purposes
- Suspended habeas corpus so that anti-Unionists might be summarily arrested (agst Sup Ct ruling)
- “Supervised” voting in Border States & suspension of certain newspapers
E) Union & Confederate Conscription
- 1. At first, Union army manned by surge of volunteers (more than 90% of Un army), but it had slacked by 1863à Cong passed federal conscription law for the 1st time on a nationwide scale
- Rich boys could hire substitutes or purchase exemption by paying $300
- This touched off Draft Riots in NYC, where underprivileged and antiblack Irish Ams mobbed.
- Rich could hire substitute/purchase exemption, slaveowners/overseers w. 20 slaves could too
- No draft riots, but bad feelings among less wealthy--> “rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight”
F) The Union Rode thru Financial Breakers while the Confederacy Didn’t
1. How the Union paid for the war
- Excise taxes on tobacco & alcohol substantially increased
- Income tax levied for the 1st time & although rates were low, they netted mns of $
- Morril Tariff of 1846 superseded Tariff of 1857, increased duties 5-10% to raise additional revenue & provide more protection for prosperous manufacturers.
- issued nearly $45mn greenbacks backed by fluctuating gold supplyà everchanging value
- Cong authorized Nat’l Banking System, designed to stimulate govt bonds & issue standard bank-note. Banks who joined could buy govt bonds & issued money backed by bonds.
- Treasury netted $2.6bn thru sale of bonds
- New protective tariffà “shoddy millionaires” who got rich bc of cheap goods
- Newly invented laborsaving machinery took place of manpower at war
- Mechanical reapers released farm boys for army & food surplus
- Fifty-niners who rushed to PA w. discovery of petroleum gushersà birth of coal industry
- New opportunities opened for women: govt, industry, nursesà women’s movement
- Large issues of Conf bonds sold at home & abroad--> $400mn
- Increased taxes sharply & imposed 10% levy on farm produce, but since the states’ righters were opposed to heavy taxation by central authority, only 1% income was raised this way.
- Customs duties choked off as Union blockade tightened
- Govt printed blue-backed paper money--> 9000% inflation compared to N’s 80%
- 30% nation’s wealth in 1860à12% in 1870; bf war, avg per capita income 2/3 N’ers
- Transportation collapsed
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