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Status
Secession Period
Alabama
Y
Confederate
1/1861 - 7/1868
Ø
601
1
ALABAMA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Alabama seceded from the Union on Jan. 11, 1861. The Alabama Secession Convention invited the other seceding states to meet in Montgomery and discuss forming a Southern government. The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was adopted on Feb. 8, 1861. On Feb. 18, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President of the Confederacy in Montgomery, which served as the Rebel capital until May 29, 1861. Despite being the “Cradle of the Confederacy” there was much Unionist sentiment in Northern Alabama. Counties in the mountainous part of the state (where there were few slaves) provided the Confederacy little support. A pro-Union Alabama Brigade was even formed. However, the rest of the state was generous in sending troops to Virginia and Tennessee. “Gallant” Major John Pelham was a famous soldier from Alabama. Alabama’s railways were vital to transporting soldiers and supplies between the fronts. The iron works and armories near Selma, were very valuable as well to the Southern war effort. Mobile was the main Rebel port on the Gulf after New Orleans fell. Alabaman, Raphael Semmes and his ship, the Alabama, were the pride of the Confederate Navy. Mobile Bay was closed on Aug. 5, 1864 and the city was captured April 12, 1865. General N.B. Forrest was defeated on April 1, 1865, and had to abandon Selma. Confederate forces in the state were surrendered May 4, 1865 by Forrest and General Richard Taylor.
¶Arkansas
Y
Confederate
5/1861 - 6/1868
Ø
601
1
ARKANSAS IN THE CIVIL WAR
Arkansas was a border state and was not among the first states to secede. A special election was held to decide on holding a secession convention. The vote went 27,472 to 15,826 for holding a convention but when the convention met, it voted secession down. Not until hostilities broke out at Fort Sumter and Lincoln prepared to fight the Confederacy did Arkansas secede, voting 69 to 1. Once in the fight, Arkansas contributed much. Arkansas troops were soon found in Missouri and Tennessee. The major battle in Arkansas was fought March 6-8, 1862 at Pea Ridge. There, outnumbered Union troops out-fought Confederates that included several thousand Indians under General Albert Pike. Another Rebel defeat in the same part of the state, Prairie Grove (Dec. 7, 1862), solidified Union control of northern Arkansas. Fort Smith, Little Rock, and several points near the Mississippi River were occupied by the Federals. In most of Arkansas (especially near the Missouri border), the war devolved into a brutal guerrilla war. In Spring, 1864 General Frederick Steele marched from Little Rock to take Shreveport, La. from the north but was defeated in a series of battles by General E. Kirby Smith’s rebels. Arkansas provided 60,000 men to the Confederate Army and 14,000 to the Union Army. Arkansas units fought in the Army of Northern Virginia and were involved in all major battles of the Army of Tennessee. Irish born General Patrick “Stonewall of the West” Cleburne was the state’s war hero.
¶Florida
Y
Confederate
1/1861 - 6/1868
Ø
601
1
FLORIDA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Florida seceded on Jan. 10, 1861. Florida was a sparsely settled state at the time of the war. Florida troops were sent to both Virginia and Tennessee where they saw distinguished service. Early in the war, an action performed by Florida troops that may not have seemed like much proved very helpful to the war effort. This was the removal of the lenses from the many lighthouses along Florida’s great stretches of coastline, making it difficult for Union warships to patrol the coast. Florida’s two chief coastal cites, Jacksonville and Pensacola both fell to Union attacks from the sea. One federal post on the Florida coast was remarkable in that it was never captured by the rebels. This was Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, off Pensacola Bay. The fort was reinforced before the Confederates could take it. When Yankee forces tried to move inland and establish an occupation government, they were defeated by local Confederates at Olustee on Feb. 20, 1864. Federal forces trying to capture Florida’s capital of Tallahassee were frustrated at Natural Bridge. Tallahassee was the only state capital east of the Mississippi River to escape occupation. When the end of the war drew near, the Governor of Florida, John Milton, decided not to outlive the Confederacy and committed suicide on April 1, 1865.
¶Georgia
Y
Confederate
1/1861 - 7/1870
Ø
601
1
GEORGIA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Georgia seceded on Jan. 19, 1861. Of the 118,000 white families in the state in 1860, fully 41,000 were slave owners. Georgia was quick to answer the call to arms. The first war act in Georgia actually took place before secession when the federal post of Fort Pulaski was seized on Jan. 3, 1861. When real war came Georgia sent troops to Virginia and Tennessee. Among the South’s finest soldiers were Georgians General James Longstreet and General John B. Gordon. Georgia was home to some of the Old South’s foremost political leaders including Alexander Stephens (Vice-President of the Confederacy), Howell Cobb, and Robert Toombs (both generals). North Georgia’s cities -- Atlanta, Augusta, Athens, and Columbia -- were the home of artillery, ordinance, and rifle works that were vital to the Southern war effort. Georgia was mostly free of Yankee troops until 1863. Northwest Georgia was invaded that year and the terrible battle of Chickamauga fought. Georgia was the scene of major campaigning again in 1864 as General William Sherman and General Joe Johnston fought a war of maneuver, occasionally interrupted by bloody assaults, from Dalton to Atlanta. General J.B. Hood replaced Johnston at Atlanta. After some near victories that bled his army dry, he abandoned the city to Sherman. Sherman burned Atlanta and marched on Savannah, living off the country and burning everything else in a 60 mile wake. It was the beginning of the end for the South. Jefferson Davis was captured in Irwinville, Ga. May 10, 1865, in one of the last acts of the war.
¶Louisiana
Y
Confederate
1/1861 - 7/1868
Ø
601
1
LOUISIANA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Louisiana became the sixth state to secede from the Union on Jan. 26, 1861. Louisiana was one the South’s most populous states, and New Orleans was the largest city in the Confederacy. New Orleans’ value as a port and center of industry (of which the South had little) was inestimable. The capture of the city by Commodore David Farragut in April, 1862, was a great Union victory. General Benjamin “Beast” Butler, commander of the occupation forces in New Orleans, became infamous throughout the South. Louisiana troops, known as Tigers, fought in all major campaigns. Notable generals from Louisiana were P.G.T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, Leonidas Polk, and Richard Taylor. Louisiana was separated from the rest of the Confederacy when the fortress at Port Hudson fell on July 8, 1863, completing Union control of the Mississippi River. General Nathaniel Banks led a campaign to control the Red River and capture Shreveport, capital of the state and the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. Banks was defeated at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, April 8-9, 1864, in the last major battles in Louisiana. The Governor of Louisiana in 1864-65, Henry Watkins Allen, was one the South’s best administrators. He increased war production in dismal conditions. Other outstanding political leaders from the state were Judah Benjamin, the best of President Davis’ cabinet members; and the Confederate Minister to France, John Slidell. The last Confederate surrender was at Shreveport on May 26, 1865 by General E. Kirby Smith.
¶Mississippi
Y
Confederate
1/1861 - 2/1870
Ø
601
1
MISSISSIPPI IN THE CIVIL WAR
Along with South Carolina, Mississippi was the center of secessionist fever in the South. Mississippi was the second state to secede on Jan. 9, 1861. When the Confederacy was formed in February, 1861, a Mississippian, Jefferson Davis, was chosen as the President. Mississippi sent troops to the fighting in other states and became a battleground itself in 1862. North Mississippi was invaded soon after the Rebel defeat at Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6-7, 1862). Vicksburg, Mississippi, located on high bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River was the chief Confederate bastion on the river. General U.S. Grant waged a long campaign to capture Vicksburg that ended with surrender of the city by General John Pemberton, on July 4, 1863, after a six-week siege. This Union victory cut the South in half. Throughout 1863 and 1864, Mississippi was the scene of raids by both armies. General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederate cavalry won many victories in North Mississippi against Federal raiders. Three years of war virtually destroyed the state’s economy. Grant and Sherman perfected their “total war” tactics in the Mississippi campaigns. The war also ravaged the population of the state. The losses suffered by Mississippi troops fighting for the Confederacy were such that the Mississippi state budget for 1866 (the first year of peace), allocated over 60% of the funds for the provision of prosthetic devices to wounded veterans.
¶North Carolina
Y
Confederate
5/1861 - 7/1868
Ø
601
1
NORTH CAROLINA IN THE CIVIL WAR
North Carolina, like the other border states, was in no rush to leave the Union. Over a third of the state’s population were slaves but there was a vocal abolitionist movement in the western part of the state. The prospect of North Carolina being called on by the federal government to provide troops to fight against her neighbors finally pushed the state into secession on May 20, 1861. Coastal North Carolina was invaded early in the war. Vast Palmico Sound and the rivers feeding it were the scene of hard fighting through most of the war. Wilmington on the Cape Fear River was a major center of blockade running and hence a chief source of Confederate supplies. Fort Fisher that guarded the river’s mouth held out against many federal assaults and did not fall until Jan. 15, 1865. Before Wilmington was evacuated on Feb. 22, 1865, it was the last open Confederate seaport. Inland North Carolina was free of Federal invasion until the very end of the war when General Sherman marched into the state from South Carolina in early 1865. General Johnston tried to oppose him but lacked the men. Battles like that at Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865, merely slowed Sherman’s advance. Johnston surrendered his army at Bennett’s House, N.C., April 26, 1865. North Carolina’s Governor, Zebulon Vance was a devoted states rightist who often denied the Confederacy vital supplies he had reserved for state use.
¶South Carolina
Y
Confederate
12/1860 - 7/1868
Ø
601
1
SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE CIVIL WAR
South Carolina was the center of Southern nationalism and the secessionist movement. On Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede, she called others to join her. When Lincoln tried to supply the Union force in Fort Sumter Charleston Harbor became the scene of the opening shots of the Civil War. Bombardment by rebels under General P.G.T. Beauregard forced Major Robert Anderson and his men to surrender. Charleston and the entire South Carolina coast was the site of much fighting as the Union tried to blockade the South. Charleston remained a center for blockade running until the war was almost over. Vital supplies were sent from Charleston to the armies in Virginia and the West. Keeping the port open required stalwart defense of the city’s forts. In fighting the Yankee fleet without a navy “rebel ingenuity” devised and built the Hunley, a submarine that sank the U.S.S. Housatonic on Feb. 17, 1863. Of the 44,000 men South Carolina sent to fight, the men of Hampton’s Legion and its leader General Wade Hampton were the most famous. The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, was noted for the ability of its graduates. Late in the war, Jan. 1865, inland South Carolina was invaded when General Sherman marched from Savannah. On reaching the cradle of the rebellion, his men destroyed everything in their path. Columbia, the state capital, was razed. Charleston fell on Feb. 17, 1865. On April 14, 1865, General Robert Anderson raised the flag over Fort Sumter that he had lowered in 1861.
¶Tennessee
Y
Confederate
6/1861 - 7/1866
Ø
601
1
TENNESSEE IN THE CIVIL WAR
Tennessee was the last of the eleven Confederate States to secede, doing so on June 9, 1861. East Tennessee, Appalachian Mountain country, was as much Unionist as it was Confederate. Secessionists predominated in the state but Unionists were numerous enough in the eastern half of the state to wage a bitter guerrilla war of neighbor against neighbor. Tennessee was a major battleground of the war, second only to Virginia in the number of homeland battles fought. In 1861, Governor Isham Harris raised many state regiments that became the core of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson (in February, 1862) forced the Rebels to evacuate the Nashville region, which was one of the richest supply areas in the South. The hard-fought battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, among others, slowly forced the Rebels out of Tennessee, and opened heart of the South to the Union armies. The loss of Chattanooga, a rail center, was especially devastating. Tennessean Nathan Bedford Forrest, the war’s finest cavalry leader, led many raids into his home-state, disrupting Yankee communications. In late 1864, General John Bell Hood led the Confederate Army of Tennessee away from Atlanta, and into Tennessee. This last Confederate foray into Tennessee ended with the near destruction of Hood’s army by General George Thomas, at Nashville, on Dec. 15-16, 1864, the only rout of a major Southern army. This debacle ended major fighting in Tennessee.
¶Texas
Y
Confederate
3/1861 - 3/1870
Ø
601
1
TEXAS IN THE CIVIL WAR
The election of Abraham Lincoln as President in Nov. 1860 provoked “secession fever” in Texas as in the rest of the South. There was more Unionist sentiment in Texas than in many of the Confederate States because, although most Texans were of Southern extraction, a substantial portion were from the North or Europe. On Jan. 28, 1861, the Texas Secession Convention met without the approval of Governor Sam Houston who, though a slave-owner, opposed secession. The Convention voted for secession 166 to 8 and on Feb. 1, 1861, Texas seceded from the United States. A referendum was held on the issue Feb. 23, the only such referendum in the South. Texans voted for secession 46,129 to 14,697. Early in the war Texas launched an unsuccessful expedition to the New Mexico Territory under General Henry Sibley. Most of the 14 major engagements fought in Texas occurred on the coast. In the most famous, Sabine Pass, forty-seven men (with artillery) held off an invasion force of over 4,000 on Sept. 18, 1863. Two of the most renowned state units were Hood’s Texas Brigade, of the Army of N. Virginia and Terry’s Texas Rangers, of the Army of Tennessee. Albert S. Johnston and John B. Hood were Texas’ most honored generals. Louis Wigfall, a Confederate Senator, was a leader of the opposition to Jeff Davis. Texas escaped many hardships of the war, allowing Texas cotton to be shipped into Mexico then exported to provide the South with needed currency. An armory in Tyler, Texas was one of the South’s finest. The last battle of the war was won by Confederates at Palmetto Ranch, Texas May 12, 1865.
¶Virginia
Y
Confederate
4/1861 - 1/1870
Ø
601
1
VIRGINIA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Virginia is rightly known as the “Cockpit of the Civil War”. Over 500 engagements were fought in Virginia, more than 200 in 1864 alone. Virginia found the secession crisis more agonizing than most. No other state so nurtured the legends of the Revolution as did Virginia. Six men born in Virginia had served as President of the United States; Virginians did not easily leave the Union. Fort Sumter decided Virginia and on April 17, 1861, she seceded. Richmond, Virginia was made the capital of the Confederacy. The proximity of the two capitals, less than 100 miles, became the dominating factor of the war. No state sired as many generals as did Virginia, home to Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, and many others including the Union general George Thomas. Among the great battles fought in Virginia were the 1st and 2nd Manassas, Seven Days, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. The Shenandoah Valley saw the brilliant campaign of Stonewall Jackson in 1862 and the terrible devastation of General Philip Sheridan in 1864 when he deprived the South of the produce of the rich Valley. Virginia lost control of her western counties early in the war. Being pro-Union they formed their own state in 1863. The Tredegar Iron Works and Norfolk Shipyards were but two important war factories in Virginia. When General Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, Va. April 14, 1865, the war was over.
¶California
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
CALIFORNIA IN THE CIVIL WAR
California was far removed from the great battles of the Civil War. In 1860 the only dependable method of communication between California and the other states was the Pony Express. There were many Confederate sympathizers in the state. Early Confederate victories in the New Mexico Territory encouraged them that there was some hope that California, south of Santa Barbara, could be brought into the Confederacy. Access to the Pacific Coast would have been very valuable if the South had won the war. These hopes were never realized. Federal troops and California volunteers fought Indians (Apache and Navaho) in the New Mexico Territory while the regular army was occupied with Rebels. The chief interest of California during the years 1861-65 while war was raging in the East was the progress of the Transcontinental Railroad.
¶Connecticut
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
CONNECTICUT IN THE CIVIL WAR
The story of Connecticut in the Civil War is one of factories. Connecticut was the most industrialized state in the Union in the 1860s. Not even Massachusetts produced more per capita manufactured goods. The war years were a time of rapidly expanding production in Connecticut. The government’s need for arms, munitions, and ships sparked the boom. Connecticut furnished the Union with its share of men for the Army and Navy. Over 50,000 men in thirty regiments left Connecticut to fight the Confederacy. The state also sent over 2,500 men to serve in the United States Navy during the Civil War. Connecticut troops saw distinguished service with the Army of the Potomac and in the campaigns in the Gulf region. The 14th Connecticut Infantry Regiment won renown for its performance at Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862).
¶Delaware
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
DELAWARE IN THE CIVIL WAR
Although Delaware was a slave state, it did not secede from the Union. There were Confederate sympathizers in the state but they were too few in number to force secession. In early 1862, Abraham Lincoln asked Delaware to implement his plan for “compensated emancipation”, in hopes of reaching a compromise with the South. The plan called for the federal government to provide the states with the necessary funds to compensate slave-owners for freeing their slaves. The proposal was rejected by the state legislature by one vote. Small Delaware furnished troops to both sides but many more to the Union army than to the Confederate. Delaware sent more men to the Union army, in proportion to its population, than any other state.
¶Illinois
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
ILLINOIS IN THE CIVIL WAR
Illinois’ foremost claim to Civil War fame is that it was the home of Abraham Lincoln. However, Lincoln only carried the northern counties of his home state in the 1860 Election. Fellow Illinoisan Stephen Douglas captured the southern counties. Illinois was not as stingy with supplies for President Lincoln as it had been with votes. Dozens of needed regiments as well as the fruit of many farms and factories were contributed to the war effort. Besides Lincoln others from Illinois to win recognition in the war were Ulysses S. Grant, who started the war in command of a regiment of Illinois volunteers; and General John Logan. Southern Illinois was home to a considerable number of anti-war “Copperheads”.
¶Indiana
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
INDIANA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Although Indiana supplied valuable infantry and cavalry regiments to the Union, the state was divided. The southern half of Indiana was mostly settled by “Butternuts” or people from the upper-South. The northern parts of Indiana were settled primarily by people from New England and New York. In Indiana, the northern half of the state was less thickly settled than in neighboring states, making the Butternuts more influential. When war broke out many of these Butternuts became “Copperheads”, or anti-war Democrats. Rebel hopes that they could find recruits was one reason for John H. Morgan’s 1863 raid through the state. Morgan burned the towns of Corydon, Salem, Dupont, and Versailles (July 8-13, 1864).
¶Iowa
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
IOWA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Iowa was still in many ways a frontier state in the 1860s. Abraham Lincoln won convincingly in Iowa in the 1860 election. Iowa sent men to fight in the campaigns against the South and the removal of most of the local militias from the frontier left the area open to Indian raids. In 1862 a Sioux uprising left many Iowa settlers massacred before being finally quelled late in the year. Violence continued sporadically until the war was over and the army could patrol the region properly. Sac and Fox Indians also came into Iowa in the 1860s but they came peacefully, returning in small numbers to lands they had been forced to leave. Of the more than 70,000 Iowans that served in the Union army, mostly in the western campaigns, over 8,000 died from disease, and over 3,500 in battle.
¶Kansas
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
KANSAS IN THE CIVIL WAR
Kansas was wracked with guerrilla warfare for years before the Civil War began in the rest of the country. “Bleeding Kansas” it was called. The debate over extending slavery into the new territories was focused on Kansas. When it was decided that “popular sovereignty”, a vote of the people, would decide the issue, pro-slavery Southerners and Northern abolitionists flooded into the territory. Dominance tilted back and forth in a series of corrupt elections. Ambushes and retaliatory murder became common. The famous folk hero John Brown was a leading figure of the abolitionist terrorists. Eventually the “free-soilers” outnumbered the Southerners and declared the territory free. Kansas was admitted as a state on Jan. 29, 1861, as the Southern states were seceding. Kansas sent troops to fight with the regular federal forces but many of its men served as “Redleg” guerrillas. Redlegs would ride into Missouri and Arkansas to attack Confederate supporters. This guerrilla war was brutal. The low point was reached when “Colonel” William Quantrill led his band of Southern partisans into Kansas on a raid in Aug., 1863. On Aug. 21, 1863, Quantrill burned the town of Lawrence and killed over 150 men, women, and children. Among his lieutenants was a young Frank James, brother of Jesse and co-founder of the infamous James Gang that terrorized the West.
¶Kentucky
Y
Union / Confederate
Ø
Ø
619
1
KENTUCKY IN THE CIVIL WAR
As a slave state, Kentucky was deeply troubled by the secession crisis of 1861. Like Tennessee to the south, Kentucky was divided into pro-Union east and pro-Confederate west. The state declared itself neutral. At first both Rebels and Yankees respected the neutrality, for neither wanted Kentucky on the others’ side. However, on Sept. 3, 1861, Confederates seized Columbus, on the Mississippi River, and soon the state was filled with troops from both sides. Kentucky was voted into Confederacy, in Richmond, but never actually seceded. Kentucky men served in both armies. Among the most famous were the soldiers of the “Orphan Brigade” of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Kentucky’s most famous sons during the war were Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. The Confederates were driven from Kentucky in early 1862, but returned before the year was out. In the summer of 1862, General Braxton Bragg and General E. Kirby Smith led Southern troops into Kentucky. Smith established a Confederate state government at Lexington. Confederate hopes of attracting recruits to their army were not very successful - Bragg and Smith had to retreat to Tennessee after an indecisive battle at Perryville on October 8, 1862. After 1862, the main actions in Kentucky were cavalry raids by General N.B. Forrest and General John H. Morgan on Union supply depots and railways. Guerilla war between local Southern and Union sympathizers was almost as bad in Kentucky as in Tennessee.
¶Maine
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
MAINE IN THE CIVIL WAR
Maine was a strongly anti-slavery state that wholeheartedly supported Lincoln and the war effort. Among the Maine units that distinguished themselves during the war was the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery. The unit suffered over 50% casualties in Grant’s bloody Virginia campaign of 1864-65. No other regiment in the war had so high an attrition rate. Another famous unit was the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment, noted for its brave stand on Little Round Top during the battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).
¶Maryland
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
MARYLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR
Although Maryland had a slave economy very similar to that of Virginia the state did not secede. Eastern Maryland was very much pro-Southern and secessionist, but the western half of the state was pro-Union. What kept Maryland in the Union were the federal troops that rushed to Washington D.C. in early 1861. By the time Fort Sumter persuaded the other states of the upper-South to secede, Maryland was firmly in the hands of Mr. Lincoln’s army. Maryland secessionists did not give up easily, however. On April 19, 1861, a pro-Southern mob in Baltimore attacked the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, on its way to Washington. The troops had to fire on the crowd. Secessionists also cut rail and telegraph lines to the capital for six days. Maryland sent men to serve in both armies. Hopes of inciting rebellion were part of the motivation for Confederate invasions of Maryland in 1862, ’63, and ’64. The 1862 invasion ended when General Lee retired after the stalemate at Antietam, Sept. 17. General Lee again invaded Maryland in 1863 and pressed on into Pennsylvania. If he had won at Gettysburg, Lee then planned to pick up volunteers in Baltimore; but it was not to be. In 1864, General Jubal Early invaded Maryland to ease pressure on Lee in Virginia. Early won a battle at Monocacy (July 9, 1864) and almost captured Washington. Early’s forced retreat across the Potomac ended campaigning in Maryland. Maryland was a rich state that was a major source of supply for the Union’s Army of the Potomac.
¶Massachusetts
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE CIVIL WAR
Massachusetts was the center of abolitionism in Ante-Bellum America. William Lloyd Garrison and Charles Sumner, both of Massachusetts, were among the most outspoken enemies of slavery in the nation. Massachusetts voted solidly Republican in 1860 and was the first state to respond to Lincoln’s call to arms in early 1861. Massachusetts soldiers were some of the first to die, when, on April 19, 1861, the 6th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was attacked by a Baltimore mob while en route to Washington. Massachusetts took an early lead in forming regiments of free blacks, such as the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, which performed gloriously in battle. Due to Massachusetts’ place in the front ranks of the abolitionist movement, many of the state’s leading Republican leaders were awarded military commands by the Lincoln administration. These men, Benjamin Butler and Nathaniel P. Banks foremost among them, were lackluster generals at best. Massachusetts industrial production, already considerable, was greatly stimulated by the war. Increased demand for textiles, guns, ordinance, and other manufactured items more than offset the losses incurred in the collapse of shipping firms, caused by Confederate commerce raiders such as the Alabama and the Florida.
¶Michigan
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
MICHIGAN IN THE CIVIL WAR
Michigan was a source for both soldiers and strategic minerals during the Civil War. Salt, first well-drilled in Saginaw County in 1860, was essential for preserving meat long enough to reach the soldiers in the field and on marches away from supply trains. A copper lode discovered at Calumet in 1864 was exploited to supply the Northern armies. Michigan provided over 85,000 men to the Union forces during the Civil War. Of these men almost 15,000 were killed by disease or in battle.
¶Minnesota
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
MINNESOTA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Minnesota was granted statehood in 1858, shortly before the Civil War. Minnesota sent eleven regiments (over 22,000 men) to take part in the fight to save the Union. The 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment won a place in history for its gallant stand at Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). The people at home in Minnesota saw almost as much fighting as their men at the front. When federal forces on the frontier were weakened and the state militia sent away, Indians attacked the unprotected settlements. In early 1862 over 350 settlers were massacred by a Sioux uprising led by Chief Little Crow. The army was hard pressed to find troops to spare to combat the Indians. The South was still far from beaten. To help defeat the Indians, repatriated Confederates were dispatched to Minnesota after release from prisoner-of-war camps on the strength of their word that they would not return South. The Sioux were defeated at the battle of Wood Lake, Sept. 22, 1862. The large raids ceased, but there was trouble on the Minnesota frontier until the war ended, and the army returned in strength.
¶Missouri
Y
Union / Confederate
Ø
Ø
619
1
MISSOURI IN THE CIVIL WAR
Few states were as deeply divided by the secession crisis as was Missouri. Missouri was a slave state whose white population was divided between those of Southern origin, and those who had come from the North or Europe. Many German immigrants had settled in the state and were fiercely anti-slavery. General Nathaniel Lyons scored an early victory for Union forces by seizing the state arsenal in St. Louis, before the Governor could turn it over to secessionists. Lyons led his men against superior Rebel forces at Wilson’s Creek, Aug. 10, 1861. The Confederates under Sterling Price defeated them and Lyons was killed. Rebel dominance soon ended with the Union victory at Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 7-8, 1862. Colonel Joseph Shelby led a destructive raid against Union posts in 1863. Late in 1864 General Price led an invasion force that almost captured St. Louis; he marched across the state before being defeated at Westport, Oct. 23, 1864. Nowhere was guerrilla warfare more brutal or widespread than in Missouri. Guerrillas led by William Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson battled pro-Union “Redlegs” in a vicious war of ambush and lynchings. Missouri supplied men to both armies, but her rich materials mostly supplied the North. St. Louis was the base for Grant’s River Campaign and many river gunboats were built there. Franz Sigel and Sterling Price were noted Missouri generals for the North and South respectively.
¶New Hampshire
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
NEW HAMPSHIRE IN THE CIVIL WAR
In New Hampshire, as in the other New England states, abolitionist sentiment was strong. When the Southern states seceded after Lincoln’s election to the presidency, New Hampshire quickly organized state troops and dispatched them to Washington D.C. Over 30,000 troops were sent by New Hampshire to help crush the Rebellion. Eighteen infantry regiments, a cavalry regiment, and several smaller units were organized by the state.
¶New Jersey
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
NEW JERSEY IN THE CIVIL WAR
New Jersey agriculture and industry played as important a part in the Northern war effort as did the sons she sent to fight. All types of war material from “hard-tack” to howitzers was sent to the front from the Garden State. In some of the more fervently Democratic sections of the state anti-war feeling was quite strong. In spite of this, when President Lincoln issued the first call for troops to suppress the Rebellion, New Jersey’s Governor, Charles S. Olden organized over 30,000 men to serve in the Union army. Many more would follow before the war was won. The Union commander, General George B. McClellan was born in New Jersey.
¶New York
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
NEW YORK IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Empire State was a source of men, manufacturing, and agriculture for the Union cause. Upstate New York was strongly anti-slavery and voted heavily for Lincoln in 1860. New York City was a Democratic stronghold, in part due to the many immigrants there that were controlled by the Tammany Hall political machine. New Yorkers of all parties responded early to the call-to-arms. The colorful New York Zouaves were famous for their bravery as well as for their gaudy uniforms (for which they were named). New York industry expanded to meet the demands of the war and New York bankers lent the federal government much of the money used to pay for the war. Despite the economic boon that the war was to the area, New York City remained a center of anti-war feeling throughout the conflict. Conscription in particular was resented to the extent that “Draft Riots” broke out. From July 13-17, 1863, New York City was in the control of rioters who burned and looted at will. Blacks in the city were the victims of brutal attacks until order was restored. The Secretary of State during the war, William H. Seward, was a New Yorker.
¶Ohio
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
OHIO IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Civil War greatly stimulated the industrial sector of Ohio’s economy. Largely agricultural in 1860 Ohio was a developing industrial center by the war’s end. Ohio sent thousands of men to the battlefields of the Civil War. Most Ohioans served in the western theater but some “Buckeye” regiments fought in Virginia. Ohio was almost invaded in 1862 when General E. Kirby Smith’s Rebels were in a position to attack Cincinnati from Kentucky. State militia were rushed to the panic-stricken city but Smith failed to appear. Ohio was the scene of limited fighting in 1863 when General John H. Morgan led a detachment of Confederate cavalry across the Ohio river. Morgan and his men rode into Ohio disrupting communications and destroying government supplies. The raiders almost reached the Pennsylvania border before they met federal forces at Salineville (July 26, 1863), where they were defeated and captured. Many of the Union’s finest leaders came from Ohio. General Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio, as were General William T. Sherman, General Philip H. Sheridan, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
¶Oregon
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
OREGON IN THE CIVIL WAR
Oregon was admitted into the Union in 1859. The Confederacy was a long way from Oregon and no Confederate troops raided that far. Oregon sent no regiments to fight in the war. All the men Oregon could spare were needed to keep down Indians, who were taking advantage of the Army’s preoccupation back East. Four battles with the Indians were fought during the war, three in 1864, and one in 1865. Despite the war raging in the East and the increased danger from Indians, the years 1861-65 saw small groups of settlers make their way across the long Oregon Trail to the new state.
¶Pennsylvania
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Pennsylvania was a great source of men and material for the Union cause. A traditionally Democratic state, Pennsylvania voted for Lincoln in 1860, endorsing the Republican platform that would prohibit slavery in the territories. Pennsylvania troops served with distinction in the both the eastern and western fronts. A Philadelphian, George B. McClellan (born in New Jersey), was one of the first Northern heroes of the war. McClellan commanded the Army of the Potomac in two major campaigns but was relieved of his command for lack of aggressiveness. In the 1864 Presidential Election, McClellan was the Democratic candidate. Lincoln easily defeated his anti-war platform. Pennsylvania was the scene of the greatest battle of the war. In the summer of 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania, in search of supplies and a victory on Northern soil that would win foreign recognition for the South. At Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, General Lee’s army attacked General George Meade’s Union forces, but failed to move them. Lee lost over 30,000 men, and Meade 24,000 before the Rebels retreated south. Pennsylvania was briefly invaded again in 1864 when Confederate cavalry units burned Chambersburg in reprisal for Yankee conduct in Virginia. The war greatly boosted Pennsylvania’s blossoming oil and steel industries. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, a long-time abolitionist, was a powerful figure among the “Radical Republicans” in Congress during the war years.
¶Rhode Island
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
RHODE ISLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR
Rhode Island was a fervently anti-slavery state; every county in the state voted for Lincoln in the 1860 Election. Rhode Island was generous in providing soldiers and sailors to the Union forces. Rhode Island industry greatly profited from the war. The states’ many foundries and factories produced valuable arms for the war effort. The enormous profits realized during the war years helped finance a vast post-war expansion.
¶Vermont
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
VERMONT IN THE CIVIL WAR
Vermont was the site of a strange incident that constituted the only actual fighting of the Civil War that took place in New England. In, October, 1864, some Confederates in Canada raided St. Albans, Vermont. Some of the Rebels were escapees from federal prisoner-of-war camps while others were involved in obtaining supplies for the Confederacy in British Canada. Their position was difficult, as the Canadians, and increasingly the British, were pro-Union. The Confederates decided to launch an attack across the border. On Oct. 19, 1864, thirty Rebels in civilian clothes attacked St. Albans. Other than destroying some government property and creating a diplomatic incident, very little was accomplished. Vermont regiments served with the Army of the Potomac, and in the western campaigns.
¶Wisconsin
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
WISCONSIN IN THE CIVIL WAR
Wisconsin provided many brave troops and vital produce to the Union war effort. Wisconsin wheat in particular was in great demand by Union forces. Wisconsin farmers labored mightily to feed the Union armies. Most Wisconsin troops fought in the West. Death from disease in these campaigns was more common than in the East.
¶West Virginia
Y
Union
Ø
Ø
612
1
WEST VIRGINIA IN THE CIVIL WAR
The western counties of Virginia did not support secession in 1861. There were few slaves in the mountainous region and the people there resented the political control the eastern (slave) section exercised over the whole state. The western counties rebelled against the state government over secession. Virginia troops under General Robert Garnett tried to establish Confederate control in the area. Garnett was defeated (and then killed) at Rich Mountain (June 11, 1861) by Federal forces under General George B. McClellan, who made his reputation there as the “Napoleon of the West”. Fighting continued until the Rebels were driven over the Alleghenies after the defeat at Gauley Bridge, Nov. 1, 1861. Campaigns by General “Stonewall” Jackson and William Loring, in 1862, were not successful in securing the region for the South. West Virginia was used as a Union base against Jackson in the Valley Campaign of 1862. In 1863, the counties that had remained loyal to the Union were organized as a separate state. On June 20th, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th of the United States. The new state saw only one major engagement after gaining statehood. On Aug. 7, 1864, the Confederate cavalry, returning from a raid on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, were badly defeated at Moorefield. West Virginia saw a lot of guerrilla warfare in the early days of the war. Turner Ashby was a famous Rebel guerrilla from the region that formed the new Virginia-West Virginia border.
¶Colorado Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE COLORADO TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
There was a Gold strike in Colorado in 1860. Gold brought a flood of people into the area and soon they were demanding some sort of government. In Feb. 1861, Congress created the Colorado Territory. The territory boomed through-out the war years. The 1st Colorado Volunteers were instrumental in defeating the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico Territory in 1862. In the battle of Glorieta Pass (March 26-28, 1862) they were forced to retreat after a hard fight but they managed to wreck the Confederate supply train, effectively defeating the Rebel campaign. Coloradans mostly fought local Indians for the rest of the war instead of seeking out Confederates. One unit, Colonel Chivington’s 3rd Colorado Cavalry Regiment, perpetrated the infamous Sand Creek Massacre. On November 29, 1864, the regiment rode 900 strong into the camp of Chief Black Kettle. An estimated 200 Indians, over half of them women and children, were killed. The 3rd Colorado lost 8 men at Sand Creek.
¶Dakota Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE DAKOTA TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Dakota Territory was created on March 2, 1861. The principal inhabitants of the region were Indians. The great tribes of the Northern Plains, the Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, and many others lived in the new Dakota Territory. Sioux Indians from Dakota raided Minnesota in 1862 before they were defeated at the battle of Wood Lake (Sept. 22, 1862). Busy fighting the Confederacy, the Union lacked the men to pursue the Sioux during the war. This left them free to attack targets not protected by the forces in Minnesota. After the Homestead Act of 1862 new settlers provided the Indians with many such opportunities. New settlers moved into the present states of North and South Dakota and Montana. In 1862 gold was discovered on the Beaverhead River. In 1863, another gold strike was made at Alder Gulch. Soon prospectors were prowling through the Black Hills, the Badlands, and the Bighorn Mountains. The Montana Territory was separated from Dakota in 1864. Other than causing a shortage of soldiers the Civil War had no impact on the area, but it did facilitate the opening of the region to Yankee settlement, ultimately dooming the Plains Indians.
¶Indian Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE INDIAN TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Indian Territory (the present state of Oklahoma) was turned upside down by the Civil War. At the war’s beginning the principal inhabitants of the territory were the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes : the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminoles. The Five Tribes signed treaties with the Confederacy promising greater autonomy and territory in return for helping the South win Independence from the Union. General Albert Pike was authorized by the Confederate Government to organize an Indian Brigade. Pike led a force of over 5,000 Indians from the territory into Arkansas where they were defeated at Pea Ridge (March 7-8, 1862). After the defeat the Brigade retired back into the territory. The Indians were not well adapted to conventional Civil War tactics but were excellent at the kind of guerrilla warfare that prevailed in the region. Seventeen skirmishes were fought in Indian Territory during the course of the war. The most important were Round Mountain (November 19, 1861), a draw; and Honey Springs (July 17, 1863), a Union victory. When the South was defeated in 1865, the Indians were forced to sign a new treaty with the United States that was less favorable than the one in effect when the war began.
¶Nebraska Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE NEBRASKA TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Nebraska Territory was created in 1854, at the same time as Kansas. The original territory encompassed a huge area entailing the modern states of Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. In 1861 the Dakota Territory was separated from Nebraska. Nebraska, like Kansas, was involved in the “popular sovereignty” debate about slavery and the territories. Nebraska was more thinly settled than Kansas and contained few Southerners, so the debate did not turn into the bloody terrorist war that raged in Kansas. The major impact of the Civil War on Nebraska concerned Indians and homesteaders. The Sioux uprising of 1862 resulted in bloodshed that did not end until the Sioux were chased from Minnesota by the army later that year. In 1863, as a result of the Homestead Act, settlers began pouring into the territory in large numbers. This quickened the pace of territorial development. At the same time it aggravated already tense relations with the Indians. Sioux war parties attacked groups of settlers making their way into the new lands in 1864. The Sioux killed 26 soldiers at Platte Bridge Station in the summer of 1865. Nebraska lost more western land in 1865, when Nebraska was fixed at its present boundaries.
¶Nevada Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE NEVADA TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Nevada Territory was created early in the Civil War. On March 2, 1861, the area was separated from the Utah Territory, to the delight of the settlers in both regions. Mormons were the first settlers of the area, founding a settlement at Genoa, in 1849. In the 1850s rich deposits of gold and silver, notably the Comstock Lode at Mount Davidson, was discovered near Virginia City. Miners from California flooded into the western Utah territory and rowdy mining camps sprang up all over. The miners and the Mormons did not mix well. Soon the people in the western part of Nevada were asking for a territory of their own, which they got in 1861. Nevada boomed during the Civil War. Despite the storm raging in the East thousands came to Nevada seeking their fortune. The era is well described in “Roughing It” by Mark Twain, who spent most of the war in Nevada. All the gold and silver mined in Nevada contributed by helping finance the Union war effort. Nevada was granted statehood on October 31, 1864. Because the state was admitted during the Civil War it is sometimes called the “battle-born” state.
¶New Mexico Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE NEW MEXICO TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
The New Mexico Territory was the scene of the Confederacy’s one Far Western campaign. The American population in the territory was split between Confederate and Union sympathizers. Federal forces abandoned forts in Texas and southern New Mexico to Texas Rebels under Colonel John Baylor, in early 1861. Baylor declared that the territory south of the 34th parallel was now the Confederate Territory of Arizona, and that he was its Governor. In July, 1861, the Confederacy ordered General Henry Sibley to lead an expedition to capture the entire territory. In Nov. 1861 Sibley led a force of over 3,500 men up the Rio Grande, bypassed a Federal force under Colonel Edward Canby at Fort Craig, and then defeated Canby at Valverde (Feb. 21, 1862). Sibley proceeded up the river and occupied both Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Then Confederates marched on the last Union fort in the area, aptly named Fort Union. The 1st Colorado Volunteers joined Fort Union’s garrison and the two forces met in the battle of Glorietta Pass (March 26-28, 1862). The Rebels won the battle but lost their supply train in the process, thus losing the campaign. The Confederates were forced to make a long retreat across the desert. There was one skirmish in the present state of Arizona on April 15, 1862. Arizona was created as a separate territory on Feb. 24, 1863. The only other Civil War campaigning in the New Mexico Territory was by Colonel. “Kit” Carson’s 1st New Mexico Volunteers (Union), against Indians.
¶Public Land
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE PUBLIC LANDS IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Public Lands were large expanses of government owned land between Minnesota to the East and the Nebraska and Dakota Territories to the West. There were Indian uprisings (of varying severity) all over the West in 1862. The Sioux raided Minnesota from the Public Lands and the Dakota Territory and massacred many settlers. The government felt that the Indians were not due any consideration (in light of the raids), and with no Southern legislators (anxious about Yankee settlement in the territories) to stop them, they opened the region to settlement. The Homestead Act was passed by Congress in 1862. The act provided settlers with practically free land. Once the Act became effective on January 1, 1863, people began building farms, ranches, and small settlements in the region. Soon the new settlers began discovering valuable mineral deposits, including gold, that drew even more settlers. Relations with the Indians, many previously peaceful, were quickly poisoned. Opening up the region for homesteading was beneficial to the economy but disastrous to relations with (and ultimately to the survival of) the Plains Indians.
¶Utah Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE UTAH TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
During the Civil War the principal inhabitants of the sparsely settled Utah Territory were Indians and Mormons. Mormons had begun settling in the area in 1847, before the region was even official United States territory. Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormons, led a migration of several thousand members of the Mormon Church across the wilderness to settle in the region to the east of the Great Salt Lake. They hoped to set up an independent country, Deseret, where they would be free from the persecution they had suffered in the United States (New York, Missouri, and Illinois). The United States wasted little time in bringing the Utah settlement under its jurisdiction after acquiring the area as part of the Mexican Cession (1850). Brigham Young and his followers put up a struggle at first, but by the time of the Civil War, Utah was under the control of the federal government. In practice the territory was mostly autonomous and Brigham Young was installed as the territorial governor. The Civil War barely touched Utah except that the decrease in federal troops patrolling the West forced the local militia to be more vigilant. The major event of the war years was the creation of the Nevada Territory from the western half of the original Utah Territory in 1861.
¶Washington Territory
Y
Neutral
Ø
Ø
636
1
THE WASHINGTON TERRITORY IN THE CIVIL WAR
No section of the vast United States was as removed, geographically and otherwise, from the Civil War as was the Washington Territory. The white residents of Washington in 1861 were mostly of Northern or British origin. There were no significant Confederate sympathizers in the territory. The cost of transporting men from Washington to the battlefields of the East precluded Washingtonians fighting in the conflict. There was some trouble with Indians during the years 1861-65 and several small skirmishes were fought.
¶USA 1861
N
Ø
Ø
Ø
645
2
OVERVIEW OF THE CIVIL WAR
The Civil War (1861-1865) was the United States’s greatest crisis. The Union was torn apart and for four long years Americans fought and died at each others hands. The sectional differences between North and South were many, but slavery was the issue that most divided them. The economic and social life of the South was based on African slavery, that of the North on free labor. In the decades preceding the war, the North grew much faster than the South. Northern industry created more wealth, more jobs, and attracted many more foreign immigrants than did Southern agriculture. Northern population growth, constantly reducing Southern influence in Congress and the Electoral College, frightened the South. In 1860, when the Presidency was won by the Republican Party on a platform hostile to slavery, Southerners thought they could no longer protect their “liberty” and property, within the Union. Throughout the winter of 1860-61, President-elect Abraham Lincoln pleaded for compromise as secession swept the South. Following South Carolina’s lead (Dec. 20, 1860), the seven states of the Deep South left the Union. In February, 1861, the seceding states formed a government, the Confederate States of America, with a constitution that protected slavery and state’s rights. Lincoln ordered Union forces in Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, to defend the post. After a Rebel bombardment forced a surrender, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, and the four states of the upper-South joined the Confederacy. War commenced.
The Union plan to win the war was called “Anaconda”. It called for a naval blockade of the South and the seizure of the Mississippi River, to split the South in two. The Union blockade was loose at first but it tightened, and the Southern ports were captured one by one. The South was slowly starved of war material beyond the limited amount its few factories could produce. The seizure of Forts Henry and Donelson by General Ulysses S. Grant (February, 1862) and his victory at Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862), cleared western Tennessee of Rebel armies and opened the Mississippi to Union attack. Commodore David Farragut’s capture of New Orleans (April 25, 1862) allowed the federals to strike the remaining Rebel posts from north and south. The Confederates forts at Vicksburg and Port Hudson were besieged and starved into surrender (July 4 and 9, 1863), giving the Union full control of the river.
The defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863, were the beginning of the end for the South. Grant’s relief of the besieged Yankees in Chattanooga, and the subsequent Rebel defeat there, sealed the Confederacy’s fate. The campaigns of 1864 differed from those of the war’s early years. The South could no longer afford to risk men on the attack, and the new Union leaders, Grant and Sherman, had discovered the keys to victory. They used their superior forces to wage a war of attrition, and by wrecking the countryside they destroyed the remaining supply systems. Keeping constant pressure on the Rebels proved costly; Sherman lost 3,000 men in one assault at Kennesaw Mt. (June 27, 1864) and Grant lost more men in May and June of 1864 than Lee had in his whole army. Grant besieged Lee in Petersburg for ten months, bleeding the Rebel army as dry as he did Virginia. In Georgia, Sherman and General Joseph Johnston played cat and mouse all the way to Atlanta, where Johnston was replaced by John B. Hood. Sherman soon cut Hood’s rail lines, whereupon Hood left Atlanta to raid Tennessee, leaving Sherman to burn the city and half the state as he marched to the sea. Hood’s army was destroyed at Nashville, and Sherman marched with impunity into the Carolinas. By April, 1865, only Johnston and a small force stood between Sherman uniting with Grant before Lee’s starving army in Petersburg. Lee broke the siege in early April, but was soon surrounded and forced to surrender his tattered army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Va., April 9, 1865. The other Rebel armies soon followed suit. The Civil War was over.
Although the home-front in the North was prosperous, the war was a daily fact of life to be dealt with. From a population of twenty million the Union fielded an army of over two million men. Over four-hundred thousand immigrants and almost two-hundred thousand freed slaves served for the Union. Newspapers in every town would carry daily lists of the local casualties. There were complaints about the war. “Copperhead” Democrats protested the conduct of the war and some the war itself. President Lincoln jailed thousands for their demonstrations and suspended the right of Habeas Corpus. Conscription provoked outcries across the North when it began in 1863, and was the cause of four days of riots in New York City (July 13-17, 1863). The major effect of the war on the North was that it brought employment, production, and profits to record levels. The great industrial boom of the late 1800s began in the Civil War. The 1864 Presidential Election was the only election held in the midst of a terrible civil war. Support for the war was evidenced by the many Radical Republicans elected. When the war was won and Lincoln assassinated (April 14, 1865), those Radicals would punish the South for causing the war that cost over three-hundred thousand Union casualties.
¶Confederacy
N
Ø
Ø
Ø
646
2
THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
The Confederates in Virginia and central Tennessee held the Union at bay for the first two years of the war. During this period, General Robert E. Lee, and his Army of Northern Virginia won renown for brilliant victories against the numerically superior Army of the Potomac. In Summer 1862, the Rebels invaded Maryland and Kentucky, but had to retreat after the battles of Antietam, (Sept. 17, 1862) and Perryville, (Oct. 8, 1862). Emboldened by victories at Fredericksburg (Dec. 13, 1862) and Chancellorsville (May 1-4, 1863), Lee invaded the north again and lost heavily at Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). Lee and his army returned to Virginia for good.
In the South the Civil War was the biggest thing that ever happened. Not a life was unchanged. The strain of matching the numbers of the North was considerable. From a white population of five and one half million the South put one million men in uniform.
Of these, over two-hundred thousand were killed and many more disabled. The absence of all these men meant that crops were not tended. Slaves generally continued to work in areas under Rebel control but if Yankees came through most slaves left with them, depleting the South of its labor. Food production in the South increased during the war as fields formerly used for cotton were planted with corn (since the blockade ended the export market). But because of the collapse of transportation, wrecked railways, burnt bridges, and blockaded rivers, produce could not be moved to market or the army. For the women and children at home times were hard. As more and more of the South was occupied, they were treated as members of a conquered people. The “total war” of Grant and Sherman rendered many thousands homeless. The ravages of the war and the pain of defeat were catastrophic to the South. In the re-United States, the South was an economic and social back-water ruled by Yankee bayonets, whereas before the war it had been different, and weaker, but not without wealth and influence. It took generations for the South to fully recover from consequences of slavery, secession, and Civil War.
