Lecture 14 - The Civil War

The Buildup to the Civil War



1. Best known leader of the “underground railroad”?  **Harriet tubman 
2. What was the plan that allowed California to enter the Union as a free state and temporarily preserved the Union? **Compromise of 1850
3. Name two influential Senators in the passing of the above plan.  **Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster4. Who was President when the above plan was passed?  **Millard Fillmore
5. What was Daniel Webster’s last great speech? **Seventh of March Speech6. Who proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill? **Stephen Douglas
7. This person attacked proslavery settlements and desired to forcibly free slaves.  His terror was named “Bleeding Kansas” and his raid of a federal arsenal was in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. **John Brown  
8. The name of the slave that wanted his freedom and whose case went to the Supreme Court  **Dred Scott
9. The name of the book that described the abuses of slave life **Uncle Tom’s Cabin
10.President Abraham Lincoln became the 16th US President under which political party? (Hint: it was the first time this newly formed party won a Presidential election) **Republican 
11. Who was chosen to be president of the Confederacy? **Jefferson Davis of (Mississippi)



The Civil War (1861-1865)

April 12, 1861 - Fort Sumter (the war begins in South Carolina)
September 17, 1862 - Battle of Antietam (bloodiest single day of the war)
January 1, 1863 - Emmancipation Proclamation
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg (most decisive battle of the war)
November 19, 1863 - Gettysburg Address
April 9, 1865 - Appomattox Court House (the war ends in Virginia)

1. Name two advantages of the North **abundant resources, more capital, more factories, more skilled laborers, more adequate transportation facilities, large merchant marine and naval force
2. Name two advantages of the South. **seized much federal property, accustomed to outdoor life, handling of firearms and horses, good prospects for foreign aid, talented military leaders (Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson), fighting on the defensive (knew the land)
3. What was the Union’s main strategy in the East? **To capture Richmond, Virginia
4. Name the first battle between Union and Confederate troops. **Bull Run or Manassas Junction
5. Name two of the Confederate Commanders at Bull Run. **General Pierre G.T. Beauregard, General Joseph E. Johnston, or General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
6. Who replaced General Irvin McDowell as commander of the Union Army? **General George B. McClellan
7. Name the two ships that fought in the first battle between the ironclad vessels.  **the Merrimac (Virginia) and the Monitor.
8. Which battle was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War? **The Battle of Antietam (Maryland September 17, 1862) (5000 dead, 18000 wounded)
9. Which document proclaimed all slaves in Confederate states to be free as of January 1, 1863? **Emancipation Proclamation
10. Name the important Confederate general who was accidentally shot by his own men at Chancellorsville.  **Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
11. Which battle proved to be the decisive turning point in the war? **The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863)
    
    

Mr. Young history - near Antietem battlefield is Clagett Mill Road.  Down the road 2 miles, is the Clagett Mill where my grandfathers great grandfather Barnett Young worked, his son John, then Elias, then Elias Jr who owned the mill.

Reasons for fighting the civil war:
*The North was fighting to preserve the union.
*The South was fighting to preserve states' rights.

The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the places that were up in arms against the Union.  It was the first step toward the total abolition of slavery.  By the end of 185, the 13th Amendment had been ratified, permanently abolishing slavery from the United States and all areas under its jurisdiction.

The Gettysburg Adderss:
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

A score is 20, so four score and 7 is 87 years ago.  87 years from 1863 = 1776 (declaration of independence)

President Lincoln was addressing the current meaning and the long-lasting outcome of the war.  In addition to dedicating the field to those who had died, Americans themselves must be personally dedicated to upholding a nation of freedom.  



Reconstruction (that is, reconstructing the union) was from 1865-1877

April 14, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln (16th president) was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

December 1865 - 13th Amendment (abolished slavery)

1868 - 14th Amendment (gave citizenship to people born in the United States)

15th Amendment (gave voting rights to former slaves)

It was important to determine if the states actually seceded.  If the states had seceded, then Reconstruction would be under the jurisdiction of Congress, and the Southern states would have to be readmitted into the Union.  If the Southern states had merely rebelled, the Reconstruction was a job to be handled by the President, under his executive pardoning power (the states would not have to be readmitted but simply start functioning like loyal states again).  President Lincoln viewed the Southern states as having rebelled, not seceded (however he was assassinated and others did not hold his view).