The Civil War

THE CIVIL WAR

_by_ JAMES I. ROBERTSON, JR.

Washington 25, D. C. U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission 1963

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Alma E. Anderson, _Social Studies Department, Robert E. Lee Junior High School, Danville, Va._ E. Merton Coulter, _Professor-Emeritus of History, University of Georgia, Athens_ William M. Grant, _History Department, Upper Arlington High School, Columbus, O._ Richard Harwell, _Librarian, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me._ William B. Hesseltine, _Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison_ Daniel W. Hollis, _Professor of History, University of South Carolina, Columbia_ Stanley F. Horn, _Chairman, Tennessee Civil War Centennial Commission, Nashville_ William M. Lamers, _Assistant Superintendent, Milwaukee Public Schools_ A. B. Moore, _Professor-Emeritus of History, University of Alabama, University_ Allan Nevins, _Chairman, U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission, San Marino, Cal._ Mary G. Oliver, _History Department, George Washington High School, Danville, Va._ Glenn A. Rich, _Director, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Ohio Department of Education, Columbus_ Bell I. Wiley, _Professor of History, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga._ T. Harry Williams, _Professor of History, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge_ Hazel C. Wolf, _History Department, Manual High School, Peoria, Ill._

FOREWORD

Thousands of student requests for information on the Civil War prompted the publication of this booklet. Its purpose is to present in simple language a survey of the eleven most popular aspects of the 1861-1865 conflict. This guide is intended as a supplement, not a substitute, for American history textbooks.

Space limitations prevented mention of each of the 6,000 engagements of the Civil War. Thus, while such actions as the battle of Picacho Pass, Ariz., and Quantrill's sacking of Lawrence, Kan., had import for their particular locales, they of necessity had to be omitted. In those battles herein discussed, statistics for armies and losses are those generally accepted. The map midway in the booklet may help familiarize the student with the various theaters of military operations. After each section is a list of works recommended for those who desire more detailed information on the subject.

Relatively little consideration of the political, economic, and social history of the period was possible within the limits of this small work. However, the Commission can supply upon request and without charge the following pamphlets treating in part of those subjects: _Emancipation Centennial, 1962: A Brief Anthology of the Preliminary Proclamation_; _Free Homesteads for All Americans: The Homestead Act of 1862_, by Paul W. Gates; _The Origins of the Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities_, by Allan Nevins; and _Our Women of the Sixties_, by Sylvia G. L. Dannett and Katharine M. Jones.

The Commission is deeply indebted to the Editorial Advisory Board members, each of whom rendered valuable assistance toward the final draft of the narrative.

James I. Robertson, Jr., _Executive Director_ _U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission_

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE I. Causes of the Civil War 5 II. Advantages of North and South 7 III. Summary of Military Campaigns 11 1861 11 1862 in the West 13 1862 in the East 17 1863 in the West 21 1863 in the East 23 1864 25 1865 30 IV. Losses 35 V. Navies 37 VI. Diplomacy 42 VII. Prisons and Prisoners of War 45 VIII. Arms 48 IX. Leaders 52 X. The Common Soldiers 57 XI. The War's Legacy 62 XII. Suggested Topics for Further Discussion 64

progress when civil war began.]

I. CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

Historians past and present disagree sharply over the major cause of the Civil War.

Some writers have viewed the struggle of the 1860's as a "war of rebellion" brought on by a "slavepower conspiracy." To them it was a conflict between Northern "humanity" and Southern "barbarism." James Ford Rhodes, who dealt more generously with the South than did many other Northern writers of his time, stated in 1913: "Of the American Civil War it may safely be asserted that there was a single cause, slavery."

Other historians, such as Charles A. Beard and Harold U. Faulkner, have argued that slavery was only the surface issue. The real cause, these men state, was "the economic forces let loose by the Industrial Revolution" then taking place in the North. These economic forces were strong, powerful, and "beating irresistibly upon a one-sided and rather static" Southern way of life. Therefore, the 1860's produced a "second American Revolution," fought between the "capitalists, laborers, and farmers of the North and West" on the one hand, and the "planting aristocracy of the South" on the other.

A third theory advanced by historians is that the threat to states' rights led to war. The conflict of the 1860's was thus a "War between the States." Many in this group believe that the U. S. Constitution of 1787 was but a compact, or agreement, between the independent states. Therefore, when a state did not like the policies of the central government, it had the right to withdraw--or secede--from this compact.

Still other writers believe "Southern nationalism" to have been the basic cause of the war. Southerners, they assert, had so strong a desire to preserve their particular way of life that they were willing to fight. This then became a struggle between rival sections whose differences could not be settled peacefully. The result was a "War for Southern Independence."

Montgomery, Ala., first capital of the Confederacy.]

A recent group of historians, known as "revisionists," rejects these earlier theories. Leader of the revisionist school was the late James G. Randall, who once stated: "If one word or phrase were selected to account for the war, that word would not be slavery, or economic grievances, or states rights, or diverse civilizations. It would have to be such a word as fanaticism." Another revisionist, Avery O. Craven, agrees. The Civil War, he wrote, resulted because the great mass of American people "permitted their short-sighted politicians, their overzealous editors, and their pious reformers" to control public opinion and action. Primarily through the slavery issue, these radicals created more and more hatred between North and South. In the end, and as a result of these radicals, the differences between the sections, swelled by "a blundering generation," burst into a war.

fort's battered walls are clearly visible.]

II. ADVANTAGES OF NORTH AND SOUTH

Few nations have been as unprepared for a full-scale war as was the United States in 1861. The U. S. Army consisted of barely 17,000 men. Most of the soldiers were stationed at remote outposts on the western frontier. To make matters worse for the Union, a large number of army officers who had been born in the South and educated at West Point resigned from the army and offered their services to the Confederacy.

The U. S. Navy was in an equally bad state. It had performed little duty since the War of 1812. The Navy had a total of 90 ships, but only 42 of them were in active service at the outbreak of civil war. Of this number, 11 fell into Confederate hands with the capture of the naval base at Norfolk, Va., in April, 1861. The remaining vessels were scattered around the world. Moreover, 230 of 1,400 naval officers joined the forces of the Confederacy.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the North seemed to possess every advantage:

(1) 23 Northern states aligned against only 11 Southern states. (Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri were slave states, but they remained in the Union. Also, the western counties of Virginia revolted and formed their own state when the Old Dominion cast her lot with the Confederacy.)

(2) The population of the Northern states was approximately 22,000,000 people. The Southern states had only 9,105,000 people, and one-third of them (3,654,000) were slaves. The great difference in population, plus a steady flow of European immigrants into the Northern states, gave the Union tremendous manpower. Over 2,000,000 men served in the Federal armies, while no more than half that number fought for the South.

seized by Federals on the Orange & Alexandria (now Southern) Railroad.]

(3) The North had 110,000 manufacturing plants, as compared with 18,000 in the Confederate States. The North produced 97% of all firearms in America, and it manufactured 96% of the nation's railroad equipment.

in 1861, Richmond's Tredegar Iron Works produced such items as machinery, cannon, submarines, torpedoes, and plates for ironclad ships.]

(4) Most of the country's financial resources were in the North.

In view of the North's statistical superiority