Before Lincoln took office, seven states seceded from the Union, and established an independent Southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan whose term ended on March 3, 1861. One fourth of the U.S. Army--the entire garrison in Texas-- was surrendered to state forces by its commanding general David E. Twiggs, who then joined the Confederacy. By seceding, the rebel states gave up any claim to the Western territories that were in dispute, canceled any obligation for the North to return fugitive slaves to the Confederacy, and assured easy passage in Congress of many bills and amendments they had long opposed. The Civil War began when, under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861. There were no casualties from enemy fire in this battle.
The American Civil War
Morbid: Green, green grass, blinding sunlight - yet little signs of life in this shot from the battle of Gettysburg (Original picture taken by Timothy H O'Sullivan, 1863)
What the picture is said to show in the first instance, is that for the northern public, dying in battle often lacked the gallantry in other such paintings and portraits.
At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 2 and 3, more men fought and died than in any other battle in American history.
Confederate causalities in dead, wounded and missing were 28,000 out of 75,000. Union casualties were 23,000 out of 88,000.
Union soldiers. Confederate dead. Library of Congress.
More men were killed or wounded at Antietam on September 17, 1862, than on any other single day of the Civil War. Federal losses were 12,410, Confederate losses 10,700. Although neither side gained a decisive victory, Lee's failure to carry the war effort effectively into the North caused Great Britain to postpone recognition of the Confederate government. The battle also gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which, on January 1, 1863, declared free all slaves in States still in rebellion against the United States. Now the war had a dual purpose: to preserve the Union and end slavery.
The Eastern Theatre
Union Generals
The American Civil War was a bitter sectional conflict within the United States of America after 11 southern states declared their secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. The Confederate strategy was to wear down morale in the much stronger USA, or get European powers to intervene; none did so. The Union strategy, designed by Lincoln, was first to maintain morale by appeals to nationalism and then to antislavery sentiments.
Militarily the US shut down the Southern economy by blockading the coast. Second in the west, under Ulysses S. Grant, the U.S. captured the Mississippi and other river systems, seized Tennessee, and, (under general William T. Sherman), captured Atlanta, and marched through Georgia and the Carolinas. In the east the strategy was to capture Richmond, which was tenaciously defended by Robert E. Lee until the last days, when Grant forced Lee to surrender. The decisive victory was followed by a period of Reconstruction. The war produced more than 970,000 casualties (3 percent of the population), including approximately 560,000 deaths. The causes of the war, the reasons for the outcome, and even the name of the war itself, are subjects of much controversy, even today.
Multiple explanations of why the War began
The origins of the American Civil War lay in the complex issues of slavery, politics, disagreements over the scope of States' rights versus federal power, expansionism, sectionalism, mob wars, economics, modernization, and competing nationalism of the Antebellum period. Although there is little disagreement among historians on the details of the events that led to war, there is disagreement on exactly what caused what and the relative importance. There is no consensus on whether the war could have been avoided, or if it should have been avoided.
Failure to compromise
In 1854, the old Second Party System broke down after passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Whig Party disappeared, and the new Republican Party arose in its place. It was the nation's first major political party with only sectional appeal; though it had much of the old Whig economic platform, its popularity rested on its commitment to stop the expansion of slavery into new territories. Open warfare in the Kansas Territory, the panic of 1857, and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry further heightened sectional tensions and helped Republicans sweep elections in 1860. The election of Abraham Lincoln, who met staunch opposition from Southern slave-owning interests, triggered Southern secession from the union.
During the secession crisis, many politicians argued for a new sectional accommodation to preserve the Union, focusing in particular on the proposed "Crittenden Compromise." But historians in the 1930s such as James G. Randall argued that the rise of mass democracy, the breakdown of the Second Party System, and increasingly virulent and hostile sectional rhetoric made it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to bring about the compromises of the past (such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850). Indeed, the Crittenden Compromise was rejected by Republicans. One possible "compromise" was peaceful secession agreed to by the United States, which was seriously discussed in late 1860—and supported by many abolitionists—but was rejected by James Buchanan's conservative Democrats as well as the Republican leadership.
States Rights
The States' Rights debate cuts across the issues. Southerners argued that the federal government had no power to prevent slaves from being carried into new territories, but they also demanded federal jurisdiction over slaves who escaped into the North. Northerners took reversed, though equally contradictory, stances on these issues.
Slavery as a cause of the War
Focus on the slavery issue has been cyclical. It was considered the main cause in the 1860–1890 era. From 1900 to 1955, historians considered anti-slavery agitation to be less important than constitutional, economic, and cultural issues. Since the 1960s, historians have returned to an emphasis on slavery as a major cause of the war. Specifically, they note that the South insisted on protecting it and the North insisted on weakening it.
For Southern leaders, the preservation of slavery emerged as a political imperative. As the basis of the Southern labor system and a major store of Southern wealth (see "Economics," below), it was the core of the region's political interests within the Union. The section's politicians identified as Southern "rights" the equal opportunity to introduce its labor system and property (i.e. slaves) into newly opened territories, and to retrieve escaped slaves from the free states with federal assistance.
Northern resistance to slavery fell into the categories of self interest and moral (largely religious) opposition. In the small-producer economy of the North, a free-labor ideology (see "Ideologies," below) grew up that celebrated the dignity of labor and the opportunities available to working men. Slavery was seen as unfair competition for men attempting to better themselves in life. Slavery was also seen as a threat to democracy; Northerners believed that a corrupt oligarchy of rich planters, the Slave Power, dominated Southern politics, and national politics as well. Northerners also objected on moral grounds to being legally required to enforce fugitive slave laws. The slave laws were enforced because of the compromise of 1850 that allowed California to enter the Union as a free state. The south wanted a stricter fugitive slave law, which they were granted.
Abolitionism as a cause of the war
By the 1830s, a small but outspoken abolitionist movement arose, led by New Englanders and free blacks, including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Lucretia Mott. Many people North and South considered slavery an undesirable institution, but by the 1840s the militant abolitionists went much further and declared that owning a slave was a terrible sin, and that the institution should be immediately abolished. Southerners bitterly resented this moralistic attack, and also the stereotypical presentation of slave owners as heartless Simon Legrees in the overwhelmingly popular (in the North) book and play by Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852). Historians continue to debate whether slave owners actually felt either guilt or shame (Berringer 359-60[1]). But there is no doubt the southerners were angered by the abolitionist attacks. Starting in the 1830s there was a widespread and growing ideological defense of the "peculiar institution" everywhere in the South. By the 1850s Northern teachers suspected of any tinge of abolitionism were expelled from the region, and abolitionist literature was banned there as well. The secessionists rejected the denials of Republicans that they were abolitionists, and pointed to John Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a slave uprising as proof that multiple northern conspiracies were afoot to ignite bloody slave rebellions. No evidence of any Brown-like conspiracy has been discovered by historians.
Economics
The free-labor and slavery-based labor systems of North and South had different, complementary economic bases. The Middle Atlantic and New England regions developed a commercial market economy, and built the nation's first factories. The tariff was not a factor--after 1847 tariffs were low and did not protect industry. The Midwest, the free states west of the Appalachians, had an agricultural economy that exported its surplus production to the other U.S. regions and to Europe. The South, in addition to much subsistence agriculture, depended upon large-scale production of export crops, primarily cotton and (to a lesser extent) tobacco, raised by slaves. (Slaves were a key component in Southern wealth, comprising the second most valuable form of property in the region, after real estate.) Some of its cotton was sold to New England textile mills, though much more of it was shipped to Britain. The dominance of this crop led to the expression "King Cotton." However, shipping, brokerage, insurance, and other financial mediation for the trade was centered in the North, particularly in New York City.
These contrasting economic interests led to sectional agendas that, at times, competed in Congress. Pennsylvania politicians, for example, pushed for a protective tariff to foster the iron industry. Southerners, tied to an export economy, sought free-trade policies. There was some demand in the West for federally funded improvements in roads and waterways, but less support in the agricultural South. However, there was no unanimity of support for such programs even within each region.
Northern farmers also depended upon exports; early railroad managers desired reduced tariffs on imported iron; many Northern Democrats opposed any federal role in the nation's infrastructure, while Southern Whigs favored it. As a result, the significance of economic conflict has been exaggerated: North and South did not compete but were complementary. Each depended on the other for prosperity. King Cotton's greatest importance may have been in fostering the secessionist belief that it would prove a sufficient support for an independent Southern nation. Many believed that British prosperity depended on cotton, and that surely Britain (and possibly France) would help protect cotton supplies by helping the Confederacy gain independence. This analysis proved a delusion during the war, but it seems to have been influential in 1860-61 during the debates.
American Civil War Summary
Date:
1861–1865
Location:
Principally in the Southern United States
Result:
Union victory; Reconstruction; slavery abolished
Combatants
Union (remaining U.S. states)
Confederate States
of AmericaCommanders
Abraham Lincoln†
Ulysses S. GrantJefferson Davis
Robert E. LeeStrength
2,200,000
1,064,200
Casualties
KIA: 110,100
Total dead: 359,500
Wounded: 275,200KIA: 94,000
Total dead: 258,000
Wounded: 137,000+Ideologies
Both North and South believed strongly in republican values of democracy and civic virtue. But their conceptualizations were diverging. Each side thought the other was aggressive toward it, and was violating both the Constitution and the core values of American republicanism.
Free Labor vs. Proslavery Arguments
Historian Eric Foner (1970) has argued that a free-labor ideology dominated thinking in the North, which celebrated the dignity of free labor, and emphasized the capacity of a working man to lift himself up by his own efforts. By contrast some Southern writers attacked the sharp-dealing, commercially-minded society of the North. Only in a slave-owning society, they argued, could a white man truly be free, to pursue education, cultural refinement, or political participation. They depicted slavery as a positive good for the slaves themselves, especially the Christianizing that had rescued them from the "paganism" of Africa.
Slave Power
Republicans argued that a clique of wealthy planters, the Slave Power, dominated the South, and the nation as a whole. (Indeed Southerners played a predominant role in the federal government, supplying most of the nation's Presidents, Speakers of the House of Representatives, and Chief Justices of the Supreme Court.) Though historians have recently emphasized that the South was much more democratic than Northerners believed, the Slave Power image gripped the Northern imagination.
Slavery in the Territories
The specific political crisis that culminated in secession stemmed from a dispute over the expansion of slavery into new territories. Under the Missouri Compromise of 1820,this Compromise balanced the power in Congress, by adding Maine as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state.They also prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30'N lat. (the southern boundary of Missouri). The acquisition of vast new lands after the Mexican War (1846–1848), however, reopened the debate—now focused on the proposed Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in territories annexed from Mexico. Though it never passed, the Proviso aroused angry debate. Northerners argued that slavery would provide unfair competition for free migrants to the territories; slaveholders claimed Congress had no right to discriminate against them by preventing them from bringing their legal property there.
The dispute led to open warfare in the Kansas Territory after it was organized by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This act repealed the prohibition on slavery there under the Missouri Compromise, and put the fate of slavery in the hands of the territory's settlers, a process known as "popular sovereignty." Fighting erupted between proslavery "border ruffians" from neighboring Missouri and antislavery immigrants from the North (including John Brown, among other abolitionists). Hundreds were killed or wounded. As tensions between North and South now were violent.
Southern fears of Republican control
Southern secession was triggered by the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln because regional leaders feared that he would make good on his promise to stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. If not Lincoln, then sooner or later another Yankee would do so, many Southerners said; it was time to quit the Union. The slave states had lost the balance of power in the Electoral College and the Senate, and were facing a future as a perpetual minority facing a growing, hostile and aggressive North. Most southerners probably thought this was grounds for peaceful separation.
Southern fears of modernity
In a broader sense, the North was rapidly modernizing in a manner deeply threatening to the South. Historian James McPherson (1983 p 283) explains:
When secessionists protested in 1861 that they were acting to preserve traditional rights and values, they were correct. They fought to preserve their constitutional liberties against the perceived Northern threat to overthrow them. The South's concept of republicanism had not changed in three-quarters of a century; the North's had.... The ascension to power of the Republican Party, with its ideology of competitive, egalitarian free-labor capitalism, was a signal to the South that the Northern majority had turned irrevocably towards this frightening, revolutionary future.
— James McPherson, "Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question," Civil War History 29 (Sept. 1983)
Secession
Before Lincoln took office, seven states seceded from the Union, and established an independent Southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan whose term ended on March 3, 1861. One fourth of the U.S. Army--the entire garrison in Texas-- was surrendered to state forces by its commanding general David E. Twiggs, who then joined the Confederacy. By seceding, the rebel states gave up any claim to the Western territories that were in dispute, canceled any obligation for the North to return fugitive slaves to the Confederacy, and assured easy passage in Congress of many bills and amendments they had long opposed.
The Civil War began when, under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861. There were no casualties from enemy fire in this battle.
A House Divided Against Itself
The Union States
There were 23 states which remained loyal to the Union during the war: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The Union counted Virginia as well, and added Nevada and West Virginia. It added Tennessee, Louisiana, and other rebel states as soon as they were re-conquered.
The Confederacy
Seven states seceded by February 1861: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.. South Carolina being the first to secede.
These states of the Deep South, where slavery and cotton were most dominant, formed the Confederate States of America (February 4 1861), with Jefferson Davis as president, and a governmental structure closely modeled on the U.S. Constitution.
After the surrender of Fort Sumter, April 13, 1861, Lincoln called for troops from all states to put down the insurrection, resulting in the secession of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
Border states
Along with the northwestern portion of Virginia (whose residents did not wish to secede and eventually entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia), four of the five northernmost "slave states" (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky) did not secede, and became known as the Border States. There was considerable anti-war or "Copperhead" sentiment in the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and some men volunteered for Confederate service; however much larger numbers, led by John A. Logan, joined the Union army.
Maryland had numerous pro-Confederate officials, but after rioting in Baltimore and other events had prompted a Federal declaration of martial law, Union troops moved in, and arrested the pro-Confederates. Both Missouri and Kentucky remained in the Union, but factions within each state organized governments in exile that were recognized by the CSA.
In Missouri, an elected convention on secession voted decisively to remain within the Union. When pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne F. Jackson called out the state militia, it was attacked by federal forces under General Nathaniel Lyon, who chased the governor and the rest of the State Guard to the southwestern corner of the state. In the resulting vacuum the convention on secession reconvened and took power as the Unionist provisional government of Missouri.
Although Kentucky did not secede, for a time it declared itself neutral. During a brief invasion by Confederate forces, Southern sympathizers organized a secession convention, inaugurated a Confederate Governor, and gained recognition from the Confederacy. However, the military occupation of Columbus by Confederate General Leonidas Polk in September 1861 turned general popular opinion in Kentucky against the Confederacy, and the state reaffirmed its loyal status and expelled the Confederate government.
Residents of the northwestern counties of Virginia organized a secession from Virginia and entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia. Similar secessions were supported in some other areas of the Confederacy (such as eastern Tennessee), but were suppressed by the Confederacy, which arrested over 3,000 people loyal to the U.S.A.
Overview
The War Begins
Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's secession from the Union. By February 1861, six more Southern states had seceded. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama. The pre-war February peace conference of 1861 met in Washington, as one last attempt to avoid war; it failed. The remaining southern states as yet remained in the Union. Confederate forces seized all but three federal forts within their boundaries (they did not take Fort Sumter); President Buchanan made no military response, but governors in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania began secretly buying weapons and training militia units to ready them for immediate action.
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called the secession "legally void". He stated he had no intent to invade southern states, but would use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. The South did send delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties, but they were turned down. Lincoln refused to negotiate with any Confederate agents because he insisted the Confederacy was not a legitimate government.
On April 12, Confederate soldiers fired upon the Federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, until the troops surrendered. Lincoln called for all of the states in the Union to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. Most Northerners hoped that a quick victory for the Union would crush the nascent rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days. Four states, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, and—most importantly, Virginia—which had repeatedly rejected Confederate overtures now decided that they could not send forces against the seceding states. They seceded and to reward Virginia the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia, a highly vulnerable location at the end of the supply line.
Even though the Southern states had seceded, there was considerable anti-secessionist sentiment in certain scattered localities in the seceding states. Eastern Tennessee, in particular, was a hotbed for pro-Unionism. Winston County, Alabama issued a resolution of secession from the state of Alabama. The Red Strings were a prominent Southern anti-secession group.
Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the U.S. Army, devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with as little bloodshed as possible. His idea was that a Union blockade of the seacoast would strangle the rebel economy, then capture of the Mississippi would split the South. Lincoln adopted the plan but overruled Scott's warnings against an immediate attack on Richmond.
Naval war and blockade
In May 1861 Lincoln proclaimed the Union blockade of all southern ports, which shut down nearly all international traffic and most local port-to-port traffic. Although few naval battles were fought and few men were killed, the blockade shut down King Cotton and ruined the southern economy. British investors built small, very fast "blockade runners" that brought in military supplies (and civilian luxuries) from Cuba and the Bahamas and took out some cotton and tobacco. When the blockade captured one the ship and cargo were sold and the proceeds given to the Union sailors. The crews were British, so when they were captured they were released and not held as prisoners of war. The most famous naval battle was the Battle of Hampton Roads (often called "the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack") in March 1862, in which Confederate efforts to break the blockade were frustrated. Other naval battles included Island No. 10, Memphis, Drewry's Bluff, Arkansas Post, and Mobile Bay.
Eastern Theater 1861–1863
Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, whereupon they were forced back to Washington, D.C., by Confederate troops under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General Thomas Jackson received the name of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
Major General George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26 (he was briefly general-in-chief of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862.
The Western Theatre
Confederate Generals
Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan invaded Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River, southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, Joseph E. Johnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, then Robert E. Lee defeated him in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat. McClellan was stripped of many of his troops to reinforce John Pope's Union Army of Virginia. Pope was beaten spectacularly by Lee in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run in August.
Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17 1862, the bloodiest single day in American history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided justification for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation.
When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside suffered near-immediate defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 1862, when over ten thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. Meade defeated Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–July 3, 1863), the largest battle in North American history, which is sometimes considered the war's turning point. Lee's army suffered 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000). Lee was almost trapped but managed to escape. Lincoln was angry that Meade failed to intercept Lee's retreat, and decided to turn to the Western Theater for new leadership.
Western Theater 1861–1863
While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern theater, they crucially failed in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Leonidas Polk's invasion of Kentucky enraged the citizens there who previously had declared neutrality in the war, turning that state against the Confederacy.
Nashville, Tennessee, fell to the Union early in 1862. Most of the Mississippi was opened with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee. The Union Navy captured New Orleans, Louisiana without a major fight in May 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well. Only the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, prevented unchallenged Union control of the entire river.
Braxton Bragg's second Confederate invasion of Kentucky was repulsed by Don Carlos Buell at the confused and bloody Battle of Perryville and he was narrowly defeated by William S. Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee.
The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga. Bragg, reinforced by the corps of James Longstreet (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of George Henry Thomas. Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga, which Bragg then besieged.
The Union's key strategist and tactician in the west was Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at: Forts Henry and Donelson, by which the Union seized control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; Shiloh; the Battle of Vicksburg, cementing Union control of the Mississippi River and considered one of the turning points of the war. Grant marched to the relief of Rosecrans and defeated Bragg at the Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening an invasion route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.
Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861–1865
Though geographically isolated from the battles to the east, a few small-scale military actions took place west of the Mississippi River. Confederate incursions into Arizona and New Mexico were repulsed in 1862. Guerilla activity turned much of Missouri and Indian Territory (Oklahoma) into a battleground. Late in the war the Federal Red River Campaign was a failure. Texas remained in Confederate hands throughout the war, but was cut off after the capture of Vicksburg in 1863 gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.
End of the War 1864–1865
At the beginning god created the earth of 1864, Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies. Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, and put Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war. He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of Confederacy from multiple directions: Generals Grant, Meade, and Benjamin Butler would move against Lee near Richmond; General Franz Sigel (and later Philip Sheridan) would invade the Shenandoah Valley; General Sherman would capture Atlanta and march to the sea; Generals George Crook and William W. Averell would operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and General Nathaniel Banks would capture Mobile, Alabama.
Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase ("Grant's Overland Campaign") of the Eastern campaign. An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Grant was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 66,000 casualties in six weeks), kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia back to Richmond. He pinned down the Confederate army in the Siege of Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months.
Grant finally found a commander, General Philip Sheridan, aggressive enough to prevail in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Sheridan proved to be more than a match for Jubal Early, and defeated him in a series of battles, including a final decisive defeat at Cedar Creek, Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural base of the Valley, a strategy similar to the tactics Sherman would later employ in Georgia.
Meanwhile, Sherman marched from Chattanooga to Atlanta, defeating Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. The fall of Atlanta, on September 2, 1864, was a significant factor in the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, as President of the Union. Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched with an unclear destination, laying waste to about 20% of the farms in Georgia in his celebrated "March to the Sea", and reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah in December 1864. Burning plantations as they went, Sherman's army was followed by thousands of freed slaves. There were no major battles along the March. When Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and his men.
Lee attempted to escape from the besieged Petersburg and link up with Johnston in North Carolina, but he was overtaken by Grant's better rested and equipped army. Consequently, Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. In an untraditional gesture and as a sign of Lincoln's respect and anticipation of folding the Confederacy back into the Union with dignity and peace, Lee was permitted to keep his officer's sabre and his near-legendary horse, Traveller. Johnston surrendered his troops to Sherman shortly thereafter in Durham, North Carolina at a family farmhouse known as Bennett Place. The Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought on May 13, 1865, in the far south of Texas, was the last Civil War land battle and ended, ironically, with a Confederate victory. All Confederate land forces surrendered by June 1865.
Analysis of the outcome
Why the Union prevailed (or why the Confederacy was defeated) in the Civil War has been a subject of extensive analysis and debate.
Could the South have won? A significant number of scholars believe that the Union held an insurmountable advantage over the Confederacy in terms of industrial strength, population, and the determination to win. Confederate actions, they argue, could only delay defeat. Southern historian Shelby Foote expressed this view succinctly in Ken Burns's television series on the Civil War: "I think that the North fought that war with one hand behind its back.... If there had been more Southern victories, and a lot more, the North simply would have brought that other hand out from behind its back. I don't think the South ever had a chance to win that War."
Other historians, however, suggest that the South had a chance to win its independence. As James McPherson has observed, the Confederacy remained on the defensive, which required fewer military resources. The Union, committed to the strategic offensive, faced enormous manpower demands that it often had difficulty meeting. War weariness among Union civilians mounted along with casualties, in the long years before Union advantages proved decisive. Thus, the inevitability of Union victory remains hotly contested among scholars.
The goals were not symmetric. To win independence the South had to convince the North it could not win, but it did not have to invade the North. To restore the Union the North had to conquer vast stretches of territory. In the short run (a matter of months) the two sides were evenly matched. But in the long run (a matter of years) the North had advantages that increasingly came into play, while it prevented the South from gaining diplomatic recognition in Europe.
Both sides had long-term advantages but the Union had more of them. The Union had to control the entire coastline, defeat all the main Confederate armies, seize Richmond, and control most of the population centers. As the occupying force they had to station hundreds of thousands of soldiers to control railroads, supply lines, and major towns and cities. The long-term advantages widely credited by historians to have contributed to the Union's success include:
The more industrialized economy of the North, which aided in the production of arms, munitions and supplies, as well as finances, and transportation. The graph shows the relative advantage of the USA over the CSA at the start of the war. The advantages widened rapidly during the war, as the Northern economy grew, and Confederate territory shrank and its economy weakened.
A party system that enabled the Republicans to mobilize soldiers and support at the grass roots, even when the war became unpopular. The Confederacy deliberately did not use parties.
The Union population was 22 million and the South 9 million in 1861; the disparity grew as the Union controlled more and more southern territory with garrisons, and cut off the trans-Mississippi part of the Confederacy.
Excellent railroad links between Union cities, which allowed for the quick and cheap movement of troops and supplies. Transportation was much slower and more difficult in the South which was unable to augment its much smaller system or repair damage, or even perform routine maintenance.
The Union devoted much more of its resources to medical needs, thereby overcoming the unhealthy disease environment that sickened (and killed) more soldiers than combat did.
The Union at the start controlled over 80% of the shipyards, steamships, river boats, and the Navy. It augmented these by a massive shipbuilding program. This enabled the Union to control the river systems and to blockade the entire southern coastline.
The Union's more established government, particularly a mature executive branch which accumulated even greater power during wartime, may have resulted in less regional infighting and a more streamlined conduct of the war. Failure of Davis to maintain positive and productive relationships with state governors damaged the Confederate president's ability to draw on regional resources.
The Confederacy's tactic of engaging in major battles at the cost of heavy manpower losses, when it could not easily replace its losses.
The Confederacy's failure to fully use its advantages in guerrilla warfare against Union communication and transportation infrastructure. However, as Lee warned, such warfare would prove devastating to the South, and (with the exception of Confederate partisans in Missouri) Confederate leaders shrank from it.
Despite the Union's many tactical blunders like the Seven Days Battle, those committed by Confederate generals, such as Lee's miscalculations at the Battle of Gettysburg and Battle of Antietam, were far more serious—if for no other reason than that the Confederates could so little afford the losses.
Lincoln proved more adept than Davis in replacing unsuccessful generals with better ones.
Strategically the location of the capital Richmond tied Lee to a highly exposed position at the end of supply lines. (Loss of Richmond, everyone realized, meant loss of the war.)
Lincoln grew as a grand strategist, in contrast to Davis. The Confederacy never developed an overall strategy. It never had a plan to deal with the blockade. Davis failed to respond in a coordinated fashion to serious threats, such as Grant's campaign against Vicksburg in 1863 (in the face of which, he allowed Lee to invade Pennsylvania).
The Confederacy's failure to win diplomatic or military support from any foreign powers. Its King Cotton misperception of the world economy led to bad diplomacy, such as the refusal to ship cotton before the blockade started.
The Confederacy may have lacked the total commitment needed to win the war. It took time, however, for leaders such as Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan to emerge; in the meantime, Union public opinion wavered, and Lincoln worried about losing the election of 1864, until victories in the Shenandoah Valley and Atlanta made victory seem likely.
Civil War leaders and soldiers
Most of the important generals on both sides had formerly served in the United States Army—some, including Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, during the Mexican-American War between 1846 and 1848. Most were graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Southern military commanders and strategists included Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, P.G.T. Beauregard, John Mosby, Braxton Bragg, John Bell Hood, James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, William Mahone, Judah P. Benjamin, Jubal Early, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Northern military commanders and strategists included Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George H. Thomas, George B. McClellan, Henry W. Halleck, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Irvin McDowell, Winfield Scott, Philip Sheridan, George Crook, George Armstrong Custer, George G. Meade, Winfield Hancock, and Robert Gould Shaw.
After 1980, scholarly attention turned to ordinary soldiers, and to women and African Americans involved with the War. As James McPherson observed "The profound irony of the Civil War was that Confederate and Union soldiers ... interpreted the heritage of 1776 in opposite ways. Confederates fought for liberty and independence from what they regarded as a tyrannical government; Unionists fought to preserve the nation created by the founders from dismemberment and destruction."(McPherson 1994 p 24)
Slavery during the war
Lincoln initially declared his purpose to be the preservation of the Union, not emancipation. He had no wish to alienate the thousands of slaveholders in the Union border states. The long war, however, had a radicalizing effect on federal policies. With the Emancipation Proclamation, announced in September 1862 and put into effect four months later, Lincoln adopted the abolition of the Slave Power as a second mission—that is slaves owned by rebels had to be taken away from them and freed.
The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves held in territory then under Confederate control to be "then, thenceforth, and forever free," but did not affect slaves in areas under Union control. It did, however, show the Union that slavery's days were numbered, increasing abolitionist support in the North. The border states (except Kentucky) abolished slavery on their own. One goal was to destroy the economic basis of the Confederate leadership class, and another goal was to actually liberate the 4 million slaves, which was accomplished by late 1865.
Threat of International Intervention
Because of the Confederacy's attempt to create a new state, recognition and support from the European powers were critical to its prospects. The Union, under Secretary of State William Henry Seward attempted to block the Confederacy's efforts in this sphere. The Confederates hoped that the importance of the cotton trade to Europe (the idea of cotton diplomacy) and shortages caused by the war, along with early military victories, would enable them to gather increasing European support and force a turn away from neutrality.
President Lincoln's decision to announce a blockade of the Confederacy, a clear act of war, enabled Britain, followed by other European powers, to announce their neutrality in the dispute. This enabled the Confederacy to begin to attempt to gain support and funds in Europe. President Jefferson Davis had picked Robert Toombs of Georgia as his first Secretary of State. Toombs, having little knowledge in foreign affairs, was replaced several months later by Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, another choice with little suitability. In early 1862 Davis moved Judah P. Benjamin from his previous position as Secretary of War to that of Secretary of State. Although Benjamin had more international knowledge and legal experience he failed to create a dynamic foreign policy for the Confederacy.
The first attempts to achieve European recognition of the Confederacy were dispatched on February 25, 1861 and led by William Lowndes Yancey, Pierre A. Rost, and Ambrose Dudley Mann. The British foreign minister Lord John Russell met with them, and the French foreign minister Edouard Thouvenel received the group unofficially. However, at this point, the two countries had agreed to coordinate and cooperate and would not make any rash moves.
Charles Francis Adams proved particularly adept as ambassador to Britain for the Union, and Britain was reluctant to boldly challenge the Union's blockade. The Confederacy also attempted to initiate propaganda in Europe through journalists Henry Hotze and Edwin De Leon in Paris and London. However, public opinion against slavery created a political liability for European politicians, especially in Britain. A significant challenge in Anglo-Union relations was also created by the Trent Affair, involving the Union boarding of a British mail steamer to seize James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate diplomats sent to Europe. However, the Union was able to smooth over the problem to some degree.
In 1862 the British considered mediation; the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam caused them to delay this decision. The Emancipation Proclamation further reinforced the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. As the war continued, the Confederacy's chances with Britain grew more hopeless, and they focused increasingly on France. Napoléon III proposed to offer mediation in January 1863, but this was dismissed by Seward. Despite some sympathy for the Confederacy, France's own seizure of Mexico ultimately deterred them from war with the Union.
Aftermath
The fighting ended with the surrender of the conventional Confederate forces. There was no significant guerrilla warfare. Many senior Confederate leaders escaped to Europe or Mexico; Davis was captured and imprisoned for two years, but never brought to trial.
Northern leaders agreed that victory would require more than the end of fighting. It had to encompass the two war goals: Confederate nationalism had to be totally repudiated, and all forms of slavery had to be eliminated. They disagreed sharply on the criteria for these goals. They also disagreed on the degree of federal control that should be imposed on the South, and the process by which Southern states should be reintegrated into the Union.
Reconstruction, which began early in the war and ended in 1877, involved a complex and rapidly changing series of federal and state policies. The long-term result came in the three "Civil War" amendments to the Constitution (the XIII, which abolished slavery, the XIV, which extended federal legal protections to citizens regardless of race, and the XV, which abolished racial restrictions on voting). In 1877 federal intervention ended and the "Jim Crow" era began.
The war had a lasting impact on American politics and culture. For decades after the war, Northern Republicans "waved the bloody shirt," bringing up wartime casualties as an electoral tactic. Memories of the war and Reconstruction held the segregated South together as a Democratic block—the "Solid South"—in national politics for another century. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s had its neo abolitionist roots in the failure of Reconstruction. Ghosts of the conflict still persist in America. A few debates surrounding the legacy of the war continue, especially regarding memorials and celebrations of Confederate heroes and battle flags. The question is a deep and troubling one: Americans with Confederate ancestors cherish the memory of their bravery and determination, yet their cause is also tied to the history of African American slavery.
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The American Civil War
American Civil War
Civil War Chronology
Civil War: 1861-65
Civil War: 1861Civil War: 1862
Civil War: 1863Civil War: 1864
Civil War: 1865
Civil War Battles
Fort Sumter (April, 1861)
Murfreesboro (January, 1863)Bull Run (July, 1861)
Chancellorsville (May, 1863)Shiloh (April, 1862)
Vicksburg (July, 1863)Fair Oaks (May, 1862)
Gettysburg (July, 1863)Gaines Mill (June, 1862)
Chickamauga (September, 1863)Bull Run (August, 1862)
Wilderness (June, 1864)Antietam (September, 1862)
Atlanta (September, 1864)Perryville (October, 1862)
Petersburg (April, 1865)Fredericksburg (December, 1862)
Five Forks (April, 1865)
Political Figures
John Breckenridge
Wendell PhillipsHenry Winter Davis
Henry G. StebbinsJefferson Davis
Alexander StephensWilliam Dennison
Thaddeus StevensWilliam Fessenden
Samuel TildenTimothy Fuller
Clement VallandighamHannibal Hamlin
George H. WilliamsGeorge W. Julian
James F. Wilson
Military Leaders
Pierre T. Beauregard
William MahoneDon Carlos Buell
George McClellanAmbrose Burnside
James McPhersonGeorge A. Custer
Montgomery MeigsJubal A. Early
Joseph OsterhausUlysses Grant
Beverly RobertsonHenry W. Halleck
William RosecransWinfield S. Hancock
John SchofieldEthan A. Hitchcock
Winfield ScottThomas Harris
Alexander SchimmelfennigWild Bill Hickok
Philip H. SheridanAmbrose P. Hill
William ShermanThomas Stonewall Jackson
George H. ThomasAlbert S. Johnston
James WadsworthJoseph E. Johnston
Lewis WallaceEdmund Kirby-Smith
John H. Winder
Organizations, Events and Issues
Anaconda Plan
European RecruitsEnrollment Act
Conscription ActEmancipation Proclamation
CopperheadsEwing's Order No 11
Massacre at Fort PillowReconstruction Plan
Reconstruction ActShenandoah Valley
Andersonville PrisonWar Casualties
Medical TreatmentPrisoner Exchange
Thanks of CongressQuantrill Raiders
Conspiracy Trial
Civil War Soldiers
William Belknap
Christian MorbeckFrederick Benteen
John S. MosbyMartin R. Delany
John L. Ransom
Women and the War
Clara Barton
Rose O'Neal GreenhowMary A. Bickerdyke
Mary LivermoreElizabeth Blackwell
Mary J. StaffordMary Boykin Chesnut
Jane Grey SwisshelmFrances Clalin
Elizabeth Van Lew
Writers, Artists and Photographers
Mathew Brady
Timothy O'SullivanWilliam F. Browne
William PywellAlexander Gardner
Henry J. RaymondWilliam Dean Howells
John Greenleaf WhittierAssassination of Abraham Lincoln
Otto Eisenchiml
Andrew J. RogersAfter the War of Independence the United States of America was governed by the Articles of Confederation. This provided for a weak central government and strong state governments. However, it proved unworkable and a new Constitution was adopted that resulted in a stronger Federal government with powers which included regulating interstate commerce as well as foreign affairs.
The different states had varying policies concerning slavery. In some areas of the country where religious groups such as the Quakers played a prominent role in political life, there was strong opposition to having slaves. Rhode Island abolished slavery in 1774 and was soon followed by Vermont (1777), Pennsylvania (1780), Massachusetts (1781), New Hampshire (1783), Connecticut (1784), New York (1799) and New Jersey (1804). The new states of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Oregon, California and Illinois also did not have slaves. The importation of slaves from other countries was banned in 1808. However, the selling of slaves within the southern states continued.
Conflict grew in the 19th century between the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery. The northern states were going through an industrial revolution and desperately needed more people to work in its factories. Industrialists in the North believed that, if freed, the slaves would leave the South and provide the labour they needed. The North also wanted tariffs on imported foreign goods to protect their new industries. The South was still mainly agricultural and purchased a lot of goods from abroad and was therefore against import tariffs.
In 1831 Arthur Tappan and Lewis Tappan established the first Anti-Slavery Society in New York. When two years later it became a national organization, Tappan was elected its first president. William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld, Samuel Eli Cornish, Angelina Grimke, Sarah Grimke Robert Purvis, Wendell Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier, Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria Child, William Wells Brown soon emerged as the main figures in the organization. Its main supporters were from religious groups such as the Quakers and from the free black community. By 1840 the society had 250,000 members, published more than twenty journals and 2,000 local chapters.
The growth in the Anti-Slavery Society worried slaveowners in the South. They feared that the activities of the abolitionists would make it more difficult to run their plantation system. Where possible they wanted to see an expansion of slavery into other areas. They therefore supported the annexation of Texas as they were certain it would become a slave state. They also favoured the Mexican War and agitated for the annexation of Cuba.
Conflict grew in the middle of 19th century between the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery. The northern states were going through an industrial revolution and desperately needed more people to work in its factories. Industrialists in the North believed that, if freed, the slaves would leave the South and provide the labour they needed. The North also wanted tariffs on imported foreign goods to protect their new industries. The South was still mainly agricultural and purchased a lot of goods from abroad and was therefore against import tariffs.
In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. In future, any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1,000. People suspected of being a runaway slave could be arrested without warrant and turned over to a claimant on nothing more than his sworn testimony of ownership. A suspected black slave could not ask for a jury trial nor testify on his or her behalf. Any person aiding a runaway slave by providing shelter, food or any other form of assistance was liable to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Those officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee and this encouraged some officers to kidnap free African Americans and sell them to slave-owners.
Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison and John Greenleaf Whittier led the fight against the Fugitive Slave Law. Even moderate anti-slavery leaders such as Arthur Tappan declared he was now willing to disobey the law and as a result helped fund the Underground Railroad.
In 1854 Stephen A. Douglas introduced his Kansas-Nebraska bill to the Senate. These states could now enter the Union with or without slavery. Frederick Douglass warned that the bill was "an open invitation to a fierce and bitter strife". The result of this legislation was to open the territory to organized migrations of pro-slave and anti-slave groups. Southerners now entered the area with their slaves while active members of the Anti-Slavery Society also arrived. Henry Ward Beecher, condemned the bill from his pulpit and helped to raise funds to supply weapons to those willing to oppose slavery in these territories.
Kansas elected its first legislature in March, 1855. Although less than 2,000 people were qualified to take part in these elections, over 6,000 people voted. These were mainly Missouri slave-owners who had crossed the border to make sure pro-slavery candidates were elected. The new legislature passed laws that imposed the death penalty for anyone helping a slave to escape and two years in jail for possessing abolitionist literature.
In 1856 Abraham Lincoln joined the Republican Party and unsuccessfully challenged Stephen A. Douglas for his seat in the Senate. Lincoln was opposed to Douglas's proposal that the people living in the Louisiana Purchase (Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, and parts of Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming) should be allowed to own slaves. Lincoln argued that the territories must be kept free for "poor people to go and better their condition".
Abraham Lincoln raised the issue of slavery again in 1858 when he made a speech at Quincy, Illinois. Lincoln argued: "We have in this nation the element of domestic slavery. The Republican Party think it wrong - we think it is a moral, a social, and a political wrong. We think it is wrong not confining itself merely to the persons of the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong which in its tendency, to say the least, affects the existence of the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it as with any other wrong, insofar as we can prevent it growing any larger, and so deal with it that in the run of time there may be some promise of an end to it."
Lincoln's speech upset Southern slaveholders and poor whites, who valued the higher social status they enjoyed over slaves. However, with rapid European immigration taking place in the North, they had a declining influence over federal government.
Opponents of slavery were also becoming more militant in their views. John Brown and five of his sons moved to Kansas Territory to help anti-slavery forces obtain control of this region. With the support of Gerrit Smith and other prominent Abolitionists, Brown moved to Virginia where he established a refuge for runaway slaves.
In 1859 John Brown led a party of 21 men in a successful attack on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry. Brown hoped that his action would encourage slaves to join his rebellion, enabling him to form an emancipation army. Two days later the armory was stormed by Robert E. Lee and a company of marines. Brown and six men barricaded themselves in an engine-house, and continued to fight until Brown was seriously wounded and two of his sons had been killed. Brown was executed on 2nd December, 1859.
Southern slaveholders were outraged when in 1860 the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln as its presidential candidate in 1860. They looked to the Democratic Party to defend its interests but when it met in Charleston in April, 1860, it selected, Stephen A. Douglas. Unhappy with this decision, Southern delegates decided to hold another convention in Baltimore in June, where they selected John Breckenridge of Kentucky to fight the election. The situation was further complicated by the formation of the Constitutional Union Party and the nomination of John Bell of Tennessee as its presidential candidate.
Abraham Lincoln won with 1,866,462 votes (18 free states) and beat Stephen A. Douglas (1,375,157 - 1 slave state), John Breckenridge (847,953 - 13 slave states) and John Bell (589,581 - 3 slave states).
In the three months that followed the election of Abraham Lincoln, seven states seceded from the Union: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Representatives from these seven states quickly established a new political organization, the Confederate States of America.
On 8th February the Confederate States of America adopted a constitution and within ten days had elected Jefferson Davis as its president and Alexander Stephens, as vice-president. Montgomery, Alabama, became its capital and the Stars and Bars was adopted as its flag. Davis was also authorized to raise 100,000 troops.
At his inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln attempted to avoid conflict by announcing that he had no intention "to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." He added: "The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors."
President Jefferson Davis took the view that after a state seceded, federal forts became the property of the state. On 12th April, 1861, General Pierre T. Beauregard demanded that Major Robert Anderson surrender Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour. Anderson replied that he would be willing to leave the fort in two days when his supplies were exhausted. Beauregard rejected this offer and ordered his Confederate troops to open fire. After 34 hours of bombardment the fort was severely damaged and Anderson was forced to surrender.
On hearing the news, Abraham Lincoln called a special session of Congress and proclaimed a blockade of Gulf of Mexico ports. This strategy was based on the Anaconda Plan developed by General Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the Union Army. It involved the army occupying the line of the Mississippi and blockading Confederate ports. Scott believed if this was done successfully the South would negotiate a peace deal. However, at the start of the war, the US Navy had only a small number of ships and was in no position to guard all 3,000 miles of Southern coast.
On 15th April, 1861, Abraham Lincoln called on the governors of the Northern states to provide 75,000 militia to serve for three months to put down the insurrection. Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee, all refused to send troops and joined the Confederacy. Kentucky and Missouri were also unwilling to supply men for the Union Army but decided not to take sides in the conflict.
Conflict grew in the 19th century between the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery. The northern states were going through an industrial revolution and desperately needed more people to work in its factories. Industrialists in the North believed that, if freed, the slaves would leave the South and provide the labour they needed. The North also wanted tariffs on imported foreign goods to protect their new industries. The South was still mainly agricultural and purchased a lot of goods from abroad and was therefore against import tariffs.
In 1831 Arthur Tappan and Lewis Tappan established the first Anti-Slavery Society in New York. When two years later it became a national organization, Tappan was elected its first president. William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld, Samuel Eli Cornish, Angelina Grimke, Sarah Grimke Robert Purvis, Wendell Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier, Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria Child, William Wells Brown soon emerged as the main figures in the organization. Its main supporters were from religious groups such as the Quakers and from the free black community. By 1840 the society had 250,000 members, published more than twenty journals and 2,000 local chapters.
The growth in the Antislavery Society worried slaveowners in the South. They feared that the activities of the abolitionists would make it more difficult to run their plantation system. Where possible they wanted to see an expansion of slavery into other areas. They therefore supported the annexation of Texas as they were certain it would become a slave state. They also favoured the Mexican War and agitated for the annexation of Cuba.
Conflict grew in the middle of 19th century between the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery. The northern states were going through an industrial revolution and desperately needed more people to work in its factories. Industrialists in the North believed that, if freed, the slaves would leave the South and provide the labour they needed. The North also wanted tariffs on imported foreign goods to protect their new industries. The South was still mainly agricultural and purchased a lot of goods from abroad and was therefore against import tariffs.
In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. In future, any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1,000. People suspected of being a runaway slave could be arrested without warrant and turned over to a claimant on nothing more than his sworn testimony of ownership. A suspected black slave could not ask for a jury trial nor testify on his or her behalf. Any person aiding a runaway slave by providing shelter, food or any other form of assistance was liable to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Those officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee and this encouraged some officers to kidnap free African Americans and sell them to slave-owners.
Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison and John Greenleaf Whittier led the fight against the Fugitive Slave Law. Even moderate anti-slavery leaders such as Arthur Tappan declared he was now willing to disobey the law and as a result helped fund the Underground Railroad.
In 1854 Stephen A. Douglas introduced his Kansas-Nebraska bill to the Senate. These states could now enter the Union with or without slavery. Frederick Douglass warned that the bill was "an open invitation to a fierce and bitter strife". The result of this legislation was to open the territory to organized migrations of pro-slave and anti-slave groups. Southerners now entered the area with their slaves while active members of the Antislavery Society also arrived. Henry Ward Beecher, condemned the bill from his pulpit and helped to raise funds to supply weapons to those willing to oppose slavery in these territories.
Kansas elected its first legislature in March, 1855. Although less than 2,000 people were qualified to take part in these elections, over 6,000 people voted. These were mainly Missouri slave-owners who had crossed the border to make sure pro-slavery candidates were elected. The new legislature passed laws that imposed the death penalty for anyone helping a slave to escape and two years in jail for possessing abolitionist literature.
In 1856 Abraham Lincoln joined the Republican Party and unsuccessfully challenged Stephen A. Douglas for his seat in the Senate. Lincoln was opposed to Douglas's proposal that the people living in the Louisiana Purchase (Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, and parts of Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming) should be allowed to own slaves. Lincoln argued that the territories must be kept free for "poor people to go and better their condition".
Abraham Lincoln raised the issue of slavery again in 1858 when he made a speech at Quincy, Illinois. Lincoln argued: "We have in this nation the element of domestic slavery. The Republican Party think it wrong - we think it is a moral, a social, and a political wrong. We think it is wrong not confining itself merely to the persons of the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong which in its tendency, to say the least, affects the existence of the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it as with any other wrong, insofar as we can prevent it growing any larger, and so deal with it that in the run of time there may be some promise of an end to it."
Lincoln's speech upset Southern slaveholders and poor whites, who valued the higher social status they enjoyed over slaves. However, with rapid European immigration taking place in the North, they had a declining influence over federal government.
Opponents of slavery were also becoming more militant in their views. John Brown and five of his sons moved to Kansas Territory to help antislavery forces obtain control of this region. With the support of Gerrit Smith and other prominent Abolitionists, Brown moved to Virginia where he established a refuge for runaway slaves.
In 1859 John Brown led a party of 21 men in a successful attack on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry. Brown hoped that his action would encourage slaves to join his rebellion, enabling him to form an emancipation army. Two days later the armory was stormed by Robert E. Lee and a company of marines. Brown and six men barricaded themselves in an engine-house, and continued to fight until Brown was seriously wounded and two of his sons had been killed. Brown was executed on 2nd December, 1859.
Southern slaveholders were outraged when in 1860 the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln as its presidential candidate in 1860. They looked to the Democratic Party to defend its interests but when it met in Charleston in April, 1860, it selected, Stephen A. Douglas. Unhappy with this decision, Southern delegates decided to hold another convention in Baltimore in June, where they selected John Breckenridge of Kentucky to fight the election. The situation was further complicated by the formation of the Constitutional Union Party and the nomination of John Bell of Tennessee as its presidential candidate.
Abraham Lincoln won with 1,866,462 votes (18 free states) and beat Stephen A. Douglas (1,375,157 - 1 slave state), John Breckenridge (847,953 - 13 slave states) and John Bell (589,581 - 3 slave states).
1861
In the three months that followed the election of Abraham Lincoln, seven states seceded from the Union: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Representatives from these seven states quickly established a new political organization, the Confederate States of America.
On 8th February the Confederate States of America adopted a constitution and within ten days had elected Jefferson Davis as its president and Alexander Stephens, as vice-president. Montgomery, Alabama, became its capital and the Stars and Bars was adopted as its flag. Davis was also authorized to raise 100,000 troops.
At his inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln attempted to avoid conflict by announcing that he had no intention "to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." He added: "The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors."
President Jefferson Davis took the view that after a state seceded, federal forts became the property of the state. On 12th April, 1861, General Pierre T. Beauregard demanded that Major Robert Anderson surrender Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour. Anderson replied that he would be willing to leave the fort in two days when his supplies were exhausted. Beauregard rejected this offer and ordered his Confederate troops to open fire. After 34 hours of bombardment the fort was severely damaged and Anderson was forced to surrender.
On hearing the news, Abraham Lincoln called a special session of Congress and proclaimed a blockade of Gulf of Mexico ports. This strategy was based on the Anaconda Plan developed by General Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the Union Army. It involved the army occupying the line of the Mississippi and blockading Confederate ports. Scott believed if this was done successfully the South would negotiate a peace deal. However, at the start of the war, the US Navy had only a small number of ships and was in no position to guard all 3,000 miles of Southern coast.
On 15th April, 1861, Abraham Lincoln called on the governors of the Northern states to provide 75,000 militia to serve for three months to put down the insurrection. Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee, all refused to send troops and joined the Confederacy. Kentucky and Missouri were also unwilling to supply men for the Union Army but decided not to take sides in the conflict.
Some states responded well to Lincoln's call for volunteers. The governor of Pennsylvania offered 25 regiments, whereas Ohio provided 22. Most men were encouraged to enlist by bounties offered by state governments. This money attracted the poor and the unemployed. Many African Americans also attempted to join the army. However, the War Department quickly announced that it had "no intention to call into service of the Government any coloured soldiers." Instead, black volunteers were given jobs as camp attendants, waiters and cooks.
Major General Irvin McDowell was given command of the Union Army and in July, 1861, Lincoln sent him to take Richmond, the new base the Confederate government. On 21st July McDowell engaged the Confederate Army at Bull Run. The Confederate troops led by Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas Stonewall Jackson, James Jeb Stuart, Jubal Early, E. Kirby Smith, Braxton Bragg and Pierre T. Beauregard, easily defeated the inexperienced Union Army. The South had won the first great battle of the war and the Northern casualties totaled 1,492 with another 1,216 missing.
After this defeat Abraham Lincoln decided to appoint George McClellan as leader of the the Army of the Potomac. McClellan, who was only 34 years old, insisted that his army should undertake any new offensives until his new troops were fully trained.
On 30th August, 1861, Major General John C. Fremont, commander of the Union Army in St. Louis, proclaimed that all slaves owned by Confederates in Missouri were free. Abraham Lincoln was furious when he heard the news as he feared that this action would force slave-owners in border states to help the Confederates. Lincoln asked Fremont to modify his order and free only slaves owned by Missourians actively working for the South. When Fremont refused, he was sacked and replaced by General Henry Halleck. This upset the Radical Republicans in Congress who wanted to turn the conflict into a war against slavery.
In the autumn of 1861 the main action took place in Kentucky. On 4th September General Leonidas Polk and a large Confederate Army moved into Kentucky and began occupying high ground overlooking the Ohio River. Ulysses S. Grant and his Union Army, had been assembling at Cairo, Illinois. He now moved his troops into Kentucky and quickly gained control of the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers as they flowed into the Ohio. President Jefferson Davis, aware that Union forces now controlled the main waterway into the heartland of the Confederacy, sent in General Joseph E. Johnston with reinforcements.
In November, 1861, Lincoln decided to appoint George McClellan as commander in chief of the Union Army. He developed a strategy to defeat the Confederate Army that included an army of 273,000 men. His plan was to invade Virginia from the sea and to seize Richmond and the other major cities in the South. McClellan believed that to keep resistance to a minimum, it should be made clear that the Union forces would not interfere with slavery and would help put down any slave insurrections.
1862
In January 1862 the Union Army began to push the Confederates southward. The following month Ulysses S. Grant took his army along the Tennessee River with a flotilla of gunboats and captured Fort Henry. This broke the communications of the extended Confederate line and Joseph E. Johnston decided to withdraw his main army to Nashville. He left 15,000 men to protect Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River but this was not enough and Grant had no difficulty taking this prize as well. With western Tennessee now secured, Abraham Lincoln was now able to set up a Union government in Nashville by appointing Andrew Johnson as its new governor.
General George McClellan appointed Allan Pinkerton to employ his agents to spy on the Confederate Army. His reports exaggerated the size of the enemy and McClellan was unwilling to launch an attack until he had more soldiers available. Under pressure from Radical Republicans in Congress, Abraham Lincoln decided in January, 1862, to remove the conservative Simon Cameron as Secretary of War, and replace him with Edwin M. Stanton.
Soon after this Lincoln ordered George McClellan to appear before a committee investigating the way the war was being fought. On 15th January, 1862, McClellan had to face the hostile questioning of Benjamin Wade and Zachariah Chandler. Wade asked McClellan why he was refusing to attack the Confederate Army. He replied that he had to prepare the proper routes of retreat. Chandler then said: "General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before you strike at the rebels you want to be sure of plenty of room so that you can run in case they strike back." Wade added "Or in case you get scared". After McClellan left the room, Wade and Chandler came to the conclusion that McClellan was guilty of "infernal, unmitigated cowardice".
As a result of this meeting Abraham Lincoln decided he must find a way to force McClellan into action. On 31st January he issued General War Order Number One. This ordered McClellan to begin the offensive against the enemy before the 22nd February. Lincoln also insisted on being consulted about McClellan's military plans. Lincoln disagreed with McClellan's desire to attack Richmond from the east. Lincoln only gave in when the division commanders voted 8 to 4 in favour of McClellan's strategy. However, Lincoln no longer had confidence in McClellan and removed him from supreme command of the Union Army. He also insisted that McClellan left 30,000 men behind to defend Washington.
Albert S. Johnston and Pierre T. Beauregard reunited their Confederate armies near the Tennessee-Mississippi line. With 55,000 men they now outnumbered the forces led by Ulysses S. Grant. On 6th April the Confederate Army attacked Grant's army at Shiloh. Taken by surprise, Grant's army suffered heavy losses until the arrival of General Don Carlos Buell and reinforcements.
During the fighting Albert S. Johnston was killed and the new commander, Pierre T. Beauregard, decided to retreat to Corinth, Mississippi. Shiloh was the greatest battle so far of the Civil War. The Union Army suffered 13,000 casualties and the Confederates lost 10,000. However, the Union Army, with the arrival of General Henry Halleck and his troops, were now the stronger and had little difficulty driving Beauregard out of Corinth.
The difference in manpower between the two sides now becoming more noticeable. Whereas the Union consisted of 23 states and 22,000,000 people, the Confederacy had only 9,000,000 people (including 3,500,000 slaves). President Jefferson Davis now announced that the South could not win the war without conscription. In April the Confederate Congress passed the Conscription Act which drafted white men between eighteen and thirty-five for three years' service.
In May, 1862 General David Hunter began enlisting black soldiers in the occupied districts of South Carolina. He was ordered to disband the 1st South Carolina (African Descent) but eventually got approval from Congress for his action. Hunter also issued a statement that all slaves owned by Confederates in the area were free. Lincoln quickly ordered Hunter to retract his proclamation as he still feared that this action would force slave-owners in border states to join the Confederates.
Radical Republicans were furious and John Andrew, the governor of Massachusetts, said that "from the day our government turned its back on the proclamation of General Hunter, the blessing of God has been withdrawn from our arms." The actions of General David Hunter and Lincoln's reaction stimulated a discussion on the recruitment of black soldiers in the Northern press. Wendell Phillips asked, "How many times are we to save Kentucky and lose the war?" This debate was also taking place in the Cabinet, as Edwin M. Stanton was now advocating the creation of black regiments in the Union Army.
Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, one of the leaders of the anti-slavery movement, urged Lincoln to "convert the war into a war on slavery". Lincoln replied that he would continue to place the Union ahead of all else. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
The federal fleet under David Farragut captured the forts guarding the New Orleans in April, 1862. The following month General Benjamin F. Butler and his troops took control of the city. Butler was accused of treating Rebels very harshly and after ordering the execution of a man who had torn down the United States flag, he was nicknamed the "beast". Alexander Walker, a pro-Confederate journalist who was one of those arrested, complained that the prisoners were: "closely confined in portable houses and furnished with the most wretched and unwholesome condemned soldiers' rations." He added that some were "compelled to wear a ball and chain, which is never removed."
President Jefferson Davis accused Benjamin F. Butler of "inciting African slaves to insurrection" by arming them for war. Davis issued a statement ordering that Butler "no longer be considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate States of America, but as an outlaw and common enemy of mankind, and that, in the event of his capture, the officer in command of the captured force do cause him to be immediately executed by hanging."
During the summer of 1862, George McClellan and the Army of the Potomac, took part in what became known as the Peninsular Campaign. The main objective was to capture Richmond, the base of the Confederate government. McClellan and his 115,000 troops encountered the Confederate Army at Williamsburg on 5th May. After a brief battle the Confederate forces retreated South.
McClellan moved his troops into the Shenandoah Valley and along with John C. Fremont, Irvin McDowell and Nathaniel Banks surrounded Thomas Stonewall Jackson and his 17,000 man army. First Jackson attacked John C. Fremont at Cross Keys before turning on Irvin McDowell at Port Republic. Jackson then rushed his troops east to join up with Joseph E. Johnston and the Confederate forces fighting McClellan in the suburbs the city.
General Joseph E. Johnston with some 41,800 men counter-attacked McClellan's slightly larger army at Fair Oaks. The Union Army lost 5,031 men and the Confederate Army 6,134. Johnson was badly wounded during the battle and General Robert E. Lee now took command of the Confederate forces.
On 26th June, 1862, Major General John Pope, was appointed the commander of the new Army of Virginia. Pope soon made it clear he intended to develop an aggressive approach to the war. Soon after taking command he issued a proclamation to his troops: "I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies; from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary, and to beat him where he was found; whose policy has been attack and not defense. I presume that I have been called here to pursue the same system and to lead you against the enemy. It is my purpose to do so, and that speedily."
Major General John Pope was instructed to move east to Blue Ridge Mountains towards Charlottesville. It was hoped that this move would help McClellan by drawing Robert E. Lee away from defending Richmond. Lee's 80,000 troops were now faced with the prospect of fighting two large armies: McClellan (90,000) and Pope (50,000)
Joined by Thomas Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet, and George Pickett, the Confederate troops attacked George McClellan at Gaines Mill. and on 27th June. After severe fighting the Union Army losses were 893 killed, 3,107 wounded and 2,836 missing. Whereas the Confederate Army had 8,751 killed and wounded.
George McClellan wrote to Abraham Lincoln complaining that a lack of resources was making it impossible to defeat the Confederate forces. He also made it clear that he was unwilling to employ tactics that would result in heavy casualties. He claimed that "ever poor fellow that is killed or wounded almost haunts me!" On 1st July, 1862, McClellan and Lincoln met at Harrison Landing. McClellan once again insisted that the war should be waged against the Confederate Army and not slavery.
In July, 1862, John Pope decided to try a capture Gordonsville, a railroad junction between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley. Pope selected Nathaniel Banks to carry out the task. Robert E. Lee considered Gordonsville to be strategically very important and sent Thomas Stonewall Jackson to protect the town. On 9th August, Jackson defeated Banks at Cedar Run. George McClellan and army based at Harrison's Landing was told to join Pope's campaign to take the railroad junction. When Lee heard this news he brought together all the troops he had available to Gordonsville.
On 29th August, troops led by Thomas Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet, attacked Pope's Union Army at Manassas, close to where the first battle of Bull Run had been fought. Pope and his army was forced to retreat across Bull Run. The Confederate Army pursued the Army of Virginia until they reached Chantilly on 1st September.
The Union Army lost 15,000 men at Bull Run. John Pope was blamed for the defeat. A staff officer later recalled that "Pope was entirely deceived and outgeneralled. His own conceit and pride of opinion led him into these mistakes." Relieved of his command Pope was sent to Minnesota to deal with a Sioux uprising.
The government was now seriously concerned about the poor performance of the Union Army and Salmon Chase (Secretary of the Treasury), Edwin M. Stanton (Secretary of War) and vice president Hannibal Hamlin, who were all strong opponents of slavery, led the campaign to have George McClellan sacked. Unwilling to do this, Abraham Lincoln decided to put McClellan in charge of all forces in the Washington area.
George McClellan became a field commander again when the Confederate Army invaded Maryland in September. McClellan and Major General Ambrose Burnside attacked the armies of Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson at Antietam on 17th September. Outnumbered, Lee and Jackson held out until Ambrose Hill and reinforcements arrived. It was the most costly day of the war with the Union Army having 2,108 killed, 9,549 wounded and 753 missing.
Although far from an overwhelming victory, Lincoln realized the significance of Antietam and on 22nd September, 1862, he felt strong enough to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln told the nation that from the 1st January, 1863, all slaves in states or parts of states, still in rebellion, would be freed. However, to keep the support of the conservatives in the government, this proclamation did not apply to border slave states: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri that had remained loyal.
Lincoln now wanted George McClellan to go on the offensive against the Confederate Army. However, McClellan refused to move, complaining that he needed fresh horses. Radical Republicans now began to openly question McClellan's loyalty. "Could the commander be loyal who had opposed all previous forward movements, and only made this advance after the enemy had been evacuated" wrote George W. Julian. Whereas William P. Fessenden came to the conclusion that McClellan was "utterly unfit for his position".
Frustrated by McClellan unwillingness to attack, Abraham Lincoln recalled him to to Washington with the words: "My dear McClellan: If you don't want to use the Army I should like to borrow it for a while." On 7th November Lincoln removed McClellan from all commands and replaced him with Ambrose Burnside.
Throughout the autumn of 1862 the Confederate Army continued to make progress in Kentucky. However, in September, General E. Kirby Smith was halted by Union troops led by General Don Carlos Buell in Covington. The following month General Braxton Bragg installed a Confederate government in Frankfort, Kentucky. However, this was short-lived and on 8th October, 1862, Bragg came under attack at Perryville (Chaplin Hills). During the battle Don Carlos Buell lost 4,211 men (845 killed, 2,851 wounded, and 515 missing) whereas Braxton Bragg lost 3,396 (510 killed, 2635 wounded and 251 missing). After the battle Bragg was forced to retreat back to Tennessee.
General Ambrose Burnside had replaced George McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac on 7th November, 1862. After complaints that had been made by President Abraham Lincoln and the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, about the inaction of the Union Army, Burnside was determined to immediately launch an attack on the Confederate Army.
With a force of 122,000, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, Edwin Sumner, William Franklin attacked General Robert E. Lee and his army of 78,500, at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on 13th December. Sharpshooters based in the town initially delayed the Union Army from building a pontoon bridge across the Rappahnnock River.
After clearing out the snipers the federal forces had the problem of mounting frontal assaults against troops commanded by James Longstreet. At the end of the day the Union Army had 12,700 men killed or wounded. The well protected Confederate Army suffered losses of 5,300. Ambrose Burnside wanted to renew the attack the following morning but was talked out of it by his commanders.
1863
In January 1863 it was clear that state governors in the north could not raise enough troops for the Union Army. On 3rd March, the federal government passed the Enrollment Act. This was the first example of conscription or compulsory military service in United States history. The decision to allow men to avoid the draft by paying $300 to hire a substitute, resulted in the accusation that this was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight.
Abraham Lincoln was also now ready to give his approval to the formation of black regiments. He had objected in May, 1862, when General David Hunter began enlisting black soldiers into the 1st South Carolina (African Descent) regiment. However, nothing was said when Hunter created two more black regiments in 1863.
John Andrew, the governor of Massachusetts, and a passionate opponent of slavery, began recruiting black soldiers and established the 5th Massachusetts (Colored) Cavalry Regiment and the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) and the 55th Massachusetts (Colored) Infantry Regiments. In all, six regiments of US Colored Cavalry, eleven regiments and four companies of US Colored Heavy Artillery, ten batteries of the US Colored Light Artillery, and 100 regiments and sixteen companies of US Colored Infantry were raised during the war. By the end of the conflict nearly 190,000 black soldiers and sailors had served in the Union forces.On 25th January, Major General Joseph Hooker replaced Ambrose Burnside as the commander of the Army of Potomac. Two months later Hooker, with over 104,000 men, began to move south. In April, 1863, Hooker, decided to attack Lee's army that had been entrenched on the south side of the Rappahonnock River since the battle of Fredericksburg. Hooker crossed the river and took up position at Chancellorsville.
Although outnumbered two to one, Robert E. Lee opted to split his Confederate Army into two groups. Lee left 10,000 men under Jubal Early, while on 2nd May, he sent Thomas Stonewall Jackson to attacked the flank of Hooker's army. The attack was successful but after returning from the battlefield Jackson was accidentally shot by one of his own men. Jackson's left arm was successfully amputated but he developed pneumonia and he died eight days later.
On the 3rd May, James Jeb Stuart, who had taken command of Jackson's troops, mounted another attack and drove Joseph Hooker back further. The following day Lee and Jubal Early joined the attack on the Union Army. By 6th May, Hooker had lost over 11,000 men, and decided to retreat from the area.
Later that month Joseph E. Johnston ordered General John Pemberton to attack Ulysses S. Grant at Clinton, Mississippi. Considering this too risky, Pemberton decided to attack Grant's supply train on the road between Grand Gulf and Raymond. Discovering Pemberton's plans, Grant attacked the Confederate Army at Champion's Hill. Pemberton was badly defeated and with the remains of his army returned to their fortifications around Vicksburg. After two failed assaults, Grant decided to starve Pemberton out. This strategy proved successful and on 4th July, Pemberton surrendered the city. The western Confederacy was now completely isolated from the eastern Confederacy and the Union Army had total control of the Mississippi River.
Robert E. Lee now decided to take the war to the north. The Confederate Army reached Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on 1st July. The town was quickly taken but the Union Army, led by Major General George Meade, arrived in force soon afterwards and for the next two days the town was the scene of bitter fighting. Attacks led by James Jeb Stuart, George Pickett and James Longstreet proved costly and by the 5th July, Lee decided to retreat south. Both sides suffered heavy losses with Lee losing 28,063 men and Meade 23,049.Abraham Lincoln was encouraged by the army's victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, but was dismayed by the news of the Draft Riots in several American cities. There was heavy loss of life in Detroit but the worst rioting took place in New York City in July. The mob set fire to an African American church and orphanage, and attacked the office of the New York Tribune. Started by Irish immigrants, the main victims were African Americans and activists in the anti-slavery movement. The Union Army were sent in and had to open fire on the rioters in order to gain control of the city. By the time the riot was over, nearly a 1,000 people had been killed or wounded.
In September, 1863, General Braxton Bragg and his troops attacked union armies led by George H. Thomas and William Rosecrans at Chickamauga. Thomas was able to hold firm but Rosecrans and his men fled to Chattanooga. Bragg followed and was attempting to starve Rosecrans out when union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph Hooker and William Sherman arrived. Bragg was now forced to retreat and did not stop until he reached Dalton, Georgia. The Union Army now controlled the whole of Tennessee.
Major General George Meade also followed the army of Robert E. Lee back south. Lee ordered several counter-attacks but was unable to prevent the Union Army advance taking place. Lee decided to dig in along the west bank of the Mine Run. Considering the fortifications too strong, Meade decided against an assault and spent the winter on the north bank of the Rapidan.
1864
In March, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was named lieutenant general and the commander of the Union Army. Leaving the West under the control of General William Sherman, Grant decided to take control of the Army of the Potomac. With his able lieutenants, George Meade and Philip Sheridan the army crossed the Rapidan and entered the Wilderness.
When Robert E. Lee heard the news he sent in his troops, hoping that the Union's superior artillery and cavalry would be offset by the heavy underbrush of the Wilderness. Fighting began on the 5th May and two days later smoldering paper cartridges set fire to dry leaves and around 200 wounded men were either suffocated or burned to death. Of the 88,892 men that Grant took into the Wilderness, 14,283 were casualties and 3,383 were reported missing. Lee lost 7,750 men during the fighting.
After the battle Ulysses S. Grant moved south and on May 26th sent Philip Sheridan and his cavalry ahead to capture Cold Harbor from the Confederate Army. Lee was forced to abandon Cold Harbor and his whole army well dug in and by the time the rest of the Union Army arrived. Grant's ordered a direct assault but afterwards admitted this was a mistake losing 12,000 men "without benefit to compensate".
Ulysses S. Grant also gave instructions to William Sherman to attack the Army of Tennessee under the control of Joseph E. Johnston. He told Sherman "to move against Johnson's army, to break it up, and to get into the interior of the enemy's country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage you can against their war resources".
On 7th May, 1864, Sherman and his 100,000 men advanced towards Johnson's army that was attempting to defend the route to Atlanta, the South's important manufacturing and communications centre. Joseph E. Johnston and his army retreated and after some brief skirmishes the two sides fought at Resaca (14th May), Adairsvile (17th May), New Hope Church (25th May), Kennesaw Mountain (27th June) and Marietta (2nd July).
After leaving the Wilderness Grant moved his Army of the Potomac towards Richmond hoping he could arrive there before Robert E. Lee. However, Pierre T. Beauregard was able to protect the route to the city before the arrival of Lee's main army forced Grant to prepare for a siege.
Ambrose Burnside organized a regiment of Pennsylvania coalminers to construct tunnels and place dynamite under the Confederate Army front lines. It was exploded on the 30th June and US Colored troops were sent forward to take control of the craters that had been formed. However, these troops were not given adequate support and the Confederate troops were soon able to recover its positions. Thousands of captured black soldiers were now murdered by angry Southerners.
The Union Army also suffered heavy losses at the end of July, 1864, trying to take the port of Petersburg but was eventually able to cut off Lee's supplies from the lower South.
President Jefferson Davis was unhappy about withdrawal policy being employed by Joseph E. Johnston and on 17th July replaced him with the more aggressive John Hood. He immediately went on the attack and hit George H. Thomas and his men at Peachtree Creek. Hood was badly beaten and lost 2,500 men. Two days later he took on William Sherman just outside Atlanta and lost another 8,000 men. By 31st August, Confederate forces began to evacuate Atlanta and by early September the city came under the control of the Union Army.
Attempts to clear out the Shenandoah Valley by Major General Franz Sigel in May and Major General David Hunter during the summer of 1864 ended in failure. Major General Jubal Early, who defeated Hunter, was sent north with 14,000 men in an attempt to draw off troops from Grant's army. Major General Lew Wallace encountered Early by the Monacacy River and although defeated was able to slow his advance to Washington. His attempts to breakthrough the ring forts around the city ended in failure. Abraham Lincoln, who witnessed the attack from Fort Stevens, became the first president in American history to see action while in office.
In August 1864 the Union Army made another attempt to take control of the Shenandoah Valley. General Philip Sheridan and 40,000 soldiers entered the valley and soon encountered troops led by Jubal Early who had just returned from Washington. After a series of minor defeats Sheridan eventually gained the upper hand. His men now burnt and destroyed anything of value in the area and after defeating Early in another large-scale battle on 19th October, the Union Army, for the first time, held the Shenandoah Valley.
With the Union Army now clearly wining the war, a growing number of politicians in the North began to criticize Abraham Lincoln for not negotiating a peace deal with Jefferson Davis. Even former supporters such as Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, accused him of prolonging the war to satisfy his personal ambition. Others on the right, such as Clement Vallandigham, claimed that Lincoln was waging a "wicked war in order to free the slaves". Fernando Wood, the mayor of New York, even suggested that if Lincoln did not change his policies the city should secede from the Union.
The anti-war section of the Democratic Party nominated General George McClellan as their presidential candidate. In an attempt to obtain unity, Abraham Lincoln named a Southern Democrat, Andrew Johnston of Tennessee, as his running mate. This upset Radical Republications but they had no choice but to support Lincoln in the election.
Leading members of the Republican Party began to suggest that Lincoln should replace Hannibal Hamlin as his running mate in the 1864 presidential election. Hamlin was a Radical Republican and it was felt that Lincoln was already sure to gain the support of this political group. It was argued that what Lincoln needed was the votes of those who had previously supported the Democratic Party in the North.
Lincoln's original choice as his vice-president was General Benjamin Butler. Butler, a war hero, had been a member of the Democratic Party, but his experiences during the American Civil War had made him increasingly radical. Simon Cameron was sent to talk to Butler at Fort Monroe about joining the campaign. However, Butler rejected the offer, jokingly saying that he would only accept if Lincoln promised "that within three months after his inauguration he would die".
It was now decided that Andrew Johnson, the governor of Tennessee, would make the best candidate for vice president. By choosing the governor of Tennessee, Lincoln would emphasis that Southern states status were still part of the Union. He would also gain the support of the large War Democrat faction. At a convention of the Republican Party on 8th July, 1864, Johnson received 200 votes to Hamlin's 150 and became Lincoln's running mate. This upset Radical Republications as Johnson had previously made it clear that he was a supporter of slavery.
The victories of Ulysses S. Grant, William Sherman, George Meade, Philip Sheridan and George H. Thomas reinforced the idea that the Union Army was close to bringing the war to an end. This helped Lincoln's presidential campaign and with 2,216,067 votes, comfortably beat General George McClellan (1,808,725) in the election.
John Hood continued to adopt an aggressive policy in Tennessee and despite heavy losses surrounded George H. Thomas at Nashville. On 15th December, 1864, Thomas broke out of Nashville and hammered Hood's army. Thomas captured 4,462 soldiers and those still left alive fled into Mississippi and Alabama.
1865
By the beginning of 1865, Fort Fisher, North Carolina, was the last port under the control of the Confederate Army. Fort Fisher fell to a combined effort of the Union Army and the US Navy on 15th January.
By the early weeks of 1865 the Union Army removed all resistance in the Shenandoah Valley. General William Sherman and his army moved north through South Carolina. On 17th February, Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, was taken. Columbia was virtually burnt to the ground and some people claimed the damage was done by Sherman's men and others said it was carried out by the retreating Confederate Army.Sherman now headed towards central Virginia to unite with General George Meade and his Army of the Potomac east of Richmond and with General Benjamin Butler and his forces at Bermuda Hundred.
On 1st April Philip H. Sheridan attacked at Five Forks. The Confederates, led by Major General George Pickett, were overwhelmed and lost 5,200 men. On hearing the news, Robert E. Lee decided to abandon Richmond and join Joseph E. Johnson and his forces in South Carolina.
President Jefferson Davis, his family and government officials, was forced to flee from Richmond. The Union Army quickly took control and on 4th April Abraham Lincoln entered the city. Protected by ten seamen, he walked the streets and when one black man fell to his knees in front of him, Lincoln told him: "Don't kneel to me. You must kneel to God only and thank him for your freedom." Lincoln travelled to the Confederate Executive Mansion and sat for a while in the former leader's chair before heading back to Washington.
Robert E. Lee was only able to muster an army of 8,000 men. He probed the Union Army at Appomattox but faced by 110,000 men he decided the cause was hopeless. He contacted Ulysses S. Grant and after agreeing terms on 9th April, surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House. Grant issued a brief statement: "The war is over; the rebels are our countrymen again and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field." Six days later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. A Southern Democrat, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, was now the president of the United States.
It has been estimated that 120,012 men were killed in action during the American Civil War. A further 64,582 died of their wounds. However, the greatest danger facing soldiers during the war was not bullets but disease. It is believed that 186,216 soldiers died of a variety of different illnesses during the conflict. Large numbers of the soldiers came from rural areas and had not been exposed to common diseases such as chicken pox and mumps. Living in unhealthy conditions and often denied properly medical treatment, soldiers sometimes died of the these diseases. For example, 5,177 soldiers in the Union Army died of measles during the war.
The main killer diseases were those that resulted from living in unsanitary conditions. Union Army records show that a large number of its soldiers died from diseases caused by contaminated food and water. This included diarrhea (35,127), typhoid (29,336) and dysentery (9,431). Drinking from streams occupied by by dead bodies or human waste and eating uncooked meat were the cause of large numbers of deaths. Regular soldiers who had been trained to be more careful about the food and water they consumed, were far less likely to suffer from intestinal disease that volunteer soldiers.
Large numbers of soldiers died from tuberculosis (consumption). Official records show 6,497 soldiers died of the disease in the Union Army. However, a much larger number were discharged because of poor health and died later. It is estimated that smallpox killed 7,058 Union Soldiers. Another 14,379 died of malaria. Although the exact number of Confederate Army deaths from malaria is not known, there were 41,539 cases in an 18 month period (January, 1862-July, 1863) in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The cause of the disease was not known and soldiers often slept without the protection of mosquito nets.Union Army arrived in Andersonville in May, 1865, photographs of the prisoners were taken and the following month they appeared in Harper's Weekly. The photographs caused considerable anger and calls were made for the people responsible to be punished as war criminals. It was eventually decided to charge General Robert Lee, James Seddon, the Secretary of War, and several other Confederate generals and politicians with "conspiring to injure the health and destroy the lives of United States soldiers held as prisoners by the Confederate States".
When the
In August, 1865 President Andrew Johnson ordered that the charges against the Confederate generals and politicians should be dropped. However, he did give his approval for Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville to be charged with "wanton cruelty". Wirz appeared before a military commission headed by Major General Lew Wallace on 21st August, 1865.
During the trial a letter from Wirz was presented that showed that he had complained to his superiors about the shortage of food being provided for the prisoners. However, former inmates at Andersonville testified that Wirz inspected the prison every day and often warned that if any man escaped he would "starve every damn Yankee for it." It also emerged that of the 49,485 prisoners who entered the camp, nearly 13,000 died from disease and malnutrition.
Henry Wirz was found guilty on 6th November and sentenced to death. He was taken to Washington to be executed in the same yard where those involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln had died. The gallows were surrounded by Union Army soldiers who throughout the procedure chanted "Wirz, remember, Andersonville."
ShenandoahShenandoah is a 1965 American Civil War film starring James Stewart,Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne, and Katharine Ross. Thepicture was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. Though set during theAmerican Civil War, the film's strong antiwar and humanitarian themes resonated with audiences in later years as attitudes began to change toward the Vietnam War. Upon its release, the film was praised for its message as well as its technical production.
Set in the state of Virginia during the American Civil War, James Stewart plays the role of family patriarch, Charlie Anderson. He and his six sons run the family farm, while his daughter Jenny (Rosemary Forsyth) and daughter-in-law Ann (Katharine Ross) take care of the housework. Charlie's oldest son, Jacob (Glenn Corbett) wants to join the war, but Charlie repeatedly tells his family that they won't join the war until it concerns them. Although a few of the boys want to join, they respect their father's wishes and remain on the farm.
Charlie's daughter Jenny is courting a young soldier named Sam (Doug McClure). He wants to marry Jenny, and when Charlie gives his permission, the wedding occurs a few days later. As soon as the vows are said, a young corporal rides up and announces that Sam is wanted back immediately. Sam leaves, much to the sorrow of his new bride.
While out hunting raccoon, Charlie's youngest son and his friend stumble onto a confederate ambush. They run away, and stop for a drink at a pond. The boy is wearing an old rebel soldier cap that he found at the river. When a union patrol comes on them, the boy is takes as a prisoner of war. His young friend, Gabriel (Eugene Jackson), runs to tell the Andersons what happened. When Charlie hears the news, he and his sons and daughter Jenny leave to look for the boy, leaving James (Patrick Wayne) and his wife Ann at the farm with their young baby.
Meanwhile, the boy is taken to a prisoner of war camp. He finds a man (James Best) who is going to escape, and decides to let the boy come along. They and a few other men successfully make it out of the camp, and start heading south. Not long after, they come onto a confederate camp, and are soon involved in a skirmish. The boy's friend is killed, and the boy himself is shot in the leg. When a union soldier comes along about to kill him, the boy looks up into the face of his friend, Gabriel. Gabriel helps him off into a bush to hide until after the battle.
Charlie Anderson, still looking for the boy, overpowers the union soldiers on a train carrying prisoners. He looks through the boxcars, searching for the boy. When he finds that the boy is not there, he gets on his horse to leave. As he looks up, he sees young Sam coming through the crowd. Jenny is overjoyed to see her husband, and Sam leaves with the Andersons, telling the soldiers to burn the train and go home.
Back at the farm, scavengers raid the place, killing both James and Ann. On their way back home, the Andersons run across a confederate patrol. The young sentry, startled by the sound of horses, stands up and takes a shot at Jacob, killing him instantly. Charlie starts to kill the sentry, but stops to ask him his age. The sentry replies, "sixteen, sir." Charlie stops, remembering that his youngest son is sixteen. He emotionally tells the sentry that he wants him to live, and be an old man and have many sons. He wants him to know what it feels like to lose one of them. When the Andersons return home, the doctor tells them what happened to James and Ann. Their young child Martha is still alive, and Charlie takes her in his arms.
The following day at the breakfast table, Charlie begins his standard prayer, but is so heartbroken that he can't finish it. He goes out to the family graveyard, to see his wife's grave. He sees the graves of James, Jacob and Ann alongside his wife, and as he talks to her, he hears church bells ringing in the distance.
Coming back to the farmhouse, he demands to know why no one told him it was Sunday. The whole family gets dressed and ready for church, coming in the door of the church house as the singing is started. As the congregation completes the first song, the pastor, (Denver Pyle), starts to announce the next hymn. As he does so, the boy stumbles through the back door on a crutch. The whole congregation looks, and Charlie Anderson turns to see what is happening. As he sees the boy, he face lights up, and he helps him to the pew. The whole church joyously sings in unison as the film ends.
The captions on the photographs are original to the captions on the negatives from the Library of Congress.
1
Title: Flag of 37th Pennsylvania Infantry, Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1865, printed later], Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen silver, Summary: Full length view of Civil War soldier holding torn flag.
With the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War coming in April, this incredibly detailed map provides a fascinating insight into the scale - and precise location - of the country's massive slave population.
The United States Coast Survey’s map of the slave-holding states, which illustrates the varying concentrations of slaves across the South, was regularly consulted by Abraham Lincoln.
On New Year's Day 150 years ago, South Carolina had already declared its independence from the United States and the year 1861 would see ten more states secede from the Union, the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, the formation of the Confederate States of America and the start of the war.
Detailed: The 1860 map clearly depicts each county's slave population, with the darker the shading, the higher the concentration of slavery
Historian Susan Schulten wrote about the 1860 Census and the map showing American slavery in The New York Times.
The map clearly depicts each county's slave population, with the darker the shading, the higher the concentration of slavery.
The document proved popular at the time and was sold throughout the war to raise money for sick and wounded soldiers.
Brutal: Many of the thousands of slaves held across America were branded by their owners
As Schulten explains, the Census of 1860 carried out by the federal government took a count of the South’s vast slave population, and was used as the basis for two maps of slavery, the first of Virginia alone and the second, the one shown here, of the southern states in their entirety.
'Though many Americans knew that dependence on slave labour varied throughout the South, these maps uniquely captured the complexity of the institution and struck a chord with a public hungry for information about the rebellion,' writes Schulten.
From the map's black-and-white shadings, Americans could see the cause of the war and the entrenchment of slavery in the South. The map showed for example that more than 80 per cent of the people were enslaved in Beaufort County, South Carolina, and that the number of slaves in Texas tripled between 1850 and 1860.
Conversely, it also illustrated the degree to which entire regions, like eastern Tennessee and western Virginia, were virtually devoid of slavery, and thus potential sources of resistance to secession.
The map was immortalized by Francis Bicknell Carpenter in a painting of Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet reading the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the 3.1 million people enslaved in the Confederate States.
'The map gave a clear picture of what the Union was up against, and allowed Northerners to follow the progress of the war and the liberation of slave populations,' Schulten writes.
After January 1, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation became law, the president used the map to follow Union troops as they liberated slaves
2
Title: Centreville, Virginia. Grigsby house, headquarters of General Joseph E. Johnston Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer Date Created/Published: 1862 Mar. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
3
Title: [U.S. Army camp scenes, 1862?: Stoneman Station, Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg RR (B453)] Date Created/Published: 1862? Medium: 1 photographic print.
4
Title: [Gettysburg, Pa. Alfred R. Waud, artist of Harper's Weekly, sketching on battlefield] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1863 July. Medium: 1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of the war, Gettysburg, June-July, 1863.
5
Title: [Union field artillery unit in position] Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1865] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen silver.
6
Title: [Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania. 1863. Hanover Junction Railroad Station] Date Created/Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Detail of engine in yard and waiting crowd.
7
Title: [The old frigate Constitution, side view, at dock] Date Created/Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 photographic print.
8
Title: [Armory Square Hospital, Washington, D.C. - view of buildings] Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1869, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen silver.
9
Title: Saint-John's Church, Richmond, Virginia, where Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech Date Created/Published: [1865 April 1] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen silver.
10
Title: 22nd New York State Militia, near Harpers Ferry, Va., 1861 Date Created/Published: [photographed 1861, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen silver. Summary: Photograph shows four soldiers in front of caisson.
11
Title: Charleston Hotel, Charleston, S.C. Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1865] Medium: 1 photographic print.
12
Title: Rufus Ingalls 1820-1893 Date Created/Published: 1865 May. Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: 3/4 length, seated, facing left; in uniform; with group on steps of house, City Point, Va.
13
Title: Headquarters, Army of Potomac - Brandy Station. Officers quarters Date Created/Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Capt. J.R. Coxe and woman seated in front.
14
Title: Siege of Yorktown, Va. Confederate Water Battery, Nelson Church in rear Date Created/Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 photographic print.
15
Title: [Bird's-eye view of Circular Church, amid ruins of Charleston, S.C.] Date Created/Published: 1865. Medium: 1 photographic print.
16
Title: View Charleston, South Carolina Date Created/Published: [ca. 1865] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Bird's-eye-view, with bay in backgrd.
17
Title: Confederate fortifications, Yorktown, Va. Date Created/Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: 7 men and 2 cannons; 4 ships on bay in background.
18
Title: Winter camp of 50th N.Y. Engineers, Rappahannock Station Date Created/Published: 1864 March. Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Rows of buildings and pontoons on wheels.
19
Title: U.S. Signal Corps headquarters, Vicksburg, Miss. Date Created/Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 photographic print.
20
Title: Group at Headquarters, Army of Potomac, October 1862 Date Created/Published: 1862 October. Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: H.F. Clark, A.V. Colburn, J. Buford, J. Letterman, Mr. Coleman, John Gibbon, and J.C. Duane seated and reclining under tree in front of tents.
21
Title: Ruins of Circular Church and Secession Hall, Charleston, S.C., St. Philips Church in distance Date Created/Published: [photographed 1863 April, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph.
22
Title: View of ruins of Richmond and Petersburg R.R. Bridge, James River, Richmond, Va. Date Created/Published: 1865 April. Medium: 1 photographic print.
23
Title: Major Planders at mansion formerly occupied by Jefferson Davis. In the doorway stands the table on which the surrender of Gen. Lee was signed Date Created/Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 photographic print : gelatin silver.
24
Title: Johnson's mill, Appomattox River, near Petersburg, Va. Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1865] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Soldiers standing on rocks near river.
25
Title: [General Robert E. Lee's headquarters, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania] Date Created/Published: [photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print.
26
Title: [Interior view of Fort Sumter showing ruins, taken by a Confederate photographer in 1864, Charleston, South Carolina] Date Created/Published: [1864(?), printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print.
27
Title: Interior of Fort Sumpter, Charleston Harbor, S.C. Creator(s): Brady, Mathew B., ca. 1823-1896, photographer Date Created/Published: New York : E. & H.T. Anthony & Co. [between 1861 and 1865] Medium: 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph.
28
Title: Evacuation of Port Royal, Va., May 30, 1864 Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Related Names: Taylor & Huntington , publisher Date Created/Published: Hartford, Conn. : Taylor & Huntington, 1864, [printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph. Summary: Horses on bank as United Army personnel cross pontoon bridge onto waiting boats.
29
Title: Headquarters Army of Potomac - Brandy Station, April 1864--Camp of Telegraph Corps Date Created/Published: [photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Men seated outside tents in woods.
30
Title: Head Quarters of Gen. G.L. Hartsuff Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1865] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Group of people, some with musical instruments, in front of headquarters of Gen. George Lucas Hartsuff, Centre Hill, Petersburg, Va.
31
Title: Camp of 55th New York Infantry, near Tenallytown, D.C. Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Two soldiers by fence in foreground, with one of them looking through binoculars, with camp and large group of soldiers in background.
32
Title: Capt. John J. Huff Date Created/Published: [photographed 1865 July, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Capt. John Huff, full-length portrait, seated in front of tent, facing slightly right.
33
Title: Officers of 170th New York Inf'y Date Created/Published: [photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Five officers and a boy standing in front of building.
34
Title: Maj. H.H. Humphrey and others Creator(s): Smith, William Morris, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 June. Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Three Civil War Union soldiers, drinking outside a canopied living quarters area, African American on right holding bottle.
35
Title: Officers of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry Date Created/Published: [photographed Nov. 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen silver. Summary: Civil War officers and others gathered on porch; African American sentry standing in yard.
36
Title: Gen. Rawlin's horse taken at Cold Harbor, Va. Date Created/Published: 1864 June 14, printed later. Medium: 1 photographic print : gelatin silver. Summary: Photograph shows an African American boy seated on a horse.
37
Title: Major General E.V. Sumner and staff Date Created/Published: [photographed between 1861 and 1863, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Major General E.V. Sumner, full-length portrait, standing in front of building, facing front, with seven members of his staff.
38
Title: Battle-field of Gettysburg--Dead Confederate sharpshooter at foot of Little Round Top [i.e., Devil's Den] Other Title: Home of a rebel sharpshooter, Gettysburg Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Related Names: Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, formerly attributed to this photographer. Date Created/Published: [photographed 1863 July, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen.
39
Title: Dead horses of Bigelow's (9th Massachusetts) Battery Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: [photographed 1863, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Dead horses on battlefield, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; barn in background.
40
Title: Wounded soldiers from the battles in the "Wilderness" at Fredericksburg, Va., May 20, 1864 Creator(s): Gardner, James, b. 1832, photographer Date Created/Published: [1864 May 20, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen.
41
Title: Officers of the 69th New York State Militia, Fort Corcoran, Va Date Created/Published: [1861] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Officers standing on and around cannon and ammunitions.
42
Title: Ruins on the Canal Basin, Richmond, Va. Date Created/Published: [photographed in April 1863, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print.
43
Title: "Powder monkey" on U.S.S. New Hampshire, off Charleston, S.C. Date Created/Published: [photographed between 1864 and 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Young man or boy leaning against cannon.
44
Title: View taken from south side of canal basin, Richmond, Va., - April, 1865--showing Capitol, Custom House, etc. Creator(s): Russell, Andrew J., photographer Date Created/Published: [photographed 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Ruins of Richmond, Virginia with soldier, cannon barrels and cannon balls in foreground.
45
Title: Fort Richardson, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery Date Created/Published: [1861, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Soldiers with cannons.
46
Title: A fancy group, in front of Petersburg / negative by David Knox, positive by A. Gardner. Creator(s): Knox, David, photographer Related Names: Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882 , photographer Date Created/Published: 1864 Aug, c1865. Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen. Summary: Photograph showing a group of military personnel seated in a circle watching two African American men each holding roosters in preparation for a cockfight.
47
Title: Ambulance drill at Headquarters Army of Potomac, near Brandy Station, Va., March, 1864 Date Created/Published: [1864, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-7974 (color film copy transparency) LC-B8171-7285 (b&w film copy neg.)
48
Title: Camp of 31st Pennsylvania Infantry near Washington, D.C. Date Created/Published: [photographed 1862, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print : albumen. Summary: Woman with sleeves rolled up holding basket, posed in front of tent with a soldier (possibly her husband) and three children, other soldiers in the background.
49
Title: Gibson's horse battery (C. 3d U.S. Art'y.) near Fair Oaks, Va. June 1862 Date Created/Published: [photographed 1862 June, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Many soldiers with cannons drawn by horses.
50
Title: Servants at quarters of Prince de Joinville in front of Yorktown, May 3, 1862 Creator(s): Gibson, James F., b. 1828, photographer Date Created/Published: [photographed 1862, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Four men with wash tub, frying pan, etc.
51
Title: Ruins in Charleston, South Carolina Date Created/Published: [photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Ruins seen from Circular Church.
52
Title: A Ward in Armory Square Hospital, Washington, D.C. Date Created/Published: [photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Wounded soldiers and hospital staff.
53
Title: [Union soldiers entrenched along the west bank of the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia] Creator(s): Russell, Andrew J., photographer Date Created/Published: [photographed between April 29 and May 2, 1863, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print.
54
Title: [Dead horse on battlefield, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania] Date Created/Published: [photographed 1863, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print.
55
Title: Alexandria, Virginia. Slave pen. Interior view Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1869] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
56
Title: Five generations on Smith's Plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: [1862, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print.
57
Title: [Incidents of the war. A harvest of death, Gettysburg, July, 1863] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: Washington, D.C. : published by Philp & Solomons, c1865. Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Dead Federal soldiers on battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
58
Title: [Cedar Mountain, Va. Family group before the house in which Gen. Charles S. Winder (C.S.A.) died] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1862 August. Medium: 1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of the war, Bull Run, 2nd Battle of, Va., 1862, July-August 1862. Photograph includes women.
59
Title: [Westover Landing, Va. Lt. Col. Samuel W. Owen, 3d Pennsylvania Cavalry, caught napping] Creator(s): Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1862 August. Medium: 1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862.
60
Title: [Port Royal Island, S.C. African Americans preparing cotton for the gin on Smith's plantation] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1862. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Port Royal, S.C., 1861-1862. Shows seven African Americans sitting in a pile of cotton in front of gin house.
61
Title: [Culpeper, Va. "Contrabands"] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1863 November. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, Meade in Virginia, August-November 1863. Shows two African American men sitting in front of a tent, one with cigar and the other with a soup ladle.
62
Title: [Cumberland Landing, Va. Group of "contrabands" at Foller's house] Creator(s): Gibson, James F., b. 1828, photographer Date Created/Published: 1862 May 14. Medium: 1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, The Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862.
63
Title: [Antietam, Md. Confederate dead by a fence on the Hagerstown road] Creator(s): Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1862 September. Medium: 1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of the war, Battle of Antietam, September-October 1862.
64
Title: [Aquia Creek Landing, Va. View of the Federal supply depot] Creator(s): Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1863 February. Medium: 1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, Burnside and Hooker, November 1862-April 1863.
65
Title: [Massaponax Church, Va. "Council of War": Gen. Ulysses S. Grant examining map held by Gen. George G. Meade] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1864 May 21. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, Grant's Wilderness Campaign, May-June 1864.
66
Title: Jericho Mills, Virginia. Looking up North Anna river from south bank, canvas pontoon bridge and pontoon train on opposite bank, May 24, 1864 Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1864 May. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
67
Title: [Petersburg, Va. The first Federal wagon train entering the town] Creator(s): Reekie, John, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 April. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865.
68
Title: Washington, District of Columbia. Officers of 3d Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Date Created/Published: 1865. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
69
Title: Drewry's Bluff, Virginia (vicinity). Sling cart used in removing the captured artillery Date Created/Published: 1865 Apr. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
70
Title: Appomattox Court House, Virginia. McLean house Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 Apr. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion.
71
Title: [Yorktown, Va. Federal wagon park] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862.
72
Title: [Gettysburg, Pa. John L. Burns, the "old hero of Gettysburg," with gun and crutches] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1863 July. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of the war, Gettysburg, June-July, 1863.
73
Title: [City Point, Va. Wharf, Federal artillery, and anchored schooners] Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1Ì€864-April 1865.
74
Title: [James River, Va. View of the completed Dutch Gap canal] Date Created/Published: 1865 April. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Army of the James, June 1864-April 1865.
75
Title: [Johnsonville, Tenn. Camp of Tennessee Colored Battery] Date Created/Published: [1864] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the War in the West.
76
Title: [Atlanta, Ga. Soldiers on boxcars at railroad depot] Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer Date Created/Published: [1864] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the War in the West. These photographs are of Sherman in Atlanta, September-November, 1864. After three and a half months of incessant maneuvering and much hard fighting, Sherman forced Hood to abandon the munitions center of the Confederacy. Sherman remained there, resting his war-worn men and accumulating supplies, for nearly two and a half months. During the occupation, George N. Barnard, official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office, made the best documentary record of the war in the West; but much of what he photographed was destroyed in the fire that spread from the military facilities blown up at Sherman's departure on November 15.
77
Title: [Atlanta, Ga. Ruins of depot, blown up on Sherman's departure] Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer Date Created/Published: [1864] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the War in the West.
78
Title: [Charleston, S.C. Palmetto reinforcements on the channel side of Fort Sumter] Date Created/Published: [1865] April Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Charleston, S.C., 1863-1865.
79
Title: [Charleston, S.C. East Battery; dismantled Blakely gun in foreground] Date Created/Published: 1865 [April] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Charleston, S.C., 1863-1865.
80
Title: [Charleston, S.C. Crowd inside Fort Sumter awaiting the flag-raising] Date Created/Published: 1865 April 14. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Charleston, S.C., 1862-1863.
81
Title: [Petersburg, Va. View of Fort Sedgwick] Date Created/Published: [1865] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg,June 1864-April 1865.
82
Title: [Richmond, Va. Street in the burned district] Date Created/Published: 1865. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the main eastern theater of war, fallen Richmond, April-June 1865.
83
Title: [Richmond, Va. Residence of Gen. Robert E. Lee (707 East Franklin Street)] Date Created/Published: 1865. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, fallen Richmond, April-June 1865.
84
Title: [Petersburg, Va. Courthouse] Date Created/Published: [1865] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865.
85
Title: Band of 10th Veteran Reserve Corps, Washington, D.C., April, 1865 Date Created/Published: 1865 Apr. [printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Group portrait of 15 uniformed band members holding instruments, with two drums in foreground.
86
Title: [Drummer boys off duty, playing cards in camp, winter of 1862] Date Created/Published: [1862, printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Group portrait of 6 men and boys; some are playing cards at a table outside of a log and tent shelter.
87
Title: Drum corps, 8th New York State Militia, Arlington, Va., June, 1861 Date Created/Published: 1861 June [printed later] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Group portrait of 18 men and boys, many seated on drums.
88
Title: [Richmond, Va. Custom House (left) and Capitol (center); rubble in street] Date Created/Published: [1865 April] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, fallen Richmond, April-June 1865.
89
Title: [Washington, D.C. President Lincoln's box at Ford's Theater] Date Created/Published: 1865 April. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of Washington, 1862-1865, the assassination of President Lincoln, April-July 1865.
90
Title: [Charleston Harbor, S.C. Crew members, quarterdeck, and starboard battery of U.S.S. Pawnee] Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] Medium: 2 negatives (3 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy -- the Federal Navy, 1861-1865.
91
Title: [Charleston, S.C. The old Market House (188 Meeting Street)] Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 [April] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Charleston, S.C., 1863-1865.
92
Title: [Charleston, S.C. Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar (Broad and Legare Streets) destroyed in the fire of December 1861] Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 [April] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Charleston, S.C., 1863-1865.
93
Title: [Saint Augustine, Fla. Artillery inside Fort Marion; tents on rampart] Creator(s): Cooley, Sam A. (Samuel A.), photographer Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Florida.
94
Title: ["Auction & Negro Sales," Whitehall Street] Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer Date Created/Published: [1864] Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the War in the West. These photographs are of Sherman in Atlanta, September-November, 1864. After three and a half months of incessant maneuvering and much hard fighting, Sherman forced Hood to abandon the munitions center of the Confederacy. Sherman remained there, resting his war-worn men and accumulating supplies, for nearly two and a half months. During the occupation, George N. Barnard, official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office, made the best documentary record of the war in the West; but much of what he photographed was destroyed in the fire that spread from the military facilities blown up at Sherman's departure on November 15.
95
Title: [Atlanta, Ga. Gen. William T. Sherman, leaning on breach of gun, and staff at Federal Fort No. 7] Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer Date Created/Published: [1864] Medium: 3 negatives : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the War in the West. These photographs are of Sherman in Atlanta, September-November, 1864. After three and a half months of incessant maneuvering and much hard fighting, Sherman forced Hood to abandon the munitions center of the Confederacy. Sherman remained there, resting his war-worn men and accumulating supplies, for nearly two and a half months. During the occupation, George N. Barnard, official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office, made the best documentary record of the war in the West; but much of what he photographed was destroyed in the fire that spread from the military facilities blown up at Sherman's departure on November 15.
96
Title: [Unknown location. Signalmen of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren's flagship receiving a message from the Georgia shore] Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] Medium: 1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
97
Title: [Unknown location. Wagons and camera of Sam A. Cooley, U.S. photographer, Department of the South] Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photographs of artillery, place and date unknown.
98
Title: [Petersburg, Va. Surgeons of 3d Division before hospital tent] Date Created/Published: 1864 August. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photographs from the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865.
99
Title: [Richmond, Va. General view of the burned district] Creator(s): Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 April. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the main eastern theater of war, fallen Richmond, April-June 1865.
100
Title: [Fort Fisher, N.C. View of the land front, showing destroyed gun carriage in second traverse] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 January. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Fort Fisher, N.C., January 1865.
101
Title: [Culpeper, Va. Gen Robert O. Tyler and staff of the Artillery Reserve] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1863 September. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, Meade in Virginia, August-November 1863.
102
Title: [Fort Monroe, Va. The "Lincoln Gun," a 15-inch Rodman Columbiad] Date Created/Published: [1864] Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy -- specifically of Fort Monroe, Va.
103
Title: [Petersburg, Va. Company F, 114th Pennsylvania Infantry (Zouaves) with fixed bayonets] Date Created/Published: 1864 August. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865.
104
Title: [Alexandria, Va. Soldiers' Cemetery] Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of Washington, 1862-1865, view of Alexandria, Va.
105
Title: [Brandy Station, Va., vicinity. Large wagon park] Creator(s): O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1864 May. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, winter quarters at Brandy Station, December 1863-April 1864.
106
Title: [Harper's Ferry, W. Va. View of town; railroad bridge in ruins] Creator(s): Bostwick, C. O., photographer Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of the war, Battle of Antietam, September-October 1862.
107
Title: [Washington, D.C. Execution of the conspirators: scaffold in use and crowd in the yard, seen from the roof of the Arsenal] Creator(s): Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 July 7. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of Washington, 1862-1865, the assassination of President Lincoln, April-July 1865.
108
Title: [Washington, D.C. Patients in Ward K of Armory Square Hospital] Date Created/Published: [1865 August] Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph of Washington, 1862-1865, the hospitals.
109
Title: [Washington, D.C. Ex-Confederate iron-clad ram Stonewall at anchor; U.S. Capitol in the background] Date Created/Published: 1865 June. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy -- the Federal Navy, 1861-1865.
110
Title: [Cold Harbor, Va. African Americans collecting bones of soldiers killed in the battle] Creator(s): Reekie, John, photographer Date Created/Published: 1865 April. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, Grant's Wilderness Campaign, May-June 1864.
111
Title: [Antietam, Md. Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand; another view] Creator(s): Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1862 October 3. Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Summary: Photograph from the main eastern theater of the war, Battle of Antietam, September-October 1862.
Nashville, Tenn., from the statehouse, 1864. Photograph by George N. Barnard. Mathew Brady collection. The statehouse portico guarded by artillery in the foreground. (Courtesy of the National Archives) #
The ruins of Mills House and nearby buildings, Charleston, S.C. A shell-damaged carriage and the remains of a brick chimney in the foreground. 1865. Photograph by George N. Barnard. (Courtesy of the National Archives) #
Shells of the buildings of Richmond, Va., silhouetted against a dark sky after the destruction by Confederates, 1865. Mathew Brady collection. (Courtesy of the National Archives) #
