pansion, sank to its death, and in its gress could not restrict the expan-
stead a powerful new organization sion of slavery . This last assertion
arose, the Republican Party, whose invalidated former compromises on
primary demand was that slavery be slavery and made new ones impos-
excluded from all the territories . In sible to craft .
1856, it nominated John Fremont,
The Dred Scott decision stirred
whose expeditions into the Far West fierce resentment throughout the
had won him renown . Fremont lost North . Never before had the Court
the election, but the new party swept been so bitterly condemned . For
a great part of the North . Such free- Southern Democrats, the decision
soil leaders as Salmon P . Chase and was a great victory, since it gave ju-
William Seward exerted greater in- dicial sanction to their justification
fluence than ever . Along with them of slavery throughout the territories .
appeared a tall, lanky Illinois attor-
ney, Abraham Lincoln .
LINCOLN, DOUGLAS, AND
Meanwhile, the flow of both
BROWN
Southern slave holders and antislav-
ery families into Kansas resulted in Abraham Lincoln had long re-
armed conflict . Soon the territory garded slavery as an evil . As ear-
was being called “bleeding Kansas .” ly as 1854 in a widely publicized
The Supreme Court made things speech, he declared that all national
worse with its infamous 1857 Dred legislation should be framed on the
Scott decision .
principle that slavery was to be re-
Scott was a Missouri slave who, stricted and eventually abolished .
some 20 years earlier, had been tak- He contended also that the princi-
en by his master to live in Illinois ple of popular sovereignty was false,
and the Wisconsin Territory; in both for slavery in the western territo-
places, slavery was banned . Return- ries was the concern not only of the
ing to Missouri and becoming dis- local inhabitants but of the United
contented with his life there, Scott States as a whole .
sued for liberation on the ground of
In 1858 Lincoln opposed Ste-
his residence on free soil . A majority phen A . Douglas for election to the
of the Supreme Court — dominated U .S . Senate from Illinois . In the first
by Southerners — decided that Scott paragraph of his opening campaign
lacked standing in court because he speech, on June 17, Lincoln struck
was not a citizen; that the laws of a the keynote of American history for
free state (Illinois) had no effect on the seven years to follow:
his status because he was the resi-
A house divided against itself
dent of a slave state (Missouri); and
cannot stand. I believe this
that slave holders had the right to
government cannot endure
take their “property” anywhere in
permanently half-slave and half-
the federal territories . Thus, Con-
free. I do not expect the Union to
138
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
be dissolved — I do not expect the were coming to accept his view that house to fall — but I do expect it
he had been an instrument in the
will cease to be divided.
hand of God .
Lincoln and Douglas engaged
in a series of seven debates in the
THE 1860 ELECTION
ensuing months of 1858 . Senator
Douglas, known as the “Little Gi- In 1860 the Republican Party
ant,” had an enviable reputation as nominated Abraham Lincoln as its
an orator, but he met his match in candidate for president . The Repub-
Lincoln, who eloquently challenged lican platform declared that slavery
Douglas’s concept of popular sov- could spread no farther, promised
ereignty . In the end, Douglas won a tariff for the protection of indus-
the election by a small margin, but try, and pledged the enactment of
Lincoln had achieved stature as a a law granting free homesteads to
national figure .
settlers who would help in the open-
By then events were spinning out ing of the West . Southern Demo-
of control . On the night of October crats, unwilling in the wake of the
16, 1859, John Brown, an antislavery Dred Scott case to accept Douglas’s
fanatic who had captured and killed popular sovereignty, split from the
five proslavery settlers in Kansas party and nominated Vice President
three years before, led a band of fol- John C . Breckenridge of Kentucky
lowers in an attack on the federal for president . Stephen A . Douglas
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry (in what was the nominee of northern Dem-
is now West Virginia) . Brown’s goal ocrats . Diehard Whigs from the
was to use the weapons seized to border states, formed into the Con-
lead a slave uprising . After two days stitutional Union Party, nominated
of fighting, Brown and his surviving John C . Bell of Tennessee .
men were taken prisoner by a force
Lincoln and Douglas compet-
of U .S . Marines commanded by ed in the North, Breckenridge and
Colonel Robert E . Lee .
Bell in the South . Lincoln won only
Brown’s attempt confirmed the 39 percent of the popular vote, but
worst fears of many Southerners . had a clear majority of 180 elector-
Antislavery activists, on the other al votes, carrying all 18 free states .
hand, generally hailed Brown as a Bell won Tennessee, Kentucky, and
martyr to a great cause . Virginia Virginia; Breckenridge took the oth-
put Brown on trial for conspiracy, er slave states except for Missouri,
treason, and murder . On December which was won by Douglas . Despite
2, 1859, he was hanged . Although his poor showing, Douglas trailed
most Northerners had initially con- only Lincoln in the popular vote . 9
demned him, increasing numbers
139
140
7CHAPTERTHE
CIVIL WAR
AND
RECONSTRUCTION
President Abraham Lincoln
(center) at a Union Army
encampment in October
1862, following the battle
of Antietam.
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
“That this nation
under God
shall have a
new birth of freedom.”
President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR
tion of the bonds of union, but the
L
South turned a deaf ear . On April
incoln’s victory in the presi- 12, Confederate guns opened fire on
dential election of November 1860 the federal garrison at Fort Sumter
made South Carolina’s secession in the Charleston, South Carolina,
from the Union December 20 a harbor . A war had begun in which
foregone conclusion . The state had more Americans would die than in
long been waiting for an event that any other conflict before or since .
would unite the South against the
In the seven states that had se-
antislavery forces . By February 1, ceded, the people responded posi-
1861, five more Southern states had tively to the Confederate action
seceded . On February 8, the six and the leadership of Confeder-
states signed a provisional constitu- ate President Jefferson Davis . Both
tion for the Confederate States of sides now tensely awaited the action
America . The remaining Southern of the slave states that thus far had
states as yet remained in the Union, remained loyal . Virginia seceded on
although Texas had begun to move April 17; Arkansas, Tennessee, and
on its secession .
North Carolina followed quickly .
Less than a month later, March 4,
No state left the Union with
1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn greater reluctance than Virginia .
in as president of the United States . Her statesmen had a leading part in
In his inaugural address, he declared the winning of the Revolution and
the Confederacy “legally void .” His the framing of the Constitution, and
speech closed with a plea for restora- she had provided the nation with
142
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
five presidents . With Virginia went stripped away any illusions that vic-
Colonel Robert E . Lee, who declined tory would be quick or easy . It also
the command of the Union Army established a pattern, at least in the
out of loyalty to his native state .
Eastern United States, of bloody
Between the enlarged Confed- Southern victories that never trans-
eracy and the free-soil North lay lated into a decisive military advan-
the border slave states of Delaware, tage for the Confederacy .
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri,
In contrast to its military failures
which, despite some sympathy with in the East, the Union was able to se-
the South, would remain loyal to cure battlefield victories in the West
the Union .
and slow strategic success at sea .
Each side entered the war with Most of the Navy, at the war’s begin-
high hopes for an early victory . In ning, was in Union hands, but it was
material resources the North enjoyed scattered and weak . Secretary of the
a decided advantage . Twenty-three Navy Gideon Welles took prompt
states with a population of 22 mil- measures to strengthen it . Lincoln
lion were arrayed against 11 states then proclaimed a blockade of the
inhabited by nine million, including Southern coasts . Although the ef-
slaves . The industrial superiority of fect of the blockade was negligible
the North exceeded even its prepon- at first, by 1863 it almost completely
derance in population, providing it prevented shipments of cotton to
with abundant facilities for manu- Europe and blocked the importa-
facturing arms and ammunition, tion of sorely needed munitions,
clothing, and other supplies . It had clothing, and medical supplies to
a greatly superior railway network .
the South .
The South nonetheless had cer-
A brilliant Union naval com-
tain advantages . The most impor- mander, David Farragut, conducted
tant was geography; the South was two remarkable operations . In April
fighting a defensive war on its own 1862, he took a fleet into the mouth
territory . It could establish its inde- of the Mississippi River and forced
pendence simply by beating off the the surrender of the largest city in
Northern armies . The South also the South, New Orleans, Louisiana .
had a stronger military tradition, In August 1864, with the cry, “Damn
and possessed the more experienced the torpedoes! Full speed ahead,” he
military leaders .
led a force past the fortified entrance
of Mobile Bay, Alabama, captured
WESTERN ADVANCE,
a Confederate ironclad vessel, and
EASTERN STALEMATE
sealed off the port .
T
In the Mississippi Valley, the
he first large battle of the war, Union forces won an almost unin-
at Bull Run, Virginia (also known terrupted series of victories . They
as First Manassas) near Washington, began by breaking a long Confeder-
143
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
ate line in Tennessee, thus making responded tentatively, despite learn-
it possible to occupy almost all the ing that Lee had split his army and
western part of the state . When the was heavily outnumbered . The
important Mississippi River port of Union and Confederate Armies met
Memphis was taken, Union troops at Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg,
advanced some 320 kilometers into Maryland, on September 17, 1862, in
the heart of the Confederacy . With the bloodiest single day of the war:
the tenacious General Ulysses S . More than 4,000 died on both sides
Grant in command, they withstood and 18,000 were wounded . Despite
a sudden Confederate counterattack his numerical advantage, however,
at Shiloh, on the bluffs overlooking McClellan failed to break Lee’s lines
the Tennessee River . Those killed or press the attack, and Lee was able
and wounded at Shiloh numbered to retreat across the Potomac with
more than 10,000 on each side, a ca- his army intact . As a result, Lincoln
sualty rate that Americans had never fired McClellan .
before experienced . But it was only
Although Antietam was in-
the beginning of the carnage .
conclusive in military terms, its
In Virginia, by contrast, Union consequences were nonetheless
troops continued to meet one de- momentous . Great Britain and
feat after another in a succession of France, both on the verge of rec-
bloody attempts to capture Rich- ognizing the Confederacy, delayed
mond, the Confederate capital . The their decision, and the South never
Confederates enjoyed strong defense received the diplomatic recognition
positions afforded by numerous and the economic aid from Europe
streams cutting the road between that it desperately sought .
Washington and Richmond . Their
Antietam also gave Lincoln the
two best generals, Robert E . Lee and opening he needed to issue the
Thomas J . (“Stonewall”) Jackson, preliminary Emancipation Procla-
both far surpassed in ability their mation, which declared that as of
early Union counterparts . In 1862 January 1, 1863, all slaves in states re-
Union commander George McClel- belling against the Union were free .
lan made a slow, excessively cautious In practical terms, the proclamation
attempt to seize Richmond . But in had little immediate impact; it freed
the Seven Days’ Battles between June slaves only in the Confederate states,
25 and July 1, the Union troops were while leaving slavery intact in the
driven steadily backward, both sides border states . Politically, however, it suffering terrible losses .
meant that in addition to preserving
After another Confederate vic- the Union, the abolition of slavery
tory at the Second Battle of Bull was now a declared objective of the
Run (or Second Manassas), Lee Union war effort .
crossed the Potomac River and in-
The final Emancipation Proc-
vaded Maryland . McClellan again lamation, issued January 1, 1863,
144
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
also authorized the recruitment of gave him his chance, Lee struck
African Americans into the Union northward into Pennsylvania at the
Army, a move abolitionist lead- beginning of July 1863, almost reach-
ers such as Frederick Douglass had ing the state capital at Harrisburg . A
been urging since the beginning of strong Union force intercepted him
armed conflict . Union forces already at Gettysburg, where, in a titanic
had been sheltering escaped slaves as three-day battle — the largest of the
“contraband of war,” but following Civil War — the Confederates made
the Emancipation Proclamation, the a valiant effort to break the Union
Union Army recruited and trained lines . They failed, and on July 4 Lee’s
regiments of African-American army, after crippling losses, retreated
soldiers that fought with distinc- behind the Potomac .
tion in battles from Virginia to the
More than 3,000 Union soldiers
Mississippi . About 178,000 African and almost 4,000 Confederates died
Americans served in the U .S . Col- at Gettysburg; wounded and missing
ored Troops, and 29,500 served in totaled more than 20,000 on each
the Union Navy .
side . On November 19, 1863, Lincoln
Despite the political gains
dedicated a new national cemetery
represented by the Emancipation there with perhaps the most famous
Proclamation, however, the North’s address in U .S . history . He concluded
military prospects in the East re- his brief remarks with these words:
mained bleak as Lee’s Army of
... we here highly resolve that
Northern Virginia continued to
these dead shall not have died in
maul the Union Army of the Po-
vain — that this nation, under
tomac, first at Fredericksburg, Vir-
God, shall have a new birth of
ginia, in December 1862 and then
freedom — and that government
at Chancellorsville in May 1863 . But
of the people, by the people, for the
Chancellorsville, although one of
people, shall not perish from the
Lee’s most brilliant military victo-
earth.
ries, was also one of his most costly .
On the Mississippi, Union con-
His most valued lieutenant, General trol had been blocked at Vicksburg,
“Stonewall” Jackson, was mistaken- where the Confederates had strong-
ly shot and killed by his own men .
ly fortified themselves on bluffs too
high for naval attack . In early 1863
GETTYSBURG TO
Grant began to move below and
APPOMATTOX
around Vicksburg, subjecting it to
Y
a six-week siege . On July 4, he cap-
et none of the Confederate vic- tured the town, together with the
tories was decisive . The Union sim- strongest Confederate Army in the
ply mustered new armies and tried West . The river was now entirely in
again . Believing that the North’s Union hands . The Confederacy was
crushing defeat at Chancellorsville broken in two, and it became almost
145
CHAPTER 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
impossible to bring supplies from From the coast, Sherman marched
Texas and Arkansas .
northward; by February 1865, he
The Northern victories at Vicks- had taken Charleston, South Caro-
burg and Gettysburg in July 1863 lina, where the first shots of the Civil
marked the turning point of the war, War had been fired . Sherman, more
although the bloodshed continued than any other Union general, un-
unabated for more than a year-and- derstood that destroying the will and
a-half .
morale of the South was as impor-
Lincoln brought Grant east and tant as defeating its armies .
made him commander-in-chief of
Grant, meanwhile, lay siege to Pe-
all Union forces . In May 1864 Grant tersburg, Virginia, for nine months,
advanced deep into Virginia and before Lee, in March 1865, knew that
met Lee’s Confederate Army in the he had to abandon both Petersburg
three-day Battle of the Wilderness . and the Confederate capital of Rich-
Losses on both sides were heavy, mond in an attempt to retreat south .
but unlike other Union command- But it was too late . On April 9, 1865,
ers, Grant refused to retreat . In- surrounded by huge Union armies,
stead, he attempted to outflank Lee, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appo-
stretching the Confederate lines and mattox Courthouse . Although scat-
pounding away with artillery and tered fighting continued elsewhere
infantry attacks . “I propose to fight it for several months, the Civil War
out along this line if it takes all sum- was over .
mer,” the Union commander said
The terms of surrender at Ap-
at Spotsylvania, during five days of pomattox were magnanimous, and
bloody trench warfare that charac- on his return from his meeting with
terized fighting on the eastern front Lee, Grant quieted the noisy dem-
for almost a year .
onstrations of his soldiers by re-
In the West, Union forces gained minding them: “The rebels are our
control of Tennessee in the fall of countrymen again .” The war for
1863 with victories at Chattanoo- Southern independence had become
ga and nearby Lookout Mountain, the “lost cause,” whose hero, Rob-
opening the way for General Wil- ert E . Lee, had won wide admiration
liam T . Sherman to invade Georgia . through the brilliance of his leader-
Sherman outmaneuvered several ship and his greatness in defeat .
smaller Confederate armies, occu-
pied the state capital of Atlanta, then WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE
marched to the Atlantic coast, sys-
tematically destroying railroads, For the North, the war produced
factories, warehouses, and other a still greater hero in Abraham Lin-
facilities in his path . His men, cut coln — a man eager, above all else,
off from their normal supply lines, to weld the Union together again,
ravaged the countryside for food . not by force and repression but by
146
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
warmth and generosity . In 1864 he
Never before that startled April
had been elected for a second term
morning did such multitudes of
as president, defeating his Demo-
men shed tears for the death of
cratic opponent, George McClellan,
one they had never seen, as if with
the general he had dismissed after
him a friendly presence had been
Antietam . Lincoln’s second inaugu-
taken from their lives, leaving
ral address closed with these words:
them colder and darker. Never
With malice toward none; with
was funeral panegyric so eloquent
charity for all; with firmness in
as the silent look of sympathy
the right, as God gives us to see
which strangers exchanged when
the right, let us strive on to finish
they met that day. Their common
the work we are in; to bind up the
manhood had lost a kinsman.
nation’s wounds; to care for him
The first great task confronting
who shall have borne the battle,
the victorious North — now under
and for his widow, and his orphan the leadership of Lincoln’s vice presi-
— to do all which may achieve
dent, Andrew Johnson, a Southerner
and cherish a just, and a lasting
who remained loyal to the Union —
peace, among ourselves, and with was to determine the status of the
all nations.
states that had seceded . Lincoln had
Three weeks later, two days after already set the stage . In his view,
Lee’s surrender, Lincoln delivered the people of the Southern states
his last public address, in which he had never legally seceded; they had
unfolded a generous reconstruction been misled by some disloyal citi-
policy . On April 14, 1865, the presi- zens into a defiance of federal au-
dent held what was to be his last thority . And since the war was the
Cabinet meeting . That evening — act of individuals, the federal gov-
with his wife and a young couple ernment would have to deal with
who were his guests — he attended these individuals and not with
a performance at Ford’s Theater . the states . Thus, in 1863 Lincoln
There, as he sat in t