The Civil War - free ebook by James I. Robertson

THE CIVIL WAR

by JAMES I. ROBERTSON, JR. Washington 25, D. C. U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission 1963...

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FOREWORD

Thousands of student requests for information on the Civil War prompted the publication of this booklet. Its purpose is to present in simple language a survey of the eleven most popular aspects of the 1861-1865 conflict. This guide is intended as a supplement, not a substitute, for American history textbooks. Space limitations prevented mention of each of the 6,000 engagements of the Civil War. Thus, while such actions as the battle of Picacho Pass, Ariz., and Quantrill’s sacking of Lawrence, Ka

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I. CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

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

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SUGGESTED READINGS

CHART OF CIVIL WAR ARMY ORGANIZATION ARMY General (CSA) Major General (USA) CORPS Lieutenant General (CSA) Major General (USA) DIVISION Major General BRIGADE Brigadier General BATTALION (less than 10 companies) Lieutenant Colonel or Major COMPANY Captain REGIMENT (10 companies) Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel COMPANY 75-100 men Brigadier General BATTALION (less than 10 companies) Lieutenant Colonel or Major COMPANY Captain REGIMENT (10 companies) Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel 75-100 men...

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1861

Late in April, 1861, the Confederate government moved its capital from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va. This transfer was intended to bind Virginia closer to the other Southern states and to put the Confederate government nearer Washington when the time came to discuss the peace treaty. In reality the move backfired. It made Richmond the primary Federal target and Virginia the major battleground of the Civil War. Few engagements occurred in 1861, when neither North nor South had a highly organ

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1862 IN THE WEST

War’s full fury struck in 1862. To understand the complicated movements of many armies, bear in mind two points: (1) Not one, but two , separate areas of military operations existed. The Appalachian Mountains, extending in an almost unbroken line from Pennsylvania to Alabama, prevented armies from moving freely from eastern states (Virginia, the Carolinas, etc.) to western or trans-Appalachian states (Tennessee, Kentucky, etc.), and vice versa . As a result, different armies in the East (east of

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1862 IN THE EAST

For seven months McClellan’s large army lay inactive around Washington. Finally Lincoln, his patience exhausted, ordered McClellan to advance into Virginia. McClellan dismissed the dangerous overland route to Richmond. Rather, he proposed to transport his forces by water to Fort Monroe. Thence he would advance westward on Richmond by way of the same peninsula where Butler had met defeat the preceding year. This was the framework of the Peninsular Campaign. The creation of the Army of the Potomac

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1863 IN THE WEST

Cavalry raids by both sides occupied the early months of this third year of conflict. One of the longest was that of Col. Benjamin H. Grierson and 17,000 Federal horsemen. Leaving La Grange, Tenn., in April, Grierson’s troopers wrecked railroads and supply depots all the way to Baton Rouge, La. The raid lasted two weeks and helped clear the way for Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg. Two of the Confederacy’s celebrated cavalry leaders were Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Hunt Morgan. Forrest was

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1863 IN THE EAST

On the night of March 8, dapper John S. Mosby and his Confederate partisan rangers attacked Fairfax Court House, Va., only a few miles from Washington. The most important item bagged at Fairfax by the Confederates was the garrison commander, Gen. Edwin Stoughton, who was captured while asleep in bed. John S. Mosby (the hatless figure fourth from left), pictured with some of his partisan rangers. The “Gray Ghost” weighed only 125 pounds. From April 29 until May 8, Federal cavalry under Gen. Georg

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1864

In 1864 the Federal war machine moved into high gear. The two men most responsible were Abraham Lincoln, who on March 9 named U. S. Grant as supreme army commander, and Grant himself, who made immediate preparations to strangle the Confederacy. Grant’s master plan was simple: Attack. Federal forces would attack simultaneously at all points and apply constant pressure on the ever-weakening Southern states. The Confederacy, Grant reasoned, could not withstand such a continual onslaught. Grant went

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1865

After a month’s rest at Savannah, Sherman on February 1 started northward to strike through the Carolinas and join Grant in Virginia for the final blow against Lee. Sherman’s major opposition was the remnant of the Army of Tennessee, which had been placed again under the command of Gen. Joseph Johnston. Johnston could offer but feeble resistance to Sherman. Federal troops occupied Charleston and were in Columbia when the latter was gutted by fire. On March 10 Sherman’s forces seized Fayetteville

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SUGGESTED READINGS

( Students should also consult bibliographies in the above works for additional readings. ) Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery is one of the larger depositories for Confederate dead. This 1865 photograph shows the wooden slabs then used for headstones. More Americans died in the Civil War than in all of America’s other wars combined. From the French and Indian wars of the 1750’s through the hostilities in Korea in the 1950’s (with the exception of the Civil War), 606,000 American soldiers died in the

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SUGGESTED READINGS

Naval affairs were among the most critical problems facing each side in 1861. The Federal navy was woefully small and widely scattered. Moreover, the Confederate seacoast extended 3,500 miles from the Chesapeake Bay to the Mexican border. It contained hundreds of inlets, bays, and river openings. Not even a drastically enlarged Federal navy could patrol so vast a region. Lincoln and his Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, soon devised an effective plan. The North would weaken the Confederacy b

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SUGGESTED READINGS

Young boys known as “Powder Monkeys” served on almost every warship in the Civil War. This little sailor stands on the deck of the U.S.S. New Hampshire . What the nations of Europe did—or did not do—were matters of constant and vital concern to both North and South during the Civil War. President Davis and other Confederate officials hoped earnestly that England, and possibly France as well, would recognize the independence of the Southern nation and grant it much-needed aid. President Lincoln a

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SUGGESTED READINGS

Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, Ill. This photograph was taken soon after the camp became a compound for prisoners. The Civil War was the first time that the nation had to contend with large numbers of war prisoners. As might be expected, therefore, policies and treatment varied greatly—and oftentimes sadly. During the war the Confederates captured about 211,000 Federal soldiers. Of this number, 16,000 agreed to battlefield paroles—signed promises that they would not bear ar

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ARTILLERY

About forty-eight different types and sizes of cannons were used in the Civil War. Identifying a particular weapon thus requires knowing such facts as the name of the gun, howitzer, rifle or mortar; whether it was a smoothbore (without rifling in the barrel) or a rifled gun (with barrel groovings), etc. The two most popular cannons in the Civil War were the 12-pounder Napoleon smoothbore howitzer and the 10-pounder Parrott rifled field gun. The Napoleon weighed about 1,200 pounds, fired a 12-pou

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SMALL ARMS

The weapon most used by Civil War infantrymen was known officially as the United States Rifle Musket, Model 1861. Soldiers popularly called it the “Springfield”, since the Springfield, Mass., arsenal manufactured a majority of these guns. The Springfield was a percussion-cap, muzzle-loading weapon, caliber .58, and weighed 9¾ pounds. The Springfield’s effective range was 500 yards, although it could deliver a ball twice that distance. It fired a soft lead Minie bullet—known then as now as the “m

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SUGGESTED READINGS

This damaged wetplate, made in June, 1863, shows the 17th New York Battery drawn up in line near Washington, D. C. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) were born in Kentucky only a few miles apart. Lincoln educated himself, eventually settled in Illinois, and became a highly successful frontier attorney. Davis graduated from West Point, became a wealthy Mississippi planter, and served successively as Secretary of War and U. S. senator. Both men were tall and of striking ap

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SUGGESTED READINGS

The average Civil War soldier was a farm boy between 18 and 30 years of age. He possessed little formal education; and by modern-day standards, his military training was superficial. He was more fighter than soldier, and he tended to scoff at military discipline and other formalities of army service. Posing for photographs to send home to loved ones was a favorite pastime of Civil War soldiers. Typical servicemen of that period were, from left to right: Pvt. George A. Stryker of New York, Pvt. J

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SUGGESTED READINGS

The National Cemetery at Alexandria, Va., was one of the first government-maintained cemeteries established during the Civil War....

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XI. THE WAR’S LEGACY

Perhaps it was necessary for brother to fight brother to determine the course in history our nation would take. Tragedy often walks with greatness; it required a terrible war before America could continue with confidence down the road of progress. The Civil War was the watershed—both a beginning and an end—in our history, and many legacies of that war keep it ever-present in our thoughts. The Civil War lives in battle names now so much a part of our heritage: Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, Frederic

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XII. SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

(1) Could the Civil War have been avoided? If so, how? If not, why not? (2) What concrete goals was each side trying to attain in that war? (3) How did North and South differ in way of life? (4) List, in parallel columns, the viewpoints of each side on such important issues as slavery, states’ rights, nationalism, etc. (5) In what ways was the Civil War unlike any other war? (6) What different military strategy might the North have employed? (7) What different military strategy might the South h

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U. S. CIVIL WAR CENTENNIAL COMMISSION

(Established by Public Law 85-305) OFFICERS AND MEMBERS Ex Officio Honorable John F. Kennedy President of the United States Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson Vice President of the United States Honorable John W. McCormack Speaker of the House of Representatives Officers Dr. Allan Nevins Chairman Congressman Fred Schwengel Vice Chairman Executive Committee Dr. Bell I. Wiley , Chairman Mr. Alvin L. Aubinoe Mr. W. Norman Fitzgerald, Jr. Mr. Conrad L. Wirth Senator Ralph Yarborough Members Senator Clinton

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