The Civil War

II - The War and its Political & Economic Results

THE COURSE OF THE WAR

This simplified map will help you keep track of the course of the war.

Professor Gary Gallagher (2000) argued that the South had every chance to win the war; all it had to do was hold out (whereas the North had to invade and conquer it), it had ‘interior lines’ of defence, and the leadership of the two armies was evenly balanced. 

I don’t agree.  The North was immensely wealthier, with a much greater industrial capacity, many more railroads, a much larger population and (by the end) three times as many soldiers.  The historian Shelby Foote (1990) thought that the North “fought that war with one hand behind its back” – ie it did what was necessary to win, and could have done more if it had needed.  Meanwhile, the South had a HUGE area to defend with limited resources.  Especially as the war dragged on, the North was always going to win. 

At first, the Confederate side appeared successful:

• An invasion of Virginia by the Union in July 1861 was defeated at the battle of Manassas/Bull Run.  In 1862, three further attempted Union invasions failed. 
• In 1862 the Confederate General Robert E Lee attacked Maryland and got to within 60 miles of Washington DC.  He was only stopped at great cost of lives at the battle of Antietam (it was this battle that convinced Lincoln that he had to free enslaved people and recruit black Americans into the Union Army). 
• In May 1863 Lee won a great victory at Chancellorsville in Virginia, defeating another Union invasion of Virginia. 

However:

• In 1862-63 Union General Ulysses S Grant led a brilliant campaign which captured the Mississippi valley after the long siege of Vicksburg, splitting Texas from the rest of the Confederacy.  This was called the ‘anaconda strategy’ because, together with a naval blockade, like the snake, it would slowly strangle the Confederacy. 
• On 1 January 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that “all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be, free”.  Altogether, 186,000 Black soldiers and 29,000 Black sailors fought for the Union – a tenth of all Union forces
• In July 1863 a second invasion of the North by Lee was comprehensively defeated in the Battle of Gettysburg. 
• In 1864, Grant adopted a strategy of ‘total war’ – not just fighting the Confederate armies, but taking provisions and forage and destroying homes, farms, and railroads; ie destroying the South’s ability to wage a war. 
• In 1864 a Union invasion and General Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’ destroyed a fifth of the farms in Georgia, and split the South in two. 
• In 1865, Lee’s army was surrounded and surrendered at Appomattox.  The Southern States surrendered. 

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

Teachit Card Games (dominoes and pelmanism) with accompanying exercises (pdf)

General Robert E Lee  - BBC Witness History

YouTube

The War day-by-day

Reconstruction and 1876: - Crash Course US History (really good, but watch it AFTER your have studied this page)

THE RESULTS OF THE WAR

Political Results – ‘Reconstruction’

1. The Union was saved. 
2. A Stronger Federal Government.  The 13th Amendment included the phrase: “Congress shall have power to enforce this article”. 
3. The 13th Amendment (1865) ended slavery throughout the United States. 
   The 14th Amendment (Civil Rights Act) guaranteed citizenship and “equal protection of the laws” to all people born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved individuals, and provided equal protection under the law. 
   The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote.  Southern states were required to write new constitutions, accept the abolition of slavery, and grant civil rights to African Americans before they could be readmitted to the Union. 
   When the Ku Klux Klan began to attack Black people, the government passed Enforcement Acts to protect them. 
4. Military Rule in the South: Congress overruled President Johnson and passed the Reconstruction Act (1867), sending military governors with Union troops to rule in the southern states.  This ended when a state had rewritten its constitution and had been readmitted to the Union; all the states had been readmitted by 1870. 
5. A Weaker President: after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson tried to implement a moderate settlement, and he gave all southerners who had not fought for the Confederacy a pardon and returned much of the land to its former owners.  He opposed the 14th Amendment and military governors.  Congress overruled him and passed two laws limiting the powers of the President.  It tried (but failed) to impeach him.
6. The South resisted fiercely, passing political measures such as poll taxes, literacy tests to deprive Black Americans of the vote, and Jim Crow laws to maintain white political supremacy (e.g. Black Americans were not allowed to marry a white person, serve on a jury, or testify in court against a white person).  Northerners moving south in search of work were hated as ‘Carpetbaggers’ (because they carried their possessions in a cheap bag made from carpet), as were ‘Scallywags’ (southerners who supported the Union).  In 1877 the Democrats gained political control of the South, and reconstruction came to an end. 

Economic Results in the South

1. During the War
1. The fighting, especially the Union’s ‘Total War’ (eg Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’) destroyed towns, railroads and farms.  The Union troops ‘lived off the land’ confiscating crops and livestock. 
2. Maybe 800,000 men served in the Confederacy (80% of white males of military-age).  Even before the Emancipation Act enslaved people were running away to the North or to join the Union Army, and Exodusters were leaving to go West after the Homestead Act.  This created a massive shortage of labour, resulting in less planting, harvesting, and production.  As a result, agricultural production plummeted, especially cotton (the South’s most profitable cash crop), leading to economic collapse in many areas. 
3. The Anaconda Plan wrecked the Confederacy’s trade.  This meant no revenue from Cotton to buy weapons, and shortages of essential imports, including food and manufactured goods. 
4. To pay for the war, the Confederate government simply printed money; this caused inflation, the prices of everyday goods soared, and the Confederate currency became nearly worthless. 
2. After the War
1. The end of slavery meant the Southern plantation system could no longer function as it had before.  Instead landowners replaced it with tenant farming (letting their land for rent) or – for formerly-enslaved people and poor whites – sharecropping (letting a farm for a share of the crop).  Sharecropping particularly tied the tenants to the landowner almost as completely as slavery had done, and meant that some formerly-enslaved people were actually worse off. 
2. The Southern elite slavocracy was ruined:
   • Much of their wealth had been in the form enslaved people; with the abolition of slavery, they lost $3 billion. 
   • In addition, land was confiscated.  In 1865, General Sherman issued Special Field Order Number 15, which set aside more than 400,000 acres of coastal plantations for settlement by formerly-enslaved people.  Also (citing the U.S.  Revenue Act of 1862) the US seized lands from Southern landowners who did not pay taxes to the Union. 
   • To finance the war, many Southerners had bought Confederate bonds, which were now worthless after the defeat. 
   • White incomes fell by 40% after the war. 
3. The Cotton Industry was damaged: Egypt and India had filled the gap in cotton production during the war and, trying to rebuild the industry without enslaved tabour, the industry struggled to regain its pre-war profitability. 
4. During Reconstruction, taxes were imposed to rebuild infrastructure, but the South remained economically underdeveloped compared to the North for a century.  This was exacerbated because Northern financiers and industrialists bought up Southern land, railroads, and businesses, further increasing the South’s economic dependence on the North. 

Source A

Fredericksburg, Virgina

Economic Results in the North

1. During the War
1. The North’s industrial economy thrived – especially iron and steel, textiles, and arms manufacturing as the Union Army required more weapons, uniforms, ships and other supplies.  Cities like Pittsburgh became hubs for iron and steel, while New England’s textile mills increased production.  Railroads were essential for moving troops and supplies, so the federal government expanded the railroad network – the Pacific Railway Act for the first transcontinental railroad was passed during the war (1862 - completed in 1869).  Agriculture boomed, selling food to feed the Army
2. To finance the war, the federal government introduced the Morrill Tariff (1861) to protect Northern industries from foreign competition, the National Banking Act (1863) creating a national currency ('greenbacks' - the US’s first paper currency), and the Internal Revenue Act (1862) which introduced an income tax. 
3. 2.1 million men served in the Union Army (roughly 50% of males of military-age).  Their places were filled by Black Americans moving north, and by immigrants.  The shortage of labour also led to innovation and machine-production (eg the McCormick reaper in farming). 
2. After the War
1. The Civil War greatly strengthened the Northern economy, positioning it for dominance in the late 19th century.  The boom created by the war self-sustained, creating ‘Second Industrial Revolution’ (of steel, coal and railroads) in the North.  Industrial Corporations and the stock exchange developed, railroads expanded, cities grew, and labour movements gained strength, all setting the stage for the ‘Gilded Age’, 1870-90. 
2. Railroads triggered the development of commercial agriculture in the Midwest, linking farmers and cattle-ranchers to Northern cities. 
3. The Homestead Act (1862) encouraged westward migration by giving settlers land, which stimulated agricultural expansion in turn and created new markets for Northern industrial goods. 
4. The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act (1862) established colleges for agricultural and technical education, building workforce skills.

Source B

The Equitable Life Building, New York, built 1873. The first commercial building in the world with an elevator.