Transcription
What up, APUSH people? Today we are going to review the Civil War. If you're using any of those APUSH books, those chapters will be reviewed in this video.
It's important to keep in mind that the actual fighting of the Civil War doesn't begin until the attack on Fort Sumter. But even before that attack, seven Southern states—those states in blue—had left the Union before Lincoln took office in March of 1861. They left because of the election of Lincoln and the Republican Party on a Free Soil platform.
One of the things Lincoln is very careful not to do is to provoke the other Southern states. In fact, in his inaugural address, he pledges not to interfere with slavery where it already exists. He does tell Southerners, those seven Southern states, that they have no right of secession. It doesn't make any sense for them to be doing what they're doing.
Lincoln's early goals in this IAL period are to not let the last two federal properties be taken over by the Confederacy. One of those was in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, called Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is running out of supplies, and Lincoln tells the Confederacy, "We're sending provisions; we're not sending reinforcements. This is not meant to be an aggressive move."
Nonetheless, in April of 1861, the Confederacy attacks Fort Sumter, beginning the fighting of the nation's bloodiest war.
Now, the impact of Fort Sumter is huge. One, this unites Northerners behind the idea of preserving the Union. Lincoln calls on volunteers to come fight, and Northerners rally around Lincoln and this idea of fighting the war to preserve the Union.
The second impact is that four more Southern states join the Confederacy—those states in pink, including the very populated Virginia. Finally, Lincoln's priority from the start was keeping the border states from leaving the Union as well.
So what are these border states? These border states are pivotal to the war effort and Lincoln's strategy. The border states are states such as Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland. These are slave states that remain in the Union; they're green on this map.
Lincoln's goal is to keep them in the Union for a couple of reasons. They're super important. Here's why: If those green states left, it would have given more white men to fight for the Confederacy. A lot of the manufacturing that the South had—what little it did have—was found in the border states. If they left, it would have nearly doubled the capacity of the South to produce for the war effort.
Then finally, geographic location. If states like Maryland and Delaware left the Union, Washington, D.C., the capital, would be surrounded. They would be closer to the Confederacy. So there are a lot of reasons why Lincoln needs to keep these border states in the Union.
He does so by a variety of methods. He mobilizes the federal government, and in some people's minds, in questionable ways. Martial law is declared in Maryland. Guerrilla warfare takes place in Missouri, and you're going to see the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in some of the border states. We'll get back to that in a moment.
Now, both the Union and the Confederacy have advantages and disadvantages when this war begins. For the North, they have the industrial resources. The majority of the manufacturing was in the North; you should know this already. Transportation advantage was the North's as well. The railroad that was in the nation was largely in the North.
They had a powerful navy, an established government, and an established federal government was a Northern advantage. Finally, they had the population advantage: 22 million people in the North versus 9 million in the South. Eventually, when emancipation takes place, that's going to offer advantages as well.
There are disadvantages for our Northern homies. There's a lack of leadership. A lot of the top military leaders join the Confederacy—people like Robert E. Lee. The South has those veteran leaders. Then they have a lack of purpose. For a lot of Northerners, it was, "Why are we fighting a war to keep these states that don't want to be in the Union? Let them go, let them go, let them go."
Now, the Confederate states have some advantages and disadvantages. For one, the Confederacy is fighting a defensive war. All they have to do is defend their land, and they have the advantage of fighting among a friendly population. They have a sense of purpose; they're fighting, in their mind, for the Southern way of life, Southern honor.
They have, as I mentioned previously, veteran military officials, and those are some of those advantages. Of course, cotton diplomacy was a hope that the importance of cotton to the international market, especially England, would get them foreign recognition and financial assistance. We'll see how that turns out.
The disadvantages were numerous, though, for the Confederacy. They had no navy, no government structure. In fact, there's a strong sense of independence and states' rights. This is going to be hard for the Confederacy to deal with during the war. You're going to have a very poorly equipped Southern society, a weak economy, a lack of manufacturing, and no major rail system.
So both sides had advantages and disadvantages, but you had to mobilize for war. The North passes the first draft, the Conscription Act, in March of 1863. In the Union, all men ages 20 to 45 had to register for the draft.
Now, this was unfair to the poor because if you had money, you could get a substitute—the so-called $300 men who would take your place. The same thing was kind of done in the South. The South had its equivalent, the so-called 20 Negro Law, where if you owned more than 20 slaves, you could be exempt from military service.
As a result of this anger over this unfairness, there were riots. In fact, the most famous ones are taking place in July of 1863—the New York City draft riots. Mobs of mostly Irish Americans, who were serving in the Union Army in huge numbers, start attacking the wealthy and also African Americans because they blame them for this war taking place.
Now, it's important to keep in mind in this chapter that Lincoln is going to proclaim he was not fighting the war to end slavery. Did you hear that? He wasn't fighting the war to end slavery.
There's a reason why. Even though Lincoln personally was against slavery, he can't say it's about slavery. One, secession was not legal, so therefore, in his mind, the South never really left. It was rebels within the Southern states that left.
Two, and this is the key, the border states. If he makes the war about slavery, those border states are going to say, "Deuces, peace." There's also a fear from white workers in the North about what emancipation would mean to them, what that looks like on their end.
Finally, there are political concerns among Northerners. You have Northern Democrats and Northern Republicans all wanting their position represented by Lincoln. But eventually, this war is going to become a war about emancipation.
So how do we get there? Well, there are really two reasons to free the slaves. One is military. If you liberate the slaves, it undermines the economic foundation of the South and makes it more difficult for them to fight the war. The other is obvious ideological; it's the right thing to do.
There's pressure on Lincoln to do so among Radical Republicans—Radical Republicans like Charles Sumner, the guy that got hit over the head with the cane, Thaddeus Stevens, and Benjamin Wade—who were pressuring Lincoln to make the war about slavery. They were abolitionists, and they wanted this war to be a war to end slavery. Slowly, it becomes that.
In August of 1861, you have the Confiscation Act, in which it is declared that slaves used for insurrectionary purposes would be declared free. This gives runaway slaves an incentive to head north towards Union camps, undermining the South's ability to fight the war. In fact, the term "contraband" is a term for runaway slaves.
In July of 1862, you have the Second Confiscation Act, which basically said all slaves who were enslaved by anybody engaged in rebellion are free. So slowly, you have this kind of emancipation taking place.
The big one is the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, following the Battle of Antietam, which is a Union victory—it's technically a draw. Robert E. Lee retreats, and Lincoln decides to move forward with announcing the Emancipation Proclamation. It is justified as a military necessity.
It declares slaves free in rebel territory throughout the Confederacy, but it does not free slaves in the border states. Very important you know that.
Now, the impact strengthens the moral cause of the North. It gives the North a sense of moral purpose. This is not just a war against secession; it's against slavery. It also helps keep Europe from aiding the Confederacy, especially England, because if they do so, they're fighting a war to defend slavery, and that would be very unpopular over in Europe.
Also, new soldiers for the Union Army—African American men, former slaves, the freedmen—are going to sign up in huge numbers.
There are also some limits. Keep in mind it freed the slaves in rebel territory, but the North had no authority in the Confederacy. It also did not apply to the border states, so there's still a huge number of slaves still in bondage. But it's an important moment in the war.
Another important thing you should keep in mind is the African American fight for freedom. Frederick Douglass and other leaders of the North saw enlistment in the Union Army as an opportunity to prove their citizenship. For African American men, remember Dred Scott's decision had said African Americans are not citizens of the United States. For Douglass and others, this was their way to prove it and fight for it.
You have over 180,000 African Americans serving in the war. The most famous, of course, is the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, as seen in the movie "Glory." But many African American soldiers fought during the Civil War but nonetheless faced a great deal of prejudice. They were oftentimes paid less than white soldiers.
Another key thing you should keep in mind is the use of executive power. Civil liberties are oftentimes reduced during times of national crisis. So as we look at different wars, keep in mind how people's liberty is being infringed upon.
You see this in Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in border states such as Maryland. The writ of habeas corpus basically says that you have the right to be informed of the charges against you, and you have a right to prove your innocence by having a trial. This was denied to people in states like Maryland because, in Lincoln's mind, this was necessary for our nation's security and to preserve the Union.
There's also this kind of increase in presidential power you should be aware of. Oftentimes, presidential power increases during times of war. For instance, Lincoln ordered a blockade without the approval of Congress. Congress was not in session. Lincoln said, "We got to do it." He increases the size of the federal army without the approval of Congress. Both those things are powers granted to Congress, but Lincoln does it because we are at war and feels it is necessary.
Politics during the war is another thing you should keep in mind. There are challenges for the Confederacy. Cotton diplomacy, as I mentioned, was a hope that they would get European intervention. Europe, though, obtained cotton from other sources, for example, Egypt and India.
The failure at Antietam—Robert E. Lee was trying to get a win but doesn't get one—and as a result, in addition to the Emancipation Proclamation in January, all of those factors prevent European intervention on behalf of the Confederacy.
The other challenge for the Confederacy is the tradition of states' rights. It makes fighting the war difficult. Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, oftentimes found states reluctant to send troops outside of their borders on behalf of the Confederacy.
Lincoln had problems as well, and those challenges for Lincoln were often among people within his own party. Very often, the Radical Republicans criticized him for moving too slowly on the issue of emancipation. You had War Democrats, Northern Democrats who support the war but criticize Lincoln's handling of it, and of course, there were also peace Democrats and the more radical ones called Copperheads who opposed the war and wanted a negotiated settlement.
Lincoln does run for re-election in 1864, and he does beat his former general, General McClellan. One of the big reasons he wins that is because the Union starts winning some victories in places like Atlanta.
Now, one of the key things that happens during the war, and it has nothing really significant about the battles, is that there was a Republican majority in Congress. When the South leaves the Union, they forfeit their right to political power in Congress.
So you get the North getting all sorts of things done without any Democrat or Southern opposition to really block it. In 1861, you get the Morrill Tariff, which helps pay for the war by increasing the tariff rates and protecting Northern industry.
You get the Homestead Act in 1862, which sets up the sale of land in the West and encourages settlement. In 1862, you get the Legal Tender Act, which allows for the printing of money—paper money, the greenbacks.
The National Bank Act establishes the financial health and well-being and unifies the banking system. You also get the Pacific Railway Act, which establishes a northern route for the Transcontinental Railroad. And of course, the big one: the Emancipation Proclamation.
Real quick rundown of the impact of the Civil War, and there are a whole bunch of them. The most obvious one is the enormous loss of life—over 600,000 people are going to die from the fighting in this brutal war.
The Southern economy is going to be destroyed, and Northern industrialization is going to be accelerated by the war. In fact, in the post-war period, you're going to see a mass industrialization take place, largely in the North.
The Republican laws that are going to be passed are going to have a huge impact in the post-war years, especially the Homestead Act, the Pacific Railroad Act, and others. The Union is going to be preserved; that's what the initial meaning or reason for the war was.
The idea of secession and nullification is going to be defeated. We kept seeing those things come up, and the Civil War kind of crushes that as an option for future generations.
Probably something that's really lost for a lot of people is that the Civil War was the ultimate test for American democracy, and it survives.
Lastly, enormously important, 4 million people are going to be suddenly freed as a result of the war as the war changes from one just about the Union to one about the issue of slavery. The 13th Amendment is going to emancipate 4 million individuals.
Make sure you check out the short little video about Civil War battles that you need to know for the APUSH exam. But until then, until next time, subscribe to Joose Productions, click like on the video if it helped you out, tell some friends, share the love, spread the love, and peace.