Go Lions

1. Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil
War, 1861–1865

2. I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day War”
• Bull Run (Manassas Junction)
– Lincoln eventually concluded that an attack on a
smaller Confederate force might be worth a try:
• If successful it would demonstrate the superiority of
Union arms
• It might lead to the capture of the Confederate
capital at Richmond, 100 miles to the south
• If Richmond fell, secession would be thoroughly
discredited and the Union could be restored without
damage to the economic and social system of the
South

3. I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day
War” (cont.)
– Raw Yankee troops left Washington toward Bull
Run on July 21, 1861:
• At first the battle went well for the Yankees
• But Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson and Confederate
reinforcements arrived unexpectedly
• The “military picnic” at Bull Run:
– Though not decisive militarily, bore significant psychological
and political consequences
– Victory was worse than defeat for the South because it
inflated an already dangerous overconfidence
– Many Southern soldiers promptly deserted

4. I. Bull Run Ends the “Ninety-Day
War” (cont.)
• Southern enlistment fell off sharply
• Defeat was better than victory for the Union:
– It dispelled all illusions of a one-punch war
– Caused the Northerners to buckle down to the staggering
task
• It set the stage for a war that would be waged:
– Not merely for the cause of the Union
– Eventually for the abolitionist ideal of emancipation

5. p436

6. p436

7. II. “Tardy George” McClellan and the
Peninsula Campaign
• In 1861 General George B. McClelland was
given command of the Army of the Potomac
– Embodied a curious mixture of virtues and
defects:
• Superb organizer and drillmaster
• Injected splendid morale into the Army
• Hating to sacrifice his troops, he was idolized by his
men, who affectionately called him “Little Mac”
• He was a perfectionist

8. II. “Tardy George” McClellan and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
• He consistently but erroneously believed that the
enemy outnumbered him
• He was overcautious
– A reluctant McClellan decided to approach
Richmond
• Which lay west of a narrow peninsula formed by the
James and York Rivers
• Hence the name given to this historic campaign: the
Peninsula Campaign (see Map 21.1)
– He inched toward the Confederate capital, spring 1862,
with 1000,000 men

9. II. “Tardy George” McClelland and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
• Took McClelland a month to take historic Yorktown;
he finally came within sight of Richmond
• Lincoln diverted McClelland to chase “Stonewall”
Jackson, who was moving toward Washington, D.C
• Stalled in Richmond, “Jeb” Stuart’s Confederate
cavalry rode completely around his army on
reconnaissance
• General Lee launched a devastating assault–the
Seven Days’ Battles—June 26-July 2, 1862
• The Confederates slowly drove McClellan back to the
sea

10. II. “Tardy George” McClellan and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
• The Peninsula Campaign
– The Union forces abandoned the Peninsula
Campaign as a costly failure
– Lincoln temporarily abandoned McClellan as
commander of the Army of the Potomac.
• Lee:
– Achieved a brilliant, if bloody, triumph
– He ensured that the war would endure until
slavery was uprooted and the Old South
destroyed

11. II. “Tardy George” McClellan and
the Peninsula Campaign (cont.)
– Union strategy now turned toward total war (see
Map 21.2):
• Finally developed the Northern military plan
– Slowly suffocate the South by blockading its coasts
– Liberate the slaves and hence undermine the very
economic foundations of the Old South
– Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the
Mississippi River backbone
– Chop the Confederacy by sending troops to Georgia and the
Carolinas
– Decapitate it by capturing its capital at Richmond
– Try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and
to grind it into submission

12. Map 21-1 p437

13. p438

14. III. The War at Sea
– The blockade:
• 3500 miles of coast was impossible to patrol for the
Northern navy
• Blockading was simplified by concentrating on the
principal ports and inlets where docks were used to
load bulky bales of cotton
• Britain recognized it as binding and warned its
shippers that they ignored it at their peril
• Blockade-running was risky but profitable
• The lush days of blockade-running passed as Union
squadrons pinched off leading Southern ports.

15. III. The War at Sea
(cont.)
• The Northern navy enforced the blockade with highhanded practices
• They would seize British freighters on the high seas,
if laden with war supplies
• The justification was obviously these shipments were
“ultimately” destined by devious routes for the
Confederacy
• London acquiesced in this disagreeable doctrine of
“ultimate destination” or “continuous voyage”
• Britain might need to use the same interpretation in
a future war; in fact they did in WWI

16. III. The War at Sea
(cont.)
– The most alarming Confederate threat to the
blockade came in 1862
• Resourceful Southerners raised and reconditioned a
former wooden U.S. warship, the Merrimack:
– Plated its sides with old iron railroad rails
– Renamed it the Virginia:
» Easily destroyed two wooden ships of the Union navy
in the Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay
» It threatened catastrophe to the entire Yankee
blockading fleet

17. III. The War at Sea
(cont.)
– The Monitor:
• For four hours, March 9, 1862, the little ”Yankee
cheesebox on a raft” fought the wheezy Merrimack
to a standstill
• A few months after the historic battle, the
Confederates destroyed the Merrimack to keep it
from the grasp of advancing Union troops

18. Map 21-2 p439

19. IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
• Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30,
1962):
• Lee encountered a Federal force under General John
Pope
– Lee quickly attacked Pope’s troops and inflicted a crushing
defeat
– Lee daringly now thrust into Maryland
– He hoped to strike a blow that would:
» Encourage foreign intervention
» Seduce the still-wavering Border State and its sisters
from the Union
• The Marylanders did not respond to the siren song

20. IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
(cont.)
– Antietam Creek, Maryland, a critical battle
• “Little Mac” McClellan was restored to active
command:
– Found copies of Lee’s battle plans
– McClelland succeeded in halting Lee at Antietam on
September 7, 1862, in one of the bloodiest and bitter days
of the war
• Antietam was more or less a draw militarily:
– Lee withdrew across the Potomac
– McClellan was released of duty for the second time
– The landmark Battle of Antietam was one of the divisive
engagements of world history; most decisive Civil War
battle

21. IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
(cont.)
– Antietam was the long-awaited “victory” that
Lincoln needed for launching his Emancipation
Proclamation
• Midsummer of 1862 the Border States were safely in
the fold and Lincoln was ready to move
– However, Lincoln decided to wait for the outcome of Lee’s
invasion
– Antietam served as the needed emancipation springboard
– Lincoln issued on September 23, 1862, the preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation
– It announced that on January 1, 1863, the President would
issue a final proclamation

22. IV. The Pivotal Point: Antietam
(cont.)
– On schedule, he fully redeemed his promise
• The Civil War became more of a moral crusade for
slavery
• On January 1, 1863, Lincoln said,
– “the character of the war will be changed. It will be one of
subjugation . . . .The (Old) South is to be destroyed and
replaced by new propositions and ideas.”

23. p441

24. V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation
– Lincoln’s Proclamation of 1863 declared “forever
free” the slaves in those Confederate areas still
in rebellion:
• Bondsmen in the loyal Border States were not
affected
• Nor were those in specific conquered areas in the
South
• The tone of the document was dull and legalistic:
– Lincoln: the proclamation was “an act of justice” and calling
for “the considering judgment of mankind and the gracious
favor of Almighty God.”

25. V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• The presidential pen did not formally strike
the shackles from a single slave:
– Where Lincoln could free the slaves—in the loyal
Border States—he refused to do so, lest he spur
disunion
– Where he could not—in the Confederate states
—he tried to
– In short, where he could he would not, and
where he would he could not

26. V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• Thus the Emancipation Proclamation was
stronger on proclamation than emancipation
– There were thousands of do-it-yourself
liberations
– By issuing the Proclamation Lincoln:
• Addressed the refugees’ plight
• Strengthened the moral cause of the Union at home
and abroad
• Also clearly foreshadowed the ultimate doom of
slavery (see Map 21.3)

27. V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
– The ultimate doom of slavery was
• Thirteenth Amendment (see the Appendix):
– Legally achieved by the ratification of the individual states
– The Emancipation Proclamation fundamentally
changed the nature of the war:
• It effectively removed any chance of a negotiated
settlement
• Both sides knew that the war would be a fight to the
finish

28. V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
– Public reactions to the long-awaited
proclamation of 1863 were varied:
• Many ardent abolitionists complained Lincoln had not
gone far enough
• Formidable number of Northerners felt that he had
gone too far
• Opposition mounted in the North against supporting
an “abolition war”
• Volunteers had fought for the Union, not against
slavery

29. V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• Desertions increased sharply
• Critical congressional elections of 1862 went heavily
against the administration—particularly New York,
Pennsylvania and Ohio
• Aristocrats of Europe were inclined to sympathize
with Southern protests
• The Old World working classes, especially in Britain,
reacted otherwise
• Gradually the diplomatic position of the Union
improved

30. V. A Proclamation Without
Emancipation (cont.)
• The North now had much the stronger moral
cause:
– In addition to preserving the Union,
– It had committed itself to freeing the slaves.
– The moral position of the South was
correspondingly diminished.

31. Map 21-3 p442

32. VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
• Lincoln:
– Moved to emancipate the slaves
– He took steps to enlist blacks in the armed
forces
• Black enlistees were accepted
• By war’s end some 180,000 blacks served in the
Union army, most of them from the slave states,
many more from the free-soil North
• Blacks accounted for about 10% of the total
enlistments in the Union forces on land and sea
– Two Mass. Regiments were raised largely through the
efforts of the ex-slave Frederick Douglas.

33. VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
(cont.)
• Service offered them a chance to prove their
manhood and strengthen their claim to full
citizenship at war’s end
• They received about 500 Congressional Medals of
Honor
• Their casualties were extremely heavy:
– More than 30,000 died
– Many were captured and put to death
– Confederacy and slaves:
• Could not bring itself to enlist slaves until a month
before the war ended—it was too late

34. VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
(cont.)
– Tens of thousands were forced into labor
battalions:
• The building of fortifications; the supplying of armies
• Other war-connected activities
• Slaves were “the stomach of the Confederacy”:
– They kept the farms going while the white men fought.
• Involuntary labor did not imply slave support for the
Confederacy

35. VI. Blacks Battle Bondage
(cont.)
– In many ways the actions of Southern slaves
hamstrung the Confederate war efforts:
• Fear of slave insurrection necessitated “home
guards,” keeping many white men from the front
• Every form of slave resistance diminished
productivity and undermined discipline
• When Union troops neared, slave assertiveness
increased
• They stopped short of violent uprising:
– Slaves contributed powerfully to the collapse of slavery and
the disintegration of the antebellum way of life

36. p443

37. p444

38. p444

39. p444

40. Map 21-4 p444

41. VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
• Lincoln replaced McClellan with General A.B.
Burnside:
• He proved his unfitness when he launched a rash
frontal attack on Lee’s strong position at
Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862
• Burnside yielded his command to Joseph (“Fighting
Joe”) Hooker
• At Chancellorsville, Virginia, on May 2-4, 1863, Lee
divided his forces and sent Hooker to attach the
Union flank. The victory was Lee’s most brilliant, but
it was dearly bought.

42. VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
(cont.)
• Lee now prepared to invade the North again:
– A decisive blow would add strength
– And would encourage foreign intervention—still a Southern
hope
– Three days before the battle Union general George C.
Meade was informed that he would replace Hooker
• Meade took his stand near the quiet little
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (see Map 21.4):
– There his 92,000 men locked in furious combat with Lee’s
76,000
– The battle seesawed across the rolling green slopes for
three agonizing days—July 1-3, 1863.

43. VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
(cont.)
– Pickett’s charge:
• The failure of General George Pickett’s magnificent
but futile charge finally broke the back of the
Confederate attack—
– And broke the heart of the Confederate cause
– Its has been called the “high tide of the Confederacy.”
– It defined the northernmost point reached by any
significant Southern force and the real last chance for the
Confederates to win the war
– At the Battle of Gettysburg raged, a Confederate peace
delegation was moving under a flag of peace of truce
toward the Union lines near Norfolk, Virginia

44. VII. Lee’s Last Lunge at Gettysburg
(cont.)
– The victory at Gettysburg belonged to Lincoln
• He refused the Confederate peace mission to pass
though Union lines
• From now on, the Southern cause was doomed, yet
the men from Dixie fought for two more years
• In autumn of 1863, while the graves were still fresh,
Lincoln journeyed to Gettysburg to dedicate the
ceremony.
– He read a two minute address, followed by a two-hour
speech by a former president of Harvard.
– The Gettysburg Address attracted relatively little attention
at the time, but the president was speaking for the ages.

45. VIII. The War in the West
– Ulysses S. Grant
• Grant’s first signal success came in northern
Tennessee theater (see Map 21.5)
• He captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the
Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers in February 1862
– When the Confederate commander at Fort Donelson asked
for terms, Grant bluntly demanded “an unconditional and
immediate surrender”
– Grant’s triumph in Tennessee was crucial:
» It riveted Kentucky to the Union
» It opened the gateway to the strategically important
region of Tennessee, Georgia and the heart of Dixie.

46. VIII. The War in the West
(cont.)
– Battle at Shiloh:
• Just over the Tennessee border from Corinth on April
6-7, 1862
• Grant counterattacked—the impressive Confederate
showing at Shiloh confirmed that there would be no
quick end to the war in the West
• Other western events:
– 1862 David G. Farragut joined with a Northern
unit to deal a striking blow by seizing New
Orleans

47. VIII. The War in the West
(cont.)
– Vicksburg, Mississippi:
• Was the South’s sentinel protecting the lifeline to the
western sources of supply
• Grant was commander of the Union forces at
Vicksburg: this was his best-fought campaign
– The Union victory at Vicksburg came the day after the
Confederate defeat at Gettysburg
– Reopening the Mississippi helped quell the Northern peace
– The twin victories tipped the diplomatic scale in favor of the
North and Britain stopped delivery of the Laird rams to the
Confederates (see p. 425)
– Confederate hope for foreign help was irretrievably lost

48. p446

49. p446

50. p447

51. p447

52. p447

53. Map 21-5 p448

54. IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
– Grant transferred to east Tennessee:
• Confederates won the battle of Chickamauga, near
Chattanooga, to which they laid siege
• Grant won a series of desperate engagements in
November, 1863:
– Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain (the “Battle Above
the Clouds”)
– Chattanooga was liberated, the state cleared of
Confederates
– Way opened for an invasion of Georgia
– Grant was rewarded by being made general in chief

55. IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
(cont.)
– Georgia’s conquest:
• It was entrusted to General William Tecumseh
Sherman
• He captured Atlanta in September 1864, burned the
city in November 1864
• Sherman with 6000 troops cut a sixty-mile swath of
destruction through Georgia
• Major purposes of Sherman’s march:
– destroy supplies destined for the Confederate army
– weaken the morale of the men at the front by waging war
on their homes (see Map 21.6)

56. IX. Sherman Scorches Georgia
(cont.)
– Sherman was a pioneer practitioner of “total
war”:
• His success in “Shermanizing” the South was attested
by increasing numbers of Confederate desertions
• All his methods were brutal
– He probably shortened the struggle and hence saved lives
– The discipline of his army at times broke down
• After seizing Savannah as a Christmas present for
Lincoln, his army veered north into South Carolina,
where the destruction was even worse:
– Sherman’s conquering army rolled deep into North Carolina
by the time the war ended

57. Map 21-6 p450

58. X. The Politics of War
• Presidential elections come by the calendar
and not by the crisis:
– Political infighting added to Lincoln’s cup of woe
• Factions within his own party, distrusting his ability or
doubting his commitment to abolition, sought to tie
his hands or remove him from office
• Conspicuous among his critics was the overambitious
secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase

59. X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
– Congressional Committee on the Conduct of
War formed in late 1861:
• Dominated by “radical” Republicans who
– Resented the expansion of presidential power in wartime
– Pressed Lincoln zealously on emancipation
– Most dangerous to the Union cause were the
Northern Democrats:
• Taint with the association with the seceders
• Tragedy befell when their gifted leader Stephen A.
Douglas died

60. X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
• Lacking a leader, the Democrats divided
– The “War Democrats” supported the Lincoln administration
– Tens of thousands of “Peace Democrats” did not
– Extreme were the Copperheads—openly obstructed the
war through:
» Attacks against the draft
» Against Lincoln
» Especially, after 1863, against emancipation
» Denounced the president as the “Illinois Ape”
» Condemned the “Nigger War”
» Commanded considerable political strength in the
southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois

61. X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
– Notorious was congressman from Ohio, Clement L.
Vallandigham:
» He publicly demanded an end to the “wicked and
cruel” war
» He was convicted by a military tribunal in 1863 for
treasonable utterance and was sentenced to prison
» Lincoln thought he liked the Confederates so much, he
ought to be banished to their lines. This was done.
» Vallandigham inspired Edward Everett Hale to write his
moving but fictional story of Philip Nolan, The Man
Without a Country (1863)
» Nolan was a young army officer found guilty of
participation with Aaron Burr plot of 1806 (see p. 214).
» He was condemned to a life of eternal exile on
American warships.

62. X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
– Lincoln’s renomination at first encountered
surprisingly strong opposition:
• Hostile factions wanted to shelve “Old Abe” in favor
of Secretary of the Treasury Chase
• The “ditch Lincoln” move collapsed, and he was
nominated by the Union party without serious
dissent
• His running mate was Andrew Johnson, a loyal War
Democrat from Tennessee:
– A small slaveowner when the conflict began
– Placed on the Union Party ticket to “sew up” the election
» With no proper regard for the possibility that Lincoln
would die in office

63. X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
• Democrats:
– Nominated the deposed and overcautious war
hero General McClellan:
• Their plank denounced the prosecution of the war as
a failure
• McClellan repudiated this defeatist declaration
– Campaign:
• Noisy and nasty campaign with numerous slogans
• Lincoln’s reelection was at first gravely in doubt

64. X. The Politics of War
(cont.)
• The anti-Lincoln Republicans started a movement to
“dump” Lincoln in favor of someone else
• Atmosphere changed by succession of Northern
victories
• The president pulled through, but nothing more than
necessary was left to chance:
– At election time many Northern soldiers were furloughed
home to support Lincoln at the polls
– Some Northern soldiers were permitted to cast their ballots
at the front
– Lincoln bolstered the “bayonet vote” with 212 electoral
votes for Lincoln and 21 for McClellan

65. p451

66. XI. The Election of 1864
(cont.)
• Election of 1864:
– Lincoln’s precarious authority
• depended on his retaining Republican support
• while spiking the threat from the Peace Democrats
and Copperheads
– Fearing defeat, the Republican party executed a
clever maneuver:
• Joining the War Democrats, it proclaimed itself to be
the Union party (see Figure 21.1)
• Thus the Republican party was temporarily out of
existence

67. XI. The Election of 1864
(cont.)
• Lincoln lost Kentucky, Delaware, and New Jersey (see
Map 21.7)
• “Little Mac” ran a closer race than the electoral count
indicates
• He netted a healthy 45% of the popular vote,
1,803,787 to Lincoln’s 2,206,938
• Crushing defeat for the Northern Democrats in 1864
• The removal of Lincoln was the last ghost of a hope
for a Confederate victory
• When Lincoln triumphed, desertions from the sinking
Southern ship increased sharply

68. p452

69. Figure 21-1 p452

70. p453

71. XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
• Wilderness Campaign:
– Grant with 100,000 men struck toward
Richmond
– He engaged Lee in a series of furious battles in
the Wilderness of Virginia, May and June 1864
– Grant suffered 50,000 lost (see Map 21.8)
– On June 3 Grant ordered a frontal assault on
Cold Harbor:
• In about 5 minutes, 7 thousand men were killed or
wounded

72. XIII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
• Public opinion in the North:
– Critics cried “Grant the Butcher” had gone
insane
• Grant’s reputation was underserved
• While Lee’s was overrated
• Lee’s rate of loss was the highest of any general in
the war
• By contrast, Grant lost one of ten
• Grant had intended to fight battles out in the open
• Lee turned the eastern campaign into a war of
attrition fought in the trenches

73. XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
• Lee could no longer seize the offensive
• His new defensive posture in turn forced Grant into
some brutal arithmetic
• Grant could trade two men for one and still beat the
enemy to his knees
• In February 1865 the Confederates tried desperately
to negotiate for peace between the two “countries”
– Lincoln met with Confederate representatives aboard a
Union ship at Hampton Road, Virginia, to discuss peace
– Lincoln could accept nothing short of Union and
emancipation
– Southerners could accept nothing less than independence

74. XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
– The tribulation wore on to its terrible climax
• Appomattox Courthouse:
– The end came with dramatic suddenness:
• Advancing Northern troops captured Richmond and
cornered Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia,
April 1865
• Grant met with Lee April 9th, Palm Sunday
– Granted generous terms of surrender
– The hungry Confederates were allowed to keep their horses
for spring plowing

75. XII. Grant Outlasts Lee
(cont.)
– Tattered Southern veterans wept as they took leave of their
beloved commander
– The elated Union soldiers cheered
– Lincoln traveled to conquered Richmond and sat in
Jefferson Davis’s evacuated office just forty hours after the
Confederate president had left it
• Sadly, as many freed slaves were to discover, the
hereafter of their full liberty was a long time coming

76. Map 21-7 p454

77. Map 21-8 p455

78. p456

79. XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
• Lincoln’s death:
• On April 14, 1865 (Good Friday) only five days after
Lee’s surrender, Fort’s Theater in Washington
witnessed its most sensational drama
• Pro-Southern actor, John Wilkes Booth, slipped
behind Lincoln and shot him in the head
• The Great Emancipator died the following morning
– Lincoln expired in the arms of victory, at the very pinnacle
of his fame
– His dramatic death erased the memory of his shortcomings
and caused his nobler qualities to stand out in clearer relief

80. XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
(cont.)
– The full impact of Lincoln’s death was not at
once apparent to the South
• As time wore on, increasingly Lincoln’s death was
perceived as a calamity for the South
• Belatedly they recognized his kindliness and
moderation
• The assassination increased bitterness in the North,
partly because of the rumor that Jefferson Davis had
plotted it
• Some historians argued that Andrew Johnson was
crucified in Lincoln’s stead—doesn’t really stand up!

81. XIII. The Martyrdom of Lincoln
(cont.)
• Lincoln:
– Lincoln no doubt would have had clashes with
Congress
– Lincoln was a victorious president, and there is
no arguing with victory
– His powers of leadership were refined in the war
crucible
– Lincoln possessed in full measure tact, sweet
reasonableness and an uncommon amount of
common sense

82. p457

83. p458

84. p458

85. p459

86. XIV. The Aftermath of the Nightmare
– The Civil War’s grisly toll:
• 600,000 men died in action or of disease
• Over a million were killed or seriously wounded
• The amount of dead amounted to 2% of the entire
nation’s population
• To its lasting hurt, the nation lost the cream of its
young manhood and potential leadership
• Tens of thousands of babies went unborn because
potential fathers were at the front

87. XIII. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
– Direct monetary costs of the conflict:
• Total cost of the conflict—$15 billion
• Does not include continuing expenses—pensions, and
interest on the national debt
• Intangible costs—dislocations, disunities, wasted
energies, lowered ethics, blasted lives, bitter
memories, and burning hats—cannot be calculated.
– Greatest Constitutional decision was written in
blood and handed down at Appomattox
Courthouse

88. XIII. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
• The extreme states’ righters were crushed
• The national government, tested in the fiery furnace
of war, emerged unbroken
• Nullification and secessions were laid to rest
• The Civil War was the supreme test of American
democracy
• The preservation of democratic ideals was
subconsciously one of the major objectives of the
North

89. XIV. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
• Victory for Union arms provided inspiration to the
champions of democracy and liberalism (pp. 458-459)
• The great English Reform Bill of 1867, under which
England became a true political democracy, was
passed two years after the Civil War ended
– American democracy proved itself
– Its success was an additional argument used by
disfranchised British masses in securing similar blessings for
themselves

90. XVI. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
– The “Lost Cause” of the South was lost
• The shameful cancer of slavery was sliced away by
the sword
• African Americans were last in a position to claim
their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness
• The nation was once again united politically
• Great dangers were adverted by a Union victory:
– The indefinite prolongation of the “peculiar institution”
– The unleashing of the slave power on weak Caribbean
neighbors

91. XVI. The Aftermath of the
Nightmare (cont.)
– The transformation of the area from Panama to Hudson Bay
into an armed camp:
» With several heavily armed and hostile states
constantly snarling and sniping at one another
• American still had a long way to go to make the
promises of freedom a reality for all its citizens, black
and white
• Emancipation laid the necessary groundwork:
– a united and democratic United States was free to fulfill its
destiny as the dominant republic of the hemisphere—and
eventually of the world.

92. p460

93. p461

94. p463