Chapter 21: THe Furnace of Civil War

Question 1

How long did Lincoln thought the war should last?

Answer 1

90 day. But the war was to be neither brief nor limited.

Question 2

Encouraged by Lincoln’s expectation of a quick victory, where did the Union army wanted to attack?

Answer 2

some thirty thousand men drilled near Washington in the summer of 1861. It was ill prepared for battle, but the press and the public clamored for action. Lincoln eventually concluded that an attack on a smaller Confederate force at Bull Run (Manassas Junction), some thirty miles southwest of Washington, might be worth a try.

Question 3

What was expected if Union won in Bull Run?

Answer 3

If successful, it would demonstrate the superiority of Union arms. It might even lead to the capture of the Confederate capital at Richmond, one hundred 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.

Question 4

what happen @ Bull Run?

Answer 4

Neither side was properly prepared. Many citizens picnicked along the edge of the battle as though tailgaiting at a sporting event. The battle went back and forth at first but Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s men held their line and earned him his nickname. The North fell into a hectic retreat. The South was just as disorganized and thus could not pursue.

Question 5

what was the significance of Bull Run for South

Answer 5

~The “military picnic’’ at Bull Run, though not decisive militarily, bore significant psychological and political consequences, many of them paradoxical.
~Victory was worse than defeat for the South,
because it inflated an already dangerous overconfidence.
~Many of the Southern soldiers promptly
deserted, feeling that the war was now surely over.
~Southern enlistments fell off sharply, ~preparations for a protracted conflict slackened.

Question 6

what was the significance of Bull Run for North?

Answer 6

Defeat was better than victory for the Union, because it dispelled all illusions of a one-punch war ~caused the Northerners to buckle down to the staggering task at hand.
~It also set the stage for a war that would be waged not merely for the cause of Union but also, eventually, for the abolitionist ideal of emancipation.

Question 7

Why were Northern hopes brightened later in 1861?

Answer 7

General George B. McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac, as the major Union force near WA

Question 8

Traits of General George B. McClellan?

Answer 8

~embodied a curious mixture of virtues and defects.
~a superb organizer and drillmaster,
~injected splendid morale into the Army of the Potomac.
~overcautious

Question 9

When did McClellan finally moved to Richmond?

Answer 9

After threatening to “borrow’’ the army if it was not going to be used, Lincoln finally issued firm orders to advance.

Question 10

Richmond battle?

Answer 10

• McClellan’s plan was to take Richmond, VA, the capital of the South.
• The Peninsula Campaign ensued. The North moved by sea to and then up the historic Yorktown peninsula.
• Lincoln sent McClellan’s reinforcements to guard Washington D.C. from Stonewall Jackson’s bluff attacks.
• Confederate Jeb Stuart’s calvary rode completely around McClellan
• Robert E. Lee struck back in the Seven Days’ Battles and pushed McClellan back to the sea—a major win for the South.

Question 11

Casualties and result of Richmond battle?

Answer 11

Lincoln temporarily abandoned McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac—though Lee’s army had suffered some twenty thousand casualties to McClellan’s ten thousand.

Question 12

Northern military plan with six components?

Answer 12

1. slowly suffocate the South by blockading its coasts
2. liberate the slaves and hence undermine the very economic foundations of the Old South
3. cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River backbone
4. chop the Confederacy to pieces by sending troops through Georgia and the Carolinas;
5. decapitate it by capturing its capital at Richmond
6. (this was Ulysses Grant’s idea especially), try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and to grind it into submission.

Question 13

How was the blockade regarded by the naval

powers of the world?

Answer 13

Britain, the greatest maritime nation, recognized it as binding and warned its shippers that they ignored it at their peril.

Question 14

Why was”Running the blockade” a risky but profitable business?

Answer 14

Smugglers often used the Bahamas as jumping-off points before entering the Confederacy. The ship papers would often have Canada as the destination but just sneak into the South.

Question 15

What was Confederates action against blockade?

Answer 15

in 1862. Resourceful Southerners raised and reconditioned a former wooden U.S. warship, the Merrimack. Renamed the Virginia destroyed two wooden ships of the Union navy in the Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay
~it also threatened catastrophe to the entire Yankee blockading fleet.

Question 16

Norther action to Merrimack?

Answer 16

The North responded with the Monitor, also an ironclad.
The Monitor and the Merrimack battled in Chesapeake Bay March 9, 1862. The Merrimack was chased away. The battle was a turning point in naval history in that…
…it showed that (a) the days of wooden ships were ending and (b) the days of sailing vessels were changing to steam.

Question 17

Second Battle of Bull Run

Answer 17

Lincoln had placed Gen. John Pope in command.Gen. Pope “talked a good game”, but was beaten badly by Lee and the South at Bull Run II.

Question 18

Why did Lee wanted to Battle in North, in MD?

Answer 18

a) to perhaps lure the Border States to the South, (b) to draw the war out of Virginia during the harvest season, a victory on Northern soil would, (c) boost Southern morale and hurt Northern morale, and (d) perhaps stir up foreign/British support for the South.

Question 19

Battle of Antietam

Answer 19

Lincoln put Gen. McClellan back in charge.
Just prior to the fighting, Lee’s battle plans were accidentally lost then luckily found by the North. Lee and the South lost the Battle of Antietam Creek, one of the largest battles of the war, on September 17, 1862.

Question 20

What did Battle of Antietam enable?

Answer 20

If the South had won, they just might have won the entire war. And, the North’s victory likely convinced Europe to stay out of the war. it gave Lincoln a much awaited victory and a platform to announce the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves

Question 21

A Proclamation Without Emancipation

Answer 21

It freed the slaves only in the seceded Southern states. But, it did not free the slaves in the Border States. Lincoln specifically made this point because he did not want to anger the Border States and make them join the South.

Question 22

Lincoln’s immediate goal?

Answer 22

Lincoln’s immediate goal was not only to liberate the slaves but also to strengthen the moral cause of the Union at home and abroad.

Question 23

How did The Emancipation Proclamation also fundamentally changed the nature of the war?

Answer 23

because it effectively removed any chance of a negotiated settlement. Both sides now knew that the war would be a fight to the finish.

Question 24

Public reactions to long-awaited proclamation

of 1863

Answer 24

varied:
many ardent abolitionists: not gone far enough.
Northerners in the “Butternut’’ regions of the Old Northwest and the Border States: had gone far enough.
Desertion increased sharply

Question 25

Why were black eventually accepted to fight?

Answer 25

But as manpower ran low and emancipation was proclaimed, black enlistees were accepted

Question 26

How many slaves enlisted?

Answer 26

180,000 blacks in Union army, most from South, and many from north.
10% total enlistment included two Massachusetts regiments raised Frederick Douglass.

Question 27

Why were black eventually accepted to fight in SOUTH?

Answer 27

For reasons of pride, prejudice, and principle, the Confederacy could not bring itself to enlist slaves until a month before the war ended, and then it was too late.

Question 28

Battle of Fredericksburg, VA

Answer 28

Gen. A.E. Burnside (the originator of “sideburns”) was put in charge of the Northern army following Antietam.
He was defeated soundly at Fredericksburg, VA when Union troops tried to swarm up a hill held by Confederates.

Question 29

Battle of Chancellorsville, VA.

Answer 29

Gen. Joseph Hooker was then placed in charge but was also defeated at Chancellorsville, VA. Gen. Lee was outnumbered but he out-maneuvered Hooker by splitting his forces and then sending Stonewall Jackson around to attack the flanks. Jackson was wounded by his own men there and later died.
This battle is largely regarded as Gen. Lee’s most impressive win.

Question 30

Gettysburg, PA.

Answer 30

Meade”s 92,000 men combat with Lee’s 76,000
July 1–3, 1863, and the outcome was in doubt until the very end. 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.

Question 31

Pickett’s charge

Answer 31

called the “high tide of
the Confederacy.’’ It defined both the northernmost
point reached by any significant Southern force and
the last real chance for the Confederates to win the
war.

Question 32

What was Grant’s first signal success?

Answer 32

came in the northern Tennessee theater. After heavy fighting, he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers in February 1862. the Confederate commander at Fort Donelson asked for terms and Grant said to surrender

Question 33

Why was Grant’s first triumph crucial.

Answer 33

It not only riveted Kentucky more securely to the Union but also opened the gateway to the strategically important region of Tennessee, as well as to Georgia and the heart of Dixie.

Question 34

Why was it confirmed that there would be no quick end to the war in the West?

Answer 34

B/C of Grant successfully counterattacked
Grant next attempted to exploit his victory by capturing the junction of the main Confederate north-south and east-west railroads in the Mississippi Valley at Corinth, Mississippi. But a Confederate force foiled his plans in a gory battle at Shiloh, just over the Tennessee border from Corinth, on April 6–7, 1862.

Question 35

Why was the fortress in Vicksburg important for South?

Answer 35

Through this narrowing entrance, between Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana, flowed herds of vitally needed cattle and other provisions from Louisiana and Texas. The fortress of Vicksburg, located on a hairpin turn of the Mississippi, was the South’s sentinel protecting the lifeline to the western sources of supply.

Question 36

What was Grant’s best fought campaign of the war?

Answer 36

General Grant was now given command of the Union forces attacking Vicksburg. The
siege of Vicksburg was his best-fought campaign of the war. The beleaguered city at length surrendered, on July 4, 1863, with the garrison reduced to eating mules and rats. Five days later came the fall of Port Hudson, the last Southern bastion on the Mississippi

Question 37

Why was the back to back military successes of Vicksburg and then Gettysburg monumental?

Answer 37

~Reopening the Mississippi helped to quell the Northern peace agitation in the “Butternut’’ area of the Ohio River valley.
~cut off that region’s usual trade routes down the Ohio-Mississippi River system to New Orleans, thus adding economic pain
~Britain stopped delivery of the Laird rams to the Confederates and as France killed a deal for the sale of six naval vessels to the Richmond government.
~By the end of 1863, all Confederate hopes for foreign help were irretrievably lost.

Question 38

What did Grant do in East TN?

Answer 38

Grant won a series of desperate engagements in November 1863 in the vicinity of besieged Chattanooga, including Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain Chattanooga was liberated, the state was cleared of Confederates, and the way was thus opened for an invasion of Georgia. Grant was rewarded by being made general in chief.

Question 39

What did Sherman do to Atlanta?

Answer 39

he captured Atlanta in September 1864 and burned the city in November of that year.

Question 40

What did Sherman’s hated “Blue Bellies’’ do?

Answer 40

sixty thousand strong, cut a sixty-mile swath of destruction through Georgia. They burned buildings, leaving only the blackened chimneys (“Sherman’s Sentinels’’). They tore up railroad rails,

Question 41

What was Sherman’s major purpose?

Answer 41

One of his major purposes was to destroy supplies destined for the Confederate army and to weaken the morale of the men at the front by waging war on their homes.

Question 42

Why did many Confederates deserted?

Answer 42

Sherman was a pioneer practitioner of “total

war.’’ His success in “Shermanizing’’ the South was attested by increasing numbers of Confederate desertions.

Question 43

Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War

Answer 43

Especially burdensome to Lincoln was the creation of the Congressional Committee
on the Conduct of the War, formed in late
1861. It was dominated by “radical’’ Republicans who resented the expansion of presidential power in wartime and who pressed Lincoln zealously on emancipation.

Question 44

Why did Northern Democrats split?

Answer 44

Stephen A. Douglas, died of typhoid fever
Lacking a leader, the Democrats divided.
Northern Democrats split over the war

Question 45

“War Democrats”

Answer 45

“War Democrats” supported Lincoln administration and the war.

Question 46

Peace Democrats’’ or so-called Copperheads,

Answer 46

Copperheads openly obstructed the war through attacks against the draft, against Lincoln, and especially, after 1863, against emancipation. ’ They commanded considerable political strength in the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Question 47

Clement L. Valandigham

Answer 47

Lincoln’s loudest opponent. He leaned toward the South, was tried for treason, shipped down South, fled to Canada, there ran and lost a bid for governor of Ohio, then returned to Ohio.

Question 48

What wad the Republican party’s clever maneuver?

Answer 48

Joining with the War Democrats, it proclaimed itself to be the Union party. Thus the Republican party passed temporarily out of
existence.

Question 49

Who was Lincoln’s running mate

Answer 49

Lincoln’s running mate was ex-tailor Andrew

Johnson, a loyal War Democrat from Tennessee

Question 50

Who did Democrats nominated in election of 1864?

Answer 50

Embattled Democrats—regular and Copperhead—nominated the deposed and overcautious war hero, General McClellan.

Question 51

What was One of the most crushing losses suffered by the South

Answer 51

was the defeat of 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.

Question 52

What happened in The Wilderness of VA Battles?

Answer 52

grimly determined Grant, with more than
100,000 men, struck toward Richmond. He engaged Lee in a series of furious battles in the Wilderness of Virginia, during May and June of 1864,Grant suffered about fifty thousand casualties

Question 53

What happened at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia

Answer 53

Rapidly advancing Northern troops captured Richmond and cornered Lee at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, in April 1865.
~Gen. Lee surrendered

Question 54

assassination of Lincoln?

Answer 54

Only a few days after the South’s surrender, Lincoln was assassinated. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth in the head while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington.

Question 55

South’s reaction to Lincoln’s death?

Answer 55

Hundreds of bedraggled ex-Confederate soldiers cheered, as did some Southern civilians and Northern Copperheads, when they learned of the assassination.

Question 56

North’s reaction to Lincoln’s death?

Answer 56

The assassination unfortunately increased the bitterness in the North, partly because of the fantastic rumor that Jefferson Davis had plotted it.

Question 57

Deaths in Civil War?

Answer 57

Over 600,000 men died in action or of disease, and in all over a million were killed or seriously wounded

Question 58

What was the major obj of the North?

Answer 58

The preservation of democratic ideals, though not an officially announced war aim, was subconsciously one of the major objectives of the North.