Stalemated War (1861)

I. Myth of the Inevitably of Confederate Failure

  • After the war, the reasons for South’s loss seemed obvious
    • Massively outnumbered; fewer resources
    • Myth of the Lost Cause
      • Slavery would have withered anyway
      • N. was a big bully—determined to subordinate S.
  • South was bound to lose from the outset; key thing is that the Confederates fought honorably for so long
  • Experience of Vietnam led historians to consider the question anew
    • Showed that having technological superiority is no guarantee of victory

II. Perceptions of Confederate advantage at the war’s outset

  • Believed they were better prepared, because of cultural differences
    • South more martial. Valued bravery and honor.
    • South more rural; raised hardy men who knew how to use guns.
    • Viewed N. as populated by greedy businessmen and cowed workers.
    • Belief that the South had produced all the nation’s great generals.
    • Contrast between Lincoln and Jefferson Davis
  • South had the advantage in fighting a defensive war, on terrain that they knew

One of the few ex-Confederates who challenged the Lost Cause Myth in the post-war years was General P.G.T. Beauregard: “No people ever warred for independence with more relative advantages than the Confederates. . . The South, with its great material resources, its defensive means of mountains, rivers, railroads, and telegraph, with the immense advantages of interior lines of war, would be open to discredit as a people if its failure could not be explained otherwise than by mere material contrast.”

III. Development of Myth of the Lost Cause

  • After the war, Southerners were reluctant to acknowledge these advantages
    • Would have to acknowledge that maybe the population was not as resolute as portrayed
  • Hence the emphasis on the material advantages of the North
    • Manpower pool of 3.5 million v. 1 million
    • Manufacturing capacity, railroads, animals, etc.

IV. Advantages of fighting a defensive war

  • The 11 states of the Confederacy covered more than 750,000 square miles—equal to Europe and Britain combined
  • 9 million people made it the 12th most populous nation in the world
  • They’re thinking back to the Revolution
  • Don’t have to wage an offensive war; a stalemate would be fine
  • The North had to not only subdue this territory but hold it.
    • This required protecting supply lines, garrisoning key towns, pacifying local populations.
    • Need more men for this kind of war

V. Slavery

  • Initially seen as an advantage to the South
    • 1/3rd of South’s population
  • Grant estimated that slaves contributed at least 3x as much to the Confederate cause and the equivalent number of non-combatants in the North
  • Backbone of the economy
    • Produced food for army; mined raw materials; worked in war plants; dug and repaired fortifications
  • Freed white men for fighting
    • 75% of southern white men of military age serve v. 55% of northern men
  • Upshot: Given what the North had to accomplish, and the South’s access to slave labor, the actual disparity in the size of the armies looks less impressive.
    • In fact, the two sides were too evenly balance, which is why their was no quick victory.

VI. Union’s war goals

  • Because Lincoln wants to persuade the South to rejoin the Union, every military move was initially dictated by desire for reconciliation
  • Adopted a relatively mild hand, especially in dealing with the border states
  • Keeping border states is Lincoln’s most pressing strategic goal early in the war
    • Maryland especially critical because of the capital and the RR

VII. Maryland, April 1861

  • MD has a strongly pro-Confederate faction
  • In April 1861, as the first Massachusetts troops made their way to the capital through Maryland, southern sympathizers pelted them with paving stones
  • Killed 12 people
  • The also destroyed the railroad bridges leading to the North and the telegraph lines into Washington, cutting off communications between the capital and the rest of the Union for 6 days
  • Panic in DC

VIII. Lincoln and civil liberties 

  • Lincoln stationed troops along the railroad lines, declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus
    • Arrested ringleaders and held them without trial, along with 32 secessionist legislators and dozens of sympathizers
      • First of a number of violations of civil liberties that the president justified on national security grounds
  • Lincoln suspended habeas corpus without waiting for Congress to approve it.
  • Maryland circuit court says it’s unconstitutional; Lincoln ignores
  • Later, in 1863, Congress passes the Habeas Corpus Indemnity or Suspension Act
    • Validated what Lincoln had done–allowed the government to detain anyone suspected of disloyalty
  • Maryland ultimately voted to stay in the Union, but many people spent the whole war in jail
  • Lincoln also instituted military courts, arguing that civil courts were inadequate

IX. “On to Richmond”

  • Importance of public opinion
  • Once Confederates shifted site of the capital, Northerners began to clamor for a quick victory by seizing Richmond
    • But the terrain favored the Confederates
  • After Fort Sumter, nothing happens for 3 months
    • Amassing army

X. “Anaconda Plan”

  • Union strategy proposed by Gen. Winfield Scott early in the war
    • 1) Eastern Army to protect Washington and pin down Confederate troops in Northern VA
    • 2) Blockade all ports to deprive the region of vital supplies from Europe
    • 3) Joint army-navy invasion down the MS River to cut the Confederacy in two
  • Widely mocked
    • People too impatient for employing such a strategy
  • But in the end, the Union path to victory looked pretty similar to what Scott envisioned

XI. Richmond: Tantalizingly close target

  • In response to public pressure, Lincoln replaces Scott with General Irvin McDowell and urges him to attack Confederate forces massed just 25 miles from the capital at Manassas Junction, a major railroad center.
  • The first major battle of the war was held July 21, 1861. It was utter chaos.

XII. First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

  • Fought on July 21, 1861, near Washington, DC
  • Terrible Union defeat
  • Casualties seemed shockingly high to people
  • 900 dead, 2,700 wounded (total of both sides)
  • Showed the war was not going to be quick
  • Afterwards: Lincoln signs bill calling for 500,000 troops to enlist for up to 3 years

XIII. Gen. George McClellan

  • Idolized at first, he has since been seen as overly cautious – responsible for bogging down the Union war effort.
  • By the end of 1861, the Union press and politicians had begun turning against him – attacking him for failing to strike hard against the enemy.
  • After 1862, the war would be transformed – fought not by conservative Generals like him who sought to win a single, decisive battle, but by those prepared to wage war to the hilt.