A2 America Revision Debates

1. A2 America Revision Debates

4. The Civil War: At the Start • Position of the Union at the Start of the War? • Position of the Confederacy at the Start of the War? • Was Union Victory/ Confederate Defeat inevitable? • Evaluate the comparative strength of the two sides at the start of the war • It has been argued that the North’s victory was just a matter of time- produce support arguments to support and attack this view.

5. Strengths/Weaknesses at the start of the War North/ Union South/ Confederacy 9 Million people (of whom 3.5 million were slaves) The 4 slaves states that remained loyal to the Union would have added 80% to Confederacy’s industrial capacity. There were however thousands of men who left these states to fight for the confederacy. Huge area to conquer and blockade 2 million km2 Cotton could be used to force Britain to recognise/ support Confederacy • 22 Million People • 4 slaves states remained loyal to the Union. • Stronger pool of military experience- 2/3rds of West Point’s graduates. • Huge naval supremacy • 6 times as many factories, 10 times its industrial capacity • More than twice as much railroad track

6. See textbook p144- 147 North/ Union South/ Confederacy No need to invade the North- defensive war easier- use of internal communication lines. Geographically barriers such as rivers in Virginia. Men free to fight (slaves to work) Defending own homes and land- motivation Better soldiers- dominate military colleges, soldiers in Mexican war, positions in the army. Farmers better soldiers than industrial workers? • Produced more food • Three times wealthier • Firearms production 32 to 1 • Iron production 15 to 1 • Not everyone was loyal to the Confederate cause- especially in Appalachian Mountains. • Difficulty in maintaining supply lines and holding down Southern population

7. Course of the War • Key theatres and battles • What was the key turning point • Change and Continuity through the War • Role of key Generals and Politicians • Produce a time line for the Civil War • Highlight key turning points • When did Confederate defeat become inevitable? • Remember the hand out you were given does not contain all the Civil War battles (there are Confederate victories later in the war they do not however change the direction of the war) and that you can’t be expected to know all the Civil War battles.

8. Which was the key turning point? Gettysburg Antietam Led to the Emancipation Proclamation which re-defined the war in terms of the strategic aims of the North. This change altered the dynamics in the North in terms of motivating the population, added to the North’s superiority of numbers by adding black troops and ended the Confederacy’s hopes of support/ recognition from the British • After Gettysburg Lee no longer looked to end the war with a single decisive victory and ended his offensive strategy being more defensive from this point on. (This highlights that the War changed direction- Lee now sought to make Union advances slow and costly in terms of casualties to damage Union morale and maybe effect the 1864 election rather than win with a ‘knock out blow’.

9. Vicksburg Other areas to consider Naval/ River warfare Impact of technology e.g. rifle-musket Morale in North and South. Lee’s seeming invincibility before Gettysburg Leadership of Lincoln and Davis. Emergence of Grant and Sherman • This defeat in the West was more devastating than the other battles to the Confederate cause (30,000 Confederate prisoners taken compared to 28,000 casualties at Gettysburg and 10,000 at Antietam). Opened the West up for the Union who dominated this theatre and from this point drove deep into Confederate territory.

10. Course of the War • Produce profiles, evaluating their impact on the war: • Lincoln and Davis • Lee and ‘Stonewall Jackson’ • McClellan, Grant, Sherman

11. Why did the Union Win/ Confederacy Lose? • Manpower and industrial strength of the Union. • Failures of Confederate generals and leadership. • Strategy in the war- Confederates too attack minded/ failure to use guerrilla warfare, Union scorched earth policy • Emancipation • Confederate failure to secure foreign support. • The blockade • Confederacy- states rights not ideal for a war/ lack of Nationalism (looking after own state rather than whole confederacy) • Confederate mismanagement of their economy (see P120)

12. Why the Union Won • From the bullet points on the previous slide produce a set of evaluative paragraphs argue that the given reason is significant in explaining Union victory in the Civil War.

13. The Union won the War due to superior resources • • the Union population was 2.5 times bigger than that of the Confederacy, this was particularly significant in a drawn out war which increasingly became a war of attrition • • the Union had three times the railway capacity of the Confederacy; this meant that they had a key logistical advantage • • the North’s industrial production was nine times higher than that of the South, meaning a massive advantage in weaponry and munitions • • emancipation brought fresh troops to the Union army.

14. No it won for other reasons • • mistakes made by the Confederacy were they could have seized advantage, for example failing to press home the victory at First Manassas and poor leadership at Vicksburg and Gettysburg • • political leadership was key, with Lincoln proving much more effective in leading and motivating his people than Davis • • military leadership in the Union Army brought about victory; most notably that of Grant and Sherman • • the Confederacy adopted the wrong tactics. It can be argued that greater use of guerrilla warfare or a more defensive strategy would have been more successful.

15. 1864 Election (P169) • Why did Lincoln win? • Soldiers voted for Lincoln (78% of them) • McClellan and the Democrat Party could not agree on a clear platform (party wanted peace platform McClellan didn’t) • Fremont created a separate party ‘Radical Democrats’ but it failed to split the Republican vote. • Selection of Andrew Johnson as running mate gave a balanced ticket. • Clear platform presented by Lincoln: unconditional surrender and an amendment to end slavery. Divisions over reconstruction were there but put to one side for the election. • Events helped Lincoln- naval victory at Mobile, capture of Atlanta, Sheridan’s victory in the Shenandoah. • Lincoln won 55% of the popular vote and 212 electoral college votes (McClellan won only 21 electoral college votes with 45% of the pop vote)

16. The condition of the South at the end of the War and chances of reconciliation • THE IMPACT ON THE FIGHTING MEN INCLUDING CASUALTIES • 1860 census figures, 18 percent of all white males in the South aged 13 to 43 died in the war • Historian William F. Fox: 74,524 killed and died of wounds; 59,292 died of disease. • Including Confederate estimates of battle losses where no records exist would bring the Confederate death toll to 94,000 killed and died of wounds. • Fox complained that records were incomplete, especially during the last year of the war, and that battlefield reports likely under-counted deaths • Thomas L. Livermore, using Fox's data, put the number of Confederate non-combat deaths at 166,000, using the official estimate of Union deaths from disease and accidents as a comparison • However, this excludes the 30,000 deaths of Confederate troops in prisons, which would raise the minimum number of deaths to 290,000. • 260,000 for the Confederacy remained commonly cited, they are incomplete. • Many Confederate records being missing - Confederate widows not reporting deaths; both armies only counted troops who died during their service; tens of thousands died of wounds or diseases after being discharged. • Francis Amasa Walker, Superintendent of the 1870 Census, used census and Surgeon General data to estimate 350,000 Confederate military deaths

17. THE IMPACT ON CONFEDERATE WOMEN • War placed a burden on southern white women: • o They were often left alone on farms and plantations • o Women were forced to manage business affairs and discipline slaves • o Women mobilized to support soldiers in the field and stepped out the traditional sphere • o In Richmond ‘government girls’ staffed many clerkships in the bureaucracy • They became legendary • But as the war went on and death toll mounted, women believe independence wasn’t worth the cost • Dissatisfaction grew conveyed in letters to loved ones • Decline in civilian morale encouraged desertion from the army

18. ECONOMIC COSTS • SLAVERY • o The wealth amassed in slaves and slavery for the Confederacy's 4 million blacks effectively ended when Union armies arrived • o They were nearly all freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. • o Slaves in the border states and those located in some former Confederate territory occupied before the Emancipation Proclamation were freed by state action or (on December 6, 1865) by the Thirteenth Amendment. • o A system of sharecropping as developed where landowners broke up large plantations and rented small lots to the freedmen and their families. • o Sharecropping was a way for very poor farmers, both white and black, to earn a living from land owned by someone else. The landowner provided land, housing, tools and seed, and perhaps a mule, and a local merchant provided food and supplies on credit. At harvest time the sharecropper received a share of the crop (from one-third to one-half, with the landowner taking the rest). The cropper used his share to pay off his debt to the merchant.

19. INFASTRUCTURE • o The war destroyed much of the wealth that had existed in the South. • o All accumulated investment Confederate bonds was forfeit • o Most banks and railroads were bankrupt. • o Income per person in the South dropped to less than 40 percent of that of the North, a condition that lasted until well into the 20th century. • o In South Carolina before the war, for instance, there were 965,000 hogs. After the surrender of the Confederate Army in 1865, the hog population in South Carolina had dropped to 150,000. • o The South's farms were not highly mechanized, but the value of farm implements and machinery in the 1860 Census was $81 million and was reduced by 40% by 1870.

20. PHYSICALLY DESTRUCTION • Fought in southern soil • Atlanta, Richmond reduced to ashes • Infrastructure in ruins • Homes and plantations burned and robbed • Crops stolen/destroyed and land was scorched • ‘Looked for many miles like a broad black streak of ruin and desolation’ • THE DEVASTATION OF GEORGIA. • Sherman's March was devastating to both Georgia and the Confederacy in terms of economics and psychology. Sherman himself estimated that the campaign had inflicted $100 million (about $1.4 billion in 2012 dollars) in damages, about one fifth of which "inured to our advantage" while the "remainder is simple waste and destruction." His army wrecked 300 miles (480 km) of railroad and numerous bridges and miles of telegraph lines. It seized 5,000 horses, 4,000 mules, and 13,000 head of cattle. It confiscated 9.5 million pounds of corn and 10.5 million pounds of fodder, and destroyed uncounted cotton gins and mills. • Sherman's campaign of total war extended to Georgian civilians. In July 1864, during the Atlanta campaign, Sherman ordered approximately 400 Roswell mill workers, mostly women, arrested as traitors and shipped as prisoners to the North with their children. There is little evidence that more than a few of the women ever returned home.

21. North after the War • CASUALTIES • An estimate for the Union Army’s death toll—279,689—was deduced shortly after the conflict ended from battlefield reports, in which each regiment recorded, often imprecisely, the names and fates of its members. • That figure was increased to 360,222 in the early 20th century to reflect applications by widows and orphans for pensions and survivors’ benefits, which could be claimed whether a soldier had been killed in battle, succumbed to his injuries later on or died of disease. (Historians believe that two-thirds of fatalities among soldiers serving in the Civil War were due to illness.)

22. North ECONOMIC COSTS • The Union's industrial and economic capacity soared during the war as the North continued its rapid industrialization. As the war dragged on, the Union's advantages in factories, railroads, and manpower put the Confederacy at a great disadvantage. • Nearly every sector of the Union economy witnessed increased production. Mechanization of farming allowed a single farmer growing crops such as corn or wheat to plant, harvest, and process much more than was possible when hand and animal power were the only available tools. (By 1860, a threshing machine could thresh 12 times as much grain per hour as could six men.) This mechanization became even more important as many farmers left home to enlist in the Union military. Those remaining behind could continue to manage the farm through the use of labor-saving devices like reapers and horse-drawn planters. • Northern transportation industries boomed during the conflict as well--particularly railroads. The North's larger number of tracks and better ability to construct and move parts gave it a distinct advantage over the South. Union forces moving south or west to fight often rode to battle on trains traveling on freshly lain tracks. In fact, as Northern forces traveled further south to fight and occupy the Confederacy, the War Department created the United States Military Railroads, designed to build rails to carry troops and supplies as well as operating captured Southern rail lines and equipment. By war's end, it was the world's largest railroad system. • Other Northern industries--weapons manufacturing, leather goods, iron production, textiles--grew and improved as the war progressed. The same was not true in the South. The twin disadvantages of a smaller industrial economy and having so much of the war fought in the South hampered Confederate growth and development. Southern farmers (including cotton growers) were hampered in their ability to sell their goods overseas due to Union naval blockades. Union invasions into the South resulted in the capture of Southern transportation and manufacturing facilities.

23. North • impact on immigration • Pre-war settlement patterns led to the northern and western immigrant communities that sometimes caused chaos in the North, yet which also contributed enormous numbers of soldiers to win the war. After the war, the status of certain immigrant groups increased tremendously in both the North and the South. Immigrants were perceived as a crucial element in various competing strategies for economic recovery in the South. • Northern politicians who loathed the pre-war planter aristocracy and feared their return to power passed the Southern Homestead Act of 1866 with the goal of breaking up the larger plantations into small family farms that could be parcelled out to new immigrants. Ironically, southern politicians also hoped for increased immigration of northern or western European immigrants. They hoped to increase immigration to the South in order to flood the labour market and drive down wages in the South, thereby bringing the newly liberated slaves once more into economic subservience. • With this goal in mind, most southern states founded commissions to market the region to prospective European immigrants. Although pursued vigorously, these efforts were usually unsuccessful. Of the three million immigrants who came to America from 1865 to 1873, almost none settled in the South. Some historians contend that these efforts failed because they were founded on the unrealistic belief that immigrants would passively accept the sort of living conditions and treatment that slaves had been forced to endure. In 1866, an Alabama planter persuaded a group of thirty Swedish immigrants to settle on his plantation. He fed, housed, and clothed them as he had formerly provided for his slaves. Nevertheless, they all quit within a week. • political divisions • January 1865, General Sherman declared that free slaves should receive 40 acres (16 hectares) of land and a surplus mule. Sherman was far from a humanitarian reformer. His main concern was the relive pressure caused by the large number of impoverished black people following his army. He stressed that Congress would have to agree to his plan. • Republican congressmen favoured confiscating plantation land and redistributing it among freedmen and loyal whites. Such action would reward the deserving and punish the guilty. However, unable to agree on a specific measure, Congress failed to pass a redistribution bill. • Whilst some northerners were anxious to help ex-slaves, many had a real antipathy to black and feared an exodus of freed slaves to the North. • Border States have no wish to give Blacks equal rights. Missouri and Maryland freed their slaves, Kentucky still had 65,000 slave in Bondage in April 1865. It survived until December 1865. • March 1865 Congress set up the Freedman’s Bureau. Its aim was to help relieve the suffering of southern blacks (and poor whites) by providing food, clothes and medical care. Although envisaged as a temporary measure, its creation symbolised the widespread Republican belief that the federal government should shoulder some responsibility for the freedmen’s wellbeing.

24. Chance of Reconciliation • Think about how the South and North had been affected, what differences are there in the impact on them? • What motivation was there for reconciliation? • What barriers were there to reconciliation?

25. Lincoln and Reconstruction • Ten percent plan • Radical Republican Opposition including the Wade-Davis Bill • Views in 1865? • Impact of his assassination • Does he deserve the title ‘the great Emancipator’? (see p189)

26. Johnson and the Radical Republicans • Does Johnson exceed his powers and deserve to be impeached? • Was Johnson or the Radical Republican’s more in tune with popular opinion on black rights? • Were concessions/ a conciliatory policy needed towards the South? • Think about who is to blame for the tension between Johnson and Congress

27. Andrew Johnson: his background • Self-made man tailor’s apprentice  rich landowner  president • Only Senator from the Confederate States to remain loyal to the Union during the War • Ex-Democrat, Ex-slave owner • Radical Republican’s believed he would be harder on the rebels than Lincoln was going to be, as Johnson had called rebel leaders ‘Traitors’ in 1864.

28. Johnson’s aims for Reconstruction • Continue Lincoln’s policy, Reconstruction as executive rather than a legislative action. • Restore southern states to the Union by December 1865 • Get the USA back to functioning as normal as soon as possible, which would involve working with ex-Confederates • Believed suffrage, social and economic policy were the responsibility of States not Federal Government. • He did not see Black people as equal whites and did not want to them to receive the vote.

29. May 1865 – Amnesty (1) • Immediate amnesty to Confederates who own less than $20,000 worth of property • Ex-Confederates could petition for presidential pardons, which he freely grants • Says for Confederate states to be re-admitted they must disavow acts of secession, and abolish slavery Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

30. November 1865 – Black Codes • Ex-Confederate states adopt Black Codes (legal codes) which deny African Americans the right to purchase or even rent land. • Some also denied the right to bear arms, meet after sunset, marry whites • Could arrest for ‘insulting gestures’ and ‘malicious mischief’ • Began with Mississippi Is this an action towards a Confederate state by Congress or the President?

31. December 1865 – Union restored • Johnson appointed provisional state governors. • These governors tried their best to cooperate with white southerners. • Governors organised elections for state conventions (white only voters) • The conventions drew up new constitutions that accepted slavery was illegal. • The state was then allowed back into the Union. • In December 1865 he declares the Union Restored • Congress refuse to seat former Congress representatives from former Confederate states • Committee of 6 senators and 9 Representatives declare that the Confederate states had fortified their statehood and returned to the status of territories, and therefore Congress could be the only branch to readmit them. Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

32. 1866 – Congress extends power of the Freedman’s Bureau • Give the Freedman’s Bureau to try people who deprived freedmen from civil rights. • Bill passes over Johnson’s veto Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

33. 1866 – Civil Rights Act • Outlined the rights of citizens, including rights to make contracts, sue, give evidence in court, purchase and sell property. • Passed over Johnson’s veto Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

34. 1866 – 14th Amendment proposed • Guarantees citizenship for Americans (would overturn Dred Scott) • Proposed because Congress are scared that • DOES NOT GUARENTEE THE RIGHT TO VOTE • Johnson urges the southern legislatures to reject the amendment Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

35. 1866 – Republicans capture 2/3 • Fall elections 1866 Republicans capture 2/3 of both houses of Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate) • Can override any Presidential veto Is this an action towards a Confederate state by Congress or the President?

36. 1867 – Congress divides the South into military districts • New programme for reconstruction • First Reconstruction Act: divides Confederate states into 5 districts (martial law) • Have to ratify the 14th Amendment • Adopt new state constitutions and guarantee black men the vote • 703,000 blacks register to vote – in 5 states they make up the majority Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

37. 1867 – Congress divides the South into military districts • New programme for reconstruction • First Reconstruction Act: divides Confederate states into 5 districts (martial law) • Have to ratify the 14th Amendment • Adopt new state constitutions and guarantee black men the vote • 703,000 blacks register to vote – in 5 states they make up the majority Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

38. 1867 – Amnesty (2) • Reduced the expected classes to those who held high rank in the Confederacy, mistreated prisoners or were under indictment • Wealthy former planters were now readmitted to their rights Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

39. 1868 – Impeachment of Johnson • Congress pass several laws to restrict Presidential powers • Cannot appoint a Supreme court justice • Restrict authority over the army • Tenure of Office Act banned him from removing office holders that had been appointed by the Senate (without their approval anyway!) • August 1867 Johnson sacks Edwin Stanton… House vote to impeach 126-47 • Senate vote 35-19 (one short of being able to convict Johnson) Is this an action towards a Confederate state by Congress or the President?

40. 1868 – Amnesty (3) • Extended clemency to those high-ranking official who had been excluded from earlier proclamations • People under indictment are still excluded Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

41. 1868 – Christmas day amnesty • Amnesty was extended “unconditionally and without reservation” to all who had participated in the rebellion. • Grant had been elected in November Would this cause tension between the President and Congress? Who is causing the tension?

42. Radical Republicans • Produce profiles on: • Thaddeus Stevens • Charles Sunmer • Edwin Stanton

43. Amendments • Make sure you know the details and dates connected to the: 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. • For each one explain why they caused controversy • For each one examine their impact

44. Grant as President • Produce a profile of Grant and compare to the earlier slide on Johnson’s background. • Does it appear the Grant was well qualified to be President?

45. The Grant years • What was the impact of Corruption on Grant’s presidency? • Black political participation- extent and impact? • How effective was the Freedman’s Bureau? • How significant were the KKK and the other Redeemers? • Explain the 1876 election • Explain the 1877 Compromise

46. Evaluation of Reconstruction • Had the lives of African Americans improved? • Impact/ significance of black vote? • Impact/ significance of Freedman’s bureau? • Impact/ significance of KKK and Redeemers? • Had Reconstruction failed? • Why did Reconstruction end?

47. Position of African American’s Improved • the ending of slavery by the Thirteenth Amendment opened up a new world of opportunity for African-Americans • the passing of the Freedman’s Bureau Act of 1866 offered a great deal of support and protection to the newly enfranchised African Americans. For example, the Freedman’s Bureau opened schools which helped dramatically reduce illiteracy rates from 95% in 1865 to 81% in 1870 • thousands of African-Americans left the South, for example, during the 1870s over 15 000 African-Americans moved to Kanas to set up homesteaders • the election of African-American politicians, e.g. Pinckney Pinchbeck, Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce.

48. No it didn’t • • the Black Codes introduced in many Southern states • • creation of, and actions of, vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan • • the exploitative system of sharecroppers kept African-Americans in poverty, especially after the economic crash of 1873 • • African-Americans moving to the ‘free states’ faced discrimination there • • the Compromise of 1877 allowed white supremacists in the Democratic Party to gain control of all of the Old South.

49. Reconstruction failed due to the KKK • • by 1870 Forrest claimed there were over 5000,000 Klansmen • • the KKK gained support from all sections of the white community including people in positions of power and influence • • terrorist activities reached their peak in 1869–71, targeting Black holders of public office as well as black schools and churches • • state laws against the KKK were ineffective due to false alibis and members in juries • • KKK violence and intimidation continued after 1872, including marching in black areas and supporting Democrat speakers at political rallies.

50. It failed for other reasons • • the 1870–1 Congress passed three Force Acts to tackle the KKK and Grant imposed martial law in parts of the South. This resulted in hundreds of suspected Klansmen being arrested and reduced Klan terrorism • • republican in-fighting notably between scalawags and black members damaged Reconstruction • • republican economic policy was held as a being responsible by many for the depression which started in 1873 • • Democrats had taken control in a large number of Southern states in the years 1869 to 1875, effectively ending Radical Reconstruction in these areas • • new paramilitary groups emerged in the 1870s, such as the Red Shirts and White Leagues, which prevented black voting. Unlike the Klan these groups were able to drill and parade openly without the threat of imprisonment.