The American Civil WarSome Thoughts in Survey Dr. John Robert Greene Paul J. Schupf Professor, History and Humanities Cazenovia College
By Way of Introduction….. • 30th Year… • Bachelor’s and Master’s, St. Bonaventure University • Ph.D., Syracuse University • 15 books ….articles…presentations • Most recent publications--Betty Ford: Candor and Courage in the White House; Profiles of an Era: The George H.W. Bush Presidency; Profiles of an Era: The Nixon/Ford Years • Media Pundit--Political Commentary (PBS; MSNBC; C-SPAN; NPR; Ivory Tower Half Hour) • Working this summer on: Profiles of an Era: The George W. Bush Presidency, and America in the 1960s • Chittenango, NY
The important role to the professional historian of the “Civil War Buff”
1. “The nation had stumbled into armed conflict.” (Gallman, The North Fights the Civil War, 12) • The Inevitability Thesis • Lincoln and……
3A.”On to Richmond,” Lincoln’s Political Problems, and the First Battle of Bull Run (July 16-21, 1861)
3B. McClellan, the Peninsular Campaign, and the Siege of Yorktown
3e. The Apex of the Marble Man:April-December, 1862-The Seven Days Battle (July 1862)-Second Bull Run (August 30, 1862)-Antietam (September 17, 1862)-Fredericksburg (December 11-12, 1862)
3g. 1863-Chancellorsville (May 1-6, 1863)-Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)
A. The Growth of the National State…or… …how Salmon P. Chase financed the war.
C. The “Draft” “Most soldiers fought because they wanted to; most who wished to avoid service probably succeeded.” (Gallman, 71)
D. Photographers Selected Civil War Photographs Home Page
E. The Emancipation Proclamation … …as a military measure.
F. Women in (and by) the War • Not Heavy industryTextiles • Nursing • Dorothea Dix
5A. “Total War” • “Absolute War” (Carl von Clausewicz, On War) • James McPherson, Drawn With the Sword: • “no distinction between combatants and non-combatants”
5B. 1864 -Grant’s Assessment of “Total War” (103) -The Wilderness (May 8-21, 1864) -Cold Harbor (May 30-31, 1864)
5D. 1865-Siege of Petersburg (June, 1864-April, 1865)-April 9, 1865—Appomattox Court House
6A. The Marble Monument versus Herndon’s Lincoln • William Herndon, Lincoln: The true Story of a Great Life (1888) • Herndon: “Politics were his life” (124) • Then…. • what were his politics?
6B. Lincoln as “Grecian Tragedy” (Richard Hofstadter, The American Political tradition and the Men Who Made It, 21) • “The greatest of the Lincoln dramatists was Lincoln himself” (Hofstadter, 122)
6D. What He was NOT. An Abolitionist. • Hofstadter: “moderately hostile” to slavery (139) • Your View on This?
6E. What he MIGHT have been, but is very debatable… • …a great military strategist.
6F. Lincoln’s Ambition • A given. BUT..… • …one cannot, then, be both humble and successful in politics?
6G. He was a Westerner. • Just like Jackson?? • Jacksonians—property over liberty • Hofstadter—Lincoln's seeing slavery as a “menace to free labor” (153)
6H. The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's view of Liberty • Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg(1992) • Wills: “Lincoln was an artist, not just a scholar.” The Gettysburg Address (Library of Congress Exhibition)
6I. Reconstruction • Ten Percent Plan (1863; Lincoln) • Versus • Wade-Davis Bill (1864; Radical Republicans) • Lincoln Pocket Vetoes • …and had he lived…..?