Post-Civil War Transformation: Federal Power, Economic Shifts, & Social Impact

1. Changes After War The Legacy of the Civil War

2. POLITICAL 1) Federal government assumes supreme national authority • Southern states had previously used threat of secession • No state ever used this threat again

3. 2) State’s rights issue never went away– just took a different direction • Should the state or national government determine how to use local resources? • What is left up to the states?

4. 3) Increased the power of the federal government • Federal government used to have little impact on daily lives; mostly left up to local governments • Passed laws that gave it more control over citizens • Taxing private incomes • Required to accept new paper currency • Tore men from families to fight the war-- the draft

5. ECONOMIC 1) National Bank Act of 1863 • Set up a system of federally chartered banks • Set up rules for loans • Banks must be inspected • Banking system much safer for investors

6. 2) Industry—way up or way down • Cotton textile industry showed a 74% decline • War-related industries grew rapidly

7. 3) Opportunities for entrepreneurs • Many government suppliers grew rich and had money to invest in their own businesses after the war

8. 4) Northern economy booms, Southern economy devastated • Marked the end of slavery as a labor system • Wiped out livestock • Destroyed farm machinery and railroads • Uncultivated farmland becomes weeds

9. 5) Economic gap widened drastically • Southern states now hold 12% of nation’s wealth.

10. 6) Cost of War • Spent $3.3 billion on war • More than twice what the government had spent in the last 80 years. • Costs did not stop when war ended- • Interest payments on war debts • Veteran’s pensions • Accounted for 2/3 federal budget for twenty years

11. SOCIAL 1) Human costs are staggering • 360,000 Union and 260,000 Confederates dead • 275,000 Union and 260,000 Confederates wounded • One soldier killed: Four slaves freed • Armless and legless veterans everywhere • Disrupted education, careers, families

12. 2) Thirteenth Amendment “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” • Lincoln needs to decide what to do about the slaves in the border states • Needs amendment abolishing slavery altogether

13. 3) Veterans Return • Veterans returned to their small towns and farms • Many moved to the burgeoning cities in search of opportunity or went west to build railroads/search for gold

14. MILITARY 1) Modern military technology • Rifle and minie ball • Rifle- more accurate and faster to load • Minie ball- soft lead bullet more destructive, higher casualty rate • Grenades and land mines • Ironclad ships • Withstand cannon fire, resist burning • End of wooden warships

15. 2) Strategy- mass assaults • Pickett’s Charge proves mass assaults are not effective • Horses became much less important • Longer range accuracy, no need for cavalry charge

16. 3) Strategy- trench warfare • Provides protection from deadly new rifle • Used in WW1

17. 4) Strategy- total war • Used in WW1 and WW2