HOW SHOULD THE CIVIL WAR BE REPRESENTED?

Transcription

1 8 th Grade Inquiry into The Civil War HOW SHOULD THE CIVIL WAR BE REPRESENTED? "The Monitor and Merrimac: The First Fight Between Ironclads", produced by Louis Prang & Co., Boston, Supporting Questions 1. What events in the mid-1800s contributed to a dividing nation? 2. What new types of technologies and warfare emerged during the Civil War? 3. What were some of the sacrifices and consequences of the Civil War?

2 Source A: Comparative populations and military strengths during the Civil War Infographic showing U.S. population in (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History). Infographic comparing military strengths of the Union and Confederacy. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute).

3 Source B: Casualties and consequences of the Civil War Most casualties and deaths in the Civil War were the result of non-combat-related disease. For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease. The primitive nature of Civil War medicine, both in its intellectual underpinnings and in its practice in the armies, meant that many wounds and illnesses were unnecessarily fatal. Our modern conception of casualties includes those who have been psychologically damaged by warfare. This distinction did not exist during the Civil War. Soldiers suffering from what we would now recognize as post-traumatic stress disorder were uncatalogued and uncared for. Approximately one in four soldiers that went to war never returned home. At the outset of the war, neither army had mechanisms in place to handle the amount of death that the nation was about to experience. There were no national cemeteries, no burial details, and no messengers of loss. The largest human catastrophe in American history, the Civil War forced the young nation to confront death and destruction in a way that has not been equaled before or since. Recruitment was highly localized throughout the war. Regiments of approximately one thousand men, the building block of the armies, would often be raised from the population of a few adjacent counties. Soldiers went to war with their neighbors and their kin. The nature of recruitment meant that a battlefield disaster could wreak havoc on the home community. One in thirteen surviving Civil War soldiers returned home missing one or more limbs. Pre-war jobs on farms or in factories became impossible or nearly so. This led to a rise in awareness of veterans' needs as well as increased responsibility and social power for women. For many, however, there was no solution. Tens of thousands of families slipped into destitution. Tending wounded Union soldiers at Savage's Station, Virginia, during the Peninsular Campaign, 1862, LOC.

4 Source C: Fallen Union and Confederate soldiers The Battle of Gettysburg left approximately 7,000 corpses in the fields around the town. Family members had to come to the battlefield to find their loved ones in the carnage. (Library of Congress).

5 Source D: Fatalities incurred during the Civil War Comparison chart of American soldiers killed in major U.S. wars. (Civilwar.org). Infographic showing troop fatalities and causes of death. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History).

6 Source E: Letters and diaries from soldiers From Alexander Hunter (Confederate soldier) to his family about the Antietam campaign: [September 21,1862 ]. Dear Folks, On the 8th we struck up the refrain of "Maryland, My Maryland!" and camped in an apple orchard. We went hungry, for six days not a morsel of bread or meat had gone in our stomachs - and our menu consisted of apple; and corn. We toasted, we burned, we stewed, we boiled, we roasted these two together, and singly, until there was not a man whose form had not caved in, and who had not a bad attack of diarrhea. Our under-clothes were foul and hanging in strips, our socks worn out, and half of the men were barefooted, many were lame and were sent to the rear; others, of sterner stuff, hobbled along and managed to keep up, while gangs from every company went off in the surrounding country looking for food... Many became ill from exposure and starvation, and were left on the road. The ambulances were full, and the whole route was marked with a sick, lame, limping lot, that straggled to the farmhouses that lined the way, and who, in all cases, succored and cared for them... From Captain Augustus C. Brown (Union Officer), The Diary of a Line Officer: Tuesday, May 10th [1864]. Heavy cannonading from 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. The Pontoon train has been sent back to Fredericksburg, apparently to get it out of the way, and the army horses are put on half-rations, that is, five pounds of food. Ambulances and army wagons with two tiers of flooring, loaded with wounded and drawn by four and six mule teams, pass along the plank, or rather, corduroy road to Fredericksburg, the teamsters lashing their teams to keep up with the train, and the wounded screaming with pain as the wagons go jolting over the corduroy These men had been suffering in temporary field hospitals, as no opportunity had been afforded to send them to the rear until we got within reach of the road running to Fredericksburg. From William Gaston Lewis (Confederate soldier) writing to his future wife after the Battle of Gettysburg: [Darkville, Va July 15th 1863]. My Dear Mitte, I am glad to inform you that I am safe in Va again after going through, untouched, the most terrific and sanguinary battle of the war. Are you rejoiced or not to hear it? I will not give you any account of the battle for I suppose you have read all the accounts in the newspapers. Col Kenan was wounded and taken prisoner, so I am now in command of the regiment. Will you think I am wanting in nerve if I tell you that I feel much relieved since I have returned to the sacred soil of the South? I am and always have been opposed to invasion, and I think this trip will make our authorities believe that invasion is the wrong policy, for it is impracticable. Both sides got the worst of the fight at Gettysburg, and both fell back. I am sorry that Maj Lewis of the same regiment was as severely wounded in the face by a shell I often think of you. I compare my present hardships with the pleasant moments I have spent with you, and look forward with pleasure to a repetition of those agreeable minutes Give my love to the family. And be certain to write for I am half crazy to hear from one I so much love

7 Source F: Letters and memoirs from African Americans and women From Sgt. Morgan W. Carter, an African-American Union soldier, writing to his friend: Well, friend Charles I am doing as well as could be expected of a fellow in Uncle Sam's employment. We are in winter quarters at City Point now, doing provost duty, which is quite agreeable after our Summer Campaign which has been quite severe on us at some times. But we are last at rest for the Winter. I have a splendid little house to myself with a fireplace in it and you can see that I am snug as you please. Only the recollection of home associations comes forcible to memory then I feel a little down hearted. But soon rally when I think on what principal I am fighting which is for the benefit of my race. I have been in a good many near close place but by the Lord's will I have escaped with life. So far I have been wounded twice, once by a piece of shell on the long to be remembered field of bloodshed and slaughter on the 31st of July (the Stoneman Raid). There many a poor fell[ow] lost thear life for thear country and thear people. But poor fellows they died a noble death and in this cause if it is necessary I will give up my life most willingly to benefit the Colored Race. You know yourself that we have been trampled under the white man's heal for years and now we have a choice to elevate our selfs and our race and what little I can do toward it I will do so most willingly. If I should die before I receive the benefit of it I will have the consolation of knowing that the generations to come will receive the blessing of it Morgan W. Carter. Direct to Sgt. Morgan W. Carter, Company G, 28th U.S. Cold. Troops, City Point, Virginia. From Louisa May Alcott's Hospital Sketches, when she volunteered as a hospital nurse in late 1862: He never spoke again, but to the end held my hand close, so close that when he was asleep at last, I could not draw it away. Dan helped me, warning me as he did so that it was unsafe for dead and living flesh to lie so long together; but though my hand was strangely cold and stiff, and four white marks remained across its back, even when warmth and color had returned elsewhere, I could not but be glad that, through its touch, the presence of human sympathy, perhaps, had lightened that hard hour Louisa May Alcott, Hospital Sketches, Emma E. Edmonds was a female soldier and spy. She took advantage of the war to cross gender and racial boundaries. On various occasions in her memoir, Edmonds disguises herself successfully as a white, male soldier; an African American, male slave; and an African American, female slave. Here, she recounts when she decided to take part in the war in April, 1861: I was aroused by my reverie by a voice in the street crying New York Herald Fall of Fort Sumter President s Proclamation Call for seventy-five thousand men! This announcement startled me, while my imagination portrayed the coming struggle in all its fearful magnitude It is true, I was not an American I was not obliged to stay here during this terrible strife I could return to my native land where my parents would welcome me to the home of my childhood, and my brothers and sisters would rejoice at my coming. But these were not the thoughts which occupied my mind. It was not my intention, or desire, to seek my own personal ease and comfort while so much sorrow and distress filled the land. But the great question to be decided, was, what can I do? What part am I to act in this great drama? I was not able to decide for myself so I carried this question to the Throne of Grace and found a satisfactory answer there. Sarah Emma Edmonds, Soldier, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, 1865.

8 Source G: Abraham Lincoln, executive order changing the legal standing of slaves to freed people in the southern states in rebellion, Emancipation Proclamation (excerpts), 1863 Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom... Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages... Public domain. U.S National Archives & Records Administration. Some importnt points about the Emancipation Proclamation: 1. President Lincoln justified the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure intended to cripple the Confederacy. Being careful to respect the limits of his authority, Lincoln applied the Emancipation Proclamation only to the Southern states in rebellion. 2. Up until September 1862, the main focus of the war had been to preserve the Union. With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation freedom for slaves now became a legitimate war aim. 3. Although the Proclamation initially freed only the slaves in the rebellious states, by the end of the war the Proclamation had influenced and prepared citizens to advocate and accept abolition for all slaves in both the North and South. The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, was passed on December 6th, Although he was heralded as the savior of the Union, Lincoln considered the Emancipation Proclamation the crowing achievement of his presidency.

9 Source H: United States Congress, action that abolished slavery, Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 1865 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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Public domain. U.S National Archives & Records Administration. Some importnt points about the Reconstruction Amendments: The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States and was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments adopted in the five years following the American Civil War. Although President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, there were several problems with relying on it to ensure an end to slavery in the U.S. The proclamation was issued using Lincoln s war powers and there was concern it could be seen as temporary. The proclamation also only freed slaves, it did not abolish slavery itself. It also applied only to the states that were in active rebellion on January 1, 1863, but did not apply to slave-holding border states or to areas of Confederate states already under Union control at the time. Back in 1857, a Supreme Court case known as the Dred Scott Decision determined that black Americans were not citizens. The Fourteenth Amendment overturned that ruling, stating that 'All persons born or naturalized in the United States...are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.' This was one of three Constitutional amendments aimed at establishing political equality for Americans of any race. Together, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are referred to as the Reconstruction Amendments. They address slavery, citizenship, and voting rights. The Radical Republicans didn't always have the purest motives, they didn't always use the most democratic methods of achieving their goals and America is still not always perfectly equal. But history has proven that the controversial Reconstruction Amendments, which were designed to guarantee the rights of freed slaves, have helped to create one of the most free, most democratic societies in the world today. These historic Reconstruction Amendments abolishing slavery, guaranteeing due process for all citizens, and promising universal franchise were embedded in the Constitution. There they lay for a century, the enduring seeds of a second American Revolution that did not burst forth until the landmark civil rights movement of the 1940s 1960s. 9