12/4 Period 6 Blog

Thanks to Casey for bringing the cookies!

After Fort Sumter

-Lincoln called on the states for 75,000 militia.
-Free states filled their quotas.
-8 slave states rejected Lincoln's call.
-Virginia, Arkansas, Tennesse, and North Carolina soon seceded.

-The Border States
-Delaware remained firmly in the Union
-Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri remained deeply divided.
-Maryland was occupied by federal troops to prevent Washington DC from being surrounded
enemy territory.
-Missouri was treated in the same fashion.

-West Virginia
-West Virginia voted on whether or not to secede most of the delegates from west of the
Shenandoah valley who had voted against secession.
-When Virginia seceded, west of the Shenandoah created the new state of West Virginia in
1863.

Balance Sheet at the start of the War.
-North has twice as many people as the South.
-North also has a stronger industrial economy.
-Southern military leaders were better.
-More proficient in hunting, riding, and outdoor skills.
-To win, the North would have to invade, conquer, and occupy most of the South, destroying
its army.
-The South just needed to stay on the defensive
-The South was fighting on familiar territory and defending its homes.

Financing the War.
-Three choices; taxes, borrow through bonds, or print paper money.
-In the South, people opposed taxes.
-They didn't hace enough capital outside land and slaves to make war bonds a success.
-South chose to make paper money.
-Paper money lost its value and caused runway inflation.
-60% of Condfederate War funding was from printed paper money, less than 40% by war
and 5% from taxes.
-North raised 66% by war bonds, 21% from taxes, and 13% by paper money.

King Cotton Diplomacy
-Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports.
-Cotton was vital to British.
-Britain got 3/4 of their raw cotton from the South.
-South assumed if supply was cut off, England would suffer, so they would offer help.
-South held th 1861 crop off the maket to demonstrate to the British that they were needed.
-The strategy failed.
-Britain had a large stockpile of cotton.
-They found other supplieres such as Egypt.
-Southern embargo made it seem as if the Northern naval blockade was effective.
-The South lost potential allies and England held off helping them.

Emancipation
-Lincoln was elected because had a platform against slavery.
-He relied on a fragile coalition of Republicans, Democrats, and Border State Unionists.
-All parties from the Union let it be known that they would fight for the union, but not
slavery.

Others from the North insisted on a war against Slavery.
-Ending it would hurt Southern economy.
-Many slaves fled and escaped to the Union.
-Escaped slaves became known as contaband.
-In Augest,1861, Congess passed a Confiscation Act.
-All property, including slaves being used for Confederate army could be siezed.
-In March, 1862, Congress forbade the return of slaves who had escaped to the Union.

Border States
-They refused Congress' and Lincoln's offer of compensation to states that had abolished
slavery.
-Lincoln was frustrated but knew he had to be careful so he wouldn't drive them away.

Several Factors created and Emancipation Proclimation
-Recalcitance of Border States.
-The House of Reps. wanted to see border actions.
-Congess passed the 2nd Confiscation Act.
-Army was itching to take off the kid gloves.
-Lincoln harbored a strong dislike for slavery.

North has Three Possible Courses of Action
-Peace Negotiations would force the North to concede and slavery to continue.
-Keep on fighting, hoping the South would concede, but keeping slavery.
-Total war, with no slavery if they were to win.

After deciding that Border States Were a Lost Cause:
-Military intervention was essential.
-The cabinent agreed.
-Lincoln decided not to announce the emancipation until a Union miliatry victory occured.

Emancipation ProclimationCan be Put into Action
-On September 4, 1862, General Lee and his army crossed the Potomac into Maryland to
diplomatic recognition with England and France and to hurt the North.
-September 13, a copy of Lee's battle plans fall into the hands if General McClellan
-He was so cautious that he lost the tremendous advantage he had of knowing the plans.
-Ended up ensuring that the battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in US history.
-North had the upper hand, but did not inflict harsh defeat.
-North didn't follow up vigorously when Confederacy retreated.
-Three favorable North results.
-British Fance with hold diplomatic recognition of Confederacy.
-North democrat fall to get House of Reps.
-Lincoln issues the emancipation proclimation.

The Proclimation was issued in September, but didn't go into until January 1, 1863, giving a chance for the South to the Return.

It Declares:
1. Forever free will be the states still in rebellion.
2. No slaves in loyal border states.
-It wasn't as effective in VA or LA.

-Now the Civil War was also about slavery.