MILITARY Conflict in the CIVIL WAR [APUSH Review Unit 5 Topic 8] Period 5: 1844-1877
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of Heimler's History, the focus is on the Civil War, exploring why the Union emerged victorious despite initial uncertainties. Key factors included the North's superior population, economic strength, and naval power. The video contrasts the strategies of both sides, highlighting the Union's Anaconda Plan and the South's reliance on foreign aid. It also discusses internal opposition, such as the New York City Draft Riots, and pivotal moments like the Battle of Vicksburg. The Emancipation Proclamation is revealed as a strategic move that reshaped the war's narrative and deterred foreign support for the Confederacy.
Takeaways
- 🇺🇸 The Civil War was a pivotal conflict in U.S. history, with the Union's victory shaped by various strategic, economic, and social factors.
- 🔍 Initially, the outcome of the Civil War was uncertain, as both the Union and the Confederacy had their own set of advantages.
- 🏰 The South's advantage lay in fighting a defensive war, with experienced military leaders like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
- 🌐 The North, however, had a population roughly four times larger than the South, a robust navy, and a more established central government.
- 🏭 The North's industrial capacity and economic strength, including control over banks, manufacturing, and railroads, gave it a significant edge.
- 💵 Both sides had to mobilize their economies for total war, with the North modernizing its production and the South relying on tariffs and taxes.
- 🚢 The Union's naval blockade was a crucial strategy, effectively cutting off the South from international trade and support.
- 🔥 The South's hope for foreign aid, particularly from Britain and France, was diminished as alternative cotton sources emerged.
- 🔍 The Union's leadership improved over time, with generals like Ulysses S. Grant emerging to turn the tide of the war.
- 📜 The Emancipation Proclamation was a strategic move that not only aimed to free enslaved people in the Confederacy but also to prevent foreign support for the South.
- 🔥 Key Union victories, such as the Battle of Vicksburg and General Sherman's March to the Sea, severely damaged the Confederacy's infrastructure and morale.
Q & A
What was the main question the video aimed to answer?
-The video aimed to answer the question: 'What were the various factors that contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War?'
What advantages did the South have at the outset of the Civil War?
-The South had the advantage of fighting a defensive war, experienced military leaders like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and a strong military tradition.
What advantages did the North have over the South in the Civil War?
-The North had advantages in population (about four times larger), a robust navy, economic strength (with most banks and manufacturing districts), and an established central government.
Why did the South struggle financially during the Civil War?
-The South struggled financially due to Union naval blockades, which hindered its ability to trade, and its reliance on tariffs and taxes on exports was insufficient.
What was one significant form of opposition to the war in the North?
-One significant example of opposition in the North was the New York City Draft Riots of 1863, where working-class men protested the draft law that allowed the wealthy to buy their way out of military service.
How did the Confederacy respond to the Union's efforts to resupply Fort Sumter?
-The Confederacy chose to fire on the Union supply ships, marking the first official shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter.
What was the Anaconda Plan?
-The Anaconda Plan was the Union's strategy to blockade Southern ports and control the Mississippi River, effectively splitting the Confederacy in half.
Why did the South believe foreign nations like Britain and France might support their cause?
-The South believed that the need for cotton in Britain and France would prompt these nations to support the Confederacy, as they relied heavily on Southern cotton for their textile industries.
What was the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation?
-The Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in Confederate states in rebellion, transforming the war's purpose into a fight against slavery and weakening potential foreign support for the South.
How did General Sherman contribute to the Union victory?
-General Sherman contributed by capturing Atlanta, then conducting his infamous March to the Sea, where he destroyed Southern infrastructure, including railroads, crops, and land, making it difficult for the South to recover.
Outlines
🎥 Introduction and Overview of the Civil War
The speaker introduces the Civil War, starting with Lincoln's election and the secession of Southern states. The main question posed is: What factors contributed to the Union's victory? While it wasn't certain the Union would win, both the North and South had advantages. The South benefited from defensive positions and military leadership, while the North had a larger population, a stronger navy, economic power, and a centralized government. However, both sides faced substantial challenges.
🛠 Mobilization of Economies
The Union and Confederacy had to mobilize their economies to fight the war. Northern manufacturers modernized, leading to future industrial barons like Andrew Carnegie emerging. The South, relying on tariffs and taxes, struggled financially due to Union blockades. The war strained both economies, revealing the South's financial weaknesses.
⚔️ Homefront Opposition to the War
Significant opposition to the war existed on both sides. In the Confederacy, the introduction of a war tax was met with resistance from states prioritizing states' rights. In the North, class tensions exploded into the New York City Draft Riots of 1863, where working-class men protested the $300 draft exemption fee, leading to violent confrontations.
📜 Lincoln’s Leadership and Fort Sumter
Lincoln was determined to prevent Southern secession but avoided initiating conflict. The first shots of the war were fired when Confederate forces attacked Union supply ships at Fort Sumter. This event officially ignited the Civil War. The early stages of the war saw Confederate victories, such as at the First Battle of Bull Run, where inexperienced Union soldiers fled, shattering hopes of a short conflict.
🌍 War Strategies: Anaconda Plan and Foreign Reliance
The Union's Anaconda Plan aimed to blockade Southern ports and control the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy. The South's strategy hinged on foreign aid, especially from Britain and France, driven by their dependence on Southern cotton. However, both nations found alternative cotton sources in India and Egypt, leaving the South isolated.
🛡 Union Leadership and Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln struggled to find effective generals until Ulysses S. Grant emerged. Grant’s persistence in pushing Confederate forces into their territory turned the tide. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation reframed the war as a fight against slavery, rallying enslaved people in the Confederacy to escape and weakening Southern hopes for British support.
⚔️ Key Battle: Vicksburg and Destruction of Southern Infrastructure
The Union’s victory at Vicksburg, led by Grant, gave them control of the Mississippi, splitting the Confederacy. General Sherman’s devastating March to the Sea destroyed Southern railroads and infrastructure, further weakening the Confederacy and hastening Union victory.
🏁 The End of the Civil War and Union Victory
The war culminated in the Union’s success, with key victories, economic devastation in the South, and the success of the naval blockade. General Lee surrendered to Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th, 1865, officially ending the Civil War.
📚 Conclusion and Call to Action
The video concludes by encouraging viewers to explore the full playlist for Unit 5 of the AP U.S. History curriculum. The speaker offers further help for exams and urges viewers to subscribe if they found the content useful.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Civil War
💡Union
💡Confederacy
💡Anaconda Plan
💡Emancipation Proclamation
💡Fort Sumter
💡Stonewall Jackson
💡Ulysses S. Grant
💡Vicksburg
💡William Tecumseh Sherman
💡Appomattox Courthouse
Highlights
Abraham Lincoln's election and the secession of the Southern states led to the Civil War.
The Union's victory was not guaranteed due to the South's advantages in military leadership and defensive strategy.
The North had a significant population advantage, economic strength, and a well-established central government.
Both sides had to mobilize their economies for total war, with the North modernizing its manufacturing capacity.
The South relied on tariffs and taxes but struggled financially due to Union naval blockades.
There was substantial opposition to the war on both the Union and Confederate homefronts.
The New York City Draft Riots in 1863 highlighted class tensions and opposition to the war in the North.
Fort Sumter's bombardment is considered the first official engagement of the Civil War.
The First Battle of Bull Run demonstrated the Confederacy's early military success and the war's intractability.
The Anaconda Plan was a key Union strategy to blockade Southern ports and control the Mississippi River.
The South's strategy hinged on foreign assistance, particularly from Britain and France, due to cotton exports.
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 was a significant military and political strategy rather than just a freedom document.
The Battle of Vicksburg was a turning point, allowing the Union to split the Confederacy in half.
General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea devastated the South's infrastructure and resources.
The Union's success was due to improved leadership, strategy, key battle victories, and the destruction of Southern infrastructure.
General Lee's surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse marked the end of the Civil War.
Transcripts
Well hey there and welcome back to Heimler’s History. We’ve been going through Unit 5
of the AP U.S. History curriculum and in the last video we talked about the
election of Abraham Lincoln and the resulting secession of the Southern states. And now,
at long last, we got ourselves a Civil War to talk about. So I can
hear the faint sound of your brain cows lowing to get milked, so let’s get to it.
So this video is trying to answer the following question: What were the various factors that
contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War? And I know I just spoiled the ending—yes,
the Union wins the war—and if you didn’t already know that, well, you know, sorry.
Now, from the outset, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the Union, which is to say,
the northern states, would win the war. Both sides had their advantages, and just because I’m feeling
a little saucy, let’s compare those strengths in a chart. The South had the advantage of fighting
a defensive war. No need to invade anybody, just stay put and fight off the aggressor.
Additionally, the South possessed far greater and more experienced military leaders like Robert E.
Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The North, on the other hand, had the advantage of population,
which is to say about four times that of the southern states. Additionally, the North had
possession and command of a robust navy by which they could control the seas and rivers. The
North also had an economic advantage since they possessed most of the banks and manufacturing
districts and something like 70% of America’s railroads. Finally, the North had the advantage
of a well-established central government. Unfortunately, the South who had just written
up a Constitution eschewing centralized power would struggle in this area throughout the war.
So even though I listed more advantages for the North, that doesn’t mean each item on both lists
were weighted equally, which is to say, neither side could look at the other and assume they
would win in a landslide. Victory for either side would cost both an awful lot of money and blood.
Now in order to fight this war, both the Union and the Confederacy had to mobilize their entire
economies. In the North, manufacturers answered the call by rapidly modernizing their productive
capacity. In fact, many of the future barons of industry like Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller got their start by manufacturing an astounding number of goods for the Union
effort. The South relied mainly on tariffs and taxes on exports to raise revenue for the war,
but this plan faltered with Union naval blockades, and in general,
the South was a hot mess financially during the war.
Now, you would think that everyone in both the Union and the Confederacy would be all for the war
against the other. However, there was substantial opposition on the homefront. In the South,
the Confederacy launched another attempt to pay for the war by introducing a war tax,
but since the Confederacy was built on the notion of states’ rights,
many people and states simply refused to fund this centralized effort with their tax money.
In the North they arguably dealt with even more opposition. A chief example on this count would
be the New York City Draft Riots in 1863. So at that point, there was a law on the books that said
if any man was called up to fight, he could pay $300 to duck out of his draft responsibilities.
Now in those days, $300 was a buttload of money and you had to be decently wealthy to
afford it. And so working class men saw this as a fundamental injustice. It’s like they were saying,
“So there’s an option to avoid going to get killed in the war, but it’s only available to the rich.
Yeah, that dog don’t hunt.” And so a gathering of men in New York City to
protest this injustice turned violent, and at least 120 people were killed as a result.
Okay, so all that we’ve done so far is talk about the advantages each side enjoyed and
how this was a kind of total war for both AND how there was opposition to the war
on the homefront. So with all of that settled, let’s talk about the course of the war itself,
and to do that, let’s go back to Lincoln’s election in 1860.
Lincoln was very clear that he would not stand for southern secession, but neither did he relish
starting a war over it. However, a little event that occurred at Fort Sumter gave Lincoln all
the permission he needed. So Fort Sumter was a federal possession that happened to be located
in Confederate South Carolina, which to put it mildly, was awkward. South Carolinians cut
off supply lines to the fort coming in from the North, and rather than fighting about it, Lincoln
announced that he would be sending provisions to the Union troops trapped there. So the South
had a choice: either let these federal troops be resupplied, or blow up the incoming supply
ships. And faced with that decision, they went ahead and started firing on the Union suppliers,
and that is pretty universally agreed upon as the first official salvo of the war.
Now the first part of the war definitely belonged to the Confederacy, and to illustrate that,
let’s look at one of the first major battles in the conflict, the First Battle of Bull Run.
In this battle, 30,000 Union troops marched to confront Confederate troops at Bull Run Creek
in Virginia. And just to add a little sauce to this, I should mention that civilians actually
came out with picnics to watch this battle. “Hey honey, grab some sandwiches. We gotta go watch
a bunch of people get blown up. And don’t forget the kids!” Anyway, the battle began with the Union
positively mopping the floor with the Confederacy, but once Confederate reinforcements arrived under
the command of Stonewall Jackson, they sent the inexperienced Union soldiers to flight. And this
first major conflict disabused both sides of the dream that this would be a short and tidy war.
Now we could talk about battles all day, and that would be fun, but you won’t need to know
many of the battles for purposes of your exam. So let’s talk overall strategy for both sides.
One of the main Union strategies was called the Anaconda Plan and basically that meant that the
North would lean heavily on its naval advantage in order to blockade Southern ports and control
the Mississippi River, which, if they could do, would effectively split the Confederacy in half.
The Southern strategy largely relied on foreign help, especially from Britain and France. And
you may be wondering, why in the world would Britain and France care anything about helping
the Confederacy? And the reason is: cotton. Both those countries relied heavily on exported
southern cotton to keep their textile industries humming. And so Southerners were pretty confident
that King Cotton, as they called it, would convince both countries to come to their aid.
Unfortunately, both countries were rude enough to discover that both India and Egypt could
produce cotton like mad, and therefore King Cotton wasn’t as powerful as they thought.
But as the war ground on, ultimately the Union succeeded due to improvements
in leadership and strategy, key battle victories, and the wartime destruction
of the South’s infrastructure, and let’s look at each of those in turn.
With respect to Union leadership, Lincoln about went crazy for lack of good generals to lead Union
men. But with the rise of generals like Ulysses S. Grant who rarely retreated and pressed the
Confederates hard into their own territory, the tide began to turn. As far as strategy goes,
we could talk about a lot of things, but I’ll only mention one, namely, Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation of 1862. Now when you think about the Emancipation Proclamation,
probably the first thing you think is that this is the magnificent document that freed the enslaved
people of America. But here’s where I tell you ehhhhh. Think about it. In the Emancipation
Proclamation Lincoln unequivocally freed all enslaved people beginning on January 1st,
1863. But go back and read it and you’ll see that he actually only freed enslaved people in those
states that were in active rebellion against the United States, which is to say, the Confederacy.
There were actually five states in the Union, called the Border States, which were in fact slave
states: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia. Those states were NOT in
active rebellion against the Union and therefore, slavery was allowed to remain active within their
borders. So Lincoln freed enslaved people in the Confederacy where he technically had no authority
to do so, and did not free them in the Border states where he DID have authority to do so.
That’s why I say that the Emancipation Proclamation was more a military strategy than
a document of freedom. However, that’s not to say it didn’t work. In announcing this proclamation,
Lincoln effectively changed the scope of the war. It wasn’t merely about saving the Union anymore,
although that was certainly still in view. Now it was about eradicating slavery in the United
States. And it was a good strategy because it did two things. First,
a good number of enslaved workers in the Confederacy used this as an
opportunity to escape their plantations and run to the safety of Union lines.
Some of them actually took up arms and fought for the Union cause. Additionally, it basically
closed the door on British help for the South. Once the war was cast as one against slavery,
the British, who had recently abolished slavery themselves would be very unlikely to take up
the cause, especially when the need for southern cotton wasn’t nearly as acute.
Now another reason the Union succeeded was because of some key victories in battle,
and although there were several significant battles on this count,
let me just mention one, namely the Battle of Vicksburg. As a result of this battle,
the Union gained control of Mississippi under the leadership of General Grant,
and that meant that the plan of cutting the Confederacy in half had been accomplished.
Additionally, the devastation of the South’s infrastructure also ensured the Union victory.
After Grant captured Vicksburg, he sent another General, William Tecumseh Sherman to capture
Atlanta. But Sherman did more than just capture Atlanta: he basically burned it to the ground.
And from Atlanta, Sherman and his men embarked on the devastating March to the Sea. In this
march from Atlanta to Savannah, Sherman destroyed railroads and generally held to a scorched earth
policy burning crops and land and making it near impossible for the South to recover its strength.
And so combine those victories with the devastation of Southern infrastructure
and the success of the Union naval blockade, and that’s how you get Union general Grant
and Confederate General Lee meeting at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th,
1865. Here Lee formally surrendered to Grant and the war was over.
Okay, if you need more help, then check out this Unit 5 playlist right here. If you need
everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam in May. If you want me
to keep making these videos, then you can let me know by subscribing, Heimler out.
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