What Is This Quick Reference For? This quick reference does not try to cover everything, but to provide a way to help you understand the essentials and to see how those essentials fit together. If you have a question, ask. Glad to help you. Common Question about Dates and This History Class: Does having these dates in here mean students are expected to memorize them? The answer is “no.” To understand how things happened, you want to notice the order of events. Think of it this way: if you were watching two people fight, how you interpreted things would probably depend on who did what first. |
Two Ways to Find
What You Want If you are looking for specific information, use Find (available in different ways on different systems). For example, if you missed a question (such as Emancipation Proclamation) on the quiz, you could press Ctrl-F, type a few letters (such as Procl), and follow the screen prompts to move through all uses of the word in this resource. You can also click on the links below to go directly to something you want to use. Civil
War Between Brothers (and Sisters): Comparison of Strengths Civil
War Between Brothers: Comparison of Enlistments, the Wounded, and the Dead South’s
Assumptions About Their Success and the Reality of Each Assumption Timeline:
Civil War – April 1861 to April 1865 What
Set the Direction for the Republican Party and for the Post-Civil War Era What’s
the Gilded Age and What Does Its Name Mean? Timeline:
Phases of Reconstruction to the Beginning of the Gilded Age – April 1865 to
1877 |
Civil War Between
Brothers (and Sisters): Comparison of Strengths
Tip: Compare the column for the North and the South. Who might win in a short war? Who probably cannot win in a long war? |
Issues |
The |
The Confederacy
(the South) |
Basics |
23 states (4 slave[1]);
22M people. |
11 states; 9M
people (5.5M white; 3.5M slave) |
Goal of war |
Stop the secession
(only later is slavery an official objective of the war) |
Secede |
Infrastructure,
banking |
Money in place (2X
banking) |
¾ |
Infrastructure,
communication |
Communication in
place (telegraph lines) |
¾ |
Infrastructure,
government –people |
Central bureaucracy
in place |
Bureaucracy to
build |
Infrastructure, government
–system itself |
Constitutional
system of government |
Government
equivalent to Articles of Confederation |
Infrastructure,
manufacturing technology |
Technology to
manufacture; 6X South |
¾ (and only 3%
of firearm manufacture) |
Infrastructure,
transportation –land |
Railroad network in
place (some varied gauges) |
Inadequate
railroads (varied gauges) |
Infrastructure,
transportation –sea |
Navy in place to
block ports |
Dependent on
imports |
Infrastructure,
transportation –sea - protection for |
Navy in place |
Navy on order from
British and French |
Leadership |
Abraham Lincoln |
Jefferson Davis |
Population, for
manufacture |
People to
manufacture (quantity & consolidation) |
¾ |
Population, for
military |
400,000 soldiers =
immigrants |
20 slave/1 white
exemption |
Population, for
military¾the negatives |
(But NY draft riots
in 1863) |
(But 1865 law to
conscript 300,000 slaves) |
Raw materials for
manufacturing |
Raw materials |
Raw materials |
Civil War Between Brothers: Comparison of
Enlistments, the Wounded, and the Dead
The
% numbers are from McPherson’s What They Fought For. Numbers do not include losses from prisons
(Encyclopedia of American History). |
Issues |
The |
The Confederacy
(the South) |
Enlistments |
1,557,000 |
1,082,000 |
Wounded |
275,000 |
100,000 minimum |
Dead, # |
365,000 |
200,000 |
Dead, % |
5% |
11-12% |
South’s Assumptions About Their Success and the Reality of Each Assumption
|
Assumption |
Reality |
|
Could get Egyptian cotton Also needed Northern wheat |
|
Union threat of war with them, plus South’s
failure to win at |
Northwest needs our rivers to get to
market. |
Unaware of the Northeast-Northwest
connection by canal and railroad grid Rivers opened South to Union forces (US
Grant in 1862) |
We’re fighting a defensive war just like
the Patriots. |
War on the homeland—disruption of food
supplies and civilian losses, as shown in |
We’re experienced fighters. |
North had Singer sewing machine, Borden
milk, immigrant solders. |
We have experienced generals. |
North had, when he was sober, U.S. Grant;
North had William Sherman. |
We’re fighting for a higher cause of
liberty. |
Abraham Lincoln, Radical Congress, Radical
officers, and the Emancipation Proclamation—Slavery became the cause and
liberty became the cause. |
Timeline: Civil War
– April 1861 to April 1865
Tip
on the History: Look at the map provided in the course with this
resource. It has instructor’s notes. Reminder: Does having these dates in here mean students are expected to memorize them? The answer is “no.” To understand how things happened, you want to notice the order of events. Think of it this way: if you were watching two people fight, how you interpreted things would probably depend on who did what first. The date column in the timeline shows the year followed by the number of the month. For example: 1861-04 means 1861 in April |
Date |
Details |
1861-04 |
Provisions in short
supply, unarmed supply ship. 2 days firing by
the South and surrender of fort. South became the
aggressor. |
1861-07 |
Bull Run (near Officially a
Southern victory |
1862-04 |
A mixed outcome
with each side having a claim to success, but the South is unable to stop the
Union’s moves (led by U.S. Grant) into the |
1862-09 |
Antietam (creek
near 2,100 Union deaths
and 2,700 Confederate; wounded 18,500. Stalemate, but Lee
retreated¾Official
victory |
1863-01 |
Emancipation
Proclamation - freed slaves
in rebellious territory only, not in the border states still in the §
Did
nothing that could be stopped §
Did not
offend the slave-holding Union states §
Blocked
Radical Republicans—pressing §
Blocked
the radical press—arguing for emancipation § Blocked the Radical military—freeing slaves
they found § Blocked British ruling class sentiment
toward South (The British public was increasingly anti-slavery as were the
textile workers, who remained supportive of the North even as they lost
jobs.) |
1863-07 |
Gettysburg (PA)¾Eastern part of the war - Lee attacked. Why? Hopes for 165,000 troops;
Southern charge (George Pickett’s charge), 14,000-15,000 soldiers made it to
engage the Union forces. Later, Confederate retreat. Consequence: §
Union
had clout to threaten to §
British
blocked delivery of ironclads/rams §
French
blocked delivery of 6 vessels. (FYI: French in June had occupied Mexico City,
placed Maxmilian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico.) Vicksburg (MS)—Western part of the war -Defeat of the South by Ulysses S. Grant –
Confederacy now divided at the Mississippi; Mississippi now controlled by
North so has access to the Gulf from the West Tip on
the History: Look at the map of the war. Notice that the North
has divided the South vertically at the Mississippi River. The North can now
use the Mississippi to get to the Gulf of Mexico from the west. |
1863-12 |
|
1864-05 - 09 |
§
60,000
Union soldiers - Their Orders: To
“forage liberally on the country” §
300
miles long §
60
miles wide. Tip on
the History: Why would Sherman do this and at this time. Look
at the map of the war. Notice that the North has now marched across the South
diagonally from the West in Tennessee down to the East through Georgia. |
1864-11 |
Re-election of |
1865-01 |
13th
amendment¾passed Tip on
the History: What’s the difference between: § An
amendment and a law? § Passing
an amendment and ratifying it? If you
do not know, then ask. Glad to help you. |
1865-02 |
Sherman’s March
to the Carolinas Tip on
the History: Look at the map of the war. Notice that the North has
now marched across the South from Georgia through North and South Carolina. |
1865-02 |
Meeting: Lincoln and
Secretary of State Seward with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens Confederate
President Jefferson Davis rejected the offer because he wanted independence Tip on
the History: How realistic was the rejection? Do the math: § On the years: how long has this war lasted? § On the geography: how much has the North conquered? § On the number of population for a war: how many did each side have and
how many at the end of the war? |
1865-04 |
Surrender at
Appomattox Courthouse (VA) -
Previously at 165,000 before Gettysburg in 1863, Lee’s army to 25,000,
rations short. |
1865-04 |
|
The Republican
Party’s predecessor parties led it to have many of the issues previously
associated with the Whigs, such as favoring internal improvements. They also
countered the Whigs; for example, the Whigs were becoming nativist and the
countermove was being pro-immigration. The X’s in the table are based on
specific lists of platform issues in the Encyclopedia of American History.
Other issues may also have been in the parties’ platforms. |
Issues in the Campaigns of the Varied Anti-Slavery Parties |
|
Free Soil |
Republican |
||
1840, 1844 |
1848 |
1852 |
1856 |
1860 |
|
Free soil (including
specifics such as supporting the Wilmot Proviso) |
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
Pro-internal
improvements in general and/or a transcontinental railroad |
|
X |
|
X |
X |
Homestead provision
so people could get land |
|
X |
X |
|
X |
Pro-immigration |
|
|
X |
|
X |
Pro (somewhat)
protective tariff |
|
|
|
|
X |
Republican – Democrat Votes
in House and Senate
Once
the 11 Confederate states left the The
change in party balance shows the results of secession: the Northern Senators
and Congressmen can get the laws they want—and you’ll see them on the next
page. |
|
1857 |
1861 |
Senators,
Democratic |
36 |
10 |
Senators,
Republican |
20 |
31 |
Representatives,
Democratic |
118 |
43 |
Representatives,
Republican |
92 |
105 |
What Republican Legislation from 1861 to 1864 Set the
Direction of the Post-Civil War Era?
The issues passed
by these Senators and Representatives included: §
1861—Increased
protective tariff with subsequent additions through 1869 raising
tariffs to the rate of just under 50% (Protective tariffs became a Republican
principle.) §
1862 +—Transcontinental
railroad established—land grants for a Northern route §
1862—Homestead
Act—160 acres of public land to heads of families for residence for five
years, a small fee (In 1866 there was an equivalent act for Southern blacks,
but its implementation was blocked by landowners short of labor in the
South.) §
1862—Land
grant colleges (Morrill Act)—30,000 acres to states in the §
1864—National
banking system—uniform currency, with a tax on state bank notes driving
them out of circulation (greenbacks again backed by gold in mid-1870s) |
This period that follows the Civil War and Reconstruction is frequently called the Gilded Age. A quiz question from Quiz B covers this term specifically. The period was named by Mark Twain, best known for such books as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He named the age and your textbook describes why.
This background may help. Historians have mixed feelings about this name for the period but—thus far—it seems the best name for it. This term comes from this difference.
§ The
traditional term for the highest period of a civilization is its golden age—when people looking back on
the history of their world viewed it as the best it ever was. A lesser period
of a civilization is sometimes called it
silver age.
Why use the words gold and silver? Gold is a valuable metal;
silver, a lesser value.
§ Instead,
Mark Twain titled his book about this period The Gilded Age.
Why use the word gilded? Gild is a thin, fake metal layer over cheap
metal. It shines like gold, but it’s fake.
Date |
Details |
1864-0 |
Reminder:
Lee surrendered at Appomattox
Courthouse (VA)
|
1865-05 |
Andrew
Johnson Plan¾Restoration
§
Premise—The
states never left the §
Presidential
control like 1865-12 Per this
plan, 10 states ready for restoration. |
1865-11 |
Black
Codes¾New state
legislatures started passing. Vagrancy laws forced employment with private
individuals to pay fines; forbidden to rent or own land, could not change
jobs, could not do work other than as farm or domestic labor.
Tip on
the History: § Where have you heard the name black codes or a similar name? § Ask yourself how you would feel when you heard this if you’d had a son
or brother die for the Northern cause or if you were a Congressman? |
1865-12 |
13th
amendment¾ratified
|
1866 |
Ku Klux Klan
started Intent white
supremacy; used violence, continued past 1869, when officially disbanded. |
1866 + |
Congressional Reconstruction had been:
§
Congressional
control §
50 %
legal voters took oath of allegiance accepting end of slavery Tip on
the History: Notice the percentage (It’s not
the 10% as with Lincoln’s offer or Johnson’s offer.) |
1866-03 |
Actions
by the national government in the South using the Freedman’s Bureau—freedmen and
abandoned lands—included education program
Actions by individual and groups of African Americans in the South: formation of churches and schools. |
1866-04 |
Civil
Rights Act¾Congress overrode Johnson veto
|
1866-06 |
14th
amendment
started and became a condition—
|
1866-07 |
Race riots
against blacks, Tip on the History:
What is a riot? |
1866-fall |
Congressional Elections
Tip on the History: What had the
voters been reading in the newspapers in the North about the events in the South?
So what kind of Congressman do you think the voters in the North vote for? |
1867 + |
Congressional Reconstruction becomes:
§ First Reconstruction Act
§ Military Reconstruction (5 districts)
§
Expansion of
Freedman’s Bureau
|
1868 |
Fifteenth Amendment proposed - Consequences on women’s suffrage
and women’s organizations |
1868-02 to 05 |
Impeachment of
Johnson —Viewed as
impediment to Radical Republicanism. Method used: Tenure of Office
Act—In brief, those Senate approved must be Senate removed. 1 vote saved
Johnson. |
1868 |
|
1869 |
Promontory, Grant’s so-called
“Peace Policy” with the Native Americans |
1870 |
Revival of the KKK Ku Klux Klan Acts
to try to stop KKK—and the North’s actions work;13 volumes of Congressional
testimony taken on the KKK. |
1871 |
Department of
Justice established; head=Attorney General |
1872 |
U. S. Grant v.
Horace Greeley (Democrat & Liberal Republican) Issues of the
Liberal Republicans – end Reconstruction, end protective tariff (thus liberal, meaning supporting free
trade), begin merit system Tip on the History: If you do
not understand the difference between a protective and revenue tariff, the
meaning of the word tariff, and the meaning of the word merit system, ask.
These are key concepts General traits of
the era: §
Corruption
and abuse of power (many scandals) – If you want to see how much corruption, you
can see a link in the course §
Boss-ism
(New York city government and Boss Tween) §
Unemployment
with workers desperate for jobs (Tompkins Square) §
Labor
unrest (Molly Maguires) §
Farmer unrest |
1873 |
“Crime of 73”-
United States goes on the gold standard. Tip on the History: What’s a
gold standard? If you do not know, ask. |
|
Panic of 1873 |
1874 |
Women’s Christian Temperance Union – Frances
Willard Tip on the History: What’s the
organization for and what is the gender of Frances Willard? |
1876 |
Rutherford B.
Hayes (Ohio Gov.) v. Sam Tilden (NY Gov.) |
1877 |
Electoral
Commission Compromise of 1877 |
Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2014 |
WCJC
Department: |
History
– Dr. Bibus |
Contact
Information: |
281.239.1577
or bibusc@wcjc.edu
|
Last
Updated: |
2014 |
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