Civil War and Reconstruction As a Foundation for What America Becomes in the Gilded Age and After

Civil War Between Brothers (and Sisters): Comparison of Strengths

Issues	The Union (the North)	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	400K soldiers = immigrants	20 slave/1 white exemption
Population, for military¾the negatives	(But NY draft riots in 1863)	(But 1865 law to conscript 300K slaves)
Raw materials for manufacturing	Raw materials	Raw materials

Civil War Between Brothers (and Sisters): Comparison of Loss

The % numbers are from McPherson’s What They Fought For. Numbers don’t include losses from prisons (Encyclopedia of American History).

Issues	The Union (the North)	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 and Realities

Assumption	Reality
Britain and France need our cotton. “King Cotton diplomacy” will win.	Could get Egyptian cotton Also needed Northern wheat
Britain and France need our orders for a navy—ironclads/rams.	Union threat of war with them, plus South’s failure to win at Gettysburg (1863)
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 Sherman’s March.
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 and the Phases of Reconstruction; Beginning of the So-Called Gilded Age

Date	Details
1861-04	Fort Sumter (harbor of Charleston, SC)—Union intent to “hold, occupy, and possess” federal property in the South. 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 Manassas, VA) Officially a Southern victory
1862-04	Shiloh Church (near Pittsburgh Landing, TN) 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 Mississippi.
1862-09	Antietam (creek near Sharpsburg, MD) - Lee attacks. 2,100 Union deaths and 2,700 Confederate; wounded 18,500. Stalemate, but Lee retreated¾Official victory Lincoln needed.
1863-01	Emancipation Proclamation - freed slaves in rebellious territory only, not in the border states still in the Union—a beautiful chess move. His action: § Did nothing that could be stopped § Did not offend the slave-holding Union states § Blocked Radical Republicans—pressing Lincoln for more hostile actions to South § 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)¾Lee attacked. Why? Hopes for France and Great Britain as allies – for an equivalent to Saratoga in the American Revolution. 165,000 troops; Southern charge (George Pickett’s charge), 14-15K. 5K made it to engage the Union forces. Later, Confederate retreat. Consequence: § Union had clout to threaten to Britain and France. (The South had no Saratoga.) § 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.)
1863-12	Lincoln Plan¾Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction § Premise—The states never left the Union. § Presidential control § 10 % legal voters taking oath of allegiance accepting end of slavery § Amnesty with the oath § Legitimate state government, representatives and senators to Congress 1864 Per this plan, Arkansas, Tennessee reconstructed, but Congress not admit.
1864-05 - 09	Sherman’s March through Georgia to the Sea¾William T. Sherman § 60K Union soldiers § 300 miles long § 60 miles wide. To “forage liberally on the country”
1864-11	Re-election of Lincoln
1865-02	Sherman’s March to the Carolinas
1865-02	Meeting: Hampton Roads (VA) Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens Lincoln offered compensation for lost slaves. J. Davis rejected because he wanted independence Question: What does it tell you?
1865-04	Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse (VA) - Lee’s army to 25K, rations short
1865-04	Lincoln assassinated

Evolution of Republican Issues

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	Liberty	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 Union, those remaining in the Senate and House of Representatives could vote for what they wanted without having to negotiate with those favoring Southern issues. The change in party balance shows the results of secession: they get what they want.

	1857	1861
Senators, Democratic	36	10
Senators, Republican	20	31
Representatives, Democratic	118	43
Representatives, Republican	92	105

The Future of the Gilded Age Seen in the Legislation of the Civil War

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 Union for each Congressional office held (Senator or Representative) to establish agriculture colleges (70 established)

§ 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)

Timeline and the Phases of Reconstruction; Beginning of the So-Called Gilded Age Continued

Date	Details
1865-05	Andrew Johnson Plan¾Restoration § Premise—The states never left the Union; punish individuals § Presidential control like Lincoln’s with the addition of ratifying the 13^th Amendment, repudiating war debt, and those $20K property holders had to personally petition to Johnson for amnesty 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. Questions: Where have you heard the name 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	13^th 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
1866-03	Freedman’s Bureau—freedmen and abandoned lands—included education program
1866-04	Civil Rights Act¾Congress overrode Johnson veto
1866-06	14^th amendment started and became a condition—Tennessee ratified and was readmitted to Union. Question: What’s the Southern expectation? Why not join in? Because other Southern states thought Radical Republicans would be defeated with the Congressional elections; they were wrong.
1866-07	Race riots against blacks, New Orleans and Memphis
1866-fall	Congressional Elections
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	U.S. Grant v. Horatio Seymour Bloody shirt v. white supremacy
1869	Promontory, Utah - Union Pacific & Central Pacific; so-called “Peace Policy”
1870	Ku Klux Klan Acts acts to try to stop them;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, begin merit system Era: Grantism – Boss-ism – Tompkins Square Riot - Molly Maguires - The Gilded Age by Mark Twain
1873	“Crime of 73”- gold standard
	Panic of 1873
1874	Women’s Christian Temperance Union – 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. 2003-2011

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
Last Updated:	2011
WCJC Home:	http://www.wcjc.edu/

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[1] Delaware, Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky