Final Lecture: The Civil War and the Others

Key Questions

• How did women participate in the Civil War?
• What impact did the Civil War have on Indian Country?
• What was the nature of political opposition in the North and South?

Introduction

• Focus on lesser-known stories of the Civil War
• Impact on different genders, races, and political ideologies

Women's Participation

• Traditional & non-traditional roles
  • Battlefield nurses and spies (e.g., Rose Greenau)
  • Women who fought disguised as men (e.g., Albert Cashier)
• Contributions: Nursing, fundraising, campaigning, spying

Impact on Indian Country

• 29,000 Indians fought for both North and South
• Internal strife within tribes
• Confederate army filled the void left by U.S. troops

Motivations to Fight

• Pro-Confederate: Supported slavery, states' rights
• Pro-Union: Rivalries, reservations east of the Mississippi

Examples

• Cherokee Nation: Chief John Ross (neutrality) vs. Stand Watie (pro-Confederacy)
• Pro-Union Indians: Company K (First Michigan Sharpshooters), General Ely S. Parker (Seneca), who drafted the articles of surrender at Appomattox

Legacy

• Devastation in Indian territory
• Reconstruction treaties: Land cessions by five major tribes
• Forced emancipation of slaves: Issues of citizenship for freedmen

Other Conflicts

Great Sioux Uprising (1862)

• Causes: Broken treaties, famine, crop failures
• Outcome: 303 Indians sentenced, 264 commuted by President Lincoln
• Aftermath: Dakota removal to the Great Plains

Navajo Long Walk

• Forced removal to Bosque Redondo
• Harsh conditions: Brackish water, crop failures
• Eventually allowed to return to their traditional lands

Political Others

Southern Unionists

• Examples: Andrew Johnson, Sam Houston, Winfield Scott
• Served in Union Army in large numbers, especially in Appalachia
• West Virginia: Split from Virginia, admitted to Union in 1863

Free State of Jones

• Led by Newton Knight
• Guerrilla warfare against Confederates
• Overthrew county government, seceded from Mississippi in 1864

Copperheads

• Northern Democrats opposed the war and Lincoln
• Encouraged desertion, opposed the draft
• Lincoln suspended habeas corpus to detain them
• Examples: Clement Vallandigham (arrested for sympathizing with Confederacy)
• Failures: Plots to release prisoners, take over state governments
• Demise: Union military successes in 1863-64