hello and welcome to our lecture and the war came gettysburg and vicksburg so we'll be looking at most of the civil war today we're gonna kind of hone in on those two battles particularly as well as some major turning points during the war we'll also be looking at why the emancipation proclamation was both strategically and militarily useful what did it actually do and why did lincoln reference four score and seven years ago in the gettysburg address we'll be paying kind of a closer attention to the wording of the address so on february 6 to 16 1862 brigadier general ulysses s grant you see there on the side took fort's henry and donaldson on the tennessee and kentucky border guarding the strategic waterways into the mississippi river valley which you can kind of see on the map there now this victory closed a really important link between the eastern and western confederacy which basically means east and west sides of the mississippi river now the only safe route for confederates was across the appalachians through georgia grant then moved his men towards vicksburg mississippi so he's trying to get to vicksburg one of the last ports on the mississippi river still controlled by the confederacy he blunted a surprise attack at shiloh church in april of 1862 another u.s victory but again the really high number of casualties transformed attitudes about the war on both sides more soldiers died at shiloh than in all of the nation's wards combined up to that point in time each side suffered more than ten thousand casualties and again when we're talking casualties we're talking about someone who is injured too badly to continue fighting or is killed in battle so that is a lot of casualties uh weaponry is more efficient than it was in previous wars and yet there's no advance in medical technology to kind of go along with that advance in military technology which we'll talk about a little more in a later lecture one of the confederate survivors at shiloh wrote quote too shocking too horrible god grant that i may never be the partaker in such scenes again when released from this i shall ever be an advocate of peace however the united states now held 200 miles of the mississippi river and vicksburg was the only major mississippi river town still in confederate hands the confederate military began to realize their resources were stretched too thin to defend such a vast amount of territory with ongoing successes in the west lincoln ordered a new offensive against richmond the confederate capital back in the east still hoping to end the war rather quickly he appointed general george mcclellan to lead the army of the potomac so the army of the potomac is going to be in the east basically around dc and virginia kind of that area mcclellan was a superb organizer but he's overly cautious in the field and the kind of casualty rates the amount of death that went along with civil war battles did not work well with someone who was that cautious mcclellan led the peninsula campaign in march of 1862 so if we take a look at the map here here's washington dc here's virginia uh and they're kind of running around these peninsulas on the outside of virginia which is why the campaign is known by that name so the united states army took yorktown williamsburg and norfolk virginia they're kind of moving on their way to richmond confederate general joseph johnson withdrew strategically to defend richmond so instead of engaging the us military they fall back to try to defend richmond the capital mcclellan began to move toward johnston and his men but johnston was badly injured so confederate president jefferson davis replaced johnston with confederate general robert e lee who renamed the confederate forces here the army of northern virginia one of the most famous armies of the confederate military lee had also attended west point and he had served in the war with mexico he commanded the federal forces at harpers ferry who captured john brown although a plantation and slave owner himself he had initially opposed secession lee's army of northern virginia fought under a square battle flag if you remember the confederate flag looked remarkably similar to the american flag so confederates tended to fly the confederate flag but underneath it they would fly their battle flags for the individual armies of the confederacy and that way it wasn't so confusing for men in battle now the square battle flag of lee's army of northern virginia is what many americans today confuse the rectangular version of for being the actual confederate flag even though that rectangular flag that looks so similar is actually a modern creation lee himself distanced himself from divisive symbols of the civil war after his defeat and in fact there were no flags flown at his funeral after the war at his request what people think of as the confederate flag wasn't popular or widely recognizable until white supremacists used it to protest the civil rights movement of the 1940s through 60s now general winfield scott had offered lee command of the us army famously but lee declined saying he was unwilling to fight against his native virginia instead lee betrayed his oath to the u.s constitution and military and fled to the confederacy the lee had a gambler's disposition one of his officers noted his name might be audacity he will take more chances and take them quicker than any other general in this country lee changed tactics and he pursued what's called an offensive defense so he's setting up to defend richmond he's supposed to be on the defensive side of this battle and instead he attacked mcclellan's right flank putting mcclellan into a defensive position so we call this offensive defense a series of battles ensued that ended in a standoff meaning nobody really won but lee successfully stopped mcclellan's advance on richmond so you can think of that as kind of a confederate victory even though they didn't actually defeat a u.s army here more than 30 000 men were killed or wounded on both sides and this was the deadliest week of the war so far now these battles cost lee dearly he lost one quarter of his 80 000 man army but he was still convinced of the wisdom of this offensive defensive strategy the overly cautious mcclellan shocked by the carnage with drew and remember if you just look at the number of men and the number of soldiers each side has the confederacy is going to run out of people to put into these battles much more quickly than the u.s will so lincoln needs to replace mcclellan with someone bold enough to pursue the into richmond despite this carnage and just end this thing but lee's strategy continued to befuddle the new us generals and again saved richmond and these confederate victories reinforced the reputation of lee and his army as invincible despite the incredible casualties suffered by men on both sides of these conflicts now although slavery caused the war and every southern state that seceded was very open about that the objective of american forces up to this point of the war had not been to free the slaves but to bring those southern states back into the united states and under the control of governments loyal to the united states lincoln also had to keep border states that still had slavery happy and in the union in the united states so not every slave state leaves the u.s and joins the confederacy lincoln said quote i hope to have god on my side but i must have kentucky northerners understood that enslaved people were being used to aid the rebel war effort by growing cotton and food digging ditches cooking hauling water and other menial or physical labor type tasks it was still illegal in the south to arm and slave people and they were not allowed to serve in combat although this was debated in the confederacy at the very end of the war showing just how desperate they got now the first steps towards emancipation occurred within the us military and its contraband policies contraband is anything usually a thing that will help your enemy in battle and which you don't want them to have it's banned right you don't want them to get supplies of guns or ammunition or you know anything that will help them wage this war so even though the south had seceded there's those 11 states the initial seven plus the second set of four even though they deceded they still demanded the return of runaway slaves under the fugitive slave law and the u.s constitution which is a really convenient argument to say we're not subject to the constitution anymore but you still are and that means you have to return our runaway slaves the u.s military argued that these enslaved people were actually contraband property because they were being used to aid the enemy if they're growing food and performing manual labor for the confederate military and the u.s military gets them their technically contraband property of the us military so the us army used confiscated slaves to build fortifications themselves they don't actually free these people they become the property of the u.s army even so thousands of enslaved people fled southern plantations and flocked to u.s lines seeking freedom the us army housed them in informal tent cities known as contraband camps and you see a depiction of one there on the slide in 1861 congress passed the first confiscation act which actually freed a group of slaves for the first time but it only freed those enslaved people whose labor had directly assisted the confederate war effort or whose masters were openly disloyal to the united states so their masters had to be openly disloyal or their labor had to be directly assisting the confederate war effort for them to be freed in august of 1861 american general john c fremont went even further he issued an order emancipating all of the enslaved people in his jurisdiction in missouri when fremont refused to rescind the order lincoln canceled it himself he could not risk losing the border states of the upper south in april of 1862 major general david hunter declared martial law in georgia florida and south carolina again issuing an emancipation edict and lincoln again voided the order so what we're seeing here is american military commanders were seeing the military necessity of freeing enslaved people it would drain resources from the confederacy and it would add resources to the united states but american politicians weren't ready yet they're worried about upsetting those border slave states and remember emancipation is not a very popular idea even outside of those border states and into the rest of the north they see these people as competition for jobs so american politicians aren't there yet but the u.s military is saying this is part of how we're going to win this war between april and july of 1862 the u.s military couldn't seem to turn victories into lasting games they're still winning most of the battles but they're not really winning the war yet and public opinion in the north began turning against the war this thing is incredibly bloody it's way more lethal than anyone knew when it had started or expected um and so people just become very uh disengaged with it they don't want the war to keep going on like this radical republicans still dominated congress and when we talk about radical republicans we're talking about republicans who are the most ideologically extreme of their group so remember the high federalists to the federalists or today maybe the tea party to your average republican that's what the radical republicans were to the republican party so those radical republicans actually do support emancipation and civil rights and would have been abolitionists whereas your average republican not so much anti-slavery don't want to see it spread into those western territories but not abolitionist so those radical republicans were far less moderate than lincoln and they pushed for emancipation on july 16 1682 congress passed the second confiscation act and this one gave u.s commanders the right to seize all enslaved people as property of the us army as they marched into the confederacy basically it resolved the problem of what to do with all of these enslaved people that were running away to american lines for freedom basically the us army got to claim them as property and they didn't have to turn them back over to slave owners in the south even though they're not technically freed lots of enslaved people will run to union lines for this kind of freedom lincoln himself began to work on an emancipation proposal for full emancipation for these people that would have more legal and constitutional weight than the second confiscation act so if you remember when lincoln was running for president uh basically he wanted to keep slavery out of the territories he didn't really think he had any power to mess with it where it already existed in those southern slave states but the war changes that there are war powers a president has which he can use in those areas in rebellion lincoln's secretary of state william seaward convinced him to wait for a military victory they don't want this to seem like an act of desperation so in the meantime lincoln responded to criticism in the press saying in 1862 quote my paramount object in this struggle is to save the union and is not either to save or destroy slavery if i could save the union without freeing any slave i would do it and if i could save it by freeing all the slaves i would do it and if i could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone i would also do that his point is to reunite the nation and save democracy save the united states the battle of antietam in 1862 gave lincoln the victory he needed he issued the emancipation proclamation citing the war powers provision of the constitution which allows for an increase in executive that is presidential authority during wartime basically lincoln promised to protect slavery in the deep south and in those southern states that had seceded if they surrendered to the united states by january 1st 1863. if they did not if they remained in rebellion he swore to abolish slavery permanently in those areas so any area still in rebellion after january 1st 1863 slavery would be legally ended by this executive order of the emancipation proclamation this ensures the loyalty of border states that still have slavery because it exempts them they're not in rebellion they get to keep slavery but we need to remember emancipation was not popular in much of the north and republicans will pay a political price for this so lincoln announces it then they have the midterm elections of 1862 then it goes into effect in january 1863 and in those midterms democrats picked up seats in congress they didn't get a majority though republicans are still holding the majority in both houses of congress and yet democrats did make gains against republicans in those midterms part of the reason why was voters not happy about emancipation even so emancipation worked it spread southern resources even more thinly the south was now fighting two different wars one against the united states and one against a massive slave insurrection lincoln argued quote that in giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free honorable alike in which we give and what we preserve he concluded we shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth european nations which had considered diplomatic recognition of the confederacy now refused they would not support a slave power in a war explicitly to end slavery the emancipation proclamation also recommended that able-bodied freedmen be received into armed service now black men had not previously been allowed to serve in the u.s military even though black soldiers have served in every war that the u.s has ever fought they typically were not allowed to serve during peace time and they hadn't been allowed to serve in the civil war up to this point in time but black soldiers replenished the tired and poorly motivated u.s army of the 185 000 black soldiers and the 20 000 black sailors who fought for the united states more than 80 percent were slaves or free black men from the south in total they comprised about 10 percent of union forces now the confederacy in response labeled white american generals leading black troops as instigators of slave rebellions subject to death by hanging confederate president davis warns that any black person captured during rebel forays into northern territory including free black soldiers would be enslaved and sent south and when the confederate military does basically invade the united states and move north into free territory they will basically kidnap and enslave free black people in those areas davis threatened to enslave black u.s servicemen instead of exchanging them for confederate prisoners of war or pows as well lincoln responded by suspending prisoner exchanges until all american pows were eligible but this contributed to horrible conditions in prisoner of war camps because those prisons were never meant to hold people indefinitely and the confederacy still refused to see black american soldiers as american soldiers and pows 56 000 pows died in captivity most infamously at the confederacy's andersonville but the confederacy still refused to american terms for prisoner exchange which basically just meant treating black soldiers like black soldiers instead of enslaved people in rebellion andersonville prison was built to hold up to 10 000 prisoners of war but three times that were incarcerated there within six months of it being built of the forty five thousand prisoners held at andersonville as many as one half were ill and thirteen thousand died there at the end of the war henry wurz commandant of andersonville was arrested for the murder of american servicemen incarcerated at the prison he claimed in his defense that he was only following orders and that he could not feed the american pows because the south had no food to spare now if that was the case what he should have done legally was let those people go following orders is not an excuse for committing a war crime northern poet walt whitman wrote of andersonville quote there are deeds crimes that may be forgiven this is not among them it steeps its perpetrators in blackest escapeless endless damnation meanwhile the confederacy barred black american soldiers from being designated as pows and therefore the prisoner of war exchanges remained stopped in april 1864 confederate general nathan bedford forrest a slave trader and later founder of the first ku klux klan overran federal positions at fort pillow tennessee the 600 union troops surrendered forced approximately 2 000 troops now under the laws of war most of the garrison should have been taken as prisoners of war but remember the confederacy is not accepting black soldiers as pows so after the american soldiers surrendered forest men murdered approximately 300 of them most of them black soldiers and what is generally considered the worst racial atrocity of the civil war that is forest army of tennessee's battle flag on the lower left it's very similar to the army of northern virginia but with thicker stars and bars knowing that the south's economy and frankly its military could not withstand the union blockade and ongoing war much longer lee organized a campaign into the north to break their will to fight so generally cross the potomac into maryland but the us army halted his advance at antietam so this is one of only two battles fought in american territory as opposed to in territories in rebellion that consider themselves to be part of the confederacy the battle of antietam in maryland on september 17 1862 ended in a standoff lee's army of 39 thousand men fought mcclellan's army of 75 000. to this day it is the single bloodiest day of fighting in all of american history with twenty four thousand casualties twenty one hundred american soldiers died and twenty seven hundred confederate soldiers died another eighteen thousand five hundred were wounded about equally divided mcclellan though the american general squandered his numerical advantage with uncoordinated and timid attacks again overly cautious generals did not fare well with the carnage of the civil war lee's troops retreated back across the potomac and mcclellan again declined to pursue them so lincoln very frustrated here is trying to find a general that can actually end this thing and he replaces mcclellan with the also shy and insecure general burnside however antietam halted lee's advance into the north and it enabled lincoln to release the emancipation proclamation and in doing so he eliminated the confederacy's chance for diplomatic recognition in europe which would have been crucial to their survival at the battle of chancellorsville on may 2-6 of 1863 lee surprised u.s general hooker by sending stonewall jackson to outflank him the confederate victory came at a high price though lee lost 13 000 men including stonewall jackson the united states lost 17 000 men and this victory encouraged lee to invade the north again hoping to finally break the americans will to fight so lee invaded the north again this time with 75 000 men the american general hooker moved too slowly allowing lee to march from maryland into pennsylvania lincoln replaced hooker with lee's old friend from the mexican war general george meade lee respected meade saying general meade will commit no blunder in my front lee consolidated his men in defensive positions at cashton one confederate brigade left to confiscate shoes from a factory in the nearby town of gettysburg they're desperate for shoes they're marching in bare feet so they go to confiscate the shoes where they met cavalry resistance and withdrew on july 1 1863 a larger confederate force advanced to gettysburg to disperse the cavalry and get the much-needed shoes they did not realize the entire army of the potomac was coming up behind the cavalry proceed to the next part of the lecture page to learn more about gettysburg