The Secession Crisis
- States in the deep south begin to secede
- Feb 1861 Jefferson Davis becomes the president of the Confederate States of America
- Each state is independent, president has 6 year term
- Buchanan deemed secession illegal, but claimed the govt right to take the states back by force
- Crittenden Compromise failed to get govt support
- Wanted to keep the peace by extending the Missouri line and leaving slavery in all states where it currently exists
- In his inaugural address, Lincoln says how the Union cannot be split and reiterates that secession is illegal
- Swears to fight against slavery
Fort Sumter and the Seccessiom
- Fort Sumter was a fort in the South, Union troops fled there
- Jefferson demanded its surrender, and bombarded for 33 hours to get it back
- Lincoln sends an unarmed ship to give them food so they dont die
- Ruffin fires the first shot on Fort Sumter and leads to battle
- Lincoln eventually had to pull 75k troops from state militias into service
- After Fort Sumter, the Upper South seceded and joined the confederacy
- Border States don’t secede and are imposed martial law upon these states
- Habeus corpus suspended and confederate supporters were arrested
- Maryland was the most important state, if they seceded the US Capitol would be located in another country
- Kentucky was important because of its position on the Ohio River
Union War Strategy
Anaconda Plan
- Surround the Confederacy by the bottom and slowly go around and strangle it
- Blockade exports and capture Mississippi River
- Capture the capital at Richmond
- Everyone in the South has a gun
- Large military tradition
- The North has a subpar military leadership
- Legal Tender Act:
- Created a national currency
- Paper money known as greenbacks
- This paper money could be traded in for specie (gold)
- Homestead Act:
- Free land to farmers in the Union to boost wartime agricultural output
- In 1862 congress chartered the Union Pacific and Central railroads to create the transcontinental railroad
- The Union had unlimited men, unlimited supplies, and a large rail network
- Also had food farms, not cash crop farms
- The North is more able to support an army
Confederate War Strategy
- Compare themselves to the colonies in the American Revolution
- Defend its borders, fight a defensive war, and negatively affect northern morale
- The Confederacy also sought foreign recognition so they could sell their cotton
- Countries were hesitant to make deals with them because of slavery
- To pay for the war they tried to tax trade
- Limited because of the Union naval blockades and because of the Cotton Diplomacy
- Cotton Diplomacy
- Stop exporting cotton so that the rest of the world cannot depend on their crazy cotton exports