This presentation covers the Confederate and Union Home Fronts during the Civil War. It is one in a series of presentations designed for a college level seminar on the Civil War and Reconstruction wherein students watch the presentation to get general knowledge that will prepare them for the discussion of recent scholarship.

1. The Civil War and Reconstruction

2.  Union states sent nearly 40% of their military age men to
fight in the war. Many of these men did not survive and
those who did, were not the same.
 Historians have been able to learn a great deal about what
happened on the battlefield and on the homefront from the
correspondence between soldiers and their families.
 The effects of war left deep social and emotional wounds in
the lives of soldiers’ families.
 The wives of enlisted men often had to work to supplement
their husband’s pay.
 Many families that lost sons, husbands, and fathers would
have a difficult time recovering from the emotional loss.

3.  Union women had already been working outside of the
home before the war but the war pushed more women into
the workforce.
 Other women felt compelled to support the war effort by
becoming nurses, working in hospitals, serving as spies
and messengers, and even fighting in the war disguised as
men.
 Still other women supported the war effort by doing
volunteer work—making uniforms, preserving food stuffs,
raising funds, sending supplies to men.
 The Women’s Central Relief Association coordinated these
women’s work and provided invaluable support to the United
States Sanitation Commission.

4. Women Soldiers
Although Civil War
women are generally
depicted as help-
mates to soldiers,
they served in the
military disguised as
men.

5. Union Nurses
Clara Barton was one of
many women who
rushed to provide relief
to wounded soldiers.
She was critical to the
Army Medical
Department’s finally
getting enough supplies
to tend to soldiers.
Barton served at Cedar
Mountain, Second Bull
Run, Antietam, and
Fredericksburg.
She would later help to
found the American
Red Cross.

6. African American
Union Women
Harriet Tubman was
one of many African
American women
who provided service
to the Union army
during the war.
Although most
known for her
Underground
Railroad activism,
she served as a nurse,
a cook, and a spy
during the Civil War.

7.  The economic recession that began before the war
continued until 1862 when the recovery began.
 Although military service sapped the number of male
workers, the entrance of native born women and
children and large numbers of immigrants into the
workforce as well as the development of new
technologies eased the burden and allowed the
economy to grow.
 Industrial production increased as did the number of
national unions designed to protect the interests of
workers.

8.  Cities continued to grow and soon they were filled with
such attractions as theaters, circuses, parks, baseball
games, opera, resorts, carnivals and shows.
 A criminal underclass emerged as people seeking to profit
from the war and crime and corruption rose.
 Both public and private organizations emerged to provide
relief not only to soldiers’ families but also to the poor.
 Women’s volunteer work on behalf of soldiers in the
Women’s Central Relief Association gave rise to the United
States Sanitary Commission which provided medical care
and services to soldiers.

9.  In 1864, Lincoln faced political opposition to his reelection
from both Republicans and Democrats.
 Republican opponents to Lincoln nominated John C.
Frémont, the Free Soil candidate and general whom Lincoln
removed for issuing and order that enslaved Missourians be
freed.
 Frémont eventually withdrew from the race.
 Lincoln won the party’s nomination and in 1864 the
Republicans restyled themselves as the National Union party.
 In the summer, some Republicans called for a stronger candidate.
 Their platform included an insistence on the CSA’s
unconditional surrender, a nascent plan for reconstruction,
support for a Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery,
encouragement of immigration and funding for the building
of a Pacific railroad.
 The party was by no means solidly behind all of these issues.

10.  In 1864, Lincoln faced political opposition to his reelection
from both Republicans and Democrats.
 Many Democrats supported war for the restoration of the
Union but as the war went on, a faction in the party started
advocating a Peace Movement, led by Clement Vallandigham.
 The terms of negotiating peace with the CSA involved such issues as
surrender, amnesty to Confederates, the terms of state readmission
to the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and compensation
to slaveholders.
 In the end, Democrats nominated George C. McClellan, the
general who was loved by soldiers but who clashed so often
with Lincoln.
 Lincoln won 55% of the vote in the election.

11. Civil War Women
Women served a
multitude of roles in
the Civil War, both
on the battlefield
and the home front.

12.  Because much of the Civil War was fought in the CSA,
southerners experienced the horrors of war more
directly than did their Union counterparts.
 They experienced moving armies and in different parts
of the region, some of them were even occupied by
both the CSA and USA armies.
 See for example Drew Gilpin Faust’s Mothers of
Inventionfor coverage of women and Anya
Jabour’sTopsy-Turvyanalysis of children.
 Some 50,000 civilians died of war related problems like
epidemics, starvation, stray bullets.

13.  Once it became clear to the USA that they couldn’t
easily vanquish the CSA, officials opted for occupation,
seizing control and setting up in Tennessee, in
Louisiana near New Orleans, and in select areas of
Virginia and along the Atlantic Coast.
 The primary objective was to remove Confederate
officials from power and restore local communities to
the Union’s fold.
 Occupation proved to be an effective war strategy not
only for its ability to allow the USA togain control over
CSA territory but also for its demoralization of proud
Confederates.

14.  One striking example of the demoralizing effects of
occupation was Benjamin Butler’s Woman Order.
 During the occupation of New Orleans, Butler and his men
encountered proud and defiant Confederate sympathizers
in women who broadcast their loyalty to the CSA (and
opposition to the USA) by their dress (adorning themselves
in CSA garb) and their sometimes callous treatment of
Union soldiers while still demanding the protections of a
lady.
 Historians believe that to avoid a likely violent incident in
which the women’s behavior elicited a response from the
men, Butler issued his famous General Order No. 28, which
became known as the “Woman Order.”

15. Benjamin Butler’s War Order
Butler indicated that
women who didn’t
comport themselves as
ladies could not expect
to be treated as ladies
and might be treated
as callously as
prostitutes were
treated.
Confederates
interpreted this as an
authorization of rape
but Butler and his
supporters saw it as a
way to make
southerners accept
This image depicts the effects of the order on occupation and to keep
the peace.
the behavior of Confederate women.

16. Confederate Spies
Rose O’Neal
Greenhow was one of
the most successful
CSA spies.
Her activities led to
her arrest several
times and her exile
from Maryland into
the CSA.

17.  Other occupying Union generals encountered
resistance.
 In some places Union forces seized buildings and
destroyed Confederate plantations, including Jefferson
Davis’s.
 In the end, the Union’s occupation of land and
confiscation of goods sapped the resolve to continue
fighting of many Confederates.

18. Squeezing the
CSA
It took a while for
the USA’s blockade
to work but when it
did, it deprived the
CSA of access to
valued goods like
salt, which people
used to preserve
foodstuffs.
“A Confederate salt factory, with approaching Union
raiding ships in the background.”

19.  As the war went on with no end in sight, the effects of
the CSA’s policies of conscription and impressment of
goods started to take their toll on the civilian and
military population.
 The military men who survived the horror of battle
faced insufficient food, clothing, and pay, which made
less inclined to continue fighting in what some
characterized as a lost cause.
 At the same time, they felt the pressure to provide
relief for their family members who were suffering in
their absence.

20.  CSA conscription stripped many working class and poor
families of the men who helped provide for the family’s
basic needs. Longterm military service combined with the
CSA’s impressment of 10% of whatever families produced
left many civilians starving.
 Both men and their families called upon the CSA for relief
for their families to little avail.
 The combined effects of continued battle and significant
hardship at home triggered desertion.
 Deserters left individually but as the war continued, they
also departed in groups. The significant loss of men to
death on the battlefield and to desertion made it much
harder for the CSA to wage war effectively.

21.  With so many of the males fighting the war, with much of
the war being fought in their communities, and with
occupying forces, Confederate women of all classes faced
significant hardship.
 Women were left to manage farms and plantations in the
absence of men and sometimes the absence of slaves who
ran away.
 Initially, they volunteered enthusiastically to nurse
soldiers, teach children, and provide goods and uniforms
for soldiers but this wore off.
 They bore alone the hardship of losing multiple male kin.

22.  Some historians argue that they railed against what
appeared during the war to be men’s inability to
provide them with the protection and care they
needed.
 Poor women faced significant hardship in that in the
absence of men, they had fewer people to help grow
basic food stuffs. Their problems were compounded by
the blockade and by profiteering in the CSA which
drove up the price of food.

23. Bread Riots
Conditions of
hardship as well as
ineffective policies
of the CSA to
manage civilian life
led some
Confederate women
to wage riots for
bread and foodstuffs
in 1863.
The women’s
actions forced
governors as well as
CSA officials to
provide relief.

24.  The Bread Riots exposed the class divisions in the CSA and how
the civilian burden of the war was being carried by the poor.
 Some CSA officials tried to develop nationalized programs and
policies to increase food production and provide relief to the
civilian population but this contradicted many southerners’
cultural beliefs in small government.
 CSA officials tried to regulate production of goods and to limit
profiteering but this was met with swift resistance by civilians
and by state officials.
 Some historians argue that what the CSA needed to wage and
win the war was a nationalization program that allowed Davis,
Congress, and the generals to harness all of the resources at their
disposal. The principles of white southern life—states’ rights,
protection of the individual rights of white males—made it
difficult for them to do, which in turn made it harder for them to
fight the war.

25.  The Union occupation and advancement in 1864-1865
combined with the CSA’s sociopolitical challenges further
demoralized Confederates.
 In North Carolina and Georgia a peace movement emerged.
 After the 1863 election, Jefferson Davis faced a more hostile
CSA Congress, as Confederates became more vocal in their
opposition to his management of the war.
 Civilians continued to defy official CSA policies re: not
trading with the enemy. They resisted strongly the CSA’s
policies to confront political subversion.
 Even when generals like Robert E. Lee called for enlisting
enslaved men to fill the CSA’s depleted ranks, it took so
long for Congress to authorize enlistment (March 20, 1865)
that it was too late.

26. Failure to obtain
European
recognition
This cartoon depicts
Jefferson Davis
trying
(unsuccessfully) to
obtain Napoleon
III’s recognition of
the CSA after France
declared itself
neutral in the Civil
War.

27.  Despite uneven numbers, the CSA proved itself to be a
serious contender.
 Their willingness and ability to fight for their
independence resulted in enough early and continuing
victories in such places as Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and
the Crater that they were even more emboldened to fight.
 Nevertheless, even with these significant wins, the CSA’s
continued loss of men to battlefield death and to desertion
depleted the ranks.
 At the same time, Union’s occupation, blockade, and
increasing number of battlefield victories (beginning in
1863) combined with hardship on the home front sapped
the CSA’s resolve to fight.

28. John Bell Hood
The CSA’s John Bell
Hood moved from
Atlanta toward
Tennessee, hoping to
draw Union forces away
from Confederate
territory, where he
encountered the USA’s
John Schofield outside
Nashville.
Hood’s forces assaulted
Schofield’s entrenched
men and in the process
suffered 6300 casualties,
including several
generals and regimental
commanders.

29. John Schofield
Schofield suffered
2000 casualties and
made his way to
Nashville where he
connected with
George Thomas.
Hood followed and
tried to lay siege to
the city.
Thomas’s forces
struck back, pushing
Hood’s forces out of
the city, ending the
western campaign.

30.  Lee replaced Hood with Joseph E. Johnston with
orders to stop Sherman from advancing through the
Carolinas but neither he nor William Hardee were able
to halt Sherman’s march.
 Lee faced his own challenges of with confronting
Grant at Petersburg.
 With these and other defeats, the residual morale of
civilians evaporated. CSA calls for more men went
unanswered and civilians did not resist when Union
forces advanced.

31.  In February, a peace conference was in Hampton Roads,
Virginia.
 Lincoln’s terms:
 Reunion
 Emancipation
 No suspension of fighting as the CSA requested
 Davis balked at these terms:
 The CSA wanted compensation for slaveholders
 A temporary suspension of fighting so that they could
regroup.
 Lincoln was flexible on a number of terms, including
emancipation, but he would not budge on the issues of
reunion and his insistence that CSA armies disband. The
conference ended without agreement so the fighting
continued.

32.  Union officials continued to fight and Grant combined his
forces with those of Sherman, Sheridan, and Meade and
made his move toward Lee where he was dug in at
Petersburg.
 The USA’s forces besieged Lee’s army at Five Forks, many of
Lee’s men were without adequate food.
 Lee evacuated Petersburg the next day heading towards
Lynchburg . Union forces took the city and Grant moved
his men to stop Lee from joining up with Johnston.
 Jefferson Davis and his cabinet fled Richmond leaving the
city in chaos.
 On April 3, Union forces entered the city led by African
American soldiers. Lincoln entered the city the next day
before he visited Libby Prison where POWs had been held.

33. Five Forks
One of the last
major battles was at
Five Forks.

34. Lee Surrenders to
Grant
Grant stopped
Lee from
escaping and
initiated
discussions
about surrender.
Lee agreed,
hoping to avoid
losing any more
men.

35.  The terms of surrender included:
 Lee and his men being released once they promised not
to take up arms against the U.S.
 They had to turn over their weapons and surrender
public property.
 Grant allowed Lee’s officers to keep their weapons and
he allowed soldiers to keep their horses and mules.
 Grant supplied rations to Lee’s hungry men.
 Although Lee suffered casualties and desertions, there
were still 60000 troops remaining. Rather than
continue to wage war informally, as some, including
Jefferson Davis preferred, Confederates lay down their
arms.

37. Assassination of
Abraham Lincoln
On April 14, John
Wilkes Booth and
other Confederate
sympathizers struck
Union officials.
Wilkes assassinated
Lincoln and another
conspirator attacked
Secretary of State
William Seward
before they fled and
were eventually
captured.

38. Johnston
Surrenders to
Sherman
Johnston
surrendered on
April 17 after he
lost at
Bentonville, after
he learned of the
fall of Richmond
and Petersburg &
Lee’s surrender,
and then found
himself facing the
combined forces
of Schofield and
Sherman.

39. Truce at Mobile
The CSA’s Lt. General
Richard Taylor
commanded the
Department of
Alabama, Mississippi,
& Louisiana.
After Mobile fell to
Union forces
andTaylorlearned that
Johnston had
surrendered to
Sherman, he and his
12,000 troops
surrendered.

40. Capture of
Jefferson Davis
When Davis fled
Richmond, he hoped
to continue waging
war.
On May 10, Union
forces under the First
Wisconsin and Fourth
Michigan cavalries
captured Davis and
transferred him to
prison at Fortress
Monroe, where he
remained imprisoned
for two years.

41. Surrender of the Trans-
Mississippi
Department
The CSA’s Lt. Gen
Edmund Kirby Smith
commanded forces west
of the Mississippi after
Vicksburg.
By the spring of 1865
there were only small
numbers of CSA forces
west of the river.
Smith held out on
accepting Grant’s terms
but increasingly his men
understood the war was
over and Lt Gen Simon
Buckner surrendered the
Trans-Mississippi
Department on May 26.

42. Confederate
Indians surrender
It was not until after
Richmond fell and Lee
and Johnston
surrendered that
Native American
Confederates agreed to
negotiate peace terms
with Union officials.
Stand Watie of the
Cherokee Nation was
one of the last
Confederates to
surrender, which he
did on June 23.

43.  Between 750,000 and 850,000 soldiers dead (60% from
the Union, 40% from the Confederacy).
 More than 1 million soldiers maimed and
incapacitated.
 More than 50,000 civilian casualties and injuries
(starvation, stray bullets, soiled wells, disease).
 Few Americans were untouched by the war.
 It would take the nation decades to recover from the
sense of horror over the loss of life.

44.  At the beginning of the war, both sides expected the
war to be a short, victorious one. Neither side had any
idea that the war would last as long as it did and that it
would result in as much devastation as it did.
 Although the Union won, its victory was not
predestined. Indeed, research by military historians
reveals that there were numerous instances when the
Union could have lost not only major battles but also
the war.
 Nevertheless, the USA prevailed and the CSA did not
and so now we can explore the reasons why.

45. Recent research suggests the
number of fatalities was
higher. See the NYT
Disunion Blog
CSA USA
 11 states  22 states
 9 million (30% of whom  22 million people
were enslaved)  3.5 million white men for
 1 million white men for military service
military service  Plus about 100,000 loyal
 1 million served southerners & later free
 800,000 enlisted (3 yrs of
blacks and runaway slaves
service)  2.9 million served
 340,000 casualties  1.5 million enlisted (3
 250,000 killed in action or years)
from disease  650,000 casualties
 360,000 killed in action or
from disease

46. Confederacy Union
 Had to create a new  Economic strength—
government wealth and the nation’s
 War fought on their turf, banking and financial
750,000 sq mi centers were located in
 Determination of the NYC
Confederates to win  Modern infrastructure
 More men trained to fight (communication,
 Numerous military transportation, industry)
academies, inc West Point
 Existing government
 Culture of chivalry, honor,
weaponry  Existing military service
 Possibility of foreign  Militia
recognition of the CSA  Regular army
 Slave labor  Volunteers

47. Confederacy Union
 Get the support of  Keep the support of the
Border States
and/or occupy the
 Recall armies from the West
Border States
 Protect the South’s valuable
 Protect Richmond (CSA resources for the return to the
capitol), threaten Union
Washington, D.C.  Protect Washington, D.C.
(USA capitol), threaten
 Get recognition from Richmond
Britain, France, and  Control the Mississippi
Spain River—Anaconda Plan
 Blockade southern coasts

48.  Despite the Union’s initial profiles in strength, the CSA
managed to even the odds.
 Many historians identify fatal flaws in the CSA’s campaign:
 Inability to follow through on victories because of high
casualties and low resources;
 Failure to provide the necessary resources for civilians;
 Tensions between the CSA states and the CSA Congress and
the Davis administration;
 Inability to overcome their cultural focus on individual rights
and states’ rights to marshal all resources needed to fight the
war;
 Failure to obtain recognition from European government;
 Failure to consider the actions of enslaved people and to
mobilize them for military service;
 Failure to win enough northern campaigns to demoralize the
Unionists.

49.  Many of the Union’s initial profiles in strength made them
overconfident and therefore unprepared for the determination
and initial success with which Confederates waged war.
 Historians point to some of the following reasons for why the
Union won:
 Manpower (larger population and then the enlistment of black
soldiers);
 Runaway slaves;
 Vast resources (food, trade, wealth, existing army & navy, access to
industrial complex);
 Ability to maintain the Border States and get European countries to
remain neutral;
 Blockade;
 Ability to nationalize necessary resources to wage war;
 Ability to maintain the morale of civilians and soldiers.

50.  CSA’s Salt Factory: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/squeezing-the-south-into-submission/.
 Butler’s Order: http://hill.blogs.lib.lsu.edu/2011/02/.
 Bread riots: http://lifeofthecivilwar.blogspot.com/2011/04/let-them-eat-bread.html
 European recognition: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/a-dangerous-neutrality/
 John Bell Hood: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/john-bell-hood.html
 John Schofield: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/John_Schofield.jpg.
 Five Forks: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Battle_of_Five_Forks_Kurz_%26_Allison.jpg
 Lee surrenders to Grant: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/82272/Confederate-Gen
 Union forces outside of Appomattox:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Appomattox_courthouse.jpg
 Johnston surrenders to Sherman:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=703863&imageID=813699&word=Doc
ument%20signings&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=2&k=1&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&sort=&total=24&n
um=0&imgs=20&pNum=&pos=20&print=small
 Richard Taylor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Taylor.jpg
 Edmund Kirby Smith: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Edmund_Kirby_Smith.jpg
 Stand Watie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stand_Watie.jpg
 Capture of Jefferson Davis:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Jefferson_davis_fort_monroe_capture.jpg

51.  Harriet Tubman:
http://americancivilwar.com/women/harriet_tubman.
html
 Clara Barton:
http://americancivilwar.com/women/cb.html
 Rose O’Neal Greenhow:
http://americancivilwar.com/women/rg.html
 The Influence of Women:
http://americancivilwar.com/women/index.html

52.  The Search for Meaning.
 What the War Wrought.
 Emancipation.
 Reconstruction.