1. A Divided Nation
Unit 6

2. vocabulary
Anaconda Plan – The strategy during the Civil War to blockade goods to the South
Blockade runners – low-lying steamships; painted gray to match the sea, ran supplies through blockades during the War
Conscription – compulsory drafting of people to war; military draft
Decree – an order legislated by a ruler or government authority
Desert – to leave without permission, as in a soldier leaving the army
Distiller – someone who brews homemade alcohol
Ironclads – ships heavily armored with iron
Subjugation – bringing a group of people under the control of another

3. Theme 1: Civil War Begins
Tension Rises
1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President
South Carolina secedes from the Union
January 1861, five other southern states secede
Texas leaves in February
Seven states formed Confederate States of America in March
Jefferson Davis elected as President of the CSA

4. Theme 1 NC is divided: Union vs. Confederacy
Those for: plantation owners who wanted to preserve and expand plantation agriculture, which included maintaining slavery. Lincoln seen as a threat
Those against: most NC residents were independent farmers
Only one in four NC farmers owned slaves
Only 4K owned more than 20 slaves (considered plantations)

5. Theme 1
NC was willing to wait and see what Lincoln would do regarding slavery
Said he did not want it to expand, did NOT call for its immediate end
April 12, 1861, Confederates opened fire at Ft. Sumter, SC
Lincoln ordered state militias to join the US Army
NC’s governor led the charge to secede.
Strong Union loyalists did not want to fight fellow Southerners
May 20, 1861 NC secedes from the Union, (next to last)

6. Theme 1 The First Battles Both sides thought war would be brief
Battle of Manassas
Union confident of victory, citizens came to watch
Union attack was stopped and pushed back causing 5000 killed or wounded

7. Theme 1 The Anaconda Plan Union forces would set up a naval blockade
Union soldiers would capture trading cities on the coast and Mississippi River ports.
Rather than invade, surround and block any contact with the outside world
Southern economy was agricultural (they did not manufacture goods)
No trade = no supplies

8. Theme 1 Blockades Squeeze North Carolina
Union troops on the Outer Banks in August 1861
New Bern captured and used as Union HQ
Free blacks and escaped slaves flocked to coastal towns
Assisted the Union troops with war effort

9. Theme 1: Homework Questions
What was NC’s reaction to secession?
What caused NC to finally secede?
What was the Union’s plan to stop the War?
How did this plan effect NC?
How were blacks involved in the war?

10. Theme 2: War and Politics
Emancipation
Early on Lincoln did not want to alienate border states who were slave states
Issued the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863.
Declared all slaves in Confederate States free
Blacks can become Union soldiers
Did NOT free slaves in border states
Southern states ignored
Northern soldiers now fighting for Union and slavery, mixed responses

11. Theme 2 North Carolina’s Black Regiments
Troops recruited and trained in New Bern
Around 5K black troops from NC served in the Union army
Around 200K black troops served in the Union army during the Civil War

12. Theme 2 Hardships on the Home Front
Union blockades isolated South from trade with the rest of the world
Citizens asked to make sacrifices
Confederacy is seen as a burden to most NC residents who are small farmers

13. Theme 2 Conscription and Taxes
Conscription (military draft) 18 – 35 were drafted into the army for 3 years
Tax-in-kind Farmers gave up a portion of their harvest to feed troops
Small farmers most effected
Depended on family for farm labor
Subsistence farming, grew what they ate
Shortages caused increases in prices

14. Theme 2 Laws did not seem fair:
Preserving plantation agriculture helped the wealthy
Ordinary citizens were effected the most
Planters with more than 20 slaves were exempt from conscription
Could hire someone to fight in your place
Zebulon B. Vance, NC governor during the War said conscription made this “A rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight”

15. Theme 2 Tar Heels Keep Fighting
Tar Heel nickname in colonial era when NC produces lots of tar and pitch
Others say NC soldiers stuck to their positions as if they had tar on their heels
After the war used as a negative term for barefoot, uneducated backwoodsmen
NC slogan after the Civil War: NC troops were “first at Bethel, farthest at Gettysburg and last at Appomattox.”

16. Theme 2 Politics at Home Zebulon Vance, Conservative Party
Whigs and Democrats who opposed secession and were unhappy with the War
Vance caught between demands of Confederate government and concerns of the state’s citizens
NC sent more troops to the Confederate army than any other southern state but none of the leaders were from NC
Vance corresponded and fought with Jefferson Davis to protect NC as much as possible.

17. Theme 2 Struggling to Survive
Women and children on small farms suffered the most;
Had to do all the farm work and provide for families
Wrote letters to husbands and/or Gov. Vance
Women in towns faired better;
Could find work cooking, sewing uniforms
Nursing became a popular profession
Thousands of sick and wounded soldiers overwhelmed hospitals in the Union and Confederacy.

18. Theme 2: Homework Questions
What new cause did Union soldiers fight for after January 1, 1863?
Did the Emancipation Proclamation call for the end of slavery in all states?
What was the southern states response?
What two issues hurt NC’s small farmers the most?
How did plantation owners avoid the draft?
What two groups was Zebulon Vance caught between while he was governor of NC?
How were women on farms and in cities changed by the War?

19. Theme 3: The War Comes to an End
Soldiers begin to leave
Worrying about family more than war, soldiers began to desert the army and head home
NC had large numbers of deserters
Had the most troops
Fought in VA, which was close to home
NC provided more troops to the Confederacy than any other state
Deserters received help from Quakers
Many fled to the mountains where people were willing to help deserters

20. Theme 3 A Turn for the Worse
Confederacy began to run out of soldiers and resources
War was unpopular on both sides
Confederacy hoped a few big victories would convince Union leaders to stop fighting
Gettysburg
Lee goes to Pennsylvania to take the war to Union territory
Single deadliest battle in US history (3 days)
Inspired Gettysburg address one of Lincoln’s greatest speeches
Crushed Lee’s hopes of a quick end to the War
Vicksburg
Grant captured Vicksburg
the last open port on the Mississippi River
Mississippi River is under control of the Union forces
Northern morale rises, Southern hopes fall

21. Theme 3 A Movement for Peace
After Union victories some in NC called for peace
NC was the only Confederate state with an active peace movement during the War
William Woods Holden proposed keeping slavery but discussing a return to the Union
Runs against Vance for governor in 1864 but loses.

22. Theme 3
Nearing the End
Confederate army lost men to injury and disease, no one was left to enlist
Union moving through Confederate territory
Confederates desperate; begin to discuss allowing slaves to fight
Ft. Fisher falls in January 1865
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman enters NC

23. Theme 3 The March to the Sea Sherman’s “total war”
Destroy military targets and break civilian morale
Sherman told troops to destroy everything in their path – homes, crops, livestock and more
Burned Atlanta and marched to the Savannah, destroying everything along the way
Lived on what they could take and destroyed the rest
Sherman’s march becomes highly resented for generations!

24. Theme 3 The Final Battle Bentonville, March 19, 20, 21
Confederate General Johnston attacked Sherman’s forces
20K to 60K troops, Confederates overwhelmed
War’s last major battle
April 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia
Two weeks later Johnston surrenders to Sherman outside Durham, NC

25. Theme 3 Sadness and Joy Confederates mourn defeat
Cities like New Bern, with large black populations, celebrated
Only 5 days after Lee’s surrender Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

26. Theme 3 Effects of the War
Over 40K men in NC were killed or died of disease
Most soldiers = most deaths in Confederacy
Former soldiers wanted their old lives back
Former slaves were anxious to start their new lives
NC was in a state of ruined roads, farms, and economy.