Online Exhibition: Civil War
2011 is the 150th anniversary, the sesquicentennial, of the beginning of the Civil War, still the deadliest war in American history.
Excerpts from "States Which Seceded"
By early February, three months after Lincoln’s election, and a month before his inauguration, seven states had left the Union. These states agreed to send representatives to Montgomery, Alabama, to form a new government. These delegates elected Howell Cobb of Georgia President of the convention. On February 8th, the delegates adopted a Provisional Constitution and the Confederate States of America were born. On February 9th, the delegates elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as Provisional President. Alexander Stephens of Georgia was chosen as the Confederate Vice President. On February 18th, Davis and Stephens were inaugurated as the first and last President and Vice President of the Confederacy.
On March 4th, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President of the United States. Two days later, the Confederacy called for 100,000 volunteers for its provisional army. On March 11th, delegates adopted the Confederate Constitution.
Source : eHistory at The Ohio State University
To link to the full article: http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/articleview.cfm?aid=34
There was not one civil war between 1861 and 1865 but many—so many that if the South were to rise again, it would do so on only one leg."Secession," writes Williams (History/Valdosta State Univ.; A People's History of the Civil War, 2005, etc.), "divided families all across the slave states. It pitted fathers against sons, siblings against each other, and even wives against husbands." It divided communities as well. Whole counties in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia refused to leave the Union and seceded from the secession; homegrown unionist militias fought guerrilla wars against the Confederacy throughout the South; and as much as a quarter of the Union Army were Southern boys. Small wonder that one Atlanta newspaper opined early in the war, "If we are defeated, it will be by the people at home." As the war went on, the tide of sentiment turned against rebellion, as civilians starved and farmers had their crops and livestock requisitioned out from under them. By Williams's Marxist-tinged account, the Confederacy brought this upon itself, for it was a stringently class-conscious society organized for the economic and political benefit of the rich and visibly against the poor. The poor suffered disproportionately, but they did not rise up en masse, even though plenty of those poor folk worked quietly against the government. And not just the poor, as Williams observes. African-Americans resisted the Confederacy, too. Similarly, many Native Americans within the bounds of the South packed up and moved rather than take up arms against the Union; the band led by Opothleyahola, a Creek chief, petitioned Lincoln to protect them and, upon receiving no reply, relocated to Kansas, attacked by pro-Southern Indians as they traveled. These acts of struggle within the Civil War are too little documented within standard textbooks, and Williams does a good job with this book, though some historians may question his close focus on class analysis.Of interest to students of the Civil War, and certain to provoke discussion in the professional journals. (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2008)
"The grayjackets: and how they lived, fought and died, for Dixie. With incidents & sketches of life in the confederacy. Comprising narratives of personal adventure, army life, naval adventure, home liee [!], partisan daring, life in camp, field and hospital: together with the songs, ballads, anecdotes and humorous incidents of the war for southern independence ..." By a Confederate. Richmond [etc.] Jones Brothers & Co. [c1867]
Link to the Free Library of Philadelphia book record: http://know.freelibrary.org/?q=grayjackets&searchType=simple&site=default_collection&client=flpxslt&proxystylesheet=flpxslt&output=xml_no_dtd&setting_key=English&servers=1home&index=default&searchme=catalog&submit.x=20&submit.y=5
Portrait from "The Grayjackets"
Excerpts from "THE REBEL GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON", Harper's Weekly, October 5, 1861
JOSEPH ECCLESTON JOHNSTON was born in Virginia about the year 1804, and is, consequently, some fifty-seven years of age at present. After the usual school education, young Johnston was adopted by the United States, and was brought up in their Military Academy at West Point, at their cost, and under their flag. On leaving West Point he was appointed to the Fourth Artillery, and served in that capacity till 1836, when he became First Lieutenant and Assistant Commissary of Subsistence—a very desirable berth. In 1838 he was appointed First Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, and served in that capacity through the Florida War, obtaining for his services the brevet of Captain. In 1846 he became full Captain, and served first with the Engineers, and next with a regiment of Voltigeurs, throughout the Mexican War, receiving two brevets for distinguished conduct. At the close of the war he was retained in the Topographical Engineers, and enjoyed a life of agreeable ease in the Government service, until last year, when he was placed at the head of the Quarter-master's department, with the rank of Brigadier-General. The appointment was made in June, 1860, when General Scott foresaw the trouble looming in the future: it is to be presumed that, in placing General Johnston in the responsible position of Quarter-master-General, he placed implicit reliance upon his loyalty. How that faith was requited may be inferred from the fact that, early in 1861, Joseph E. Johnston forswore his allegiance, deserted his flag, and made war against his country at the head of the Virginia rebels. General Johnston is second in command in Virginia, with the rank of full General.
Source: "THE REBEL GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON", Harper's Weekly, October 5, 1861
Link to the full article: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/october/general-joseph-e-johnston.htm
Portrait from "The Grayjackets"
Portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee, officer of the Confederate Army.
After surrendering at Appomattox, Lee continued to set the example for his troops by applying for official amnesty and renewed citizenship in the United States. The government never granted his request during his lifetime. President Gerald Ford restored his full citizenshop on August 5, 1975.
Arlington House, Lee's wife's family home, was confiscated during the war for the lack of tax payments. Lee's son filed suit for its return and was successful in 1892. By then Arlington Cemetery was well established on the site and the suit was settled for $150,000.
A few months after this photograph was taken, Lee became president of Washington College, now known as Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, VA. About five years later, on Sept. 28, 1870, Lee was walking home from his office and probably suffered a stroke. He died two weeks later and was buried beneath the chapel on the college campus.
Source: "Portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee, officer of the Confederate Army", Library of Congress.
Link to the source: http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=235&iid=2077
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Army of Northern Virginia.Ironies abound in this thick but highly readable tome from Glatthaar (History/UNC-Chapel Hill; Partners in Command: The Relationships Between Leaders in the Civil War, 1993, etc.). The wild enthusiasm following secession produced far more volunteers than the Confederate army could handle, but conscription became law in less than a year. Dissenting from the argument that Confederate soldiers fought for ideals we cherish today, the author states bluntly that Robert E. Lee's men knew they were defending slavery. Historians traditionally emphasize that only one in 20 Southerners owned slaves, but Glatthaar points out that this neglects men who lived in households that included slaves: nearly half of enlisted men and virtually all officers. Even nonslaveholding soldiers took it for granted that Northern efforts to restrict slavery were a vicious attack on Southern freedom. For them, the idea that blacks deserved freedom was proof of Yankee insanity. Assuming command in June 1862, Lee vaulted from obscurity to acclaim during bloody battles that drove Union forces back from Richmond. He was an intelligent, aggressive general, perhaps too aggressive for a leader whose army had limited resources. When the fortunes of war favored him, Lee won great victories but always against weak opposing generals. Like Hannibal before and Rommel after him, his triumphs ended when he faced a competent adversary, in this case Ulysses S. Grant. While Glatthaar deals adequately with the battles, he shines in writing about the soldiers themselves. He finds the catchphrase "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight" to be exaggerated; poor, comfortable and prosperous men joined in equal numbers. Most gripping are the depressing details of the South's persistent failure to supply Lee's army: Soldiers often starved, dressed in rags and marched without shoes.A unique, often controversial description of Lee's soldiers, their background and the conditions under which they fought. (Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2007)
Taken from the Harpers Weekly of March 29, 1862, "TORPEDOES AT COLUMBUS"
WE illustrate on page 198, from sketches by our correspondent, Mr. Alexander Simplot, the TORPEDOES AND INFERNAL MACHINES which have been discovered by our troops at Columbus. The correspondent of the Chicago Times thus describes them:
After two days' exploration for infernal machines, and to discover wherry the bluff had bean mined, as was reported to have been done, Captain W. A. Schmitt and company, of the Twenty--eventh Regiment, discovered ridges of new earth, similar to ridges which are formed by covering up gas or water pipes in a city, and traced them to a cavern. Effecting an entrance he found a strong, rude, wooden frame, covered by earth to attract no attention. Inside this, with the assistance of a light, he found implements similar to those used in a telegraph office, with wires running in a dozen different directions. Following the raised rows of earth he soon came to a spot where something had evidently been buried. Digging down some five feet, he came to a large iron cask, about three feet high, and a foot and a half through, in shape as near as can be described to a well-formed pear, with an iron cap fastened by eight screws. Taking off the cap we found grape, canister, and four eight-pound shell, surrounded by about two bushels of coarse powder. On the bottom of the cask there was a wooden box containing several batteries, with hollow wires attached to two larger wires, covered with a substance impervious to water, connecting with the cavern before spoken of. A dozen of these iron pots or casks were thus united with this cavern. Half a dozen of these caverns have been found, and probably 75 or 100 of these infernal machines are thus buried in the earth, some distance from the enemy's works; and the time to be exploded would be when our infantry had driven them inside their works—a sentinel would give the operator inside the cavern a signal, and he would send the electric spark through all the wires, and decamp. The result may be imagined. Whole regiments could thus be blown up and sent to eternity, without even a chance of escape. The discoveries, as far as made, are all on the north and northeast portions of their works, Probably other parts of the works are similarly mined. Fortunately their fiendish designs were discovered in time, and no damage has been done by soldiers, who are constantly on the look-out for discoveries, and might by accident have set off the train.
Source: "TORPEDOES AT COLUMBUS", Harpers Weekly of March 29, 1862, Son of the South.
Link to the source: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/march/pea-ridge-battle.htm
Excerpt from "Slave Family Life, Period: 1600-1860"
Slave marriages and family ties were not recognized by American law. Any owner was free to sell husbands from wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters. Many large slaveholders had numerous plantations and frequently shifted slaves, splitting families in the process.
The most conservative estimates indicate that at least 10 to 20 percent of slave marriages were destroyed by sale. The sale of children from parents was even more common. As a result of the sale or death of a father or mother, over a third of all slave children grew up in households from which one or both parents were absent.
Source: Mintz, S. (2007). "Slave Family Life, Period: 1600-1860", University of Houston
Link to the full article: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=76
Cartographers during the U.S. Civil War invented new techniques and mapped the country—both Union and Confederate territories—more accurately than ever before in the nation’s history. The reasons for this improvement in mapping were complex, and the maps created ranged from typical battlefield cartography to demographic and thematic maps that were used for both policy and propaganda purposes.
Source: Re-Imagining the U.S. Civil War: Reconnaissance, Surveying and Cartography, Conference on Civil War Mapping, May 20, 2011
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2011/11-085.html
Excerpt from "Railroads of the Confederacy"
The Civil War is the first war in which railroads were a major factor. The 1850s had seen enormous growth in the railroad industry so that by 1861, 22,000 miles of track had been laid in the Northern states and 9,500 miles in the South. The great rail centers in the South were Chattanooga, Atlanta, and most important, Richmond. Very little track had yet been laid west of the Mississippi.
Wars have always been fought to control supply centers and road junctions, but the Confederate government was slow to recognize the importance of the railroads in the conflict. By September 1863, the Southern railroads were in bad shape. They had begun to deteriorate very soon after the outset of the war, when many of the railroad employees headed north to join the Union war efforts. Few of the 100 railroads that existed in the South prior to 1861 were more than 100 miles in length. The South had always been less enthusiastic about the railroad industry than the North; its citizens preferred an agrarian living and left the mechanical jobs to men from the Northern states. The railroads existed, they believed, solely to get cotton to the ports.
Source: "Railroads of the Confederacy," The Civil War Trust
Link to the full article: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/warfare-and-logistics/logistics/railroads.html
Similar photograph found at the Library of Congress, citing Andrew Russell as the photographer. The picture research was done by Karen Lighter, Head of the Art Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Link to the source: Library of Congress, Prints & photographs online catalog http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005684439/
Excerpt from "WINANS STEAM GUN", Harper's Weekly, May 25, 1861
We herewith illustrate, from a photograph by Weaver, the celebrated Steam Gun. patented by Mr. Dickinson, and made by Mr. Winans, of Baltimore. This gun was seized by Colonel Jones, of the Massachusetts Volunteers, when on its way from Baltimore to the Rebel Camp at Harper's Ferry, and is now used in protecting the Viaduct at the Washington Junction on the Baltimore Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad...The merits of the steam gun are a matter of some controversy. We shall probably know ere long what it can do. The following is the statement of its principles by the inventor: "Rendered ball proof, and protected by an iron cone, and mounted on a four-wheeled carriage, it can be readily moved from place to place or kept on march with an army. It can be constructed to discharge missiles of any capacity from an ounce ball to a twenty-four pound shot, with a force and range equal to the most approved gunpowder projectiles, and can discharge from one hundred to five hundred balls per minute."
Source: "Winans Steam Gun", Harper's Weekly, May 25, 1861, p.331
Link to the source:http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/may/winans-steam-gun.htm
Examines how ordinary citizens of Richmond coped with siege, famine, corruption, and escalating unrest from 1861 to the end of the Civil War.
"Furguson is a lively writer with an eye for the apt quotation and the telling incident...He brings to life a diverse cast of characters."--Newsday
"Succeeds to a remarkable extent...Furguson brings war-torn Richmond to life."--Baltimore Sun
Source: NoveList Plus