The Civil War was the first total war in history, a war that depended on the mobilization of a society's human, economic, and intellectual resources. The chapter opens with the first major battle, at Bull Run, which dashed both sides' hopes that the war would be brief. Jim Tinkham's lighthearted attitude when he enlisted was typical of troops in both armies. Randolph McKim's decision to join the Confederate army reflected the conflicting emotions many southern families felt about secession, especially in the border states. The northern defeat at Bull Run forced members of Congress and other leaders to recognize that victory would not come easily. In the process of fighting the first total war, society changed drastically enough to define the process as a virtual revolution.

Opening Moves

The war's two political leaders offered a study in contrasts. While well-meaning and not tied to the past, Confederate President Jefferson Davis proved a less effective leader than the Union's Abraham Lincoln. Concerned about maintaining the loyalty of the border states, Lincoln insisted at the beginning of the conflict that the nation was waging a war to save the Union. He resisted demands to make emancipation a war aim. The Union gained a vital triumph when the border states cast their lot with the Union rather than the Confederacy. The war also created a new border state, West Virginia, when many of Virginia's western counties refused to support the Confederacy.

The Union proclaimed a blockade of the southern coast, which became more effective every year. In addition, European powers refused to recognize the Confederacy or to intervene militarily. The first Union successes occurred in the West, where Ulysses S. Grant invaded Tennessee and pushed down the Mississippi valley. His drive south stalled after the fierce battle of Shiloh. In the East, the leading Union commander was George McClellan, who possessed an army much larger than his opponent's but whose ingrained caution prevented him from using it aggressively. In Virginia, a stalemate quickly developed, as Robert E. Lee repulsed a series of Union invasions, yet suffered defeat himself at Antietam when he invaded Maryland. In a year of hard fighting with heavy losses on both sides, the Union had made little headway in the East.

Emancipation

As the fighting dragged on, Lincoln came under mounting pressure to attack slavery for military as well as ideological reasons. Under the influence of the Radical Republicans, Congress passed a series of laws that undermined slavery by refusing to return runaway slaves to their owners, based on the argument that they were contraband. Believing that states rather than the federal government should abolish slavery, Lincoln tried to get the border states to adopt a program of gradual emancipation, but they rejected his appeals. Finally, Lincoln decided to act against slavery. Following the battle of Antietam, he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. He issued the final Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in all areas under Confederate control.

A large number of slaves, perhaps as many as half a million, eventually ran away to Union lines and received their freedom. The army subsequently forced many of these freed people to work for minimal wages on plantations in Union-controlled areas of the Mississippi valley. Those who remained in the Confederacy seized greater personal freedom during the war, openly challenging white authority and refusing to work as hard as before. The Union also accepted African Americans into the army and navy, and eventually over 200,000 served. Some of these men were free black northerners, but the large majority were former slaves.

The Confederate Home Front

War brought increasing hardship and moral decay to the Confederate home front. With European exports severely diminished by the blockade, the Confederacy attempted to build up its industry in order to become self-sufficient. With so many men mobilized into the Army, it fell to women to run the farms and supply the necessary labor in factories. Yet inflation and food shortages became worse with each year.

In an effort to win the war, Davis and his advisers concentrated power in the government at Richmond, inciting strong protests from many southerners. The draft and impressment particularly provoked complaints of government interference with states' rights and individual liberty. Increasingly, non-slaveholders claimed that slaveowners were not carrying their share of the war's burdens. With tax revenues insufficient to finance the war, the Confederate population suffered from rampant inflation. Bread riots broke out in several cities, and the moral tone of society plummeted, as gambling, drinking, speculation, and crime overran the South.

The Union Home Front

Civilians in the Union suffered less. Northerners generally remained prosperous and well-fed during the war, and the inflation rate was much lower. Congress passed several laws to promote economic growth, including a protective tariff, a Homestead Act, the Land Grant College Act, and a national banking law. Nevertheless, fraud and corruption became rampant in the government, and workers saw their real wages decline. With the government spending unprecedented amounts of money, a cozy relationship developed between politicians and business people eager for government contracts. A speculative fever pervaded society.

As in the South, women ran farms and took factory jobs to maintain war production. Before gaining approval to work in military hospitals, though, they also had to battle army doctors who found their presence in such places inappropriate. Nursing and teaching now quickly became female professions. Women also became a permanent part of the government bureaucracy in low-level positions and did much of the volunteer work in the Union to provide relief and medical supplies.

Lincoln cracked down on antiwar activities by suspending the writ of habeas corpus, an action that incited significant controversy. He also authorized military trials of civilians, an action the Supreme Court declared illegal after the war. The draft, which allowed the wealthy to hire a substitute or pay $300 for an exemption, inspired grievances among the working classes. Peace Democrats, labeled Copperheads by Republicans, vigorously protested the government's violations of personal liberty, and a major anti-draft riot erupted in New York City in 1863.

Gone to Be a Soldier

Much like Jim Tinkham, soldiers in both armies soon discovered that war was more tedious and less glamorous than they had envisioned. Soldiers experienced great hardship from disease, poor food, and exposure, and of course risked life and limb fighting. They also struggled to adjust to the routinized life of the army, a problem that particularly affected farmers who had little previous experience in such a disciplined and supervised atmosphere. Traditional moral standards declined significantly under the pressures of war.

The mounting casualty lists revealed how the war bore down with special force on the common soldiers. New technology, particularly the rifled musket and artillery piece, made most defensive positions considerably stronger than those held by attacking forces, leading to horrific carnage as exposed soldiers assaulted well-fortified targets. War became more deadly than ever before, yet despite heavy losses the outcome of most battles proved indecisive.

The Union's Triumph

The war's turning point came in 1863 when the Union won twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Gettysburg destroyed Lee's offensive capabilities, while Grant's victories in the West that year led Lincoln to appoint him commanding general. With the Mississippi River completely under Union control, Grant instructed William Tecumseh Sherman to drive a diagonal wedge through the Confederacy from Tennessee through Georgia, while Grant himself fought a series of fierce battles with Lee in Virginia. Grant could not break Lee's lines, however, and with Sherman bogged down in front of Atlanta, Lincoln seemed headed for certain defeat in the 1864 presidential election, but Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September provided the military breakthrough Lincoln needed and he swept to victory. Lincoln's re-election made it clear that the Union would continue the war until it achieved reunion and emancipation. Following the election, Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery; the states ratified it in December 1865. With the Confederacy's hopes flickering, Jefferson Davis offered to abolish slavery in a desperate and unsuccessful bid for British recognition. In the meantime, Sherman embarked on his destructive march through Georgia and then the Carolinas. Civilian morale collapsed in the Confederacy and the southern armies became wracked by desertions. In April, Grant forced Lee to evacuate Richmond, and a few days later Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse. The rest of the Confederate armies soon did the same. In the immediate aftermath of the Union's victory, however, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln, the final tragedy in the conflict.

The Impact of War

The war profoundly changed the nation, altering its political institutions, its economy, and its values. Secession was dead, and power became more concentrated in the federal government at the expense of the states. The war caused the abolition of slavery, the destruction of southern wealth, and the stimulation of northern industry. Under the dominance of the pro-business Republican party, the government now played a much more active role in the economy. The war also had a high spiritual cost, including sectional bitterness, a greater tolerance of corruption, moral complacency, and a loss of the crusading idealism that had previously characterized the nation.