01:512:104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Pinkerton (Detective Agency), Seven Days Battles, Peninsula Campaign
16 May 2018
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Chapter 21 - The Furnace of Civil War 1861-1865
Bull Run Ends the "Ninety-Day War"
• Summer of 1861, a Union army of thirty thousand men drilled near Washington. Lincoln concluded that an
attack on a smaller Confederate force at Bull run might be a try. If the attack is successful, it could
demonstrate the superiority of Union arms and it may lead to the capture of Richmond. If Richmond fell,
secession would be discredited, and the Union could be restored without economic and social system of
the South
• July 21st, 1861, Yankee recruits swaggered out of Washington toward Bull run Congressmen and
Spectators followed with lunch baskets to witness the fight not knowing that it could result and true
violence/ At first, the battle went well for the yankees, but then Stonewall Jackson gray-clad warriors
stood like a stone wall and confederate reinforcements arrive unexpectedly. Panic seized the Union
troops and they fled in shameful confusion. The confederates themselves feasted on captured lunches
• The battle of bull run caused political conflict. Victory for the South was almost worse than defeat
because it led to over-confidence.
"Tardy George" McClellan and the Peninsula Campaign
• In 1861 General George B, McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan had seen plenty
of fighting, first in the Mexican War and then as an observer of the Crimean War in Russia.
• He was like by his men and given the nick name “little Mac” because he was an excellent organizer and drillmaster
injecting good morale into the Army of Potomac. But he was a perfectionist not getting the war isn’t perfect, didn’t
like to run risk, his reports from head of Pinkerton’s Detective Agency were unreliable, and he was overcautious
therefore getting call a “baboon” by the general.
• McClellan would drill his army without moving but toward Richmond until Lincoln demanded him to advance. He
took a waterborne approach to Richmond, which lies at the western base of a narrow peninsula formed by the James
and York Rivers (hence the name Peninsula Campaign).
• In 1862: he and about 100,000 men took to capture Yorktown (which took two month). When they were close to
Richmond Lincoln sent reinforcements to chase “stonewall” Jackson. At halt to further Richmond, McClellan had
“Jeb” Stuart’s Confederate horse soldiers rode completely around this army on reconnaissance while Robert E. Lee
lunched a shocking counterattack – The Seven Days’ Battle (June 26- July 2, 1862)
• McClellan was drove back to the sea and the Union forces abandoned the Peninsula Campaign because it was a
costly failure and Lincoln temporarily abandoned McClellan as commander of the Army if the Potomac. But in
McClellan defense he had 10,000 casualties Lee had 20,000.
• If McClellan had succeeded in taking Richmond and ending the war in mid 1862- the Union would have probably
have been restored with minimal disruption to the “peculiar institution” and Slavery would have survived, at least
for a time.
• Lee had ensured that the war would endure until slavery was demolished and the Old South thoroughly
destroyed, so Lincoln had no choice but to turn toward total war. Northern military plan had six
components:
1. Suffocate the South by blockading its coasts
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2. Liberate the slaves and undermine the very economic foundations of the Old South
3. Cut the Confederacy in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River backbone
4. Chop the Confederacy to pieces by sending troops through Georgia and Carolinas
5. Decapitate it by capturing its capital at Richmond
6. (Ulysses Grant’s idea) try everywhere to engage the enemy’s main strength and to grind it into
submission.
The War at Sea
• The North attempted for a blockade but of course is impossible to cover entire coast, so they focused on
major ports, using boats from warships to ferries
• Even though blockade was poor Britain stayed away from South to prevent future war
• Blockade skyrocketed prices and swift steamers were able to sneak past the blockade to make a high
profit.
• Yankee ships stopped British freighters going to a midpoint with reasoning that the goods were intended
to go to South
• Southerners rebelled with a iron coating an old wooden ship and took some Union ships, but Union
responded with their own small ironclad and beat the south.
• Britain and France had already built several ironclads, but this was the first battle-testing of these new
craft. these powerful ironclads became the future of naval battles and made the old wooden ones
obselete.
The Pivotal Point: Antietam
• Robert E. Lee got a victory over General John Pope at Second Battle of Bull Run(August 29-30, 1862)
• Lee moved into Maryland hoping to strike a blow that would encourage foreign intervention and get the
Border State and its sisters to withdraw from the Union-->marylanders did not respond
• Critical battle at Antietam Creek, Maryland: McClellan ("Little Mac") was restored to active command of
main Northern army, got lucky with finding Lee's battle plans, succeeded in halting Lee at Antietam on
September 17, 1862, in one of the bitterest and bloodiest days of the war
• more or less a draw militarily: but Lee retired across Potomac, McClellan-removed from his field
command for the 2nd and final time
• most decisive battle of the Civil War-->Jefferson Davis never again so near a victory as on that day, the
British and French gov'ts on the verge of diplomatic mediation:a form of interference sure to be resented
by the North
• long-awaited "victory" that Lincoln needed for launching his Emancipation Proclamation-->preliminary on
September 23, 1862, final on January 1, 1863
• Civil War became more of a moral crusade, since fate of slavery and the south it had sustained was
sealed
A Proclamation Without Emancipation
Blacks Battle Bondage
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