USI.40

 media type="custom" key="29548297" align="right" =**Provi ****de examples of the various effects of the Civil War. **=



** Topics on this page **

 * Physical and Economic Destruction **
 * ** Photographs of the Civil War (see bottom of the page) **
 * Increased Role of the Federal Government **
 * ** Reconstruction **
 * ** Voting of the Southern Bloc **
 * ** Economics **
 * Greatest Loss of Life in any U.S. War Before or Since **
 * ** Women and the Civil War **
 * ** Clara Barton **
 * ===** Native Americans and the Civil War **===

Physical and Economic Destruction
Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society features recruiting posters for New York City regiments of volunteers; stereographic views documenting the mustering of soldiers and of popular support for the Union in New York City; photography showing the war's impact, both in the north and south; and drawings and writings by ordinary soldiers on both sides.

The Valley of the Shadow profiles life in two communities, one Northern and one Southern, through letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches, and census and church records

Black Soldiers in the Civil War. Hosted by the National Archives, this website has compiled teaching resources, including primary sources, regarding the participation of black soldiers in the Civil War and how their struggle for equal rights.

Did Civil War Soldiers Have PTSD? from the Smithsonian (January 2015) explo res new research on northern and southern troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Burning of Atlanta

 * In September of 1864 Sherman's Army had marched from the west and taken Atlanta, Georgia
 * This was an unprecedented victory for the Union, the capture of one of the Confederates cities in the heart of the south.
 * Unfortunately while Sherman was there the City suffered from a massive fire and burnt much to the city to the ground
 * Private homes, government buildings, manufacturing plants were all lost
 * This helped the Union in two ways: it demoralized the south with the destruction of one their major cities and it took away one of the few centers of industry in the south
 * Despite these benefits in was a very controversial event and one that was not actually order by General Sherman
 * According to reports drunken Union soldiers started lighting fires on their own without any orders
 * Sherman condemned the actions of his men but was later known to have harbored little remorse over it


 * [[image:Multimedia.png link="@https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnEZrV_WT44"]]See a scene from the movie Gone with the Wind (1939)**

Sherman's March to the Sea

 * After the destruction of Atlanta Sherman made is next move
 * He planned on demoralizing the south's support base (white land owners) by a total war campaign or scorched earth
 * Total War means that they will not only target the South's military but the South's civilians
 * His plan is to march his army from Atlanta (middle of Georgia) to the coastal city of Savannah
 * He brought not supplies for his army so in order to feed his men he orders them to take from the land and its people
 * By taking from the land he deprives civilians of their supplies
 * This strategy is designed to brake the moral of the civilian population, not destroy any opposing army
 * But he is explicit in that only property, food stuffs, or material vital to the South's war make ability are to be taken or destroyed
 * No murdering of civilians, although that did happen it wasn't the norm and it wasn't sanction by Sherman, he condemned those actions

This website has a great summary of the March and a few short videos to explain the events
 * Rethinking Sherman's March, New York Times (November 17, 2014)



**Reconstruction**

 * Reconstruction** refers to the time period following the Civil War and prior to the election of 1876, during which Congressional Republicans went past President Andrew Johnson's multiple vetoes and enacted laws to both punish the South for the war and to rebuild their state governments.
 * Johnson had a fairly forgiving approach to accepting the Southern states back into the Union.
 * He vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which declared that:

"That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding."

This, among other stipulations to enforce the newly granted citizenship, was opposed by Southerners vehemently and Johnson desired a unified nation above all. The Radical Republicans overcame the veto and others by a 2/3 majority, this being the first major law to be passed over a presidential veto.

//For more detailed Reconstruction info, go to standard USI.41.//

**Voting Bloc of the South**
Maps showing elections during and after Reconstruction (1863-1877), and shows the South voting more and more as a unified body. This voting trend affected presidential politics through modern elections.

Launched over 100 years after the end of the Civil War, Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” in the 1968 presidential elections, for example, established Republican dominance in the South by painting the Democrats as pro-civil rights and pro-African-American (//Out of Many…//), and the Republicans as pro-family and work, separate from all “counterculture.” Nixon’s strategy is ironic, in historical terms, since it was the Republicans under Lincoln who fought against slavery on a governmental level, most notably in the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858-1859.

The South was so unified in its dislike of President Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, moreover, five southern states (Ga., Ala., Miss., La., Ark.) went even further to the right than Nixon, and supported Alabama Governor George Wallace’s independent candidacy, whose gubernatorial slogan had been “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”

The South has voted majority Republican ever since the 1968 presidential campaign.

Here is a summary of some effects of the Civil War.

**Economics**
The Civil War had a great impact on economic aspects in the United States, especially in the South, where:
 * Since the war mostly took place in the South, the land was ravaged and much of the wealth was destroyed.
 * Bonds and currency that were minted for the Confederacy were completely worthless following the dissolution of the Southern government.
 * The Southern economy was highly dependent on the system of slavery, and without sufficient laborers, farmers would struggle in the area to recover.
 * Virtually all banks were destroyed, leaving little capital to help finance rebuilding.

See Industry and Economy During the Civil War from the National Park Service

Homer's Civil War Veteran: Battlefield to Wheat Field uses the painting //A Veteran in a New Field// to focus on the memories and emotions of Civil War Veterans who returned home at the end of the war. Winslow Homer established his reputation as an artist with his compelling images of the Civil War, a topic for further study.

Click here for **[|The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns]** that will take you to the PBS website that accompanied the film.

Click here and here to play a game about the Civil War

The document above is a lesson plan on songs from the Civil War.

Lost of Life During the War



 * How Many Americans Have Died in U.S. Wars?** PBS Newshour (March 24, 2015)
 * Battle of Gettysburg was the deadliest battle of the Civil War with 7,000 deaths
 * Battle of the Argonne Forest in World War I was the deadliest battle in American history with 26,000 deaths

**Decoration Day: The South Honors Its Dead, PBS**
 * The first Decoration Day was May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery
 * Memorial Day became a national holiday in 1971

** Women and the Civil War **

The virtual Smithsonian Civil War collection on Life and Culture shows how the lives of everyday citizens (often women) were impacted by the Civil War. Other collections in this online exhibit provide more context to the war.
 * See also Teaching with Primary Sources: Women and the Civil War

Women and the Homefront: New Civil War Scholarship

Women in the Civil War: Ladies, Contraband, and Spies. This lesson plan, designed for middle and high school students, was designed by the Library of Congress and explores the diverse ways in which women experienced the Civil War.

Clara Barton (1821-1912)
==== Clara Barton Biography from the American Red Cross

See also biography from National Women's History Museum

Clara Barton and Andersonville, National Park Service

See Clara Barton National Historic Site for student learning resources

Clara Barton Primary Source Materials

=Native Americans in the Civil War=

Click here for a letter from John Ross, a Cherokee leader, to President Lincoln assuring the president of Cherokee support for the Union.

Early in the war, several Native tribes, including Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles sided with the Confederacy partly because some of the tribe members owned slaves.
 * They were punished after the end of the war by being forced to sell their land at extremely low rates or give it up entirely to other tribes.
 * At the same time, railroad construction cut straight through many Native lands.

Photographs of the Civil War


[|The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady] from the National Archives

Click [|here] to see more pictures from the Civil War.



This lesson plan has students analyze Civil War photographs to make the connection between the Civil War and American industrialization. For compelling pictures, see the Center for Civil War Photography: Online Exhibits Overview.

For activities on the Civil War, click here to go to "Have Fun with History."

Civil War Photographs

More Civil War photographs follow below on this page.


 * Cotton Drying on the Ground Tended by African American Slaves, South Carolina, 1862**




 * Destruction of an African American Orphanage, New York City Draft Riots, 1863**


 * Charlestown, South Carolina, 1865**




 * Harriet Tubman and Slaves She Helped Rescue During the Civil War**




 * Battle of Antietam**




 * Atlanta Railroad Roadhouse in Ruins shortly before the end of the war**




 * __ Sources: __**


 * Books: **

Armitage, Susan H.; Mari Jo Buhle; Daniel Czitrom; John Mack Faragher; //Out of Many: A History of the American People//; Fourth Edition; Prentice Hall, N.J.; 2003.

Brogan, Hugh; //The Penguin History of the USA//; Penguin Books, London; 1999.

[1] [] Ken Burns’s documentary The Civil War web site [2] [|http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/elections.html#list] printable presidential election maps 1789-2000 [3] [[javascript: extraWindow('[]')|[]]] The Time of the Lincolns – see “A Teacher’s Guide” [4] [] Three maps show to progression of slavery and its effects on the geography of the U.S. [5] []')|[]]] The American Civil War Homepage [6] [] details the rise of the KKK [7] Podcasts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, as interpreted by two Lincoln scholars; this link also gives good summaries of the debates in podcast list []
 * Web Sites **