Carnival of Death
Charles Francis Adams of Boston characterized the war as "the Carnival of Death.
Col. Robert Ingersoll wrote in 1862:
It is enough to break the heart to go through the hospitals. Old gray-haired veterans with lips whitening under the kiss of death--Hundreds of mere boys with thoughts of home--of sister and brother meeting the dark angel alone, nothing but pain, misery, n
A Wound Dresser in a Union hospital wrote
These thousands and tens of and twenties of thousands of American young men badly wounded, all sorts of wounds, operated on, pallid with diarrhea, languishing, dying with fever, pneumonia, &c open a new world . . . giving closer insights, new things, expl
The Technology of War
The generals obtained their training in the Mexican War which had climatic battles that destroyed a weak adversary in one fell swoop. There were bold frontal assaults with wave upon wave of charging soldiers. Weapons were slow-loading and inaccurate. Casu
New rifled weapons and expanding mini� bullets
changed that.
The Springfield rifle could annihilate an advancing infantry from across the fields. Military planners continued to order broad
frontal assaults against defensive emplacements. At the top of the hill, the enemy would pour accurate fire down on the advanci
The new rifles put a spin on the bullet and made it more accurate. They did not have to be cleaned as frequently as a musket and a soldier could fire three times per minute.
Rural troops who grew up in isolated communities had little exposure to epidemics. Mumps and measles could debilitate whole regiments. There was typhoid, dysentery, malaria, and diarrhea. Twice as many soldiers died from disease as in
combat.
Deaths
TB: 27%
Diarreah: 21%
Other Disease: 24% (scurvy, small pox, pneumonia)
Unknown: 12%
Wounds: 12%
Disease: 76%
The Soldiers
The early months of the war saw steady recruitment on both sides, though southerners who believed they were defending their homes, were more enthusiastic.. Early Civil War volunteers had a good idea of what the war was all about and the cause for which th
Recruitment
Most soldiers volunteered as parts of local militia units. They were thus recruited by people in their communities to serve in units composed of men who knew each other. Militia units were democratic. They often selected their leaders by voting for them.
Military Discipline
Most of the young men were from farms. While they knew how to work hard and had great physical endurance, they knew little about the regimentation of military life. As men came to realize that war was more hell than glory, many tried to opt out of combat
Conscription
Both North and South offered enlistment and reenlistment bounties and instituted conscription. All men of military age were registered and called on to volunteer or be drafted. Conscription was particularly unpopular in the North, especially among immigra
Opposition to the Draft
In July, 1863 huge crowds of mostly Irish immigrants demolished draft offices in New York City. They had no interest in fighting for the emancipation of slaves. The rioters lynched blacks. Above all, they feared that the Emancipation Proclamation would on
There were demonstrations in Chicago, in Pennsylvania mining towns, rural Vermont and in Boston.
Signing bonuses mollified few demonstrators. Some took the money and went to another locality to claim another bounty.
Boston rioters did not attack blacks; instead they vented their anger against the wealthy. On July 14, 1863 a recruiter serving notices in the North End was attacked by a woman as he tried to enter a house on Prince Street. A crowd joined in and they stor
Police used cannon and musket fire to turn the crowd back. Eight were confirmed dead; there may have been more. Boston Irish simply believed that this was a Yankee war which was irrelevant to them.
Training
Training camps, often located where supplies of water were limited and conditions unsanitary, helped to break the individuality of the recruit. Professional NCOs from the peacetime army were used by the Union to get the soldiers used to regimentation. Rec
Total War
Total war meant on both sides the involvement of recruits from all over the country and the mobilization of northern and southern economies to achieve victory. War created a machine and people were essential parts to that machine. They found that they had
Transformation of the Northern Economy
The coal and iron industry boomed as these industries were mobilized to manufacture weapons, machinery and railroad equipment. The war accelerated mechanization in factories and there was a new emphasis on efficient production. By 1863 problems in shoddy
During the Civil War New Bedford, Massachusetts transformed itself from a whaling port to a major textile city.
The invention of the automated stitcher in 1862 allowed a concentration of the shoe making industry into the factory. Thus Lynn, Massachusetts became a major shoe manufacturing city, relying on orders from the army.
This painting of Wamsutta Mill, the first successful textile mill in New Bedford links the past, the agriculture scene in the foreground and whaleships in the distant harbor, with what was to become the future, the development of the textile industry.
The Mill was painted by William Allen Wall, circa 1853. The painting hangs in the New Bedford Whaling Museum
The Example of the New England Town
Isolated farmsteads in rural New England were not immune from the effects of total war. In the summer of 1861 some of the finest young men of the New England countryside departed at the height of haying season.
Vermont sent off 34, 328, one in nine of its total population; 5,128 would die.
New Hampshire sent one in ten. Of the 73,000 that Maine sent, 7,322 would die. In the town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire 28 of the or out West. Many too were disabled.They
would return to their farms unable to perform the hard tasks. Fortunately there were pe
Goshen, Connecticut saw 146 go; 29 never returned. Amherst, Massachusetts lost 93 out of 345 to wounds or disease.
Go to any New England town and at some place in the community you will see a monument to the Civil War dead. The listing of names is extraordinary considering the populations of these places. The men who left represented the future leaders of the communit
The needs of Northern forces and the difficulties of supplying armies opened up opportunity for canned rations. The names of these entrepreneurs still grace cans in our grocery stores today. Borden's Condensed Milk collected milk and processed it in the a
The draft forced farms to get along without their young men. Machines that were already developed came into more widespread use. Mowers, hay spreaders, seeders and other horse drawn implements were found all over New England.
The Role of Women
Women increasingly became a part of the factory workforce. With so many men in the army and demands for manufactured goods high, many women found themselves working not just in textile and shoe industries where they had always had a presence, but in arsen
Businesses took advantage of military procurement opportunities and built large firms that could operate across state lines.
Philanthropists developed effective national associations. People became used to working in large bureaucratic organizations and ;moving around the country.
Expansion of the Role of Government
The war firmly established the principle that the federal government was supreme over the states and had a broad grant of authority to act on matters affecting "the general welfare." The government conscripted men, mobilized industries and taxed individua
With Southern opposition absent, Congress passed a high protective tariff, a Homestead act to grant free land to settlers in the West, grants of large tracts of public land to railroad companies, and grants of land to states for establishment of agricultu
Government assumed wide authority to regulate the lives of individuals. On April 27, 1861, President Lincoln declared martial law. This enabled the military to arrest civilians suspected of aiding the enemy. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the a
Later this authority was extended to all parts of the United States where "disloyal" elements were active.
The measures were criticized but the government's response was that almost all arrested under these provisions were deserters, draft dodgers, refugees or smugglers rather than critics of the government. (Divine, 435) Elections continued for Congress in 18
The Transformation of the South
The greatest difference between the North and South with regard to the effects of war was that almost all of the war was fought in the South. There was substantial damage to the South's agricultural and transportation infrastructure. Southern society was
Southern Economy
The South's industrial base was weak and less adaptable to the needs of the war. The South depended on the outside for most of its manufactured goods. The Union blockade prevented most imports and prohibited the export of the South's most valuable
commodi
The Confederate government established the Confederate Ordnance Bureau which
established factories to produce war materials.
In general the production of arms was sufficient, but the production of food to supply the armies was not. The rail networks were inadequate and there was little rail construction during the war. When the northern armies invaded parts of the South, they d
End of the "Old South
The Conscription act of April 1862 hit southern rural communities hard. Taxes were high and farm production was confiscated for low prices. The Confederacy needed to centralize power in order to win the war. However, if armies were to be fed and clothed t
In Confederate elections held in 1863, 41 of the 106 representatives opposed Davis' policies. He held only a slight majority in the Senate. Many southerners called for peace and compromise. Davis was criticized for exercising dictatorial power or for not
Women were forced to assume roles that Southern social norms had little prepared them for. They managed plantations and worked in industrial jobs. Others worked in government administrative jobs. These were the Confederate "government girls." Most souther
Blacks in the South
The South faced a dilemma: it needed people to fight but there was a reluctance to bring slaves into the army. Jefferson Davis pressed the Confederate Congress for a bill for recruitment of black soldiers.
To entice the recruit, the slave would have to be promised freedom.
The proposal aroused bitter opposition. Finally in March 1865, the Congress passed the measure, but the war ended before any black recruits could be organized.
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves in areas under rebellion and not occupied by Union troops to be free as of January 1, 1863. This excluded the slave states which remained loyal to the Union, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky and Wash
African-American Troops
While many former slaves fought valiantly for the Union, they met with discrimination of all kinds. To many, the idea of black combat troops was risky. There were fears that the blacks would be intimidated by the Southerners, who considered themselves the
The Road to Abolition
Early in the war Lincoln had kept the door open for a conservative approach to ending slavery that involved gradual emancipation with compensation for the slaveholders and possible subsidized colonization of the freed slaves in the West or in Africa. As t
The Meaning of Freedom
There was confusion as to the meaning of freedom. Many freed slaves believed they would take possession of the land they worked and continue to work it communally. Plantation owners often tried to keep the slaves on as wage laborers or sharecroppers. Othe
The Union government established a Freedman's Bureau to help the former slaves establish themselves as freemen. The promise of "40 acres and a mule" did not materialize. This would have involved confiscation of southern plantations. Congress was reluctant
There was no sense that the African-Americans were equal to whites. Many northerners felt a sense of obligation to freed slaves, but there was a reluctance to see any move north. At best, northern abolitionists believed that slaves needed their basic mate
Reconstruction
In December 1863 Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction which offered a full pardon to most Southerners who would take an oath of allegiance to the Union and acknowledge the legality of emancipation. When 10% of the voting population
Radical Republicans
Many Republicans in Congress favored a more severe approach to reconstruction and denied Lincoln's claim that restoration of states was an executive prerogative. Lincoln's approach was that individuals within states were in rebellion, to the point where s
The Wade-Davis Bill
Congress refused to admit congressmen and senators elected from Louisiana and Arkansas, states that had met the requirements of Lincoln's plan. Congress passed a more restrictive reconstruction plan, the Wade-Davis Bill. This legislation required 50% of t
Andrew Johnson's Plan
When Vice-president Andrew Johnson succeeded Lincoln, the dynamics of the discussion changed substantially. Johnson was a Democrat from Tennessee who remained loyal to the Union. An heir to the Jacksonian tradition, he was an ardent champion of the common
Johnson's plan, announced in May 1865 placed states under military governor's appointed from among southerners who remained loyal to the Union. The governors would call constitutional conventions to draw up new constitutions. Confederate leaders and offic
The conventions were to declare the ordinances of secession illegal, repudiate the Confederate debt and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. The conventions were composed of yeoman farmers, who generally excluded blacks from suffrage. Some states began to imp
The industrial revolution brought promises of great weapons for the battlefield. Most of these new weapons were too early in their stages of development to be game changing though.
The hand grenades could be caught and thrown back before they detonated. The rockets lacked accuracy. The Gatling gun was too expensive. The land mines although quite effective were deemed inhumane by Generals on both sides of the fence. The cannons, musk