It represents a crossroads defined by a simple question --to paraphrase Lincoln,"Can a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to equality endure?" In some sense, this question is not answered simply by the outcome of the war -- and this is in part why the Civil War still lives with us. It is as much anthropological as it is historical. It remains a matter of destiny as much as it is a significant event.This is perhaps what makes the Civil War, a conflict which takes place more than eighty years after the Revolutionary War, the seminal event in American history. While the Revolutionary War gave America its independence and the Constitution, the Civil War made a statement about where the nation was heading.
Beyond that, we see the end of the First Republic -- a nation where loyalty was most deeply felt locally rather than nationally and consequently the power of the federal government was often deferred to the states. The New Republic which is born out of the Civil War is one in which the federal government wields ultimate authority -- still constrained somewhat by the constitutional limitations of the Tenth Amendment -- but nonetheless authority which has been tested and proven through blood and steel.
What follows is a collection of some of the influences and outcomes discussed in class over the course of our study:
A House Divided Speech
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/house.htm
Uncle Tom's Cabin
It was Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which, much like Thomas Paine's, "Common Sense," touched a nerve across the country. The novel became the best seller of the nineteenth century and as a book was only outsold by the Bible. In its first year of publication, 300,000 copies were sold in America alone. The book, which attempted to reveal to readers the life of a slave made the most compelling case for abolition ever presented in America and raised awareness of the evil of slavery.
While the war was the result of many forces and changes which have been discussed previously and Lincoln was on record as willing to accept slavery where it was established, the moral question of slavery was undoubtedly on people's minds in 1860. The book no doubt motivated some in the North or at least hardened their conviction that slavery needed to be eliminated. While in the South, it angered many and made them defensive because they believed that the North was using slavery as a means to dominate the South economically and politically. When the war began, there were a good number of Confederates who privately wanted their government to grant freedom to any man who would fight for the Confederacy and still others who believed the government should have emancipated the slaves and then fired upon Fort Sumpter. Whatever the case, Stowe's book certainly got everyone's attention.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/203/203-h/203-h.htm
Dred Scott Decision
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/dred.htm
John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid
http://www.history.com/topics/harpers-ferry
Civil War Firsts - What did the war accomplish?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQRiIrjCniw&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL53ACFEEC3BF2CA75
A House Divided
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7vjITEp2zQ&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL53ACFEEC3BF2CA75
"The war started in my front yard and ended in my parlor..."
http://militaryhistorynow.com/2014/01/29/meet-wilmer-mclean-one-of-the-civil-wars-first-and-last-victims/
Secession
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUj2SL-QuJs
The turn of events leading to the war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25IzGDvL5oM&feature=related
Dates of Secession
http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Confederate_Order_of_Secession
The Conflict on the Battlefield
An Overview of the War
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/maps/civil-war-animated-map
First Manassas/Bull Run:
https://vimeo.com/25141968
Birth of the Rebel Yell:
One of the first accounts of the yell was given at the battle of First Battle of Manasses (Bull Run) during then Brig. General Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson's assault at Henry House Hill where the order was given during a bayonet charge to "yell like furies", and was instrumental in routing the Federal forces under General Irvin McDowell back to Washington D.C.
“Then arose that do-or-die expression, that maniacal maelstrom of sound; that penetrating, rasping, shrieking, blood-curdling noise that could be heard for miles and whose volume reached the heavens–such an expression as never yet came from the throats of sane men, but from men whom the seething blast of an imaginary hell would not check while the sound lasted.” -Colonel Keller Anderson of Kentucky's Orphan Brigade
Fredericksburg
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/civilwar/p/fredericksburg.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJodzkWBjDk
To Cross or Not to Cross Prior to Fredericksburg
http://emergingcivilwar.com/2011/09/16/hey-general-burnside-why-dont-we-just-wade-across/
Irish Brigade
http://irishvolunteers.tripod.com/irish_brigade_history.htm
http://www.28thmass.org/history.htm
Chancellorsville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwWH0JPG0JY
An Overview of 1863 up to Gettysburg - Ken Burns - The Civil War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0UAsQfWZXQ
Gettysburg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUXpCfcJ7Ng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJjwb4eyAyo
The Making of Gettysburg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew3atGj1DqY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J8gfoFWEz4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2PRopBeU7s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMo1BEVaVbQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhtrkFkt6RI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EzsrDbsQEY&feature=related
Robert E. Lee
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/robert-e-lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oddgEwcM-l0
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
http://www.civilwarhome.com/jackbio.htm
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/videos/stonewall-jackson
James Longstreet
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/james-longstreet
Origin of the Term "Dixie" to Describe the South and Yankee in the North
http://wesclark.com/jw/dixie_yankee.html
JEB Stuart
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/j-e-b-stuart
Nathan Bedford Forrest
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/nathan-bedford-forrest
Ulysses S. Grant
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/videos/ulysses-s-grant
George Meade
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/george-g-meade
William Tecumseh Sherman
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/william-t-sherman
George B. McClellan
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/george-b-mcclellan
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/joshua-lawrence-chamberlain/overview/
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/joshua-lawrence-chamberlain.html
Abraham Lincoln
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/abraham-lincoln/
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/abraham-lincoln
Jefferson Davis
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/jefferson-davis
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/videos/jefferson-davis
Artillery Drill
http://rigarcwmuseum.tripod.com/BatteryPages/cannondrill.html
1863-1865 Timeline
http://americancivilwar.com/tl/tl1863.html
http://americancivilwar.com/tl/tl1864.html
http://americancivilwar.com/tl/tl1865.html
Appomattox
