HIST 103A Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Josiah Gorgas, Anaconda Plan, Involuntary Servitude
29 Apr 2018
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Lecture 15.2: The Civil War
The Turning Tide: 1863-1864
➢Two Crucial Victories
○Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863):
■Lee’s invasion of PA turned back
●Lee and his army after this is always defense against the Union
○Vicksburg (July 4, 1863)
■Grant overthrows last Confederate fort that was blocking the Mississippi
River
●Allowing Union forces North of the river and Union forces of New
Orleans south of the river
●CSA loses access entirely to its main highway (the Mississippi
River) and the North now controls it
■Captures a Confederate army of 30,000 men
➢Major Blow to Southern Morale
○“Today absolute ruin seems our portion; the Confederacy totters to its
destruction.” -Diary of Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Confederate Ordnance
➢New Leadership and “Hard” War (historian’s term)
○At the outset of the war, Union’s mode of fighting was “conciliatory”
■Aimed at reconciliation, not decimation
■Believed the Civil War wasn’t going to last very long and they just needed
the South to come back into the Union
○Informed actions of Union war leaders during the first years of war (1861-1862)
■Winfield Scott
●Head of US forces at beginning of war from July 1841 – Nov 1861
●Designed the “Anaconda” plan
■George B. McClellan
●Head of US forces from Nov 1861 – Mar 1862
●Demoted to Head of Army of the Potomac until Nov 1862
○Demoted from major command after Antietam
●Wanted to build a grand army with overwhelming numbers
○To have the war end without firing too many shots
○Consequences:
■Never used it effectively
■Constantly loses bloody battle after bloody battle
○Lincoln pushed consistently for a more aggressive posture
■Achieved it by finding new, competent generals and overseeing a
redefinition of Union war doctrine
○Lieber Code
■Francis Lieber was a German immigrant, political scientists and legal
scholar
■Issued as War Department General Order No. 100 (April 1863)
●Brought on by the Lincoln administration to write a code of war
○A set of rules for the union army to conduct a war in a
civilized, humane matter
○Used as the basis for later conventions of war that put
limits on military aggression against civilians
■Defined permissible conduct in war for USA soldiers
●Mostly limits, but not always
●Confederate army does not do this
●Assigns responsibility to officers in order to constrain their
behavior, and declare things off-limits
○Except in regards to military necessity
■In Lieber code, military necessity, "allows of all
destruction of property, and obstruction of the ways
and channels of traffic, travel, or communication,
and of all withholding of sustenance or means of
life from the enemy; [and] of the appropriation of
whatever an enemy's country affords necessary for
the subsistence and safety of the army."
●Very broad set of principles
Grant and Sherman: Hard War
➢Commanders who rose to prominence in Western campaigns, using “hard war” tactics
○Committing Union forces fully, “all along the line”
■And accept heavy casualties
○Destroying infrastructure to deny CSA’s ability to wage war
■Railroads, factories, farms
■Freeing enslaved workers
➢Ulysses S. Grant
○Made Commander of US forces in March 1864
➢William Tecumseh Sherman
○Grant’s deputy, assigned responsibility for pacifying Lower South
F.O.C. Darley, Sherman’s March to the Sea
(1868), Library of Congress
➢Military campaign conducted through Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864,
by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman
Document Summary
Lee and his army after this is always defense against the union. Grant overthrows last confederate fort that was blocking the mississippi. Allowing union forces north of the river and union forces of new. Csa loses access entirely to its main highway (the mississippi. Captures a confederate army of 30,000 men. Today absolute ruin seems our portion; the confederacy totters to its destruction. -diary of josiah gorgas, chief of confederate ordnance. New leadership and hard war (historian"s term) At the outset of the war, union"s mode of fighting was conciliatory . Believed the civil war wasn"t going to last very long and they just needed the south to come back into the union. Informed actions of union war leaders during the first years of war (1861-1862) Head of us forces at beginning of war from july 1841 nov 1861. Head of us forces from nov 1861 mar 1862. Demoted to head of army of the potomac until nov 1862.
