July 4, 2020
Unofficial History of the war of NORTHERN AGGRESSION
1. Introduction
This book was inspired by the apparent ignorance of so many Southerners who have blindly accepted the victors version of history. It is not a treatise trying to justify slavery. It attempts to cover all of the relevant events from the ratification of the Constitution of the United States to the admission of the southern colonies back into the Union. The form of the book will be essentially a time line with some associated comments of the authors.
A. Book Sections
i. Formation of the United States
ii. Slave States Acceptance of Constitution. Implications of Agreements of non-slave states with slave states to encourage slave states to ratify the Constitution.
iii. Events Negatively affecting the South
iv. Reasons for secession given by slave states.
v. Beginning of the war.
vi. Conduct of the War.
vii. Congressional Acts during the war.
viii. Ratification of Amendment XII
ix. Punishment of the now ex-slave colonies, Reconstruction.
x. Admission of colonies to the Union
xi. Response of Democratic Party, Rise of the Ku Klux Klan.
B. Contents of each section
i. Time line of events
ii. Comments
iii. References
iv.
2. Formation of the united states
A. Time Line
- 1778: The States agreed to form a Confederation to conduct the war by uniting their resources but "that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."
- 1778: Thomas Jefferson stopped the slave trade in Virginia. Any slave entering the state after that action became free.
- September 3, 1783, A treaty was signed with Great Britain which, in Article I, further separated the states, "ARTICLE 1-- His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States,: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."
3. Slave States Acceptance of the Constitution
A. Time Line
i. April 18, 1783 The “Three Fifths Compromise” was originally proposed and accepted in the Articles of Confederation. The compromise was made between non-slave states and slave states to resolve objections of both. The non-slave states held that counting the slaves gave the slave states more power in the government and the slave states objected to paying taxes in proportion to the population count including “non-persons”. The compromise, that slaves would be counted as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of political power and allocation of taxes, resolved the issue and was made a part of the Articles of the Confederation. It was later incorporated into the Constitution for the same reason.
ii. August 29, 1787 Pierce Butler of South Carolina proposed what is now called “The Fugitive Slave Clause: Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3”, to the Constitutional Convention. It was passed without debate or Objection. “No person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due.”(This clause superseded by Amendment XIII)
iii. June 21, 1788 Nine States ratified the Constitution. North Carolina and Rhode Island, the final two states ratified the Constitution on November 21, 1789 and May 29, 1790 respectively.
B. Comments
i. We tend to hold people of that era to the same standards as we hold ourselves. While we find the idea of slavery abhorrent, we must remember that some felt that a person could be owned. Note that less than 14% of the residents of the slave states owned slaves. While the majority of those followed Christian principles dealing with their slaves, many were cruel to their property.
C. References
i.
4. Events Negatively affecting the south
A. Time Line
i. 1819: Missouri Compromise, James Talmage of New York proposed the admission of Missouri as a non-slaves state. Up until then the slaves states and non-slave states were equal in number, equal in the number of Senators, with the slave states having advantage in the house because of the three-fifths compromise. The conflict was resolved when Massachusetts ceded control to Maine. Both Maine, a non-slave state, and Missouri, a slave state were admitted to the union at the same time.
ii. 1820: Following the war of 1812, the American System, proposed by Henry Clay and supported by supporters of the war of 1812, was adopted whose purpose was to develop American Industry and encourage international trade. Unfortunately, the 1820s faced a downturn in the economy and the slave state, whose industry was agrarian, suffered the most. Additionally, the slave states did not benefit from the tariffs which made their situation even worse.
iii. 1828: Tariff of 1828: The passage of this tariff along with other revenue raising moves of the Union was opposed in South Carolina to the extent that some elements proposed making the law null and void.
iv. 1832: The Tariff of 1828 was replaced but offered little relief to South Carolina. At the South Carolina convention, South Carolinians voted to declare the Tariffs “null and void” within the state. President Andrew Jackson declared that the nullification was an act of treason and strengthened the forts in the state.
v. 1833: The “Force Bill” was passed, authorizing the President to use the military to enforce acts of congress.
vi. May 1, 1833: Andrew Jackson,”the tariff was only a pretext, disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next will be the negro, the slavery issue.”
vii. May 26, 1836: Responding to American Anti-Slavery Society inspired petitions to end slavery in the District of Columbia and all federal territories, congress passed the Pinckney Resolutions which stated “All petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatsoever, to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid on the table and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon”.
B. Comments
i. Note that the 1830 census revealed that 10,000 slaves were owned by free men of color.
C. References
5. reasons for secession given by slave states
A. Time Line
- April 26, 1852:“Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” This document, finalized by the South Carolina Convention, started it all, and it best covers South Carolina’s complaints. Which were:
- Frequent Violations of the Constitution of the United States,
- Specifically Article IV Section 2 (before amended)
- Its encroachments on the reserved rights of the states.
i. December 26, 1860: Acceptance of South Carolina Declaration
ii. January 29, 1861: Georgia
iii. :Mississippi
iv. February 2,1861: Texas
v. April 17, 1861: Virginia. The Secession Ordinance. An Ordinance to Repeal the Ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America by the State of Virginia, an to Resume All the Rights and Powers Granted under said Constitution.
B. Comments
i. The states’ (other than South Carolina and Virginia) complaints could be considered to be mainly concerning slavery.
ii. The economy of the slave states, being agrarian, depended on the practice of slavery.
iii. Recall that the first slaves reached what would become the United States in 1526 and even though they were first brought to and sold in Jamestown, Virginia, they were commonly bought in all of the states, North and South. In 1703, New York City’s population consisted of 42% enslaved people, higher % than any city other than Charleston, South Carolina.
C. References
i. Most of the information is from Wikipedia and found by searching “Slavery in the United States”, “American Civil War”, and “Origins of the Civil War”. The book “The South Was Right” is also used as a reference.
6. Beginning of the War
A. Time Line
i. Abraham Lincoln (Since this book is presenting a timeline about the war, and there are more complete books about Lincoln and his quotations, the following quotes are included only to show his attitudes before the war)
1. 1858: “I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races. … I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”
2. June 17, 1858: “A house divided against itself, cannot stand. …” This quote from Mark 3:25 is from Jesus and begins his speech giving his belief of what the future of the United States will become.
3. “Such separation if effected at all, must be effected by colonization: … what colonization most needs is a hearty will. … Let us be brought to believe that it is morally right, and at the same time favorable to, or at least not against, our interests to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be”.
4. March 4, 1861: “"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
ii. 1860: Republicans led by Abraham Lincoln were elected.
iii. December 26, 1860: Acceptance of South Carolina Declaration by South Carolina convention. The effect was, in their view, secession.
iv. March 4, 1861: Before the inauguration of Lincoln, 7 slave states declared their secession.
v. December 26, 1860 – April 12, 1861: Union Forces continued to occupy forts in South Carolina even though they were given adequate time to vacate them.
vi. April 12-13, 1861: Confederate Forces led by General P. T. G. Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumpter until they surrendered. Note no one was killed during the bombardment. However the day after, a magazine exploded killing one person
vii. Lincoln responded by calling up 75,000 troops to put down the rebellion.
viii. May 3, 1861: Lincoln called up another 45,000 troops.
B. Comments
i. During the time between Lincoln’s inauguration an firing on Ft Sumpter, Lincoln tried to negotiate a settlement, but failed.
C. References
i. Abraham Lincoln, as cited in The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, edited by R. W. Johannsen (Oxford University Press, New York, NY: 1965), pp. 162-63
ii. Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Speeches, Letters, and State Papers, vol. I, p. 458
iii. Wikipedia, American Civil War
7. Conduct of the War.
A. Time Line
i. February, 1861: The Confederacy had military forces of approximately 16,000 groups but had authorized 100,000.
ii. April, 1861: Lincoln announced the blockade of all southern ports cutting off major income from the cotton industry.
iii. April 19, 1861: Lincoln suspends writ of Habius Corpus, arrests and imprisoned thousands of SUSPECTED southern sympathizers, and spent money not yet appropriated by Congress.
iv. July 26, 1861: Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac.
v. June 20,1861: The Army originated as the (Confederate) Army of the Potomac, from all operational forces in northern Virginia.
vi. July 20 and 21, 1861: The Army of the Shenandoah and forces from the District of Harpers Ferry were added.
vii. July 21, 1861: First Battle of Bull Run (First Battle of Manassas, Confederate Name). The North, believing the war could be concluded quickly by capturing Richmond Virginia, sent troops under the command of General Irving McDowell to take the city. At Manassas, after a failed attack, reinforced Confederate Forces under the command of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson counter attacked inexperienced General Irving Mcdowel’s Northern troops which turned into a rout.
viii. February 6,1862: Battle of Fort Henry.
ix. February 11-16, 1862: Battle of Fort Donelson. General Ulysses S. Grant won the two battles against the Army of Tennessee, giving him control of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.
x.
- March 14-May 17, 1862: Units from the Army of the Northwest were merged into the Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was renamed Army of Northern Virginia on March 14. The Army of the Peninsula was merged into it on April 12, 1862.
xi. April 1862: Battle of Shiloh. Confederate army, in a surprise attack pushed Grant’s forces to the river. However, Union forces landed reinforcements and ended up winning the battle.
xii. April 1862: Union Navy captures New Orleans, part of the plan to split the Confederacy.
xiii. April, 1862: The Confederacy authorized conscription of all men ages 18-35. except clergymen, government officials, and slave overseers.
xiv. Summer of 1862: Second battle of Bull Run. Army of Potomac was defeated and withdrew to protect Washington.
xv. June 6, 1862: Union Forces took Memphis. Part of Plan to split the Confederacy.
xvi. July 13, 1862: Lincoln discussed the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with State William Seward, and Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles.
xvii. September 3, 1862: The Confederates, under Kirby Smith, took Frankfort, Kentucky. Braxton Bragg led forces to capture Perryville. However, Bragg had to end his campaign because of the lack of recruits to the Confederate Army and logistical support.
xviii. September 1862: the Battle of Antietam yielded the military victory Lincoln needed to issue the proclamation which some believe was to encourage slaves to join the Union Army. Even though the Union Army suffered heavier losses, McClellan defeated Robert E. Lee’s forces destroying a quarter of his army.
xix. September 22, 1862: Lincoln issued the preliminary proclamation. Saul Alinsky in “Rules For Radicals” mentions Lincoln a number of times and how his actions conformed to his, Alinsky’s, theories. “All great leaders, including Churchill, Gandhi, Lincoln, and Jefferson, always invoked “moral principles” to cover naked self-interest in the clothing of “freedom” “equality of mankind,” “a law higher than man-made law,” and so on.”
xx. December 13, 1862: Battle of Fredericksburg. Robert E. Lee’s army defeated General Ambrose Burnside’s Union forces killing 12,000 Union soldiers.
xxi. January 1, 1863: Emancipation Proclamation was issued freeing the slaves in the Confederacy (not the rest of the Union). At the time, historians remind us that the wife of Ulysses Grant had slaves that were not freed until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.
xxii. May, 1863: Battle of Chancellorsville. Even though outnumbered 2 to 1 by Union forced, General Lee’s army embarrassed General Hooker’s army.
xxiii. July 1-3, 1863: Battle of Gettysburg. Considered the turning point of the war. General George Meade’s Union forces repelled Lee’s army with the south suffering 28,000 casualties compared to Union’s 23,000
xxiv. July, 1863: The draft riot in New York City involved Irish immigrants who had been signed up as citizens to swell the vote of the city's Democratic political machine, not realizing it made them liable for the draft.
xxv. July 1863: Battle of Vicksburg, Union forces finally took Vicksburg, completing the plan to separate the Confederacy.
xxvi. September 18-22, 1863: Battle of Chickamauga. Confederate forces under the command of Braxton Bragg defeated the Union forces under General William Rosecrans at Chickamauga Creek in north west Georgia and was the first battle fought in Georgia.
xxvii. October-November, 1863: Third Battle of Chattanooga.
xxviii. December 8, 1863: Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (also called the Ten Percent Plan) was introduced by President Lincoln but rejected by radical Republicans in favor of the Wade-Davis bill which required more than half the citizens to sign loyalty oaths.
xxix. November 24, 1863: Battle of Lookout Mountain won by Union Forces under command of General Joseph Hooker.
xxx. July 22, 1864: The battle for Atlanta, a business and transportation center, began Southeast Atlanta. Union forces under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman defeated Confederate forces under John Bell Hood as part of Sherman’s “March to the Sea”
xxxi. September 2, 1864: Fall of Atlanta. The resulting destruction was so great that the present day Atlanta is built on top of the original city. One can visit parts of the old city by going to “Underground Atlanta”. The reader is encouraged to visit the Cyclorama in Atlanta for a depiction of the Battle of Atlanta.
xxxii. December 21, 1864: Sherman’s march to the sea concluded with the taking of Savana, Georgia. His forces followed a "scorched earth" policy, destroying military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property, disrupting the Confederacy's economy and transportation networks. The operation broke the back of the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender.
xxxiii. April 9, 1865: At Appomattox Courthouse, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces, depleted by desertions, found itself surrounded by Union Forces, decided it was hopeless to fight on. He surrendered to General Ulysses Grant at McClean House. Grant, out of respect and in anticipation of peacefully restoring Confederate states to the Union, , permitted Lee to keep his sword and his horse, Traveler. After news of Lee’s surrender Confederate forces in the rest of the Confederacy began surrendering.
xxxiv. April 14, 1865: President Abraham Lincoln was shot, and died the next day.
xxxv. April 26, 1865: Joseph Johnston surrendered his army of 90,000 to Sherman.
xxxvi. May 4, 1865: all forces in Alabama and Georgia had surrendered.
xxxvii. May 9, 1865: President Andrew Johnson declared the end of the insurrection.
B. Comments
i. Habeas corpus (/ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔːrpəs/) is a recourse in law challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's confinement under color of law. A petition for habeas corpus is filed with a court that has jurisdiction over the custodian, and if granted, a writ is issued directing the custodian to bring the confined person before the court for examination into those reasons or conditions. The Suspension Clause of the United States Constitution specifically included the English common law procedure in Article One, Section 9, clause 2, which demands that "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."
ii. Emancipation Proclamation
1. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State