Civil War - 1861-1862

The view in the North was that the southern states had no right to secede, and thus their declarations of secession were null and void. The South was still part of the United States, according to the North, and the fighting by the South (as at Fort Sumter) constituted an insurrection or a "civil war."^[5] In the South, its view was that Lincoln was the aggressor in trying to fortify a northern position in South Carolina (Fort Sumter), and the resulting conflict was the "War of Northern Aggression" or "War Among the States." For a long time one could tell whether a stranger was from the northern part of the United States, or the southern part, simply by the name the person used to talk about the conflict. It is said that the winner of a war gets to name it, so "Civil War" is what we will use.

The eleven states that seceded formed the Confederate States of America, or simply the "Confederacy". It adopted its own constitution,^[6] elected its own president (Jefferson Davis), had its own capitol city (Montgomery, Alabama), and printed its own money. Its unique national flag, the "Confederate Flag," remains controversial wherever used today (and it is still displayed in some parts of the South).

The first major battle of the Civil War was at Bull Run, near Manassas, Virginia, on July 21, 1861.^[7] By then Virginia had also chosen to secede and its local hero, General Robert E. Lee, remained loyal to his State. Lincoln offered him command of the Union forces because Lee was the most respected American military commander at the time, but he chose to represent his home state instead.

In this first major battle the emotional South crushed the North, and people fled into nearby D.C. But the South made a mistake of not charging immediately to take D.C., as urged by one of the greatest American (southern) generals, "Stonewall" Jackson (who had previously been a physics teacher at Virginia Military Institute). Had the South captured D.C. in this first battle, it may have broken the will of the North to continue fighting. But General Lee was not as clever and as aggressive as Stonewall Jackson, and the North had a chance to regroup. Still, it was a big victory for the South. Chastened by this initial defeat, President Lincoln fired his general and replaced him with George McClellan.

McClellan was an important figure throughout the war, and eventually ran against Lincoln for president in 1864 and may have defeated him had the southern states been able to participate and vote. McClellan held a dim view of Lincoln, and frankly thought Lincoln was incompetent. McClellan often ignored Lincoln's calls and urgent requests. For example, early one evening President Lincoln left McClellan an urgent message to respond to him, no matter how late. McClellan, upon receiving the message, simply ignored it and went to sleep. A brilliant student at West Point (second in his class), McClellan was a masterful organizer who was running large railroads just before the Civil War. Upon taking command, McClellan quickly fortified and protected D.C., and built up the Army of the Potomac into powerful force for the North (the Union).

But McClellan himself had a serious character flaw: he did not want to put his army into battle. McClellan was the best general ever at ... retreating. He could and did supervise massive retreats of his army with minimal casualties and loss of equipment.

McClellan did not engage the South in battle in the fall of 1861 and soon 1862 had arrived. Time was on the North's side, as it had over three times the free population and a much more developed manufacturing and transportation system. For the South to win the war, it had to win quickly. But the South simply waited.

McClellan also waited, and waited, and waited. He much preferred defense to offense. He did not like the harm caused by war, including the loss of life. As described above, McClellan did not get along with Lincoln and did not think much of him. Finally, Lincoln wrote this famous letter to McClellan:^[8]

My Dear McClellan:

If you are not using the army, I should like to borrow it for a short while.

Yours respectfully,

Abraham Lincoln

Amid the Union failures in 1862, Lincoln also suffered a personal tragedy. Lincoln lost his beloved young son, William ("Willie"), after a brief illness that was probably caused by contaminated water in D.C. "Lincoln feels his loss very deeply," was an understatement of the impact as reported by Harper's Weekly, the prominent national magazine.^[9] In fact, Mrs. Lincoln mourned for a year and President Lincoln was profoundly shaken by his son's death.^[10] Though Lincoln had little use for religion in his youth, this tragedy may have put him on a path towards faith. Even General McClellan did his best to console Lincoln about this personal tragedy.

Back to the war in 1862: the Union General McClellan's superb defensive skills came in handy when the Confederate General Lee launched a massive invasion of northern territory (Maryland, which had been sympathetic to the Confederacy). Known as the "Battle of Antietam," this was the single bloodiest day in battle in all of American History (the three days of battle at Gettysburg, discussed below, resulted in even greater numbers of casualties). Savage combat for twelve hours resulted in the death, wounding or disappearance of 23,000 soldiers on September 17, 1862. But McClellan's defense was successful, and this success encouraged President Lincoln to issue a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation.^[11] General McClellan, however, should have pursued the retreating Confederate Army. He failed to do so.

President Lincoln fired General McClellan in November 1862.