TIME-LIFE The Civil War: On the Front Lines: From Fort Sumter to Appomattox

206 Pages·2016·15.68 MB·English

by  The Editors of TIME-LIFE

THE CIVIL WAR
ON THE FRONT LINES
FROM FORT SUMTER TO APPOMATTOX
Camp of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry
CONTENTS
Officers of the 153rd New York Infantry
Cover
Title
Section I: A Growing Fissure
America in 1860: High Hopes and a Widening Divide
Two Nations in One: North vs. South
Slavery Comes to America
The Union is Dissolved
First Fire on Fort Sumter
The Diary of Mary Chestnut
Mobilizing the Troops
The War Sparks a Boom in the North
The Confederate Economy Crashes Quickly
Section II: Brother Against Brother
Soldiers North and South Rush to Arms
Sworn into Service
“They Met Death Coolly, Bravely”
“No Two Keep the Same Step”
Military Discipline Does Not Come Easily
Disease: The War’s Most Lethal Enemy
New Technology and Old Tactics Reshape the Battlefield
“There Is No End To These Horrors”
The Reality of the Battlefield
Turning to God
Capture Is As Deadly As Combat
Civil War Photography
Saturated with Blood
Sinking Morale
In the “Mule Shoe” at Spotsylvania
Section III: A Nation Transformed
Heartbreak and Sagging Morale in a Land of Plenty
Women at War: Spies, Scouts, Soldiers, and Heroic Homemakers
Indian Raids Create Fear for Frontier Civilians
The Children of the Battlefield
A Wave of Looting, Burning, and Retaliation
Hell on Earth
The Thirteenth Amendment Ends Slavery in America
Surrender at Appomattox
A Just and Lasting Peace
Image Credits
Copyright
SECTION I: A GROWING FISSURE
Spectators at the side of the Capitol, Washington, D.C., during the grand review of the Union Army in 1865
“This country will be drenched in blood . . .”
— William T. Sherman, circa 1860
America in 1860: High Hopes and a
Widening Divide
IN SPITE OF NATIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH, THERE WERE CULTURAL AND POLITICAL
DIFFERENCES SEPARATING THE NORTH AND SOUTH.
In 1860, New York was the most populous city in America. Broadway bustled with activity.
In 1860, the United States was a youthful, vibrant, and rapidly growing nation. Only 84
years had passed since the founding fathers crafted the Declaration of Independence,
yet in that time, America had become a vast nation that sprawled across the entire
continent. The population had swelled from less than 4 million to more than 31
million, thanks largely to immigration. Although increasing numbers of Americans
were taking up urban trades, most were still farmers, especially in the South and the
Western territories.
The economy enjoyed steady growth too, fueled by a parade of recent inventions
including the sewing machine, the electric locomotive, the hydraulic turbine, the
Bessemer steel process, and the Otis elevator. A golden age of shipbuilding enabled the
United States to produce almost as much tonnage as Great Britain and all its colonies
combined. Major cities such as New York—which boasted more than 800,000
residents in 1860—emerged from an era where pigs wandered dirt streets to an era of
horse-drawn streetcars, paved streets, and city waterworks systems.
horse-drawn streetcars, paved streets, and city waterworks systems.
In the single decade of the 1850s, the amount of railroad track in the United States
increased from approximately 9,000 miles to more than 30,000. Americans were
eyewitnesses to a nation on the move, if not participants in it.
And yet, a cultural and political chasm was widening across the country, and no one
seemed able to heal it. Soon, that chasm would claim the lives of more than 620,000
Americans.
Demand for American cotton soared in 1860. Increasing exports to the Northern states and Britain boosted
production and greatly increased the value of slaves on Southern cotton plantations.
UNITED STATES IN 1860
The U.S. government regulated the spread of slavery into Western Territories through
a series of legislation shown here.
Steamboats lined the levee along the Mississippi River in St. Louis.