The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Civil War

379 Pages·2011·10.88 MB·English

by  William L. Barney

THE OXFORD
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
THE CIVIL WAR

THE OXFORD
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
THE CIVIL WAR
William L. Barney
1
For all the teachers and students from whom I have learned so much,
and above all, for Elaine, who made it all so special.
Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 2001, 2011 by William L. Barney
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The first edition of this book was published in hardcover as The Civil War and Reconstruction:
A Student Companion(Oxford University Press, 2001).
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barney, William L.
The Oxford encyclopedia of the Civil War / William L. Barney.
p. cm.
Rev. and updated ed. of: The Civil War and Reconstruction, 2001
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-19-978201-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Encyclopedias. 2.
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865–1877)—Encyclopedias. I. Barney,
William L. Civil War and Reconstruction. II. Title.
E468.B319 2011
973.703—dc22 2010045461
ISBN 9780199782017
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
7
PREFACE
8
THE OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF THE CIVIL WAR
353
MAP 1: THE CIVIL WAR
MAP 2: THE VIRGINIA BATTLES
355
APPENDIX 1:
IMPORTANT DATES IN
THE CIVIL WAR ERA
359
APPENDIX 2:
MUSEUMS AND HISTORIC SITES
363
FURTHER READING
367
WEBSITES
371
INDEX
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7
PREFACE
More than 150 years after Jefferson Davis made ever-greater demands
the start of the Civil War, on its citizens that worsened morale on the
Americans are as fascinated Confederate home front. Declining civilian
as ever with that agonizing struggle that morale in turn undercut the broad base
remains as the watershed in American his- of popular support that Confederate
tory.U.S. victory in the war established armies needed to achieve victories on
the permanence of the Union and ended the battlefields.
the institution of slavery that had been so In addition to the war years of 1861–
central to the social and economic history 65, the entries also cover the buildup of
of the prewar South and indeed the nation sectional tensions to the outbreak of war,
as a whole. As embodied in the three great and efforts during Reconstruction to define
constitutional amendments that came out the meaning of the war and the terms of
of the war—the 13th freeing the slaves, Northern victory. Reflecting the impor-
the 14th granting the freed population tance of slavery as the root cause of the
national citizenship, and the 15th barring war, many entries deal with its impact on
race as a factor in denying the vote—the key legislation, compromises, and the
war also sparked efforts to create a more political parties that were increasingly
equal nation that continue into the pres- sectionalized by the issue.
ent. These momentous results came at the Once the guns of war were silenced in
terrible cost of more than 620,000 dead the spring of 1865, new political battle-
Americans, a figure that easily dwarfs fields opened, centering on the readmission
the number of lives lost in any other of former Confederate states to the Union
American war. The conflict also spread and the issues of whether African
economic misery and ruin across much of Americans, the former slaves, were to be
the former Confederate States of America. granted equality in the preserved Union.
Few areas of American life were left These debates shaped the crisis of
unt ouched by the war, and debates over its Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877. The
causes, battles, leaders, and meaning still entries here focus on the major actors in
attract the interest and often the passions of this period, the new laws and constitution-
Americans more than any other topics in al amendments that were passed, and the
our history. The entries in this book speak shifting fortunes of Southern whites and
to these debates and reveal the war in all its blacks as they grappled with the unprece-
complexity. Arranged alphabetically, the dented changes that were transforming the
entries provide both seasoned readers and society of the South.
those new to the Civil War ready informa- The ongoing interest of historians and
tion on all phases of the conflict from the the general public in the Civil War pro-
battlefields to the home fronts. ducedthe vast published research upon
The battles and major personalities which this book rests. Central to much of
of the war dominate the entries. It was the this recent research has been a broadening
outcome of battles as influenced by the of scholarship beyond its traditional
individual decisions of generals and politi- emphasis on battles and military cam-
cians that most fundamentally shaped the paigns to a new concern with the active
course of the war and set in motion its role played by civilians, women, and
social and economic consequences. For African Americans in the epic struggle that
example, the military stalemate that set in reshaped American government and socie-
during 1862 was the single most impor- ty. The entries thus touch upon a wide
tant factor in President Abraham Lincoln’s spectrum of American experiences during
redefinition of Union war aims to embrace the Civil War era, and if they convey the
the emancipation of the slaves. As the richness and vitality of the newer research
military tide turned against the Confed- on the war, this volume will have succeed-
eracy in 1863, the government of President ed in its main goal.
8
THE OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF THE CIVIL WAR
churches kept
Abolitionism
themselves
apart from the
abolitionist
crusade. As
for Southern
Abolitionism emerged in the 1830s as a whites,nearly
radically new phase in the antislavery all of them
movement. Rejecting gradualism and the denounced the
colonization of freed slaves abroad, the abolitionists as
abolitionists demanded immediate eman - deranged out-
cipation without payment to slaveowners. siders whose
Rather than accepting the dominant fanatical ideas
white view of African Americans as an would touch off
inferior caste that could never be inte- slave revolts.
grated as equals in American society, they They bitterly
called for an end to racial discrimination. rejected the
The abolitionists drew inspiration charge that slav-
from the wave of evangelical revivals ery per se was a
known as the Second Great Awakening. sin and denied
At the core of abolitionism was the the abolitionists
religious argument that slavery was an freedom of the
unmitigated sin and that all Americans press and use of
who refused to make an immediate the mails throughout the South. In Con- Founded in
moral commitment to end slavery were gress, Southerners pushed for and got a 1833, the
implicated in that sin. William Lloyd gag rule between 1836 and 1844 that American Anti-
Garrison was the chief propagandist for prevented any discussion of abolitionist Slavery Society
the movement, but it was the young petitions in the House of Representatives. called for the
immediate abo-
minister Theodore Dwight Weld who By 1840, when abolitionism split
lition of slavery
first gained converts for abolitionism in into Garrisonian and anti-Garrisonian
by sponsoring
the rural heartland of the North. Weld camps, the movement appeared to have
lectures and
preached abolitionism as he would a been a failure. Moral suasion—the reli-
meetings, orga-
revival, and in his words, he always gious effort aimed at convincing white nizing and
approached slavery “as preeminently a Americans to renounce the twin sins sending signed
moral question, arresting the conscience of slavery and racism—had not worked. antislavery
of the nation.” Yet, in fact, the abolitionists had accom- petitions to
For all their moral fervor and plished the indispensable task of break- Congress,
sophisticated use of the latest advances ing through the apathy of silence printing and
in print technology to spread their mes- regarding slavery. They had built a net- distributing
sage, the abolitionists failed to convert work of 1,000 local antislavery societies propaganda,
and publishing
more than a small minority of whites to in the North; added white voices to the
journals such
their position. Most Northern whites black ones that had always fought for
as the Ameri-
were either indifferent or violently the immediate end of slavery; and
can Anti-Slav-
opposed to a movement which they frightened the South into supporting
ery Almanac.
viewed as a threat to national peace, measures that violated the liberties of
white supremacy, and the jobs and profits white Americans to petition and freely
generated by slave labor for the North- express their views.
ern economy. Even most Northern Once Northern whites began to
9
(cid:129) A B S E N T E E I S M (cid:129)
view the slave South as a threat to their duty. It includes desertion but is not
own freedoms, the conditions were in synonymous with it. Many, perhaps
place for building a political coalition of most, soldiers who went AWOL, or
antislavery Northerners. This coalition absent without leave, intended to return
grew into a Northern majority by the to their units. Nonetheless, rates of
1850s as more Northern whites became absenteeism correlate closely with an
convinced that the spreadof slavery into army’s disciplinary cohesiveness and the
the federal territories was an uncon- willingness of its soldiers to see the war
scionable threat to their interests. To be through to the end. Whereas absenteeism
sure, their antislavery principles lacked remained manageable in Union armies
the urgent sense of moral fervor and throughout the war, it soared to disas-
commitment to racial equality that lay trously high proportions in Confederate
at the heart of abolitionism, but the armies in the last two years of the war.
ongoing abolitionist crusade predis- Perhaps indicative of the greater
posed Northerners to expect the worst resistance of rebel soldiers to discipline,
from Southern intentions. As confirmed absenteeism in the Confederate ranks was
by the runaway success of Harriet always higher than in Union forces. For
Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel Uncle example, in June 1862, the figures stood
Tom’s Cabin,the Northern public was at 30 percent for the rebels and 20per-
embracing an antislavery position that cent for the federals. By the end of 1863,
had been all but unthinkable a genera- at which point the Union rate stabilized
tion earlier. By refusing to back down at around 30 percent, the Confederate
on the moral issue of slavery, the aboli- rate had reached 40 percent—and it
tionists were instrumental in forging an kept climbing. Major defeats at Gettys-
image of the antislavery North that ulti- burg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga had
mately provoked the South to secede. clearly sapped Confederate fighting
SEE ALSO morale. By the fall of 1864, rebel armies
Colonization; Douglass, Frederick; Eman- were melting away fast, as over half of
cipation; Free-labor ideology; Garrison, the soldiers failed to report for duty. By
William Lloyd; Reform; Stowe, Harriet
the early spring of 1865, only two in
Beecher; Thirteenth Amendment
five still remained with their units. One
FURTHER READING
of those who stayed, Private Luther Mills
Goodman, Paul. Of One Blood: Abolitionism
and the Origins of Racial Equality. Berkeley: of North Carolina, explained whatwas
University of California Press, 1998. happening when he wrote home from
McKivigan, John R. The War against
the Petersburg trenches in March 1865:
Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the
Northern Churches, 1830–1865.Ithaca, “It is useless to conceal the truth any
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984. longer. Most of our peopleat home have
Stewart, James Brewer. Holy Warriors: The become so demoralized that they write
Abolitionists and American Society,Rev.
to their husbands, sons, and brothers
ed. New York: Hill & Wang, 1996.
that desertion nowis not dishonorable.”
Absenteeism SEE ALSO
Desertion
FURTHER READING
Beringer, Richard E., Herman Hathaway,
Archer Jones, and William N. Still, Jr.
Absenteeism refers to soldiers listed on
Why the South Lost the Civil War.Athens:
the military rolls but not available for University of Georgia Press, 1986.