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