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There is nothing "civil" about a civil war. It is fought within a country, dividing citizens, friends, even families. A civil war is usually long, bloody and bitter with enmities that last for generations. The shortest civil war was probably the one fought in 19th century Switzerland. Catholics, at the instigation of their Austrian neighbors, started a war against the Protestants. In the end there was a battle – just the one – and 23 men were killed. The dispute was then settled in the courts, ending in a finding against the Catholics and reparations paid to cover the costs of the insurrection. One thing about the Swiss – they do like to keep things tidy. Nothing of the kind can be said about the United States. The Civil War played out on battlefields throughout the south, with raids into Ohio, uprisings in Illinois, battles in western Maryland and in Pennsylvania. Beyond the slaughter of the battlefield, there were internal conflicts ripping at the fabric of American society, north and south. The Union was never very united, the Confederacy not all that confederated. Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri, border states whose loyalties were always in dispute, required both control and conciliation. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, a constitutional protection, thus allowing federal authorities to arrest any civilian without charge and hold that person indefinitely without trial. The first shots of the Civil War may have been fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, but the first blood spilt was in Baltimore, Maryland in the Pratt Street Riot on April 19, 1861 when a secessionist mob attacked Union troops arriving to protect the U. S. Capitol in nearby D. C. Throughout the war, men from the border states slipped away to join the ranks of the C.S.A. There was little that could be done to prevent it. Lincoln and the Republican party struggled to hold on to the border states, included the strange wording of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing only those slaves in states that had seceded. In the border states, filled with slave-holders and secessionists, Lincoln dared not emancipate the slaves. Lincoln's political opponents in the Union were the Democrats and the Copperheads – who took their name from wearing a pin made of the Liberty head from a coin. For some it was opposition to the war and its hideous casualties. Others openly agreed with the concept of "state's rights" as paramount and felt that the Confederacy had a right to go its own way. Many opposed abolition. Men who might be willing to fight for the ideal of maintaining the Union were not about to lay down their lives for the freedom of black slaves. Amongst the Irish, the racism was most pronounced (Gangs of New York). Fleeing famine and persecution, the immigrants struggled to survive in even the most menial of occupations. The last thing they wanted was another population fighting them for the bottom rung of the social ladder. In the end the Union had to withhold troops from the battlefront to guard against rebellion within its own supposedly loyal states. While modern day apologists will say that the cause of the war was state's rights, Alexander Stephens, Confederate Vice-President, stated blunted: "Our new government's foundation are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not the equal of the white man, that slavery – subordination to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition." The introduction of black troops, and in particular the valiant sacrifice of the 54th Massachusetts at Battery Wagner, South Carolina (as portrayed in the film Glory) threatened to undermine the south's cherished belief in Negro inferiority. "If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong," declared Howell Cobb of Georgia. The Confederate Congress eventually approved the use of black troops with an offer of freedom as recompense for service to save the Confederacy, thus provoking another angry contradiction. If slavery was truly the best situation for blacks, then how could the Confederacy justify the offer of freedom? Even if we accept that state's rights was the dividing factor, it was really a state's right to maintain slavery. In the end the fervor that had fueled secession spelled the death of the Confederacy. In 1861, West Virginia seceded from the secessionists and was recognized as part of the Union. In North Carolina, the governor refused to allow the army to bring in any alcohol, even though alcohol was considered an essential medical supply. And, although North Carolina had half the cloth mills in the Confederacy, the state insisted on retaining the fabric for the uniforms of North Carolina units. Meanwhile, thousands of Confederate troops marched in rags. In December 1862, President Jefferson Davis bemoaned states' rights as destructive to the Confederacy, and in February 1864, declared, "Public meetings of treasonable character, in the name of state sovereignty, are being held." Even as the north had to withhold troops to keep insurgents in check, the Confederacy had to retain a portion of its force to prevent slave uprisings and to protect the civilian population from northern raiders. In addition to these predictable local problems, troops had to be garrisoned in eastern Tennessee to keep it from following the course of West Virginia. In southern Mississippi, Jones County declared itself the "Free State of Jones." (read The Free State of Jones by Victoria E. Bynum) It's population, slave-less, and home to more than a hundred Confederate deserters, fought several pitched battles against the forces of the C.S.A. Georgia threatened to secede. The army suffered from lack of discipline, being formed of rugged individualists striving for the individualism of their respective states. Generals fought duels with one another over matters of honor, severely injuring morale as well as each other. And with the exception of South Carolina, every state in the Confederacy had provided troops to serve the Union. Foreign concerns also loomed for both the Union and the Confederacy. While the Union already enjoyed official recognition by European nations, there remained concern that the British and the French secretly wanted the Confederacy to succeed. Britain had supplied the C.S.A. with commerce raiders, the CSS Florida and the CSS Alabama. While many Canadians unofficially served in the Union army, others were actively assisting Copperheads in the north and escaping Rebel prisoners. A number of Canadians were involved in the piratical taking of the passenger steamer Philo Parsons on Lake Erie in September 1864, part of a failed plot to free the Rebel prisoners held at the Johnson's Island prison. But as much as the Union might distrust the motives of the British and the French, the Emancipation Proclamation effectively ended any formal recognition of the Confederacy. With Union gunboats blockading southern ports, the Confederacy needed European alliances to provide desperately needed trade. However, Great Britain and France had long ago abolished slavery and would not risk legitimizing a slave-holding state with formal recognition. So the Civil War was not just fought on the battlefields, but in state houses, court houses, embassies, and drawing rooms around the world. And there was nothing civil about it. |
