Kentucky stayed in the union because on September 3, , Confederate General Leonidas Polk ordered Southern troops to occupy Columbus, Kentucky, a strong point on the Mississippi River. It was a wise military move but politically it was a disaster, so the Unionist asked the federal government to help drive the Confederates out by creating a military force to oppose Confederates in the state.
The two sides in the civil war were called the states of Union and the states of Confederacy. By Gary Gallagher, Ph. Would they side with Confederacy, or would they remain loyal to the Union? There was a level of uncertainty as to whether the border states would join the Union or not.
Abraham Lincoln intended to keep the border states in the Union. Henry Clay was an expert at pushing for a compromise like the Missouri compromise and the compromise of Image: T. Q: What were the four border states in the Civil War? Q: Is Kentucky a Confederate state? Q: Why did Kentucky stay in the union? Q: What were the two sides in the civil war called?
All rights reserved. African American men rushed to enlist. This time they were accepted into all-black units. Their heroism in combat put to rest worries over the willingness of black soldiers to fight. Douglass proclaimed, "I urge you to fly to arms and smite with death the power that would bury the government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave. On March 6, , the Secretary of War was informed that "seven hundred and fifty blacks who were waiting for an opportunity to join the Union Army had been rescued from slavery under the leadership of Harriet Ross Tubman Black soldiers faced discrimination as well as segregation.
The army was extremely reluctant to commission black officers -- only one hundred gained commissions during the war. African American soldiers were also given substandard supplies and rations. Probably the worst form of discrimination was the pay differential. At the beginning of black enlistment, it was assumed that blacks would be kept out of direct combat, and the men were paid as laborers rather than as soldiers. Black troops strongly resisted this treatment. The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment served a year without pay rather than accept the unfair wages.
Many blacks refused to enlist because of the discriminatory pay. Finally, in , the War Department sanctioned equal wages for black soldiers. In the South, most slaveholders were convinced that their slaves would remain loyal to them.
Some did, but the vast majority crossed Union lines as soon as Northern troops entered their vicinity. A Confederate general stated in that North Carolina was losing approximately a million dollars every week because of the fleeing slaves. Numbers of white southerners also refused to support the Confederacy. From the beginning, there were factions who vehemently disagreed with secession and remained loyal to the Union.
Many poor southern whites became disillusioned during the course of the war. Wealthy planters had been granted exemptions from military service early on. This became especially inflammatory when the South instituted the draft in and the exemptions remained in place. It became clear to many poor southern whites that the war was being waged by the rich planters and the poor were fighting it. In addition, the common people were hit hard by wartime scarcity. By , there was a food shortage.
Riots and strikes occurred as inflation soared and people became desperate. There were also northerners who resisted the war effort. Some were pacifists. Others were white men who resented the fact that the army was drafting them at the same time it excluded blacks. And there were whites who refused to fight once black soldiers were admitted. The remaining Southern states as yet remained in the Union, although Texas had begun to move on its secession.
Less than a month later, March 4, , Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he declared the Confederacy " legally void.
A war had begun in which more Americans would die than in any other conflict before or since. In the seven states that had seceded, the people responded positively to the Confederate action and the leadership of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Both sides now tensely awaited the action of the slave states that thus far had remained loyal. No state left the Union with greater reluctance than Virginia.
Her statesmen had a leading part in the winning of the Revolution and the framing of the Constitution, and she had provided the nation with five presidents. With Virginia went Colonel Robert E. Lee, who declined the command of the Union Army out of loyalty to his native state. Between the enlarged Confederacy and the free-soil North lay the border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which, despite some sympathy with the South, would remain loyal to the Union.
Each side entered the war with high hopes for an early victory. In material resources the North enjoyed a decided advantage.
Between June 25 and July 1, the two armies fought a series of battles that left the Army of the Potomac dispirited, cut off from its base of operations and roughly 20 miles from Richmond. The result of the campaign, however, likely contributed to pushing the Lincoln administration closer to emancipation.
The actions of slaves in both the Union and Confederate armies convinced moderate Republicans and Democrats to back a more vigorous policy that resulted in the passage of the Second Confiscation Act on July It also gave rise to the Militia Act, which allowed the military to employ blacks for jobs "for which they may be found competent. What took place on the Virginia peninsula ultimately led to the recruitment of around , African Americans into the U. But as Brasher demonstrates, this did not occur as a result of a great moral awakening, but rather an increasing recognition that their service and loyalty was essential for victory.
The Confederacy also entertained a vigorous debate about black soldiers in response to continued military setbacks. In the end, the government in Richmond authorized the enlistment of slaves into the army, but it was too little, too late.
By April , a reunited nation was forced to confront the moral worth of African Americans' military service and sacrifice. It's a legacy we're still struggling to come to terms with years later.
0コメント