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W. W. Norton & Company : College Books

The Civil War and Reconstruction

Contents

  • Part I: The Sectional Conflict
  • The North and South Contrasted
    • Aleksandr Borisovich Lakier, The Rush of Life in New York City (1857)
    • Anonymous, The Manufacturing City of Lowell (1847)
    • William Lloyd Garrison, I Will Be Heard (1831)
    • Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Convention (1833)
    • Frederick Law Olmsted, The South’s Lack of a Spirit of Progress (1861)
    • Louis T. Wigfall, We Are an Agricultural People (1861)
    • Hinton Rowan Helper, Slavery Impedes the Progress and Prosperity of the South (1857)
    • J.D.B. De Bow, Why Non-Slaveholders Should Support Slavery (1861)
    • Anonymous, A Traveler Describes the Lives of Non-Slaveholders in Georgia (1849)
    • William Harper, Slavery Is the Cause of Civilization (1838)
    • Solomon Northup, The New Orleans Slave Mart (1853)
    • Frederick Douglass Fights a Slave-Breaker (1845)
  • The House Dividing
    • David Wilmot, I Plead the Cause of White Freemen (1847)
    • Howell Cobb, The South Is at Your Mercy (1847)
    • John C. Calhoun, The Cords of Union Are Snapping One by One (1850)
    • Daniel Webster, I Speak Today for the Preservation of the Union (1850)
    • Appeal of the Independent Democrats (1854)
    • New York Times, The Causes of the Know-Nothing Movement (1854)
    • Mobile Register, The South Asks Only for Equal Rights in the Territories (1856)
    • New York Evening Post, Are We Too Slaves? (1856)
    • Richmond Enquirer, They Must Be Lashed into Submission (1856)
    • Chief Justice Roger B. Taney Rules against Dred Scott (1857)
    • Associate Justice Benjamin R, Curtis Dissents in the Dred Scott Case (1857)
    • James Henry Hammond, Cotton Is King (1858)
    • The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
    • The Freeport Doctrine (1858)
    • John Brown Addresses the Court (1859)
    • Richmond Enquirer, The Harpers Ferry Invasion Has Advanced the Cause of Disunion (1859)
    • Charles Eliot Norton, I Have Seen Nothing Like the Intensity of Feeling (1859)
  • The Road to War
    • Robert Toombs, The South Must Strike while There Is Yet Time (1860)
    • Alexander H. Stephens, Lincoln’s Election Does Not Justify Secession (1860)
    • South Carolina Justifies Secession (1860)
    • Abraham Lincoln, I Hold That the Union Is Perpetual (1861)
    • George Templeton Strong, The Outbreak of War Galvanizes New York City (1861)
    • William Howard Russell, The Popular Mood in Charleston at the Start of the Civil War (1861)
  • Part 2: The Civil War
  • The War Begins
    • Alexander H. Stephens, Slavery Is the Cornerstone of the Confederacy (1861)
    • Jefferson Davis, Our Cause is Just (1861)
    • Abraham Lincoln, This Is a People’s Contest (1861)
    • The Resources of the Union and the Confederacy (1861)
    • Abraham Lincoln Calls for Troops (1861)
    • Abraham Lincoln Institutes a Blockade of the Confederacy (1861)
    • Kentucky Declares Its Neutrality (1861)
    • John B. Gordon, The Raccoon Roughs Go to War (1903)
    • The London Times Foresees a Confederate Victory in the War (1861)
  • The Military Struggle, 1861–1862
    • Winfield Scott, The Anaconda Plan (1861)
    • Lyman Trumbull, The Most Shameful Rout You Can Conceive Of (1861)
    • George McClellan, I Have Become the Power in the Land (1861)
    • George McClellan, The President Is Nothing More Than a Well Meaning Baboon (1861)
    • Abraham Lincoln Explains His Ideas on Military Strategy (1862)
    • Cyrus F. Boyd, An Iowa Soldier "Sees the Elephant" at Shiloh (1862)
    • Ulysses S. Grant, I Gave Up All Idea of Saving the Union Except by Complete Conquest (1885)
    • Abraham Lincoln, But You Must Act (1862)
    • George McClellan, You Have Done Your Best to Sacrifice This Army (1862)
    • George McClellan, The War Should Be Conducted upon the Highest Principles of Christian Civilization (1862)
    • John Pope Adopts Harsher Policies against Southern Civilians (1862)
    • Abraham Lincoln Authorizes the Army to Seize Private Property in the Confederacy (1862)
    • Robert E. Lee Proposes to Invade the North (1862)
    • General Edward Alexander Criticizes Lee at Antietam (1899)
    • Rufus R. Dawes, The Most Dreadful Slaughter (1890)
    • Harper’s Weekly, Northern Despair after the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862)
  • The Naval War
    • G. J. Van Burnt, The Monitor Challenges the Merrimack (1862)
    • Horatio Wait, The United States Navy Blockades the Confederacy (1898)
    • Thomas Taylor, Aboard a Blockade-Runner (1896)
  • Union Politics, 1861–1862
    • Benjamin F. Butler Encounters the Contrabands (1892)
    • The Crittenden Resolution Defines Union War Aims (1861)
    • Frederick Douglass, Cast Off the Mill-Stone (1861)
    • Abraham Lincoln, To Lose Kentucky Is to Lose the Whole Game (1861)
    • Samuel S. Cox, A Democratic Congressman Attacks Emancipation (1862)
    • John Sherman, Support for Emancipation Is Increasing (1862)
    • Abraham Lincoln, I Would Save the Union (1862)
    • Harper’s Weekly Gauges the Northern Response to Emancipation (1862)
    • New York Times, The 1862 Elections Are a Repudiation of the Administrations Conduct of the War (1862)
    • Abraham Lincoln Replies to a Republican Critic after the 1862 Elections (1862)
  • Confederate Politics, 1861–1862
    • Governor Joseph Brown Obstructs Conscription in Georgia (1862)
    • The Twenty Negro Law (1862)
    • A Georgia Soldier Condemns the Exemption of Slaveholders (1862)
    • An Atlanta Paper Defends the Exemption of Slaveholders (1862)
    • Jefferson Davis Defends His Policies (1862)
    • Richmond Examiner, A Richmond Paper Call for a Tax-in-Kind (1863)
    • Edward Pollard, A Richmond Editor Denounces Davis’s Leadership (1869)
  • Diplomacy
    • Anonymous, Southerners’ Faith in King Cotton Diplomacy (1861)
    • Charles Francis Adams, The Trent Affair Has Almost Wrecked Us (1862)
    • Jefferson Davis Complains of Europe’s Refusal to Recognize the Confederacy (1863)
    • Charles Francis Adams, This Is War (1863)
  • The Military Struggle, 1863
    • Abraham Lincoln Counsels General Joseph Hooker (1863)
    • Henry Halleck, The Character of the War Has Very Much Changed (1863)
    • Robert E. Lee Proposes to Take the Offensive (1863)
    • Rachel Cormany, A Pennsylvania Woman Encounters Lee’s Army (1863)
    • John Dooley, A Virginia Soldier Survives Pickett’s Charge (1863)
    • Benjamin Hirst, A Connecticut Soldier Helps Repel Pickett’s Charge (1863)
    • Anonymous, Daily Life During the Siege of Vicksburg (1863)
    • Alexander S. Abrams, The Conduct of the Negroes Was beyond All Expression (1863)
    • Josiah Gorgas, The Confederacy Totters to Its Destruction (1863)
  • Union Politics, 1863
    • Abraham Lincoln, The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
    • Northern Newspapers Debate the Significance of the Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
    • Harper’s Weekly, The Work Done by Congress (1863)
    • Clement Vallandigham, One of the Worst Despotisms on Earth (1863)
    • Abraham Lincoln, I Think I Shall Be Blamed for Having Made Too Few Arrests (1863)
    • Abraham Lincoln, The Heaviest Blow Yet Dealt to the Rebellion (1863)
    • Abraham Lincoln, A New Birth of Freedom (1863)
  • The Union Home Front
    • Conscription in the Union (1866)
    • The New York Press Debates the Causes of the Draft Riots (1863)
    • George Templeton Strong, Jefferson Davis Rules New York Today (1863)
    • J. W. C. Pennington, This Country Also Belongs to Us (1863)
    • Anonymous, A Rioter Condemns the $300 Commutation Fee (1863)
    • The New York Evening Post Defends the $300 Commutation Fee (1863)
    • Cornelia Hancock, A Union Nurse at Gettysburg (1863)
    • Harper’s Monthly, The Fortunes of War (1864)
    • Fincher’s Trade Review, Working Women Protest Their Low Wages (1865)
    • Harper’s Monthly, Wall Street in Wartime (1865)
  • The Confederate Home Front
    • Montgomery Advertiser, Slavery Is a Tower of Strength to the South (1861)
    • Samuel L. Holt, Slave Owners Ought to Bear the Principal Burden of the War (1863)
    • "Agnes," A Resident Observes the Richmond Bread Riot (1863)
    • John B. Jones, This Is War, Terrible War (1862–1864)
    • Phoebe Yates Pember Becomes a Hospital Matron (1879)
    • Sally Putnam, Southern Women Enter the Government Bureaucracy (1867)
    • Gideon J. Pillow, A Confederate General Reports on Widespread Resistance to Conscription (1893)
    • Daniel O’Leary, The War Corrodes Female Virtue
    • Theodore Lyman, A Union Officer Marvels at the Endurance of the Southern People (1864)
    • Ella Gertrude Thomas, Until Adversity Tries Us (1861–1865)
    • Mary Chesnut, Is Anything Worth It? (1862–1865)
    • Mary Cooper, Dear Edward (1906)
    • Judith McGuire, The Revulsion Was Sickening (1865)
  • African Americans
    • John Boston, An Escaped Slave Writes His Wife from a Union Camp (1862)
    • Frederick Douglass Urges Black Men to Enlist (1863)
    • Hannah Johnson, A Mother Calls on the Government to Protect Black Soldiers (1863)
    • Lorenzo Thomas, A Union General Describes Slaves Entering the Union Lines (1863)
    • Susanna Clay, The Negroes Are Worse Than Free (1863)
    • Isaiah H. Welch, A Black Soldier Explains His Motives for Fighting (1863)
    • New York Times, A Prodigious Revolution (1864)
    • Anonymous, A Black Soldier Protests Unequal Pay (1864)
    • Spotswood Rice, A Black Soldier Writes His Daughter’s Owner (1864)
    • Rachel Ann Wicker, The Hardship of Black Soldiers’ Families (1864)
    • Mittie Freeman Meets a Yankee (1937)
    • Former Slaves Recall the End of Slavery (1937)
    • Eliza Evans, The Slave Eliza Acquires a New Name (1937)
  • Common Soldiers
    • Randolph Shotwell, The Comforts of a Soldier’s Life (1929)
    • Wilbur Fisk, Hard Marching (1863)
    • Samuel E. Burges, A South Carolina Soldier Confronts His Captain (1862)
    • Tally Simpson, Trading With the Enemy (1863)
    • Chauncey H. Cooke, Fraternization among Solders of the Two Armies (1864)
    • T.J. Stokes, Religious Revivals in the Confederate Army (1864)
    • John A. Potter, Antiblack Prejudice in the Union Ranks (1897)
    • Chauncey Welton, A Union Soldier’s Changing Views on Emancipation (1863–1865)
    • Reuben A Pierson, A Louisiana Soldier Links Slavery and Race to the Cause of the Confederacy (1862–1864)
  • The Military Struggle, 1864
    • Ulysses S. Grant Devises a New Union Strategy (1885)
    • Horace Porter, A Union Officer Depicts the Fury of the Fighting at Spotsylvania (1897)
    • Robert E. Lee, Our Numbers Are Daily Decreasing (1864)
    • Robert Stiles, A Confederate Soldier Describes the Pressure of Fighting in the Trenches (1903)
    • William Tecumseh Sherman, War Is Cruelty, and You Cannot Refine It (1864)
    • William Tecumseh Sherman Proposes to March to the Sea (1864)
    • James Connolly, An Illinois Soldier Marches with Sherman to the Sea and Beyond (1864–1865)
    • Dolly Lunt Burge, The Heavens Were Lit with Flames (1864)
  • Union Politics, 1864
    • The New York Times Is Amazed by the Change in Public Opinion on Slavery (1864)
    • Party Platforms in 1864
    • Abraham Lincoln, Events Have Controlled Me (1864)
    • Horace Greeley, Our Bleeding Country Longs for Peace (1864)
    • Abraham Lincoln Outlines His Terms for Peace (1864)
    • Henry J. Raymond, The Tide Is Setting Strongly against Us (1864)
    • Illinois State Register, A Negotiated Peace with the Confederacy Is Possible (1864)
    • New York Tribune, An Armistice Would Lead to a Southern Victory (1864)
    • The Republican and Democratic Parties’ Final Appeal to the Voters (1864)
    • J.N. Jones, A Democratic Soldier Votes for Lincoln (1891)
    • Abraham Lincoln, The Election Was a Necessity (1864)
    • Chicago Tribune, Lincoln’s Election Is a Mandate to Abolish Slavery (1864)
    • Abraham Lincoln Hails the Passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
  • Confederate Politics, 1864–1865
    • Josiah Gorgas Notes the Achievements of the Confederate Ordinance Bureau (1864)
    • Alexander H. Stephens, Once Lost, Liberty Is Lost Forever (1864)
    • Richmond Examiner, We Are Fighting for Independence, Not Slavery (1864)
    • Richmond Examiner, We Prefer the Law (1864)
    • Charleston Mercury, We Want No Confederacy without Slavery (1865)
    • Richmond Enquirer, Slavery and the Cause of the Confederacy (1865)
    • Howell Cobb, Opposition and Disloyalty Are Increasing Daily (1865)
  • The End of the War
    • Judith McGuire, A Bleak Confederate Christmas (1864)
    • Catherine Edmondston Reflects on the Situation of the Confederacy (1865)
    • George Ward Nichols, Southerners Have Lost the Will to Resist (1865)
    • Luther Mills, Desertion Now Is Not Dishonorable (1865)
    • Abraham Lincoln, With Malice toward None (1865)
    • Mary A. Fontaine, Bitter Tears Came in a Torrent (1865)
    • A.W. Bartlett, Richmond’s Black Residents Welcome Abraham Lincoln (1897)
    • Joshua L. Chamberlain, An Awed Stillness (1915)
    • Gideon Welles Describes Lincoln’s Death (1865)
    • Edmund Ruffin Fires the Last Shot of the Civil War (1865)
    • Samuel T. Foster, A Confederate Soldier Reflects on the War’s Cost and Significance (1865)
    • Kate Cumming, A Confederate Nurse Discusses the Internal Causes of the Confederacy’s Defeat (1865)
    • Robert Garlick Kean, A Confederate Official Analyzes the Causes of the Defeat of the Confederacy (1957)
    • Sarah Hine, We Have No Future (1866)
    • George Templeton Strong, We Have Lived a Century of Common Life (1865)
    • New York Times, The War Touches Everything (1867)
  • Part 3: Reconstruction
  • Presidential Reconstruction
    • Abraham Lincoln Vetoes the Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
    • Benjamin F. Wade and Henry Winter Davis, The Wade-Davis Manifesto (1864)
    • Abraham Lincoln, We Shall Have the Fowl Sooner By Hatching Than Smashing the Egg (1865)
    • Ulysses S. Grant Affirms the Loyalty of Southern Whites (1865)
    • Carl Schurz Questions Southern Whites’ Loyalty
    • The Mississippi Black Codes (1865)
    • Andrew Johnson, The Radicals Will Be Completely Foiled (1865)
    • Virginia Blacks Petition for Suffrage (1865)
    • Andrew Johnson Reports on the Success of His Program of Reconstruction (1865)
  • Johnson’s Clash with Congress
    • Thaddeus Stevens Designates the Southern States as Conquered Provinces (1865)
    • Andrew Johnson Says Black Suffrage Will Lead to Race War in the South (1866)
    • The Joint Committee Reports on the Status of the Former States of the Confederacy (1866)
    • Andrew Johnson Vetoes the Civil Rights Bill (1866)
    • The Chicago Tribune Blames Johnson for the New Orleans Riot (1866)
    • Oliver P. Morton Waves the Bloody Shirt (1866)
    • Andrew Johnson, I Am Fighting Traitors in the North (1866)
    • New York Times, The People’s Verdict (1866)
  • Congressional Reconstruction
    • Thaddeus Stevens’s Land Confiscation Bill (1867)
    • Andrew Johnson Accuses Congress of Seeking to Africanize the South (1867)
    • The Articles of Impeachment (1868)
    • William Evarts Defends Johnson in the Impeachment Trial (1868)
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton Appeals for Universal Suffrage (1869)
    • James T. Rapier, A Black Congressman Complains about Unequal Treatment (1874)
    • Richard Cain, Equal Rights and Social Equality (1874)
  • Political Reconstruction in the South
    • Alabama Blacks Voice Their Aspirations for Equality (1867)
    • South Carolina Democrats Protest against the New State Constitution (1868)
    • R.I. Cromwell, an African American Leader Instructs New Black Voters (1867)
    • Henry Clay Warmouth, Who Is Responsible for Corruption? (1870)
    • Alexander White, A Defense of Carpetbaggers (1875)
  • Economic and Social Reconstruction
    • A.B. Randall, Former Slaves Are Anxious to Record Their Marriages (1865)
    • Sidney Andrews, Southern Whites Have No Faith in Black Free Labor (1866)
    • N.B. Lucas, Freedpeople Complain about Their Former Owners’ Attempts to Cheat Them (1865)
    • Jourdon Anderson, A Freedman Writes his Former Master (1865)
    • John W. DeForest, The Tribulations of a Freedmen’s Bureau Agent (1868)
    • New Orleans Tribune, They Are the Planter’s Guards (1867)
    • Henry Adams, The Contested Meaning of Freedom (1880)
    • Henry Adams, Planters Insist That Black Women Work in the Fields (1880)
    • Mariah Baldwin and Ellen Latimer, Two Black Workers Settle Accounts at the End of the Year (1867)
    • New Orleans Tribune, A Black Newspaper Calls for Integrated Schools in New Orleans (1867)
    • A Sharecropping Contract (1886)
  • Opposition and Northern Disillusionment
    • Ulysses S. Grant Signals a Retreat from Reconstruction (1874)
    • James S. Pike, Society Turned Bottom-Side Up (1874)
    • The Nation, This Is Socialism (1874)
    • South Carolina Black Leaders Defend the State Government’s Fiscal Record (1874)
    • Ulysses S. Grant Vetoes the Currency Act (1874)
    • James G. Blaine, The Blaine Amendment (1875)
    • Edwards Pierrepont, The Public Is Tired of These Outbreaks in the South (1875)
    • James W. Lee, The Mississippi Plan in Action (1876)
    • Margaret Ann Caldwell, The Assassination of an African American Political Leader (1876)
    • James Lusk, A Southern White Leader Abandons the Republican Party (1913)
  • The End of Reconstruction
    • Rutherford B. Hayes Outlines His Southern Policy (1877)
    • Governor Daniel Chamberlain Surrenders the Southern Carolina Governorship (1877)
    • Frederick Douglass Assesses the Mistakes of Reconstruction (1880)
  • Appendix
  • United States Constitution
  • Confederate Constitution

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