Chapter 53 : "Our White Men Cutting One Another's Throats" - The American Civil War Part Two: The Confederacy Defeated and the Ku Klux Klan Part one of this section recounted the first major offensives and events of the American Civil War. This part deals with the eventual defeat of the South and the role of the original Ku Klux Klan in preventing the South from being utterly destroyed. In June 1864, the Union forces launched a major invasion of the state of Georgia, advancing 129 kilometers (80 miles) in a month, each time forcing the Confederate defenders to fall back without a major engagement taking place. The First Assault on Atlanta Finally in July 1864, the Union forces stormed a strong Confederate defensive line on Kennesaw Mountain. Once again the defensive tactics of the Southerners won the day: the Union forces were defeated, losing 2000 killed and wounded, to the Confederate's 500. Nonetheless, the Unionists kept pushing south: by July they had reached the outskirts of Atlanta, the capital of Georgia. The Confederates put up a desperate resistance with their massively outnumbered army: by the end of July the Unionists had lost 9,000 men in the outskirts of Atlanta, while the Confederates had lost 10,000 wounded, killed or captured. At that rate of attrition, the Confederate collapse was only a matter of time. The Confederate's last Throw: the Attempt on Washington, D.C. While Atlanta and Petersburg were under siege, the Confederates launched a desperate move to force a change in the direction of the war. A Confederate force under the command of General Jubal A. Early, launched a daring raid deep into Union territory, coming to within sight of the capital, Washington D.C., sparking off widespread panic in that city on 11 July 1864. The Unionists had however managed to draw up a considerable defensive army around their capital. Realizing that an attack on the city would be futile, Early withdrew. Fall of Mobile By this stage, the Confederate situation was increasingly hopeless: in August, the settlement of Mobile Bay, Alabama, was taken by a seaborne Union invasion by the end of that month, mounting pressure on the siege of Atlanta in Georgia. Fall of Atlanta By this time, vast stretches of Atlanta had virtually been leveled to the ground in the heavy fighting for the city. Finally the Confederates retreated and the Unionists entered the city on 1 September 1864, flags flying and bands playing. The impact on Southern morale was shattering, quite apart from the strategic loss of what was then the biggest city still in Confederate hands. Shenandoah Valley Sensing victory, the North pressed home its military victories: a considerable army pursued the daring Confederate general Early into the Shenandoah Valley, defeating the Southerners in three important battles, at Winchester and Fishers Hill in September, and at Cedar Creek in October. The last Confederate troops were driven from Union territory the next month. The string of military victories ensured that Lincoln was, despite earlier dissension, able to win the presidential election of that year, held only in the Northern states. The March to the Sea In the closing months of 1864, the Union force under the command of general Sherman, marched east out of Atlanta, striking out along a 97 kilometer (60 mile) front. Chaos and destruction followed in the wake of this march: even though the Union forces were under orders not to destroy private property, massive destruction was caused to plantations across Georgia. Worse was yet to come: in the wake of the Union advance, freed Black slaves seized the opportunity for revenge upon the White Southerners: rape, pillage and looting became the order of the day, with thousands of such incidents being recorded, and possibly many more going unrecorded in the resultant chaos. Sherman's forces applied a deliberate scorched earth policy where ever he went: hoping that the trail of destruction would serve to demoralize the Southerners, as well as cutting off their supplies from the previously wealthy farms. By 10 December, Sherman had reached Savannah in Georgia: three days later the principle Confederate position around the city, Fort McAllister, fell, and within a week Savannah was in Union hands. Nashville From the north, Confederate forces came under attack by the Union army advancing south through Tennessee. The Battle of Franklin took place at the end of November 1864, which resulted in yet another Union victory. In mid-December, the Unionists launched a final assault on the last Confederate forces in Tennessee, soundly defeating the Southerners to the point where large numbers deserted and drifted back to their devastated farms in Georgia and elsewhere, the war over as far as they were concerned. In many Confederate areas, food shortages then began to take on serious proportions, and enthusiasm for the pursuit of the war waned. Large scale desertions became increasingly common and the Confederacy government became more and more an authority in name only. Fort Fisher The situation for the Confederates was worsened by the mid January 1865 loss of Fort Fisher on the North Carolina coast, which deprived the South of its last Atlantic port and tightened the Union blockade of the South. Bentonville Having effectively routed the Confederate armies in the south, the Unionists then marched north to try and defeat the last major confederate army, still clinging to Virginia and the capital, Richmond. In January, the Unionists marched north with 60,000 men, seizing supplies from the unfortunate Southerners in their path along the way once again. Reaching the states of South and North Carolina, the Unionists were challenged by a minuscule Confederate force at the Battle of Bentonville in March 1865. The Confederates were easily defeated and the Unionists marched on to Goldsboro, North Carolina. Burning of Columbia The march north - led again by general Sherman - again left a deliberate wake of destruction in its path. Once supplies had been seized, it was the norm for houses and farms to be destroyed, and then the White population to be left to the mercies of the freed Black slaves. As a result of this scorched earth policy, Sherman's name came to be hated in the South, and with good reason. Fifteen towns were burned in whole or in part, but no act of destruction compared with or caused more controversy than the burning of Columbia, the state capital of South Carolina, which saw the city utterly destroyed for no military purpose at all. Fall of Richmond Around the Confederate capital, Richmond, Robert E. Lee had been bravely holding out against ever increasing numbers of Unionist troops and equipment. Cut off from new supplies, the situation became increasingly hopeless for Lee. The defeat of a Confederate army at the Battle of Five Forks early in April, signaled the beginning of the end in Virginia and for the Confederation. Fearing encirclement, Lee evacuated Richmond and the city was finally occupied by Unionist forces on 3 April 1865.
The withdrawing Confederate forces engaged the triumphant Unionist forces in a series of battles in the week following the fall of Richmond, but by the end of the first week in April, Lee had been boxed in. With no hope of escape or victory, Lee surrendered to the Union forces under Ulysses Grant on 9 April 1865: the war in the north was over. The War Ends Lincoln had ordered Grant to be generous with the Confederates, intending to follow a policy of reconciliation in order to restore the Union. However, on 14 April 1865, the president was assassinated by what was assumed to be a Confederate supporter, the actor John Wilkes Booth, in a theatre in Washington D.C., and his wishes for reconciliation were never taken up.
On 17 April, the last Confederate forces surrendered in Durham Station, North Carolina, with the last two sizeable Confederate armies, one in Louisiana and the other in Texas, both surrendering in May 1865, realizing that the war was lost and that it was pointless to fight on. Finally the president of the Confederation, Jefferson Davis, was taken prisoner in Georgia on 10 May. The war was over. Reconstruction The Civil War settled the two great issues which had plagued the union since its establishment : the power of the federal government and the issue of slavery. Acts passed by the US Congress in 1862, formally abolished slavery in the territories and, arguing that it was a military necessity, Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January, 1863, declaring free all the slaves in the rebel states. On 6 December 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in all the states and territories of the United States, was ratified. Islands Set Aside for Blacks One of the ways in which Lincoln's avowed policy of not only emancipating the Blacks but of resettling them in geographical isolation from the Whites, came with a Special Field Order, number 15, issued by Union General William T. Sherman in January 1865. In terms of this measure, freed Black slaves were given exclusive rights to and use of a number of islands and parts of the coastal region of South Carolina and Georgia. This effectively created mini Black homelands within the borders of the United States. The Freedmen's Bureau In March 1865, the union government then created what became known as the Freedmen's Bureau, a federal agency designed to subsidize and aid former slaves to establish themselves in society after emancipation. This bureau lasted until 1867, when it collapsed in a pile of intrigue and corruption. The Reconstruction Acts The US Congress, now totally dominated by anti-slavery activists who wanted revenge on the South for not only the practice of slavery but also for seceding from the Union, passed a series of laws designed to bring the South firmly under control. In March 1867, the US Congress passed the Reconstruction Act - over the veto of the president who had replaced Lincoln, Andrew Johnson. In terms of this act military governments were set up in ten of the eleven rebel states, the only exception being Tennessee, which had already ratified the most important reform, that of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which in essence gave voting rights to all, but which allowed for the mass disenfranchisement of all Whites who had supported the rebel cause. In each of the other ten states, a military commander was responsible for seeing that each state under his command wrote a new constitution that provided for voting rights for all adult males, regardless of race. Only when the state had ratified its new constitution and the 14th Amendment would the process of political reorganization be complete. Under these laws, most of the South was divided into five military districts, each supervised by a Union major general in command of a detachment of troops - mainly compromised of freed Black slaves, many of whom were hungry for revenge. Southern Whites Disenfranchised Then the Constitution of the Union was amended (the third section of the 14th Amendment, ratified on 9 July 1868) through which massive numbers of Southern Whites were disenfranchised because they had rebelled against the Union. At the same time full voting rights were extended to all the now emancipated slaves; the classification of Blacks as "three fifths of a person" clause in the Constitution was revoked by this amendment (although the Amerinds were still specifically excluded from the franchise). Collapse of Orderly Government The resulting administrations in the South provoked great resentment, and stoked the fires of racial conflict. Large numbers of Whites were barred from voting, and the legislatures of the Southern states were in many cases dominated by illiterate Black former slaves who suddenly found themselves propelled from picking cotton into running the affairs of state. They were of course incapable of running the government efficiently, and the organs of government began to deteriorate almost immediately, with orderly government breaking down in many areas. Former Black slaves were also placed in many areas as soldiers and officers enforcing law and order over the defeated Southern Whites. This provided plenty of opportunities for revenge and abuse. In addition to the appointment of hopelessly incompetent Blacks to fill the positions of government, unscrupulous Northerners also took up positions in the Southern government, often merely to embezzle funds and enrich themselves: they became known as carpetbaggers. Northern civil war veterans were put on the official state payroll; Southern veterans were consistently denied any form of pension.
Ku Klux Klan and White Resistance The racial abuse and incompetence led to the creation of the Ku Klux Klan: an organization founded by a (disenfranchised) former Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Although today a small, splintered movement, the original Ku Klux Klan played a hugely important role in overturning the Reconstruction era governments of former Black slaves in many Southern states after the Civil War. The original Klan, which is not to be confused with the groups calling themselves by that name today, was organized in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the winter of 1865 to 1866, by six former Confederate army officers who gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word kuklos ("circle"). Its activities were directed against the Reconstruction governments and their leaders, both black and white, which came into power in the Southern states in 1867. Dressed in robes with pointed hoods, for disguise and in an early attempt to frighten superstitious Blacks, the Klan launched a campaign of terrorism and violence against Whites and Blacks whom they considered traitors to their cause. Battle of Liberty Palace In Louisiana, which saw more than half of the White population disenfranchised, the Ku Klux Klan were particularly active. This White resistance to the overtly racial Black Reconstruction government culminated in an open street battle between armed White vigilantes and the predominantly Black federal army of occupation at the Battle of Liberty Place in New Orleans in 1874, where 3500 league members took over the city hall, statehouse, and arsenal. When the Black federal occupying army arrived, the two sides engaged in a shootout which saw the use of cannon in the city center. Much damage was done and the White vigilantes were forced to retreat. The uprising was however so serious that a federal army of occupation was to remain in Louisiana for a number of years. Similar clashes took place in the other states: in Tennessee, a race riot erupted in Memphis in May 1866, prompted by a combination of some particularly outrageous Reconstruction measures and a wave of Black criminality. Eventually the federal government was forced to impose martial law in the state to restore order.
Above: Resistance to Reconstruction turns to insurrection. At the Battle of Liberty Palace in September 1874, several hundred members of the White League did battle with the Black military and police in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Both sides used cannon against each other. Reconstruction Abandoned This campaign of violence was eventually to be one of the reasons why the Northern States abandoned the Reconstruction campaign and how formerly-disenfranchised Whites were once again granted the vote. Once they had succeeded in taking over the Southern legislatures again, the Whites proceeded to dominate through sheer weight of numbers. The original Klan was officially dissolved by its leader, Nathan B. Forrest, in 1869, but individual groups continued with their campaign of violence. Finally in 1871, the American president of the time, Ulysses S. Grant, largely in reaction to Southern White complaints that they were disenfranchised while illiterate Blacks were granted the vote, assented to a further change to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the rights of all citizens. This effectively abolished the White disenfranchisement laws, and the Klan, its primary task (that of restoring White voting rights) accomplished, then faded into insignificance. A refounded Klan was started in 1915, and although reaching a membership of 3 million after World War 1(its members allegedly including at least one who was later to be elected president of the United States, Warren G. Harding) the Klan was never again to exert the influence that it did in the period leading up to 1871. Although the image of the Klan suffered because of the numerous incidents of brutal violence in which individual members were involved, there can be no doubt that the Southern states were delivered of brutal and incompetent Black overlords by the campaign of resistance organized primarily by the Klan. This fact was publicly acknowledged by the later American president Woodrow Wilson, who, after attending a film-showing of David Griffith's epic film, Birth of a Nation, remarked that the original Klan had "saved civilization in the South." Federal Army Withdrawn There was another important reason for the fall of the Black governments in the South: the presidential election of 1876 was won by the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who immediately withdrew the federal troops still supporting the Black and carpetbag governments in the South (particularly in Louisiana and South Carolina). As a result, these administrations collapsed, to be replaced by White governments. White Democrats Win the South Through the disenfranchisement of huge numbers of Whites, Black voters soon came to dominate the legislatures of the South. Firmly committed to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the Republicans, Blacks provided the vast majority of votes for that party, and without exception every state in the South had a Republican government backed up by a federal army of occupation, many of which were drawn from recently freed Black slave populations. Blacks also formed a large number of the Republican government's public representatives: in the US Congress there were two Black senators and 14 representatives, whilst dominating the state legislatures and state governments in the South itself. Virtually all the Whites who were allowed to vote in the South were deeply hostile to this blatantly racial government: particularly when the state legislatures started issuing gratuitous payments to themselves and freed Black slaves under the guise of reconstruction. Taxes virtually tripled in the South as a result of reckless expenditure and payouts to Black former slaves: this further impoverished the South, which was already struggling with the economic consequences of the war. Whites Re-Enfranchised As a result, the Whites in the South started voting for the largest opposing party, the Democrats. By 1871, with Whites having been given back the vote, they once again formed the majority of voters in the South. The combination of White re-enfranchisement, violence against Reconstruction activists and the withdrawal of the federal army of occupation saw White Democratic governments take over the state legislatures. The victory of the Southern Democrats in taking power in the South saw the Reconstruction policy rejected: taxes were slashed and state expenditure cut, leading to an immediate closing down of the institutions which had allowed the massive corruption by the incompetent Black legislators. The Democrats also managed to engineer the workings of their own party so that only Whites could attend the primaries, or internal candidate-selection procedures. In this way the party remained not only solidly White in terms of support, but also in its public representatives. Literacy Tests The White legislatures then sought ways to reduce the number of Black voters, already in reality a minority. The idea was then hit upon to use literacy as a test: only those persons who could prove a sufficient level of reading and writing ability would be allowed to vote. While this ruling affected a number of Whites, the biggest impact it had was on the Black population, the majority of whom were still illiterate. Segregation The Southern Democratic legislatures then enacted a series of segregation laws designed to separate the races in all aspects, from schools through to public places. Many of these measures were in due course to spread to the north of the country a well. In 1875, the US Congress passed a Civil Rights Act of 1875, which barred discrimination by hotels, theatres, and railways. In 1883, this act was declared unconstitutional on the grounds that it interfered with the right of control-of-access to private property. Racial Consequences of the War The after effects of the war on America's White population was vast. At least 250,000 Confederate White soldiers were killed - five per cent of the South's White population. Vast areas of farmland were devastated, and many great cities, like Atlanta, were virtually leveled to the ground. The South's four million Blacks took advantage of the chaos to seize as much property as was remaining, with their claims often being legitimized by the Black dominated Reconstruction governments. The Civil War severely dented the White population in America: a total of 610,000 Whites were killed - compared to the 4,435 who died during the War of Independence. These figures included 360,000 on the Northern side and 250,000 on the Southern side. Although the North lost more men, that region had a greater White population of some 22 million. The South, however, had a population of only some 8 million whites. In percentage terms then, the war was far more devastating to the South than to the North. Chapter 53: Part One: The War Begins All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999. Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden. |
