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Crash Course on the Civil War 20 (Part One)

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John Green and the Civil War Part One: Crash Course #20

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course u.s. history and today we come at last to the Civil War the conflict that in many ways created a nation so here's what you today will not be describing battles and tactics person and Shelby Foote and number 2 we won't be bashing and or praising Abraham Lincoln very much although we do have multiple Lincoln's here because we've heard that's good for rating I mean who wore was a lengthy chess game played by Abraham Lincoln against his cunning opponent Abraham Lincoln but of course there were other people involved we are going to quote a fair bit of Lincoln no because add that one Tony Kushner an Academy Award nomination for with secretly about something other than slavery forward there will not be a lot of jokes today because hahaha 700,000 people died play bling little Google recent estimates are between 680000 and 800000 total casualties deadlier for Americans in the American Revolution World War 1 World War new and Vietnam combined so let's start with some basic facts about the American Civil War 1861 to 1865 which correspond with the presidency of Abraham Lincoln the union or more look we leave the north fought against the forces of the Confederate States of America or the south of those people called the union the blue and the Confederates the grey but in fact that uniforms weren't can uniform they were all different kinds of color and also with all that dirt and blood they were all just Brown alright let's go to the from this map that not all the states that held slaves part of the Confederacy the border states of Kentucky Missouri Delaware and Maryland allowed slavery and never left the United States all of these border states were critical to the union Maryland was north of the nation's capital in Washington DC Kentucky controlled the Ohio River Missouri was the Gateway to the West Delaware actually wasn't that important none of that should be Stickley controversial investor from Delaware but the causes of the war that's another story the Civil War was about slavery actual historians will back me up on this leg David Oldfield who wrote both Northerners and Southerners recognize slavery as the immediate cause of the Civil War also Lincoln said in his second inaugural address population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it these slaves constituted A peculiar and Powerful in all knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war that said in comments lots of people will be like the war was about agriculture versus Andis you're the states rights to protect themselves from the tyranny of a big federal government but if it were really about that the Civil War would have started during the nullification crisis in the 1830s when as I'm real remember Andrew Jackson said that South Carolina couldn't declare a federal tariff no in their state why did not cause the Civil War the confederate government passed the first conscription act in history implemented National taxes created a national currency and had a government bureaucracy of about 70000 people more than the federal bureaucracy in Washington DC start bubble that said in the beginning of the war Lincoln deliberately tried to downplay the slavery angle arguing that the war was only about preserving the Union what the war was what's the web out religion for both sides as David Goldfield put it in protecting the Revolutionary ideals Northerners wood preserve God's plan to extend democracy and Christianity cross an unbroken continent and around the world Southerners welcome to war to create a nation more perfect and it's fealty to God than the one that they had left but it's also important to remember that soldiers often had more prosaic reasons for going off to fight as you will eventually learn when you are forced to read The Red Badge of Courage the story of when alabamy and who invested only after his girl I mailed him address and told him he should start wearing it if he wasn't willing to fight 10 for northerners Union religion and an end to slavery mixed together to form a potent rationale for war summed up nicely by Julia Ward house words to the song that would become famous as The Battle Hymn of the Republic as he died to make men holy let us die to make men free you know I was going to sing but you were wrong so the union won the war which is unsurprising because they had massive advantages order if they had many more people approximately 22 million as compared to 9 million in the south of whom 3.5 million were slaves and therefore unlikely to be sympathetic to the southern cause manufactured more than 90% of all Goods in America it's factories turned out 17 times more textiles in the South 30 times more shoes and boots 13 times more iron and 32 times more Firearms of railroad compared with 10000 are the union to move its Army which over the course of the war in listed more than 2 million men compared with $900,000 for the Confederacy even Northern agriculture was more productive taking greater advantage of skin is Asian in southern Farmers daily the only Advantage the South had was better military leaders like most of the tactically famous generals of the Civil War Robert E Lee Stonewall Jackson Stewart Etc were Southerners and also by the way they all had great last words he said strike the tent Stonewall Jackson said let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of those trees JEB Stuart after being mortally wounded in battle said to his close friend and Lieutenant honeybun how do I look in the face which isn't nearly so good but he said that last word after having survived the war and getting to be like president of the United States and stuff but anyway that's all raises and Kristen question was the result of the war of foregone conclusion to create a nation from scratch and build National Unity among people who were committed to the autonomy of their play The Jewel home state so that's a problem and then there was the issue of overcoming class conflicts especially when the ruling class was often Exempted from actually fighting in the war put aside all that nation-building stuff and just focus on the actual fighting of the war the question of the Union's inevitable win becomes much trickier some of argued that all the Confederacy really needed to do was Outlast the northern efforts to bring them back into the Union like Washington had to do against the British and the idea was that this war of attrition would have been chilee wear down Northern resolve but there were two problems place theory first and its resources that it would take a long time to wear is well and their resources would be depleted long before the North Littles here symbol I try to identify the author of the mystery document if I'm right I do not get shot but I'm never right because Sam makes it too hard alright we got today greatest number of troops practicable against the Armed Force of the enemy preventing him from using the same Force at different seasons and second to hammer continue play against the Armed Force of the enemy and his resources until by mere attrition there should be nothing left to him but submission okay turn was a confederate strategy but stand is a jerk same Force at different seasons that makes me think it is a union general final answer in Ulysses S Grant how do you like them apples previous Union Generals and that he was willing to sustain enormous casualties in pursuit of his goal to wear down the sound weather incredible losses including the 50 mm men 41% of his army who were injured or killed at the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor but his Grim determination and not just to defeat but to destroy his opponent is what made Grant one of the first truly modern generals and also the most successful leader that Union found Angie coupled with the vast superiority in Northern resources suggest that the outcome of the Civil War really was inevitable but it also points to some of the reasons to be cautious about that conclusion 3 years before the union actually fully adopted Grant strategy and between 1861 and 1864 it was possible that southern victories would eventually Force the Union give me I need the Union lost a lot of battles in the first two years largely due to ineffective generally and nothing Sapp's a nation's motivation for war like losing them argue that the North had soup remotivation to prosecute the war because they had God on their side and they were against slavery but that's also pretty problematic I mean for many men who join the federal army award slavery had very little appeal especially poor enlistees who might be afraid that newly freed slaves would compete with them for jobs Southern who took up arms for the Confederacy saw themselves as engaged in a fight for their own Freedom rather than a fight to protect slavery the truth is when it comes to fighting motivation is very tricky business and I'm most comfortable in green with James McPherson who argued that motivation waxes and wanes With Victory and that the outcome with the war was contingent on a number of so we're just going to discuss two of the most important July 1863 and August 1864 July 1863 saw two of the most important Union victories in the whole War Western theater General Grant laid Siege to and captured Vicksburg Mississippi does giving the federals control of the Lower Mississippi River I mean by that in the north already had New Orleans which made it pretty much impossible Confederates to ship cotton or anything else along the Mississippi River after that Grant was able to turn his attention to the east with the afro mentioned hammering of the enemy and their resources especially in the eastern part of the United States the first three days of July 1863 saw the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania this was General Lee's first major offensive in the North said he won the battle it is likely the Panic would have said any places like Philadelphia and maybe even New York actually Panic dude overcome New York and draft riots that killed more than 100 people in only ended after troops from Gettysburg were called in I'm not going to go into detail about either of these battles but they shifted the tide of the war in favor of the north although not enough to bring the war to a quick end ever again threaten a northern city August 18th and that was when Union General Sherman took Atlanta Atlanta was a railroad Hub and manufacturing center but its capture was more significant politically than militarily because it happened most of the election of 1864 and that American election was really the last time that the Confederate States of America could have won the Civil War run for reelection during the Civil War and by the summer of 1864 the war was pretty unpopular and it looked like Lincoln might lose the capture of Atlanta change public opinion Lincoln admitted his Democratic opponent and former talk General George McClellan didn't stand a chance of winning which was really significant for the war because Lincoln was committed to sing it with the Union victory and McClellan I think it says a lot about American history that in the end of the war's outcome was insured not just by military victories but by Apple next week will examine the effects of the Civil War and the enduring questions that have Arisen out of it such as who exactly freed the slaves but until then thanks for watching directed by Stan Miller the script supervisor is Meredith Danko our show is written by my high school history teacher Raoul Mayer and myself are Graphics team is Todd Cafe an associate producer is Danica Johnson also responsible for felt Abraham Lincoln if you want suggest captions for the liver times you can do so in comments where you can also ask questions about today's to do that will be answered by our team with historians for watching crash where should we stay in my hometown don't forget to be awesome

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Crash Course on the Civil War 20 (Part One)

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