Civil War Online Resources (General)

The Outbreak of War In the months following the declarations of secession, the Confederacy began seizing federal arsenals and property throughout the South. Ready to take a stand against this provocation, Lincoln informed the governor of South Carolina that he planned to send supplies to the Union garrison at Fort Sumter. This prompted a direct confrontation and, ultimately, the outbreak of hostilities.

Lincoln’s War Aims At the start of the war, Lincoln’s sole aim was the preservation of the Union and the restoration of federal authority in the seceded states. Even though he found slavery morally repugnant, Lincoln made it clear that he did not see the war as an opportunity to abolish the institution everywhere. Radical Republicans in Congress saw things differently: to them, the war should not end until emancipation was achieved.

African Americans During the Civil War The attack of Fort Sumter prompted free blacks to attempt to enlist in the Union army. However, a federal statute barred African Americans from bearing arms for the United States. Senator Charles Sumner urged the nation to allow African Americans to enlist: “[T]hey have a special interest in the suppression of the Rebellion. The enemies of the Union are the enemies of their race. Therefore, in defending the union, they defend themselves even more than other citizens; and in saving the Union, they save themselves.” President Lincoln agreed. In the Emancipation Proclamation, he called upon blacks to enlist. “The colored population is the great available and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union,” he wrote on March 26, 1863. Indeed, African Americans served valiantly in the war, comprising approximately 10% of the Union army.

The Confederate Government The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was closely patterned after the Constitution of the United States. Its preamble made clear, however, that the states did not surrender any of their sovereign rights to the Confederate government. Instead of beginning with “We the People of the United States,” it began: “We the People of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character.” In his inaugural address, Jefferson Davis characterized it as, “a Constitution differing only from that of our fathers in so far as it is explanatory of their well-known intent, freed from the sectional conflicts which have interfered with the pursuit of the general welfare.”

Prize Cases (1863) Because he refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession, Lincoln viewed the war as an internal insurrection rather than an international conflict. As a result, the laws and customs of war were not a perfect fit for the conditions of the Civil War. So Lincoln’s decision to impose a blockade—customarily a war measure—on southern ports in April 1861 presented many legal questions. Congress approved the blockade proclamation in July 1861, raising the question of whether captures that occurred prior to that authorization were legal. The matter came before the Supreme Court in the Prize Cases (1863). A sharply divided Court held that the seizures were lawful because the president’s duty to suppress insurrections implied the power to take necessary military measures without consulting Congress.

Second Confiscation Act The Confiscation Act of 1862 authorized the federal government to seize property located in the North that belonged to Confederate supporters. The property would be subjected to in rem proceedings in the absence of the owners. During these proceedings, the owners would be adjudged loyal or disloyal and, if disloyal, their property would be confiscated. This amounted to the punishment of persons in absentia without criminal conviction. The act was challenged in Miller v. United States (1871) and upheld by a divided Court on the ground that the forfeiture was lawful under the international laws of war.

Military Conscription The Conscription Act of 1863 was the first military draft in American history. Opponents argued that it violated Article I of the Constitution, which authorizes Congress “to raise and support” armies but does not explicitly authorize conscription. The constitutional issue would not reach the Supreme Court until World War I.

Lincoln and the War Powers In the wake of the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln used his war powers as president to fight the Confederacy. Congress was out of session, but this did not prevent him from proclaiming a blockade and summoning troops. Congress subsequently approved these measures retroactively. Lincoln used his war powers aggressively throughout the war. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus in an area extending from New York City to Washington, D.C. When Chief Justice Taney held the suspension unconstitutional in Ex parte Merryman (1861), Lincoln simply ignored the ruling. The following year, Lincoln issued a proclamation extending martial law to all persons arrested by the military for disloyal activities anywhere they occurred. The constitutionality of subjecting civilians to martial law came before the Court in Ex parte Vallandigham (1864) and Ex parte Milligan (1866). The Court dodged the issue in Vallandigham on the ground that because military commissions were not part of the regular judiciary the Supreme Court lacked appellate jurisdiction over the case. But in Milligan, with the war over, the Court revisited the issue, ruling that the president lacked constitutional authority to order the trial of civilians by military courts in areas where the regular courts were still open.

Congress and Slavery In 1862, Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and freed all slaves in the national territories. The measures were probably unconstitutional, because slaveholders were denied their property rights in slaves without any judicial process. But by this point, moderates and radicals alike would settle for nothing less than the abolition of slavery. Lincoln also came to accept that emancipation was the only thing that would dispose of sectional tensions over slavery once and for all. In 1863, the president issued the Emancipation Proclamation on the ground that it was “a fit and necessary war measure” that he had authority to take as commander in chief. Uncertainty as to whether Lincoln actually had such constitutional authority prompted the adoption and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery throughout the United States.

The Fighting Ends On April 10, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee wrote, “After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them. But, feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.” Lee’s surrender marked the beginning of the end of military resistance in the South. Jefferson Davis was captured in May 1865, and on August 20, 1866, President Andrew Johnson signed a proclamation declaring that the war had ended.

Presidential Reconstruction Plans for the reconstruction of the former Confederate states were underway long before the war ended. Lincoln believed that the president had primary responsibility for postwar Reconstruction as commander in chief. In his last public address, he said of Reconstruction, “It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike the case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and means of reconstruction.”

Wade-Davis Bill Radical Republicans insisted that Congress, not the president, had authority over Reconstruction. Congressional Republicans contended that Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution gave Congress the power to govern the national territories, which was the de facto status of the seceded states with the collapse the Confederacy. In 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill asserting congressional control over Reconstruction. Lincoln killed the bill with a pocket veto, enraging members of Congress and exacerbating the rift between the president and the Radicals in Congress. The rift would widen into a chasm when Vice President Johnson succeeded Lincoln as president.

Appointments to the Supreme Court Changes in personnel went a long way toward rehabilitating the reputation of the Supreme Court in the wake of the Dred Scott decision and its marginalization during the Civil War. When Justice Curtis resigned after the Scott decision, President Buchanan appointed Maine Democrat Nathan Clifford to the Court. Sweeping changes occurred under Lincoln. He appointed Noah H. Swayne, a Republican who had defended fugitive slaves, and Samuel F. Miller, a staunch abolitionist. He also appointed David Davis, a close friend and political ally, and Stephen J. Field, a staunch defender of the Union. Lincoln’s most important Court appointment went to Salmon P. Chase, a leading Radical who had long aspired to the presidency. A principled and ambitious leader, Chase’s antislavery credentials helped heal the wound that the Dred Scott decision had inflicted upon the Court.