Alexander
Gardner photograph of Abraham Lincoln, 1863
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number,LC-USZ62-13016
DLC]
|
Questions to consider
1. Why
was a compromise peace not possible?
2.
What
were the strengths and weaknesses of each side at the start of the war?
3.
What
accounts for the considerable popular support for the war in North and
South in 1861?
4. What
was the Confederacy fighting for?
5. How successfully had secessionists created a nation by 1863?
6. How and why did emancipation become a Union war aim?
Primary sources
President
Lincoln's Message to Congress, July 4, 1861
Letter from Fred Spooner to Henry Joshua
Spooner, April 30, 1861.
Jefferson
Davis’ Farewell Speech from the US Senate
South Carolina Ordinance
of Secession
Speech in favour of secession in the
Alabama convention, Jan. 11, 1861
Alexander Stephens' "Cornerstone Speech", March 1861
Abraham
Lincoln to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862.
Mattie
Blanchard writing to her husband
"All Quiet
Along the Potomac"
Introductory:
Ira Berlin, “The destruction
of slavery 1861-1865,” in Slaves no More: Tree Essays on Emancipation
and the Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)
Recommended:
The Descent to War
Phillip
Paludan, “The American Civil War considered as a Crisis of
Law and Order” American Historical Review 77 (1972)
Bertram
Wyatt Brown, “Honor and Secession,” from Yankee Saints
and Southern Sinners (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
1985).
Steven A. Channing, “The
Crisis”, from Crisis of Fear: Secession in South
Carolina (New York: Norton, 1970)
Mobilisation
Reid
Mitchell, “Soldiering, Manhood and Coming of Age,” chapter
1 of The Vacant Chair (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)
James M. McPherson, For Cause
and Comrades: Why Men fought in the Civil War (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1997)
Lincoln and Emancipation
Richard
Striner, "Lincoln and Slavery: the Problem" in Father Abraham : Lincoln's
relentless struggle to end slavery (Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 5-33.
Richard Carwardine, Lincoln (2003)
Allan C. Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (2004)
Phillip S. Paludan, The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1994)
Lawanda Cox, Lincoln and Black Freedom: A Study in Presidential Leadership
(1981)
Web sites
Abraham
Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
Collected Works of Abraham
Lincoln
|