The Civil War: Bull Run to Antietam

The bloody first years of the American Civil War, from 1861 to 1862.

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Oct 13, 2023

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President Lincoln with General George B. McClellan

Reasons for war

The outbreak of the Civil War fomented Southern nationalism. Many Southerners eagerly volunteered in defense of their entrenched slave-based institutions. The South was fed up with the North’s calls for abolition. This prompted the Rebels to secede from the Union, and form their own sovereign state. The South glorified war. They were inspired by Victorian chivalric romance. But the harsh reality of modern industrial warfare would be a rude awakening. The South would soon realize that industrial infrastructure played an indispensable role in the success or loss of the war effort. Shipyards, foundries, steel mills, and railways all played a pivotal role in the war’s outcome. The North was outraged by the South. They regarded secession as a treasonous act against the Union. Even Northerners who were reluctant for war changed their minds after seeing the Southerners brazenly fire on Fort Sumter. The outbreak of the war fostered a sense of Northern nationalism. Many men flocked to join the Army. Treason was an offense punishable by death. So many Northerners had no qualms about going to war against the Southern insurrectionists.

The Confederacy

North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas joined the newly formed Confederacy. Those states alone provided the Rebel Army with half of its food, and almost a third of its men. Virginia was of vital strategic importance. Across the Potomac, it was located right next to Washington DC. But Virginia was internally divided. Those in western Virginia remained loyal to the federal government, and sent thousands of men to fight in the Union Army. In 1863, West Virginia seceded and became its own pro-Union state. Some men from eastern Tennessee served in the Union cause. From the perspective of Washington, communications came in from New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia, via the state of Maryland. Maryland and Virginia were the only ways to reach the sea. This meant that Lincoln could not afford to lose Maryland. So the president swelled the state with federal troops. This meant that, even if Maryland’s legislature voted to secede, the state had no practical means of enforcement. So Maryland, a slave-owning state, begrudgingly remained in the Union. Not all Southerners necessarily wanted secession. Many of them were torn between the dual loyalties of the nation, and that of their state. One of those men was Robert E. Lee. Lee was never adamant on secession. He was even offered command of all Union forces, but he refused. Instead, he pledged his loyalty to his home state of Virginia.

Military strategy

At the outset, the Confederacy appeared to have the greater military and political experience. Jefferson Davis had been a former Secretary of War, as well as a veteran in the Mexican War. Lincoln, by contrast, had almost no military experience. He was nominally part of a frontier militia fighting Indians, but he did not even participate in any fighting. The Union initially relied heavily on volunteer fighters, who were aided by a small force of regulars. The Confederate states had to construct their own armies from scratch. They offered bounties to encourage the recruitment of citizen soldiers. This was based on the false belief that the war would only take a few months at most. Each side believed that they could defeat the enemy in short decisive battles. Both North and South differed in terms of war strategy. The South planned for a defensive conflict, hoping that winning a war of attrition could secure the Confederacy’s independence from the federal government. The South merely needed to prevent a conquest from the North. But the North had a much more difficult task. The Union needed to decisively destroy the Rebels, or else the war would be lost. Despite having numerical and technological superiority, the North did not necessarily see the war as an existential struggle. The North was not fighting for its survival. Some Northerners felt that a simple blockade would be sufficient to starve out the South, and they opposed war. The Northern public demanded a sudden and decisive victory, which would subdue the South and quickly diffuse the insurrection. “Forward to Richmond” was a popular slogan of the Northern press. In May of 1861, the Union suffered its first casualty when a Northern troop was assassinated by a Southern innkeeper for attempting to remove a Confederate flag from the roof. His death gave the North another martyr.

Bloody beginnings

The first three months of the war were very awkward. Despite nominally being in conflict, neither side went to battle. Both sides worked furiously to fortify their respective capitals. This was especially true of the Confederates, who moved their capital northward from Montgomery to Richmond. Manassas was about 75 miles north of Richmond. Strategically, the city had supreme importance. It was located at the junction of two railroads. Roads connected across the country from this city. This was where the Confederates deployed their first troops. In July of 1861, the North and South finally clashed for the first time. Both sides believed it would be a grand Napoleonic battle that would decisively settle the war. This was based on the assumption that the war would be regimented and predictable. Spectators even came to watch. In reality, the battle was utter chaos. Spectators, including a Congressman from Rochester, were taken as war prisoners. The battle did not go well for the North. General Irvin McDowell ordered his Army of Northeastern Virginia across the Bull Run stream, and they smashed into Confederate positions. One by one, the Confederates crumbled. Many of them fled in panic, much to the delight of the Northern forces. Some of the fleeing Southerners felt that their Confederate cause was dead on arrival. But all of this would change with the arrival of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s brigade. They were supplied out of General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of the Shenandoah. The rapid Virginians put up a fierce resistance to the Union forces. The Northerners were exhausted, and suffered from hunger and thirsty. The arrival of Rebel reinforcements was a crushing blow. General Beauregard organized a huge Confederate attack on the Union lines. Federal lines broke, thrusting the Northerners into full-scale retreat. This embarrassing withdrawal was dubbed the “Great Skedaddle” by the Southern press. The Confederates, who had been inches away from total defeat, had somehow to inflict that very fate on their Northern foes. It was a terrible turn of events. Washington DC laid bare before the Rebels. Fortunately, the Rebels were not cunning enough to invade the Union capital. This is because they were fighting a war of attrition. They did not see the need to actually capture Washington in order to win the war. The Southerners claimed that they merely wanted to be left alone, and their actions matched that view. The Battle of Bull Run saw 4,500 people killed or wounded, a tiny number when compared to the death tolls of Shiloh, Gettysburg, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. More importantly, Bull Run was a frightening signal that the Civil War would be a long, drawn-out protracted conflict. Back in the North, General McDowell immediately paid the price for his loss. He was replaced by the popular General George B. McClellan.

Naval blockade

The Union was determined to impose a naval blockade, hoping to strangle out the South from the Mississippi River. It started with much difficulty. The blockade was porous, and many Southern merchants managed to break through it. Many European commentators mocked it as a paper blockade. Toward the end of 1861, the Navy was able to win some victories by securing strategic Southern ports. The Union’s naval war against the coastal South nearly brought Britain into the conflict. The British were the masters of the high seas, and were determined to maintain their hegemony. Both the North and South desperately wanted to win the approval of the British. In order to forestall any European recognition of the Confederacy, Lincoln insisted that the Southern Rebels were insurrectionists that must be put down by the American government alone. To him, it was a purely domestic affair. However, the British were not convinced by Lincoln’s wartime propaganda. They questioned why the American president would blockade his own people. As a condition for accepting Lincoln’s naval warfare, the British demanded that the Confederacy receive recognition as a separate sovereign nation. This was disastrous for Lincoln. As the year 1862 began, the North and South turned their attention toward the war at sea. It was a naval arms race, since neither side had a modern navy. Ships were still made of wood, and incapable of enduring artillery fire. Guns were more accurate and powerful than ever. To withstand such attacks, the Confederates attempted to engineer an ironclad ship. Equipped with rams, Rebel ships attempted to puncture through the Union blockade. But the industrial capacity of the South was vastly inferior to their Northern rivals. The South’s industry consisted of a single steel mill and shipyard. It was the North that possessed the ability to develop a modern navy, which could crush the Confederacy. Because of its superior industry, the North was able to win the naval arms race.

Shiloh

As war raged on at sea, good news came after the land capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, both near Nashville, Tennessee. It was led by Union General Ulysses S. Grant, who played a vital role for the remainder of the war effort. For Grant, nothing short of unconditional surrender would be acceptable. The South went into mourning, as their first capital was evacuated. The Union, still sore from Bull Run, were delighted by this turn of events. These Northern victories consolidated the Union’s control over much of the South’s territory. It signaled to the European powers that recognition of the Confederacy would be a losing proposition. It was a beautiful Sunday morning on April 6, 1862. The location was Shiloh Church, in southwestern Tennessee. In Hebrew, the word means “peace.” But the battle would be anything but peaceful. The Battle of Shiloh became the bloodiest battle of the Civil War up to that point. Fresh off of his victories, Grant was shocked to find a Confederate army of 40,000 men ready to attack in the early morning. Luckily for Grant, Union reinforcements had already been shuttled across the river by night. This enabled him to launch a powerful counterattack the next day, which reversed all of the Confederate territorial gains. The suffering was enormous. Tens of thousands were killed or wounded on both sides. Fields were crawling with legions of mutilated soldiers. As doctors worked furiously, bloody amputated limbs began to pile up. Wild pigs feasted on the corpses. By April 7, the Rebels had been successfully repulsed toward the town of Corinth. The Northern forces should have pursued their enemies, but they were far too exhausted and disorganized to do so. Nevertheless, thanks to Shiloh, the Union managed to secure their control over the western theater.

Clash of Generals

Meanwhile, in the Deep South, the Union Navy scored many victories. In April of 1862, Admiral David Farragut captured New Orleans without firing a shot. Baton Rouge and Natchez also surrendered. Only the eastern theater appeared to have any promise for a Southern triumph. By the early spring of 1862, even the situation there looked unfavorable for the Confederacy. But the Union and Confederacy had radically different generals. On the one hand was the overly cautious McClellan, who earned the mocking nickname “Virginia Creeper.” President Lincoln became frustrated with his general, and frequently clashed with him. On the other hand was the tough Stonewall Jackson, who led his foot calvary with lightning speed. Stonewall was an extremely eccentric individual. He refused to eat pepper, claiming it hurt his left leg. He often rode on horseback with one arm in the arm. He chewed on lemons to calm down his stomach. Jackson even claimed that his military strategies came directly from divine inspiration. The legendary Southern wild man commanded respect through an entrancing mixture of mysticism and megalomania. McClellan had a tendency to vastly overestimate the numbers of his enemy. Even when he possessed numerical superiority, he was under the illusion that the Rebels outnumbered him. McClellan and his men made an agonizingly slow march toward Richmond. As they approached within five miles of the Confederate capital, panic erupted. Even Rebel president Jefferson Davis prepared to flee. To defend the Rebel capital, the Confederates under General Johnston clashed against McClellan’s men at Fair Oaks. Johnston himself died in this battle. McClellan begged Lincoln for reinforcements, but those were not forthcoming. The Confederate regime appointed Robert E. Lee as the new defender of Richmond. Lee mounted a counterattack against the Union invaders at Mechanicsville. It became known as the Seven Days. McClellan had orchestrated a plan to invade Richmond from the southeast via the Potomac. Lee, realizing this, assembled his forces to defend the Confederate capital. On several occasions, McClellan nearly overwhelmed Lee’s forces. Protected by the Navy, McClellan began to pull back. But Lee seized on this opportunity to mount an offensive. This forced McClellan to withdraw, which prematurely ended the campaign.

Antietam

Under Lee’s leadership, the Confederacy grew more powerful and aggressive. Lee won a victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Southern general became convinced that a decisive victory against the Union could finally end the war. Washington now came under threat of invasion. Lee led tens of thousands of troops to conquer the Union capital. The South hoped that Lee’s advances would empower the North’s anti-war advocates, which would oust Lincoln and the Republicans out of office. They saw an amicable separation as preferable to continued bloodshed. Lee prepared to invade Maryland by September of 1862. His secret orders were discovered accidentally by a federal patrol. It was a godsend. In a very bitter struggle, McClellan’s forces barely managed to prevail over Lee’s invaders. The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, was the single bloodiest day in American military history. 8,000 died. 15,000 more were wounded. Lee’s battered army was successfully forced back behind the Potomac, ending the threat to Washington. McClellan had the opportunity to pursue Lee’s exhausted army beyond the Potomac. However, he refused. Even a personal visit from Lincoln himself could not persuade Little Napoleon to finish the job. The president was furious, and he fired McClellan on November 7. Days after Antietam, President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation on September 22. It promised to liberate the slaves of the South. This was designed as a wartime measure. It was a major diplomatic success. By recasting the war as a crusade against slavery, President Lincoln successfully persuaded Great Britain not to support the South. For the first time in American history, blacks were enlisted into the armed forces. Over 175,000 African-Americans would patriotically serve their country. Antietam was a turning point in the war. The Confederate government suffered a massive plunge in popularity. When the South introduced conscription, nearly half of Southerners simply ignored the draft. As the Union closed in, the South became unlivable. Miles of railroad tracks were ripped up out of the ground. Travel was impossible. One of the generals from Antietam, a man named Ambrose Burnside, became McClellan’s successor. Burnside confronted Lee at Fredericksburg, Virginia in December of 1862. 172,000 troops faced each other in combat, the greatest number in any battle of the Civil War. As the year 1862 drew to a close, neither side appeared victorious. In the North, support for the war began to wane. President Lincoln and his Republican Party suffered badly in the November midterm elections. Worse still, the Union defeat at Fredericksburg put the president under enormous pressure. Uncertainty abounded on all sides. The conflict had reached a harsh stalemate.