Introduction Civil War forms part of the Curriculum Connections series Each of the six volumes of the set covers a particular aspect of the conflict Home Front and the Economy Behind the Fighting Weapons Tactics and Strategy Politics Battles and Campaigns and People About this set Each volume in Civil War features illustrated chapters providing in-depth information about each subject The chapters are all listed in the contents pages of each book Each volume can be studied to provide a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the conflict However each chapter may also be studied independently Within each chapter there are two key aids to learning that are to be found in color sidebars located in the margins of each page Curriculum Context sidebars indicate to the reader that a subject has a particular relevance to certain key state and national history guidelines and curricula They highlight essential information or suggest useful ways for students to consider a subject or to include it in their studies Glossary sidebars define key words within the text At the end of the book a summary Glossary lists the key terms defined in the volume There is also a list of further print and Web-based resources and a full volume index Fully captioned illustrations play an important role throughout the set including photographs and explanatory maps 4 People
About this book This book includes biographies of the most significant individuals to emerge on both sides during the Civil War It provides concise details of their lives and explains their contribution to the conflict Many of the individuals featured were soldiers The generation of officers who fought for the Union and the Confederacy had much in common Many had formerly been colleagues in the MexicanWar 1846 1848 most had been taught the same tactics by the same instructors at the U S Military Academy at West Point Virginia This volume highlights the battlefield successes that made commanders popular heroes and the disasters that ruined careers There are also articles about the politicians who shaped the course of the war They include Abraham Lincoln whose election triggered the secession crisis in 1861 and Jefferson Davis who once seemed likely to become president of the United States himself but instead became the only president of the Confederacy Many individuals were inspired to become involved in the war in different ways Women played a major role both as spies like Rose O’Neal Greenhow and others who passed on secrets to both sides and as nurses Pioneers such as Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix influenced the development of modern professional nursing services in the United States Meanwhile writers and artists recorded both the details of the conflict and their own reaction to it Introduction 5
Banks Nathaniel P Nathaniel Banks 1816 1894 was one of President Abraham Lincoln’s political appointees to the rank of general He had no military experience and his lack of skill proved costly for the Union Banks led his troops to a series of defeats Nathaniel Prentiss Banks was born in Waltham Massachusetts on January 30 1816 He left school to work in a cotton factory Later he studied law before becoming a politician Elected to Congress in 1853 as a Democrat he opposed the western expansion of slavery and switched to the Republican Party in 1855 In 1858 he was elected governor of his home state Lincoln needed the support of influential men when war began and gave them key military offices In May 1861 the president appointed Banks major general of volunteers despite his lack of military experience Failed campaigns In the summer of 1861 Banks and his men were routed by Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Virginia On August 9 1862 Banks came up against Jackson again at Cedar Mountain Virginia Banks and his men were beaten and the Union suffered 2,500 casualties The military initiative in Virginia swung in favor of the Confederates and only Banks’s friendship with Lincoln saved his job Later campaigns reinforced Banks’s poor military reputation In May 1863 he led the Army of the Gulf against the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson on the Mississippi The Confederates successfully fought off the attack Another Union assault on June 14 failed the Confederates surrendered only after Vicksburg fell to the Union farther upriver Banks fared no better in the Red River Campaign and in 1865 he was removed from command Banks returned to politics to serve in the House of Representatives Curriculum Context Some curricula ask students to study the emergence of the Republican Party and its effect on American politics Curriculum Context Students should be able to describe how political appointments led to men with little military experience becoming officers on both sides early in the war 6 People
Barton Clara Clara Barton 1821 1912 was a Union nurse remembered as the Angel of the Battlefield She was not a nurse by profession and her only prewar medical experience was gained caring for her brother after he fell from a barn roof Clarissa Harlowe Barton worked as a teacher but later moved to Washington D C to work at the Patent Office Her war service began in April 1861 when she tore up sheets to make towels and bandages for the injured men of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment Shocked to learn that many soldiers at the First Battle of Bull Run July 21 1861 died because of a lack of medical supplies Barton advertised for donations and distributed the supplies In 1862 Surgeon General William A Hammond granted her a pass to travel behind the lines with army ambulances to nurse the wounded The presence of a woman on the battlefield at the time was new and shocking Under fire Barton nursed soldiers from both sides She first nursed in the line of fire at the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9 1862 where she tended the Union wounded and also helped at a field hospital for Confederate prisoners At the Battle of Antietam in Maryland on September 17 1862 Barton was nearly killed when a bullet passed through the sleeve of her dress killing the wounded man she was attending Her work during the Battle of the Wilderness Virginia 5 7 May 1864 won her national attention After the war Barton organized a program to search for soldiers missing in action and discovered the fates of 22,000 men Later she established the American Red Cross becoming its president in 1881 A tireless worker well into her 70s Barton spent six weeks in Galveston Texas in 1900 helping victims of devastating floods Curriculum Context Barton’s story is a good example for students describing the role of women during the war Field hospital A temporary hospital set up in tents or in adapted buildings near a battlefield Barton Clara 7
