Nov 27, 2005

Civil War Aims?

by Liberty and Power

[cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

I just saw a C-span interview with William Styple, author of Generals in Bronze, which presents a fund of previously unknown interviews (by artist James Kelly) with various Civil War generals. It contains a lot of information that will apparently change many historians’ standard accounts of the war, but the point that most struck me was that two Union generals – Porter and Pleasonton – testified that the conditions to which Grant had to agree in order to receive command of the Army of the Potomac were that the war must not be ended until:

1. the South was crushed
2. slavery was abolished
3. Lincoln was re-elected

Point 2 seems to give grist to the mill of pro-Lincolnites (by suggesting that emancipation was part of the plan all along, not a last-minute war measure), while points 1 and 3 seem to give grist to the mill of anti-Lincolnites. Any comments from historians?

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More Comments:

Ralph E. Luker - 11/28/2005

#1 can only mean that the South must surrender only on Northern terms: No negotiated secession from the Union -- the primary war aim from the outset of the war.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/28/2005

#2 doesn't change anything. The Emancipation Proclamation was already in effect when Grant _assumed_ command of the Army of Northern Virginia, so emancipation of slaves within Confederate lines was already a chief Union war aim.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/28/2005

There's obviously something wrong with #3, at least, and at least the way it is put. What if the South had surrendered prior to the election of November 1864? Does this mean that Grant must refuse the surrender and continue to prosecute the war? What if Lincoln were defeated in November 1864? Must Grant pursue the war until Lincoln had some future opportunity to win the presidency again?

Jonathan Dresner - 11/27/2005

All of the above conclusions seem warranted. As usual, people seeking simple moral judgements will be frustrated: the rest of us will have a blast with the new data.