Editing Confederate States of America (section)

==At war==

===Motivations of soldiers===
{{Main|Confederate States Army#Morale and motivations}}

Most soldiers who joined Confederate national or state military units joined voluntarily. Perman (2010) says historians are of two minds on why millions of soldiers seemed so eager to fight, suffer and die over four years:

{{Blockquote|Some historians emphasize that Civil War soldiers were driven by political ideology, holding firm beliefs about the importance of liberty, Union, or state rights, or about the need to protect or to destroy slavery. Others point to less overtly political reasons to fight, such as the defense of one's home and family, or the honor and brotherhood to be preserved when fighting alongside other men. Most historians agree that, no matter what he thought about when he went into the war, the experience of combat affected him profoundly and sometimes affected his reasons for continuing to fight.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Michael Perman|editor2=Amy Murrell Taylor|title=Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rPbZT_hrncC&pg=PA178|year= 2010|publisher=Cengage |page=178|isbn=978-0618875207}}</ref><ref>James McPherson, ''For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War'' (1998)</ref>}}

===Military strategy===
Civil War historian [[E. Merton Coulter]] wrote that for those who would secure its independence, "The Confederacy was unfortunate in its failure to work out a general strategy for the whole war". Aggressive strategy called for offensive force concentration. Defensive strategy sought dispersal to meet demands of locally minded governors. The controlling philosophy evolved into a combination "dispersal with a defensive concentration around Richmond". The Davis administration considered the war purely defensive, a "simple demand that the people of the United States would cease to war upon us".<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 342–343</ref> Historian [[James M. McPherson]] is a critic of Lee's offensive strategy: "Lee pursued a faulty military strategy that ensured Confederate defeat".<ref>{{cite book|author=James M. McPherson Professor of American History Princeton University|title=Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War: Reflections on the American Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KejHFo7A8eQC&pg=PA152|year=1996|publisher=Oxford U.P.|page=152|isbn=978-0199727834}}</ref>

As the Confederate government lost control of territory in campaign after campaign, it was said that "the vast size of the Confederacy would make its conquest impossible". The enemy would be struck down by the same elements which so often debilitated or destroyed visitors and transplants in the South: heat exhaustion, sunstroke, and endemic diseases such as malaria and typhoid.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 348. "The enemy could not hold territory, a hostile people would close in behind. The Confederacy still existed wherever there was an army under her unfurled banners."</ref>

[[File:Seal of the Confederate States of America.svg|thumb|The Seal<!-- "Great" would be historically inaccurate, and was not in the 1863 law passed by the C.S. Congress establishing the Seal. --> has symbols of an independent agricultural Confederacy surrounding an equestrian Washington, sword encased.{{efn|The cash crops circling the Seal are wheat, corn, tobacco, cotton, rice and sugar cane. Like Washington's equestrian statue honoring him at [[Union Square (New York City)#Union Square Partnership|Union Square]] NYC 1856, slaveholding Washington is pictured in his uniform of the Revolution securing American independence. Though armed, he does not have his sword drawn as he is depicted in the [[Washington Monument (Richmond, Virginia)|equestrian statue at the Virginia Capitol, Richmond, Virginia]]. The plates for the Seal were engraved in England but never received due to the Union Blockade.}}]]

Early in the war, both sides believed that one great battle would decide the conflict; the Confederates won a surprise victory at the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], also known as [[First Manassas]] (the name used by Confederate forces). It drove the Confederate people "insane with joy"; the public demanded a forward movement to capture Washington, relocate the Confederate capital there, and admit [[Maryland in the Civil War|Maryland]] to the Confederacy.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 343</ref> A council of war by the victorious Confederate generals decided not to advance against larger numbers of fresh Federal troops in defensive positions. Davis did not countermand it. Following the Confederate incursion into Maryland halted at the [[Battle of Antietam]] in October 1862, generals proposed concentrating forces from state commands to re-invade the north. Nothing came of it.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 346</ref> Again in mid-1863 at his incursion into Pennsylvania, Lee requested of Davis that Beauregard simultaneously attack Washington with troops taken from the Carolinas. But the troops there remained in place during the [[Gettysburg Campaign]].

The eleven states of the Confederacy were outnumbered by the North about four-to-one in military manpower. It was overmatched far more in military equipment, industrial facilities, railroads for transport, and wagons supplying the front.

Confederates slowed the Yankee invaders, at heavy cost to the Southern infrastructure. The Confederates burned bridges, laid [[land mine]]s in the roads, and made harbors inlets and inland waterways unusable with sunken mines (called "torpedoes" at the time). Coulter reports:

{{Blockquote|Rangers in twenty to fifty-man units were awarded 50% valuation for property destroyed behind Union lines, regardless of location or loyalty. As Federals occupied the South, objections by loyal Confederate concerning Ranger horse-stealing and indiscriminate scorched earth tactics behind Union lines led to Congress abolishing the Ranger service two years later.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 333–338.</ref>}}

The Confederacy relied on external sources for war materials. The first came from trade with the enemy. "Vast amounts of war supplies" came through Kentucky, and thereafter, western armies were "to a very considerable extent" provisioned with illicit trade via Federal agents and northern private traders.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 286. After capture by Federals, [[Memphis, Tennessee#19th century|Memphis]], TN became a major source of supply for Confederate armies, comparable to Nassau and its [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade runners]].</ref> But that trade was interrupted in the first year of war by [[David Dixon Porter|Admiral Porter]]'s river gunboats as they gained dominance along navigable rivers north–south and east–west.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 306. Confederate units harassed them throughout the war years by laying torpedo mines and loosing barrages from shoreline batteries.</ref> Overseas blockade running then came to be of "outstanding importance".<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 287–288. The principal ports on the Atlantic were [[Wilmington, North Carolina in the American Civil War|Wilmington]], North Carolina, [[Charleston, South Carolina#Civil War (1861–1865)|Charleston]], South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia for supplies from Europe via Bermuda and Nassau. On the Gulf were Galveston, Texas and [[New Orleans in the American Civil War|New Orleans]], Louisiana for those from Havana, Cuba and Mexican ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz.</ref> On April 17, President Davis called on privateer raiders, the "militia of the sea", to wage war on U.S. seaborne commerce.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 296, 304. Two days later Lincoln proclaimed a blockade, declaring them pirates. Davis responded with [[letters of marque]] to protect privateers from outlaw status. Some of the early raiders were converted merchantmen seized in Southern ports at the outbreak of the war</ref> Despite noteworthy effort, over the course of the war the Confederacy was found unable to match the Union in ships and seamanship, materials and marine construction.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 299–302. The [[Confederate Secret Service#Torpedo Bureau|Torpedo Bureau]] seeded defensive water-borne mines in principal harbors and rivers to compromise the Union naval superiority. These "torpedoes" were said to have caused more loss in U.S. naval ships and transports than by any other cause. Despite a rage for Congressional appropriations and public "subscription ironclads", armored platforms constructed in blockaded ports lacked the requisite marine engines to become ironclad warships. The armored platforms intended to become ironclads were employed instead as floating batteries for port city defense.</ref>

An inescapable obstacle to success in the warfare of mass armies was the Confederacy's lack of manpower, and sufficient numbers of disciplined, equipped troops in the field at the point of contact with the enemy. During the winter of 1862–63, Lee observed that none of his famous victories had resulted in the destruction of the opposing army. He lacked reserve troops to exploit an advantage on the battlefield as Napoleon had done. Lee explained, "More than once have most promising opportunities been lost for want of men to take advantage of them, and victory itself had been made to put on the appearance of defeat, because our diminished and exhausted troops have been unable to renew a successful struggle against fresh numbers of the enemy."<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 321</ref>

===Armed forces===
{{Main|Military forces of the Confederate States}}
[[File:Robert Edward Lee.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|General [[Robert E. Lee]], [[General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States|General in Chief]] (1865)]]

The military armed forces of the Confederacy comprised three branches: [[Confederate States Army|Army]], [[Confederate States Navy|Navy]] and [[Confederate States Marine Corps|Marine Corps]].

On February 28, 1861, the [[Provisional Confederate Congress]] established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate president, [[Jefferson Davis]]. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at [[Charleston, South Carolina]], where South Carolina state militia besieged [[Fort Sumter]] in Charleston harbor, held by a small [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] garrison. By March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress expanded the provisional forces and established a more permanent Confederate States Army.

The total population of the Confederate Army is unknowable due to incomplete and destroyed Confederate records but estimates are between 750,000 and 1,000,000 troops. This does not include an unknown number of slaves pressed into army tasks, such as the construction of fortifications and defenses or driving wagons.<ref>Albert Burton Moore, ''Conscription and Conflict in the Confederacy'' (1924)</ref> Confederate casualty figures also are incomplete and unreliable, estimated at 94,000 killed or mortally wounded, 164,000 deaths from disease, and between 26,000 and 31,000 deaths in Union prison camps. One incomplete estimate is 194,026.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

The Confederate military leadership included many veterans from the [[United States Army]] and [[United States Navy]] who had resigned their Federal commissions and were appointed to senior positions. Many had served in the [[Mexican–American War]] (including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis), but some such as [[Leonidas Polk]] (who graduated from [[United States Military Academy|West Point]] but did not serve in the Army) had little or no experience.

The Confederate officer corps consisted of men from both slave-owning and non-slave-owning families. The Confederacy appointed junior and field grade officers by election from the enlisted ranks. Although no Army service academy was established for the Confederacy, some colleges (such as [[The Citadel (military college)|The Citadel]] and [[Virginia Military Institute]]) maintained cadet corps that trained Confederate military leadership. A naval academy was established at [[Drewry's Bluff]], Virginia<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862blackCSN.htm|title=1862blackCSN|website=navyandmarine.org|access-date=May 3, 2023}}</ref> in 1863, but no midshipmen graduated before the Confederacy's end.

Most soldiers were white males aged between 16 and 28; half were 23 or older by 1861.<ref>Joseph T. Glatthaar, ''Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia: A Statistical Portrait of the Troops Who Served under Robert E. Lee'' (2011) p. 3, ch. 9</ref> The Confederate Army was permitted to disband for two months in early 1862 after its short-term enlistments expired. The majority of those in uniform would not re-enlist after their one-year commitment, thus on April 16, 1862, the Confederate Congress imposed the first mass [[conscription]] on North American territory. (A year later, on March 3, 1863, the United States Congress passed the [[Enrollment Act]].) Rather than a universal draft, the first program was a selective one with physical, religious, professional, and industrial exemptions. These became narrower as the battle progressed. Initially substitutes were permitted, but by December 1863 these were disallowed. In September 1862 the age limit was increased from 35 to 45 and by February 1864, all men under 18 and over 45 were conscripted to form a reserve for state defense inside state borders. By March 1864, the Superintendent of Conscription reported that all across the Confederacy, every officer in constituted authority, man and woman, "engaged in opposing the enrolling officer in the execution of his duties".<ref>Coulter, E. Merton, ''The Confederate States of America: 1861–1865'', op. cit., pp. 313–315, 318.</ref> Although challenged in the state courts, the Confederate State Supreme Courts routinely rejected legal challenges to conscription.<ref>[[Alfred L. Brophy]], [http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/necessity-knows-no-law.pdf {{"'}}Necessity Knows No Law': Vested Rights and the Styles of Reasoning in the Confederate Conscription Cases"], ''[[Mississippi Law Journal]]'' (2000) 69: 1123–1180.</ref>

Many thousands of slaves served as personal servants to their owner, or were hired as laborers, cooks, and pioneers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen V. Ash|title=The Black Experience in the Civil War South|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L6BURiBt340C&pg=PA43|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=43|isbn=978-0275985240}}</ref> Some freed blacks and men of color served in local state militia units of the Confederacy, primarily in Louisiana and South Carolina, but their officers deployed them for "local defense, not combat".<ref>Rubin p. 104.</ref> Depleted by casualties and desertions, the military suffered chronic manpower shortages. In early 1865, the Confederate Congress, influenced by the public support by General Lee, approved the recruitment of black infantry units. Contrary to Lee's and Davis's recommendations, the Congress refused "to guarantee the freedom of black volunteers". No more than two hundred black combat troops were ever raised.<ref>Levine pp. 146–147.</ref>

====Raising troops====
[[File:To Arms Confederate Enlistment Poster 1862.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Recruitment poster: "Do not wait to be drafted". Under half re-enlisted.]]

The immediate onset of war meant that it was fought by the "Provisional" or "Volunteer Army". State governors resisted concentrating a national effort. Several wanted a strong state army for self-defense. Others feared large "Provisional" armies answering only to Davis.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 308–311. The patchwork recruitment was (a) with and without state militia enrolment, (b) state Governor sponsorship and direct service under Davis, (c) for under six months, one year, three years and the duration of the war. Davis proposed recruitment for some period of years or the duration. Congress and the states equivocated. Governor Brown of Georgia became "the first and most persistent critic" of Confederate centralized military and civil power.</ref> When filling the Confederate government's call for 100,000 men, another 200,000 were turned away by accepting only those enlisted "for the duration" or twelve-month volunteers who brought their own arms or horses.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 310–311</ref>

It was important to raise troops; it was just as important to provide capable officers to command them. With few exceptions the Confederacy secured excellent general officers. Efficiency in the lower officers was "greater than could have been reasonably expected". As with the Federals, political appointees could be indifferent. Otherwise, the officer corps was governor-appointed or elected by unit enlisted. Promotion to fill vacancies was made internally regardless of merit, even if better officers were immediately available.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 328, 330–332. About 90% of West Pointers in the U.S. Army resigned to join the Confederacy. Notably, of Virginia's West Pointers, not 90% but 70% resigned for the Confederacy. Exemplary officers without military training included [[John B. Gordon]], [[Nathan B. Forrest]], [[J. Johnston Pettigrew|James J. Pettigrew]], [[John Hunt Morgan|John H. Morgan]], [[Turner Ashby]] and [[John S. Mosby]]. Most preliminary officer training was had from Hardee's "Tactics", and thereafter by observation and experience in battle. The Confederacy had no officers training camps or military academies, although early on, cadets of the Virginia Military Institute and other military schools drilled enlisted troops in battlefield evolutions.</ref>

Anticipating the need for more "duration" men, in January 1862 Congress provided for company level recruiters to return home for two months, but their efforts met little success on the heels of Confederate battlefield defeats in February.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 310–311. Early 1862 "dried up the enthusiasm to volunteer" due to the impact of victory's battle casualties, the humiliation of defeats and the dislike of camp life with its monotony, confinement and mortal diseases. Immediately following the great victory at the [[First Battle of Bull Run|Battle of Manassas]], many believed the war was won and there was no need for more troops. Then the new year brought defeat over February 6–23: [[Fort Henry (site of the Battle of Fort Henry)|Fort Henry]], [[Battle of Roanoke Island|Roanoke Island]], [[Fort Donelson]], Nashville—the first capital to fall. Among some not yet in uniform, the less victorious "Cause" seemed less glorious.</ref> Congress allowed for Davis to require numbers of recruits from each governor to supply the volunteer shortfall. States responded by passing their own draft laws.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 312. The government funded parades and newspaper ad campaigns, $2,000,000 for recruitment in Kentucky alone. With a state-enacted draft, Governor Brown with a quota of 12,000 raised 22,000 Georgia militia.</ref>

The veteran Confederate army of early 1862 was mostly twelve-month volunteers with terms about to expire. Enlisted reorganization elections disintegrated the army for two months. Officers pleaded with the ranks to re-enlist, but a majority did not. Those remaining elected majors and colonels whose performance led to officer review boards in October. The boards caused a "rapid and widespread" thinning out of 1,700 incompetent officers. Troops thereafter would elect only second lieutenants.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 313, 332. Officially dropping 425 officers by board review in October was followed immediately by 1,300 "resignations". Some officers who resigned then served honorably as enlisted for the duration or until they were made casualties, others resigned and returned home until conscription.</ref>

In early 1862, the popular press suggested the Confederacy required a million men under arms. But veteran soldiers were not re-enlisting, and earlier secessionist volunteers did not reappear to serve in war. One [[Macon, Georgia]], newspaper asked how two million brave fighting men of the South were about to be overcome by four million northerners who were said to be cowards.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 313</ref>

====Conscription====
{{Main|Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864}}
[[File:Resistance to Confederate conscription.jpg|thumb|Southern Unionists throughout the Confederate States resisted the 1862 conscription]]

The Confederacy passed the first American law of national conscription on April 16, 1862. The white males of the Confederate States from 18 to 35 were declared members of the Confederate army for three years, and all men then enlisted were extended to a three-year term. They would serve only in units and under officers of their state. Those under 18 and over 35 could substitute for conscripts, in September those from 35 to 45 became conscripts.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 313–314. Military officers including Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee, advocated conscription. In the circumstances they persuaded Congressmen and newspaper editors. Some editors advocating conscription in early 1862 later became "savage critics of conscription and of Davis for his enforcement of it: Yancey of Alabama, Rhett of the Charleston 'Mercury', Pollard of the Richmond 'Examiner', and Senator Wigfall of Texas".</ref> The cry of "rich man's war and a poor man's fight" led Congress to abolish the substitute system altogether in December 1863. All principals benefiting earlier were made eligible for service. By February 1864, the age bracket was made 17 to 50, those under eighteen and over forty-five to be limited to in-state duty.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 313–314, 319.</ref>

Confederate conscription was not universal; it was a selective service. The [[Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864|First Conscription Act]] of April 1862 exempted occupations related to transportation, communication, industry, ministers, teaching and physical fitness. The Second Conscription Act of October 1862 expanded exemptions in industry, agriculture and conscientious objection. Exemption fraud proliferated in medical examinations, army furloughs, churches, schools, apothecaries and newspapers.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 315–317.</ref>

Rich men's sons were appointed to the socially outcast "overseer" occupation, but the measure was received in the country with "universal odium". The legislative vehicle was the controversial [[Twenty Negro Law]] that specifically exempted one white overseer or owner for every plantation with at least 20 slaves. Backpedaling six months later, Congress provided overseers under 45 could be exempted only if they held the occupation before the first Conscription Act.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 320. One such exemption was allowed for every 20 slaves on a plantation, the May 1863 reform required previous occupation and that the plantation of 20 slaves (or group of plantations within a five-mile area) had not been subdivided after the first exemption of April 1862.</ref> The number of officials under state exemptions appointed by state Governor patronage expanded significantly.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 317–318.</ref>

<gallery style="float:right; text-align:center" perrow="2" heights="150">
Gabriel James Rains.jpg|Gen. [[Gabriel J. Rains]], {{small|Conscription Bureau chief, April 1862 – May 1863}}
General Gideon Johnson Pillow.jpg|Gen. [[Gideon J. Pillow]], {{small|military recruiter under Bragg, then J.E. Johnston<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederates States of America'', p. 324.</ref>}}
</gallery>

The Conscription Act of February 1864 "radically changed the whole system" of selection. It abolished industrial exemptions, placing detail authority in President Davis. As the shame of conscription was greater than a felony conviction, the system brought in "about as many volunteers as it did conscripts." Many men in otherwise "bombproof" positions were enlisted in one way or another, nearly 160,000 additional volunteers and conscripts in uniform. Still there was shirking.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 322–324, 326.</ref> To administer the draft, a Bureau of Conscription was set up to use state officers, as state Governors would allow. It had a checkered career of "contention, opposition and futility". Armies appointed alternative military "recruiters" to bring in the out-of-uniform 17–50-year-old conscripts and deserters. Nearly 3,000 officers were tasked with the job. By late 1864, Lee was calling for more troops. "Our ranks are constantly diminishing by battle and disease, and few recruits are received; the consequences are inevitable." By March 1865 conscription was to be administered by generals of the state reserves calling out men over 45 and under 18 years old. All exemptions were abolished. These regiments were assigned to recruit conscripts ages 17–50, recover deserters, and repel enemy cavalry raids. The service retained men who had lost but one arm or a leg in home guards. Ultimately, conscription was a failure, and its main value was in goading men to volunteer.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 323–325, 327.</ref>

The survival of the Confederacy depended on a strong base of civilians and soldiers devoted to victory. The soldiers performed well, though increasing numbers deserted in the last year of fighting, and the Confederacy never succeeded in replacing casualties as the Union could. The civilians, although enthusiastic in 1861–62, seem to have lost faith in the future of the Confederacy by 1864, and instead looked to protect their homes and communities. As Rable explains, "This contraction of civic vision was more than a crabbed [[libertarianism]]; it represented an increasingly widespread disillusionment with the Confederate experiment."<ref>Rable (1994) p. 265.</ref>

===Victories: 1861===
The American Civil War broke out in April 1861 with a Confederate victory at the [[Battle of Fort Sumter]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina in the American Civil War|Charleston]].

{{multiple image
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|caption1=Bombardment of [[Battle of Fort Sumter|Fort Sumter]], Charleston, South Carolina
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|caption2=First Bull Run ([[First Battle of Bull Run|First Manassas]]), the North's "Big Skedaddle"<ref>[[Margaret Leech]], ''Reveille in Washington'' (1942)</ref>
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In January, President [[James Buchanan]] had attempted to resupply the garrison with the steamship, ''[[Star of the West]]'', but Confederate artillery drove it away. In March, President Lincoln notified South Carolina Governor [[Francis W. Pickens|Pickens]] that without Confederate resistance to the resupply there would be no military reinforcement without further notice, but Lincoln prepared to force resupply if it were not allowed. Confederate President Davis, in cabinet, decided to seize Fort Sumter before the relief fleet arrived, and on April 12, 1861, General Beauregard forced its surrender.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stephens|first=Alexander H.|author-link=Alexander Stephens|title=A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States|url=https://archive.org/details/constitutionalview02steprich|format=PDF|volume=2|year=1870|page=[https://archive.org/details/constitutionalview02steprich/page/36 36]|quote=I maintain that it was inaugurated and begun, though no blow had been struck, when the hostile fleet, styled the 'Relief Squadron', with eleven ships, carrying two hundred and eighty-five guns and two thousand four hundred men, was sent out from New York and Norfolk, with orders from the authorities at Washington, to reinforce Fort Sumter peaceably, if permitted 'but forcibly if they must'&nbsp;...|publisher=Philadelphia: National Pub. Co.; Chicago: Zeigler, McCurdy}} After the war, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens maintained that Lincoln's attempt to resupply Sumter was a disguised reinforcement and had provoked the war.</ref>

Following Sumter, [[Proclamation 80|Lincoln directed states to provide 75,000 militiamen]] for three months to recapture the Charleston Harbor forts and all other federal property.<ref name=LincolnCallToArms>
[http://www.civilwarhome.com/lincolntroops.htm Lincoln's proclamation calling for troops from the remaining states] (bottom of page); Department of War details to States (top).</ref> This emboldened secessionists in Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina to secede rather than provide troops to march into neighboring Southern states. In May, Federal troops crossed into Confederate territory along the entire border from the Chesapeake Bay to New Mexico. The first battles were Confederate victories at Big Bethel ([[Battle of Big Bethel|Bethel Church, Virginia]]), First Bull Run ([[First Battle of Bull Run|First Manassas]]) in Virginia July and in August, Wilson's Creek ([[Battle of Wilson's Creek|Oak Hills]]) in Missouri. At all three, Confederate forces could not follow up their victory due to inadequate supply and shortages of fresh troops to exploit their successes. Following each battle, Federals maintained a military presence and occupied Washington, DC; Fort Monroe, Virginia; and Springfield, Missouri. Both North and South began training up armies for major fighting the next year.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 352–353.</ref> Union General [[George B. McClellan]]'s forces gained possession of much of northwestern Virginia in mid-1861, concentrating on towns and roads; the interior was too large to control and became the center of guerrilla activity.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moawar;cc=moawar;q1=red%20house;rgn=full%20text;idno=waro0005;didno=waro0005;view=image;seq=0580|title= The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Series 1|volume= 5|page=56}}4</ref><ref>Rice, Otis K. and Stephen W. Brown, ''West Virginia, A History'', University of Kentucky Press, 1993, 2nd ed., p. 130</ref> General [[Robert E. Lee]] was defeated at [[Cheat Mountain]] in September and no serious Confederate advance in western Virginia occurred until the next year.

Meanwhile, the Union Navy seized control of much of the Confederate coastline from Virginia to South Carolina. It took over plantations and the abandoned slaves. Federals there began a war-long policy of burning grain supplies up rivers into the interior wherever they could not occupy.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 353.</ref> The Union Navy began a blockade of the major southern ports and prepared an invasion of Louisiana to capture New Orleans in early 1862.

===Incursions: 1862===
The victories of 1861 were followed by a series of defeats east and west in early 1862. To restore the Union by military force, the Federal strategy was to (1) secure the Mississippi River, (2) seize or close Confederate ports, and (3) march on Richmond. To secure independence, the Confederate intent was to (1) repel the invader on all fronts, costing him blood and treasure, and (2) carry the war into the North by two offensives in time to affect the mid-term elections.

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|caption2=Burying Union dead. Antietam, Maryland.<ref>Glatthaar, Joseph T., ''General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse,'' Free Press 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-684-82787-2}}, p. xiv. Inflicting intolerable casualties on invading Federal armies was a Confederate strategy to make the northern Unionists relent in their pursuit of restoring the Union.</ref>
}}

Much of northwestern Virginia was under Federal control.<ref>Ambler, Charles, ''Francis H. Pierpont: Union War Governor of Virginia and Father of West Virginia'', Univ. of North Carolina, 1937, p. 419, note 36. Letter of Adjutant General Henry L. Samuels, August 22, 1862, to Gov. Francis Pierpont listing 22 of 48 counties under sufficient control for soldier recruitment.<br />[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsb&fileName=037/llsb037.db&recNum=1996 ''Congressional Globe,'' 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Bill S.531, February 14, 1863] "A bill supplemental to the act entitled 'An act for the Admission of the State of 'West Virginia' into the Union, and for other purposes' which would include the counties of "Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mercer, McDowell, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Fayette, Nicholas, and Clay, now in the possession of the so-called confederate government".</ref> In February and March, most of Missouri and Kentucky were Union "occupied, consolidated, and used as staging areas for advances further South". Following the repulse of a Confederate counterattack at the [[Battle of Shiloh]], Tennessee, permanent Federal occupation expanded west, south and east.<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 27. In the Mississippi River Valley, during the first half of February, central Tennessee's [[Battle of Fort Henry|Fort Henry]] was lost and [[Battle of Fort Donelson|Fort Donelson]] fell with a small army. By the end of the month, [[Tennessee in the american civil war#Twin Rivers Campaign of 1862|Nashville]], Tennessee was the first conquered Confederate state capital. On April 6–7, Federals turned back the Confederate offensive at the Battle of Shiloh, and three days later [[Battle of Island Number Ten|Island Number 10]], controlling the upper Mississippi River, fell to a combined Army and Naval gunboat siege of three weeks.

Federal occupation of Confederate territory expanded to include northwestern Arkansas, south down the Mississippi River and east up the Tennessee River. The Confederate River Defense fleet sank two Union ships at [[Battle of Plum Point Bend|Plum Point Bend]] (naval Fort Pillow), but they withdrew and [[Fort Pillow, Tennessee|Fort Pillow]] was captured downriver.</ref> Confederate forces repositioned south along the Mississippi River to [[Memphis, Tennessee]], where at the naval [[First Battle of Memphis|Battle of Memphis]], its River Defense Fleet was sunk. Confederates withdrew from northern Mississippi and northern Alabama. [[Capture of New Orleans|New Orleans was captured on April 29]] by a combined Army-Navy force under U.S. Admiral [[David Farragut]], and the Confederacy lost control of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It had to concede extensive agricultural resources that had supported the Union's sea-supplied logistics base.<ref name="Martis28">Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 28.</ref>

Although Confederates had suffered major reverses everywhere, as of the end of April the Confederacy still controlled territory holding 72% of its population.<ref name="Martis27">Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 27. Federal occupation expanded into northern Virginia, and their control of the Mississippi extended south to Nashville, Tennessee.</ref> Federal forces disrupted Missouri and Arkansas; they had broken through in western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana. Along the Confederacy's shores, Union forces had closed ports and made garrisoned lodgments on every coastal Confederate state except Alabama and Texas.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 354. Federal sea-based amphibious forces captured [[Battle of Roanoke Island|Roanoke Island]], North Carolina along with a large garrison in February. In March, Confederates abandoned forts at [[Amelia Island|Fernandia]] and [[St. Augustine in the American Civil War#Early war|St. Augustine]] Florida, and lost [[Battle of New Berne|New Berne]], North Carolina. In April, [[Capture of New Orleans|New Orleans]] fell and Savannah, Georgia was closed by the [[Battle of Fort Pulaski]]. In May retreating Confederates burned their two pre-war Navy yards at Norfolk and Pensacola. See Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 287, 306, 302</ref> Although scholars sometimes assess the Union blockade as ineffectual under international law until the last few months of the war, from the first months it disrupted Confederate privateers, making it "almost impossible to bring their prizes into Confederate ports".<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 294, 296–297. Europeans refused to allow captured U.S. shipping to be sold for the privateers 95% share, so through 1862, Confederate privateering disappeared. The CSA Congress authorized a Volunteer Navy to man cruisers the following year.</ref> British firms developed small fleets of [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade running]] companies, such as [[George Trenholm|John Fraser and Company]] and [[S. Isaac, Campbell & Company]] while the Ordnance Department secured its own blockade runners for dedicated munitions cargoes.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 288–291. As many as half the Confederate blockade runners had British nationals serving as officers and crew. Confederate regulations required one-third, then one-half of the cargoes to be munitions, food and medicine.</ref>

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|caption2=[[CSS Alabama|CSS ''Alabama'']] off [[Battle of Cherbourg (1864)|Cherbourg]], location of the only cruiser engagement
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During the Civil War fleets of [[Ironclad warship|armored warships]] were deployed for the first time in sustained blockades at sea. After some success against the Union blockade, in March the ironclad [[CSS Virginia|CSS ''Virginia'']] was forced into port and burned by Confederates at their retreat. Despite several attempts mounted from their port cities, CSA naval forces were unable to break the Union blockade. Attempts were made by Commodore [[Josiah Tattnall III]]'s ironclads from Savannah in 1862 with the [[USS Atlanta (1861)|CSS ''Atlanta'']].<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 287, 306, 302, 306 and [http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org11-2.htm CSS Atlanta, USS Atlanta. Navy Heritage] {{Webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100407154442/http%3A//www%2Ehistory%2Enavy%2Emil/branches/org11%2D2%2Ehtm |date=April 7, 2010 }}. In both events, as with the CSS ''Virginia'', the Navy's bravery and fighting skill was compromised in combat by mechanical failure in the engines or steering. The joint combined Army-Navy defense by General [[Robert E. Lee]], and his successor and Commodore [[Josiah Tattnall III]], repelled amphibious assault of Savannah for the duration of the war. Union General [[Tecumseh Sherman]] captured Savannah from the land side in December 1864. The British blockade runner [[USS Atlanta (1861)#As Fingal|''Fingal'']] was purchased and converted to the ironclad [[USS Atlanta (1861)|CSS ''Atlanta'']]. It made two sorties, was captured by Union forces, repaired, and returned to service as the ironclad USS ''Atlanta'' supporting Grant's [[Siege of Petersburg]].</ref> Secretary of the Navy [[Stephen Mallory]] placed his hopes in a European-built ironclad fleet, but they were never realized. On the other hand, four new English-built commerce raiders served the Confederacy, and several fast blockade runners were sold in Confederate ports. They were converted into commerce-raiding cruisers, and manned by their British crews.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 303. French shipyards built four corvettes, and two ironclad rams for the Confederacy, but the American minister prevented their delivery. British firms contracted to build two additional ironclad rams, but under threat from the U.S., the British government bought them for their own navy. Two of the converted blockade runners effectively raided up and down the Atlantic coast until the end of the war.</ref>

In the east, Union forces could not close on Richmond. General McClellan landed his army on the [[Peninsula Campaign|Lower Peninsula]] of Virginia. Lee subsequently ended that threat from the east, then Union General John Pope attacked overland from the north only to be repulsed at Second Bull Run ([[Second Battle of Bull Run|Second Manassas]]). Lee's strike north was turned back at Antietam MD, then Union [[Ambrose Burnside|Major General Ambrose Burnside's]] offensive was disastrously ended at [[Battle of Fredericksburg|Fredericksburg]] VA in December. Both armies then turned to winter quarters to recruit and train for the coming spring.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 354–356. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign caused the surprised Confederates to destroy their winter camp to mobilize against the threat to their Capital. They burned "a vast amount of supplies" to keep them from falling into enemy hands.</ref>

In an attempt to seize the initiative, reprove, protect farms in mid-growing season and influence U.S. Congressional elections, two major Confederate incursions into Union territory had been launched in August and September 1862. Both [[Braxton Bragg]]'s invasion of Kentucky and [[Battle of Antietam|Lee's invasion]] of Maryland were decisively repulsed, leaving Confederates in control of but 63% of its population.<ref name="Martis27"/> Civil War scholar [[Allan Nevins]] argues that 1862 was the strategic [[Ordinary high water mark|high-water mark]] of the Confederacy.<ref>Nevin's analysis of the strategic highpoint of Confederate military scope and effectiveness is in contra-distinction to the conventional "last chance" battlefield imagery of the [[High-water mark of the Confederacy]] found at "The Angle" of the Battle of Gettysburg.</ref> The failures of the two invasions were attributed to the same irrecoverable shortcomings: lack of manpower at the front, lack of supplies including serviceable shoes, and exhaustion after long marches without adequate food.<ref>Allan Nevins, ''War for the Union'' (1960) pp. 289–290. Weak national leadership led to disorganized overall direction in contrast to improved organization in Washington. With another 10,000 men Lee and Bragg might have prevailed in the border states, but the local populations did not respond to their pleas to recruit additional soldiers.</ref> Also in September Confederate General [[William W. Loring]] pushed Federal forces from [[Charleston, West Virginia|Charleston, Virginia]], and the Kanawha Valley in western Virginia, but lacking reinforcements Loring abandoned his position and by November the region was back in Federal control.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rice |first1=Otis K. |first2=Stephen W. |last2=Brown |title=West Virginia, A History |publisher=Univ. of Kentucky Press |year=1993 |edition=2nd |pages=[https://archive.org/details/westvirginiahist00rice_0/page/134 134–135] |isbn=0-8131-1854-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/westvirginiahist00rice_0/page/134 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh23-1.html|title=The Civil War Comes to Charleston|accessdate=May 3, 2023}}</ref>

===Anaconda: 1863–1864===
{{Main|Anaconda Plan}}

The failed Middle [[Tennessee in the Civil War|Tennessee]] campaign was ended January 2, 1863, at the inconclusive Battle of Stones River ([[Battle of Stones River|Murfreesboro]]), both sides losing the largest percentage of casualties suffered during the war. It was followed by another strategic withdrawal by Confederate forces.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 357</ref> The Confederacy won a significant victory April 1863, repulsing the Federal advance on Richmond at [[Battle of Chancellorsville|Chancellorsville]], but the Union consolidated positions along the Virginia coast and the Chesapeake Bay.

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| caption2 = Closing of Mobile Bay, Alabama. The [[Union blockade]] ended trade with the Confederate states.
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Without an effective answer to Federal gunboats, river transport and supply, the Confederacy lost the Mississippi River following the capture of [[Siege of Vicksburg|Vicksburg]], Mississippi, and [[Siege of Port Hudson|Port Hudson]] in July, ending Southern access to the trans-Mississippi West. July brought short-lived counters, [[Morgan's Raid]] into Ohio and the [[New York City draft riots]]. Robert E. Lee's strike into Pennsylvania was repulsed at [[Battle of Gettysburg|Gettysburg]], Pennsylvania despite Pickett's famous charge and other acts of valor. Southern newspapers assessed the campaign as "The Confederates did not gain a victory, neither did the enemy."

September and November left Confederates yielding [[Chattanooga Campaign|Chattanooga]], Tennessee, the gateway to the lower south.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 356</ref> For the remainder of the war fighting was restricted inside the South, resulting in a slow but continuous loss of territory. In early 1864, the Confederacy still controlled 53% of its population, but it withdrew further to reestablish defensive positions. Union offensives continued with [[Sherman's March to the Sea]] to take Savannah and Grant's [[Overland Campaign|Wilderness Campaign]] to encircle Richmond and besiege Lee's army at [[Siege of Petersburg|Petersburg]].<ref name="Martis28"/>

In April 1863, the C.S. Congress authorized a uniformed Volunteer Navy, many of whom were British.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 297–298. They were required to supply their own ships and equipment, but they received 90% of their captures at auction, 25% of any U.S. warships or transports captured or destroyed. Confederate cruisers raided merchant ship commerce but for one exception in 1864.</ref> The Confederacy had altogether eighteen commerce-destroying cruisers, which seriously disrupted Federal commerce at sea and increased shipping insurance rates 900%.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 305–306. The most successful Confederate merchant raider 1863–1864, [[CSS Alabama|CSS ''Alabama'']] had ranged the Atlantic for two years, sinking 58 vessels worth {{sic|?|$6,54,000}}, but she was trapped and sunk in June by the chain-clad {{USS|Kearsarge|1861|6}} off Cherbourg, France.</ref> Commodore Tattnall again unsuccessfully attempted to break the Union blockade on the Savannah River in Georgia with an ironclad in 1863.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', in 1862, [http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org11-2.htm CSS Atlanta, USS Atlanta. Navy Heritage] {{Webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100407154442/http%3A//www%2Ehistory%2Enavy%2Emil/branches/org11%2D2%2Ehtm |date=April 7, 2010 }}, in 1863 the ironclad [[CSS Savannah (ironclad)|CSS ''Savannah'']]</ref> Beginning in April 1864 the ironclad [[CSS Albemarle|CSS ''Albemarle'']] engaged Union gunboats for six months on the Roanoke River in North Carolina.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 305</ref> The Federals closed [[Battle of Mobile Bay|Mobile Bay]] by sea-based amphibious assault in August, ending Gulf coast trade east of the Mississippi River. In December, the [[Battle of Nashville]] ended Confederate operations in the western theater.

Large numbers of families relocated to safer places, usually remote rural areas, bringing along household slaves if they had any. Mary Massey argues these elite exiles introduced an element of defeatism into the southern outlook.<ref>Mary Elizabeth Massey, ''Refugee Life in the Confederacy'' (1964)</ref>

===Collapse: 1865===
The first three months of 1865 saw the Federal [[Carolinas Campaign]], devastating a wide swath of the remaining Confederate heartland. The "breadbasket of the Confederacy" in the Great Valley of Virginia was occupied by [[Philip Sheridan]]. The Union Blockade captured [[Fort Fisher]] in North Carolina, and Sherman finally [[Second Battle of Charleston Harbor|took Charleston, South Carolina]], by land attack.<ref name="Martis28"/>

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The Confederacy controlled no ports, harbors or navigable rivers. Railroads were captured or had ceased operating. Its major food-producing regions had been war-ravaged or occupied. Its administration survived in only three pockets of territory holding only one-third of its population. Its armies were defeated or disbanding. At the February 1865 [[Hampton Roads Conference]] with Lincoln, senior Confederate officials rejected his invitation to restore the Union with compensation for emancipated slaves.<ref name="Martis28"/> The three pockets of unoccupied Confederacy were southern Virginia—North Carolina, central Alabama—Florida, and Texas, the latter two areas less from any notion of resistance than from the disinterest of Federal forces to occupy them.<ref>{{cite book |last=Foote |first=Shelby |date=1974 |title=The Civil War, a narrative: Vol III |page=967 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |quote=Sherman was closing in on Raleigh, whose occupation tomorrow would make it the ninth of the eleven seceded state capitals to feel the tread of the invader. All, that is, but Austin and Tallahassee, whose survival was less the result of their ability to resist than it was of Federal oversight or disinterest. |isbn=0-394-74622-8 }}</ref> The Davis policy was independence or nothing, while Lee's army was wracked by disease and desertion, barely holding the trenches defending Jefferson Davis' capital.

The Confederacy's last remaining blockade-running port, [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], [[Battle of Wilmington|was lost]]. When the Union broke through Lee's lines at Petersburg, [[Richmond in the American Civil War|Richmond]] fell immediately. Lee surrendered at [[Appomattox Court House National Historical Park|Appomattox Court House]], Virginia, on April 9, 1865.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 323–325, 327.</ref> "The Surrender" marked the end of the Confederacy.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 287</ref> The [[Japanese ironclad Kōtetsu#American career as CSS Stonewall|CSS ''Stonewall'']] sailed from Europe to break the Union blockade in March; on making Havana, Cuba, it surrendered. Some high officials escaped to Europe, but President Davis was captured May 10; all remaining Confederate land forces surrendered by June 1865. The U.S. Army took control of the Confederate areas, but peace was subsequently marred by a great deal of local violence, feuding and revenge killings.<ref>The French-built ironclad [[Japanese ironclad Kōtetsu#American career as CSS Stonewall|CSS ''Stonewall'']] had been purchased from Denmark and set sail from Spain in March. The crew of the [[CSS Shenandoah|CSS ''Shenandoah'']] hauled down the last Confederate flag at Liverpool in the UK on November 5, 1865. {{cite book|author=John Baldwin |author2=Ron Powers |title=Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship|page=368|publisher=Three Rivers Press|isbn=978-0-307-23656-2|date=May 2008 }}</ref> The last confederate military unit, the commerce raider [[CSS Shenandoah|CSS ''Shenandoah'']], surrendered on November 6, 1865, in [[Liverpool]].<ref>United States Government Printing Office, ''Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion'', United States Naval War Records Office, United States Office of Naval Records and Library, 1894
{{DANFS}}</ref>

Historian [[Gary Gallagher]] concluded that the Confederacy capitulated in early 1865 because northern armies crushed "organized southern military resistance". The Confederacy's population, soldier and civilian, had suffered material hardship and social disruption.<ref>Gallagher p. 157</ref> Jefferson Davis' assessment in 1890 determined, "With the capture of the capital, the dispersion of the civil authorities, the surrender of the armies in the field, and the arrest of the President, the Confederate States of America disappeared ... their history henceforth became a part of the history of the United States."<ref>Davis, Jefferson. [https://archive.org/stream/ashorthistoryco00davigoog#page/n544/mode/2up/search/surrender+at+Appomattox ''A Short History of the Confederate States of America''], 1890, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-175-82358-8}}. Available free online as an ebook. Chapter LXXXVIII, "Re-establishment of the Union by force", p. 503. Retrieved March 14, 2012.</ref>