pres. johnson

what do you think was the biggest factor that led to impeachment?

Lincoln vs. Davis

History books keep saying that if Lincoln was the president of the south than things would have been different, did they say this because he would have implemented African Americans into the Confederate Army earlier or was it that he just controlled a room better? I feel like either one of them would have had a very difficult time beating the north, mostly thanks to Lee.

Black Soldiers in Gray

I wonder if the Confederate side had used African American Troops in the same way or better the the Unioin did that if the outcome of the war could have been any different??

Confederates looks like fools

The confederate decision to arm slaves was a joke. They knew that they were beat and completely desperate, but why make yourselves look like fools by doing something that you are completely against? If you have given up that is one thing, but do not let go of what you are fighting against to try and win is ridiculous because if you did eventually win you've lost a big part of something that you really want anyways by giving up slavery.

what do you think of Union black units being some of first to enter fallen Confederate cities such as Charleston and Richmond-did this happen as result of chance or was it a deliberate, symolic act? How did the sothern civilians feel as they saw free blacks in blue uniforms marching through their streets as conquerors?

Freedmen Regiments in The South

Does anyone know how serious the debates over if it would be wise to free, and arm slaves as regiments was if majori figures of the confederacy like Lee were weighing in on an issue that had been silenced in 1864? Furthermore, if Confederates were willing to arm newly freedslaves in order to defend themselves then what were they really fighting for? It would seem difficult to argue that a nation was fighting for it's independence in order to sustain an institution that it was willing to lessen the importance of in order to win it's right to maintain it.

Nov. 26-29

Grant in 1864

Grant showed potential with his success in the west, and with momentum and moral on their side going in to 1864, how did Grant suffer the heavy defeats he did and why was he not replaced as commander of the Army of the Potomac as was the case with past Union generals?

Davis

I think one of the reasons Davis would've kept things pretty closely under wraps was because he was trying to keep controversy within the Confederacy to a minimum. Part of the strength of the Confederacy in its perception by the North was that it was a cohesive group of people that disagreed with the Union, and therefore seceded. Once Davis established that the Southern states of the Confederacy were separate from the Northern Union states, he handled the rest of his business behind closed doors so that the rest of the "country" could focus on things that united them together, not political issues that could potentially divide them into further segregated groups (not like that didn't happen anyway).

The Confederate Politics

Why did Davis feel it was necessary to keep everything under wraps about the government, even public business, it doesn't seem like anyone would support someone who is trying to take total control of the government.

10 Percent Plan

I think the point of only having 10 percent and not a higher number was just to try to get things established. If a higher number would have been necessary, it would have taken too long to get the process going. It was a way to get a government started and try to get things back to normal.

Ten Percent Plan

With Lincoln's 10 percent plan, was it wise to let a state back wiht only 10 percent of its voters taking the oath and pledge to abide by emancipation? It would seem hard to form a new state government if 90 percent of the people disagree with it.

re-election

what did lincoln have working against him in 1864 and what worked to his benefit?

Freedpeople

What was the Union initaly planning to do with all the slaves once they were freed? No nation had ever dealt with such a large number of freed slaves before so what were the first steps to take?

Nov 5-7: Confederacy

Black troops in the north

Did the white soldiers have a problem with the fact that they had to go out and fight on the front line while the black soldiers were back building the forts and cooking the food?

Blacks in the Army

I am truly surprised that it took the army as long as it did to allow blacks to enlist. One would think that they would want all the man power possible. Even if they were not thought of as the smartest people I would assume that the concept of point and shoot would be easily understood. Even if they did would not win battles, they would still be able to weaken southern divisions.

Full rights as citizen

I noticed that we covered in class that African Americans were offered full rights as citizens if they were to serve in the Army for the Union. I was curious as to how much truth there was to that because it seems to be somewhat far fetched with my post war knowledge.

Oct. 29-31

Lee's Blame

I agree that the blame falls on Lee no matter what due to the fact that he is the one in overall command. However, I believe it to be somewhat his fault anyway. He ordered the charge by Pickett that ended up in disaster when maybe it could have been averted. He never once gave consideration to the idea of moving the Confederate army around the Union army to cut them off from Washington D.C.. I feel as though that strategy warranted some consideration if not actually using that strategy. I think the battle would have turned out much differently if Lee would have listened to some of his men.

Blame

When it comes to battles and such I think it is hard to place blame on one person completely. There are so many different things happening at once that every decision that every person makes has some effect on the outcome. However, since Lee was in command the blame falls on him whether he deserved it or not.

gettysburg

In response to the previous blog...what I didn't understand about Lee's comments about "It's all my fault" in the last scene was that it seemed the only reason he suddenly decided the loss was his fault was after Pickett said he had no division left. Wasn't he concerned with the loss of all the other men? Or was this just the point when he realized how badly he'd screwed up? And I was under the impression that Lee waited a coulple days before pulling his men out of Gettysburg, and that was when he decided it was all his fault and he would only be able to fight a defensive war from then on out.

gettysbrug

in the movie clip shown in class based on "the killer angels" lee blamed himself for the confederate loss, from the book itself, who else could be blamed and why? did any one person really stand out in regards to this question?

Oct 22-25: Gettysburg

Grant

Grant and the other three generals that fought at Chattanooga all came from the Western theatre. Did the skills that they learned on the western front help them become such great leaders, or was it because they were a new kind generals that the South was not use too? Their tactics were not the same as other generals that the South was use to fighting in the East, and I think this is what helped Grant become so successful as general-in-chief.

The North's reaction to Grant's strategy.

Did the north see Grant's strategy of starving out Vicksburg as unmoral or did they just care about the victory for the north? Everyone saw him as a hero because of his victory but he was killing southern civilians in the process.

I think once Lee tried to resign the morale of the army went down greatly. Lee's confidence was not there and it probably trickled down to the men who were ranked underneath him.

turning point

I believe that it was just a matter of time for the south. Although all those aspects may have contributed to the falling of the south, I believe it was more just their time. All the advantages the south had at the beginning of the war such as better trained men the north now had. Those many advantages were evened out by the north and the north began to gain the advantages not only on the battle field, but also off as the war continued on.

Oct 15-18

turning point

for what reasons was the south unable to achieve any significant victory following their win at Chickamauga Creek? Was it a shot to Lee's confidence and realization that his army could be beaten following Gettysburg or the failure to replace veteren soldiers lost at places like Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga or other possible factors? Was their defeat only a matter of time at that point in the war?

The Army's Equipment

Did either of the two armies have better equipment than the other? For instance, when the weather started to become very cold and rainy, did the Union better protect themselves from the elements of winter? In World War II I remember reading that the American soldiers would steal the jackets and boots of the German soldiers because they were better insulated.

McClellan

How come General McClellan wasn't relieved sooner than he was? He failed to act on numerous occasions when he should of attacked the Rebels. Also many believed him to be a Confederate sympathizer. Why wasn't he replaced sooner?

Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus is the a way for prisoners to seek release from captivity when they have been wrongfully imprisoned. It does not guarantee the prisoner freedom, but is a petition and the first step to being released when wrongfully incarcerated.

Habeous Corpus

I'm a little confused about the significance of Habeous Corpus and why when Licoln passed a law to suspend it it was so contraversial.

jack-o-lantern

what is a jack-o-lantern, the light that watkins saw and was terrified of? I've never heard of this before, is there any explaination for it?

Oct 1-4: Watkins, Lincoln, Battle

Confederate spy ring

It talks about how the Confederates had learned about McDowell's plans from Rose O'Neal Greenhow, who was the head of a Confederate spy ring in Washington. What is exactly was this spy ring and who was in it, and does it last throughout the war?

cotton aside

what do you think was the biggest reason the confederate states didn't get any forein diplomatic acknowledgement from any country in Europe?

Cotton

The South had very few options so they had to try something, that is why they thought if they cut off the British from their cotton the British might be desperate enough for cotton to help. It was kind of backwards thinking, but it seemed for them at the time to be the only way to get the British to help. Needless to say, it did not really work and the help never really came and the North won.Publish Post

Cotton

Why did the South think they could get Britain to help them by threating to cut off cotton shipments?

Sept 24-27: Combat Motivation & the First Year of War

As usual, create a new post or comment on this one if you still can't post.

Please do not comment on posts that are older than this one. There are too many posts for me to check old posts for new comments.

Emancipation Proclamation

I found it very interesting that because of Robert E Lee being appointed as general of the Confederate Army, the out come turned into the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Before Lee was appointed as general, the Confederate Army struggled on the battle field and the Union was winning a majority of the battles. President Lincoln realized that a major factor for the South to be doing so well was because of the help of the slaves. Lincoln at the start of the war was'nt for abolishing slavery but just for keeping it from spreading to other states. Once Lincoln realized how much the slaves were helping the Confederate Army, he then knew that by abolishing slavery completley it would end up helping the Union Army in the long run.

Confederate Strategy

One of the things we've talked about with the slavery debate was that Southerners thought it would die out if not expanded. Today in lecture, Prof. Weber talked about the Confederates' defensive strategy, and how they weren't trying to necessarily expand slavery, just keep it in the territories where it already existed. When was it that this mentality changed among the Southerners? Or was it just a military strategy to try and maintain slave territory?

Missouri

How come Missouri was one of the most fought over states during the war? Was the fighting there really just a continuance of the boarder war with Kansas?

Sept 17-21: War & Watkins

Week 3

I was just wondering about inner family problems when it came to slavery in the south. For example, if the son of a slaveowner was absolutely against slavery do you think that they fought against each other in the Civil War. I have heard about movies where this problem has come up but I wasn't sure if it really happened in the 1860's.

9/12/07

Professor Weber is arguing that the institution of slavery caused the Civil War. In one of our previous discussions someone mentioned states' rights as being the cause of the Civil War. Aren't those two really the same thing? I mean, the ability to have slavery was a right that the Southern states wanted to keep.

week 3

During all this chaos in the south I wonder if any slave owner sat down and thought maybe it would be a good idea to give up their slaves and join the north just because he didn't want an uprise of slaves to harm him or his family.

Post for Week Three

The argument about counterrevolution is very interesting. The idea that during the Revolution they were preserving their rights as apposed to the South at this time overthrowing order. There is a very distinct difference and an unfair anology to use in order to justify the South's Succession

Sept 10 -14: John Brown & Secession

Please create your own post if you can. If you still can't then you can comment on this post (use your comment as a post) or comment on one of this week's other posts.

Thank you to all of you who have signed on and participated. If you haven't signed on and participated yet, remember that it is your responsibility to do so.

Exam ID's

Well, it looks as though the first midterm is just around the corner. Dr. Weber would like each of you to e-mail me 1 to 3 possible ID's. Remember, Abraham Lincoln is not a useable ID. They have to be reasonably useable. If Dr. Weber feels that you were too "easy" on your ID choices, then she will disregard them and choose all the ID's herself. In that scenario, the exam will be harder than you may wish.

You only have to e-mail me the name of the ID, but remember that it should have 2 What's and 1 Why.

Please e-mail them to me by 9pm Sunday.

Isn't crazy how all those on Epps plantation were supposed pick around 200 pounds of cotton a day.

Welcome

Welcome to the blog site for History 412 Section 38279 at the University of Kansas for Fall 2007. We meet regularly on Thursdays at 1pm in Wescoe 4001. Lon Strauss is your discussion leader.

This blog is a more casual environment to foster discussion and your understanding of the course readings and lectures. Your participation here will count toward your overall discussion grade. Please be respectful to each other, but don't be afraid to disagree or play devil's advocate. Have fun with the subject matter.

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