The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers

Chapter I: Period of Authentic Discovery and Exploration, From 1492 to 1607 (2)

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October 5, General Harrison forced General Proctor to retreat into Canada, and October 5 at the battle of the Thames routed the British and their Indian allies. Tecumseh was killed, the territory lost by Hull regained, and Upper Canada was retained to the end of the war.

November 11, the Americans moved on Montreal, but were defeated at Chryslers Field, and retreated.

=1814.=--July 25, Winfield Scott again invaded Canada and gained victories at Chippewa (July 5) and at Lundy’s Lane.

August 24, capture of Washington and burning of the Capitol, the White House, and other buildings.

=1815.=--January 8, a large body of English veterans were landed in Louisiana, and attacked New Orleans; in this battle, which took place before the news of the treaty of peace reached the combatants, Jackson won a decisive victory.

=Principal Naval Battles=

=1812.=--August 19, the _Constitution_ destroys the British _Guerriere_, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

October 18, the American _Wasp_ captures the _Frolic_.

October 25, Captain Decatur in the _United States_ took the _Macedonian_.

December 29, the _Constitution_ captures the _Java_.

=1813.=--February 24, the American _Hornet_ captures the _Peacock_.

June 1, the _Chesapeake_ is captured by the British _Shannon_.

September 10, Commodore Perry with a fleet of nine vessels destroys the British squadron of six vessels on Lake Erie.

=1814.=--September 3, naval attack on Fort McHenry by the British fails.

September 11, Captain Macdonough, on Lake Champlain, completely defeated a British fleet stronger than his own; this checked a serious invasion of the enemy.

=Treaty and Results of the War=

December 24, 1814, a treaty of peace was made at Ghent, the end of the Napoleonic wars having removed the cause for England’s offensive policy at sea.

The provisions included:

(1) A return of captured territory.

(2) Nothing was said about impressment.

(3) No compensation was secured by the Americans for ships captured previous to 1812.

The results of the war were:

(1) An increase of debt.

(2) An outburst of national patriotism.

(3) The removal of America from participation in European politics.

(4) The development of manufacturing.

(5) The establishment of the protective tariff policy.

=With the Cessation of Hostilities Another Epoch in Our History Begins.=--From the day when Washington proclaimed neutrality in 1793, to the day when the people celebrated, with bonfires and with fireworks, and with public dinners, the return of peace, in 1815, the political and industrial history of the United States is deeply affected by the political history of Europe. It was questions of foreign policy, not of domestic policy, that divided the two parties, that took up the time of Congress, that raised up and pulled down politicians. But after 1815 foreign affairs sank into insignificance, and for the next thirty years the history of the United States is the history of political and economic development of the country to the east of the Mississippi River.

=Fall of the Federalists, or Pro-British Party.=--The opposition which the Federalists made to the war completed their ruin. In 1816 for the last time they put forward a presidential candidate, carried three states out of nineteen, and expired in the effort. During the eight years of Monroe’s administration (1817-1825) but one great and harmonious party ruled the political destinies of the country. This remarkable period has come down to us in history as the “era of good feelings.” It was indeed such an era, and so good were the feelings that in 1820 when Monroe was re-elected no competitor was named to run against him. Every state, every electoral vote save one was his. Even that one was his. But the elector who controlled it threw it away on John Quincy Adams lest Monroe should have the unanimous vote of the presidential electors, an honor which has been bestowed on no man save Washington.

=Rise of the Protective Tariff Policy.=--In the midst of this harmony, however, events were fast ripening for a great schism. Under the protection offered by the commercial restrictions which began with the embargo and ended with the peace, manufactures had sprung up and flourished. If they were to continue to flourish they must continue to be protected, and the question of free trade and protection rose for the first time into really national importance.

The rush of population into the West led to the admission of Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), and Missouri (1820) into the Union, and brought up for serious discussion the uses to be made of public lands lying within them.

The steamboat, which had been adopted far and wide, had produced a demand for some improved means of communication by land to join the greater water highways of the country and opened the era of internal improvements.

The application of Missouri for admission into the Union brought up the question of the admission of slavery to the west of the Mississippi. A series of decisions of the Supreme Court, setting aside acts of the state legislatures, gave new prominence to the question of state rights.

=A Decade of Great Political Contests.=--The Missouri question was settled by the famous Compromise of 1820 (the first great political compromise), which drew the line thirty-six degrees thirty minutes from the Mississippi to the hundredth meridian, and pledged all to the north of it, save Missouri, to freedom. But the others were not to be settled by compromise, and in the campaign of 1824 the once harmonious Republican party was rent in pieces. Each of the four quarters of the Republic put a candidate in the field and “the scrub-race for the presidency” began.

The new manufacturing interests of the East put forward John Quincy Adams. The West, demanding internal improvements at public expense, had for its candidate Henry Clay. William H. Crawford of Georgia (nominated by a caucus of Congressmen) represented the old Republican party of the South. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee stood for the new Democracy, for the people, with all their hatred of monopolies and class control, their prejudices, their half formed notions, their violent outbursts of feeling.

Behind none of them was there an organized party. But taking the name of “Adams men” and “Clay men,” “Crawford men” and “Jackson men,” the friends of each entered the campaign and lost it. No candidate secured a majority of the electoral college, and the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams.

=The Triumph of Democracy and Industrial Expansion.=--Under the administration of Adams (1825-1829) the men who wished for protection and the men who wished for internal improvements at government expense united, took the name first of National Republicans, and then of Whigs, and, led on by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, carried through the high protection tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The friends of Jackson and Crawford took the name of Democrats, won the election of 1829, and during twelve years governed the country.

In the course of these years the population of the United States rose to seventeen million, and the number of states to twenty-six. Steam navigation began on the ocean; two thousand miles of railroad were built in the land; new inventions came into use; and the social and industrial life of the people was completely revolutionized. The national debt was paid; a surplus accumulated in the Treasury; the sale of public lands rose from three million dollars in 1831 to twenty-five million dollars in 1836; and the rage for internal improvements burned more fiercely than ever. A great financial panic spread over the country; the charter of the National Bank expired, a hundred “wild-cat banks” sprang up to take its place, and the question of the abolition of slavery became troublesome.

=Early Troubles in Our System of Public Finance.=--On the great questions which grew out of this condition of affairs the position of the two parties was well defined. The Democrats demanded a strict construction of the Constitution; no internal improvements at public expense; a surrender of the public lands to the state in which they lay; no tariff for protection; no National Bank; no agitation of the question of the abolition of slavery; the establishment of subtreasuries for the safe keeping of the public funds, and the distribution of the surplus revenue. The Whigs demanded a recharter of the National Bank; a tariff for protection; the expenditure of the surplus on internal improvements; the distribution of the money derived from the sale of public lands; a limitation of the veto power of the President; and no removals from office for political reasons.

The Democrats, true to their principles, and having the power, carried them out. They destroyed the Bank; they defeated bill after bill for the construction of roads and canals; they distributed thirty-eight million dollars of the surplus revenue among the states, and by the cartage of immense sums of money from the East to the far distant West, hastened that inevitable financial crisis known as the “panic of 1837.”

Andrew Jackson had just been succeeded in the presidency by Martin Van Buren (1837-1841) and on him the storm burst in all its fury. But he stood it bravely, held to a strict construction of the Constitution, insisted that the panic would right itself without interference by the Government, and stoutly refused to meddle. Since the refusal of Congress to recharter the Bank of the United States, whose charter expired in 1836, the revenue of the Government had been deposited in certain “pet banks” designated by the Secretary of the Treasury. Every one of them failed in the panic of 1837. Van Buren therefore recommended “the divorce of Bank and State,” and after a struggle of three years his friends carried the “subtreasury” scheme in 1840. This law cast off all connection between the state banks and the Government, put the collectors of the revenue under heavy bonds to keep the money safely till called for by the Secretary of the Treasury, and limited payments to or by the United States to specie.

=National Conventions and Rise of Slavery Issue.=--The year 1840 was presidential year, and is memorable for the introduction of new political methods; for the rise of a new and vigorous party; and for the appearance of a new political issue. The new machinery consisted in the permanent introduction of the national convention for the nomination of a president, now used by the Democrats for the second time, and by the Whigs for the first; in the promulgation of a party platform by the convention, now used by the Democrats for the first time; and in the use of mass meetings, processions, songs, and all the paraphernalia of a modern campaign by the Whigs.

The new party was the Liberty Party, and the new issue the “absolute and unqualified divorce of the general Government from slavery, and the restoration of equality of rights among men.” The principles of that party were: slavery is against natural right, is strictly local, is a state institution, and derives no support from the authority of Congress, which has no power to set up or continue slavery anywhere; every treaty, every act, establishing, favoring, or continuing slavery in the District of Columbia, in the territories, on the high seas, is, therefore, unconstitutional.

=The Short-lived Era of the Whigs.=--The candidate of this party was James Gillespie Birney. The Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren. The Whigs put forward William Henry Harrison and elected him. Harrison died one month after his inauguration, and John Tyler, the Vice-President and a Democrat of the Calhoun wing, became President.

The Whig policy as sketched by Clay was the repeal of the Subtreasury Act; the charter of a National Bank; tariff for protection; and the distribution of the sales of public lands. To the repeal of the Subtreasury Act Tyler gladly assented. To the establishment of a bank even when called “Fiscal Corporation,” he would not assent, and, having twice vetoed such bills, was read out of the party by a formal manifesto issued by Whig congressmen.

It mattered little, however, for the question of the hour was not the bank, nor the tariff, nor the distribution of the sales of lands, but the annexation of the republic Texas. Joined to the demand for the reoccupation of Oregon, it became the chief plank in the Democratic platform of 1844. The Whig platform said not a word on the subject, and the Liberty Party, turning with loathing from the cowardice of Clay, voted again for Birney, gave the State of New York to the Democrats, and with it the presidency.

=The Annexation of Texas, and Wilmot Proviso.=--Accepting the result of the election as “instruction from the people,” Congress passed the needed act and Tyler in the last hours of his administration declared Texas annexed.

The boundary of the new state was ill-defined. Texas claimed to the Rio Grande. Mexico would probably have acknowledged the Nueces River. The United States attempted to enforce the claim of Texas, sent troops to the Rio Grande, and so brought on the Mexican war.

At the close of the Mexican war the boundary of the United States was carried south from forty-two degrees to the Gila River, and what is now California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and more than half of Wyoming and Colorado were added to the public domain. While the war was still raging, Polk, who had succeeded Tyler, asked for two million dollars to aid him in negotiating peace. Well knowing that the money was to be used to buy land from Mexico, David Wilmot moved in the House of Representatives that from all territory bought with the money slavery should be excluded. This was the famous Wilmot proviso. It failed of adoption and the territory was acquired in 1848, with its character as to slavery or freedom wholly undetermined.

=The Preliminary Struggle over the Slave Problem.=--And now the old parties began to break up. Democrats who believed in the Wilmot proviso, and Whigs who detested the annexation of Texas, the war with Mexico, and the extension of slavery went over in a body to the Liberty Party, formed with it the Freesoil Party, nominated Martin Van Buren, and gave him three hundred thousand votes. In their platform they declared that Congress had no more power to make a slave than to make a king; that they accepted the issue thrust on them by the South; that to the demand for more slave states and more slave territories they answered, no more slave states, no more slave territories; and that on their banner was inscribed “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.” As the defection of Whigs to the Liberty Party in 1844 gave New York state to the Democrats and elected Polk, so the defection of Democrats to the Free Soilers in 1848 gave New York to the Whigs and elected Taylor. As Harrison, the first Whig president, died one month after taking office, so Taylor, the second Whig president, died suddenly when a little over one year in office, just as the great Whig compromise of 1850 was closing. The imperative need of civil government in the new territory, the discovery of gold in California, the rush of men from all parts of the earth to the Pacific Coast forced Congress to establish organized territories. The question was: shall they be opened or closed to slavery? But, as the soil had been free when acquired from Mexico, the question really was: shall the United States establish slavery?

THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846-1848

Causes of the War

(1) Long-standing irritation over claims of American citizens upon Mexico, which the latter refused to pay.

(2) The annexation by the United States of Texas, which Mexico claimed as still a part of her territory.

(3) Disputes as to whether the Rio Grande or Nueces River was the boundary of Texas.

Results of the War

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, closed the war. Its chief provisions were:

(1) The Rio Grande was made the boundary between Texas and Mexico.

(2) California and New Mexico were ceded to the United States.

(3) The United States paid Mexico $15,000,000, and assumed $3,500,000 due American citizens.

The slavery question was intensified in American politics.

=PRINCIPAL BATTLES=

_NOTE: The Americans were victorious in every conflict._

The only naval engagements of importance during the war with Mexico
were the bombardment of Vera Cruz, by Commodore Conner, which lasted
four days, and the bombardment of Monterey, Commodore Sloat, both
cities being forced to surrender.

The Democrats, holding that slaves were property, claimed the right to take them into any territory, and asserting the principle of “squatter sovereignty,” claimed the right of the people living in any territory to settle for themselves whether it should be slave or free. The Free Soilers demanded that the soil having been free when a part of Mexico, should be free as a part of the United States. Between these two Clay now stepped in to act as pacificator. Taking up the grievances of each side, he framed and carried through the measure known as the Compromise of 1850, the third great political compromise in our history. The fruit of this was the admission of California as a free state; the passage of a more stringent law for the recovery of fugitive slaves; the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; and the organization of Utah and New Mexico on the basis of “squatter sovereignty.”

This done, senators and representatives of all parties joined in a manifesto declaring that the issues resting on slavery were dead issues, and that they would neither vote for, nor work for any man who thought otherwise. But thousands did think otherwise. The action of Clay pleased none. Anti-slavery men deserted him in the North; pro-slavery men deserted him in the South; and in 1852 the Whig party carried but four states out of thirty-one and perished. Even its two great leaders, Clay and Webster, were, by that time, in their graves.

Excited by such success, the Democrats, led on by Stephen A. Douglas, now broke through the compromise of 1820 and in 1854 applied “squatter sovereignty” to the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Against this violation state legislatures, the people, the pulpit, and the press protested vigorously, for every acre of Kansas and Nebraska lay to the north of 36° 30′ and was solemnly pledged to freedom. But the Democratic leaders would not listen and drove from their ranks another detachment of voters. The effect was soon manifest. The little parties began to unite and when, in 1856, the time came to elect another president, the Republican Party of to-day was fully organized and ready. Once more and for the last time for twenty-eight years the Democrats won.

=Buchanan’s Administration the Prelude to the Civil War.=--The administration of James Buchanan (1857-1861) marks an epoch. The question before the country was that of the extension of slavery into the new territories. Hardly had he been inaugurated when the Supreme Court handed down a decision on the case of Dred Scott, which denied the right of Congress to legislate on slavery, set aside the compromises of 1820 and 1850 as unconstitutional, and opened all the territories to slavery.

=Rise of the Republican Party and Election of Lincoln.=--From that moment the Whig and Democratic parties began to break up rapidly till, when 1860 came, four parties and four presidential candidates were in the field. The Democratic party, having finally split at the national convention for nominating a president and vice-president, the southern wing put forward Breckenridge and Lane and demanded that Congress should protect slavery in the territories. The northern wing nominated Stephen A. Douglas and declared for squatter sovereignty and the compromise of 1850. A third party, taking the name of “Constitutional Union,” declared for the Constitution and the Union at any price and no agitation of slavery, nominated Bell and Everett, and drew the support of the old Whigs of the Clay and Webster school. The Republicans, declaring that Congress should prohibit slavery in the territories, nominated Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin and won the election.

=Secession, and the Formation of the Confederacy.=--The State of South Carolina immediately seceded and before the end of February, 1861, was followed by Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Taking the name of the Confederate States of America, they formed first a temporary and then a permanent government, elected Jefferson Davis president, raised an army, and besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The attempt to relieve the fort brought on the bombardment and surrender (April 19, 1861). The Confederate States were now joined by Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Richmond was made the capital, and the Civil war opened.

=Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy.=--The line of separation between the states then became the Potomac River, the Ohio River, and a line across southern Missouri and Indian Territory to New Mexico. Along this line the troops of the Union were drawn up in many places under many commanders. Yet there were in the main but three great armies. That of the East or Potomac under General McClellan, that of the Center or the Ohio under General Buell, that of the West or Missouri under General Halleck. In command of all as Lieutenant-General was Winfield Scott. Confronting them were the troops of the Confederacy, drawn up in three corresponding armies: that of North Virginia under Johnston and Lee, that of the Cumberland under Albert Sidney Johnston, and that of the trans-Mississippi under McCulloch and Price.

Yielding to the demand of the North for the capture of Richmond before the Confederate Congress could meet there (July 20, 1861), McDowell went forth with thirty-eight thousand three-months volunteers to the ever memorable field of Bull Run.

=The Union Successes in the Southwest.=--But the serious campaigning did not begin until January, 1862. Then the whole line west of the Alleghanies (made up of the armies of Ohio and Missouri), turning on Pittsburgh as a center, swept southward, captured Forts Henry and Donelson, defeated the Confederates at Shiloh, captured Corinth, took Island Number 10, and drove them from Fort Pillow. Meantime Farragut entered the Mississippi from the Gulf, passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip, captured New Orleans, and sent Commodore Davis up the river to take Memphis. Memphis fell June 6, 1862, and, save for Vicksburg, the Mississippi was open for navigation. When the year closed the Confederates had been driven to the east into the mountains of Tennessee, where, December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863, was fought the desperate and bloody battle of Murfreesboro. The Union troops won, and the Confederate army fell back to Chattanooga.

=The Peninsular Campaign Favors Confederate Arms.=--With the Army of the Potomac meantime all had gone ill. The affair at Bull Run in July, 1861, had been followed by the transfer of the army to McClellan. But McClellan wasted time, wore out the patience of the North, and forced Lincoln to issue General Order Number One for the forward movement of all armies on February 22, 1862. Obedient to this McClellan began his Peninsular Campaign against Richmond, was out-generaled by Lee, and in the second battle of Bull Run suffered so crushing a defeat that Lee ventured to cross the Potomac and enter Maryland, and encountered McClellan, on the field of Antietam. In that battle Lee was beaten and fled across the Potomac. But McClellan failed to follow up the victory and was removed, the command of the Army of the Potomac passing to Burnside. Burnside led it across the Potomac and the Rappahannock and on December 13, 1862, lost the battle of Fredericksburg. For this he was replaced by Hooker, who, May 1-4, 1863, fought and lost the battle of Chancellorsville.

=The Turning Point of the War.=--Lee now again took the offensive, crossed the Potomac, entered Pennsylvania, and at Gettysburg met the Army of the Potomac under Meade. On that field was fought the decisive battle of the war. Then (July 1-4, 1863) the backbone of the Confederacy was broken, and the two armies returned to their old positions in Virginia.

While Meade was beating Lee at Gettysburg, Grant captured Vicksburg, July 1-3, 1863. For this he was sent to command the army of Rosecrans, then besieged by Bragg at Chattanooga. Again success attended him, and in November he stormed Lookout Mountain, defeated Bragg in the famous “Battle above the Clouds,” and drove him in disorder through the mountains. For these signal victories he was raised to the rank of Lieutenant General in 1864, and placed in command of the armies of the United States.

That year is memorable for the great march of Sherman to the east from Chattanooga to the sea, for the victories of Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, for the Wilderness Campaign of Grant, the shutting up of Lee in Richmond, and by the re-election of Lincoln. His competitor was General McClellan, whom the northern Democrats put forward on the platform that the war was a failure, and that peace should be made with the South. In the spring of 1865 came the retreat of Lee from Richmond, and, on April 9, his surrender at Appomattox Court House.

=THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865=

=CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES=

Naval engagements are printed in _italics_; names of victorious commanders in =bold-face= type.

=LAND AND SEA ENGAGEMENTS=

===================+==================+=================================
=Name, Location | =Commanders= | =Casualties=
and Date | +----------------+----------------
of Battle= | | =Union= | =Confederate=
| +--------+-------+--------+-------
| |=Killed=|=Wound-|=Killed=|=Wound-
| | | ed= | | ed=
-------------------+------------------+--------+-------+--------+-------
=1861= | | | | |
| | | | |
=Bombardment of |=Gen. Beauregard= | No casualties on either side
Fort Sumter= (April|vs. Maj. Anderson.| | | |
13-14) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Bull Run=, |=Gen. Beauregard= | 481| 1,011| 362| 1,390
Virginia (July 21) |and =Gen. | | | |
|Johnston= vs. Gen.| | | |
|McDowell. | | | |
| | | | |
=Wilson Creek=, |=Gen. Price= vs. | 223| 721| 331| 764
Missouri (August |Gen. Lyon. | | | |
10) | | | | |
| | | | |
=1862= | | | | |
| | | | |
=Pea Ridge=, |=Gen. Curtis= and | 203| 972| 1,040| 3,638
Arkansas (March 6- |=Gen. Franz Sigel=| | | |
8) |vs. Gen. Van Dorn.| | | |
| | | | |
_Monitor and Merri-|=Lt. J. L. Worden=| 0| 1| 0| 2
mac_, Hampton |vs. Capt. Franklin| | | |
Roads, Virginia |Buchanan. | | | |
(March 9) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Fort Donelson=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 560| 746| 466| 1,534
Tennessee (February|Gen. Floyd, Gen. | | | |
15) |Pillow and Gen. | | | |
|Buckner. | | | |
| | | | |
=Shiloh, or Pitts- |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 1,735| 7,882| 1,128| 8,012
burg Landing=, |Gen. Johnston and | | | |
Tennessee (April 6-|Gen. Beauregard. | | | |
7) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Drury’s Bluff=, |=Gen. Beauregard= | 422| 2,380| 514| 1,086
Virginia (May 15) |vs. Gen. Butler. | | | |
| | | | |
=Seven Pines, or |=Gen. Johnston= | 891| 3,627| 1,987| 2,233
Fair Oaks=, |vs. Gen. | | | |
Virginia (May 31) |McClellan. | | | |
| | | | |
=Gaines Mill=, |=Gen. A. Elzey= | 3,000| 4,500| 2,000| 4,000
Virginia (June 27) |vs. Gen. F. J. | | | |
|Porter. | | | |
| | | | |
=Malvern Hill=, |=Gen. McClellan= | 2,860| 3,500| 3,023| 4,077
Virginia (July 1) |vs. Gen. Lee. | | | |
| | | | |
=Cedar Mountain=, |=Gen. Jackson= vs.| 450| 660| 223| 1,060
Virginia (August 8-|Gen. Banks. | | | |
9) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Bull Run No. 2, or|=Gen. Lee= and | 798| 4,023| 1,090| 6,154
Manassas=, Virginia|=Gen. Jackson= vs.| | | |
(August 29-30) |Gen. Pope. | | | |
| | | | |
=Antietam=, Mary- |=Gen. McClellan= | 2,010| 9,416| 1,842| 9,399
land (September 16-|vs. Gen. Lee. | | | |
17) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Corinth=, Missis- |=Gen. Rosecrans= | 315| 1,812| 1,423| 5,692
sippi (October 3-4)|vs. Gen. Van Dorn.| | | |
| | | | |
=Perrysville=, |=Gen. Buell= vs. | 916| 2,943| 980| 1,520
Kentucky (October |Gen. Bragg. | | | |
8) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Fredericksburg=, |=Gen. Lee= vs. | 1,152| 9,101| 505| 4,061
Virginia (December |Gen. A. E. | | | |
11-13) |Burnside. | | | |
| | | | |
=Murfreesboro, or |=Gen. Rosecrans= | 1,533| 7,245| 1,384| 6,892
Stone River=, |vs. Gen. Bragg. | | | |
Tennessee (December| | | | |
30, 1862, to | | | | |
January 2, 1863) | | | | |
| | | | |
=1863= | | | | |
| | | | |
=Chancellorsville=,|=Gen. Lee= and | 1,512| 9,518| 1,718| 10,563
Virginia (April 30 |=Gen. Jackson= vs.| | | |
to May 4) |Gen. Hooker. | | | |
| | | | |
=Vicksburg=, Mis- |=Gen. Pemberton= | 1,848| 2,378| 1,420| 2,151
sissippi (May 19- |vs. Gen. Grant. | | | |
25) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Gettysburg=, Penn-|=Gen. George G. | 2,834| 13,709| 4,000| 14,000
sylvania (July 1-3)|Meade= vs. Gen. | | | |
|Lee. | | | |
| | | | |
=Chickamauga=, |=Gen. Bragg= vs. | 1,644| 9,262| 6,000| 10,000
Georgia (September |Gen. Rosecrans. | | | |
18-20) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Chattanooga, in- |=Gen. Grant=, | 757| 4,529| 850| 2,150
cluding Orchard |=Gen. Sherman= and| | | |
Knob, Lookout Moun-|=Gen. Hooker= vs. | | | |
tain and Missionary|Gen. Bragg. | | | |
Ridge=, Tennessee | | | | |
(November 23-25) | | | | |
| | | | |
=1864= | | | | |
| | | | |
=Wilderness=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 2,309| 12,188| 1,956| 10,444
Virginia (May 5-7) |Gen. Lee. | | | |
| | | | |
=Spottsylvania=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 3,288| 19,278| 3,342| 20,187
Virginia (May 8-11)|Gen. Lee. | | | |
| | | | |
=Spottsylvania=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 2,031| 7,956| 1,752| 7,248
Virginia (May 18) |Gen. Lee. | | | |
| | | | |
=Bermuda Hundreds=,|=Gen. Butler=, vs.| 201| 998| 864| 2,136
Virginia (May 26- |Gen. D. H. Hill. | | | |
30) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Cold Harbor=, |=Gen. Lee= vs. | 1,905| 10,570| 364| 1,336
Virginia (June 2-3)|Gen. Grant. | | | |
| | | | |
=Petersburg=, |=Gen. Lee= vs. | 1,298| 7,474| 984| 6,721
Virginia (June 15- |Gen. Smith, Gen. | | | |
19) |Hancock and Gen. | | | |
|Burnside. | | | |
| | | | |
=Petersburg=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 112| 506| 801| 1,417
Virginia (June 20- |Gen. Lee. | | | |
30) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Peach Tree Creek=,|=Gen. Thomas= vs. | 301| 1,411| 880| 3,916
Georgia (July 20) |Gen. Hood. | | | |
| | | | |
=Atlanta=, Georgia,|=Gen. Logan= vs. | 499| 2,142| 1,162| 7,337
=Hood’s First |Gen. Hood. | | | |
Sortie= (July 22) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Petersburg=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 419| 2,076| 799| 4,023
Virginia (from July|Gen. Lee. | | | |
1, exclusive of | | | | |
losses at the | | | | |
Crater and Deep | | | | |
Bottom) (July 31) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Petersburg=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 87| 484| 101| 605
Virginia (August 1-|Gen. Lee. | | | |
31) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Opequan=, Virginia|=Gen. Sheridan= | 653| 3,719| 1,632| 3,868
(September 19) |vs. Gen. Early. | | | |
| | | | |
=Cedar Creek=, |=Gen. Sheridan= | 588| 3,516| 961| 3,239
Virginia (October |vs. Gen. Early. | | | |
19) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Fair Oaks=, |=Gen. McClellan= | 120| 783| 150| 301
Virginia (October |vs. Gen. Johnston.| | | |
27-28) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Petersburg=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 170| 822| 240| 761
Virginia (Sept. 1 |Gen. Lee. | | | |
to Oct. 30) | | | | |
| | | | |
=Franklin=, Tennes-|=Gen. Hood= vs. | 189| 1,033| 1,141| 5,113
see (November 30) |Gen. Schofield. | | | |
| | | | |
=Nashville=, Ten- |=Gen. Thomas= vs. | 399| 1,741| 584| 3,021
nessee (December |Gen. Hood. | | | |
15-16) | | | | |
| | | | |
=1865= | | | | |
| | | | |
=Petersburg=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 298| 2,565| 341| 3,092
Virginia (April 2) |Gen. Lee. | | | |
| | | | |
=Appomattox=, |=Gen. Grant= vs. | 203| 297| 189| 386
Virginia (April 9) |Gen. Lee. | | | |
-------------------+------------------+--------+-------+--------+-------

=Lincoln Assassinated, and Beginning of Reconstruction.=--On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson became president. With the succession of Johnson the era of reconstruction, political and social, begins. The outcome of political reconstruction was the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and a long list of acts to protect and assist the freedmen of the South. The outcome of social reconstruction was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the passage and use of the Force Act, and the dreadful condition of affairs which ruined the South for a decade.

In the North the effect of such measures was to split the Republican party and put seven presidential candidates in the field in 1872. One represented the Temperance party; another the Labor party, denouncing Chinese labor and the non-taxation of Government land; a third was the Liberal Republican, demanding union, amnesty, and civil rights, accusing Grant of packing the Supreme Court in the interests of corporations, and calling for a repeal of the Ku Klux laws. The Liberal Republicans having chosen Horace Greeley as their candidate, the Democrats accepted and indorsed him. But he pleased neither party, and the discontented Liberals and the discontented Democrats each chose a candidate of their own. The Republicans nominated Grant and elected him.

=Election of Hayes Decided by an Electoral Commission.=--His second term (1873-1877) was the nadir of our politics, both state and national, and ended with the disputed election and the rise of the Independent or “Greenback party,” demanding the repeal of the act for the resumption of specie payments and the issue of the United States “greenback” notes, convertible into bonds, as the currency of the country. Double returns and doubtful returns from the Southern states put the votes of thirteen electors in dispute. As the House was Democratic and the Senate Republican, the joint rule under which the electoral votes had been counted since 1865 could not be adopted. A compromise was necessary, and on January 29, 1877, the Electoral Commission of five Senators, five Representatives, and five judges of the Supreme Court was created to decide on the doubtful returns. Of the fifteen, eight were Republicans and seven Democrats, and by a strict party vote the thirteen electoral votes were given to the Republicans and Rutherford B. Hayes declared elected.

=Resumption of Specie Payments by the Government.=--The memorable events of his term (1877-1881) were the resumption of specie payments on January 1, 1879; the passage of the Bland Silver Bill, restoring the silver dollar to the list of coins, making it legal tender, and providing for the coinage of not less than two million nor more than four million each month; and the rapid growth of the National or Greenback Labor party. Hayes was followed in 1881 by James A. Garfield, whose contest with the Senators from New York over the distribution of patronage led to his assassination by the hand of a crazy applicant for office. Chester A. Arthur then became President, was followed in 1885 by Grover Cleveland, who was succeeded in 1889 by Benjamin Harrison, who was in turn succeeded in 1893 by Grover Cleveland.

The presidential campaign of 1896 was one of the most exciting and important that has ever taken place. It was a contest respecting principles, and party platforms never received more attention. The amount of financial and political literature distributed and read was enormous, and political speeches, almost without number, were delivered. The cooperation of very many gold standard Democrats greatly increased the Republican strength and McKinley and Hobart were elected by a large majority of the electoral votes and by a plurality of over six hundred thousand of the popular vote.

=McKinley and the Spanish-American War.=--The administration of President McKinley was notable in many respects, and marked a new era in the foreign policy of the United States. Chief of the events was the Spanish-American war, which was precipitated in 1898, largely through the cruel treatment of the Cuban people by the mother country, Spain. Public opinion in the United States had been much divided in regard to the Cuban difficulties, but the division was in no sense sectional and a majority believed that war was not only justifiable but inevitable.

On February 15, 1898, the United States battleship _Maine_ was destroyed in Havana harbor, and many believed this to have been the work of the Spaniards. Thereupon a congress was held, and a resolution passed demanding the withdrawal of Spain from Cuba. But before the message could be delivered, the American minister in Madrid received his passports and the Spanish government declared war. On April 22, Rear-Admiral Sampson began the blockade of Havana and the northern coast of Cuba with his North Atlantic squadron.

Meanwhile Dewey, who had been stationed at Hong-Kong with the American squadron, was ordered to begin operations, and sailed to Manila Bay in the Philippines. He entered Manila Bay early Sunday morning, May 1, 1898. The Spanish fleet lying in the harbor was protected by the guns of the batteries at Cavité, a few miles from Manila.

The Spaniards knew that he had left Hong-Kong, but he came sooner than he was expected and caught them unawares. He had planned to do this so that he might choose his own time for attack. As soon as he reached Manila Bay he opened upon the Spanish fleet a terrible fire of shot and shell. His fire was answered vigorously from the war vessels and the shore batteries, but the guns of the enemy were not well aimed and their shot did little damage. After a sharp fight of about two hours Dewey withdrew his fleet, in order, it is said, to give his men time for breakfast, but more likely to see how his ammunition was holding out.

After three hours he returned to the attack. By this time most of the Spanish vessels were in flames. An hour later the Spanish batteries “were silenced and the ships sunk or burned and deserted.” In the conflict the Spaniards lost every vessel and hundreds of men were killed, wounded, and missing. No American was killed and but seven wounded; while no American vessel was seriously damaged.

The battle of Manila is one of the great naval actions of history; never before had so much been won with so little loss of life and ships. Congress made Dewey a Rear Admiral, gave him a vote of thanks, and voted him a sword. Soon after the war he was made Admiral, the highest rank in the navy.

About the same time the Spanish Admiral, Cervera, had left the Cape Verde Islands en route for Santiago, where he arrived on May 19. Strict watch was kept by Sampson to prevent the escape of the enemy, and the _Merrimac_ was sunk at night to block the Spanish squadron in the harbor, but the ship drifted too far to prevent Cervera’s exit. This difficult feat was intrusted to Ensign Richmond P. Hobson and six men. They performed their dangerous task, notwithstanding a severe fire from the Spanish land batteries. They were captured, but Admiral Cervera was so moved by their bravery that he sent word to the Americans that they were safe and would be well treated.

=SUMMARY OF SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, 1898=

=Causes= =Treaty and Results=

_Underlying:_ The Treaty of Paris, December 10,
1898, stipulated as follows:
Sympathy for the oppressed Cubans.
The “reconcentrados,” people driven Spain gives up title to Cuba.
into the towns by Weyler, died by
thousands, and Americans who aided Spain cedes Porto Rico, Guam and
them are arrested and their the Philippines to the United
property destroyed. States.

The proximity of Cuba and its geo- The United States gives Spain
graphical position make its situa- $20,000,000.
tion of great importance to the
United States. The direct cost of the war to the
United States is about
Destruction of American property. $130,000,000.

Publication of a letter of the Soldiers killed, 430. A large
Spanish Minister, in which he number die of disease.
speaks slightingly of President
McKinley. The United States becomes the
guardian of Cuba.
_Immediate:_
An increase in our navy and stand-
The blowing up of the battleship ing army.
_Maine_.
The war in the Philippines.

The question of territorial expan-
sion in our politics.

=LAND AND SEA ENGAGEMENTS=

The total number of vessels captured from Spain during the war of 1898 was 58.

On June 21, Major-General Shafter arrived off Santiago and successfully landed his troops at Baiquiri, and three days later the Spaniards were driven back from Sevilla. General Shafter then began his attack on Santiago, whither the Spaniards had retreated. Operations began on July 1. The severest fighting took place at San Juan Hill and El Caney, a garrisoned post, where a body of five hundred Spaniards offered a desperate resistance for some hours. By sundown the hills on which the enemy were posted, including San Juan, were occupied by the Americans. The attacking force consisted of regular infantry and dismounted cavalry, with an irregular corps of mounted men known as the Rough Riders. The latter, under the command of Colonels Leonard Wood and Roosevelt, took a prominent part in the fight. On July 4 the city was summoned to surrender, but without success. In the meanwhile Admiral Cervera’s squadron had been ordered to sea by the Madrid government. He accordingly left Santiago harbor the same day at nine a. m. with the object of effecting its escape by keeping close to the western shore. The American fleet, temporarily under Schley’s command, at once engaged the Spaniards, and by two o’clock succeeded in burning, beaching, or capturing all the enemy’s vessels. After this Santiago surrendered, July 17, and Spain sued for peace. It was arranged that Spain should evacuate Cuba, should cede Porto Rico to the United States, as well as her islands in the Antilles, and one of the Ladrones, and should leave the United States in the possession of Manila. In 1899 a treaty was signed, and Spain evacuated Cuba, the Philippines, and other islands for an indemnity of twenty million dollars.

=Insurrection in the Philippine Islands.=--A day or two after the final vote on the treaty a body of Philippines under Amilio Aguinaldo, a native of great ability, attacked the American defenses at Manila. The next day the Americans returned the attack, and for nearly a year there was a resistance to the American rule on the part of the tribes which Aguinaldo represented. These tribes belonged to the Tagals, a Malay race. They are in a minority as regards the whole population, but are among the most intelligent. By the close of the year 1899 the organized resistance on the part of the Tagals appeared to be nearly ended, and the army of Aguinaldo reduced to marauders and bandits, and the insurrection against the authority and sovereignty of the United States was ended in July, 1902, after the capture and surrender of the insurgent leader.

=Assassination of McKinley and Succession of Roosevelt.=--Shortly after his re-election to a second term, on September 6, 1901, the country was shocked by the assassination of President McKinley by an anarchist named Czolgosz. This was the third time in the history of the country that the chief executive was stricken down by the hand of an assassin. The Vice-President, Theodore Roosevelt, then succeeded to the presidency and continued, in all essential details, the policy of his lamented predecessor.

Under President Roosevelt, a champion of administrative reform and the regulation of commercial trusts, the status of Cuba was settled; progress was made in the Philippines; the navy was very greatly strengthened; the Isthmian Canal question was solved in favor of the Panama route, and the Republic of Panama recognized; and the President reasserted with emphasis the Monroe Doctrine as the key to foreign policy. The Alaska boundary was fixed by a mixed commission. The United States took part with the European powers in armed intervention at Peking in 1899; and an arbitration treaty with Great Britain and other countries was arranged for.

In a second term (1905-1909) President Roosevelt maintained his popularity by the same policy. In 1906 an insurrection broke out in Cuba, and in October American troops again took possession of the island. When confidence had been restored the United States authorities withdrew.

=President Taft and the Rise of the Progressives.=--In 1908 the Republican, Taft, defeated Bryan, the Democratic candidate. Mr. Roosevelt had refused to be a candidate again and was instrumental in securing Mr. Taft’s nomination. President Taft was elected on a Rooseveltian programme of anti-trust legislation and promises of a reduced tariff. In 1910-1911 attempts were made at a Reciprocity of Duties Treaty with Canada, so as to establish freer trade between the two countries. The Canadian general election of 1911 gave an emphatic negative to the proposal.

During the latter part of 1912 a renewed insurrection in Mexico brought about strained diplomatic relations with that country.

In Ohio, Minnesota, and Indiana, however, Democratic governors were elected, and these results pointed to a political reaction in the West, largely owing to supposed inequities in the tariff and to the dominance of trusts.

In 1910 an “insurgent” or progressive section, to which Mr. Roosevelt adhered, formed itself within the Republican party; and the state elections in November resulted in a Democratic triumph without a parallel since that of the year 1890.

=Democrats Restored to Power under Leadership of Woodrow Wilson.=--In 1913 Woodrow Wilson swept the country on a Democratic programme, having a clear majority over the two Republican ex-presidents (Roosevelt and Taft) opposed to him. His election was fought chiefly on the tariff question, his main argument being that some industries were receiving unfair protection at the expense of others.

Shortly after the inauguration of President Wilson (May 31, 1913), the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, providing for the direct election of Senators by the people of the states, instead of by their respective legislatures, became effective. On October 3, of the same year, the Underwood Tariff Act became a law. Following this, on December 23, the Currency and Banking Bill, providing regional reserve banks throughout the country, was signed.

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The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of AnswersChapter I: Period of Authentic Discovery and Exploration, From 1492 to 1607 (2)

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