Reconstruction During the Civil War

The Civil War, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, brought to America "a new birth of freedom." And during the war began the nation's efforts to come to terms with the destruction of slavery and to define the meaning of freedom.

By the war's end it was already clear that Reconstruction would bring far-reaching changes in Southern society, and a redefinition of the place of blacks in American life.

The Civil War did not begin as a total war, but it soon became one.

The resulting casualties dwarfed anything in the American experience. Some 650,000 men died in the war, including 260,000 Confederates -- over one-fifth of the South's adult white male population.

At the war's outset, the Lincoln administration insisted that restoring the Union was its only purpose. But as slaves by the thousands abandoned the plantations and headed for Union lines, and military victory eluded the North, the president made the destruction of slavery a war aim -- a decision announced in the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863.

The Proclamation also authorized the enlistment of black soldiers.

By the end of the Civil War, some 200,000 black soldiers had served in the Union army and navy, staking a claim to citizenship in the postwar nation.

During the war, "rehearsals for Reconstruction" took place in the Union-occupied South. On the
South Carolina Sea Islands, the former slaves demanded land of their own, while government officials and Northern investors urged them
to return to work on the plantations.

In addition, a group of young Northern reformers came to the islands to educate the freed people and assist in the transition from slavery to freedom. The conflicts among these groups offered a preview of the national debate over Reconstruction.

Emancipation

The destruction of slavery powerfully shaped the course of the Civil War and the debate over Reconstruction. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 infused the Union war effort with a new moral spirit, and ensured that Northern victory would produce a social revolution in the South. Two years later, Congress enacted and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery throughout the nation.

Although the Lincoln administration at first insisted that the preservation of the Union, not the abolition of slavery, was its objective, slaves quickly seized the opportunity to strike for their freedom.

As the Union army occupied Southern territory, slaves by the thousands abandoned the plantations. Their actions forced a reluctant Lincoln administration down the road to emancipation.

The disintegration of slavery was one among several considerations that led President Lincoln, on January 1, 1863, to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Lack of military success, pressure from antislavery Northerners, the need to forestall British recognition of the Confederacy, and the desire to tap Southern black manpower for the Union army also contributed to the decision.

The Proclamation, which applied only to areas outside Union control, did not immediately abolish slavery. But it made emancipation an irrevocable war aim, profoundly changing the character of the Civil War.

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