Welcome to the Southern Home Front during the U.S. Civil War course website!

      (This is a companion course to my course The Road to Civil War: The Turbulent 1850s) 

Course Book:   Daniel Sutherland.  Seasons of War: The Ordeal of a Confederate Community, 1861-1865 (1995). 

This book is out of print but is available from Amazon re-sellers.  Click HERE for information about how to purchase this book.
 
Note:  Many of the maps used in this course are from the following book and are used with the permission of the author...   
           Sheehan-Dean, Aaron. Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War  (2008)

    

The deserted main street of Culpeper Courthouse during the first Union occupation of the town in 1862.  Citizens stayed indoors to avoid the Yankees. The county courthouse is the last building on the left side.

(More photographs of Civil War Culpeper)

Course Description: 

This course is designed as an introductory course on the American Civil War.  However, it will cover several complex subjects that have received a lot of attention from historians over the past 25 years.  These include  divided loyalties among southerners, fluctuating war morale in both the North and South, escaping slaves, guerilla warfare, Union "hard war" policies and Just War theory, and women's actions as they experienced wartime hardships.  There will also be a discussion of Confederate soldiers in general and some recent research on the Confederacy's largest army, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.   

While this course is not a military history course (that is, it does not get into the specifics of any particular battle), it does follow the course of the various campaigns and battles east of the Mississippi River and particularly in Virginia. This provides an understanding of why the Union ultimately won the war and why it took them four years to accomplish that.    

Unlike most introductory courses on the war, this course is given from a rather unique perspective.  It follows the lives of the ordinary residents of Culpeper County, Virginia through the four long years of the U.S. Civil War. Daniel Sutherland’s unique book,  Seasons of War: The Ordeal of a Confederate Community, 1861-1865, creates the experience of being in Culpeper watching the residents deal with various issues, month after month, as the war rages around them. The county seat, Culpeper County Courthouse, was occupied by the Union army twice during the war, and we’ll see how residents coped with having the enemy army walking their streets and confiscating their property to aid the Union War effort.  

Culpeper Courthouse is located near the center of the map.  The red arrow in Pennsylvania points to Gettysburg, the arrow in Maryland points to Antietam Creek (just outside Sharpsburg)

On August 9, 1862, Confederate general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson defeats general Nathanial Banks (under John Pope) at the Battle of Cedar Mountain just 9 miles south of Culpeper Courthouse. Jackson then meets up with Robert E. Lee to defeat the Union army at the 2nd Battle of Manassas. They then move north into Maryland where they are driven back south by the Union army at Antietam Creek on Sept 9, the deadliest day in U.S. history.  

On June 9, 1863 the Battle of Brandy Station took place just seven miles from the Courthouse.  It was the largest cavalry battle in U.S. history.  Three weeks later Lee's army would move north again and meet the Union army for three days of hard fighting at Gettysburg.  

Besides Lee and Jackson, Confederate military commanders James Longstreet, J.E.B. Stuart and Jubal Early and Union commanders John Pope, George Meade come to Culpeper during the war.  And, in early spring of 1864, Culpeper is visited by Union general Ulysses S. Grant.  Grant is in Culpeper for a special reason that will lead to the most famous military confrontation of the Civil War. 

Everyone from a beginner in Civil War history to someone with advanced knowledge of the war will feel comfortable in the class and hopefully all will participate.  The instructor will be available after class or by email throughout the week to answer questions or discuss Civil War history with the class participants. 

Confederate military officers at Brandy Station.

What this course covers...

The Confederate states were places of great conflict beyond just the fighting of armies during the war.  The Union armies waged an increasing "hard war" against southern citizens, sometimes within the rules of warfare and sometimes not.  The Confederate armies, most notably the cavalries, were also hard on southern citizens.  "Confederate" guerrilla bands, deserter gangs, and common bandits preyed upon the citizens.

Confederate officials and citizens were often very harsh with southern "Unionists" who did not believe in secession and other southerners who just did not want to be involved in the war.  In the southern hinterlands these groups sometimes responded with violence.

Due to wartime shortages and difficulties managing farms while their husbands were away, many southern women took aggressive action against the Confederate federal and state governments.

Slaves rebelled against authority by destroying their owners' property and executing escape attempts throughout the war.



Southern socioeconomic social classes (men and women):

    Planters and other elite
    Middle class yeomen with and without slaves       
    Poorer class laborers, subsistence farmers
    Free (black) people and slaves

Political positions regarding the war:

    Confederates, including common soldiers
    Unionists
    Political agnostics (often in conflict with conscription officers)

Military Ethics  -  Just War Theory:

    Partisan Rangers, Confederate  Guerrillas, and home front support of guerillas.
    Union violations of war rules against southerners
    Confederate violations of war rules against southerners
    Confederate violations of war rules against northerners and Union soldiers

War Hardships on the southern population:

    Tax in kind, impressment, food shortages, inflation, war refugees, diseases, deserter gangs and outlaws.

Overview of military operations in the Eastern and Western theaters:

    Eastern Theater:
         All of Virginia (1861 - 1865)
         Antietam (9/1862)  and Gettysburg (7/1863) 

    Western Theater: 
         Grant and others in the West  (1862 - 1863)
         Atlanta and Sherman's Marches  (1864 - 1865)

A Few Political Issues of the War:
  
     The Causes and Politics of Secession  (Week 1) 
     Escaping Slaves and The Emancipation Proclamation  (Week 5)
     Northern War Weariness and The 1864 Presidential Election  (Week 7)