Battles

The Second Battle of Bull Run was a blunder for Union forces against Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Lee would take his army into Maryland, where they would fight Union forces at Antietam. It would end in a strategic victory for the Union. It was also the single bloodiest day in American history.

In December 1862, yet another Union commanding general, Ambrose Burnside, devised his own plans to take on Lee, and his plans met with disaster in the Battle of Fredericksburg. Union casualties would be double that of the Confederates.

Despite official stances of neutrality, Canadians were affected by the Civil War- and some started to join it.

This map of eastern North America includes the Canadian colonies, the Union north, the neutral border states who remained within the Union, and the Confederacy. Spots where major battles and sieges of the Civil War took place are seen throughout both the Union and the Confederacy.

At this point, the exhibit starts looking again at individuals. Arthur Rankin was a politician and militia officer who accepted a commission to raise recruits for the Union army- violating neutrality, getting him arrested, and costing him both commissions.

Abram Shadd was one of the sons of the Shadd family of Buxton, Ontario. He enlisted in the 55th Massachusetts in 1863, rose to the rank of sergeant-major, and recruited other black men into the Union army.

Kahgegagahbowh (George Copway) recruited Ojibwe warriors for the Union army, but with the deaths of some of them, became ostracized.

Smoke on Civil War battlefields carried far, and made it hard to actually see what was going on at times.

After the victory at Antietam, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It deemed those black people in bondage in those states in open rebellion to be free. It said nothing about the border states not in rebellion, where slavery existed- though the leadership of those states understood what was coming. It was a military and diplomatic maneuver that in making the war about the abolition of slavery ensured that the British and French would stay out of it. And it gave the Union a higher cause to fight for than simply restoring the Union.

Another Union general, Joseph Hooker, took command of the Army of the Potomac, with another plan. It fell apart at a crossroads called Chancellorsville, deep in Virginia, a place with dense woods and undergrowth. Robert E. Lee- already undermanned with a portion of the Army of Northern Virginia on another assignment with General James Longstreet- went with his other commanding general Thomas Jackson to meet the Union army. Jackson would take a part of the army and launch a surprise attack into the Union flank, which had not been dug in for defense. The surprise would collapse the Army of the Potomac into retreat, but Jackson would later die of wounds sustained while between the lines at night.

The greatest battle ever fought on North American soil took place over three days at a small town in Pennsylvania. Lee  and his army had invaded the north, and the Union army followed. They met at the town of Gettysburg on July 1st 1863, where the high ground south of town was occupied by Union infantry on that first day, and over the next two days, Confederate forces were decisively beaten, with the battle culminating in what would be called Pickett's Charge. The Confederates began a retreat back to Virginia, with the Union army following. Both sides had taken a mauling during the battle.

During this same period out west, Grant's siege of the town of Vicksburg on the Mississippi resulted in the surrender of the town. The tide of the war had turned.

In the fall, Grant's forces fought and won a campaign around Chattanooga, Tennessee, which would lead to Grant taking overall command the following year of all Union armies.

Militia

 This map of the east coast includes the blockades that the Union navy put up around Confederate ports. The concept was the overall strategy that would win the war. Called Anaconda, it meant blockading the ports, seizing control of the Mississippi, and strangling the Confederacy. It was the plan conceived by Winfield Scott, the hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, the general-in-chief who knew he was too old to lead armies onto the field.

The Trent Affair flared up during the Civil War, with the capture of Confederate diplomats by Union officers on a British ship near Cuba. It built up tensions, as it violated British neutrality. While the Union government weighed its options, the British prepared for the possibility of war.

British regulars manned the defences in Canada, augmented by ill-trained Canadian militia. There weren't enough of either. It was recognized that this was going to have to change.

This is a model of the SS Great Eastern, which transported British soldiers to North America during the Trent Affair.

This display case includes equipment for British regulars.

This large display features an image of the Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII laying the cornerstone of Parliament in Ottawa. 

By the spring of 1862, colonial leaders were busy increasing the numbers of the militia.

The efforts included upgrading to better weapons.

Warfare

 Mary Ann Shadd established her newspaper, the Provincial Freeman, to speak to free black people in Canada, and to advocate for those facing the threat of being returned to slavery south of the border to come north. Samples of her columns can be found on a digital display.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, tensions rose between the British and the Union. Canada's status was uncertain.

Confederate forces organized during the first months of 1861, and at Fort Sumter in Charleston, Confederates opened fire on the federal fort and forced the surrender of its garrison. When the Union government called for more volunteers, more states voted to secede. The Civil War had begun.

Britain quickly adopted a stance of neutrality in the war, prohibiting its subjects from joining either side.

The first major engagement of the war was at Bull Run, Virginia. Both sides assumed it would be a short war. Bull Run proved to be a calamity for Union forces, who retreated back to Washington. It became obvious that this was going to be a very bloody affair.

The Trent Affair, which we'll look at more tomorrow, happened during this time. The Union Navy established a blockade of southern ports, and arrested two Confederate diplomats aboard a British mail ship, the Trent. This set off a diplomatic firestorm.

The war in the western theatre was not as covered by the press as that in the eastern theatre, but it was as important in the long run. Battles at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February of 1862 saw the rise of Ulysses S. Grant in victories. A veteran of the old army and the Mexican War, Grant would prove his abilities more and more as the war went on.

At Shiloh, Union and Confederate forces clashed in a horrendous battle with 23 000 casualties.

In the eastern theatre, the Peninsula Campaign was an attempt by the commanding general, George McClellan, to threaten the Confederate capital of Richmond. Its last stages were known as the Seven Days, in which Robert E. Lee had taken command and completely out-maneuvered the Union Army, beginning to establish his legendary reputation.

Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, and the same man who would one day be Edward VII, came to the Canadian colonies in 1860 on an official visit. This display case features items of that time. The visit would highlight loyalty to the Queen, but also divisions in the colonies and a need to consolidate defense.

Hostility

 This family bible, which is now part of the collection of the museum and historical site at Buxton, is well worth a second look.

Other artifacts in the case include a spelling book and a writing slate. 

There were issues. The new settlers found racism and discrimination in their new land regardless, and would have to push back against it.

This is a book by a white Abolitionist extolling the virtues of life in Canada for former slaves.

And here's a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Despite its role in galvanizing the North and making many who had never thought of Abolition think twice, the book was also criticized as being stereotypical.

The timeline continues. In November 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the federal election as part of the new Republican party, which had been established to halt the expansion of slavery west. For Southerners, it was the last straw.

Secession was called for in southern states over the weeks and months that followed. The Confederacy was becoming a reality. War was inevitable.

This display case features the copy press and documents linked to Mary Ann Shadd. She came north to Canada after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, and established a black Abolitionist newspaper. More from her tomorrow.