USF OLLI

Hello Scholars,   this is the page where materials relating to “The Civil War in the West: The Decisive Theater” will live.

The book, Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief, by James M. McPherson, is not required, but is highly recommended for the perspective it provides.

Our class outline can be viewed below:

Week One- The Road to War: Introductory Overview; Political Balance of Power; Missouri Compromise; Mexican War and Territorial Gain; Fugitive Slave Act; Kansas Nebraska Act; Kansas-Missouri Border Violence; Dred Scott; Breaking of the Democratic Party; The Election of 1860

Week Two- Secession and Anti-Secession in The West: Secession Winter; Western Deep South, New Orleans Subtreasury; Tennessee; Arkansas; Little Rock Arsenal, Missouri State Convention Pt 1;, Jackson-Frost Conspiracy, Liberty Arsenal, Camp Jackson, Battle of Boonville; Missouri State Convention Pt 2; Kentucky, State Guard, Pillow’s Invasion, Legislature invites Federals, Orphan Brigade

Week Three- The Improvised War: Southern Illinois and Ft. Defiance; Western Headquarters and mustering in St. Louis; Railroad and River mobility; Freemont Takes Command; Capt Eads and the Army’s Navy; Freemont’s Command Chaos; Battles at Wilson’s Creek and Lexington; Freemont’s Emancipation Proclamation & Lincoln’s disavowal; Halleck imposes order;  Troops muster and River Navy Construction

Week Four- By Water and By Land: Confederate defense Strategy in the West (fortified river line, Columbus, KY: “Gibraltar of the West”); Ft Henry  (Feb 6, 1862) and Ft Donelson (Feb 11-16); The Great Collapse, Occupation of Nashville and evacuation of Columbus, KY ; Shiloh (April 6-7); Western Sanitary Commission; Capture of Corinth; Island No 10 (Feb 28-April 8); New Orleans (April 25-May 1); Memphis (June 6); [Meanwhile] Pea Ridge (March 6-8)

Week Five- Confederate Counter Attack: Kentucky Campaign (Heartland Campaign) [triple invasion, MD, MS], Political-Military Strategy, Mumfordville, TN (Sept 14-17), Richmond, KY (Aug 29-30), Perryville (Oct 8) “High Water Mark of the CSA”; Iuka (Sept 17)-Corinth (Oct 3-4); [Maryland/Antietam Campaign 4-20 Sept]; Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation; Prairie Grove (Dec 7, 1862); Stones River (Dec 31-Jan 1, 1863), The Emancipation Proclamation (Jan 1, 1863)

Week Six- Emancipation and Vicksburg: The Sable Arm, Integrated Navy (Free Black petty officers), Butler’s Contraband Order; Contraband sailors and Army Laborers, , Contraband Camps and the Freeman’s Aid Association, Preliminary emancipation proclamation, 1^st Kansas Colored Infantry-Skirmish at Island Mound  (Oct 29)-1^st Louisiana Native Guards [73^rd USCT] (Sept 27, 1862), Emancipation Proclamation & Enlistment Order (Jan 1, 1863), Confederate Threats; Mississippi Central Campaign (Nov 14-Dec 21), Holly Springs (Dec 20), Chickasaw Bluffs (Dec 27-28), Arkansas Post (Jan 9-11); Other options (Jan-April 1863) ; Grant’s Gamble, Landing (April 29-30), Maneuver battle, Invasion of Pennsylvania ordered to counteract Union actions, Champion’s Hill (May 16), May 19-22 Assaults—- Siege, Brother’s Battle, Milliken’s Bend  (June 7), July 4- The Father of Waters; Siege of Ft Hudson (May 22- July 9), Corps d’Afrique; Grant Heads East

Week Seven- Anvil or Hammer: General-In-Chief Grant; 1863 Counter-Guerrilla Operations, Camp Davies, MS,  1^st AL Cav USV, Western Sharpshooters, Joe Shelby’s Raid (Sept 22-Oct 26); Chattanooga, Chickamauga (Sept 19-20 1863), Siege of Chattanooga (Oct-Nov 1863), Relief of Chattanooga (Nov 23-26, 1863); Pat Cleburne’s [Confederate] Emancipation Proposal (Jan 2, 1864); Red River Campaign (March 10-May 22, 1864); Atlanta Campaign, Breaching the Mountain Line (April 1864), Johnson’s Fabian Strategy, Battles Before Atlanta (Jul 20-Sept 1, 1864); Price’s Raid, Ft Davidson (Sept 27, 1864), Jefferson City, A disgrace on the Confederacy, Westport and Disaster (Oct 23, 1864)

Week Eight- The Bitter End: March to the Sea (Sherman’s Chevauchee), 60,000 picked men, Maneuver and concentration, Bummers, No Army Such as This, Ft McAlister (Dec 13, 1864), Savannah-A Christmas Gift for President Lincoln; Franklin (Nov 30, 1864) –Nashville (Dec 15-16, 1864)- The Calvary of the Western Confederacy; Carolinas Campaign, A scythe of destruction, Evacuation of Charleston (Feb 15, 1865), Destruction of Columbia, SC (Feb 17-18), Battle of Bentonville (March 19-21); [Fall of Petersburg/Richmond April 2]; [Lee’s Surrender, Apr 9]; Johnston Surrenders CSA Army of Tennessee (April 17/26); Kirby Smith “Surrenders” the Army of the Trans-Mississippi (May 26) ; War without end: Guerrillas and banditry; Reconstruction and its Failures in the West