North Fights The Civil War

In the wake of the firing on Fort Sumter, outraged Northerners looked forward to a quick and decisive victory over the Confederate rebels. But after the First Battle of Bull Run it became clear to supporters of the Union that the Civil War would be prolonged and deadly. How Northern society mobilized to fight this first great modern war is the subject of J. Matthew Gallman's perceptive history. Drawing on a wide range of up-to-date scholarship and addressing the issues from a fresh perspective, his book fills a surprising void in Civil War literature. Gallman's focus is on continuity and change—what traditions the North relied on in preparing for war, and what adjustments it made in its behavior and institutions. From his analysis it seems clear that the Civil War was not the great watershed in political, economic, and social development that is often supposed. Gallman's investigation of the status of women and blacks, for example, shows that wartime gains, if significant for a few, were on the whole decidedly modest. And while "total war" came to the battlefield in a frightening manner, its impact on the Northern home front was far less certain. American Ways Series.

A fresh look at how Northern society mobilized to fight the first great modern war. From Gallman's analysis of continuity and change, it seems clear that the conflict was not the great watershed in political, economic, and social development that is often supposed. A concise, readable account....Gallman challenges some conventional wisdom while telling an important and dramatic story. --James M. McPherson. American Ways Series.

Publishers Weekly

This brief survey, synthesizing a broad spectrum of scholarly monographs, argues that the North's wartime experience emphasized continuity rather than disruption, that the Union responded to the challenge of civil war with adjustments rather than changes. Despite the steady expansion of government authority over such matters as recruiting and supply, the North, contends Loyola College history professor Gallman, maintained an essentially private, local, voluntaristic structure (``The Civil War was truly a national war fought by local communities''). Race relations were altered by African American participation in the war effort, and the Civil War opened some economic and social doors for women. But market forces rather than government controls drove economic development, while conscription ironically encouraged volunteering. ``The Civil War stretched the bounds of political discourse in all directions,'' argues Gallman, ``even while it left the shape of that discourse largely unchanged.'' The author convincingly concludes that while the beleaguered South was ``forced to accept far more dislocation'' as its ``price of war,'' the North found it unnecessary to wage ``total war'' in order to achieve its essentially conservative objective of restoring the Union. (May)

J. Matthew Gallman teaches American history at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. He has also written Mastering Wartime: A Social History of Philadelphia During the Civil War.