The American Civil War - OverSimplified (Part 1)

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Lincoln this is it one last push and we're done 9 months and four days ago my father brought forth upon my mother himself and gave to her a child conceived in a shack in Kentucky and dedicated to the proposition that I will drink num-nums from a bottle and do little poo poos in my Pence's for the next two to three years now what does if babies do again oh yeah I am not touching that Abraham Lincoln grew up with his relatively poor family in Kentucky eventually moving to Indiana and finally Illinois he read a lot of books worked a lot of jobs wrote some questionable poetry and finally entered the law profession despite being self-taught he turned out to be a pretty clever and astute lawyer in one case a guy claimed he witnessed a murder at night and Lincoln was like how could you have seen anything in the dark there was a bright full moon a what a bright full moon can you say that again please there was a bright full moon at dim Half Moon no a bright full moon that's funny because according to this Almanac there was a dim half moon that night which makes you a liar uh-huh well well I got a break full moon for y'all right here now that's what I call a rebuttal Lincoln and his cheekbones weren't only interested in law however he also dabbled in the world of politics serving as a legislator in both local and national assemblies and what a time it was not even a hundred years after the founding fathers wrote all men are created equal politicians were already asking yeah but what does that mean exactly it means all men yeah but what does that mean exactly and not just that states rights versus the federal government what are the executive powers of the president is cereal is soup the founding fathers left some of these questions perhaps a little too open to interpretation and the biggest question of them all was slavery an ugly mark on what should have been a revolutionary new nation based on liberty and democracy Thomas Jefferson had written a condemnation of slavery in the Declaration of Independence but out of fear of losing southern states support it was removed hey guys do you think leaving this a little vague will create any unforeseen problems in the future cannonball and those unforeseen problems were now beginning to rear their ugly heads as the nation developed the north and the south developed along two very different lines and two very different cultural identities emerged northern cities began rapidly industrialized while the southern climate allowed for large plantations of labor-intensive crops as a result one half of the country didn't rely on slaves while the other half had become economically dependent on them in 1793 Eli Whitney's cotton gin caused the slave trade in the south to explode while in the north a growing an abolitionist movement was taking root as general mistrust began to develop between the north and the south as northerners felt the south were hell-bent on expanding slavery and fear spread throughout the south that the North wanted to take their slaves away in 1819 there were eleven free states and eleven slave states a perfect balance a happy medium a harmonious relation Shaye's nice to meet you I'm Missouri and I would like to become the 23rd state hey buddy welcome to the nation we'll be happy to accept you as a free state oh no you don't you're trying to get one over on us Missouri's gonna be a slave state okay listen why don't we just ask mystery what it wants to be and we type state well then allow me to introduce to you the newest freshest state on the scene named hey you can't do that and you can't have any more slave states above this line what the issue of slavery is solved and it will never come up again a few years later it came up again you see as America expanded westward each new state our territory that was added threatened to upend the delicate balance between the slave and free states if one faction managed to outnumber the other it could gain an easy majority and force its own ideals on the opposing side leaving a huge portion of the population feeling spiteful and oppressed for a while compromises kick the can down the road and kept the volatile balance in check as new free in slave states were roughly added in pairs but then one lad masked state just had to barge in and ruin everything as usual the addition of Texas saw the United States enter into a war with Mexico which they want gaining a huge amount of land out west and creating even more problems hey guys nice to meet you I'm California and I would like to become the 31st state hey buddy welcome to the nation we'll be happy to accept you as a southern slave state oh no you don't you're trying to get one over on us California is gonna be a free state okay listen why don't we just ask California what it wants to be and we can restate well then allow me to introduce to you the territories of New Mexico and Utah able to freely vote for slavery themselves hey you can't do that and we can answer Northern Territory any time we want to recapture escaped slaves what the issue of slavery is solved and it will never come up again a few years later it came up again in 1854 a Democratic senator from Illinois wanted to build a really cool tree tree train here and propose that the territories of Kansas and Nebraska be created open to slavery even though they were clearly above the Missouri Compromise line obviously the northern states were like hell no but the southern democrats who controlled congress at the time were like well if you love liberty and democracy so much then you should let them vote on whether slavery should be legal or not and so it was huge numbers of Pro and anti-slavery settlers rushed to Kansas to sway the vote in their favor and while they were all there they began to beat the crap out of each other one of those settlers was a man named John Brown a former businessman who failed at just about every he tried and went arguably insane he was a radical abolitionist and dedicated much of his life to the Underground Railroad and freeing slaves one night in revenge for an earlier rate by pro-slavery forces he and his sons killed a number of pro-slavery settlers in the territory helping to kick-start years of violence known as Bleeding Kansas Kansas and Nebraska both eventually voted in favor of outlawing slavery but from here the tension began to grow at a rapid pace in 1852 author Harriet Beecher Stowe penned Uncle Tom's Cabin a best-selling novel that exposed the terrible cruelty of slavery to the world oh how awful how morally corrupt the nation must be to allow such things to happen your majesty what should we do about all the starving children working in the coal mines nothing in 1854 the Republican Party was formed and Abraham Lincoln emerged as a leading figure Southern Democrats viewed the new Republican Party with mistrust believing it to be radical and abolitionist in 1856 a politician named Charles Sumner gave a speech in Congress calling out slave owning Democrats with fiery language if slavery was a woman she'd be an ugly one and the senator from South Carolina would like to boink her representative Brooks do you have a rebuttal oh I have a rebuttal all right yeah here's a rebuttal for you oh come on surely this isn't allowed I don't know I'll have to consult the rulebook mmm I can't find anything about caning a political opponent but it says here I'm not allowed to wear women's underwear news of the violence on the Senate floor took the nation by storm southern slave owners sent representative Brooks new canes to replace his now broken one and on the floors of Congress politicians carried weapons in self-defense which is never a good sign in 1857 the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that all people of African descent slave or free could not be citizens and therefore could not sue for their own freedom under any circumstances undoing years of progress with the strike of a gavel now within all this bitter debate over slavery there were many nuances North versus South Republican versus Democrat states versus the federal government but let's strip all of that away for 4 million individuals living in America this wasn't about political intrigue or party alignment was about the basic human right to be free men women and children were stolen from their homelands and brought to the American continent where for generations they were considered to be property forced to live in poverty and work from sunrise to sunset plantation overseers did whatever they felt was necessary to get the most out of their slaves punishments were often barbaric families were regularly separated and parents could often only watch as their children were auctioned off never to be seen again thousands of slaves took the treacherous risk of running away an abolitionists in the North helped many escaped by the Underground Railroad as bounty hunters entered the north to chase them down leading figures within the abolitionist movement included many significant free black men and women but it's important to note that for many of the anti-slavery white individuals in the north opposition to slavery was often an economic issue not a moral one as many worried large plantations would take their lands and livelihoods away Abraham Lincoln knew that slavery was a moral evil and he regularly spoke out against it in powerful speeches that helped him rise through the ranks of the new Republican Party he lamented at the hypocrisy of a great American nation meant to stand as a shining beacon of freedom while also enslaving 4 million men women and children he most famously declared in 1858 that a house divided against itself cannot stand that one day slavery in America would end however even Lincoln was cautious in his opposition he didn't want to outlaw it entirely but simply prevent its expansion so that given enough time he believed it would naturally die app thankfully history would force his hand in October 1859 one abolitionist decided he'd try to single-handedly take down slavery by force who would be crazy enough to even attempt such a thing ah it's our good friend John Brown he planned to seize arms from an armory in the town of Harpers Ferry free the slaves there and continue South inciting a major slave uprising along the way and Noble cause a bad plan and a terrible execution Brown's head took the armory and some hostages but were quickly surrounded by one robert e lee and his US marines Brown was captured and a couple of months later he was executed for treason northerners sympathized with brown but southerners were like you see this they're coming for us soon there'll be a million John Brown's a million John Brown's when on earth are you thinking about it John Brown farm yeah me too to make matters worse new northern free states meant now the southern states really were outnumbered and they were beginning to feel bitterly spiteful and oppressed further fear began to spread in the south when news broke that a relatively unknown figure had just secured the Republican Party nomination for President Abraham Lincoln mostly well-liked among anti-slavery northerners had made some of the most powerfully worded speeches against slavery of any politician at the time and now there was a chance that he and his cheekbones could become president for the south that would be too much in the 1860 election Lincoln's name didn't even appear on the ballot in ten southern states but much to their horror when the final results came in Lincoln had won by an electoral college landslide Lincoln himself tried to calm their fear how many times do I have to tell you I'm not gonna take away your slaves Yeah right Honest Abe we've had enough of you northerners we're gonna go form our own country you can't do that why not well if if you had won the election would it be okay for us to leave of course not well why not because that's not how victim mentality works many states felt that when they joined the union they always withheld the right to leave it whenever they pleased many people living in nineteenth-century America often felt more loyalty to their state than to the nation and now with the South feeling like it had lost its voice in the federal government they were out of here South Carolina was the first to go and over a period of six months one by one eleven slave states officially seceded from the Union with just four contested border states opting to remain the seceding states issued a number of official documents justifying their secession South Carolina proclaimed that it was northern states hostility to slavery that rendered the federal government illegitimate Mississippi declared that their position was thoroughly identified institution of slavery and in a speech the Confederate vice president stated that the new Confederate government rested upon what he called the great truth of racial inequality revered American generals such as robert e lee opted to side with their states over the Union and with all the chaos one New York lawyer wrote that rather than a bold Eagle America's national bird should be a debilitated chicken and hey I kind of like that one man watching the crisis unfold knew it would be his job to solve it Lincoln was just about to hop on a train and become the president of the United States of America hey man you're hella ugly grew a beard or something to hide that face hmm good idea yeah still ugly with assassination plots already underway Lincoln had to travel to Washington DC under heavy disguise and protection all along the way he received stacks of threatening letters may the hand of the devil strike you down you are destroying this country damn you every breath you take love from Grandma at his inauguration speech Lincoln once again reiterated that no I do not want to take away anyone's slaves but for Lincoln he did want to preserve the Union he declared secession to be nothing but an illegitimate rebellion in your hands and not in mind he said is the momentous issue of Civil War you can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors we are not enemies but friends it was clear Lincoln was ready and willing to get freaky and open up a can of scatman John if he had to whether he had the support of the people however was in question in the end it was the Confederates that fired the first shot as they seceded the Confederate states began seizing federal US property throughout the South off the coast of Charleston South Carolina was one such federal property Fort Sumter held by a measly undersupplied US force the Confederate militia there demanded the fort surrender a request which was quickly denied and any remaining help for a peaceful solution to the secession crisis probably then died when the Confederates did this the Battle of Fort Sumter is considered to be the beginning of the American Civil War many of the Confederates they're also considered it to be the end of the American Civil War they hoped old Abe would just sigh and say okay you win unfortunately for them Lincoln actually said you're about to get a roundhouse to the face Lincoln sent out the call for 75,000 volunteers and men signed up in droves hopeful for some adventure and good old-fashioned f-u-n in the new Confederate capital of Richmond Virginia Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cheekbones had also sent out the call for a hundred thousand men as ever both sides hope for a quick end to the war is it over yet no Jimmy it's been one week is it over now no how about now if you ask that one more time I swear I will turn this army around and you'll all have to go back home to your wives and children but in particular the South neither conflict would pose a bit of a challenge how can we expect to win with a population of only 5 million against 22 million in the North if you count us 4 million slaves you'd have 9 million great idea and these rifles have told the move or a hate a minute you almost had me there the problem for Lincoln was that many of his top generals were getting old and were being a bit too cautious the commanding general was a man named Winfield Scott a veteran of the mexican-american war and by now he was too fat to even mount a horse okay chaps we need to come up with a plan hit me we could wait for the Confederates to come and apologize maybe we should all sit in a circle and discuss our feelings crossing the delaware into new jersey worked for me those are all terrible ideas and you wrong video hey i'm the greatest president in the history of this nation yeah we'll see about that dingus eventually Lincoln's generals came up with a multi-pronged strategy first a blockade would cut off and starve the south of supplies by sea secondly taking control of the great Mississippi River would sever the South's economic artery while splitting it in two and finally a main union force in the east would move south and take the Confederate capital ending the war badda-boom badda-bing skirmishes began to break out across the nation and the Union Army in the East began to move south towards Richmond everything seemed to be going well until they reached Manassas well they came upon a large Confederate force it's almost like they were waiting for us how did they know as it turned out spies in DC had sent a coded message to the Confederates warning of the invasion did you use Nord VPN what the heck is Nord VPN I'm so glad you asked do you use the Internet me too do you like Internet safety me too hey we should hang out sometime so I can tell you about Nord VPN Nord VPN has over 5,000 secure and super fast servers in 60 countries that allow you to surf the net safely with that personal data logging not only does it help you stay secure but with just a click of a button you can take a quick trip to Sweden and enjoy some Nordic crime dramas is there some amazing content on YouTube that's still blocked in your country not to fear Nord VPN is here Northy p.m. gives you access to all of these amazing features and it has a 30-day money-back guarantee so click the link in the description below Nord VPN comm slash oversimplified and use promo code oversimplified to get 70% off an annual subscription that's only 349 a month plus an additional month for free again that's Nord VPN comm slash oversimplified and as always you'll be supporting my channel so thank you now where were we oh yeah secession fat man and the union invasion into Virginia the two sides encountered each other at Manassas and both geared up for the first major battle of the Civil War the First Battle of Bull Run the Confederates rapidly brought in support by a rail and the two sides were about equal in numbers however they were also equally inexperienced a large number of civilians also wrote out by carriage from DC to picnic on the nearby hills and watch the excitement on full nobody seemed to quite understand how destructive this war was going to be the Union forces pulled a flanking maneuver to hit the Confederates on their left and the two sides fired on each other in Rhodes farm families living in the area were forced to flee the fighting including a man named Wilmer MacLean hurry up Martha there's a war out here the more you tell me to hurry up the slower I will go the Union foresaw initial success pushing the Confederates back to Henry Hill but one as of yet fairly unknown General Thomas Jackson had arrived and he took a defensive position standing firm like a stone wall holding the Union Army off and finally sending them running back to Washington DC with heavy casualties the sobering reality of war hit both sides hard and the north having just lost the first major battle had to face this serious prospect that they may not actually win this war President Lincoln General Jackson whipped us so hard the Confederates are calling him Stonewall Jackson wait that's why they're calling him that not because he looks like he ran face-first into a stone wall apparently not worse yet the North had also lost the first major battle out west giving away control of southwest Missouri all of this was terrible news for Abraham Lincoln especially since many of his generals in cabinet already didn't have much respect for him they felt he was incapable of running a war because he see a bit like your friendly old grandpa he famously loved a long-winded story and a good pun I've been so busy my wife is missing me but her aim is starting to improve but deep down do you realized he could also be incredibly shrewd oh hey you're so funny funny how funny like I'm a clown uh ape I was just no no funny how like I'm here to amuse you during the war Lincoln committed acts that were viewed by some as impeachable his administration suppress the free media from printing articles sympathetic towards the south some southern sympathizers were even arrested without a trial Lincoln's criticizers began accusing him of being a tyrant but to quote the man himself hey it's war baby what are you gonna do by the end of 1861 with things already looking bad for the north abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass couldn't believe that the Union Army weren't enlisting black men he continued to put pressure on Lincoln to make the war about emancipation mr. president it's time to make the war about emancipation hmm I don't want to ruffle any feathers the feathers are already ruffled but Lincoln hanging on to hope for a quick end to the conflict continued to fight only for the preservation of the Union it was decided however that escaped slaves from the Confederacy could be held as enemy contraband and many of these men were put to work bolstering the union's infrastructure and supply lines hoping to get things moving Lincoln made young General George McClellan the new commanding general and McClellan began to train up his men he thought a lot of himself however and believed he was going to be the nation's great savior and like many others he didn't approve of the president's handling of the war on one occasion Lincoln went to McClellan's house to meet with him but McClellan was late returning home he kept the president waiting and when he finally got there he just straight up went to bed now that's what I call disrespectful McClellan talked the talk but could he walk the walk no like Lincoln's other generals McClellan was maddeningly cautious hey man could he move south and attack the enemy what are you crazy what if they have a big scary army down there they probably do what oh my gosh McClellan worried that he did not have the numbers he needed to fight effectively what if they have like 10,000 men okay no problem we'll get you 20,000 men well what if they have 30,000 men I'll need 40 okay you can have 40 well what if they have 50 I'll need 60 Lincoln tried but it was all in vain McClellan would not make a move for the rest of the year the North's one saving grace for now was a general out west fighting in Kentucky and Tennessee General Ulysses S grant cool collected methodical and a big fan of whiskey his chief of staff took it upon himself to keep grant sober one officer said that grant habitually wore an expression as though he were determined to drive his head through a brick wall and was about to do it and that determination led him to score a number of key victories when others around him were failing but the Battle of Fort Donelson grant was like why does Stonewall Jackson get a cool nickname and I don't I want a cool nickname sir the Confederates say they're ready to surrender and want to know your terms no terms just unconditional surrender hey unconditional surrender grant that's a pretty cool nickname right guys right later in April 1862 the Confederates launched a sudden attack on grants army at Shiloh but the determined unconditional surrender grant through his lines at the rebels and sent them running the battle resulted in the heaviest casualties in US history so far and despite his victory grant found himself under fire you have to get rid of grant why didn't he win yes but he just threw his man at the enemy isn't that the point also he's a loony drunk well what does he like to drink I believe whiskey sir then send him no more Lincoln watched as his cabinet did nothing but bicker and his generals did nothing but then worst of all personal tragedy struck Lincoln's young son Willie very much loved by the president died of typhoid fever at the age of 11 Lincoln was a sensitive man and was heavily affected by the loss his wife was inconsolable but one of Lincoln's greatest traits what made him such a great leader was in the darkest of times with composure and determination he kept moving forward he knew it was his responsibility to hold himself and his family together and by doing so he hoped to hold the nation together and he had had it with McClellan's in action Lincoln decided he was gonna take control in March 1862 Lincoln firmly ordered McClellan to once again move south towards Richmond McClellan insisted instead they moved by sea to the virgin Peninsula an attack Richmond from the southeast yes said Lincoln okay anything Lincoln held on to some of McClellan's men to defend DC from a nearby Stonewall Jackson wreaking havoc in the Shenandoah Valley and he sent McClellan south McClellan landed on the peninsula and he began to move inland he came up against a small Confederate Army that had dug in at Yorktown McClellan vastly outnumbered the force but it said that Confederate General McGruder deceived McClellan by cleverly maneuvering his smaller force and making McClellan believe he faced a huge army no you have way more men than them move forward no McClellan settled in for a month-long siege giving time for Johnston to move south from Manassas and Magruder time to retreat when he finally entered the city and found it deserted he declared it a victory calling his success brilliant then after meeting some resistance at Williamsburg McClellan moved to within just 20 miles of Richmond his armies able to hear the church bells ringing in the enemy capital you still outnumber them go give him hell no McClellan once again held back moving slowly and defensively and with his army split in two the Confederates saw an opportunity to strike back McClellan's advance was halted and now the Confederates pulled an ace out of their sleeve generally Europe do you think we should evacuate Richmond no mr. president no need general robert e lee one of the most brilliant military commanders of the time was now in charge one of his biggest strengths was his ability to read the mind of his enemy and heaney McClellan was cautious and weak after moving Stonewall Jackson's south to join him and even though he had a smaller army Lee hid McClellan in a series of fast-paced close combat battles that had McClellan spooked McClellan retreated the Union Army back again and again and again escaping the peninsula and returning to DC Lee had defeated McClellan and the campaign had failed well that was a major success a success tell me exactly what was successful about that well we've successfully retreated you lost I didn't lose I merely failed to win things just kept looking worse for the north at least her Navy had seen some success capturing a number of key port cities notably when they steamrolled passed Confederate force to take New Orleans and taking of the Navy both sides have begun using ironclads so that's pretty cool but in the East they still weren't having any luck after McClellan's disastrous campaign Lincoln briefly sent out one General John Pope to attack Northern Virginia amen just checking in how's it going well the Confederates kicked my butt at Cedar Mountain then they raided my camp and ran off with my money and clothes also I appear to have been wedgied Lee defeated Pope at yet another battle at Bull Run in which nearby farm families once again got caught up in the fighting hurry up Martha there's another war out here I'm waiting for my hair to dry Wilmer McLean sick of war moved his family south where he knew the war would definitely absolutely never touch him again but Lincoln had yet another problem to contend with European powers in particular the UK we're looking increasingly like they may intervene diplomatically on the side of the Confederates they were missing their precious supply of southern cotton because of the Union blockade and they wanted to see a swift conclusion to the war the tension between America and Great Britain had been increasing especially after Confederate diplomats were discovered on a British ship now after McClellan's failure to take Richmond the UK declared it impossible for the north to win Lincoln needed something to prevent Europe from getting involved and after more petitioning from abolitionists he decided maybe the time was finally right to make the war about ending the institution he hated slavery if the North had a noble cause to fight for Europe would be less likely to intervene but Lincoln and his cabinet knew before they could declare something as radical as emancipation they needed a victory especially now that the Confederates were about to go on the attack a word that he had a limited number of men and supplies Lee now hoped that if he could just threaten Washington DC militarily he would gain Europe's recognition and crush northern morale in time for the midterm elections forcing the north to negotiate with confidence at an all-time high for the first time robert e lee invaded the north but on september 13th the north finally had some luck oh boy it's my lucky day a cigar in a field hey what's this wrapped around it oh my gosh that's right the North had discovered General Lee's battle plans wrapped around some cigars and in them they saw that Lee had split up his forces McClellan headed out from DC and the sites met in the Battle of Antietam a crucial battle that would decide the course of the war it saw the most vicious fighting to date and still remains the single bloodiest day in American history but for once the north came out victorious and Lee was forced to retreat he's on the run chase him down and finish him off no you know what old buddy old pal you're fired the North had won their crucial victory Lincoln breathed a huge sigh of relief and with that win he was prepared to take a huge step on September 22nd the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in January all slaves held in the Confederate states would be as far as the US government was concerned officially free throughout the North free black men and women rejoiced knowing that if the North were to win their brothers and sisters would no longer be held in bondage the proclamation also had the intended effect on Europe who were not willing to oppose a pledge to end slavery an outraged Confederacy knew that Lincoln had given the war a new meaning it was no longer just about the preservation of the Union now it was about creating a new Union washed clean of its original sin a union without slavery [Music]

Channel: OverSimplified

Views: 14,992,151

Rating: 4.9029851 out of 5

Keywords: civil war, abraham lincoln, gettysburg, fort sumter, ulysses s grant, general sherman, american, union, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Antietam, Bull Run, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Emancipation

Id: tsxmyL7TUJg

Length: 29min 53sec (1793 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 31 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Retroity]

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV6uuMAnJUE

This thread will serve as the official discussion megathread for both parts.

[u/ChessedGamon]

Ah yes, it's one of those fabled "good days."

[u/aldrymgamatero]

Oversimplified gonna get punished so severely for that long overdue.

[u/BlueUnion197]

yas!

[u/fish_hound]

the end of the second part broke my heart, but I am proud my country was willing to fight in spite of the losses. In a lot of ways the fight is still going, but I know that someday we can win and truly put this ugly era behind us and be a truly free country. Thank you so much for this it was worth the wait.

[u/anoobypro]

Finally

[u/wooshthem]

YESSSSSSSS

[u/Thomas1VL]

I'm not American so I barely learned anything about the Civil War. I had no idea the Confederate States actually were doing pretty well in the war

[u/haygrim]

Finally my dream comes true