B
CIVILIANS FOLLOW NEW PATHS
After the war ended,
those who had served—Northerners and Southerners
alike—had to find new directions for their lives.
Some war leaders continued their military careers,
while others returned to civilian life. William Tecumseh
Sherman remained in the army and spent most of his time
fighting Native Americans in the West. Robert E. Lee lost
Arlington, his plantation, which the Secretary of War of
the Union had turned into a cemetery for Union dead. Lee
became president of Washington College in Virginia, now
known as Washington and Lee University. Lee swore
renewed allegiance to the United States, but Congress acci-
dentally neglected to restore his citizenship (until 1975).
Still, Lee never spoke bitterly of Northerners or the Union.
Many veterans returned to their small towns and farms
after the war. Others, as Grant noted, “found they were not
satisfied with the farm, the store, or the workshop of the vil-
lages, but wanted larger fields.” Many moved to the bur-
geoning cities or went west in search of opportunity.
Others tried to turn their wartime experience to good.
The horrors that Union nurse Clara Barton witnessed during
the war inspired her to spend her life helping others. In 1869,
Barton went to Europe to rest and recuperate from her work
during the war. She became involved in the activities of the
International Committee of the Red Cross during the Franco-
Prussian War. Returning to the United States, Barton helped
found the American Red Cross in 1881.
THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN
Whatever plans
Lincoln had to reunify the nation after the war, he never got
to implement them. On April 14, 1865, five days after Lee
surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln
and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to see a
British comedy, Our American Cousin. During the play’s third
act, a man silently opened the unguarded doors to the pres-
idential box. He crept up behind Lincoln, raised a pistol, and
fired, hitting the president in the back of the head.
The assassin, John Wilkes Booth—a 26-year-old actor
and Southern sympathizer—then leaped down to the stage. In
doing so, he caught his spur on one of the flags draped across
the front of the box. Booth landed hard on his left leg and
broke it. He rose and said something that the audience had
trouble understanding. Some thought it was the state motto
of Virginia, “Sic semper tyrannis”—in English “Thus be it ever to tyrants.” Others
thought he said, “The South is avenged!” Then he limped offstage into the wings.
Despite a broken leg, Booth managed to escape. Twelve days later, Union
cavalry trapped him in a Virginia tobacco barn, and set the building on fire.
When Booth still refused to surrender, a shot was fired. He may have been shot
by cavalry or by himself, but the cavalry dragged him out. Booth is said to have
whispered, “Tell my mother I died for my country. I did what I thought was
best.” His last words were “Useless, useless.”
After Lincoln was shot, he remained unconscious through the night. He died
at 7:22
A.M. the following morning, April 15. It was the first time a president of
the United States had been assassinated. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
recorded the public’s immediate reactions in his diary.
370 C
HAPTER 11
THE RED CROSS
Civil War nurse Clara Barton led
the American branch of the Red
Cross for 23 years. Today’s
International Red Cross can be
found wherever human suffering
occurs, not just in conventional
armed conflicts. In Fiji in June
2000, rebels took the country’s
prime minister and 30 members
of parliament hostage. The Red
Cross employee above was given
safe passage to give hostages
medical attention, mattresses,
and blankets.
Swiss businessman Henri
Dunant first had the idea for the
Red Cross when, in 1859, he saw
injured soldiers abandoned on the
battlefield in Italy. Horrified, he
organized local people to provide
aid to the wounded. Back in
Switzerland, Dunant, and a group
of lawyers and doctors, founded
an international committee for
the relief of wounded soldiers.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
B
Summarizing
What were
some effects that
the war had on
individuals?
B. Answer
African
Americans
gained their
freedom, some
veterans moved
from the country
to the city, and
many leaders
had to find new
careers.
