Civil War

The Civil War only lasted four years, 1861-1865. Until the war, the North and South enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. However, it was not always mutually beneficial. The New England spinning mills and their labor force of free men depended on Southern cotton, which was based on slave labor. It seems hypocritical and counterintuitive that the North would want to end it.

The North profited heavily from this huge source of free labor, and so did Britain. Its textile industry depended heavily on Southern plantations. It fostered trade between Europe and the United States. In fact, cotton productivity, no doubt due to the sharecropping system that replaced slavery, remained central to the American economy for a very long time: Cotton was the leading American export from 1803 to 1937.

Britain, the most powerful nation in the world, relied on slave-produced American cotton for over 80 per cent of its essential industrial raw material. English textile mills accounted for 40 percent of Britain’s exports. One-fifth of Britain’s twenty-two million people were directly or indirectly involved with cotton textiles. 

When the southern states seceded from the United States to form the Confederate States of America in 1861, they used cotton to provide revenue for its government, arms for its military, and the economic power for a diplomatic strategy for the fledgling Confederate nation. The diplomatic strategy was designed to coerce Great Britain into an alliance with the Confederacy by cutting off the supply of cotton.

After Britain had officially declared its neutrality in the American war in May 1861, the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis – a Mississippi planter – strongly supported what became known as King Cotton diplomacy. Confederate leaders believed an informal embargo on cotton would lead Great Britain into diplomatic intervention with other European countries on behalf of the South. 

To begin King Cotton diplomacy, some 2.5 million bales of cotton were burned in the South to create a cotton shortage. The South, however, had made a pivotal miscalculation. Southern states had exported bumper crops throughout the late 1850s and in 1860. As a result, Great Britain had a surplus of cotton. Apprehension over a possible conflict in America had caused the British to accumulate an inventory of one million bales of cotton prior to the Civil War. It was thought that the Civil War caused the Lancashire Cotton Famine, a period of depression from 1861-1865 in the British cotton industry. 

The cotton surplus delayed the “cotton famine” and the crippling of the British textile industry until late 1862. But when the cotton famine did come, it quickly transformed the global economy. The cotton famine was mostly due to overproduction and inflation caused by an expectation of a future shortage. Prior to the Civil War, Lancashire companies issued surveys to find new cotton growing countries if the Civil War were to occur and reduce American exports. India was deemed to be the country capable of growing the necessary amounts. It filled the gap during the war making up 31% in 1861, but 90% in 1862 and 67% in 1864. Although the cotton embargo failed, Britain would become an economic trading partner.

The failure of King Cotton diplomacy was merely a tactical blunder with no reflection on the power of cotton. The imaginative and brilliant financing of the cotton-backed Erlanger bond, launched in Europe in March 1863, epitomized the potential of cotton credit. The Erlanger bond, named after the powerful French banking house Erlanger & Cie., was a dual currency, one commodity bond. Through it the Confederate States of America attempted to borrow 3 million pound sterling or 75 million French francs for 20 years, priced at 7 percent. Investors could receive coupon and principal payments in either pound sterling or French francs, and were given the additional option of taking payment in cotton at a fixed price. The high-risk Erlanger bond was oversubscribed, and the price fell within a few months. The Erlanger bond quickly became one of history’s most important junk bonds.

Nonetheless, the Confederacy was able to use cotton as a bartering tool to fund the purchase of weapons, ammunition, and ships from British manufacturers. The transport of the armaments to the Confederacy was made possible by the lucrative cotton trade that tempted blockade-runners to pierce the Union blockade for potential profits of 300 to 500 percent per voyage. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had declared a naval blockade on the Confederacy in April 1861 to prevent its shipments of cotton to European powers. The blockade covered the seaports along the southern Atlantic coast below Washington, D.C., and extended along the Gulf coast to the Mexican border. The blockade-runners would offload cotton at the British islands of Nassau and Bermuda in exchange for armaments, and then ship them to the Confederate coast. Although the Union increased its number of blockaders, especially steam vessels, their effectiveness was hampered by the lack of coal and maintenance problems. It was the Union capture of southern ports, more than the blockade, that reduced the Confederate cotton-armaments trade. At the Battle of Shiloh, Confederate troops used weaponry and supplies conveyed from Great Britain by the blockade-runner Fingal. During the war, an estimated 600,000 pieces of equipment were supplied by the British. British-built war ships, most notably the C.S.S. Alabama, destroyed much of the Northern merchant marine. Cotton had financed the construction of the war ships. The last port, Wilmington, North Carolina, was taken by the Union in January 1865.

Cotton also spawned a series of federal regulations during the war. The North needed cotton for its textile mills, and it wanted to deprive the South of its financing power. Therefore, federal permits issued by the Treasury Department were required to purchase cotton in the Confederate states. The system was rife with corruption, particularly in the Mississippi Valley. Confederate cotton that was subject to confiscation by the North could not be distinguished from legitimate cotton grown by planters loyal to the Union. Cotton could be purchased for as little as 12 to 20 cents a pound, transported to New York for 4 cents a pound, and sold for up to $1.89 a pound. The mania for sudden fortunes in cotton meant that every Union colonel, captain, or quartermaster is in secret partnership with some Southern operator in cotton. The lure of cotton wealth would entice white Northern civilians and Union soldiers south during and after the war.

Oklahoma was a battleground territory and unofficially part of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Oklahoma is often not considered part of the South because it wasn't a state until 1907. However, ten Civil War battles were fought there. The Creek, Seminole, Shawnee and Osage tribes fought with the Union under Upper Creek Chief Opothleyahola. The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Caddo, Wichita and Tonkawa tribes fought with the Confederacy under Cherokee Major General Stand Watie. In true Civil War fashion, the Union gained control of the northern half of Indian Territory while, the Confederacy maintained control of the southern half until the war ended. Residents of the south-central and southern parts of the state who are descended from early settlers or post-war migrants still consider themselves Southern. To be clear, the western half that would become known as Oklahoma Territory wasn't established until the 1889 Land Run. The eastern and western halves of the state were divided where I-35 is today. The northern and southern halves are divided by I-40.

The Battle of Round Mountain was the first battle fought for the control of Indian Territory. Its main purpose was to prevent Unionists of the Creek Nation, Seminole, Delaware, Kickapoo, Wichita, Shawnee and Comanche from fleeing Indian Territory to the protection of Union forces in Kansas. Pro-Union Natives led by Opothleyahola fought their way north from McIntosh County, Indian Territory, facing continual attacks from Confederate forces under Col. Douglas H. Cooper who was the Confederate commander of the Indian Department. The defeated Natives withdrew to Fort Row, Kansas in a bitterly harsh trek known as the Trail of Blood on Ice. Nearly 2,000 of them died en route to Kansas or after their arrival. Survivors eventually settled near Fort Belmont, where more members died of exposure and starvation during the winter. Many made their way to other parts of eastern Kansas like LeRoy's post and formed the first Indian Home Guard.

Battle of Round Mountain or the Battle of Red Fork (Trail of Blood on Ice campaign) on November 19, 1861 near Keystone (now submerged by Keystone Lake) or Yale was fought by the Creek & Seminole versus the Confederacy.

Battle of Chusto-Talasah (Trail of Blood on Ice campaign) on December 09, 1861 near Tulsa was fought by the Creek & Seminole versus the Confederacy.

Battle of Chustenahlah (Trail of Blood on Ice campaign) on December 26, 1861 near Skiatook was fought by the Creek & Seminole versus the Confederacy.

Battle of Old Fort Wayne (Operations North of Boston Mountains campaign) on October 22, 1862 at Beattie's Prairie near Fort Wayne was fought by Union versus Confederate soldiers.

Tonkawa Massacre on October 24, 1862 in Caddo County was fought by the Osage versus Tonkawa.

First Battle of Cabin Creek (Operations to Control Indian Territory campaign) on July 1-2, 1863 in Mayes County near Big Cabin was fought by Union versus Confederate soldiers.

Battle of Honey Springs (Operations to Control Indian Territory campaign) on July 17, 1863 in Muskogee & McIntosh Counties was fought by Union versus Confederate soldiers.

Battle of Middle Boggy Depot (Operations to Control Indian Territory campaign) on February 13, 1864 near Allen was fought by Union versus Confederate soldiers.

Ambush of the Steamboat J. R. Williams (Operations to Control Indian Territory campaign) on June 15, 1864 on the Arkansas River & Pleasant Bluff was fought by Union versus Confederate soldiers. It was the only naval battle fought in a landlocked state during the Civil War.

Second Battle of Cabin Creek (Operations to Control Indian Territory campaign) on September 19, 1863 in Mayes County near Big Cabin was fought by Union versus Confederate soldiers.

The Confederacy won the war in Oklahoma, but lost overall after Lee's surrender. Or, did we? To this day, there is no tax on agriculture in the South. We won our state's rights which is what we were fighting for all along. Therefore, the South won! 

In 1865 the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring U.S. flags to be produced in the United States. Until the Civil War, they were produced in Great Britain.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, British and French traders abandoned Egyptian cotton and returned to cheap American exports, sending Egypt into a deficit spiral that led to the country declaring bankruptcy in 1876, a key factor behind Egypt’s occupation by the British Empire in 1882.

Many former slaves and poor whites worked in the sharecropping or tenant farming system in serf-like conditions after the war. The South continued to be a single crop economy until the 20th century, when the boll weevil struck across the South. The tobacco mosaic virus struck at the same time destroying tobacco and all of its relative solanacae food species (tomatoes, peppers and potatoes). The South not only lost its economy; the people were starving before the Depression hit. The only things left to eat were wild game and vegetation, fish, crustaceans, chicken, pork, biscuits, gravy, okra, greens and cowpeas. Today, we call these items Soul Food and they remain the cornerstone of the Southern diet. The bell and tabasco peppers were introduced in 1925 to replace the French / Spanish Basque peppers brought to Louisiana in the 1500s. The New Deal and the Victory gardens of WWII encouraged crop diversification.