Yes. They seceded even before he was sworn in.
2. The eventual hanging of John Brown is seen as the spark that set off the war--at least as conventional wisdom presented by Burns is. Why is this event thought of as the catalyst for the war as opposed to the actual secession of the Confederate states?
People who beleive that are in a decided minority. What Brown's execution did was highlight public opinion in stark terms.
3. When the Confederacy was formed, why didn't European nations (England, France, Spain, etc.) recognize the Confederacy diplomatically? What prevented them from doing so as the South had early success militarily?
No one in Europe wanted to move until the UK did so. Lord Palmerston did not recognize the Confederacy because he wanted to make sure they would win rather than ruin all relations with the US for no reason. Once the Emancipation Proclamation was made, palmerston's hands were tied, since no ministry could have survived backing the slaveholding power.
4. (With apologies to Paleo Conservative) Why were the names of specific battles different between the Union and Confederates? e.g.: The first and second battles of Bull Run/Mannassas, the South referring to names of towns, the North to creeks, rivers and bodies of water.
Probably because the Union saw the geographic features - and not the local towns - as their strategic objectives.
5. Why wasn't the Confederacy able to march further west, towards the Pacific Coast (with the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico and Battle of Pichaco Peak in Arizona as two examples). Was the South stretched too thin to make this possible?
After New Orleans fell, the Confederacy west of the Mississippi (basically Texas) concentrated on its own imminent security issues. There weren't enough men to invade and hold California, especially without an effective Navy.
6. Throughout the film, the name of Frederick Douglass keeps surfacing, again keeping with the theme of the war being exclusively over slavery in the minds of many. Was Douglass anything more than a mere activist or was his impact much more significant?
He was a spokesman as well as an activist. He had the sympathies and even the ear of prominent Union politicians.
7. West Virginia became a state during the war, which as we know were 63 counties of "Old" Virginia that left the Confederacy to join (or more accurately re-join) the Union. As a rank amateur historian, I would think this would have been a very significant point in the war, where one half of a southern state breaks away and forms its own state and that state joins the Union, but it isn't. Why?
Because the ground was contested heavily. West Virginia didn't really have a functioning government until 1864 and the Confederates were in military control of the region for a good part of the war.
8. Around this time was Lee's campaign to march north, which would lead to the eventual battle at Gettysburg. Would it have been much effective for the Rebels to take Maryland, making sure they fall to the Rebels rather than to go that far north?
There's obviously a ton of debate on this issue, but Lee's goal was not to capture and hold Union ground - he did not have enough men to do so. His goal was to show the Union how far into their interior his forces could effectively strike and to provision his army.
9. What are we to make of George McClellan (sic)? I've seen on previous threads that Hood and Bragg weren't the most competent on the Rebel side, can that assertion also be made of McClellan?
McClellan was an egomaniac who was playing the war not to lose, instead of playing to win. He therefore made himself very predictable and general Lee could tell what McClellan would do before McClellan did. Literally.
10. Assume for a moment that Pickett's charge at Gettysburg works and the Rebels win there. Would it be entirely possible to have seen a major battle and possible bloodbath in Philadelphia or Baltimore? (Something that would have possibly dwarfed the casualties and deaths at Shiloh, Antietam, etc.?)
Lee's army after the charge was in no condition to do anything but reprovision, sabotage and retreat. Lee's army was in no condition to besiege any city.
11. Was Lincoln in actual danger of losing the 1864 election? Could the Democrats have nominated a candidate other than McClelland that would have given them a chance to win?
After Gettysburg he was in no danger.
12. For the Rebels, what point did the wheels come off of their campaign? (Assuming that it was a point other than Gettysburg.) Would the South had more success later on had Stonewall Jackson not died at Chancellorsville?
The wheels came off at Antietam and with the subsequent issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. There would be no foreign aid after that, no end of the blockade. Just more casualties, more shortages and more misery.
13. What kind of "anti-war" sentiment was going on in the North (beyond the notorious "Copperheads")? Did the South make any mistakes in not taking advantage of this?
About the same amount of anti-war sentiment going on among Democrats in this war. Lee tried his ahrdest to take as good an advantage of this as he could, but grumblers and complainers are not necessarily willing to take up arms and fight. They grumble and complain mostly ebcause they are scared to do so.
14. The prison camp at Andersonville, GA is an intriguing and horrific story as "The Civil War" presents. Did Henry Wirz deserve to be charged, convicted and later hanged for war crimes or did this occur due to the aftermath of Lincoln's assassination?
Wirz deserved it, but not only him. Contrary to popular belief, there were sufficient resources to feed and clothe these prisoners.
15. John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of Lincoln, was an actor. Anyone else think this was an interesting precursor to the acting community of today to get that involved in politics?
Booth had exactly the kind of inflated self-worth and stupidity that characterizes the Hollywood community, yes.
16. Shelby Foote mentions that "The North fought that war with one arm behind its back." He would go on to say that "if there had been more Confederate success that the North's 'other arm' would have come around and that the South had little chance to win." Is Foote accurate here in this regard or were there enough chances for the Rebels to win given the battles that they were able to win?
The outcome of the war was destined from the start. It lasted as long as it did because the South outgeneraled the North again and again until 1864.
17. Lee had a small number of blacks fighting in his army later on in the war, but as Burns asserts, it was due to Lee running out of men. Is there anything to suggest that blacks fought on the Rebel side before this point?
Lee had no black fighters. he had black conscripts to do labor that white troops would normally have done when he had enough men. There is nothing whatever to suggest that black soldiers fought as part of regular army units in the South. There were probably some black irregulars involved in the looting that passed for Confederate warfare on the frontier.
18. Had the Rebels secured a victory--and in this particular context, with Washington having fallen and Lincoln being forced to recognize the Confederacy as a sovereign nation, would it have been at all possible to have had a second war, going on possibly into the 20th Century?
Lincoln would never have recognized the Confederacy and there was no way he could have been forced to. Had Washington fallen, the government would have moved back to Philadelphia or New York and continued until victory.
I would only add, per No. 3, that there was a vigorous debate in the UK over recognition of the Confederacy, and that the British did supply arms and naval vessels to the rebels.
And as for No. 13, I don't think you can omit a mention of the NYC draft riots, fueled by Democratic politicians and mobs of Irish immigrants. Classic “identity” politics, no so different from today.
It should be added that late in the war both Lee and General Patrick Cleburne advocated freeing slaves if they fought for the Congederacy. Cleburne supposedly said that the Confederacy was eventually going to have to free all the slaves anyway. Lee had already freed all his slaves and thought slavery wrong. But the general's suggestions were rejected by the Confederate government.
Well, that about covers it. Good post.