The Civil War

The Civil War1861-1865

The North (Union) vs. the South (Confederate States of America)

Southern Secession

• Following LINCOLN’S election, the southern states seceded from the Union.

• Confederate forces attack FORT SUMTER in South Carolina, marking the official beginning of the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address: Monday, March 4th, 1861

Southern Secession

• Lincoln and many NORTHERNERS believed that the United States was one nation that could not be separated or divided. Most Southerners believes that states had FREELY created and joined the union, so they could freely leave it

• Fort Sumter• April, 1861• Charleston, SC

• Lincoln sends supplies totroops at fort

• South fires on and captures fort (1000s of artillery rounds used)

• Winner – South

• Start of the Civil War

War Strategies

• Union– Anaconda Plan

• Squeeze the south from all sides

• Naval blockade of the Atlantic

• Naval blockade of the Mississippi

• Ground invasion from the North

• Highly organized through telegram and railroad

• Confederacy– Defensive/

Offensive plan• Defend land• Hold Ground• War of Attrition• Attack when the

opportunity for victory is high

• Mainly controlled by field commanders

• Little central planning

• Seek European allies

Resources & Advantages

North South

-Population-Industry (ammunition)-Resources-Labor pool-Railroad network-Navy-Established government-Abraham Lincoln

-Strong military tradition-Military leaders

(Robert E. Lee)-Fighting for survival

(Psychological)-Fighting on home soil-Defensive War-Washington, DC was onthe outskirts of VA

Strategies

South North

Military

Political / Economical

Small armies;do just enough

damage to breakthe North’s will

to fight

Gain recognitionfrom England &France; tradewith Europe

instead of North

Anaconda Plan

Prevent secessionof the

Border States(MO, KY, DE, MD)

• Anaconda Plan• 1 – Blockade Southern Ports• 2 – Take Mississippi River & Split Confederacy• 3 – Take Richmond (capital of the Confederacy)

Domestic Policies• Homestead Act – Domestic policy that

allowed poor people in the East to obtain Land in the West

• Signed tariff legislation to protect American Industry

• Signed a bill that started the development of the first transcontinental railroad

• Foreign policy was focused on preventing outside intervention in the Civil War (Britain)

Major Battles of the Civil War

Life for Soldiers

• Poor Conditions in camps• Poor sanitation, led to the

rapid spread of illness and disease

• More men died in war from disease than from battle

• Most frequent treatment of disease and illness/injury: Amputation

• Prison Camps: Horrible Conditions

• Most Famous in Andersonville, GA

• First Battle of Bull Run• July 21, 1861• Manassas, VA

• South Gen. P.G.T.Beauregard & Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s troops defeat North Gen. Irvin McDowell’s 30,000 troops

• Winner – South

• Citizens shocked at the carnage of war• Lincoln fires McDowell

Raising an Army

• Draft Laws– Confederacy

• Overseerers of 2000 or more slaves were exempt• Must pay a fine• “Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”

– Union• Commutation fee of $300

– Average day’s wages was $1– NYC Riots – immigrants revolt against blacks (Jobs)

• Monitor v. Virginia• March, 1862• Off VA coast

• North Monitor v. South Virginia (used to be Union Merrimack)

• Winner – None

• First battle of ironclad ships (modern naval warfare!)

• Battle of Shiloh• April, 1862• Southwest Tennessee

• North Gen. Ulysses S. Grant captures forts in TN, wins two-day battle in Shiloh; 25,000 troop casualties

• Winner – North

• Death toll horrifying for North & South• Grant’s reputation hurt

• Second Battle of Bull Run• August, 1862• Manassas, VA

• South Gen. Lee & Jackson defeat larger Northern force

• Winner – South

• Southern confidence is high• Lincoln re-hires McClellan

Antietam (1862) – Lee’s 1st invasion of the North – bloodiest single day of the

war (MD) – 23,000 casualties in one day

• Battle of Antietam• Sept. 17, 1862• Sharpsburg, MD

• North Gen. McClellan defeats South Gen. Lee; 23,000 casualties; Lee retreats to VA

• Winner – North

• Bloodiest day in American history• Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

Clara Barton – “Angel of Antietam,” founder of the American Red Cross

Clara Barton

-Famous Civil Warnurse, cared for wounded soldiers on the battlefields-Best known for her later work with the Red Cross

What are other women doing during the war?• Vast majority of women took over family businesses,

farms, and plantations• Jobs typically for men become held by more women

(teaching, for example)• Nursing

WOMEN IN THE WAR

Antietam: Importance

• Gives Lincoln enhanced confidence

• Issues the Emancipation Proclamation

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND SLAVERY• Did not go to war against the South in 1860

to abolish slavery– His primary goal was to preserve the

Union• However, average northern soldiers and

northern public opinion did see abolition of slavery as a major goal of the war

• In addition, the freeing of slaves would deprive the South of valuable manpower in both military and civilian areas and thus cripple the Southern war effort

• For both emotional and practical reasons, the demand for the abolition of slavery grew in the North while the war was still going on

The Emancipation Proclamation

• Jan. 1, 1863• Freed slaves in

rebellious states• No immediate

impact on slavery• One of the war

goals now becomes abolition

Proclamation of Emancipation 1863

“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve”.

Lincoln

Emancipation Proclamation

Who issued it?:With victory at Antietam, Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation

Whom did it free?:All enslaved people in rebelling states beginning January 1, 1863

Who is this leaving out?:It did not apply to loyal border states or to places that were already under Union military control;Didn’t free ALL slaves!

So, it received a mixed reaction (both positive and negative)

p. 236-239

• After the Proclamation, the North begins active recruitment of African Americans

• 180,000 African American volunteers in the Union military by war’s end (85% of freedmen fought for the Union)

• Most well-known African American regiment:– 54th Massachusetts Regiment – Robert Gould Shaw

• What difficulties do you think they faced?

• Prejudice: Assigned menial tasks, longest guard, exposed battle positions, lower pay, killed if captured

Gettysburg• July 1-3,

1863• 3 Day Battle• Union held

the high ground– Cemetery

Ridge– Culp’s Hill– Round Tops

Day 2

Col. Joshua Chamberlain, 20th Maine – “Fix Bayonets”

Day 3 • Pickett’s charge: “In the center, they will break.”

• Battle of Gettysburg• July 1-3, 1863• Pennsylvania• General Lee & the South invade the North• 3-day battle ends after unsuccessful Southern attack known

as “Pickett’s Charge”• 90,000 Union soldiers fought 75,000 Confederate soldiers. • 50,000 casualties• Winner – North

• ***Turning Point***• South retreats to VA• Lincoln issues Gettysburg Address

Vicksburg Campaign

• Siege Warfare• Total War (vs.

Citizens and Soldiers)

• Battle of Vicksburg• July 1863• Mississippi

• Grant places Vicksburg under siege, cutting off supplies & bombarding the city until its surrender

• Winner – North• ***Turning Point in the War***• North gains the Mississippi River,

splits Confederacy in halfWhich plan does this satisfy?

Gettysburg Address

• 2 minutes• “Equality for all”• Uses victory at Gettysburg as event for

speech

• Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

• Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

• But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Ulysses S. Grant

Granted command of Union Army after Vicksburg

William Tecumseh Sherman

“We shall make the south sick of war.”• Total War• “60 mile

swath”• Pillaging

Sherman’s March to the Sea (1864)

• Sherman’s March to the Sea• May – Dec 1864• Georgia

• (North) Gen. William T. Sherman marches from TN/GA border, through Atlanta, to GA coast,

• Destroyed cities, factories, RRs, homes along the way; “Total War”

• Winner – North

• Atlanta burned to the ground• Southern economy destroyed

Election of 1864

• Battle of Ft. Fisher• December 1864• Wilmington, NC

• Failed attempt by Union forces to capture the fort guarding Wilmington, the South's last major port on the Atlantic

• 1st day – Union tried to blow up a ship to destroy the Fort’s walls and failed; 2nd day – Union tried to come ashore and failed

• 320 casualties

• Winner – South

• The South keeps their port

13th Amendment• Adopted in

February, 1865• Outlaws Slavery in

USA

• Battle of Bentonville• March 1865• North Carolina

• Confederate army launched a tactical offensive on Union troops

• Only significant attempt to defeat the large Sherman during its march through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865

• Winner – North

• Largest battle fought in NC

• Appomattox Court House• April 1865• Virginia

• (South) Gen. Lee’s troops are trapped & surrounded by Northern troops

• Lee formally surrenders to Grant

• Winner – North

• The war is (unofficially) over

Death Tolls• Union – 360,000 (41% of total army)• Confederacy – 258,000 (56% of total army)

• Lincoln’s Assassination• April 14, 1865• Ford’s Theatre, D.C.

• John Wilkes Booth sneaks into Lincoln’s booth, shoots him in the head

• Loss of a great leader, but seen by many as a hero and a symbol of freedom

• http://www.history.com/topics/john-wilkes-booth/interactives/john-wilkes-booth-timeline-and-map

What qualities helped Abraham Lincoln to become a great leader?

• Capacity to listen to different points of view.

• Ready willingness to share blame for failure.

• Going Out into the Field and Manage Directly.

• Ability to Communicate Goals and Vision.

• Strength to Adhere to Fundamental Goals.

• Knowing How to Relax and Replenish.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Historian

Inside the Lincoln Memorial, a majestic statue sits in repose with the following words inscribed . . .

In This Temple As in The Hearts Of The

People For Whom He saved The

Union The Memory Of Abraham

Lincoln Is Enshrined Forever