The Civil War “ A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Abraham Lincoln.

The Civil War“A house divided

against itself cannot stand.”

Abraham Lincoln

Timeline of Events 1861

– Confederate constitution framed, February 8th

– Fort Sumter fired upon, April 12th

– First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), July 21st

– The Trent Affair


– Union forces win control of the Mississippi River

– Monitor v. Virginia (Merrimac)– Union forces defeated in the Peninsular

campaign– Seven Days Battle– Second Battle of

Bull Run (Manassas)


– First Confederate invasion attempt end at Antietam (Sharpsburg)

– Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued

– Battle of Fredericksburg


– Final Emancipation Proclamation issued

– Siege of Vicksburg– Battle of Chancellorsville– Second Confederate invasion attempt

ends at Gettysburg


– Fails of Confederate hopes abroad– Battle of Chickamauga – Battle of Chattanooga


– Battle of the Wilderness– Grant’s Overland Campaign begins– Sherman’s March through Georgia– CSS Alabama captured and sunk


– Fall of Atlanta– Siege of Petersburg– Battle of Cedar

Creek– Lincoln reelected

over McClellan– Capture of

Savannah


– Sayler’s Creek– Capture of Columbia, S.C.– Battle of Bentonville, N.C. – Lee surrenders at Appomattox, April

9th


– Lincoln assassinated, April 14th

– Civil War officially ends on May 26th

– CSS Shenandoah sails until August when its guns are finally dismantled

Secession Continues With 7 states that had already

seceded from the Union, Confederate soldiers began taking over federal installations including forts, courthouses, post offices and other public buildings

Fort Sumter By March 4th, only 2 Southern forts remained

in Union hands ~ the most important being Fort Sumter located in Charleston, S.C.

Major Anderson, the commander of the fort sends a message to Lincoln ~ he either gives up the fort or faces attack

Civil War Begins Lincoln did not reinforce Fort Sumter and he refused to

abandon it The choice for war was left up to Jefferson Davis ~ he chose

war Attack began on April 12th at 4:30 am Anderson surrenders

the fort on April 13th after being shelled with more than 4000 rounds

Civil War BeginsAbraham Lincoln Jefferson Davis

Lincoln Calls For Troops

Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers for a 3 month enlistment

Virginia was not willing to fight other southern states so on April 17, 1861 Virginia seceded from the Union

Virginia was a crucial state because it was the most industrialized in the South with an ironworks and a navy yard

The Confederacy Is Formed

May 1861 – Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina making 11 states in secession

Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri did not secede Many of the citizens

from those states did end up fighting for the Confederacy

Union Advantages More fighting power More factories Greater food production Better railroads A skilled leader,

Abraham Lincoln, good a balancing political factions

Confederate Advantages

King Cotton and its profits First-rate generals and a strong military

tradition Motivated soldiers who were defending

their homeland

Union Strategies Three-part plan (Anaconda Plan)

– Union navy was to blockade Southern ports so they could not import or export goods

– Union riverboats & armies were to move down the Mississippi River & split the Confederacy into 2

– Union armies were to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, VA

Confederate Strategies

Goal was to survive until the Union would recognize them as an independent country

Strategy was most defensive Southern leaders did encourage their

generals to attack if they could and to invade the North

First Manassas (Bull Run)

First major engagement between the two armies

Union commander – Irvin McDowell Confederate commander – P.G.T.

Beauregard Thomas J. Jackson receives his

nickname “Stonewall” from this battle Confederate reinforcements arrive in

the afternoon and turn the tide

First Manassas (Bull Run)

First victory for the South Union troops retreat toward Washington

D.C. Confederate morale soared

The Aftermath of Bull Run

With the defeat at Bull Run, Lincoln called for 500,000 troops and another 500,000 3 days after.

McDowell is replaced by George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army of the Potomac

Union Armies in the West

Fort Henry and Fort Donelson– February 1862– Headed by General Ulysses S. Grant

• Failed at everything he tried in civilian life• Brave, tough, and decisive military

commander

– Took eleven days to capture the forts– Called for “Unconditional Surrender”– Confederates accepted and Grant

earned his nickname ~ “Unconditional Surrender” Grant


Fort Henry and Fort Donelson


Shiloh– March 1862– It was the name of a small church in

Tennessee– Union forces surprised by Confederates– Many Union soldiers killed while making

coffee or still lying in their blankets– Grant counterattacks the next day– By mid-afternoon Confederates in retreat


Shiloh


Shiloh– Results

•Generals realize they need scouts•Need to dig trenches & build

fortifications•Demonstrated how bloody the war could

become•25,000 were killed wounded or captured•Battle was a draw, but showed the

Union could succeed in splitting the Confederacy


Farragut on the Lower Mississippi– 40 ships moving towards Louisiana– Objective is to take New Orleans– Farragut took his fleet past 2 forts

and in 5 days took New Orleans– Over the new 2 months he also took

Baton Rouge, and Natchez

Battle of the Ironclads

Ironclad could splinter wooden ships, withstand cannon fire, and resist burning

March 1862 – Monitor v. Merrimack (aka CSS Virginia)– Merrimack sunk off coast of Virginia in 1861,

Confederates recovered her– Confederate engineers put to work to create

an ironclad


Monitor – John Ericsson commissioned by the

Union to create the “Monitor” a “giant cheese box” on an “immense shingle”

– Two guns on a rotating turret




Merrimac attacks 3 Union ships– First Ship ~ USS Cumberland ~ sunk– Second Ship ~ USS Congress ~ burned– Third Ship ~ USS Minnesota ~ run aground

Monitor arrives the following day and engages the Merrimac

Battle is a draw Era of wooden ships is over

New Weapons Rifle ~ more accurate than muskets and

could be loaded more quickly ~ 3 round per minute

Minie ball ~ soft lead bullet that was more destructive

Used primitive grenades and land mines

War for the Capitals On to Richmond

– George McClellan ~ capable administrator but too cautious

– Refused to move without 270,000 troops– Finally moves troops towards Richmond– Battle with Joseph E. Johnston and

Confederate troops– Johnston wounded and Lee takes command– Lee moves against McClellan in the Seven

Days Battles (June – July 1862)– Lee unnerves McClellan who leaves and

heads toward the Peninsula to the sea

Antietam Lee wins at 2nd Bull Run (Manassas) in

August 1862 Crosses the Potomac River and head

into Maryland Union corporal finds a copy of Lee’s

Army orders McClellan meets Lee near Sharpsburg,

Maryland at Antietam Creek in September 1862

Antietam

Antietam Bloodiest single day battle in American

history Casualty total ~ more than 26,000 Instead of pursuing the Confederates,

McClellan did nothing Battle was a standoff South retreated back to Virginia Lincoln fires McClellan

Antietam

Lincoln at Antietam

Britain Remains Neutral

The Trent Affair– Fall 1861 – Confederate government sends 2 delegates

to gain support from Britain and France– James Mason and John Slidell were traveling

on the British merchant ship Trent– They were stopped between Cuba and

Florida by the USS San Jacinto commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes

– Britain is outraged and threatens war– Lincoln frees the two men and war is

averted with Britain

Proclaiming Emancipation

Lincoln dislikes slavery Believes the federal government had

the power to abolish it Major reason for fighting the war is

preservation of the Union Lincoln adds emancipation of slaves as

a war aim to his goals Lincoln uses emancipation as a weapon

of war

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued on January 1, 1863 Only applied to areas behind

Confederate lines outside Union control Was a military action aimed at the

states in rebellion only Did not apply to Southern territory

already occupied by Unions troops Did not apply to slave states that had

not seceded

Emancipation Proclamation

Reactions to the Proclamation

Not much practical effect Immense symbolic importance Gave the war a high moral purpose Free blacks liked that they could enlist

in the Union army Democrats believed it would help

prolong the war Confederates reacted with outrage War became a fight to the death with

the issue of slavery being settled at its outcome

Both Sides Face Problems

Dissent– Lincoln

•sends troops into Maryland because a crowd in Baltimore attacked a Union regiment

•suspends the writ of habeas corpus•Seizes telegraph offices to make

sure no one uses them for subversion


Conscription– A draft that would force certain members of

the population to serve in the army South

– Confederates passed a draft law in 1862• Drafted all able bodied white men between 18 and

35• By 1864 ~ between 17 and 50

– If you could afford to do so, you could hire a substitute

– Exempted planters with more than 20 slaves – 80% of eligible Southern men served in the

Confederate army


North– Union passed a draft law in 1863

• Drafted the white males between 20 and 45 for 3 years

• Allowed draftees to hire substitutes• Provided for commutation ~ paying a

$300 fee to avoid conscription altogether• Only 46,000 draftees went into the Union

army• 92% of the 2 million soldiers were

volunteers• 180,000 were African-Americans


Draft Riots– 1863 ~ New York City– Poor people were crowded into slums, crime

was rampant, disease ran amok– Mobs rampaged the city when the draft was

brought there– Rioters wrecked draft offices, Republican

newspaper offices, and the homes of antislavery leaders

– Federals troops were brought in– 100 people were killed

New York City Draft Riots

Draft Riots

African American Soldiers

1862– Congress passes a law to allow African

Americans to serve in the military– 10% of the Union army was African

American by the end of the war– Suffered discrimination– Could not rise above the rank of captain– Black private earned $10 a month and no

clothing allowance (whites ~ $13 and a $3.50 clothing allowance)

– Congress equalizes pay in 1864



Mortality rate higher among African Americans– Assigned garrison duty thus more likely to

catch typhoid, pneumonia, malaria, or another deadly disease

African American soldiers were not treated as POWs, usually they were executed or returned to slavery

Fort Pillow Massacre– 1864– Tennessee– 200 African Americans and some whites were

killed

Confederate Slave Resistance

Union forces push further into the Confederacy

Slaves seek freedom behind Union lines Some stay on plantations to destroy the

farm implements and fences Slave resistance will weaken the

plantation system By 1864 slavery is doomed

War Affects Economies

Southern Shortages– Food shortage due to a drain on manpower,

Union occupation of food growing areas, and the lose of slave labor to work the fields

– Meat became scarce– Average amount spent on food per month

• 1861 ~ $6.65• 1863 ~ $68

– Riots broke out because of food shortages– Confederacy gave out some of its stores of

rice– Union blockaded southern ports blocking

much need supplies ~ medicines and food stuff

War Affects Economies

Northern Economic Growth– Effect of the war was more positive on the North– Created an economic boom for the

manufacturers and the Western farmers– Downside

• Wages did not keep up with prices• Standard of living declined

– Women• Obtained government jobs for the first time• Kept those jobs after the war

– Congress enacts first income tax in 1863

Soldiers Suffer Soldiers were required to take a bath

once a week Wash hands once a day No latrines or garbage disposal Common ailments

– Dysentery– Body Lice– Diarrhea

Army Rations ~ not appealing ~ beans, bacon and hardtack

Civil War Medicine United States Sanitary Commission

– Established 1861– Twofold task

• Improve the hygienic conditions of army camps

• Recruit and train nurses– Taught soldiers how to not pollute their

water supply– Developed hospital trains and ships to

transport wounded men from the battlefield

Civil War MedicineUnited States Sanitary Commission

Civil War Medicine Nurses

– Dorothea Dix ~ became the first superintendent of women nurses• Women had to be at least 30 and very

plain looking• 3,000 women served during the war

– Clara Barton ~ “Angel of the Battlefield”• Cared for the sick or wounded on the

front lines of the battlefield

Civil War MedicineDorothea Dix Clara Barton

Prisons Andersonville

– Located in Andersonville, Georgia– Jammed 33,000 men into 26 acres (34 sq. ft.

per man)– No shelter from the sun or rain– Rigged tents from their blankets and sticks– Drank from the same stream that served as

their sewer– 1/3 of the prisoners died – Henry Wirz ~ camp commander partially to

blame • Eventually executed as a war criminal

– 15% of Union prisoners died in prisons

PrisonsAndersonville

Prisons Elmira, New York & Camp Douglas,

Illinois– Only slightly better– Provided about 5 times as much space per

man– Had barracks for sleeping and adequate

food– Thousands contracted pneumonia and died

because of no heat– Suffered from dysentery and malnutrition– 12% of Confederate prisoners died in

Northern prisons

Prisons

Elmira, New York

Camp Douglas, Illinois

Chancellorsville May 1863 Lee outmaneuvered General Joseph

Hooker and forced the Union army to retreat

General Stonewall Jackson while riding on a patrol was accidentally shot by Confederate forces

Left arm was amputated Jackson catches pneumonia and dies Lee decides to invade the North once

again

Chancellorsville

Gettysburg July 1 – 3, 1863 Considered to be the turning point of

the Civil War Most decisive battle of the war Confederate forces led by A.P. Hill head

to Gettysburg looking for shoes and to meet up with General Lee

Gettysburg Hill’s forces meet up with Union cavalry

under the command of John Buford Buford orders his men to take defensive

positions on the hills and ridges surrounding Gettysburg

Confederate forces attack and Union forces fall back

Confederates take control of the town Lee wants Cemetery Ridge, the high

ground south of the town

Gettysburg

General A.P. Hill General John Buford

Gettysburg

Gettysburg The Second Day

– 90,000 Union forces– 75,000 Confederate forces– Lee orders Longstreet to attack Cemetery

Ridge from his position on Seminary Ridge by advancing up the Emmitsburg Road

– Longstreet goes through the peach orchard and the wheat field instead

– Little Round Top was left undefended by the Union

– General Warren orders men from the 5th Corps division to the Little Round Top

Gettysburg The Second Day continues

– Chamberlain and the 20th Maine regiment are stationed on Little Round Top

– They repulse a brigade of Alabamans repeatedly

– Chamberlain and his men run out of ammunition and decide to fix bayonets and charge the Confederates

– The 20th Maine shocks the Confederates who give up in large numbers

– Chamberlain and the 20th Maine save the Union flank from being overrun

Gettysburg The Third Day

– Lee is optimistic his plan will succeed if he could break the Union lines

– Lee orders an artillery barrage on the middle of the Union lines

– Lee orders Longstreet to attack the Union center

– Longstreet grudgingly agrees and send men including those under General Pickett marching toward the Union center

– Union artillery starts up again and the Confederates are repulsed by that and infantry fire

Gettysburg The Third Day Continues

– Lee sends his cavalry led by James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart around the Union right flank

– Lee hopes to surprise the Union– This does not occur because Stuart’s forces

clash with David Gregg and his men– Meade doesn’t order a counterattack and

the Confederates retreat– Casualties

• Union ~ 23,000 killed or wounded• Confederacy ~ 28,000 killed or wounded

Gettysburg

Pickett’s Charge

GettysburgGeneral James Longstreet General Robert E.

Lee

Siege of Vicksburg Ulysses S. Grant continues his

campaigns in the West Begins destroying railroad lines and

cutting off supplies Grant sends troops south of Vicksburg

and takes the capital, Jackson Grant begins a siege of Vicksburg by

land and sea using artillery Residents took shelter in caves they

dug out of the side of hills

Siege of Vicksburg Food supplies ran low On July 3, 1863 the Confederate

commander sent a message to Grant asking for terms

Vicksburg fell of July 4, 1863 Five days later Port

Hudson, Louisiana fell and the Confederacy was cut in two

Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863 A ceremony was held to dedicate a

cemetery in Gettysburg First speaker ~ Edward Everett, noted

orator spoke for 2 hours Abraham Lincoln then spoke for 2

minutes and changed how people thought about the United States

Gettysburg Address Edward Everett Abraham Lincoln

Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg Address

Confederacy Wears Down

Gettysburg and Vicksburg defeats cost the South fighting power

Low on food, shoes, uniforms, guns, and ammunition

Looked for a way to continue the war until a cease-fire could be declared and they would be recognized as an individual country

Confederate Morale Morale began to deteriorate as the war

progressed Farmers and planters began to resent

the fact that the Confederacy wanted them to plant food crops instead of cash crops and then they were taxed for a portion of their crops to help the Confederacy

Many soldiers deserted after receiving letters from home concerning lack of food and shortage of farm labor

Confederate Morale All southern states except South

Carolina had soldiers who had decided to fight for the North

Jefferson Davis had a hard time governing because of internal discord

Confederate Congress had disagreed amongst themselves

Peace movements took place in North Carolina and Georgia but these movements failed

Grant and Sherman March 1864

– Lincoln appoints U.S. Grant commander of all Union armies

– Grant appoints William Tecumseh Sherman commander of the military division of the Mississippi

– Both men believed in total war– Believed it was essential to fight the army,

the government and the civilian population– Reasoning ~ civilians grew food, made

weapons, and transported goods for the army and the people’s will kept the war going

Grant and ShermanUlysses S. Grant William T. Sherman

Grant & Lee in Virginia

Grant’s strategy immobilize Lee’s army and have Sherman raid Georgia

Grant’s casualties were twice as high as Lee’s

Battle of the Wilderness – May 1864– Brutal fighting and forest fires

Other battles occur at – Spotsylvania – Cold Harbor ~ Grant loses over 7,000 men

in 1 hour


Petersburg– Under attack from June 1864 until April

1865 May 4 to June 18, 1864

– Grant loses about 60,000 men– Lee loses about 32,000 men– Grant can replace his men, Lee cannot

Grant was called a butcher because of his total war policy

Lincoln did not interfere because Grant had told him he would not turn back


Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee

Sherman’s March May 1864

– Sherman heads towards Atlanta– Issues the Scorched Earth Policy

• A wide path of destruction and living off the land

– Mid- November ~ Atlanta burns (industrial area)

– Some historians say Sherman is to blame other historians believe it was done by John Bell Hood

– Sherman continue his March to the Sea and gives Lincoln a Christmas present ~ Savannah, Georgia

– Sherman then heads north to assist Grant with wiping out Lee

Sherman’s March

Sherman’s Neckties

Burning of Atlanta

Capture of Savannah

Election of 1864 Lincoln faces heavy opposition due to

high casualty rates, recent Union losses and the length of the war

Democrats nominate George McClellan Radical Republicans nominate John C.

Fremont Lincoln supporters drop Republican

name change it to the National Union Party and choose Andrew Johnson as Lincoln’s running mate

Lincoln wins a second term

Election of 1864 Lincoln pessimistic about winning the

election Needs a victory to help win August 5, 1864 ~ Admiral David Farragut

enters Mobile Bay in Alabama and shuts down the major southern port

September 2, 1864 ~ Sherman takes Atlanta End of September 1864 ~ Fremont

withdraws October 19, 1864 ~ General Philip Sheridan

chase the Confederates out of the Shenandoah Valley (Virginia)

Election of 1864AbrahamLincoln George

McClellan

John C. Fremont

The End is Near March 1865 ~ End of the Confederacy is

near Grant and Sheridan heading towards

Richmond from the west Sherman coming in from the south April 2nd ~ Lee overcome by Grant’s forces

at Petersburg Battle of the Crater occurs ~ Union loss Confederate government abandons

Richmond and purposely set it afire Flames destroy 90 buildings and damage

hundreds more

Surrender at Appomattox

Lee and Grant meet to arrange a Confederate surrender on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia

Grant paroles all of Lee’s soldiers and sends them home with their personal possessions, horses, and 3 days of rations

Officers allowed to keep side arms By May 1865 all confederate resistance

has faded Civil War is declared over on May 26,

1865



Legacy of the War Political Changes

– Federal government assumed supreme national authority and no state has ever seceded again

– States’ rights has not gone away it has just changed how it has been viewed

– Civil War greatly increased the federal government’s power

– Federal government no longer too far away to reach the people

Legacy of the War Economic Changes

– Federal government helped to subsidize businesses during the Civil War

– National Bank Act of 1863 passed ~ set up a system of federally chartered banks, set requirements for loans, and provided for banks to be inspected

– Northern states economy boomed– Large scale commercial agriculture boomed

by the end of the war– Southern states economy devastated– Slavery taken away and region’s industry

wrecked

Legacy of the War Economic Changes

– 40% of livestock wiped out– Southern farm machinery and railroads

mostly destroyed– Thousands of acres of land uncultivated– Economic gap between North and South

widened• Pre Civil War ~ South held 30% of nation’s wealth• Post Civil War ~ South held 12% of nation’s

wealth

– Economic disparity would not diminish until the 20th century

Legacy of the War Costs of the War ~ Human Costs ~

– Union casualties (deaths) ~ 360,000 men– Confederate casualties (deaths) ~ 260,000

men – Union wounded ~ 275,000 soldiers– Confederate wounded ~ 225,000 soldiers– Total serving during the war ~ 2.4 million

out of a population of 31 million– Disruption of education, careers, and

families– Almost every American family was affected

Legacy of the War Costs of the War ~ Economic Costs ~

– Very extensive– Union and Confederate governments spent

an estimated cost of $3.3 billion during the 4 years of war

– 20 years later ~ interest payments and veteran’s pensions amounted to 2/3 of the federal budget

War Changes Lives New Birth of Freedom

– Emancipation Proclamation frees slaves in the rebelling states

– Nothing said about slaves in non-rebelling states

– What would the government do about slavery?– Only solution ~ constitutional amendment

abolishing slavery– 13th Amendment passes in 1865 and is ratified

by the end of the year• “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as

a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

War Changes Lives Civilians Follow New Paths

– War leaders continued their military careers– Sherman remained in the army and spent

most of his time fighting Native Americans in the West

– Robert E. Lee, lost Arlington which was turned into a national cemetery by the Secretary of War, became the president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia (now known as Washington and Lee University)

– Veterans returned to their homes and farms, many moved to the cities or went west

War Changes Lives Civilians Follow New Paths

– Clara Barton, a Union nurse, went to Switzerland in 1869 to recuperate from the horrors she saw during the war

– While there, she worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross during the Franco-Prussian War

– In 1881, she returned to America founded the American Red Cross

Assassination of Lincoln

Lincoln wanted to reunify the nation but never got the chance

Whatever plans he had were cut short by his assassination on April 14, 1865

Lincoln along with his wife, Mary went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. to see Our American Cousin

John Wilkes Booth, a 26 year old actor and southern sympathizer crept into the unguarded presidential box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head



Booth leapt to the stage but broke his left leg in the process

He rose and some say he yelled “Sic Semper Tyrannis” (Thus always to tyrants), others say he said “The South is avenged” and then limped off stage

He was caught 12 days later in a tobacco barn in Virginia. The barn was set afire and after he refused to surrender a shot was fired




He was dragged out and Booth whispered “Tell my mother I died for my country. I did what I thought was best.

His last words were “Useless, useless.” Lincoln died on April 15, 1865 at the

Peterson House at 7:22 am This was the first time a president had

been assassinated Funeral train took 14 days to go from

Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois




7 million Americans publically mourned Lincoln

Civil War was finished Slavery and secession were gone The next step would be how to heal a

nation that had been torn apart and how to help about 4 million newly freed African Americans

The Civil War “ A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Abraham Lincoln.

Documents

abraham lincoln slide

confederacy slide

manassas slide

attack slide

battle of fredericksburg

sunk slide

gettysburg slide

rounds slide