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Chapter 16 The Civil War (1861-1865) Section 1 The Two Sides
Battle of Malvern Hill
•1862- A Union sergeant named Driscoll shot a young Confederate soldier
•Driscoll went to see the soldier’s face to see if he was dead
•He looked at the dying soldiers face and the boy murmured “father”
•The son had gone south before the war
•Like the Driscolls, many families were divided by the war
The Border States
•The border states- Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri
•Choosing sides for the border states was difficult
•Slavery was legal in all 4 states
•All 4 had ties to the North and South
•These states were vital to the Union because of their strategic locations (Mississippi and Ohio Rivers)
•Maryland was probably the most important border state (Close to Richmond, Washington D.C. was in the state)
•Abraham Lincoln worked to keep the border states in the Union
Comparing the North and South
•Both sides had advantages
•North had a larger population and better resources
•South had excellent military leaders
•South had a strong fighting spirit
•The war was fought in the South, so the Confederacy knew the land and had the will to defend it
War Aims
•The South’s goal was to be an independent nation
•The Confederacy needed only to fight hard enough and long enough to convince Northerners that the war was
not worth the cost
•In contrast, the Northern goal was to restore the Union
•The Union had to invade the South and to force the breakaway states to give up their quest for sovereignty
•Although slavery was part of the problem, President Lincoln’s original aim was not to defeat slavery
•Lincoln said “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it”
Confederate Strategies
•The South supplied England and France with cotton
•The South expected them to help them by putting pressure on the North to end the war
•The South’s basic strategy was to have a defensive war
•Just hold on to as much territory as possible
•Then the Northerners would get tired of the war
•The only exception was that they planned to attack Washington, D.C.
Union Strategies
•The North’s plan came from General Winfield Scott and had 3 parts
•1. The Union should blockade Southern ports (keep them from getting supplies or exporting cotton)
•2. The Anaconda Plan- Gain control of the entire Mississippi River (Split the Confederacy in two)
•3. Capture Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital
Americans Against Americans
•The Civil War put brother against brother
•Kentucky Senator John Crittenden had two sons who became generals
•One for the Union and one for the Confederacy
•President Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, had relatives in the Confederate army
•Many people signed up for both sides- some motivated by patriotism and loyalty to their causes
•Others would be called cowards if they didn’t serve
•Others wanted excitement
Soldiers
•Many recruits were barely adults
•10s of 1000s were under 18
•Some as young as 14 (ran away and lied about their age)
•Early on, African Americans were not allowed to fight
•Northern leaders worried that white troops would not accept African American soldiers
•Later in the war, the policy changed
False Hopes
•At the start of the war, both thought it would be a short war
•The North figured the South couldn’t hold on for long
•The South felt that their fighting spirit would stop the North
•Both sides were wrong
•The war lasted longer than each side thought
Who Were the Soldiers?
•Soldiers came from every region
•More than 50% of the Northern soldiers and 60% of Southern soldiers owned or worked on farms
•The Northern soldiers signed up for a short amount of service time (90 days)
•Summer of 1861- Confederate (Rebels) army had 112,000 soldiers
•Union (Yankees) army had 187,000
•By the end of the war, the Confederates had 900,000 soldiers and the Union had 2.1 million soldiers
•The Union had 200,000 African American soldiers and 10,000 Latino soldiers
The Life of a Soldier
•The North and South faced new challenges
•Many soldiers wrote about their boredom, discomfort, sickness, fear, and horror
•The soldiers lived in camps
•The soldiers sang songs, told stories, wrote letters home, and played baseball
•Most of the time was dull- routine of drills, bad food, marches, and rain
•Sometimes, soldiers from opposite sides took a break and had coffee together and talked, then…
•Went back to shooting at each other
The Reality of War
•Both sides suffered terrible losses
•New rifles used during the Civil War fired with greater accuracy than in earlier wars
•Medical facilities were crowded with 1000s of casualties
•After the Battle of Shiloh, the wounded waited in the rain for 24 hours waiting for treatment
•Faced with these horrors, many men deserted
•1 out of every 11 Union soldiers and 1 out of every 8 Confederate soldiers deserted
•They deserted because of fear, hunger, and sickness
Essential Question
What were the strengths and weaknesses of the North and the South?
- NORTH- Strengths- larger population; more railroads, farms, exports, manufactured goods
- NORTH-Weaknesses- War would be fought in unfamiliar territory
- SOUTH-Strengths- excellent military leaders, strong fighting spirit, knowledge of the territory
- SOUTH- Weaknesses- smaller population; fewer resources and industry