Download The Civil War Begins

Name ________________________
Date ______
The Civil War Begins
I. The Civil War began on April 12th, 1861. The North fought to preserve
the Union while the South fought for its independence.
II. The war cost more American lives than any other war in history.
A. Civil War - 620,000 (420 per day for 4 years)
B. WWII
- 292,000
/ 15 million total
C. WWI
- 126,000
/ 8 ½ million total
D. Vietnam
- 55,000
E. Korea
- 33,000
F. Iraq
- 1,000 as of 9/04
III. The Confederate States of America consisted of 11 states with their own
constitution. Their constitution was very similar to the U.S. Constitution
with just a few exceptions:
A. Congress could not interfere with slavery
B. No tariffs on imports
C. No government money for transportation
development
D. President could serve 1 – 6 year term
E. States were supreme (confederacy)
Jefferson Davis
IV. Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederate States of America.
The capital was in Richmond, VA.
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Battles
1. Fort Sumter: First Battle of the Civil War
A. After the first Southern states had seceded,
they began seizing federal forts inside their
borders. Ft. Sumter was on a small island at
the mouth of the Charleston River. The
confederates ordered the Union soldiers at the
fort to surrender. When they refused the
Confederates attacked the fort easily taking it
over. The Southern States were then declared
in a state of rebellion.
South
Carolina
2. Bull Run 1861: First Large Fight
A. In the first large battle of the war. The North tried to conquer the South by
attempting to take their capital Richmond. The North thought the attack
would knock the south out of the war. They even brought along sightseers,
Congressmen, and the families of the soldiers. To their surprise the
Confederates defeated them.
 The battle encouraged the South
 Both sides need more training
 The war was not going to be short or painless
3. Battle Plans
A. North
 Divide and Conquer

Win the Mississippi to divide the South in half.

They would have to conquer all the forts on the Mississippi to
take control of it.

Divide the Eastern Section as well
 Blockade

Stop the south from getting aid from other countries
 Capture Richmond

They were fighting an offensive war in the South. They had to
conquer the South.
B. South
 Tire the North Out

They were fighting a defensive war in their home territory.
 Raid North

To capture food and supplies
 Foreign Aid

Convince England to join their side. (Aid never came)
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4. Antietam 1862
A. Robert E. Lee launched an offensive on
Washington D.C.. The Union counter
attacked meeting the Confederates in
Antietam, Maryland before they reached
the capital. In a daylong battle over 24,000
Union and Confederate soldiers were killed
or wounded. Lee’s troops slipped back
into Virginia by night. Neither side won
the battle.
B. McClellan the General that was in charge
of the Union Army was fired because he let Lee escape instead of destroying
the Southern Army.
C. Lincoln waited for the victory to announce the Emancipation Proclamation.
D. England decided not to intervene after the South lost the battle.
5. Emancipation Proclamation 1862
A. Lincoln decided to free all of the slaves in the
Confederates States. This did not include the four slave
states that were loyal to the Union. The Proclamation
stated that all the slaves that were living in states that were
currently rebelling were free. Once the Union Army
conquered these states the slaves were set free.
 Emancipate: to free
 The Proclamation helped America gain support
from Europe and Free African Americans
 African Americans were allowed to join the
military
 Eventually led to the 13th Amendment outlawing
slavery
 The war became a war to end slavery as well as preserve the Union.
6. Shiloh
A. General Ulysses S. Grant was sent to take control of the
Mississippi River. They were on their way to the place
where the Tennessee River meets the Mississippi when
the Confederates at Shiloh, Tennessee attacked them.
Grant was able to gain a victory over the Confederates.
 Massive Casualties: more men die in one day
at Shiloh then in the whole Revolutionary War.
 Grant eventually gains control of the Mississippi River blocking
Confederate supply boats.
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7. Vicksburg 1863
A. Grant attacks the fort that controlled the Mississippi River between New
Orleans and Memphis. It took six weeks to get the soldiers at Vicksburg to
surrender.
 Divide and Conquer: The Union was able to split the Confederacy
in half.
 A Turning Point: The beginning of the end for the South
 Grant becomes well known and respected
8. Gettysburg 1863
A. Lee decided to invade the North again this time to isolate
Washington D.C. and also to gain supplies.
B. The battle lasted 3 Days.
C. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the whole war. 53,000 were
killed after the battle.
D. Turning Point: The south could no longer replace it’s dead
soldiers.
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9. Gettysburg Address
Nov. 19, 1863
Fourscore 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 battlefield of that
war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died
here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we
cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men,
living and dead who struggled here have hallowed 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 rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain, that this nation 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."
10.Sherman’s March 1864
A. The Union tried to divide the South in half from Tennessee to Savannah.
B. Search and Destroy Mission: A campaign to complete destroy anything in
their path. The union soldiers burned all the building s in their path as well as
the whole city of Atlanta. They killed animals, destroyed crops, railroads, and
attacked civilians.
 The Eastern section of the South was divided.
11.The Wilderness
A. A War of Attrition: Grant’s new strategy was to use the Unions superior
numbers (2 –1) to smash the South. His plan was to keep chasing Lee’s army
no matter how many casualties they suffered.
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12.Appomattox Court House: Surrender
A. Robert E. Lees surrenders the Confederacy to Grant even though did not have
the power to speak for the South. Lee’s supplies of men and materials had
been exhausted. Grant lost most of the battles between them but won the war.
Lee was so respected that his decision was not challenged.
13.Effects of the War
A. The Union was saved
B. 13th Amendment – Ended Slavery
C. 14th Amendment – African Americans became citizens
D. 15th Amendment – African Americans were given the right to vote
E. The war helped the Northern Economy, but destroyed the plantation system
F.
G.
H.
I.
and the cotton economy of the South.
Sharecropping began to replace the plantation system in the South.
Memorial Day
Reconstruction
Civil Rights Problems
 KKK prevent many African Americans from voting
 Jim Crow Laws
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