Download U.S. Civil War

The Civil War
Showdown at Fort Sumter
*The first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort
Sumter, South Carolina.
Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve 90
days.
Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee
seceded.
They would not provide troops to fight against fellow
southerners.
The Border states- slaveholding states still in the
Union- had to choose sides.
Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky stayed with the
Union.
*Lincoln’s goal for the North was to preserve the
Union.
The South’s war goals were to be left alone with
slavery unchanged.
The North was better prepared for the war, having
more factories and rail lines.
The Confederates were fighting to defend their way
of life.
The finest military officers were from the South.
Both sides hoped for foreign help.
Generals had all been trained at West Point Military
Academy.
The Civil War weapons were more deadly than ever
before.
Rifles were more accurate, and new weapons such
as exploding shells, flamethrowers and even
machine guns were used.
Observation balloons, camouflage, and the
telegraph marked the Civil War as the last of the oldtime wars and the first of the modern ones.
The Battle of Bull Run near Washington D.C. was
the first major battle. It was chaos, and ended hopes
of a short war.
General Ulysses S. Grant led Union troops to victory
at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.
*The Battle of Shiloh forced the North to
acknowledge that the rebellion would not collapse
on its own.
Union Admiral David Farragut captured New Orleans
and other cities along the Mississippi River.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee won the second
Battle of Bull Run because of Union General George
B. McClellan’s delay in attacking.
General McClellan’s caution allowed the
Confederates time to organize at the Battle of
Antietam. It was the bloodiest day of the Civil War.
Combined casualties exceeded 23,000.
Soldiers and civilians in the North and South were
presented with challenges, hardships and
opportunities during the war.
Slave labor provided food in the South. Many slaves
escaped to join Union troops.
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on
Jan. 1, 1863.
Slaves in all areas that were in rebellion against the
United States were declared free.
*Slaves in the border states that remained in the
Union were not emancipated.
African Americans that served the Union in
segregated units numbered 180,000.
Soldiers faced poor sanitation, polluted water,
disease, and battle wounds.
Women worked as nurses and volunteered in the
U.S. Sanitary Commission, distributing food,
clothing, and medical supplies.
Some women disguised as men enlisted in the
Army.
Women took over work that the men left behind,
running farms and businesses, and government
offices.
3,000 women served as nurses for the Union.
Clara Barton began the American Red Cross, cared
for wounded on the battlefield.
Civilians had to sacrifice, prisoners of war endured
very poor conditions.
Most of the fighting was done on Southern soil.
Food and goods were in short supply.
The value of the Confederate dollar plummeted.
The Confederate Congress enacted the first military
draft in U.S. history.
Union draft also initiated. *The military draft in the
North did not lead to increased support for the war.
Anti-war supporters were called Copperheads.
American Society was torn apart.
The Union blockaded Southern ports. Blockade
runners brought in goods, medicine and military
supplies.
*The Confederates built an ironclad ship to break the
Union blockade.
They remade the captured Union ship, the USS
Merrimack, into an ironclad renamed the Virginia
that could withstand cannon fire.
The Union made Monitor faced the Virginia in the
first battle between ironclads.
In the West, Californians joined the Union.
More than 10,000 Native Americans took part in the
war.
Union General Joseph Hooker commanded three
major battles.
*The Battle of Chancellorsville was General’s Lee’s
greatest victory for the Confederate army.
The Battle of Gettysburg lasted three days. The
Union casualties numbered 23,000, Confederate,
28,000.
*The Battle of Gettysburg was the scene of Pickett’s
charge, in which thousands of Confederate soldiers
died.
*Lee retreated to the south after the Battle at
Gettysburg.
Union General Grant carried on a siege in
Vicksburg.
Confederate Braxton Bragg trapped Union army in
Chattanooga, but General Grant arrived with
reinforcements.
Lincoln appointed Grant to command all Union
armies.
Grant named William T. Sherman to take his place
on the western front.
Grant persisted despite heavy losses.
Sherman marched on Atlanta destroying everything
in his path.
Sherman burned much of Atlanta as he left,
slaughtered livestock, destroyed crops, and looted
homes and businesses.
The Union’s capture of Atlanta gave Lincoln a victory
in the election of 1864.
Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment,
ending slavery in the United States.
Lincoln intended to be forgiving of the South and
wished to heal the wounds of war, which was
nearing its end.
General Lee found himself surrounded by Union
troops in Virginia, and surrendered.
*Lee surrendered to avoid further loss of life.
The civil and generous terms were presented at
Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865.
Lee’s troops simply turned in their weapons and left.
Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14,
1865.
pg. 131 .