Download Chapter 11: The Civil War

Chapter 11: The Civil War
Section 1: From
Bull Run to
Antietam
• The first shots fired on Fort Sumter,
South Carolina, in April 1861 signaled
the start of the nation’s Civil War.
–War between the Union states of
the North and the Confederate
states of the South.
The First Battle of Bull Run
• AKA Battle of Manassas
• Lincoln ordered the Union headed
by Gen. Irving McDowell into action
–July 16- marched the poorly
prepared army into VA
•Manassas- important railroad
junction
• Opposed by smaller
confederate force under (Pierre
Gustave Toutant)P.G.T.
Beauregard.
–Because of McDowells
delays, Beauregard was able
to strengthen his army
• McDowell attacked on July 21st
– South refused to give up
• Led by Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
• Reinforced by more troops
• Sides
– 35,000 troops on each side
– Union 2,900 casualties Confederacy 2,000s
– Won by the Confederates in July 1861.
Preparing for War
• North
–More railroad tracks & factories
–Balanced economy
–More money in the bank
–Functioning army/ government
–2/3 of the population
• South
–Military colleges (officers)
–Didn’t need to initiate military
action to win the war
–Fighting to preserve their
way of life
Union Military Strategies
• After the fall of Sumter, Lincoln ordered a naval
blockade of the seceded states
– Hoped to keep the south from shipping its
cotton to Europe & prevent them from
importing goods
• Plan was to use troops & gunboats to gain
control of the Mississippi & cut off the South
– Named the Anaconda Plan
Confederate War Strategies
– Souths basic idea was to
prepare & wait (defensive war)
–War of attrition
• One side inflicts continuous losses
on the enemy in order to wear
down the strength.
• More successful for the north
• Stopped exporting cotton
–Sudden loss would cause Great
Britain & France to help the
south gain its independence
–failed
Fort Henry & Donelson
• Feb. 1862 Grant advanced south
along the Tennessee River
• These forts were important water
routes into the western Confed.
• Feb. 6– Union gunboats pounded
Ft Henry into surrender & a few
days later Ft Donelson did too
The Battle of Shiloh
• In April 1862 General Ulysses S. Grant's army was
encamped along the Tennessee River just north of the
Mississippi border
– poised to strike a blow into the heartland of the South. Grant
had been at this location for about a month, awaiting the
arrival of additional troops under General Buell before he
began his march southward.
• Twenty miles to the south, in Corinth, Mississippi,
Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston ordered
his troops northward with the plan of attacking Grant
before Buell arrived.
• The stage was set for one of the Civil War's bloodiest
battles.
• Buell's reinforcements finally arrived during the night as did
forces under General William H. Wallace, strengthening the
Union lines with 22,500 fresh troops.
• With the break of dawn, Grant attacked, pushing the exhausted
Confederates steadily back until they finally began a retreat in
the early afternoon that left the field to the Union forces.
• The confrontation had been a slaughter on both sides.
• Corpses littered areas of the battlefield to the extent that, as
General Grant described, "it would have been possible to walk
across the clearing in any direction stepping on dead bodies
without a foot touching the ground." Nearly 100,000 troops had
faced each other and almost 24,000 ended as casualties. This
horrendous outcome was a wake-up call to the nation
announcing that the continuing war would be costly for both
sides.
• April 7th- Union reinforcement
arrived overnight
–Defeated the South
• Casualties
• Union 13,000/Confederacy 11,000
including Johnston
• Bloodiest single battle- destroyed
Northern hopes that war would soon
be over
The Peninsular Campaign
• May 1862
–McClellan landed near Norfolk
trying to capture Richmond
•Strengths- outstanding organizer,
excellent strategy & well liked
•Weakness- very cautious & never
seemed ready to fight
• Transported 100,000 troops to a
peninsula southeast of Richmond
–McClellan asked for more troops
–Despite urging from Lincoln to
act, he didn’t
–Waited outside Yorktown for one
month
• May
South suddenly attacked
–Battle of Seven Pines
–(Union victory)
st
31
The South Attacks
• With McClellans forces still
threatening Richmond
• Jackson pretended to prepare for
an attack on Washington
• Lincoln cancelled the orders for
McClellan’s additional troops to
protect the capital
• Jackson then joined Lee
outside Richmond & attacked
McClellan called the Seven
Days’ Battle
• (Confederate Victory)
Second Battle of Bull Run
• Gen. John Pope was put in overall
command (north)
• Lee divided his army & sent
Jackson north in a sweeping
movement around Pope’s position
–Struck behind Pope’s army &
destroyed supplies
• Pope ordered an attack on
Jackson while Lee attacked
• Confederate victory &
McClellan was returned to
command
The Battle of Antietam
• Outcome:
• The result of the battle was inconclusive but the north
did win a strategic advantage. 23,100 casualties.
• Significance of the Battle of Antietam:
• The Battle of Antietam forced the Confederate Army to
retreat back across the Potomac River.
• Bloodiest day of the Civil War.