Download The Road to Gettysburg

Class Notes 17.3a (NB p. 25)
Copy this on the first eleven lines of the page!
Gettysburg
Only one line for the title!
Strategic
importance
Unique geographic
features
Union battle plan
Lee’s failed
attempts
Reasons for Lee’s
failure
Two lines for
each row of this
chart!
Copy this on the next eleven lines of the page!
Vicksburg
Only one line for the title!
Strategic
importance
Unique
geographic
features
Determination of
the citizens
Two lines for
each row of this
chart!
Grant’s failure to
take the city
Grant’s
successful plan
Why did Lincoln angrily fire General George Meade, even
though Meade had defeated Lee at Gettysburg?
How did the fall of Vicksburg accomplish part of the Anaconda
Plan?
CHAPTER 17: THE TIDE OF WAR
TURNS
Section 3: The North Wins
Today we will trace the war from
Antietam to Gettysburg.
Vocabulary
•
•
•
•
trace – to follow a series of events
theater – a major area of military activity
address – a public speech
siege – surrounding a fortified place so as
to isolate it from help and supplies until it
surrenders
Check for Understanding
• What are we going to do today?
• What does it mean to trace?
• Why does Mr. Resnick make
announcements on the ‘PA’ (i.e., public
address) system?
• Why do announcers describe a soccer
team laying siege to their opponents’
goal?
What We Already Know
Lincoln had a difficult time finding an effective
general to command the Union armies.
What We Already Know
Most battles in the
Eastern Theater had
resulted in Confederate
victories.
What We Already Know
Lee’s first invasion of the North
was stopped by McClellan’s Union
forces at Antietam.
The Road to Gettysburg
Battle of Antietam (September 1862) –
McClellan stopped Lee’s Northern invasion,
but failed to finish off Lee’s army, which
retreated safely to Virginia.
The Road to Gettysburg
• Lincoln fired McClellan
for his failure to pursue
Lee after Antietam.
• He replaced him with
Ambrose Burnside, but
Burnside also proved to
be a disappointment.
The Battle of Fredericksburg,
Virginia (December, 1862)
Burnside’s men had to build
pontoon bridges to cross the
Rappahannock River before they
could attack Confederate troops in
the town.
Burnside had to send landing parties over in boats
during the night to drive off sharpshooters that were
firing at the bridge builders.
The Battle of Fredericksburg
Burnside ordered
sixteen separate
charges by his men to
attack the Confederate
troops positioned on
the high ground above
the river.
The Confederates fought from trenches and a stone
wall at the top of a hill overlooking the river, and
poured fire down on the advancing Union soldiers.
• The Union suffered 12,600 killed or wounded.
• Lincoln replaced Burnside with General Joseph
Hooker.
The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia
(May, 1863)
With half as many men as Hooker, Lee still
managed to cut the Union forces to pieces.
The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia
(May, 1863)
• As General “Stonewall”
Jackson returned from a
patrol on May 2,
Confederate sentries
thought he was a Union
soldier and shot him in
the left arm.
• A surgeon amputated
the arm, but Jackson
caught pneumonia and
died a week later.
The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia
(May, 1863)
When he learned of Jackson’s wounds and
amputation, Lee remarked, “He has lost his
left arm, but I have lost my right.”
Lee’s Second Invasion of the
North
• Lee hoped that a
Confederate victory in
Union territory would fuel
Northern discontent with
the war and bring calls for
peace.
• He also hoped a Southern
victory would lead
European nations to give
diplomatic recognition and
aid to the Confederacy.
The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3)
• Lee crossed into southern Pennsylvania. He
entered Gettysburg looking for shoes for his men,
but ran into Union troops.
• The fighting would rage for three days, with
90,000 Union troops commanded by General
George Meade facing 75,000 Confederates led by
Lee.
Gettysburg’s Unique
Geographic Features
• Cemetery Ridge
• Little Round Top
• Devil’s Den
July 1 – Lee’s men entered Gettysburg,
but were slowed by Union cavalry.
Throughout the day, Lee’s forces poured
into Gettysburg, as did Union troops
from the south.
By day’s end, Lee’s troops held the
town, while Union troops were driven
back to positions south of Gettysburg
on a piece of high ground called
Cemetery Ridge.
July 2 – Confederates attacked Union
positions and tried to flank
them at Little Round Top.
Heroic efforts by Union soldiers
from Maine kept Lee’s men from
gaining the advantage on Meade’s
position along Cemetery Ridge.
July 3 – Pickett’s Charge
Lee ordered
General
George Pickett
to mount a
direct attack on
the middle of
the Union line.
July 3 – Pickett’s Charge
13,000 rebel troops charged up the ridge into
heavy Union fire.
July 3 – Pickett’s Charge
Pickett’s men were torn to pieces by Union soldiers
who chanted, “Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg !”
July 3 – Pickett’s Charge
The Confederates retreated, but again the Union
general Meade failed to pursue Lee’s army.
The Union Victory at
Gettysburg
• Lee’s hopes for a Confederate victory in
the North were crushed.
• The North had lost 23,000 men, but over
one-third of Lee’s army, 28,000 men, lay
dead or wounded.
The Union Victory at
Gettysburg
• Lee led his army back to Virginia
and never again invaded the North.
• Britain gave up all thought of
supporting the South.
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
34. Why the Battle of Gettysburg
considered an important
turning point in the Civil War?
Choose all that are true!
34. Why the Battle of Gettysburg
considered an important
turning point in the Civil War?
A. It ended Lee's second invasion of the North.
B. Lee lost over one-third of his army.
C. The Union victory helped Lincoln win
reelection in 1864.
D. It revealed Grant as a Union general who
could win tough victories.
E. The defeat ended Southern hopes of
European diplomatic recognition and aid.
Choose all that are true!
The Gettysburg Address
On November
19, 1863,
President
Lincoln spoke
at the
dedication of
a cemetery in
Gettysburg
for the 3,500
soldiers
buried there.
The Gettysburg Address
• His speech was short,
and few who heard it
were impressed.
Lincoln himself called
it “a flat failure.”
• Even so, the Gettys–
burg Address has
since been recognized
as one of the greatest
speeches of all time.
The Gettysburg Address
• In it, Lincoln declared that the nation was
founded on “the proposition that all men
are created equal.”
• He ended with a plea to continue the fight
for democracy so that “government of the
people, by the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth.”
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
35. Which of Jefferson’s ‘self-evident
truths’ did Lincoln mention in his
Gettysburg Address?
A. All men are created equal.
B. All men are given unalienable rights
by their Creator.
C. Governments are created to protect
the rights of the people.
D. Life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness are some of the people's
rights.
The Fall of Vicksburg
(July 4, 1863)
Vicksburg was the last major Confederate
stronghold on the Mississippi River.
The city's geographical location on the
high bluffs overlooking a hairpin turn in
the river made it ideal for defense.
The approach from the east was
rugged and well-guarded.
The Confederates had constructed a line of defense
consisting of nine major forts connected by a
continuous line of trenches and rifle pits.
The line formed a huge semicircle around
Vicksburg, manned by a garrison of 30,000 men.
Grant’s Strategy
By late spring 1863, Grant had spent
months unsuccessfully attacking the
city from the east.
Grant’s Strategy
• Grant decided to march
the Union army down
the west side of the
river, and cross back
over to the area south
of Vicksburg.
• With grim determina–
tion, Grant ordered his
men to cut a road
through the thick forest
and swamp on the west
side of the river.
Grant’s Strategy
• As Grant's infantrymen slogged their way south,
the Union fleet ran by the guns at Vicksburg under
the cover of darkness.
• The fleet withstood the punishing fire that poured
forth from Confederate cannon with the loss of
only one ship.
• By morning, the Union fleet was below Vicksburg.
In a few days, Grant used
the Union ships to land
22,000 men on the east
bank of the river and
began moving them north
to capture Vicksburg.
Grant’s Strategy
After burning Mississippi’s capital city of
Jackson, Grant marched to Vicksburg and
drove the Confederate army commanded by
General John C. Pemberton back into the city.
The Siege
Throughout the
month of May and
into June, Union
soldiers slowly
extended their lines
to the left and right
until they encircled
Vicksburg.
• The Confederates inside Vicksburg were
cut off from all supplies, but the citizens
still refused to surrender.
• Disease and starvation began to spread
rapidly through the city as the summer
dragged on and the siege continued.
The Siege
Finally, on the morning of July 4, 1863, the
Confederates surrendered, turned over their
weapons and other equipment, and were
allowed to return home.
The Importance of Vicksburg
• Since New Orleans had been taken
the previous spring, the Union
now had total control over the
Mississippi River, and the South
was split in two.
• The Anaconda Plan was now
almost complete.
• The tide of war turned in favor of
the North.
In Grant, Lincoln found a man who was willing
to fight no matter how great the odds.
Grant as Union Commander
• March 1864 – Lincoln named General Grant
commander of all the Union armies.
• Grant’s plan to defeat
the Confederacy – His
men would pursue
Lee’s army in Virginia,
while Union forces
under General William
Tecumseh Sherman
pushed through the
Deep South to the
Atlantic coast, then
turn north and join
Grant’s attack against
Lee.
Get your whiteboards
and markers ready!
36. Why was Northern success in
the Siege of Vicksburg important?
Choose all that are true!
36. Why was Northern success in
the Siege of Vicksburg important?
A. The Confederacy was cut in two.
B. Grant was recognized as a general
who could win tough victories.
C. The Confederacy’s Anaconda Plan
was almost complete.
D. Lee finally admitted defeat and
surrendered to Grant.
E. The Union gained control of the
Mississippi River.
Choose all that are true!