Download House Divided -- Civil War 1861-1865 File

U.S. History 8
A House Divided
EQ: Which clashes and conflicts swayed the balance of power?
Targeted Skills:
Communication:

Reading/Viewing/Listening

gather information
Information Literacy:

Collect/Access Information

make observations, record info
in appropriate formats

construct visual representations
(maps)

Evaluate Information

draw conclusions, make
inferences
Enduring Understandings:
The struggle to maintain a balance of power was at the heart of the Civil War.
Concepts Important to Know and Understand:
clashes and conflict
Broad Brush Knowledge:
U.S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Election of 1860,
1861-1865, Sherman’s March, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Fort Sumter, ironclads,
Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address
Core Objectives:
1. Identify the traditional historical points of reference in U.S. history through 1877.
8. Describe the individuals, issues, and events of the Civil War.
10. Use geographic tools to collect, analyze, and interpret data.
11. Analyze the location and characteristics of places and regions of the United States, past and present.
Instructions:
Use your textbook (pages 467,478,479,501) and the following instructions to
complete the map. ***You will need to draw CA; it does not need to be perfect. ***
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Draw and label a Compass Rose
Label the Confederate States
Label the Union States
Label the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Canada, and Mexico
Label the territories
The Election of Lincoln as president in 1860 was a turning point in relations between the
North and the South. The South felt they no longer had a voice in national events or policies,
they were now the minority. Moreover, as the minority, the South feared that Congress would
take this opportunity to abolish slavery. Secession was in the air. Before Lincoln took the oath
of office in March 1861, Southern states began to take steps to leave the Union. On December
20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to break away from the U.S. Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas soon followed it. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
and Arkansas would later join these states in April of 1861. While many hoped that civil war
could be avoided, the firing on the federal fort in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, Fort
Sumter, in Charleston Harbor showed that the efforts at compromise were a failure. While no
one was injured during this skirmish, Union forces were forced to surrender the fort to the
Confederacy. The Civil War had begun.
6. On your map, label Ft. Sumter.
Updated 06/21/02
1
Soon the country was preparing for war. Lincoln called 75, 000 volunteers to serve the
Union. His Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis, called for volunteers as well. President
Lincoln and General Winfield Scott sat down and talked strategy. The result of this
conversation was the Anaconda Plan (named for its resemblance to the death grip executed by
this South American snake). Step 1 required a blockade surrounding the South by land and
water to cut off its trade. In Step 2, the goal was to take control of the Mississippi River and
divide the South into two regions so that neither side could help the other. Step 3 required
the capture of Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy.
Union blockades of southern ports led to a unique change in naval warfare, the ironclad
ship. Confederates took an abandoned ship, the Merrimac, and outfitted it with iron plates so
that it could go to battle with the Union ships that blockaded the coast. With the success of
the Merrimac, the Union struck back with its own ironclad, the Monitor. Despite a skirmish
between these two ships, which ended in a draw, the Union blockade held throughout the war.
7. Label Richmond, Virginia.
Many Northeners felt that the rebellion could be crushed with the capture of the
Confederate capital of Richmond. Union troops gathered in Washington, D.C. and prepared to
march to Richmond. However, the troops would not make it that far. At a Virginia creek known
as Bull Run, Union forces clashed with Southern forces on July 21, 1861. A group of politicians
and society folks watched as the rebel lines held firm against the Union attack. Eventually, the
inexperienced Union soldiers would flee the battlefield in a panic. Bull Run was an overwhelming
victory for the South. For the North, it was a shocking blow. Any conceptions that this
rebellion would end quickly were completely wiped out. This was going to be a long and bloody
war.
8. Label Washington, D.C.
9. Label Bull Run.
The Union war plan called on the North gaining control of the Mississippi River. General
Ulysses S. Grant turned his attention to achieving this goal. After quick victories at Fort
Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, Grant moved on to Shiloh, a small village where the
Tennessee River flows into the Mississippi. At Shiloh on April 6, 1862, Grant was able to
defeat the Confederate forces and gain control of the northern Mississippi River. However,
the price of victory was steep. For the Confederacy, the death of General Albert S. Johnston
of Texas was a great loss for it gave Grant an open door to the Mississippi. After Shiloh,
Grant receives recognition for his skills on the battlefield.
10. Label Shiloh.
11. Label the Mississippi River.
Updated 06/21/02
2
As the war waged on, the human toll became more pronounced. In September 1862,
General Lee went on the offensive against Union forces by marching his troops into Maryland.
Lee believed a Confederate victory in the North would crush the enemy’s morale. But luck was
not on Lee’s side. His battle plans were lost and then retrieved by the enemy. On September 17,
Union forces led by George McClellan pounded the severely outnumbered Confederate forces led
by Robert E. Lee. Under cover of darkness, Lee and his troops slipped back across the Virginia
border on September 18. Antietam was the single bloodiest day of battle in American history
with 24,000 casualties. While both sides suffered severe losses, the North claimed the battle
as a victory since the enemy had retreated. Antietam was politically important as well.
President Lincoln needed a Union victory so he could issue the Emancipation Proclamation. The
timing of the document’s release was crucial for Lincoln did not want the announcement to be
viewed as a last ditch effort to save a losing Union. The Union victory at Antietam gave him the
perfect opportunity. With the announcement, Great Britain and France shied away from the
Confederacy.
12. Label Antietam.
In spite of several defeats, the South was not ready to throw in the towel. Lee was
willing to risk another invasion of the North in hopes of capturing a city and convincing the
enemy to seek peace. Union and Confederate troops met up at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July
1, 1863. After three days of fighting, both sides faced great losses. But Robert E. Lee lost a
third of his army and was forced to withdraw back to Virginia on July 4. This would mark the
last time the Confederacy would ever invade the North. For the remaining months of the war,
the South was only able to fight defensively. The war had reached its turning point.
Several months later, Lincoln attended a ceremony dedicating the cemetery at the battle
site. While Lincoln was not the main speaker, he used the occasion to give his noteworthy
speech, the Gettysburg Address. In this speech, he honored the dead and reaffirmed the
American ideals established in the Constitution.
13. Label Gettysburg.
While the Battle of Gettysburg was being fought in Pennsylvania, Union forces under
General Grant were moving on the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, as they tried to gain complete
control of the Mississippi River. For six weeks, the Confederacy was able to hold off the Union
siege (a prolonged attack on a fortified place by an army in order to capture it) that bombarded
them on land and on the river by building trenches in the bluffs overlooking the river. Once food
and supplies were gone, the Confederate forces surrendered on July 4, 1863. The Confederacy
was now divided in two and another turning point in the war had been reached.
14. Label Vicksburg.
Updated 06/21/02
3
Grant believed in total warfare (war on the enemy’s will to fight and its ability to support
an army). Therefore, he sent orders to his generals to inflict all the damage they could on the
enemy’s war resources. General William Tecumseh Sherman reached Atlanta (the South’s most
important rail and manufacturing center) in September 1864, and promptly set the city ablaze.
After burning Atlanta, Sherman continued on his march to the sea through Georgia and into the
Carolinas destroying everything in sight. By the end of October, a steady path of destruction
through the three states was complete.
All focus then turned to Richmond. After nine months of battering Lee’s forces, Grant’s
army was able to break through Confederate lines to capture the city. On April 9, 1865, General
Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. While the Civil War was
now over, it did take some time before the news spread through the entire country. On May 13,
1865, Confederate forces defeated Union forces at Palmito Ranch (near Brownsville, Texas).
The Confederate forces learned that General Lee had surrendered a month before.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Label Sherman’s March.
Label Appomattox Courthouse.
Label Palmito Ranch.
Color the Union States
Confederate States
Territories
Border States
Updated 06/21/02
4
Fill in the missing parts of the Battle Chart from the information you just read.
Date
Battle
April 12, 1861
July 21, 1861
Victor
Confederacy
Antietam (Maryland)
Union gained control of
the northern
Mississippi
Union
July 1- 4, 1863
July 4, 1863
(6 weeks)
Turning point of the
war; Confederates
would never again
invade the North;
Gettysburg Address
Vicksburg (Mississippi)
Union
Sherman’s March
(Georgia, South
Carolina, North
Carolina)
April 9, 1865
total warfare;
destroyed everything
useful to the South
Union
Palmito Ranch
Updated 06/21/02
beginning of the Civil
War
1st Bull Run (Virginia)
Shiloh (Tennessee)
September 17-18, 1862
Significance
South won the battle
but had already lost
the war
5
Confederate States
Union States
Border States
Territories
Battles
Capitals
Updated 1/25/02
6