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US History
Fort Burrows
17.2 -- No Easy Victory
READ pgs 490 – 495
Main Idea:
Despite hopes for a quick victory, both northerners and southerners soon
learned that they were in for a long, difficult struggle.
Vocabulary:
Battle of Bull Run – first major battle of the Civil War, fought in Virginia in 1861
Virginia – ironclad warship used by the Confederates to break the Union blockade
Monitor – ironclad Union warships
Battle of Antietam – 1862, battle in Maryland; day-long battle, more than 23,000
soldiers killed or wounded
Battle of Fredericksburg – an 1862 Civil War battle in Virginia; one of the Union’s
worst defeats
Battle of Chancellorsville – an 1863 Civil War battle in Virginia; important victory for
the Confederacy
Battle of Shiloh – 1862, battle in Tennessee, Union victory, also the bloodiest battle of
the Civil War
Gen – Army General
Setting the Scene:
At first the armies of the North and the South marched proudly off to war. Each
side expected a quick and painless victory. The reality of war soon shattered this
expectation. Over and over, soldiers wrote home describing the awful face of battle:
“I never saw so many broken down and exhausted men in all my life. I was sick
as a horse, and as wet with blood and sweat as I could be…. Our tongues were
parched and cracked for water, and our faces blackened with powder and
smoke.”
quoted by Shelby Foote in The Civil War: A Narrative
It soon became clear that there would be no quick end to the struggle. Both sides
began to dig in for a long, difficult war.
Strategies for Victory
 The Union planned an aggressive campaign; attack and move in -- OFFENSIVE
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Fort Burrows
 The South planned to hold tight until the North lost the will to fight: protect what
you already have -- DEFENSIVE
 Union Plans
 Blockade Southern ports; cut off the South’s supply of manufactured goods
from Europe
 In the East, seize Richmond, Virginia the Confederate capital; quickly
capture the Confederate government
 In the West, seize control of the Mississippi River; prevent the South from
using the river to supply its troops
 This maneuver would also separate Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana from
the rest of the Confederacy
 Confederate Plans
 Fight a strictly defensive war until the Northerners tired of fighting
 When the war became unpopular in the North, Lincoln would stop the
fighting and recognize the South’s independence
 The Confederacy counted on aid from Europe
 Cotton was grown in the South; European textile mills needed their cotton
 Europe, in need of this Southern cotton, would recognize the Confederacy as
an independent nation
 Thus, continue to buy the South’s primary resource -- COTTON
Early Encounters
 Forward to Richmond! Forward to Richmond!
 Every day for more than a month, the New York Tribune published this on the
front-page of their newspaper
 Giving into popular public pressure, Lincoln ordered an ATTACK!!!
 Battle of Bull Run
 July 21, 1861, Union troops left Washington, D.C.
 They headed toward Richmond, Virginia, 100 miles away
 Washingtonians, civilians from Washington, D.C., rode along with the
troops to watch the battle
 The two armies met up near a small stream in Virginia know as Bull Run
 The Union began breaking through the Confederate battle lines
 The Yankees yelled, “The war is OVER!”
 Confederate General Thomas Jackson began gathering the Virginian troops
 A Confederate soldier said, “Look! There is Jackson standing like a stone
wall! Rally behind the Virginians!”
 This was how Gen Jackson got his nickname, ‘Stonewall’ Jackson
 The Union troops panicked and retreated back toward Washington, D.C.
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 The Battle of Bull Run showed both armies that their men needed training;
also, it would be a long and bloody war!
¿¿ What was the significance of the Battle of Bull Run ?
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 Caution, Delay, and Retreat
 After the Bull Run disaster, Lincoln appointed General George McClellan as
Commander of the Union Army of the East
 This group was known as the Army of the Potomac
 McClellan transformed the inexperienced Union recruits into a trained
group of soldiers – Ready for Battle!
 He was a cautious leader; newspapers made fun AT him: ‘All quiet along the
Potomac’
 President Lincoln lost his patience; “If Gen McClellan does not want to use
the army, I would like to borrow it.”
 McClellan got the point; in March he sailed with some of his troops down the
Potomac; landing South of Richmond, heading toward the Confederate
capital
 Gen Lee began counterattacks; Gen Jackson headed North to threaten
Washington
 As a result Lincoln was prevented from sending the remainder of troops;
they stayed to protect Washington
 Still cautious, McClellan abandoned the attack and began retreating
 Naval Action
 Union ships blockaded southern ports
 Small fast ships, ‘blockade runners’ slipped through the Union blockade
 These ‘blockade runners’ delivered matches, guns, and other needed
supplies
 The North tightened-up the blockade delivery rate to 1 out of 10 ships;
cutting supplies by 90%
 The Confederates took an abandoned Union warship, covered it with iron
plates and named it the CSS Virginia
 On the Virginia’s maiden voyage, she destroyed two Union ships and ran
three aground
 Union cannonballs bounced harmlessly off the Virginia’s metal skin
 The Union countered with its own ironclad ship the USS Monitor
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 The two ships clashed near Hampton Roads, VA; after an exhausting battle
neither vessel was seriously damaged
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Fear of losing the Virginia, Confederates sank the ship after losing Norfolk
The Union built 50 more ironclads
The South did not have the materials or resources to build ironclad ships
The Union dominated the seas and tightened the blockade
Stopped ALL cargo from reaching the Confederate Army
¿¿ How did the battle between the Virginia and the Monitor change warfare at sea ?
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 Antietam
 September 1862, Lee takes offensive and marched his troops North into
Maryland
 A Union officer found a copy of Lee’s battle plan; wrapped around three
cigars, which was carelessly left behind by one of Lee’s officers
 McClellan boasted, “If I cannot whip ‘Bobbie Lee’, I will be willing to go
home”
 McClellan attacked Lee’s main force at Antietam (an TEE tuhm), Sept 17
 After a day long battle, 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were dead or
wounded
 At night fall, Lee retreated back to Virginia
 Neither side was a clear winner of the Battle of Antietam even though the
North claimed a victory due to the retreat; a huge morale boost for the
Yankees
 Lincoln was disappointed that McClellan did not follow the retreating
Confederate army to insure a Northern victory
 Lincoln replaced McClellan with General Ambrose Burnside
 Burnside was now the Commander of the Army of the Potomac
Confederate Victories in the East
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Two stunning victories for the Confederates
1st – the Battle of Fredericksburg; one of the Union’s worst defeats
Confederate guns mowed down wave after wave of Union soldiers
Burnside’s Union Army lost 13,000 men compared to 5,000 men for the South
2nd – the Battle of Chancellorsville
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Fort Burrows
 Lee combined troops with Stonewall; three days of fighting produced another
Southern victory
 This victory came at a high price
 Confederate sentries fired at what they thought was Union soldiers
 The mistaken Union soldiers was actually Stonewall Jackson and his men
 Gen Stonewall Jackson was wounded and died several days later
 This mistake was a huge blow against the Confederate Army
Union Victories in the West
 Union strategy for the West was to capture and control the Mississippi River
 General Ulysses S Grant was in charge for the Union
 February 1862, Grant attacked and captured Forts Henry and Donelson in
Tennessee
 These Confederate forts guarded important tributaries of the Mississippi River
 Grant showed his toughness and determination by winning a 3rd battle, the
Battle of Shiloh; one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War
 The Union Navy captured New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee
 By capturing these two ‘port’ cities, the Union controlled both end of the
Mississippi River; Ole Man River became a Yankee
 The South could no longer use the river as a supply line
1. What strategies did each side adopt to win the war ?
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2. How did early encounters dispel hopes for a quick end to the war ?
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3. What victories did the Confederate achieve ?
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4. What victories did the Union achieve ?
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