Download Union and Confederate forces fought many battles in the

Union and Confederate forces fought many battles in the Civil War’s
four years. Land battles were fought mostly in states west of the
Mississippi River; sea battles were fought along the Atlantic coast
and in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Many more factories,
people, & railroads
• Huge advantage in
weapons & military
• Stronger political
structure
April 12, 1861
Fort Sumter lay in a strategic location in the
harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The South
Fort the
Sumter
wastoacontrol
federal
fortto in
needed
fort in order
access
this
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theport
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In March
1861 theConfederate
fort’s commander,forces
Major Robert
staged
a word
24-hour
bombardment
Anderson
sent
to Washington
that he was
nearly
against
out of
itsupplies.
and, by
Without
attacking
reinforcements,
federal
Sumter
would had
soon fall
to the Confederates.
property,
committed
an act of
rebellion.
To uphold
The open
president
hesitated because
most ofthe
the
Constitution,
President
slave
states that remain
in the UnionLincoln
had
threatened
to he
secede
if he
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believed
had
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but tothe
Confederacy.
call for troops to respond against
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thedecided
Confederacy.
AsSumter,
a direct
Lincoln
to resupply Fort
result,
War began.
reasoning
that the
if theCivil
Confederates
fired on
unarmed supply ships, then they, not the Union,
would be the aggressors.
South Carolina
April 12, 1861
On April 6, 1861, supply ships were on their way,
but the ships carried only supplies, not troops
or arms.
At 4:30 A.M, on April 12 the Confederate forces
opened fire on Fort Sumter. For 34 hours the
Confederate bombarded Sumter.
Finally, with much of the Fort ablaze and their
ammunition running low, Anderson and his
men formally surrendered.
Significance = marked the beginning of the
Civil War
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On April 15 Lincoln publicly announced the
existence of a rebellion. He called for the
states to provide 75,000 soldiers to put down
the uprising.
South Carolina
Virginia
Virginia
Strategies
Lincoln and his military advisers adopted a three-part
strategy.
1) capture Richmond, Virginia the Confederate capital;
2) to gain control of the Mississippi River;
3) to institute a naval blockade of the south.
The naval blockade was a nickname the Anaconda Plan
because it was designed to slowly squeeze the life out of the
south like an anaconda snake. It was important because
the south depended on foreign markets to sell its cotton
and to buy supplies.
The Confederacy adopted a defensive strategy and
attempted to secure alliances with more powerful
countries such as Britain and France. To do that,
the South needed to show it could win the war. As
a result, the Confederate army attacked Union
territory to draw Union troops away from the
South and to impress potential allies. As the war
continued, the Southern strategy became one of
evading the Union army, prolonging the war, and
inflicting casualties to demoralize the North.
Tennessee
Maryland
Maryland
Fredericksburg
December 13, 1862
Fredericksburg was the site of a
battle in December 1862. Union
soldiers led a march on Richmond,
but was delayed for more than two
weeks because of late-arriving
supplies. General Lee positioned his
army, deploying snipers to pick off
Federal troops. Confederate artillery
decimated Union forces. Many
Union soldiers were left in the open
after crossing military pontoon
bridges, and they became easy prey
for Confederate troops. Burnside
had no choice but to retreat with the
remnants of his army.
Virginia
Vicksburg
May 2-July 9, 1863
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant laid
siege to Vicksburg, Mississippi,
because the army that controlled its
high ground over a bend in the
Mississippi River would control
traffic on the whole river. After a
seven-week siege, Grant achieved
one of the Union’s major strategic
goals: He gained control of the
Mississippi River. Confederate
troops and supplies in Arkansas,
Louisiana, and Texas were cut off
from the Confederacy. This Union
victory, coupled with the Union
victory at Gettysburg, was the
turning point of the war.
Mississippi
Pennsylvania
Brief speech at
dedication to the
battlefield
Lincoln says this is a
war to preserve the
country
America is not a
collection of states
but 1 nation of people
Sherman’s March to the Sea
November 15-December 20, 1864
As the Union army moved through
the South, they destroyed train
tracks by heating the rails and
bending them into a bow. This
became known as “Sherman’s
Neckties”
Union General William T. Sherman
already had captured Atlanta, but he
wanted to leave sixty thousand troops
there while he marched the rest of his
army to the Atlantic Ocean through
Savannah, Georgia. During this time,
Confederate General John Hood had
led troops in a raid on Tennessee,
leaving Sherman’s soldiers to face
fewer than five thousand Confederate
soldiers. Sherman’s troops burned
buildings and infrastructures along
the way, destroying many towns and
cities. Sherman’s troops defeated the
depleted Confederate army and took
Savannah on December 22, 1864.
Virginia
April 9, 1865
General Lee surrendered his
Confederate army at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia, on April 9,
1865. Lee’s army had diminished,
which contributed to Union General
Grant’s many victories near the end
of the war. In a sign of respect,
Grant allowed Lee to keep his saber
and horse.
General Joseph Johnston was the
last Confederate general who
continued to fight. He still believed
that the South could win the war.
Johnston’s troops eventually fell to
federal troops, and he surrendered
to General Sherman on April 26,
1865.