Download Civil War Part I

Civil War Part I
Eastern & Western Campaign
Mid 1863-1865
Gettysburg Battle – July 1-3, 1863
Union & Confederacy Major
Players
UNION
• Commander: General George Meade
• Brig. Gen. John Buford’s cavalry (1st
day)
• Major Gen. John Reynolds (Union 1st
Corps), 1st Day)
• General Abner Doubleday (1st day
ordered retreat from McPherson and
Oak Ridge to Seminary Ridge and
ultimately Cemetery Hill)
• Major General Winfield S. Hancock
(took over after Reynolds as Meade’s
second, organized defenses on
Cemetery Hill, wounded from P.C.)
• Colonel Joshua Chamberlain (Little
Round Top)
• Major General Daniel Sickles (Devils’
Den
CONFEDERATE
• Commander: General Robert E. Lee
• Three Large Corps
–
–
–
•
•
Gen Henry Heth (1st day)
Jeb Stuart
–
–
•
•
•
General James Longstreet
General Richard Ewell (did not pursue
at night of 1st day)
General A.P. Hill (Cashtown)
Where was he 1st and 2nd day?
What are his orders for the 3rd day?
Successful or not?
John Bell Hood (Devils Den,– 6000
from both sides”)
George Pickett
Brig. General Lewis Armistead (lone
general of Pickett’s charge who was
able to cross the stonewall (The
ANGLE) with about 300 men
McPherson’s
Ridge
Where
Is
JEB
Stuart?
Oak Ridge
Seminary
Ridge
Cemetary
Hill/Ridge
&
Culp’s Hill
“A terribly
Bloody
Day”
The
Wheatfield
“Hell
On Earth”
Cemetary
Hill
And
Culp’s
Hill
Little
Round
Top
Devils
Den, a.k.a.
“valley of
death”
Peach
Orchard
“I will strike him there”
--Robert E. Lee
Dreadful Aftermath
• Casualties, more than: U (23,000), C (28,000)
• Townspeople had to deal with dead, wounded
soldiers long after armies retreated
• Churches, barns, private homes turned into to
hospitals
• Gettysburg Address – Nov. 19, 1863
– National Cemetery
– Reinvigorate the war effort
The Battle at Vicksburg
• Key to controlling the Mississippi River
• Siege of Confederate citadel (May-July 1863)
• Grant’s forces (@70,000) vs. Pemberton’s
forces (@ 30,000)
• Horrors of war experienced by civilians
– Disease, starvation, seeking shelter from bombs
• Pemberton and his soldiers surrendered on July
4th, an unconditional surrender
• Led to surrender of Port Hudson (July 8th), last
Confederate port
• Confederacy had been split in 2 (AK, LA, TX)
Grant takes Command – Spring
1864
•
•
War of Attrition – Grant’s plan to attack Lee and
never let up despite any losses Union may encounter;
Continue fighting until the South had run out of men,
supplies, and the will to fight.
Grant’s 3 Prong offensive
a. Union under the command of General Sheridan,
30,000 men advance up James River towards
Richmond
b. General Sherman march south towards Atlanta to
destroy Southern center
c. Grant and Meade would target Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia
1864 – East and West
10 min. movie clip
Grant’s Eastern Campaigns (The Final Campaigns)
• May 5th: Wilderness (inconclusive)
– Fighting among tangled underbrush and dense
woods
– brushfires and fog, friendly fire
– James Longstreet accidentally shot
• May 9th-12th: Spotsylvania Court House
– Bloody frenzy
– Death of JEB Stuart
– Inconclusive but reiterates Grant’s strategy – war
of attrition
Further Fighting in VA
•
•
June 3rd: Cold Harbor
– Direct frontal assault by Grant
– Lee had built a 6 mile long entrenchment, with rivers protecting both
flanks
– Union forces knew this was bad – pinned scraps of paper to their
uniforms
– Worse decisions he ever made
– Within 30 minutes, 7000 Union troops were cut down – rebel
entrenched
– 4 weeks of grueling battles here – Union loses more than 50,000
men
The Siege of Petersburg begins
– A mere matter of time and numbers – Lee
– Avoid a direct conflict with Lee at Richmond and instead wear
them down
– Important supply, rail, and communications center (connected
directly to Richmond)
– Siege would last over 10 months until end of war --- trench warfare
– Grant brought in reinforcements, but Lee could not
“Tecumseh”
Was it
Necessary?
Sherman’s Western Campaign
INSERT in MARGIN NEXT TO J & K ON NOTES
• Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, @ 108,000 men
– Advanced from Chatt. To Atlanta in May 1864
– Confed General: Joe Johnston (60,000 troops)
replaced by Gen. John Bell Hood
– Sherman troops surround city slowly but methodically
– By Sept, city of Atlanta in Union hands
•
•
•
•
Significant victory, a manufacturing city
South deprived of important communication center
Lost last rail link across Appalachian Mts.
Boosted morale of soldiers/Northerners giving Lincoln what
he needed to win reelection
The Burning of Atlanta
The March to the Sea
• Grant had encouraged Sherman to stay in Georgia to
defeat all troops there, but he had bigger plans
• March forces from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia seaport
---- begins Nov. 15th
– 62,000 troops cut a 60 mile wide (300 mile path) front across the
state intending to “make Georgia howl”
– Sherman cut off all supply lines and live off landscape
– Strip the South of everything the could support war effort
• By Dec. 21st – Sherman outside Savannah “I beg to
present you as a Christmas gift the city”
• Next stop South Carolina and then North– extending
same type of damage as was done in GA
• Gen. Johnston finally surrenders to Sherman pm April
26, 1865
The Destruction of Richmond
and Surrender (April 1865)
• Early 1865, Lee abandons Petersburg and heads to
Richmond
• Davis and Confederacy gov’t told to abandon Richmond
• Panic in the street – Richmond ablaze
• Union troops enter and place under military control
• Lee’s army quickly moved west to no avail
– The Generals had already been in contact
– “There is nothing left for me to do then go see General Grant,
and I would rather die a thousand deaths”
– Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in VA on April 9,
1865– surrender terms were generous
What did the Civil War cost
us?
Loss of
innocence
Devastated
landscape
2% of the
population