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Chapter 11 Review American History Fort Sumter:
1. A Union fort that was strategically located in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. 2. After Southern states seceded from the Union they needed the fort to control access to the cities port. 3. In early March of 1861, the Commander of the fort notified Washington that they desperately needed supplies. a. If not they would soon fall to the Confederates. 4. The North wanted to keep the fort. a. If they lost the fort they saw it as an admission that South Carolina was really out of the Union. 5. Lincoln was hesitant to use force to keep Fort Sumter. a. Feared the reaction of the eight slave states that were still part of the Union. i. Several of these states said they would secede also if Lincoln used force against the Confederacy. 6. Lincoln decided to resupply the fort. a. Used the logic that if the Confederates fired on unarmed supply ships they would be the aggressors not the Union. b. Sent a message to the South Carolina governor that a supply ships, not troops or arms, was on its way to Fort Sumter. i. The message was passed on to the local military commander of the Confederate army. 1. He ordered the federal troops to evacuate the fort. a. Major Anderson refused. 7. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter. a. The fort was bombarded for 34 hours. i. Anderson was forced to surrender when most of the fort was on fire and their ammunition was running low. 8. On April 15th, Lincoln publicly announced that a rebellion existed. a. Asked the governors of the loyal states to provide a militia of 75, 000 men to serve for three months. 9. The fall of Fort Sumter is considered the first battle of the Civil War. Anaconda Plan:
1. The Unions military plan for the Civil War. a. A three part strategy. i. Capture Richmond, the Confederate capital ii.
Gain control of the Mississippi River iii.
Institute a naval blockade of the South. a.
This was important because the South depended on foreign markets to sell cotton and buy supplies. b. Most of the strategy relied on geography. Bull Run:
1. There were two battles fought near this creek about 25 miles outside of Washington D.C. a. Also known as the Battle of Manassas by the Confederates. b. On July 21, 1861, approximately 35,000 Confederate met with Union forces near Manassas Junction. i. A railroad crossing. ii. Confederates dug in on the high ground behind the creek. c. The first battle of the day went in the Union’s favor. i. The left flank of the Confederate line almost broke. 1. General Stonewall Jackson and his men stopped the Union line. 2. Union army retreated back toward Washington. 2. Many civilians went to watch the battle from their Washington D.C. and surrounding area homes. a. Brought picnics and made it a social event. b. Once the fight began and began moving toward their location panic and a mass retreat occurred. 3. The Confederate army failed to follow the retreating Union army at Bull Run. a. They were disorganized and too tired to go after the Union troops. b. If they had pursued them there was a possibility that Washington might have been captured. 4. This battle made everyone realize that the war would last longer than a few months. a. Each side began to train their forces for battle and develop strategy plans. 5. The battles most important consequences were psychological. a. The North was shamed and shocked. 6. The second battle at Bull Run took place in August of 1862. a. Another clear victory for the Confederates. Shiloh: 1. Took place in Tennessee near the Mississippi state line in 1862. a. Union General Ulysses S. Grant had stopped near Shiloh Church after capturing two important Confederate forts on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. b. Grant new that two Confederate armies were at Corinth, Mississippi but did not expect them to attack. i. Grant and his men were caught by surprise on April 6, 1862 when thousands of Confederate soldiers rushed them. 1. Grant was pushed back to the Tennessee River by the end of the day. 2. Early the next morning Grant launched an attack on the Confederate army that had overrun them the day before. a. The Battle of Shiloh lasted until the middle of the afternoon. i. Grant had been successful in stopping the Confederate army and forced them to retreat. b. Both sides had huge casualties. i. The Union had more than 13,000 ii. The Confederates had more than 10,000. 1. Including General Albert Sidney Johnston. Antietam: 1. Battle took place in September of 1862 at Antietam Creek on the Virginia, Maryland border. 2. Lee began crossing the Potomac into Maryland with approximately 55,000 troops hoping for a major victory in the North. a. Troop numbers dropped to approximately 50,000 over the next few days. i. His men were hungry, tired and sick. 3. The Union army had lost track of Lee for four days. a. Things changed when a soldier found a copy of Lee’s battle plans wrapped around a pack of cigars. b. General McClellan and approximately 75, 000 Union troops acted on the information and met Lee at Antietam Creek. 4. The Battle of Antietam lasted all day. a. Became one of the bloodiest battles of the war. i. Confederates suffered more than 13, 000 casualties ii. Union suffered more than 12,000 casualties. 5. Antietam was not a clear‐cut union victory. a. Lee withdrew to Virginia raised the North’s confidence. i. Proved that Lee could be beaten ii. South lost any hope of getting any support form European countries. 1. They did not want to risk backing a loser. 6. McClellan’s failure to go after Lee’s army resulted in his being fired by President Lincoln. Fort Pillow:
1. A Union fort in Tennessee. 2. Fort had both white and black soldiers assigned to the fort. 3. In 1864, Confederate troops attacked the Henning, Tennessee Fort which was located on the Mississippi River. a. Their goal was to take out the Unions supplies and and communication lines. 4. After overtaking the fort, Confederate soldiers killed over 200 African‐American soldiers that were prisoners of war. a. The battle was labeled a massacre following the testimony of survivor’s testimony to a congressional sub committee. Gettysburg:
1. Lee decided to try another invasion into the North following his victory at Chancellorsville. a. Felt it would be an opportunity to resupply and feed his troops at the expense of the Northerners. i. Take what he needed from the enemy. 2.
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Lee crossed into Pennsylvania with approximately 75,000 troops in June of 1863. a. Moved near the town of Gettysburg by the end of June. i. A scout reported that there was a supply of shoes in the town. ii. A raiding party was formed to get much needed shoes for the troops. Lee and the Confederates did not know that two Union brigades were positioned on high ground northwest of Gettysburg. a. The Confederate raiding party was met with Union fire on July 1, 1863. The first day of fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg allowed the Confederates to push the Union line back to an area called Cemetery Ridge. a. Confederates held Seminary Ridge located about ½ mile form the Union lines. i. Having the lower ground, Lee knew there was going to be more fighting. Lee attacked the Union on its left side on July 2nd. a. Tried without success to capture a hill called Little Round Top. On July 3rd, Lee ordered approximately 15,000 mend to rush the center of the Union army on Cemetery Ridge. a. He lost half the men he sent to take the ridge. The Battle of Gettysburg has staggering numbers of casualties on both sides. a. After three days of fighting: i. Union army casualties numbered more than 23,000. ii. The Confederate casualties numbered more than 20,000. The Union army was the victor, but again failed to end the war with this opportunity. 8.
Battle of Chancellorsville: 1. Battle took place near Chancellorsville, Virginia beginning on April 30, 1863. 2. The battle was part of a plan introduced by General Joseph Hooker to crush Lee’s forces. a. He proposed to divide his army into three parts to cut off Lee’s supply lines and attack from both flanks. 3. Hooker took his 134,000 force to position his men in a deep forest near Chancellorsville. 4. Lee outmaneuvered Hooker when he divides his troops. a. Sent Stonewall Jackson and approximately 30,000 men through the forest to outflank Hooker. i. Hooker saw the troop movement as a sign of retreat by the Confederates. b. Lee and Jackson attacked Hookers forces from two sides. i. After several days of fighting Hooker retreated in defeat. 5. The victory at Chancellorsville was not a great victory. a. Stonewall Jackson was shot by one of his centuries while riding back into camp. i. Thought Jackson was a Union cavalryman. ii. Jackson had to have his arm amputated. 1. Eight days later he died of pneumonia. Battle of Vicksburg:
1. Took place in Vicksburg, Mississippi. a. Ended the same day the Battle of Gettysburg ended. 2. Ulysses S. Grant and his army went after the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. a. The stronghold, one of two, was preventing the Union army from taking complete control of the Mississippi River. 3.
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b. He sent Calvary to destroy the railroad lines in Central Mississippi as a diversion. i. Grant then took his infantry south of Vicksburg where he took out two Confederate units and took Jackson, the state capital. Confident of a victory, he rushed Vicksburg with two frontal assaults. Grant and his men laid siege on Vicksburg. a. His forced the Confederates holding Vicksburg to eat their mules and rats to keep from starving. b. Confederates met on July 3, 1863 to discuss the terms of a Confederate surrender. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson:
1. General in the Confederate army. a. The leading officer at the Battle of Bull Run and was with Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Seven Days’ Campaign. 2. Was shot by one of his own soldiers following the battle at Chancellorsville, a. Was mistaken as a Union cavalry rider. b. Forced to have his arm amputated and later died from pneumonia. 3. General Lee considered Jackson his most valued General. George McClellan:
1. Union army officer and veteran of the Mexican War. 2. Appointed to lead the Union Army of the Potomac by Lincoln following the Battle of Bull Run. 3. Known as an extremely cautious man. a. Would not move his men until he had trained them for five month. b. Lincoln was getting frustrated and impatient with McClellan and finally remarked that he would like to use his army if McClellan wasn’t going to be using them. 4. McClellan finally began moving his army a few days before the Battle of Shiloh. a. Successfully occupied Yorktown, Virginia. i. Then slowly marched on Richmond while asking for reinforcements. b. McClellan suffered a series of defeats and one draw. i. Lincoln ordered his army back to Washington D.C. ii. Washington unofficially removed McClellan of his command and gave it to General John Pope. 1. After his failure Lincoln placed McClellan back as head of the Army of the Potomac. 5. McClellan became bold when he learned of Lee’s plans to cross the Potomac River into Maryland when a solder found Lee’s plans wrapped around cigars. a. Caught up with Lee and won a Union victory at the Battle of Antietam but failed to go after the retreating Confederate army. i. Result was Lincoln firing him permanently. Ulysses S. Grant:
1. General in the Union army and the head of the troops in the Western conflict. 2. He was a West Point graduate. 3. A failure at anything he tried as a civilian, but a decisive military commander. 4. Fought in the western conflicts of Shiloh and Vicksburg. 5. Appointed as commander of the Union army in 1864. a. His was a strong war strategist. i. His plan was to immobilize Lee’s army in Virginia. ii. Have General Sherman raid Georgia. 6. Was the Union general that met Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia for the terms of the Confederate surrender at the end of the Civil War. David G. Farragut:
1. A veteran of the War of 1812, and the Mexican War. 2. Went to sea at the age of ten and worked his way up to becoming a Captain in the United States Navy. 3. Known as a careful observer and long term planner. a. Never entered a port without memorizing its statistics and its defenses. 4. Was sixty years old at the beginning of the Civil War. a. Considered a Northerner in spirit and a Southerner by birth. b. Called to serve the Union army in 1862 after being retired. i. He commanded the blockade of the Gulf of Mexico and capture the port of New Orleans. 5. Defeated the Confederate fleet by smashing through the Confederates underwater barrier and engaging in a fight. a. Used the same tactics at Port Hudson and helped Grant capture Vicksburg. 6. His greatest victory of the war was is capture of Mobile, Alabama, the Confederates last port on the Gulf. in 1864. a. Farragut moved his flagship past artillery fire from the Confederate forts in Mobile Bay and destroyed the remaining Confederate navy. 7. In 1866, Congress created the rank of full admiral for him. Robert E. Lee:
1. Commander of the Confederate army in the Civil War. 2. Opposed succession, but joined the Confederate army out of loyalty to Virginia. a. Turned down Lincoln’s offer to be commissioned as head of the Union army. 3. Known for being bold and imaginative. a. Directed many of the most brilliant military movements of the war. 4. Very well respected and liked by other officers and soldiers. 5. Graduated second in his class from West Point. 6. Served in the Mexican War 7. Was in charge of the troops that stopped John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. 8. Fought in many of the major battles of the Civil War. a. Second Battle of Bull Run b. Battle of Antietam c. Battle of Gettysburg d. Battle of Chancellorsville 8. Lee surrendered his troops to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House which ended the Civil War on April 7, 1865. a. This was after Richmond, Virginia fell into Union armies hands on April 2, 1865. Clara Barton:
1. A Union nurse during the Civil War. a. One of the few women to go directly to the front lines to work. i. Dug bullets out of the wounded with a penknife. b. Collected and distributed supplies and had to pass through enemy lines to get them to troops. c. Had an excellent ability to anticipate troop movements. i. Often time she would arrive at the battlefields before the troops. 2. A field surgeon described her as the “angle of the battlefield.” 3. Founded the American Red Cross William Tecumseh Sherman:
1. Union general during the Civil War. 2. Often considered a match to Grant in determination. 3. Known to be brilliant, ambitious and moody. 4. Fought at Vicksburg and other battles. a. As a reward Grant made Sherman the Commander of the Tennessee army. 5. Sherman moves his 100,000 men out of Tennessee and moved on Atlanta, Georgia in May of 1864. a. Confederate army fell back as he entered Atlanta in September of 1864. i. Captured the city. 1. Ordered the city evacuated and burned a major portion of it. b. Sherman had cut the only Confederate railroad link across the Appalachian Mountains. 6. From Atlanta, Sherman marched toward Savannah, Georgia. a. Cut off from major supply lines, he had his men steal what supplies they needed. b. Destroyed anything he felt might be useful to the Confederates during his march leaving nearly stripped a line 60 miles wide and almost 300 miles long... i. Uprooted crops ii. Burned farmhouses iii. Slaughtered livestock iv. Tore up railroad tracks 7. Much of Sherman’s destructive march exceeded his orders it became part of his tactic of fighting a total war. a. Believed that to win the Union had to strike the enemies economic resources. 8. Reached Savannah on December 10, 1864. a. He was resupplied by the Union navy and then turned north to meet up with Grant. Monitor:
1. A Union ironclad ship. 2. The ship was a steam driven ship with ironplate armor on the ship. 3. The first ship to have a revolving gun turret 4. Met up in 1862 with the confederate ironclad off the southeast coast of Virginia. a. Was a part of the first navel battle in American history between two ironclads. Merrimac:
1. An ironclad that was captured by the Confederacy. a. Renamed the Virginia. 2. Took part in the first ironclad sea battle with the Union ironclad Monitor. a. Battle ended in a draw, but the Virginia had to go to Norfolk for repairs. Emancipation Proclamation:
1. Lincoln lacked the constitutional authority to abolish slavery. a. As commander in chief he did have the authority to institute military measures. i. Informed his cabinet that he planned to issue a new military order. 2. Announce the Emancipation Proclamation. a. By a certain date, all slaves living in areas still rebelling against the United States would be free. i. To reassure constitutional concerns, he assured them this step would only apply to states belonging to the Confederacy. 1. This assurance stopped any concerns about the status of slaves in the border states. 3. Lincoln was advised by his Secretary of State William H. Seward to keep the Emancipation Proclamation a secret until there was a major Union victory. a. Came on September 17, 1862 at Antietam. 4. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary draft of the proclamation . a. It would go into effect at the beginning of 1863. 5. It would take more than three years after the Proclamation was issued for slavery to be abolished. 6. The Emancipation Proclamation brought a decisive change in the war. a. Slavery became an issue. b. Slaves left their masters to join the Union army. Habeas Corpus:
1. A court order that requires authorities to bring an individual in jail before a court to determine why the individual is being jailed. 3. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus to deal with the Confederate sympathizers in the Union. a. They were to be held without a trial. i. This included Copperheads. b. Thousands of Copperheads and other opponents of the war were arrested and held with a trial. i. Some arrests were justified for participating in the draft riots. 4. Lincoln’s decision to suspend the writ of habeas corpus expanded presidential powers during wartime. a. Jefferson Davis denounced Lincoln’s methods of quieting sympathizers, but did the same thing in the Confederacy in 1862. Copperheads:
1. Northerners that advocated peace with the south. a. Majority of them actively interfered with the war efforts. i. Most limited their antiwar activities to speeches and newspaper articles. 2. Most famous Copperhead was Democratic Congressman from Ohio, Clement Villandigham. a. He was tried and convicted by a military court for urging Union soldiers to desert. b. He publicly advocated for an armistice. 3.Most limited their antiwar activities to speeches and newspaper articles. Conscription:
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Another name for a military draft. 2.
Invoked by both the Union and Confederacy. a. Due to the large number of casualties and deserters. 3.
This draft required certain members of the population to serve in the army. a. Confederacy passed the law in 1862. i. Required white males between the ages of 17 and 50 to join. ii. Allowed slaveholders of 20 or more slaves exempt iii. Allowed any man who was draft age to hire someone else to fight in his place. b. The Union passed the draft law in 1863. i. Required white males between the ages of 25 and 45 to fight for 3 years. ii. Like the South, men could hire substitutes to take their place or pay the government $300 to avoid the draft. c. The Union draft caused a riot in New York in 1863. i. Approximately 100 died. ii. The poor, and immigrants felt it was unfair to fight for the freedom of slaves. 1. When they were free they would be competing for their jobs. 4.
The draft in both governments was considered unfair. a. The military became disproportionately poor with the rich being able to pay their way out of fighting. Income Tax:
1. This tax was first authorized by Congress in 1863. a. Passed to help pay for the war. b. Levied a 5% tax on incomes between $600 and $5,000 and 10% on incomes over $5,000. 2. Congress also believed that with the economy booming due to the war they should tap into industries huge profits. Andersonville: 1. Confederate prisoner of war camp near Andersonville, Georgia. a. Considered to have the worst living conditions of any prisoner of war camp in the Civil War. i. Interred more than 33, 000 men into 26 acres to live. ii. Prisoners had no shelter from the elements provided. 1. Created shelters from materials they had. iii. Their access to drinking water was also their sewer and those of the prison guards. iv. The South had a food shortage and the camp was unable to feed its prisoners. b. Approximately 1/3 of all its prisoners died in the camp. 4. The Commander of the camp was the only man to be tried for war crimes and executed. a. His name was Captain Henry Weirz. b. Described as a brutal man toward the prisoners. Gettysburg Address:
1. President Lincoln helped dedicate a cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield in November of 1863. a. Edward Everett of Massachusetts was the main speaker at the dedication. i. Spoke for two hours 2. Lincoln gave a brief speech that lasted about two minutes. a. His words were eloquent statement of democratic ideals. Appomattox Court House:
1. On April 2, 1865, Grant closed in on Lee as he withdrew from Richmond, Virginia. a. Lee’s army was ½ of Grants and knew his army would not survive another summer like that in 1864. b. Moral was very low. i. Tried to make a run to the west in hopes of joining more troops. 1. His escape was cut off by Grant. 2. Lee asked for terms of surrender and met with Grant in the village of Appomattox Court House. a. The terms of surrender were worked out between the two of them. 4. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. Northern Advantages going into the Civil War:
1. Had a population of 22 million people. 2. Had over 85% of the nation’s industries. 3. Almost all the known supplies of metals a. Gold b. Iron c. Copper 4.
Most of the nation’s railroad lines were in the Northeast. a. Produced most of the nation’s railway equipment. A strong navy. 5.
Southern Advantages going into the Civil War:
1. Had to fight a defensive war. a. Protect its territory until the North tired of the struggle. 2. Had an excellent military leadership. 3. Motivated to defend their way of life. 4. Had money from the sale of cotton 5. Strong military tradition. Confederate Weaknesses going into the Civil War:
1. Did not have a strong central government. 2. Had limited access to railroads 3. Had few factories to create military supplies 4. Had no navy to start. 5. Cash crops were their main crop, so food was going to be scare.