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Chapter 17: The Tide of War Turns (1863-1865)
Chapter Guiding Essential Question: In what ways did the Civil War transform the
nation?
Section 1: The Emancipation Proclamation
Section Essential Questions:
1. How did the Emancipation Proclamation affect the war effort?
2. How did African-American soldiers contribute to the Union cause?
I.
A War of Liberation
A. Abolitionists Demand Action
1. Many abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, urged President
Lincoln to emancipate all enslaved Africans
2. Emancipate: to free
3. If the Union promised to end slavery, millions of enslaved Africans
might help the Union cause
4. Lincoln’s opinion: “If I could save the Union without freeing any
slave I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do
it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I
would also do that.”
5. Lincoln did not want to anger the border states (four slave states
that remained in the Union)
6. By the summer of 1862, Lincoln decided that it was worthwhile to
try emancipation; Lincoln waited for a victory before he announced
emancipation
7. After the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln believed that he could issue it
B. The Emancipation Proclamation: document issued by Lincoln that declared
all slaves in Confederate-held territory were free
1. Issued on January 1, 1863
2. Did not actually free many slaves, but had a great impact on the
public
3. Lincoln did not free slaves in border states since he did not believe
the Constitution gave him the right to do so
As the Commander-in-Chief (the President in his role as
commander of all armed forces), Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation to weaken the South
5. Afterward, the Civil War became a war of liberation (the act of
setting someone free)
C. Response to the Proclamation
1. Abolitionists were thrilled, but still did not think Lincoln went far
enough since he did not free all slaves everywhere
2. Northern Democrats were also upset; they thought that this would
only prolong (lengthen) the war by angering the South
3. Union soldiers were happy “to destroy everything that… gives the
rebels strength.”
4. White Southerners were mad; many slaves began to escape to
Union lines which deprived the South of Labor and gave the North
extra soldiers
Fighting for Freedom
A. African-American Soldiers
1. Frederick Douglass called for African-Americans to become soldiers
since then they could start to claim full citizenship (earned it)
2. By war’s end, 180,000 black soldiers fought for the Union
3. White officers led 166 all-black regiments; paid less than whites
B. The 54th Massachusetts
1. 54th Massachusetts Volunteers: regiment of African-American
soldiers that gained fame for its courageous assault on Fort Wagner,
South Carolina
2. The soldiers bravery made them famous and increased AfricanAmerican enlistment
3. If captured, African-American soldiers were executed or returned to
slavery rather than made prisoners of war
4. The war was changing American Society in unexpected ways
4.
II.
Section 2: War Affects Society
Section Essential Questions:
3. What disagreements emerged inside both the Union and the Confederacy?
4. What economic and social changes were caused by the war?
III.
A Divisive Time
A. Disagreements About the War
1. Internal Conflicts in the South
a) The western counties of Virginia broke seceded from Virginia in
the beginning of the war
b) West Virginia joined the Union in 1863
2. Internal Conflicts in the North
a) Copperheads: Northern Democrats who favored peace with the
South
b) Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus to throw the
protesters in jail indefinitely
c) Writ of habeas corpus: law that prevents the government from
holding citizens without formal charges
B. Slaves Undermine the Confederacy
1. Enslaved people slowed their work or stopped working altogether in
order to weaken the Confederacy
2. The number of slaves fleeing Southern plantations increased after
the Emancipation Proclamation
C. The Draft Laws
1. Conscription: military draft; laws requiring men to serve in the
military
2. South instituted the first conscription, but had much unfairness.
The North issued their draft soon after
a) Planters with more than 20 slaves were not drafted
b) Rich could pay for substitutes in both North & South
3. New York City had a draft riot in July 1863
a) Over 1,000 people were killed or wounded
b) Union troops returning from Gettysburg had to put down the
rioting
IV.
Economic and Social Change
A. Economic Effects of the War
1. Food shortages were very common in the South
2. In April, 1863, a bread riot occurred in Richmond, the South’s
capital city
3. Why did food shortages occur?
a) Confederate and invading Union armies seized food
b) Transportation was disrupted
c) Many farmers were in the army; could not harvest their crops
d) Inflation: an increase in the cost of goods and a decrease in the
value of money
4. Prices rose steadily over the course of the war for both sides, but
inflation was really bad in the South
5. Federal government passed two important economic measures
a) Income Tax: tax on earnings
1) First one in nation’s history, in 1861
2) Still around today
b) Greenback: paper money introduced during the Civil War
1) Ensured that people had money to spend
2) Helped the federal government to pay for the war
B. Women Aid the War Effort
1. Women took many more responsibilities: ran farms, did office and
factory jobs, nurses, camp jobs (supplies, cooking, cleaning), spying
2. Clara Barton: Civil War nurse who later founded the Red Cross
3. Some women, such as Jennie Hodgers (aka Albert Cashier) disguised
themselves as men and enlisted
4. Harriet Tubman was a spy in South Carolina; Belle Boyd was the
most famous Confederate spy, arrested six times
C. War Transforms Society
1. Women became active in public life due to the absence of men
2. African Americans gained more rights than ever before
3. Southern small farmers began to resent the burden of what some
thought as a war for rich slaveowners; destroyed Southern morale
Section 3: The North Wins
Section Essential Questions:
5. Why were the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg so significant?
6. How did Grant’s new strategy defeat the Confederacy?
V.
Union Victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg
A. Lee Invades the North
1. Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Lee won great
victories in the east at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville
2. General Lee decided to ride his wave of success and invade the
North again
3. At Chancellorsville, Lee lost his favorite general, Stonewall Jackson,
who was accidentally shot by his Confederate men; this will hurt him in
the coming battle
4. Lee’s reasons for invading the North in June 1863:
a) Lee hoped that a victory in Union territory would fuel Northern
discontent and bring calls for peace
b) A Southern victory might lead European nations to recognize the
Confederacy as an independent nation (and maybe help)
B. The Battle of Gettysburg: Battle in 1863 in Pennsylvania where Union forces
stopped a Confederate invasion of the North (July 1-3)
1. Confederate foragers (looking for boots at Gettysburg) stumbled
onto a Union scouting force; both sides called in reinforcements
2. Union Army of the Potomac: General George Meade in charge with
90,000 Union troops
3. Confederate Army of Northern Virginia: General Robert E. Lee in
charge with 75,000 Confederate soldiers
4. Union forces tried to hold the high ground on Cemetery Ridge,
Culp’s Hill, Little Round Top, Big Round Top, and Rock Creek
5. Confederate forces attempted to dislodge, or remove, them
6. On July 3, Lee ordered General George Pickett to mount a direct
attack on the middle of the Union line
7. George Pickett: Confederate general who fought at Gettysburg
Pickett’s Charge: failed assault on Union positions in the final day of
the Battle of Gettysburg
a) 15,000 troops charged up the ridge into heavy Union fire
b) Only half of the Confederate men made it back alive
9. Meade failed to counterattack and Lee’s army slipped away back
into Virginia; Lincoln furious again
10. Casualties:
a) Union: 23,000 men
b) Confederacy: 28,000 men (1/3rd of Lee’s army)
11. South will never recover from its defeat at Gettysburg
C. The Siege of Vicksburg
1. July 4, 1863, Grant managed to surround Vicksburg and place the
fort under siege
2. After a month and a half of starvation, the city surrendered
3. Siege of Vicksburg: the surrounding of the city of Vicksburg, by
Union forces
4. South is now completely split in two
5. Vicksburg & Gettysburg has now turned the tide of the war in favor
of the North
6. Lincoln thinks Grant could be the man who can finally defeat Lee
The Confederacy Falls
A. Sherman Takes Atlanta
1. March 1864, Lincoln gave General Grant command of all Union
armies
2. Grant called for a coordinated attack with General William
Tecumseh Sherman in the deep South and Grant in Virginia
3. Sherman captured Atlanta in September of 1864; this assured
Lincoln his reelection to the Presidency
4. Sherman’s March to the Sea: Union general Sherman’s destructive
march across Georgia
a) Sherman waged total war; tore up railroad lines, destroyed
crops, and burned and looted towns
b) 60 miles wide and 300 miles long
c) Also freed 19,000 former slaves and led them to freedom
8.
VI.
Tore at the heart of the Confederacy
6. In December 1864, he reached Savannah and turned north to join
Grant in Virginia
B. Grant’s Virginia Campaign
1. Grant pursued Lee’s army to try to destroy it and end the war
2. Grant’s strategy: keep attacking Lee despite any casualties
suffered; the Union could replace fallen soldiers, but the South was
running out of men and supplies
3. Lee was such a brilliant general that it took Grant a year to corner
and defeat Lee
4. Battle of the Wilderness: Union suffered 17,000 casualties in a
dubious victory, but Grant pushed on… “Whatever happens, we will
not retreat.” -General Grant
5. Grant lost the battles of Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor (many
thousands of casualties), but he pushed on
6. Union armies dug in for a 9-month-long siege at Petersburg (just
south of Richmond) in June 1864
C. Richmond Falls
1. Lee realized tells President Davis to abandon Richmond
2. Confederate leaders burnt anything that could be of use to the
enemy, so when the Union army marched into Richmond on April 3,
1865, much of the city was in flames
D. Surrender at Appomattox
1. Lee wanted to keep fighting, but realized his situation was hopeless
2. Lee and Grant met at Appomattox Court House to arrange for Lee’s
surrender on April 9, 1865
3. Grant allowed the Confederates to return home in peace after
giving up their weapons; Grant even fed the hungry Confederate
soldiers
4. Civil War was ending and the country will never be the same
5.
Section 4: The Legacy of the War
Section Essential Questions:
7. What were the losses and gains of the war?
8. What changes did the war bring about?
VII.
VIII.
Costs of the War
A. Terrible Losses
1. Union soldiers killed: 360,000
2. Confederate soldiers killed: 260,000
3. Union soldiers wounded: 275,000
4. Confederate soldiers wounded: 100,000
5. Many of the wounded suffered health problems for the rest of their
lives
6. North & South were deeply in debt for years after the war
B. The South in Ruins
1. Farms and plantations were destroyed
2. 40% of the South’s livestock were killed
3. 50% of the South’s farm machinery was wrecked
4. Factories were demolished
5. Thousands of miles of railroad track were torn up
6. Decades after the Civil War, the South remained in poverty
C. Lincoln’s Assassination
1. April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln at Ford’s
Theatre in Washington, D.C.
2. John Wilkes Booth: Confederate supporter who assassinated
Abraham Lincoln
3. Lincoln was taken to a nearby boarding house where doctors tried
to save him, but the bullet in his brain could not be removed
4. Lincoln died on April 15, 1865; many Americans wept in the streets
5. Walt Whitman: poet who wrote about the Civil War
a) This Dust Was Once Man
b) Also volunteered as a nurse (too old to serve in the army)
The Nation Transformed
A. A New Nation
1. The Civil War showed that states did not have the power to secede
The Civil War caused the federal government to expand in many
different ways:
a) New paper currency
b) Federal income tax
c) New federal banking system
d) Funded railroads
e) Gave western lands to settlers
f) Provided for state colleges
3. The war destroyed economic system of slavery in the South and
replaced it with paid labor
4. Northern industries such as steel, petroleum, food processing, and
manufacturing grew rapidly and will eventually replace farming as the
basis for the national economy
B. The Thirteenth Amendment
1. Greatest effect of the Civil War was the freeing of millions of
enslaved Africans
2. Booker T. Washington, a famous educator and reformer, wrote
about how as a child he remembered the day a Union officer came to
read the Emancipation Proclamation and how happy his mother was
3. Thirteenth Amendment: Constitutional amendment that ended
slavery
4. Now, the country has to be put back together after four years of
war and horrible destruction and turmoil
2.