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The Civil War

Taking Sides in the war
 After the first shots Lincoln called for volunteers
▪ Governors across the north were asked to raise a total of 75,000
troops
▪ Many governors begged to send more men to put down the rebellion
 More States Secede
▪ Not all states were so quick to leave the union
▪ They did not however, want to furnish troops to the north to fight
the south
▪ The President’s call for troops led other states to leave the union
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Virginia – April 17 (50 western counties voted against secession = WV)
Arkansas – May 6
North Carolina – May 20
Tennessee – June 8
 The Border States
▪ Loyalties remained divided in the border states
▪ Slave states that did not secede
▪ Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and the new state of West
Virginia
▪ Kentucky declared itself neutral
▪ They threw in support to the union when the confederacy invaded in
September 1861
 The Border States
▪ Martial Law was declared in Maryland
▪ This resulted after southern supporters damaged rail lines and telegraph
lines
▪ Missouri was held by force
▪ Missouri’s government sided with the south
▪ Union supporters formed their own government
▪ Fighting broke out in the state and Lincoln sent troops to maintain order
and ensure that MO stayed in the Union

North against South
 Southern Advantages
▪ They were outnumbered – but the north must invade the
south to win
▪ They would be fighting on their home turf with local
support
▪ Most of the nations best military officers were southerners
▪ Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, Albert Johnston

North against South
 Northern Advantages
▪ 110K of the 130K factories in the U.S. were in the North
▪ 2x as much rail track and almost 2x as much farm land
▪ 2/3 of the nations population lived in the North
▪ The North could feed and equip larger armies

The Two Sides Plan Strategies
 Union leaders hoped for a quick victory
▪ They used a blockade to isolate the south
▪ They needed to gain control of the Mississippi River as well
▪ They also planned to invade Virginia and seize Richmond, the
capital
 Southern strategy was much simpler
▪ Defend their homeland until the North got tired of fighting
▪ Hope that England and other European nations would help
them to ensure a steady cotton supply for their factories

American vs. American
 The Civil war broke families apart
▪
▪
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Brothers against brothers
Fathers against sons
Mary Lincoln’s 4 brothers fought for the confederacy
Senator John Crittenden (KY) had 2 sons
▪ One on each side
 Soldiers were young
▪ As young as 16 for the north and 14 for the south
▪ 750,000 southerners fought in the army
▪ 2.2 million northerners

First Battle of Bull Run
 Poor situation for the North
 General McDowell
▪ 30,000 men, but mostly untrained
▪ He wanted time – but northern reporters were demanding a quick victory
▪ He marches his army south from Washington into Virginia toward a
rail station at Manassas
▪ About 25 miles away
▪ Hundreds of people make a picnic of the day – riding out from
Washington to see the Union make quick work of the confederates
 The Confederates were ready to fight, the Union wasn’t
▪ The confederate advance stalled, but they were rallied by seeing
General Thomas Jackson’s men fighting – they held like a
“Stonewall” (Jackson gained the name Stonewall Jackson)
▪ They ended up retreating, defeated and bloodied

A Soldier’s Life
 Harsh conditions
▪ Camp conditions were often miserable
▪ Weather created muddy roads and fields
▪ Lack of clean water was a major health threat
 Smallpox, typhoid fever and other diseases were rampant
 Not unusual for 50% of the men in a regiment to be too sick to fight
 POW’s
▪ Camps were overcrowded on both sides
▪ Nearly 10% of the war deaths came from prison camps
▪ Elmira, NY
▪ Camp designed for 5,000 men held 10,000 men
 Rations were cut – prisoners forced to eat rats to survive
▪ Andersonville, GA
▪ Designed for 10,000 men held 35,000 men

New Technology in the War
 New weapons make the Civil War deadlier than
any other before
▪ More accurate, faster to reload
▪ Cartridge ammunition
▪ Ironclad warships

The War in the East
 McClellan replaces McDowell
▪ George McClellan spent 7 months training the army
before moving
▪ Not the greatest general ever to lead….
▪ March 1862, McClellan marches 100,000 troops to
Richmond
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▪
▪
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He finds himself up against 15,000 troops guarding the city
McClellan asks for more troops… and waits a month for them to arrive
This gives the Confederates time to reinforce Richmond
Robert E. Lee’s army ends up driving McClellan’s army off
 A stroke of luck
▪ A union officer finds Lee’s battle plans that shows he is splitting his
army and moving north
▪ McClellan’s troops attack the larger part of Lee’s army at Antietam
Creek
▪ This becomes the bloodiest day of the Civil War
 12,000 union casualties
 14,000 confederate casualties
▪ Lee’s army retreats – but McClellan does not pursue him

The War in the West
 Ulysses S. Grant led the most successful army
▪ Grant’s forces moved south from KY capturing confederate forts
▪ Fort Henry on the Tennessee River
▪ Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River
 Grant continues his advance south
▪ Next move was toward Corinth Mississippi – an
important RR center
 A surprise attack
▪ Confederate General Albert Johnston surprised
Grant
▪ April 6, 1862 – The Battle of Shiloh
▪ Costly battle for both sides (24,000 total casualties)
▪ But.. The union forces forced the confederates to retreat
▪ This battle placed western Tennessee and Mississippi under
Union Control
 Two weeks later
▪ David Farragut sailed his fleet into New Orleans and
took the city/port by April 26.
▪ By summer the entire Mississippi River was under Union control

Analyze the battle of Shiloh.
 Write a journal entry as if you are General
Johnston during the battle.
 Include information about the battle and how the
general may have felt about it.
 What impact would this journal entry have on his
troops?

When finished, analyze geography and
history page 523

Emancipating the Enslaved
 Lincoln changes his mind
▪ The president at first resisted emancipation
▪ He feared that doing so would force the border states to secede
▪ His goal was to preserve the union, not free slaves
▪ What changed Lincoln’s mind?
▪ He realized how important slavery was to the South’s war effort

Emancipating the Enslaved
 A Famous Proclamation
▪ After Lee’s retreat from Antietam
▪ Lincoln meets with his Cabinet and issues a preliminary proclamation
▪ The final document is prepared
▪ January 1, 1863 Lincoln issues the Emancipation
Proclamation
▪ It only freed slaves in areas where confederates were fighting the union
 This meant that it really did not effect anyone – because it did
not free slaves in areas under union control, or in the border
states
▪ So what effects did the proclamation have?
▪ It changed the war to include freedom as a cause for fighting instead of just
preserving the union
▪ It kept England from recognizing the independence of the Confederate states
and helping their war effort

African Americans Help the Union
 Volunteering for Service
▪ Some 189,000 African Americans joined the cause
▪ Sailors fought alongside whites on ships
▪ In the army, all black regiments were formed under the command of white
officers
 Blacks earned less pay than whites
▪ Despite disadvantages – African American troops fought with
pride and courage
▪ “They make better soldiers than any troops I have ever had under my
command” – a union general
 Battles
▪ African American troops fought in at least 40 major battles
and hundreds of smaller ones
▪ The most famous was the 54th Massachusetts under the
command of Col Robert Gould Shaw
▪ They led a charge on Confederate Fort Wagner
 July 18, 1863
 Resisting Slavery
▪ With many slave owners off fighting the war, many slaves
refused to work
▪ They informed Union soldiers of Confederate troop
movements
▪ Anything to help their cause of freedom
 Resisting Slavery
▪ With many slave owners off fighting the war, many
slaves refused to work
▪ They informed Union soldiers of Confederate troop
movements
▪ Anything to help their cause of freedom

Divisions Over the War
 Divisions in the South
▪ Opposition to the war was strongest in Georgia and
North Carolina
▪ Barely half of Georgians supported secession
▪ Support was strong where slavery was important
▪ Backcountry regions did not rely on slavery – so support was low
▪ States Rights also created problems
▪ South Carolina’s governor did not want officers from any other state
leading his men
▪ Governors of Georgia and North Carolina did not want the
confederate government forcing their men to serve

Divisions Over the War
 Divisions in the North
▪ Many northerners opposed the war
▪ Some said the emancipation proclamation should not have been
passed
▪ Others said the south had a right to secede and that Lincoln
caused the war
 Dealing with Disruptions
▪ People on both sides tried to disrupt the war
effort
▪ They encouraged soldiers to desert
▪ Some helped POW’s escape
▪ Tried to prevent men from volunteering
▪ How Lincoln and Davis dealt with these
‘problems’
▪ They both suspended the right of Habeas Corpus in some areas
 In the north, more than 13,000 people were arrested
and held without trial

The Draft Laws
 Desertion was a problem
▪ Between 300-500 thousand troops left their units during
the war
▪ At times ⅓ to ½ of some armies were AWOL
 To meet the need for troops each side established
a draft
 System of required military service
▪ In the south
▪ April of 1862 – white men ages 18-35 were required to serve in the
military
 Later that age range went from 17 to 50
▪ In the North
▪ It began in 1863 – white men ages 20-45 were required to serve
▪ There were exceptions to the rule
▪ In the north you could pay $300 and not serve
 Sounds easy, but that was a whole years wages for most people
▪ In the south if you had 20 slaves you did not have to serve
▪ Both sides allowed draftees to hire a substitute
▪ People on both sides complained that the draft made it
a poor man’s war to fight

The War and Economic Strains
 Neither side was ready for what the Civil War did
▪ In the north
▪ They had a lot of industry – but the draft took workers away
 This caused constant shortages
▪ The government issued the first income tax to raise money
▪ The government issued federal currency
 This caused massive inflation (80% increase in cost of goods)

The War and Economic Strains
 Neither side was ready for what the Civil War did
▪ In the South
▪ The union blockade caused serious supply shortages
▪ People were starving
 Shortages led to rioting
▪ Goods became too expensive to buy (supply vs. demand)

Women in the Civil War
 Women played an important role in the war effort
▪ In both the north and the south
▪ Women ran farms and plantations
▪ More than 400 women dressed as men and fought
▪ They took over businesses and factory jobs
▪ The war also created new opportunities
▪ Many women became teachers
▪ About 10,000 became nurses
 Elizabeth Blackwell – the first woman physician – trained nurses
for the Union army
 Dorthea Dix, Harriet Tubman and Clara Barton all served as
nurses

The Tide Turns
 After Antietam
▪ The war began to go badly for the Union
▪ The problem, was poor leadership (remember where the best generals
went?)
▪ Lincoln replaced McClellan with Ambrose Burnside after McClellan failed to
pursue Lee
 Confederate Victories
▪ The new general – Burnside – knew that McClellan had been
replaced for being cautious
▪ Burnside decides to be bold!
▪ He marches his 120,000 troops straight to Richmond
▪ He sends wave after wave at the confederate forces that met him at
Fredericksburg
▪ He watches 13,000 of his men die
▪ Burnside is then replace by Joseph Hooker
 “May God have mercy on Lee’s
soul, for I will have none”
▪ Boast made by General Hooker as
he marched his army toward
Richmond
▪ Hooker meets the enemy at
Chancellorsville
▪ The confederate general was Stonewall
Jackson
▪ Jackson’s force is ½ the size of Hookers
▪ Hooker’s bark was worse than his
bite
▪ His force is defeated and forced to retreat
 The north does have a bit of luck –
Stonewall Jackson was shot and later
died
 The Battle of Gettysburg
▪ Confederate victories made Lee bolder
▪ He felt a victory on union soil would force the end of the war
▪ He marches his troops north to Pennsylvania
 Union troops led by General Meade pursued him
▪ Lee’s forces meet the Union army at Gettysburg July 1,
1863
 A skirmish begins in the town when Confederate troops are
looking for shoes
 The Battle of Gettysburg
▪ 85,000 Union against 75,000 Confederate on July 2, 1863
▪ The confederate troops began attacking the flanks of the Union lines
▪ The fighting continues into the next day
▪ July 3, 1863
▪ Lee orders Pickett to charge the union lines in the middle
 Pickett’s Charge
 7,500 men died from the hail of bullets and cannon fire
▪ Losses
▪ Total casualties for both sides
were horrific
▪ 28,000 Confederate
▪ 23,000 Union
 The Fall of Vicksburg
▪ As Lee’s army was retreating on July 4, 1863 the south
suffered another major defeat at the hands of Ulysses S.
Grant
▪ Grant had set up a siege in May 1863
▪ Surrounding a fort/city and cutting it off from supplies
▪ Eventually the artillery and starvation forced the 30,000 confederate
troops to surrender
▪ Grant’s victory gave control of the Mississippi to the
North
 The Gettysburg Address
▪ Lincoln’s speech to some 15,000 observers at
Gettysburg to honor the fallen
▪ In his speech he said that he was looking forward to a union victory

Closing In on the Confederacy
 Lincoln had finally found his commander
▪ Ulysses S. Grant
▪ Grant knew that to end the war, Richmond must fall
 Grant vs. Lee
▪ Grant’s army hammered on Lee’s forces for months
▪ Union losses neared 55,000
▪ Confederate losses approached 35,000
▪ Grant knew that he could count on a steady supply of men and
troops
▪ Lee was running short on both
▪ June of 1864 – Lee was trapped at Petersburg
▪ Grant began a siege – like he had done at Vicksburg
 Meanwhile
▪ General William Tecumseh Sherman marched on Atlanta
▪ The capture of Atlanta gave Lincoln's re-election campaign a boost
▪ Lincoln won a huge victory over General McClellan
▪ November 1864 – Sherman orders Atlanta burned to the ground
▪ He continues his march toward the ocean – destroying all in his path
▪ Once he reached the sea – he turned north toward the Carolinas

Peace at Last
 Grant’s Siege
▪ For months Grant had been fortifying and extending his lines
▪ Lee knew it was a matter of time before Grant took the city
▪ Lincoln also realized the war was near ending
 In his 2nd inaugural address – Lincoln asked the country to forgive and
forget
▪ On April 2, 1865 Grant’s troops break through Lee’s lines
▪ Lee retreats to Appomattox
▪ Grant takes Richmond
▪ April 9, 1865
▪ Lee, his retreat cut off, surrenders to Grant
▪ Grant offers reasonable terms
 Lee’s men had only to lay down their arms and return home
▪ Celebration
▪ At the surrender, several of Grant’s troops began to celebrate
▪ They were silenced with stern words from the general
 The war is over, the rebels are our countrymen again.
 The war’s terrible toll
▪ Casualties – over 1.5 million dead and wounded
▪ 260,000 confederate soldiers killed
▪ 360,000 union soldiers killed
▪ 37,000 African American soldiers killed
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The war had two key results
 It re-united the nation
 It put an end to slavery