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Events leading up to
the Civil War
Mrs. Eason
4th Grade
After the American
Revolution
 After the American Revolution, our founding
fathers got together to write:
 The Constitution - created on September 17,
1787. It defines the three major branches of
our government and how it should rule. The
Constitution is also a symbol of the culture and
freedom that we have in the United States.
 The Bill of Rights is a part of the Constitution
and plays an important part in how our
government is run and how laws are made.
What did this lead to?
 Mass immigration – because of the natural
resources and religious freedoms in the United
States, mass immigration occurred. The people
thought they could build a better life here.
 Westward Expansion - Starting in the 1800s,
hundreds of thousands of Americans decided
to move away from the original 13 colonies and
move west. Not like today where there are
airplanes and roads, the road to the West was
hard. Even once the pioneers arrived in their
new homes, life in the wild west was difficult.
 The Gold Rush – On January 24, 1848; James
Marshall discovered GOLD at Sutter’s Mill in
California. News of the discovery soon
spread, resulting in some 300,000 men,
women, and children coming to California
from the rest of the United States and
abroad. The early gold-seekers, called
"forty-niners," traveled to California by sail
boat and in covered wagons across the
continent.
The gold Rush….cont.
 New methods of transportation
developed as steamships came into
regular service and railroads were built.
The business of agriculture was started
on a wide scale throughout the state.
However, the Gold Rush also had
negative effects: Native Americans were
attacked and pushed off traditional
lands, and gold mining caused
environmental harm.
Now…it’s time for the Civil
War!
 The Civil War lasted from 1861 until
1865. The southern states wanted to
have their own nation and be able to
decide what laws to have. The north did
not want the country to be broken apart.
 The southern states seceded (LEFT)
from the union after Lincoln was elected.
They formed their own nation, The
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of
America
 Some southern states decided they had no
choice. They decided to secede, or leave, the
United States. South Carolina was the first to
leave the Union and form a new nation called
the Confederate States of America. Four
months later, six other states seceded. They
were Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Texas and Louisiana. Later Virginia, Arkansas,
North Carolina, and Tennessee joined them.
The people of these states elected Jefferson
Davis as president of the Confederacy.
The Union
 The northern states were called the Union.
President Lincoln said he would fight to keep
the southern states as part of the United
States. There were Union forts on
Confederate land. The Confederates wanted
Union soldiers to leave these forts. In
Charleston, South Carolina there was a Union
fort called Fort Sumter. The Union soldiers
refused to leave this fort, so the Confederates
fired cannons at the fort on April 12, l861. This
was the beginning of the Civil War.
 The war was long and bloody. Over
600,000 men on both sides died. Over
1,100,000 were injured. The south was
devastated. General Lee surrendered to
General Grant on April 9, 1865 at
Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The
war was over.
 The Confederate Flag
 The Union Flag
The Emancipation
Proclamation
 Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in
secret. To emancipate means to set free. A
proclamation is an order to do something. The
Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in
all the states that had left the Union.
 So on New Year's Day in 1863, President
Lincoln put his Emancipation Proclamation to
work. He declared the slaves in all Confederate
areas to be "forever free."
Leaders of the Civil War
 Abraham Lincoln

Born in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky, on February 12,
1809.

When he was president he was also the Commander-in-Chief
of the Union Army, which is the highest-ranking military
officer.

In 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation which
declared that all slaves in the Confederate States would be
free. This helped end slavery in the United States.

The same year he gave a great speech called the Gettysburg
Address at a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He wanted
to honor all the soldiers who had lost their lives in the war.

President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865 by John
Wilkes Booth at a theater in Washington DC. This was only
five days after the South surrendered to end the Civil War.
Jefferson Davis
 Jefferson Davis was the
President of the Confederate
States of America. He was
also Commander - in - Chief
of the Confederate Army.
 Jefferson Davis was born in
the South and grew up on a
cotton plantation.
Ulysses S. Grant
 the leader of the Union Army.
 Grant was trained at the
Military Academy at West Point,
New York.
 General Robert E. Lee, The
leader of the Confederate Army
had to surrender to General
Grant in 1865.
 Later General Grant became
president of the United States
twice.
Robert E. Lee
Confederate General
 the South's greatest general
during the Civil War.
 General Lee wanted to fight
for the South and remain
loyal to his home state.
 Lee felt he had to surrender
to the North to stop so
many of his soldiers from
being killed.