Download The Furnace of Civil War, 1861-1865

THE FURNACE OF CIVIL
WAR, 1861-1865
Chapter 21
A Brief War

The Union hoped for a
quick victory by winning at
Bull Run (the First Battle at
Bull Run)
 The
Confederacy received
reinforcements which
caused the Union to retreat
 Union decided they would
need a large, well trained
army to defeat the South
The Naval War



Lincoln wanted to
blockade all
Confederate ports
Blockade runners were
still able to smuggle
goods past the
blockades
Confederates were still
able to sell cotton for
supplies from Britain,
which made the Union
angry
The Seven Days Battle


A decisive victory for
the Confederates in
which Robert E. Lee
took command
After a series of
attacks on General
McClellan’s army,
Lincoln ordered
McClellan to retreat
back to D.C.
The Second Battle of Bull Run

After the Seven
Days’ Battle, Lee
attacked the Union
forces in Washington
at the Second Battle
of Bull Run and the
North retreated
again
Antietam




Lee and Jefferson Davis
wanted to invade Maryland
so they could take over a
Northern state
They thought this would force
the Union to accept the
Confederacy’s independence
This was the bloodiest oneday battle in the war
Results
Lee was forced to retreat to
Virginia
 Lincoln was convinced it was
time to end slavery in the
South

The Emancipation Proclamation





Democrats opposed ending slavery
and Republicans were split on the
issue
On September 22, 1862 Lincoln
announced he would issue the
Emancipation Proclamation freeing
all enslaved persons in states still in
rebellion after January 1, 1863
The Proclamation changed the
purpose of the war from preserving
the Union to ending slavery
Did NOT free all slaves immediately
Kept Great Britain from siding with
the South and becoming an ally
Emancipation
54th Black
Regiment of
Massachusetts
(Organized
by Frederick
Douglas)
Gettysburg




General Lee invades the North.
The “High Tide of the
Confederacy”. South’s last chance
to capture Washington, D.C.
The defeat of Lee at Gettysburg
would be the last time Lee would
invade the North and try to take
Washington, D.C.
Lee’s retreat at Gettysburg on
July 3rd and Grant’s defeat of
the South at Vicksburg on July
4th would lead to the eventual
surrender of the South by 1865
Gettysburg Address





On November 19, 1863, some 15,000
people gathered at Gettysburg to honor
the Union soldiers who had died there
just four months before
President Lincoln delivered a two-minute
speech which became known as the
Gettysburg Address
He reminded people that the Civil War
was being fought to preserve a country
that upheld the principles of freedom,
equality, and self-government
The Gettysburg Address has become one
of the best-loved and most-quoted
speeches in the English language
It expresses grief at the terrible cost of
war and the importance of preserving
the Union
Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers
brought forth upon this continent a new nation:
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal……Now
we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and
so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a
great battlefield of that war…..
Gettysburg Address (cont.)

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field
as a final resting place for those who here gave
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this…But, in a
larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . . we cannot
consecrate. . we cannot hallow this ground. The
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here
have consecrated it, far above our poor power to
add or detract.
Gettysburg Address (cont.)

The world will little note, nor long remember, what
we say here, but it can never forget what they did
here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather
for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us. . .
Gettysburg Address (cont.)

That from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last
full measure of devotion. That we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth
of freedom and that government of the people, by
the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth.
Financing the War
Union




Tariffs
War bonds
Income taxes
Paper money called
“greenback”s
Confederacy




Wealthy lent over
$100 million
Foreign aid $15
million
Income taxes
Paper money
A Richmond Diary: October 22, 1863

“A poor woman yesterday applied to a merchant in
Carey Street to purchase a barrel of flour. The
price he demanded was $70.00. “My God!”
exclaimed she, ‘how can I pay such prices?’ I have 7
children; whall shall I do?” “I don’t know, madam,’
said he cooly, ‘unless you eat your children.
Change in Union Leadership

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After Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg,
President Lincoln appointed General Grant as the
Commanding General of all Union troops
Grant commanded the Army of the Potomac in the East
and was instructed by Lincoln to force General Lee to
surrender
Grant appointed his 2nd in command General William T.
Sherman to head up the Army of the West
It is here that Lincoln, Grant and Sherman devise a new
strategy of “total war” or bring the civilian population into
the war, destroy the South and free the slaves
Total War




Tactic of war where the Union
marched through the South and
destroyed all resources the
civilian population needed to
survive
Goal: To make war as horrible
and destructive as possible to
force your enemy to surrender
Total war brings the civilian
population into the war to
demoralize the enemy and
force them to surrender
It is “in your face warfare” or
you (South) started this war
and until you surrender, we will
destroy the you
The War in the West



Ulysses S. Grant gained
control of all of Kentucky
and most of western
Tennessee
At Shiloh, Grant and his
troops were attacked by
Confederates but after a
few attacks were able to
force the Confederate
troops to retreat
Shiloh resulted in 20,000
troops killed or wounded,
more than in any other
battle up to that point
Key Battles in the East
DATE
BATTLE
VICTOR
July 1861
Bull Run
Manasses
South
Union retreats to Wash. D.C.
June 1862
7 Days
South
Lee stops McClellan from
taking Richmond
August 1862
Bull Run
South
Lee stops John Pope
from taking Richmond
*Sept. 1862
Antietam
Draw
McCellan stops Lee from
taking Washington, D.C.
Lincoln issues Emancipation
Proclamation
*Turning Point battle
RESULT
Key Battles in the West
DATE
BATTLE
VICTOR
RESULT
Feb. 1862
Fort Donelson
Union
Controlled the Ohio River
March 1862
Fort Henry
Union
Controlled Cumberland River
April 1862
Shiloh
Union
Controlled Tennessee River
April 1862
New Orleans
Union
Controlled mouth of
Mississippi
July 1863
Vicksburg
Union
Controlled Mississippi River *
split Confederacy in half
*Turning Point Battle
Grant Versus Lee


Grant decided to
attack Lee’s forces and
move south until Lee
surrendered
At first, Grant was
unable to break
through Lee’s line
 They
met cannons, 15
foot trenches, and
barricades 20 ft. thick
The Fall of Atlanta

Sherman moved his troops
from Chattanooga to
Atlanta, moving around the
city and cutting off all roads
and railways


His troops destroyed the rail
lines by heating them and
twisting them. They called
these “Sherman neckties”
Confederate General John
B. Hood evacuated Atlanta
to avoid being trapped in
the city
Sherman’s March to the Sea

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All civilians ordered to leave
Atlanta and troops were to destroy
everything of military value
Fire got out of hand and more than
1/3 of the city burned to the
ground
On their way to the sea, Sherman’s
troops ransacked houses, burned
crops, and killed cattle
When they reached the coast they
moved north to South Carolina who
they blamed for starting the war
and burned and looted everything
in their path
Lincoln’s New Hope

Lincoln knew his reelection
depended on the success of
Grant and Sherman


When they were successful,
he was reelected
Lincoln saw reelection as a
mandate to end slavery
permanently and he helped
to pass the 13th
Amendment in January
1865 which banned
slavery in the US
The South Surrenders

Lee’s troops became
surrounded at the town of
Appomattox Courthouse



“There is nothing left for me to
do but go and see General
Grant, and I would rather die
a thousand deaths.”
Lee surrendered on April 9,
1865
Grant’s terms of surrender
were generous and
guaranteed that the US would
not prosecute Confederate
soldiers for treason and the
soldiers would be allowed to
keep their horses
Iraq
Persian
2,900
300
Chart: Total Deaths
Plans for Lincoln


Throughout the winter of
1864–1865, a group of
Southern conspirators in
Washington, D.C., had
plotted to kidnap Lincoln
and exchange him for
Confederate prisoners of
war
After several unsuccessful
attempts, their leader, John
Wilkes Booth, assigned
members of his group to
assassinate top Union
officials
Impact on Future Conflicts
Expanding battlefield due to new technology
 Defense is favored

 fortification
Beginnings of trend toward dispersal and
increased “individual” combat
 Shift to Total War

 Whole
government had to be removed for success
 Civil and military “targets”
 Sherman’s
March to the Sea
Lincoln’s Assassination

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After hearing a speech that Lincoln
made about African Americans
entering government offices John
Wilkes Booth vowed that it would
be “the last speech he will ever
make”
Despite warnings from advisers not
to be in public unescorted, Lincoln
went with his wife to see a play at
Ford’s Theater
In the third act, Booth shot Lincoln in
the back of the head
Booth was shot to death after he
fled from the theater and was
found hiding in a tobacco barn
Lincoln’s funeral train took 14 days
to travel from Washington, D.C., to
his hometown of Springfield, Illinois
Confederate Response

"I certainly have no special
regard for Mr. Lincoln; but
there are a great many men
of whose end I would much
rather have heard than this. I
fear it will be disastrous for
our people and I regret it
deeply."


Jefferson Davis
“Our country owed all her
troubles to him, and God
simply made me the
instrument of his punishment.”

John Wilkes Booth