Download THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Part I:
The Beginning and Major Battles
THE BEGINNING…
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Secession
• With the election of Abraham Lincoln
in November 1860, Southern states
started to secede
• They based their move on the
argument of states’ rights
• What is states’ rights?
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Secession
South Carolina was the
first state to secede on
December 20, 1860
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Secession
6. Louisiana
January 26th, 1861
4. Alabama
January 11th, 1861
7. Texas
February 1st, 1861
5. Georgia
January 19th, 1861
2. Mississippi
January 9th, 1861
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
3. Florida
January 10th, 1861
The Confederate States of America
• The states that seceded met in
Montgomery, Alabama and formed
the Confederate States of America
• Jefferson Davis was named president
of the Confederacy
• A constitution was drafted, modeled
after the U.S. Constitution (except for
states’ rights and slavery)
• The new nation made plans to
defend their separation from the
Union
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Davis’s Inaugural Address
“I enter upon the duties of the office to which I have
been chosen with the hope that the beginning of our
career as a Confederacy may not be obstructed by
hostile opposition to our enjoyment of the separate
existence and independence which we have asserted,
and, with the blessing of Providence, intend to
maintain. Our present condition, achieved in a manner
unprecedented in the history of nations, illustrates the
American idea that governments rest upon the consent
of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to
alter or abolish governments whenever they become
destructive of the ends for which they were established.”
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Lincoln’s Inauguration
• Americans waited for Lincoln’s inauguration to
see what he would do about the crisis
• Lincoln took office on March 4th, 1861 and gave
his First Inaugural Address
• He assured the South that he would not abolish
slavery
• He spoke against secession and appealed to
friendship
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not
be enemies. Though passion may have strained,
it must not break our bonds of affection. The
mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
battle-field and patriot grave, to every living
heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land,
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.”
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
What will happen?
• Lincoln wanted no invasion, no
aggression
• He did have government property
in the states that had seceded that
he would not abandon
• Forts in the South, like Fort Sumter
in South Carolina, would need
supplies
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
First Shots at Fort Sumter
• Fort Sumter was commanded by a Union
sympathizer
• Lincoln informed South Carolina that he would be
sending supply ships to the fort
• Confederate leaders attacked the fort before the
ships got there
• First shots were fired at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861
• The Confederates bombarded the fort for 34 hours,
and it surrendered.
• The war had begun.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Soldiers Needed
• When fighting began, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis called for volunteers
• Although thousands of Texans immediately joined
the army, more soldiers were needed by the end of
the first year of the war
• To meet this need, the Confederate Congress passed
the Conscription Act
– Conscription is the forced enrollment of people into
military service
– The Act required men 18 to 35 to serve
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
After Fort Sumter, 4 more states seceded…
How many total
Confederate states
were there?
11. Tennessee
June 8th, 1861
8. Virginia
April 17th, 1861
9. Arkansas
May 6th, 1861
10. North Carolina
May 20th, 1861
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Then why are there 13 stars on the
Confederate battle flag???
The last two stars represent
Missouri and Kentucky. They
had representatives in both
governments and regiments
in both armies.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
NORTH VS. SOUTH…
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
North vs. South
North (Union)
South (Confederacy)
• Called the United States of
America
• Wore blue
• Were called “Yankees”
• President Abraham Lincoln
• General Ulysses S. Grant
• Capital: Washington, D.C.
• Called the Confederate
States of America
• Wore gray
• Were called “Rebels”
• President Jefferson Davis
• General Robert E. Lee
• Capital: Richmond, VA
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
North vs. South
North (Union)
South (Confederacy)
• 23 states
• 22 million people
• Had about 85% of the
nation’s factories
• More than double the
railroad acreage of the South
• Naval power and shipyards
belonged to the North
• 11 states
• 9 million people (3.5
million of those were
enslaved)
• Began the war with
better generals
• Fought on home territory
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
The Confederate Strategy
1. The South started fighting a
defensive war, since they had
been invaded
2. The South depended on King
Cotton to gain support from
Europe
• As the war went on, the South
took on the offensive and
invaded the North
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
The Union Strategy
• The Union’s strategy was called the Anaconda
Plan. It was designed to smother the economy of
the South like an anaconda squeezing its prey.
1. Blockade the South’s coastline to prevent exports
2. Gain control of the Mississippi River to split the
Confederacy in two
3. Take Richmond, the capital
• Lincoln ordered the invasion of Richmond in
the summer of 1861
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
IMPORTANT BATTLES (AND SOME OTHER STUFF)…
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
• The first major land battle of
the Civil War
• Fought 26 miles from
Washington, D.C.
• The Confederate victory at
Bull Run made the South
think they had won the war
• It also made the North realize
that they had underestimated
their opponent
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Battle of Antietam
• Late in 1862, Generals Robert E. Lee and George
McClellan faced off in the first battle in Northern
territory
• After a string of defeats, McClellan’s victory over
Lee provided Abraham Lincoln with an
opportunity to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation
• It remains as the bloodiest day in American
history – with over 22,000 casualties
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
The Emancipation Proclamation
• On January 1, 1863, Lincoln
issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, which freed
all slaves in Confederate
territory
• Lincoln did not have the
Constitutional power to free
slaves in the United States
• This weakened the
Confederacy, and changed
the goal of the war for the
North from preservation to
liberation
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Turning Point: Gettysburg
• There are two Northern victories in the war that
are considered turning points: Gettysburg and
Vicksburg.
• Gettysburg turned back the Confederacy’s
advance into the North
• Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address following
the battle:
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
The Gettysburg Address
“Four score and seven
years ago our fathers
brought forth on this
continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty,
and dedicated to the
proposition that all
men are created equal.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
The Gettysburg Address
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.
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.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
The Gettysburg Address
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – 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. 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 fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
The Gettysburg Address
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us – 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.”
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I
Turning Point: Vicksburg
• The Northern siege of Vicksburg gave
control of the Mississippi River to the
North, splitting the South in two
• The victories at Gettysburg and
Vicksburg swung the tide of war to the
North
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I