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Lincoln Faces a Crisis
Section 1 – 478-482
• By the time Lincoln took office in 1861, seven states had
already left the Union.
– Lincoln claimed:
• He would not try to end slavery.
• The federal government would not attack the
South.
– There would only be conflict if the South
attacked the North.
• He wished to preserve the Union.
Lincoln Faces a Crisis
• By early 1861, the South (Confederacy) decided that unity with
the North (Union) would not be in their best interest.
– The Confederates were taking over many federal
installations including:
• Mints, Armories, Forts
Fort Sumter - Charleston, South Carolina
Lincoln Faces a Crisis
• Fort Sumter, located in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor
was a key Union outpost b/c it controlled shipping traffic into
Charleston.
– The first battle of the Civil War:
• On April 12, 1861 Confederate officers demanded that
the Union garrison leave the fort.
• The Union garrison’s commander refused the demand,
and Confederate cannons opened fire.
• Fort Sumter held out for 34 hours, but eventually the
garrison surrendered.
Choosing Sides
• Union: Free states in the North.
– Capital = Washington D.C.
• President: Abraham Lincoln
• Confederacy: Slave states in the South.
– Capital = Richmond, VA
• President: Jefferson Davis
• Union/Confederacy: Border states that were both free and
slave
– Kentucky and Missouri
• Troops served on each side during the war.
The Volunteer Spirit
• Neither the Union nor the Confederacy was prepared for war.
– At the beginning, each side depended on volunteers to
begin filling its ranks.
– In the border states often times members of the same
family fought on opposite sides
• President Lincoln’s wife was from Kentucky and she
had four brothers who fought for the Confederacy.
The Volunteer Spirit
• Civilians on both sides volunteered their time and resources to
the war effort.
– They were responsible for:
• Raising Money
• Providing aid for soldiers and their families
• Running hospitals
– Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (The first woman to earn a
medical license), established the U.S. Sanitary
Commission.
» The Sanitary had tens of thousands of volunteers
who sent bandages, medicine, and food to Union
army camps and hospitals.
» Many volunteers also worked in the camps and the
hospitals.
The North vs. The South
• At the beginning of the war, each side held advantages.
– North:
• Larger population = more soldiers
• More factories and shipyards
• Better railroad network = more efficient transportation
• The ability to raise more money
– South:
• Had a military tradition that provided a skilled officer
corps
• Had to defend itself until the North tired of the war
– The North had to capture and then occupy large
areas of enemy territory.
The North vs. The South
• The Union and the Confederacy based their early military
strategies on their individual strengths.
– Union: Two parts under General Winfield Scott
• 1. Destroy the South’s economy through a naval
blockade of southern seaports.
• 2. Gain control of the Miss. River to divide the
Confederacy and cut its communications
– Confederacy: Two parts under Pres. Jefferson Davis
• 1. Defend its territory and wear down the Union’s will to
fight.
• 2. Capture and occupy Washington D.C.
The North vs. The South
• The South also tried a different strategy for winning the war.
– Confederate leaders believed they could win foreign allies
with Cotton Diplomacy.
• This idea was based on the belief that the British
government would support the South because cotton
was important to the British textile industry.
– Unfortunately for the South:
» Britain had a large surplus supply of cotton
when the war began.
» Britain was able to get cotton from India and
Egypt to make up for the dwindling supply from
the Confederacy.
The War in the East
Section 2 – 483-487
• After the fall of Fort Sumter, northerners demanded
action.
– Pres. Lincoln responded by ordering a Union force of
35k troops to march from Washington D.C. to
Richmond VA.
• Their orders were: Capture Richmond and prevent
the Confederate Congress from meeting.
• In July 1861, 35k Union and 35k Confederate
troops fought the first major battle of the war
about 30 miles outside of Washington D.C.
– Neither side was prepared for the horror that
lay ahead.
The War in the East
• The First Battle of Bull Run:
– At first, the Union gained the upper hand, but quickly lost it
when Confederate troops rallied around General Thomas
“Stonewall” Jackson.
• Fresh Confederate troops arrived overnight and the next
day, the Union began a general retreat towards
Washington D.C.
– If the Confederates had pressed the attack, they might have
captured Washington D.C., but they were too exhausted to
continue.
– The Confederate victory at this battle ended the Union’s
hopes for a quick and easy victory.
More Battles in Virginia
• Lincoln continued to pursue the strategy of capturing
Richmond.
– Lincoln appointed General George B. McClellan as the
overall Union commander.
• McClellan felt that his force was outnumbered and
chose to wait to attack Richmond.
– This inaction gave the Confederates time to
strengthen the defenses around Richmond.
• Jefferson Davis appointed Robert E. Lee as commander of the
Confederate forces in VA.
More Battles in Virginia
• During the summer of 1862, the war raged in Virginia.
– Seven Days’ Battle and the Second Battle of Bull Run.
• The Union army was not successful in capturing
Richmond during either of these battles.
• By the fall of 1862, the Union army had been driven out of
Virginia, and General Lee decided to take the war into
northern territory.
The Battle of Antietam
• In September 1862, 40K Confederate troops entered Maryland.
– Their goal was to take the fight to the Union. The South
believed that their attack on Union soil would:
• Break the Union spirit to fight.
• Convince European powers to give aid to the South.
– The two armies met and fought the Battle of Antietam.
• Prior to the battle, Union soldiers found a copy of Lee’s
battle plan and McClellan used it to plan a counterattack.
• The Union won the battle but suffered 12k casualties.
• The Confederacy suffered 13k casualties.
• This was the bloodiest single-day battle of the war.
The War at Sea
• The Union had the most ships and had the industry to build
more.
– They used their ships to create a blockade along the Southeast
coast and the Gulf of Mexico.
• Blockade = Virginia to Texas
• The Confederacy had small, fast ships called Blockade
Runners that could outrun the Union’s larger warships,
but there weren’t enough of them to make up for the
South’s overall trade loss.
The War at Sea
• As a result of the Union blockade, the Confederacy started to
build a new type of warship with the intent of breaking
through the blockade.
– Ironclad = heavily armored ship
• Both sides eventually built ironclads, and since the
Union also had them, the blockade remained intact.
• The CSS Virginia attacking a Union wooden sailing
vessel
Western Strategy
Section 3 – 488-491
• The Union’s strategy in the West focused on controlling the
Mississippi River. The reasons for doing this were:
– The eastern states of the Confederacy would be cut off from their
western food-producing allies.
– Union army bases on the Miss. R. could send troops to attack the
Confederacy’s communication and transportation lines.
• Ulysses S. Grant was the overall Union commander during the
western war.
– By February, 1862 the Union controlled Kentucky and most of
Tennessee.
– In April, 1862 Grant was pushing toward Mississippi.
Western Strategy
• Following orders, Grant halted his troops at Shiloh, TN
– As he was awaiting more troops, the Confederate troops
attacked.
• Initially, the Battle of Shiloh was a victory until, Union
reinforcements arrived and the Union counterattacked.
– By the end of the second day, the Confederate
troops retreated and the Union had won greater
control of the Mississippi River Valley.
Fighting for the Mississippi River
• After the victory at Shiloh, the Union pressed its attack.
– The Union next set its sights on New Orleans.
• From New Orleans, the Union forces could march north as
Grant’s forces marched south.
• In late April 1862, the Union Navy and Army had captured
New Orleans.
– From there the two Union armies advanced, one north
and the other south.
» They met at Vicksburg, MS in May of 1863.
Fighting for the Mississippi River
• In the Spring of 1863, Grant surrounded Vicksburg and cut off
all resupply and reinforcements from helping the dug-in
Confederate defenders and the city’s residents.
– The Siege of Vicksburg lasted for six weeks.
• The Confederate forces and residents within the city’s
defenses eventually ran out of food and had to eat
horses, dogs, and rats just to survive.
• In July, 1863 the Confederate commanding officer at
Vicksburg surrendered his army and the city to the
Union.
Freeing the Slaves
Section 4 – 492-497
• Lincoln supported freeing slaves if it would help the North win
the war.
– Emancipation = the freeing of slaves.
• Lincoln had three concerns regarding emancipation:
– Northern prejudice against African Americans
might weaken northern support for the war.
– Some northerners might consider that slaves were
still property that southerners had the right to keep.
– The Constitution did not give Lincoln the president
the power to end slavery.
• Lincoln decided to issue an order freeing all slaves in
Confederate controlled areas.
– This order didn’t outlaw slavery, just that all current
slaves were to be released.
Freeing the Slaves
• Lincoln waited for a northern victory in the east before
announcing his plans.
– Immediately following the Union’s September 1862 victory
at Antietam Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation (EP).
• The EP was scheduled to go into effect on January, 1
1863
• When news of the EP reached southern states, slaves
began to escape in large numbers, especially when they
heard that Union forces were nearby.
African Americans and the War
• As slaves escaped to the North, many wished to serve in the
Union’s armed services.
– The Union navy had already been accepting African
American volunteers.
– Northern abolitionists wanted the Army to accept African
American volunteers as well.
• Since the Union needed soldiers, Congress allowed
African Americans to sign up as laborers in July, 1862.
• The War Department allowed contrabands (escaped
slaves) the right to join the Union army in SC, LA, and
KS.
African Americans and the War
• By the spring of 1863, African American units were
fighting with the Union army.
– The 54th Massachusetts Infantry played a key role in
the July, 1863 attack on SC’s Fort Wagner.
African Americans and the War
• About 180K African Americans bravely served in the
Union Army. For most of the war they:
– Faced discrimination and were paid less than white soldiers.
– Were led by white officers.
– If captured they were often killed or sold into slavery.
Problems in the North
• Northerners were growing upset by the length of the war and
the increasing number of casualties.
– A group of northern Democrats began to speak out against
the war and were labeled by war sympathizers as
copperheads.
• Some northern copperheads sympathized with the
South’s struggle, were opposed to abolition, and wanted
the war to end.
Problems in the North
• Because of the copperheads’ actions and the potential threat they
posed to the war effort, Lincoln suspended the right of habeas
corpus (HC).
– HC = the constitutional protection against unlawful
imprisonment.
• Union officials began to put their enemies in jail w/o
evidence or trial.
• In 1863 Congress passed a law allowing men to be drafted into
military service.
– Wealthy people legally bought their way out of the draft.
– Often poor immigrants were drafted immediately upon
arrival in the U.S.
Southern Struggles
• The North’s naval blockade took a heavy toll on the South’s ability to
trade.
– Shortages of food, ammunition, tools, cloth, medicine, etc.
– By the spring of 1863, food riots took place in several southern
cities.
• Conf. Pres. Jefferson Davis ordered that local newspapers not
print the riots so that the North wouldn’t find out about
them.
• In 1862 the South passed a draft for men to enter military service.
– Men who held slaves didn’t have to serve in the military
• This also caused riots b/c only poor southerners had to serve
in the military.
Life on the Home Front
• In the North and the South, most people were involved in the war
effort in some way.
– They worked in: factories, farms, plantations, medicine, etc.
– Women were very important in providing medical care for
soldiers.
• Dorothea Dix = headed 3k+ women who worked as paid
nurses in the Union army
• Clara Barton = organized volunteer efforts to collect and
deliver medicine and supplies to Union troops on the
battlefield.
– Her worked formed the basis of the American Red Cross.
• Sally Louisa Tompkins = established a hospital in Richmond,
VA for wounded Confederate soldiers.
Life on the Home Front
• Military prisoners on both sides suffered greatly.
– There was usually a shortage of food, medicine.
– Often they were treated harshly and abused by their captors.
The Battle of Gettysburg
Section 5 – 498-503
• Because of recent Confederate victories, Lee decided to
move offensively into Union territory. His goals were:
– To break the Union’s will to fight.
– To capture supplies from the Union army.
• Lee marched his forces into southern PA near
Gettysburg.
– The Confederates sent a raiding party into town to get
supplies, and were fired on by Union troops.
• Eventually, 75k Confederate troops faced 90k
Union Troops.
The Battle of Gettysburg
• The Battle of Gettysburg (BoG) = July 1 – 3, 1863.
– Union and Confederate troops squared off at sites like
Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard, Culp’s Hill and
Devils Den.
• Both sides one individual fights while the casualty
lists increased.
• By the evening of July 2nd, General Lee knew that a
decisive attack on the Union’s center would make
the difference in the outcome of the battle.
The Battle of Gettysburg
• Late on the afternoon of July 3rd, General Lee ordered a frontal
assault on the Union’s line that was positioned on Cemetery Ridge.
– The attack started by 150 Confederate artillery pieces firing on
the Union line.
• The Union responded with counter battery fire and
eventually 300 guns were in the battle.
– The artillery duel lasted about 2 hours.
– After the artillery fire had lifted, approximately 12,500
Confederate infantry under the command of General George
Pickett set off on a 1 mile long front.
The Battle of Gettysburg
• Pickett’s infantry came under intense cannon fire as they
marched across ¾ of a mile of open ground.
– By the time the infantry was within 400 yards of the Union
line, they came under intense rifle fire and artillery canister
rounds.
– The union line was behind a low stone wall.
• Several hundred Confederate soldiers did breach the stone
wall, but after a brief period of fierce hand-to-hand
combat all were either killed or captured.
– The Confederates began a retreat in which only 6,500 of the
original 12,500 returned.
A Turning Point
• Gettysburg marked a turning point in the war.
– Lee’s troops would never again launch an attack into
Northern territory.
• In November, 1863 Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address
(GA) at the battle site where 51k men became casualties.
– GA = Lincoln spoke of the importance of liberty, equality, and
democratic ideals and that the war was being fought to
protect those principles.
Grant’s Drive to Richmond
• Because of Grant’s earlier successes, Lincoln gave him overall
command of the Union army.
– Lincoln ordered Grant to capture the Confederate capital at
Richmond, VA.
• From early 1864 through June of 1864, the two armies fought
a series of battles in Virginia = the Wilderness Campaign.
– These battles stretched the Confederate army’s soldiers
and supplies to their limits.
– The Union army suffered twice as many casualties as the
Confederates.
» The Union could rebuild its losses, the Confederacy
couldn’t.
Sherman Strikes South
• Lincoln was up for re-election in 1864 and needed a key victory on
the battlefield to secure his second term.
– Under orders from Grant, General William Tecumseh Sherman
marched south from TN in the spring of 1864 with 100k troops.
• Sherman’s mission: destroy southern railroads and
industries and capture Atlanta, GA.
– By July 1864, Sherman’s army was within cannon shot of
Atlanta.
» The Confederate forces trapped in Atlanta held out
until early September when the city was surrendered.
Sherman Strikes South
• Atlanta was destroyed and its remaining residents were ordered to
leave.
– The Confederacy had lost its most important rail hub and center
of industry.
– Sherman’s victory showed northerners that progress was being
made and they re-elected Lincoln in a landslide.
Sherman Strikes South
• In mid November, 1864 Sherman took 60k troops and began his
next attack.
– Sherman’s mission: capture the port city of Savannah, GA.
• This mission has come to be known as Sherman’s March
to the Sea.
• Sherman’s army waged total war = destruction of both
military and civilian resources.
– Sherman felt that total war would ruin the South’s
ability to fight.
Sherman Strikes South
• The Union army destroyed railways, bridges, crops, livestock and
anything else that could benefit the South’s war effort.
– Plantations were burned and slaves were freed.
• Sherman’s army reached and captured Savannah, GA in
December, 1864
– Sherman’s March left a path of destruction 50 miles wide and 250
miles long.
The South Surrenders
• In early April 1865, Sherman defeated the last of the Confederate
forces in North Carolina and Grant was able to force Lee to retreat
from Richmond.
– The Union army had captured the Confederate capital at
Richmond.
• In mid-April 1865, Grant’s army surrounded Lee’s remaining force
just west of Richmond in the small town of Appomattox Courthouse,
VA.
– On April 9, 1865 (Palm Sunday), General Lee signed the surrender
documents.
• 620k Americans died fighting in the Civil War.
• All information from Holt “Call to Freedom”
2004