Download Ch 5 Lesson 2

LESSON 2
The Battlefield
Battle of Bull Run, 1861 (aka Battle of Manassas)
What was significant about this first battle of the Civil War?
War Comes to the Palmetto State
• Charleston, the second largest city in the
Confederacy and “the cradle of secession” was a
major target.
• The Union captured Port Royal and set up a naval
blockade of Charleston Harbor.
• The blockade hampered trade & prevented the
Confederacy from getting much-needed military
supplies.
• Confederate blockade-runners, however, managed to
slip through the blockade and kept trade going.
War Comes to the Palmetto State
Union ships attack and capture the Confederacy’s Port Royal.
War Comes to the Palmetto State
Blockade-Runners
Why was blockaderunning dangerous?
How did blockaderunning help the
southern economy &
the Confederacy?
What was the British
connection to
blockade-running?
War Comes to the Palmetto State
The Executive Council
• Why did state leaders create the Executive Council following the
capture of Port Royal?
• What was its main purpose?
• What kinds of policies did it pass?
• Why were people so unhappy with the Executive Council?
• Do you think the council or something similar to it was necessary?
How could it have been more effective?
War Comes to the Palmetto State
Robert Smalls’ Gift to the Union
• Smalls’ mother was a slave; his father was likely
his mother’s master.
• At age 12, Smalls was hired out by his master to
work in Charleston doing various odd jobs,
including working on ships.
• He used his knowledge of the port and navigation
to steal The Planter, a Confederate ship and
deliver it to the Union.
How was The Planter a gift to the Union?
How did this gift hurt the Confederacy?
War Comes to the Palmetto State
The Campaign for Charleston
• The Union’s multi-year effort to capture Charleston
was unsuccessful until 1865.
• Outnumbered Confederates turned back Union troops
and saved Charleston at the Battle of Secessionville.
• The Union’s all-black 54th Massachusetts volunteer
infantry regiment attacked Battery Wagner on Morris
island, but was repelled by Confederates.
• Confederate troops later abandoned Wagner, but dug
in at Ft. Sumter & defended Charleston for nearly two
years as the city was all but destroyed by Union
bombardment.
The 54th Massachusetts volunteer infantry storms Fort Wagner.
War Comes to the Palmetto State
The Hunley
• A secret project to build a submarine that could break
through the Union blockade of Charleston Harbor.
• Called the Hunley, after one of the men who funded
the project, it became the first submarine to sink an
enemy ship—a Union ironclad battleship.
• Despite this success, the submarine never returned to
port.
• The Hunley and its crew were discovered by divers
more than 130 years after the Civil War.
What happened to the Hunley and its crew?
The Shifting
Tide of
the War
At what point
did the war
shift in the
Union’s favor?
Turning Point Battles
• First Battle of Bull Run
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•
•
•
July 21st, 1861
Manassas VA
Outcome: Union forces retreat in panic
Significance: Both sides realize war will not be quck
Turning Point Battles
• New Orleans
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•
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•
April 25th,1862
New Orleans, LA
Outcome: Union troops seize control of the port at New Orleans
Significance: Confederacy loses access to port at New Orleans, severely
hampering its ability to move troops, supplies, and trade goods on the
Mississippi River
Turning Point Battles
• Antietam
• September 17th, 1862
• Outcome: Confederate forces retreat to Virginia
• Significance: Bloodiest single day of the war – 23,000 casualties
• President Lincoln fires General George McClellan as commander of the Union
army. Lincoln also decides to issue Emancipation Proclamation.
The Shifting Tide of the War
The Emancipation Proclamation
• President Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation in response to pressure from white
abolitionists and black leaders, as well as a need
for more soldiers.
• The proclamation was a first step toward forever
abolishing slavery.
• It only freed slaves in Confederate states that
were not under Union control.
• A constitutional amendment was needed to end
slavery forever.
Turning Point Battles
• Chancellorsville
• May 1st – 5th, 1863
• Outcome: Confederate troops force a Union retreat.
• Significance: Union morale dampened.
• Confederate General Stonewall Jackson dies from pneumonia eight days after
being accidentally shot by a Confederate soldier.
Turning Point Battles
• Gettysburg
• July 1st – 3rd, 1863
• Outcome: General Lee orders retreat of Confederate troops after
suffering catastrophic losses.
• Significance: Bloodiest battle of the war with more than 50,000
causalities
• General Lee abandons plans to invade the North.
Turning Point Battles
• Vicksburg
• May 18th – July 4th, 1863
• Vicksburg, MS
• Outcome: Union gains complete control of Mississippi River, splitting
the Confederacy in two
• Significance: Union achieves major goal of the Anaconda Plan.
The Final Days of the War
Sherman’s Path of Destruction
• Union General William T. Sherman’s total war
strategy to bring the Confederacy to its knees.
• Sherman sought to completely destroy Confederate
supplies and morale.
• Sherman’s troops fought their way through
Tennessee and into Georgia, where they began a
“March to the Sea.”
• Sherman’s army entered South Carolina in
February 1865, where the destruction became
even more brutal.
The Final Days of the War
The burning of Columbia
Why were Union soldiers more brutal in South
Carolina than elsewhere? How did they show their
anger?
The Final Days
• Both sides engaged in a war of attrition, where
there would be no clear winner, but much
bloodshed.
• The fall of Richmond left General Robert E. Lee
with few options.
• He surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
• General Joseph Johnston, the last standing
Confederate general, surrendered to General
Sherman in North Carolina on April 26, 1865.
General Lee surrenders to General Grant at Appomattox Court House.