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Civil War
Battles and The Homefront
Fort Sumter- April 1861
• First Battle, Confederates taking federal forts,
mints, arsenals.
• Strategic location- harbor of Charleston, SC
• Union Major Robert Anderson running out of
supplies, asked for more.
• Lincoln’s Dilemma: let it fall and look weak
or lose other states (only deep S. had seceded)
• Resupply but without armies or arms
• Confederates attacked, Anderson surrendered
• Results: 0 dead, AK, NC, TN & VA. secede.
• DE, KY, MD, MO loyal to Union, also W.
Advantages and Disadvantages
North/Union
South/Confederacy
• Larger population
• More factories
• More Railroads
• Navy
__________________
• Had to conquer south
• Smaller Population
• Fewer Factories
• Fewer Railroads
__________________
• Excellent Generals
(Lee, Jackson)
• Outdoor traditionexperience with guns
• Defensive War
Strategies
North/Union
South/Confederacy
• Capture Richmond
(confed. capital)
• Anaconda Planstrangle the south
• Gain control of
Mississippi River
• Naval blockade
• Utilize superior
numbers & resources
but this took time
• Capture Washington
DC, invade the North
• Demoralize the
Union
• Help from 3.5
million slaves
• Cotton diplomacyhelp from England &
France
July 1861 First Bull Run
• Lincoln ordered general to Richmond w/barely
trained troops, People came w/picnics to watch
• Met Confederates, dug in on high ground
behind a creek (Bull Run)
• Union winning until Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson and men stopped them, shouting Rebel
Yell: “woh-who-ey! Who-ey!” (eerie sound,
chills thru Union troops)
• Union retreat, spectators horrified, ran
• Results: Both sides realize war longer than 3
months
• North shocked/shamed, South proud
Soldiers’ Experiences
• Enthusiasm to enlist, boredom set in during
training (baseball invented during rest time)
• Shortages: food, uniforms (Union-blue,
Confederacy- Gray), shoes
• Illnesses (influenza, typhoid, pneumonia) &
lack of sanitary medical treatment &
anesthesia (pain-killers)- many died from
infected wounds (including Stonewall
Jackson)
• As war continued became “a rich man’s war
and a poor man’s fight,” desertion common
Homefront
• Women replaced male
factory workers (100,000
jobs in arsenals,
factories, sewing rooms)
• Mary Boykin Chestnutdiary of a southern
woman: frustrated with
failures of southern
leaders, watched “with
horror and amazement
(as) the only world we
cared for, (was) literally
kicked to pieces” (Boyer,
Mary Boykin Chestnut
Source:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/findagrave/photos/2002/167/8574_
1024321157.jpg
Battle of New Orleans- April 1862
• Importance: cut off supplies to Western
Confederacy & move troops up Mississippi R.
• Farragut and ships attacked 2 forts guarding
approach from Gulf of Mexico
• Unsuccessful shelling, decided to sail past, 17
warships during 4/24 am
• All but 4 made it to NO, 4/29 city surrendered
• Results: Union morale up, victories in the
west.
• South had lost 50,000 square miles of territory,
1000 miles of rivers, 2 state capitals, largest
city
September 1862 Antietam
• key turning point
• AL waiting to issue Emancipation Proclamation to
free slaves in rebel areas but not in border states
• Lee on offensive, wanted Brit support (wanted to see
if could win on Union soil)
• Lee crossed into MD. (55,000 men, 5000 lost)
• Union troops found battle plans around cigar box.
• McClellan planned counterattack, 75,000 men met
Lee at Antietam Creek MD.
September 1862 Antietam
• Results: bloodiest single day battle in U.S. history
(Confed 13,000 casualties/Union 12,000+)
• AL fired McClellan for letting Confed escape to VA.
• Raised confidence in the north, Lee Can BE
DEFEATED.
• Lincoln issued Emancipation Proclamation
• South lost hope of support from Europe- Britain
would not enter a war fought against slavery.
Opposition to the War
North/Union
South/Confederacy
• Copperheads- northerners • Opposed the draftwho sympathized with
Confederacy passed 1st
the South
conscription act in US
history
• Lincoln suspended
habeas corpus- jailed
• Poor ended up fighting
them without trials for
more- plantation
the duration of the war
owners bought their
way out of service
• Draft Riots, e.g. in NY
after Emancipation• Argued for state’s
wanted to fight for the
rights
Union, not for slaves.
British Cartoon Showing Pensive Lincoln
after NY Draft Riots: shows fears about
emancipation, racism among northern whites
Source: http://www.historygallery.com/prints/PunchLincoln/1863riots/1863riots.htm
April 1863 Chancellorsville
• AL switched to “Fighting Joe” Hooker daring plan
• Divide troops into 3: cut off supplies, attack both
flanks
• Men in forest wilderness, near Chancellorsville, VA.
• Lee divided his troops, Stonewall Jackson + 30K
through wilderness to outflank Hooker
• Hooker heard movements, assumed confed retreat
• Lee & Jackson attacked from 2 sides, Hooker
withdrew in defeat
• Results: Jackson died (shot by own troops in arm,
infection, 8 days later died)
• South morale boost, AL turned “ashen”, Sumner
July 1-3 1863 Gettysburg
• Fresh off victory, Lee decided to invade north
• Resupply & feed troops with seized goods
• Lee to PA. With 75K troops, AL ordered Hooker to
attack, Hooker hesitated & was replaced w/Meade
• Confed near Gettysburg, scouts heard of shoe supply
• 2 Union brigades on high ground NW of Gettysburg,
fired on approaching shoe raiders
• Day 3: Pickett’s Charge: ordered 15K men to rush
Union atCemetery Ridge, ½ survived, no 2nd attack
• Lee retreated, Meade could not pursue (bad weather)
July 1-3 1863 Gettysburg
• Results: Union: 23,000 casualties, Confed 20,000
• Gettysburg Address-dedication of cemeterystatement of democratic ideals:
• “Four Score and 7 years ago our fathers brought forth … a new
nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal”
• “It is rather for us to… 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.”
• Turning point: Union won, but failed to end the war
• Lincoln “Our Army held the war in the hollow of their
hand and they would not close it.”
Charleston, SC July 1863
• 54th Massachusetts Infantry
• July 1862 act and Emancipation Proc encouraged
blacks to enlist
• Union unable to gain control of forts near Charleston
• 6,000 troops in desperate frontal attack on Fort
Wagner at entrance to harbor, 54th led the charge
(expected great losses)
• July 18, night, 54th clawed their way to top of
sloping walls,
• Siege ended September 6 when confed evacuated.
• But African Americans not given =: less than ½ pay
until 6/1864, no command)
May 1863 Vicksburg
• Grant had to take Vicksburg to gain control of
Mississippi River.
• Plan: march into enemy territory, bottled up 1
force in Jackson, raced west to trap other enemy
force inside Vicksburg
• 6 week Siege of Vicksburg, prevented
confederate reinforcements, eating mules/rats
• July 3, 1863 Grant and Pemberton under oak tree,
surrendered next day
• July 8 confederates at Port Hudson, LA. also fell
• Results: Union gained total control of Mississippi
River, cut off Ark, LA., TX from confed.
Summer 1864 Campaign
• Lincoln promoted Grant to chief general b/c able
to use N. soldiers/supplies
• War of attrition: Grant’s plan to march on
Richmond, until S. out of men/supplies/will
• Pushed into Wilderness (Chancellorsville) losing
men, pushed on
• May 10-19 Spottsylvania Court House, VA losing
men, kept on
• Mid-June Petersburg VA. RR center, called off
assault, siege to Petersburg
• Results: 60,000 Union casualties, but strategy
succeeding because the Union had more men
Sherman’s March to Sea
• Union general William Tecumseh Sherman
• Sherman commander of Ten army, campaign to
destroy S. RR/industries
• 100,000 troops toward Atlanta, outmaneuvered
Johnston, defeated Hood
• Atlanta fell September 2, 1864, Sherman burned it
• Result: Confed. Lost last RR link across
Appalachian mts.
• President Lincoln (in danger of not getting
nomination) re-elected over McClellan
• Renewed hope that conflict would soon end
Sherman’s March to Sea
• Sherman towards Savannah, took supplies,
destroyed things for Confederates
• Uprooted crops, burned farmhouses, slaughtered
livestock, tore up RR
• Strategy of total war against troops and economic
resources,
• “must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the
hard hand of war…”
• Result: effective but left deep/bitter scars across
the South
• Reached Savannah in 12/1864, resupplied by
Union navy (Xmas gift to AL)
April 1865- Appomattox
• April 2, 1865, Lee withdrew from Richmond,
army ½ size of Grant’s
• Lee tried to flee westward to join more troops,
Grant cut him off
• Lee asked for surrender terms: house in tiny
village, talked of Mexican War days
• Confederate officers could keep side arms
• Soldiers fed and allowed to keep horses/mules
• None tried for treason
April 1865- Appomattox
• Conciliatory tone (quotations, p. 395)
• Lee rode off, Union troops celebrating, Grant
silenced them:
• “the war is over, the rebels are our countrymen
again.”
• Lee to his men, did all I could, you did duty, leave
rest to God, return home
• April 26, 1865 General Joseph Johnston
surrendered to Sherman under similar terms at
Durham Station, NC