Download The US Civil War

The US Civil War
Notes in RED
Lincoln’s Inaugural Address
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Reared in a poor family in the frontier of Illinois,
Lincoln was self-educated, and became a country
lawyer, an Illinois State Senator and member of the
House of Representatives
Became famous during the Stephen-Douglas
Debates
16th President of the US, serving from March 1861
until his assassination in April 1865
Led the United States through its greatest
constitutional, military, and moral crises—the Civil
War —preserving the Union, abolishing slavery,
strengthening the national government and
modernizing the economy
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere
with the institution of slavery in the states were it
exists.”
Main Purpose: Preserve the Union
“We are not enemies but friends, We must be
friends.”
He believed slavery to be doomed
Jefferson Davis 1808-1889
• Born in Kentucky, grew up in Miss.
Educated at West Point
• He served as the US Secretary of War for
President Pierce
• Served as Senator from Mississippi. As a
senator, he argued against secession, but
did agree that each state was sovereign
and had an unquestionable right to secede
from the Union
• Elected President of the Confederate
States of America without opposition
• His cabinet is a failure-each state
represented but people not chosen
by ability
• White House of the ConfederacyRichmond, Virginia
• Create own money system, destroyed
Confederate Economy
Advantages of North
+ population - 22 million
+ 90% of manufactured goods, esp. munitions
+ efficient railroad system
+ controlled the navy, which could be used to
blockade southern ports and shut down the
southern economy
+ capable military leaders, including Ulysses S. Grant
BUT: - would have to fight an offensive war
(long supply lines, unfamiliar territory...)
Southern Advantages
+ Thought European powers would come to their aid.
+ Fought defensive war only entered North 4 times
+ Better morale: fighting to protect homes
and institution of Slavery
+ Confederates had excellent generals too –
Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson
+ Farmers fight better than factory
workers –Better Riflemen
+ Profitable economy based on
cotton exports
BUT: - a smaller population -9 million (including. 3.5 million
slaves) had to import goods; very little munitions
production
April 1861: Attack on Fort
Sumter.
• When President Lincoln
planned to send supplies
to Fort Sumter, he alerted the state in advance, in
an attempt to avoid violence.
• South Carolina Militia surrounded Fort
• The U.S. commander of the fort, Robert Anderson,
was asked to surrender immediately. Anderson
offered to surrender, but only after he had
exhausted his supplies.
• His offer was rejected, and on April 12, the Civil
War began with shots fired on the fort. With no
loss of life, Fort Sumter eventually was
surrendered to the state of South Carolina.
Lincoln calls out militia
for 90 days to put down
uprising.
Most Northerners rallied
to call, upper Southern
states refused to fight
“sister states” and soon
also joined the
confederacy
Many border states were
torn between the two
sides and stayed neutral
or tentatively remained in
the Union –Border
States
• Winfield Scott & the Anaconda
Plan. His idea was that a Union
blockade of the main ports would
weaken the Confederate
economy; then the capture of the
Mississippi River would split the
South.
• In May 1861, Lincoln enacted the
Union blockade of all Southern
ports, ending regular international
shipments to the Confederacy.
• The blockade shut down King
Cotton, ruining the Southern
economy.
• Shortages of food and other
goods triggered by the blockade,
foraging by Northern armies, and
the impressments of crops by
Confederate armies combined to
cause hyperinflation and bread
riots in the South.
Northern
Strategies
Southern Strategies
• Defensive Strategy “All we ask is to be left
alone”
• “King Cotton” was supposed to be used as
leverage to gain European Support
• Soon, the South
changed strategies
and tried to go on the
offensive to break
Northern morale
1st Battle at Bull Run
• The Union Army wanted to take Richmond, Virginia. They
would have to defeat Confederate Troops stationed at
Manassas, Virginia
• Union forces found Confederate forces near a little creek
called Bull Run north of Manassas
• “There is Jackson standing like a stonewall! Rally behind the
Virginians!” –Stonewall Jackson
• Confederates countercharged
with a “rebel yell”
• Union troops panicked and
broke ranks
• Confederate victory shocked
North and thrilled south
• Lincoln sends 90 Day militias
home and calls for real army volunteers
Ulysses S. Grant
(Union)
• A career soldier, he graduated from West
Point and served in the MexicanAmerican War
• Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in
March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to
drive through the South in a “slash and
burn” campaign while he himself, with the
Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen.
Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern
Virginia.
• Although pro-Confederate historians
attacked Grant as a ruthless butcher who
won by brute force, most historians have
hailed his military genius.
Robert E. Lee
(Confederate)
• The son of Revolutionary War Hero Henry “Light Horse
Harry” and a top graduate of West Point
• Distinguished himself as an exceptional officer in the US
Army for 32 years. During this time, he distinguished
himself during the Mexican-American War.
• Politically, Robert E. Lee was a Whig. Ironically, he was
attached strongly to the Union and to the Constitution.
He did not like slavery and did not believe in secession.
• His abilities as a tactician have been praised by many
military historians –military genius
Battle of Antietam
Lee’s battle plans left
behind and Union troops
find them. Union’s
McClellan found Lee at
Antietam Creek.
26,134 Americans died
at this battle.
This was the bloodiest
single day battle during
the Civil War.
First Draft
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Both sides used a draft law— called
conscription- as a device to encourage
or force volunteering into army
• Men selected in the draft could provide
substitutes to go to war for them or, until
mid-1864, pay commutation money.
Many eligibles pooled their money to
cover the cost of anyone drafted.
Families used the
substitute provision to select which man should go into the army and
which should stay home
• The great draft riot in New York City in July 1863 involved Irish immigrants who had been
signed up as citizens to swell the machine vote, not realizing it made them liable for the draft.
Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes,
leaving only 50,663 who had their personal services conscripted
• North and South, the draft laws were highly unpopular. An estimated 120,000 men evaded
conscription in the North, many of them fleeing to Canada, and another 280,000 Northern
soldiers deserted during the war, along with at least 100,000 Southerners, or about 10% all
together.
• In the South, many men deserted temporarily to take care of their families, then returned to
their units.
• In the North, "bounty jumpers" enlisted to get the generous bonus, deserted, then went back
to a second recruiting station under a different name to sign up again for a second bonus; 141
were caught and executed.
Emancipation Proclamation
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Order issued to all segments of the Executive Branch (including the
Army and Navy) of the United States by President Lincoln on
January 1, 1863
It was based on the president's constitutional authority as
commander in chief of the armed forces -not a law passed by
Congress
It proclaimed all those enslaved in Confederate territory to be
forever free, and ordered the Army to treat as free all those
enslaved in ten states that were still in rebellion, thus applying to
3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S.
The Proclamation could not be enforced in areas still under
rebellion, but as the army took control of Confederate regions, the
slaves in those regions were emancipated rather than returned to
their masters.
The Proclamation did not apply to the five border states that were
not in rebellion, nor to most regions already controlled by the Union
army. The proclamation freed only the slaves in the rebelling
territories. (announced in September 1862, signed the order in
January 1863)
This changed the nature of the war from that of preserving the
Union to freeing the slaves.
Battle of Gettysburg
Before the Battle
• Confederates inflict bloody defeat on Union
at Fredericksburg, VA. (12/13/62)
• North defeated again in the Battle of
Chancellorsville, VA (April 30-May 6, 1863)
• General Stonewall Jackson is shot by his
own men in an accident and dies of
Pneumonia (May 1863)
• Lee decides to invade North in Spring-Early
Summer ‘63:
– to gain supplies
– pull Union forces away from Vicksburg,
MS
– invasion in North would hurt Lincoln’s
political power.
The Battle of Gettysburg
Timeline
• Before the Battle
• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• After the Battle
The Leaders
Day 1
July 1, 1863
• Confederate soldiers
led by A.P. Hill went on
a search for shoes in
Gettysburg, attacked
by Union troops
• 90,000 Union troops
took the field against
75,000 Confederates
• Confederates take
control over the town
of Gettysburg
Day 2
July 2, 1863
• Lee orders General James
Longstreet to attack at Cemetery
Ridge
• Confederate soldiers attack at an
unprotected Union hill known as
Little Round Top
• Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain
and the 20th Maine are sent to
defend Little Round Top
• Because Chamberlain was
running low on ammunition, he
ordered his men to attack the
Confederates with fixed
bayonets. This surprise attack
left Confederates surrendering in
droves.
• Little Round Top
Day 3
July 3, 1863
• Lee felt could break Union
defenses, because Union weakened
• Lee ordered an artillery barrage at
the middle of Union lines mid
afternoon
• PICKETT’S CHARGE - Longstreet,
confident the barrage had silenced
Union guns, ordered Confederate
troops to attack the center of the
Union lines.
• Northern artillery resumed its fire
and crippled the Confederate
attackers.
• Lee sent General Jeb Stuart’s
forces to surprise attack Union
General Meade’s forces.
• Stuart’s forces were stalled due to
a conflict with Union forces led by
Robert Gregg.
After the Battle
• More than 23,000 Union casualties and 28,000
Confederate Casualties
• Lee gave up hopes of invading the North and
retreated back to Virginia
• Lee turned in his resignation which Jefferson
Davis did not accept
• The North won the Battle of Vicksburg (May 18July 4th, 1863)
• Gettysburg is the largest battle in the history of
the Western hemisphere.
• Over 51, 000 people died in 3 days  It was the
last time the South invaded the North, a
turning point in the war.
Lincoln Speaks to troops at Gettysburg
Aftermath at Gettysburg
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Vicksburg
• July 4, 1863
• Union army surrounds the city of Vicksburg and sets up
a blockade
• Citizens were forced from the city and into caves.
• People of Vicksburg were
forced to eat rats and mice
to stay alive
• Confederates surrender to
General Grant
• This split the Confederate
army in two.
• This victory gave the Union
control of the Mississippi River.
Gettysburg Address
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A speech by President Lincoln, one of the best-known
in American history.
It was delivered by Lincoln at the dedication of the
Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union
armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle
of Gettysburg.
In just over two minutes, Lincoln reiterated the
principles of human equality espoused by the
Declaration of Independence and proclaimed the Civil
War as a struggle for the preservation of a Union that
would bring true equality to all of its citizens, ensuring
that democracy would remain a viable form of
government and creating a nation in which states'
rights were no longer dominant.
Lincoln also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not
just for the Union, but also for the principle of human
equality.
Gettysburg Address
Audio
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.
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 battle field 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.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not 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 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—
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.
• Grant was then given
control of all Union
armies  began a
"scorched earth"
policy to defeat the
South
• General Sheridan
decimated Va.'s
Shenandoah Valley
• General Sherman
given task of taking
Atlanta; his "March
through Georgia"
saw total destruction
from Atlanta to
Savannah
Heroes at Sea
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Grant ordered an assault on Fort Fisher, a Confederate port that protected Southern trading
routes.
Phillip Bazaar, a Chilean immigrant, was aboard the USS Santiago de Cuba and served in two
assaults on the fort. On January 12, 1865, both ground and naval Union forces attempted the
second assault. Bazaar and 5 other crew members, under the direct orders from Rear Admiral
Porter, carried dispatches during the battle while under heavy fire from the Confederates to Major
General Alfred Terry. Bazaar and his comrades were awarded the Medal of Honor for their
actions.
African Americans in Battle
William Carney
• After the Emancipation Proclamation
African Americans began to join the Union
Army
• Initially they were only used for manual
labor
• Eventually, many African Americans saw
live combat
• The 54th Regiment Massachusetts
Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment
that saw extensive service in the Union
Army during the Civil War.
– The regiment was one of the first official
African American units in the United
States during the Civil War.
• William Carney- an African American
soldier of the 54th. He was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions during the
Battle of Fort Wagner
Appomattox Court House
• April 3, 1865 - Grant took
Richmond Va. - final blow to
Lee's army
• Lee surrenders on April 9,
1865 at APPOMATTOX
COURTHOUSE
• All Confederate troops forced
to take an oath of loyalty to
U.S.
• Otherwise, terms of surrender
were lenient
• Lincoln didn't want a
humiliated South and further
conflict
• Issue of states' rights now
"solved"- Federal Government
had proven its power
Grant gave generous terms
of surrender
• Confederates could
return home
• Were allowed to
take private
possessions and
horses
• Food was given to
the hungry
After four bloody years of civil war,
the South was defeated.
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At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the
toll reached 700,000.
The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties
exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through
Vietnam.
The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, by the
best estimates:
Battle deaths:110,070
Disease:250,152
Total: 360,222
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The Confederate strength, known less accurately because of missing
records, was from 750,000 to 1,250,000.
Its estimated losses:
Battle deaths:94,000
Disease:164,000
Total: 258,000
Over 618,000 military deaths during Civil War.