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Civil War Review
The Biggest Even in American
History (seriously).
What were the long term
causes of the Civil War?
• There had always been a debate over slavery in the U.S., but
for most of the early history of the country, both pro-slavery
forces and anti-slavery forces were willing to compromise on the
issue. With Nat Turner’s Rebellion, the rise of abolitionist
movement in the North, the publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, the Dread Scott Case, the
Fugitive Slave Act, The Kansas-Nebraska Act etc, the North and
South became more and more divided.
• Virtually the entire Southern economy was dependent on
slavery, and many Southerners felt their right to slavery had to
be protected at all costs.
• Many in the North wanted to ensure that slavery would come to
an end, and the political influence of these people was
increasing.
What was the immediate
cause of the Civil War?
• After years of compromise on the slavery issue, the South felt
the election of Abraham Lincoln proved that the Northern states
could effectively control the government without any Southern
approval. They figured it was only a matter of time before
slavery would be limited or abolished, so 11 states seceded
from the union.
• Some in the South supported secession because they felt that
the Northern states and the federal government were gaining
too much power. These people weren’t necessarily motivated by
slavery, as much as they were the desire for “state’s rights” or
“small government”.*
* Many historians believe this viewpoint is over emphasized as an
apology for the South.
Beginning
• After Lincoln was elected, South Carolina seceded
from the Union on December 20, 1860. Florida,
Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas
did so by February 1, 1861.
• When Confederate troops fired on Ft. Sumter, and
Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas also seceded,
bringing the total of seceding states to 11. Kentucky,
Delaware, Missouri, and Maryland did not secede,
despite their status as slave states.
C.S.A
Trouble in Command
• Immediately Lincoln had problems with his
generals. They were often not aggressive
enough, or were needlessly reckless.
• Throughout the war he had as commanders:
Winfield Scott, Irvin McDowell, George
McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again,
Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, George
Meade, and Ulysses S. Grant. None was
effective except for Grant, who did not take
complete command until 1864.
Lincoln’s Generals
The Confederates
• Jefferson Davis, and former U.S. Senator was
the president of the Confederacy.
• The South was terribly disadvantaged by their
smaller population and their lack of major
industry.
• The place that the South had an advantage
was in military leadership, as most of the
senior officers in the U.S. Army before the
war left to fight for their native states,
including:
The Generals of the South
Bloody Combat
At the time it was fought, the Civil War was the
bloodiest war in history. To this day, the Civil
War is the most costly in American History.
Why?
• New technology, especially the rifled muskets that used paper
cartridges and rifled canons gave soldiers the ability to fire much
more accurately.
• While the technology advanced, the Generals and officers in
charge, still used the tactics that had been effective in previous
wars with the old technology. Thus, men were still ordered to
charge well fortified positions that they really had no chance of
taking.
• Medical care was still quite primitive, and basic sanitation was
still not widely practiced.
Weapons of the Civil War
Trouble for the North
• Union forces fared poorly in the war at first, with disastrous
losses at both Battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and
Chancellorsville.
• Even when the Union troops did well, they could not capitalize
on their success in the Peninsula Campaign or at Antietam. Both
times Union troops were close to victory, but failed to take the
initiative.
• The worst example for this was after the victory at Gettysburg,
when Union forces won what proved to be the decisive victory of
the war. After the battle, Meade failed to follow up Lee’s forces
and finish them off. This ensured the war would go on for
another year and a half.
Turning it Around
• Union troops were successful though, in the Western
Campaigns at Shiloh and Vicksburg, the latter of
which gave them control of the Mississippi.
• Eventually Lincoln realized that Ulysses S. Grant is
the right general to lead the whole Union Army, as he
had been so successful in the West.
• Grant adopts Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan, which
he first put into place by capturing Vicksburg. He next
sent William Tecumseh Sherman to capture Atlanta
and then march to the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, he
attacks Robert E. Lee in the vicious campaign of
1864. This campaign ended in the siege of
Petersburg that summer.
The End
• Sherman captured Atlanta and marched to
Savannah, and was in the process of invading the
Carolinas by the Spring of 1865, using “total warfare”
Sherman’s March is remembered very bitterly in the
South.
• Phillip Sheridan laid waste to the Shenandoah Valley,
destroying much valuable farmland, again using ‘total
warfare”
• The Army of the Potomac finally ended the siege of
Petersburg, and eventually forced the Army of
Northern Virginia to surrender at Appomattox
Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The rest of the
Confederates surrendered within a short while.
Surrender