Download The Civil War

The Civil War
1861-1865
Slavery Issue in New States
• Missouri Compromise maintains balance of
free and slave states in the Union
• Compromise of 1850
• Violence in Kansas & Dred Scott Decision
inflamed tensions
Fugitive Slave Act
• Required all
citizens to help
catch runaway
slaves
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html
John Brown
The Election of 1860
• Lincoln carried the North and carried the
election
• The Southern votes did not affect the
outcome at all
• Lincoln’s name was not even on the ballot in
10 Southern states
A campaign banner for the Republican ticket.
To the South,
Lincoln’s election
meant that they no
longer had a voice in
national government.
Secession!
What issues divided the nation
when the war began?
• Southerners believed they had a right to leave
the Union. They wanted to keep their way of
life, especially the institution of slavery.
• Northerners believed they had to save the
Union.
In August, 1862 Lincoln wrote a letter
to Horace Greeley, an editor of the
New York Tribune, who published an
open letter insisting President Lincoln
free the slaves immediately. In
Lincoln's reply he wrote:
"If I could save the Union without
freeing any slaves, I would do it, and
if I could save it by freeing all the
slaves, I would do it, and if I could do
it by freeing some and leaving others
alone, I would also so that“
(Voices of America, p.138).
North
• 22 million people
• Produced 90% of
nation’s manufactured
goods
• 70% nation’s rails
• Strong navy and
merchant fleet
• Were advancing into
unfamiliar territory
South
• 9 million people (more
than 1/3 were slaves)
• Believed they were fighting
a war of independence
• Knew the countryside
• Few factories
• Few railroads
• More emphasis on states’
rights, therefore, not as
united as the North
War Leaders
Abraham Lincoln –
President of the Union
Jefferson Davis –
President of the South
Robert E. Lee –
General of the
Confederate army
March 1861, Lincoln is
sworn in,
Calls secession legally
void,
Says he will use force
to preserve the Union
November 1860,
Lincoln elected,
S.C. secedes
Feb 1861,
6 more states secede,
Confederate States est.,
Seize all but 4 fed forts
in their boundaries
In your hands, my dissatisfied
fellow-countrymen, and not
in mine, is the momentous
issue of civil war. The
Government will not assail
you. You can have no conflict
without being yourselves the
aggressors. You have no oath
registered in heaven to
destroy the Government,
while I shall have the most
solemn one to "preserve,
protect, and defend it."
Lincoln's 1861 Inaugural Address
Did you know?
• Jefferson Davis had
been inaugurated as
the President of the
Confederacy two
weeks earlier.
• Lincoln would be the
nation’s 16th president
Lincoln in 1860.
The crowd gathered before the east portico of the unfinished
Capitol to glimpse Lincoln's inaugural ceremonies
“I have no purpose, directly or
indirectly, to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the states
where it exists. I believe I have no
lawful right to do so.”
--Lincoln, Inaugural Address
March 4, 1861
On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in
command of the provisional Confederate forces at
Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender
of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston
Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson refused. On
April 12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort,
which was unable to reply effectively. At 2:30 p.m.,
April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter,
evacuating the garrison on the following day. The
bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening
engagement of the American Civil War. Although
there were no casualties during the bombardment, one
Union artillerist was killed and three wounded (one
mortally) when a cannon exploded prematurely when
firing a salute during the evacuation.
Bombardment of Ft. Sumter
• Confederate troops in South Carolina shelled
the fort held by federal troops
• Union ran out of ammunition and
surrendered the fort
• No one was killed in the fight
Telegram was sent
by Major Robert
Anderson at
10:30am, April 18,
1861, announcing
the surrender of
Fort Sumter to
confederate
General
Beauregard.
Border States
• Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and
Missouri
• Slaveholding states that remained in the
Union
• Maryland – put under martial law
The Battle of Bull Run
July 21, 1861
• Union troops set out for Richmond, VA
from Washington, DC., followed by
hundreds of people who just wanted to watch
“the show”
• General Jackson rallies the Confederates
behind a stone wall, hence the nickname
“Stonewall Jackson.”
• Union troops panicked and ran
General
Stonewall
Jackson
http://americancivilwar.com/pictures/stonewall_jackson_2.jpeg
This battle showed that both Union and
Confederate soldiers needed training.
It also showed that the war would be long and
bloody.
Bull Run battlefield
General
McClellan
•Transformed the new
Union recruits into welltrained soldiers
•Only one problem…he
didn’t want to use them.
President Lincoln visits General McClellan at his headquarters
on October 4, 1862.
Visible on the ground at the lower left is a captured
Confederate battle flag.
Battle of the Ironclads
Merrimack v. Monitor
In an attempt to reduce the North's great naval
advantage, Confederate engineers converted a scuttled
Union frigate, the U.S.S. Merrimack, into an iron-sided
vessel rechristened the C.S.S. Virginia. On March 9,
1862 in the first naval engagement between ironclad
ships, the Monitor fought the Virginia to a draw, but
not before the Virginia had sunk two wooden Union
warships off Norfolk, Virginia.
Officers on the Monitor. Notice the dents from
cannon shells
• The Union eventually built more than 50
ironclads
• The South would never again be able to
mount a serious attack against the Union
navy.
• The Union blockade held for the rest of the
war.
Antietam
September 1862
• General Lee takes the offensive, marches
north into Maryland
• McClellan was slow to act
• In the day-long battle, more than 23,000
Union and Confederate soldiers were killed
or wounded.
• Neither side could claim victory.
Antietam battlefield
Dead soldiers along the Hagerstown Turnpike
This battle holds the Civil War record for the most
people killed in one day of fighting.
General
Ambrose
Burnside
•Appointed by Lincoln
to replace McClellan as
commander of the
Army of the Potomac.
Battle of Fredericksburg
December 1862
• One of the Union’s worst defeats
• Confederate guns mowed down wave after
wave of charging Union troops.
The War in the West
• 1961 – Kansas becomes a free state
• Dakota, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona,
Montana territories added to secure the
West for the Union
• Each territory headed by pro-Union officials
• Gold from California helped finance the
north
• 90 engagements in the West
Chancellorsville
May 1863
• Took place on thickly wooded ground in
Chancellorsville, VA.
• Lee and Jackson defeated Union troops in
three days.
• Jackson was shot at by his own soldiers,
who thought he was a Union soldier. He
died days later.
Civil War letter written by Union officer John T. Norton (Lieutenant, 97th Regiment New York State Volunteers,
Company G) to his father, Morgan Norton of Norway, Herkimer County, New York. The letter is dated May
23rd, 1863. Norton discusses the Battle of Chancellorsville and mentions the death of Stonewall Jackson ,
referring to him as "the bravest of the brave."
Camp, 9th Regt. N.Y.S.V.
May 23d, 1863
Dear Father:
On the 2d day of May the enemy opened upon us again with shell but did not much
injury. All this below Fredericksburg. … On this day the 3d Sunday, the hottest of the
fighting took place from 5 1/2 a.m. to 10 1/2 o'clock a.m. It was one continual roar of
musketry and artillery which exceeded anything I ever heard. There were 4 cannon shots
fired in a second. A brigade of rebels charged our position and about 50 men returned to
tell the tale. This was a little on the left of our Corps. In the afternoon our Regiment went
on picket. Next morning a rebel had the audacity to fire at me while eating breakfast.…. If
the rebels call it a victory, it was a dear one to them for at the last calculation they lost two
to one, and it would not take many such victories to end the rebellion. Besides losing one
of their best Generals who is a host in himself, namely Jackson, the bravest of the brave.
Hoping this will find you all in good health. Your affectionate son,
Lieut. John T. Norton
Union Success in the West
• General Ulysses S. Grant began moving to
take control of the Mississippi.
• Was surprised by Confederates at the Battle
of Shiloh
• Grant showed toughness, and the Union
won.
The hornets nest, where the Union troops held off the Confederates for
6 hours.
Ulysses
S.
Grant
Emancipation Proclamation
•
•
•
•
Freed slaves in the Confederate states
Formally announced on January 1, 1863
Changed the purpose of the war
Won the sympathy of Europeans, especially
workers, making it less likely that the South
would get aid from Britain
Blacks in the Union Army
• Thousands of free blacks volunteered to join the
army
• Congress had to change the law forbidding blacks to
serve as soldiers
• The army assigned African American volunteers to
all-black units, commanded by white officers.
• They didn’t even get equal pay as whites until late in
the war.
• About 200,000 blacks had fought for the Union,
nearly 40,000 lost their lives.
The 54th Massachusetts Regiment
led an attack on Fort Wagner near
Charleston, South Carolina.
Hardships of War
Civil War wounded
The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every
soldier who died in battle, two died of disease. Diarrhea and dysentery alone
claimed more men than did battle wounds. The Civil War soldier also faced
outbreaks of measles, small pox, malaria, pneumonia, or camp itch. Malaria
was brought on by usually camping in damp areas (that were conductive to
breeding mosquitos) while camp itch was caused by insects or a skin disease.
Neglect of camp hygiene was a common problem as well. Ignorance of camp
sanitation and scanty knowledge about how disease was carried led to a sort of
"trial and error" system. An inspector who visited the camps of one Federal
Army found that they were, "littered with refuse, food, and other rubbish,
sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits
within the camp limits or thrown out of broadcast; heaps of manure and offal
close to the camp.“
Lack of shoes and proper clothing further complicated the problem, especially
in the Confederacy as the War progressed. The diet of the Civil War soldier was
somewhere between barely palatable to absolutely awful. It was a wonder they
did not all die of acute indigestion.
A deserted camp and wounded soldier
At the critical battle of Antietam,
Clara Barton assisted at a
makeshift hospital in a
farmhouse that was under enemy
fire. It was at Antietam that Miss
Barton earned her reputation as
"the angel of the battlefield," a
nickname given to her by Dr.
James Dunn. Putting her own
life in serious danger, she nursed
and comforted the wounded
men as Confederate shells flew
overhead and exploded around
the house. In these harrowing
circumstances, Miss Barton
experienced some of the most
memorable moments of the war.
A man lying upon the ground
asked for drink — I stooped to
give it, and having raised him
with my right hand, was holding
the cup to his lips with my left,
when I felt a sudden twitch of
the loose sleeve of my dress the
poor fellow sprang from my
hands and fell back quivering, in
the agonies of death — A ball
had passed between my body —
and the right arm which
supported him — cutting
through the sleeve, and passing
through his chest from shoulder
to shoulder.
-Clara Barton, "Works and
Incidents," quoted in Voices of the
Civil War: Antietam (1996).
“The art of war is simple.
Find out where your enemy
is, get at him as soon as you
can, and strike him as hard as
you can, and keep moving
on.”
--Ulysses S. Grant
Fall of Vicksburg
• Union triumph in the West
• Grant’s forces lay siege to the city for 6
weeks, until the Confederates surrendered
• The entire Mississippi was now under
Union control
Union Victory at Gettysburg, PA
• 3 day battle
• Pickett’s charge fails to take the Union
upper ground
• The Confederates would never try to invade
the North again
• 60,000 casualties (Union and Confederate)
Pickett’s Charge
“General, I have no division.”
--Gen. George Pickett
“It’s all my fault. It is I who
lost this fight
--Gen. Robert E Lee
Gettysburg Address
• 50,000 dead or wounded
• Lincoln said the Civil War
was a test of whether or
not a democratic nation
could survive
• Entire speech 10 sentences
long, 3 minutes to deliver
Grant’s Plan for Total War
• Destroy food, equipment, anything that the
South used to survive
• Did not discriminate between civilian and
military possessions
General Sheridan
• Destroyed farms and
livestock in Virginia’s
rich Shenandoah Valley
• Burned 2,000 barns
filled with grain
Sherman’s March to the Sea
• Captured Atlanta, Georgia and
marched to the Atlantic Ocean,
destroying everything in his
path
• Ripped up railroad tracks, built
bonfires with the ties and then
heated and twisted the rails
• Burned barns, homes, bridges,
factories
Civil War Ends
•
•
•
•
Lincoln is reelected
13 Amendment – ends slavery everywhere
Richmond is besieged and falls to Grant
Robert E Lee surrenders at Appomattox
Court House
“With malice toward
none, with charity
for all, with firmness
in the right as God
gives us to see the
right, let us strive on
to finish the work we
are in, to bind up the
nation’s wounds.”
--Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1865
Surrender
Turning Point
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
360,000 Union soldiers died
250,000 Confederate soldiers died
No war has ever resulted in more American deaths
War cost 20 billion dollars
Democrats lost influence, Republicans in power
Put an end to slavery
The idea of secession was dead
The Civil War holds the dubious distinction of having the highest costs in
total American deaths of any war in American history including World
War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War combined.
Resources
• http://www.civilwar.com/
• http://www.civil-war.net/