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The History of the United States
Unit Five
The Civil War
The Civil War (1861-1865)
Historian Shelby Foote said that the
Civil War was “the crossroads of our
being” in that it made America what
it is today.
I) Roots of Conflict
A) California
1) free
2) Compromise of 1850
compromise that came out in 1850
a) California would come in as a free state
b) New Mexico & Utah Territories formed with
no mention of slavery save debate for later
After the Mexican War (1846) some in Congress
tried to limit the expansion of slavery into the
Mexican Cession with the “Wilmot Proviso,” but
it failed to pass.
c) slave trade ended in Washington DC
d) fugitive slave law toughened
-underground railroad became more important
series of safe houses leading mainly to the “free states” of the
North
B) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
1) Harriet Beecher Stowe
C) Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
1) Stephen Douglas Senator from Illinois who wanted
to build a railroad
a) “popular sovereignty”
having a state decide for itself whether to be
a slave or free state
2) Republican Party formed as an antislavery party
3) “Bleeding Kansas”
D) Dred Scott (1857)
1) slave who sued for his freedom since he lived in a
“free state” when his owner died
2) Supreme Court Decision
a) Blacks had no rights
b) Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
since the Constitution didn’t say Congress had
the right to regulate slavery
E) Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
series of debates between Senator Stephen Douglas &
Abraham Lincoln that made Lincoln a national figure on
the issue of slavery
F) John Brown’s Raid (1859)
1) Harper’s Ferry, VA federal arsenal located there
a) wanted the slaves to rise up
led to the creation of Confederate Army
G) Abolitionists those who worked to end slavery
1) William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator
anti-slavery newspaper
2) Harriet Tubman
called “Moses” by the slaves that she led
north to freedom along the
Underground Railroad
3) Frederick Douglass
a) eloquent ex-slave
H) Lincoln wins 1860 Presidential election (Republican Party)
a) restriction of slavery--not abolition
b) "A house divided against itself cannot stand..."
the country cannot remain half-slave and halffree—it must become all one thing or another
J) South Carolina secedes from the Union
1) “...too small for a republic and too large for an
insane asylum...”
K) Jefferson Davis elected President of the Confederacy
1) Confederate capital later moved to Richmond, VA.
II) 4:30am, April 12, 1861
A) Ft. Sumter, SC. Charleston Harbor
III) Robert E. Lee
A) "...sacrifice everything but honor..."
IV) Manassas/Bull Run, VA.
1st major battle of the war
Confederates named their battles for nearby towns
Union named their battles for nearby bodies of water
A) Stonewall Jackson Thomas J. Jackson
Confederate general who held his ground at Manassas
and helped win the battle
V) A Thousand Mile Front
A) George McClellan takes command
1) unwilling to fight
slow to attack, very tentative (some
Union officers wondered whether he was
motivated by “cowardice or treason”)
2) "the Virginia creeper"
moved slowly up the Peninsula
VI) Shiloh, TN.
A) changed people's perception of the war
made people realize that the war was going to be longer
and bloodier than expected
In 1862, Lincoln told his cabinet that he had decided to free the
slaves, but they worried that doing so without a victory on the
battlefield would look desperate—so he decided to wait for a
victory.
VII) Antietam, MD.
A) bloodiest day in American history
B) McClellan removed from command
Even though the battle was a draw, the Confederates left
the battlefield first and this allowed Lincoln to claim
Antietam as a “victory” and issue the Emancipation
Proclamation
IX) Emancipation Proclamation
freed only those slaves in areas under the control of the
Confederacy
VIII) Chancellorsville, VA.
A) Lee's "most brilliant victory"
B) Stonewall Jackson killed
accidentally shot by his own men and died a few days
after his arm was amputated
IX) Gettysburg, Penn.
A) The First Day
1) largest battle of the war started over shoes
2) Union holds high ground at the end of the 1st day
B) The Second Day
1) Little Round Top
a) Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
saves the Union held his ground
2) Lee's "blood was up" at end of the 2nd day--made
a "terrible mistake"
C) The Third Day
1) Pickett's Charge
a) Lee ordered George Pickett to attack Union
center
b) turning point in war--Lee blamed himself
2) Confederates retreated back to Virginia
X) Vicksburg, Miss.
A) The Key To The Confederacy ("The nail that held [its]
two sides together.")
1) "prairie dog town"
residents dug holes in the hillsides to escape the
shelling
2) Ulysses S. Grant takes Vicksburg--Confederacy
divided
XI) Grant Takes Command
A) "Move By The Left Flank"
1) "...superior numbers and doggedness..."
even though the South had superior generals (at first) the
North had more people which Grant took advantage of as he
kept on the attack
XII) Summer of 1864 the North’s darkest hour
Grant was stalled outside Petersburg, VA & William T. Sherman
outside Atlanta, GA
stalemate = when neither side is strong enough to defeat the other
A) Lincoln was sure of defeat in the 1864 election
1) McClellan chosen Democrat nominee
2) "Copperheads"
Northeastern “Peace Democrats” who wanted an
end to the war “with or without victory”
B) Sherman Takes Atlanta
C) Lincoln wins election
the fall of Atlanta was one of the main reasons
XIII) Most Hallowed Ground
A) Montgomery Meigs chooses Arlington to be National
Cemetery
XIV) Sherman's March To The Sea
A) From Atlanta to Savannah
1) 60 mile wide path of destruction
B) Sherman takes Savannah, December 1864
C) Lincoln: all the South had to do to rejoin the Union was
lay down their guns & go home
XV) Grant Takes Richmond
A) Lee retreats west along Appomattox River--Grant in
pursuit
B) Appomattox Courthouse, VA.
1) Lee surrenders to Grant
XVI) Assassination
A) John Wilkes Booth
1) Ford's Theater, Washington, DC.
2) Our American Cousin
3) "...the South is avenged!“
["Sic Semper Tyrannus"] thus be it ever to tyrants
B) Lincoln died the next morning
1) "...now he belongs to the ages."
C) "Useless, Useless"
1) Booth is killed
2) Jefferson Davis captured in Georgia
a) blamed for the war
3) 620,000 dead
4) Reconstruction begins
a) Blacks lose freedoms gained during the war
b) stage set for Civil Rights movement of
the 1960s