Download The Civil War (1861-1865)

1861-1865
The Civil War (1861-1865)
• a period of war between Northern +
Southern states
– The free states were called the Army of the
Union (U.S.) and were compromised of 23
states;
– The 11 slave states called themselves the
Confederate States of America (C.S.A.)
The Civil War (1861-1865)
• By the end of the war, 600,000 soldiers had
died
– Which represents more than all the deaths of
our other campaigns combined!
– Over ½ die from disease than bullets
A Deeply Divided America
• Before the war, the country boasted
31,000,000 citizens and
– 34 states (Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas)
In the South, 4,000,000 were slaves –
They made up ½ of the total
population.
– During this time, blacks are born & live
in filth, disease, and ignorance.
A Deeply Divided America
• Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan
were Presidents between 1849-1861
– They were largely ineffective, and their
inactions helped further the cause for
war.
Differences between northern and southern states:
__________
industrial
economy
“_____
free states”
agricultural
__________
economy
“_____
slave states”
A Deeply Divided America
• Secession had been suggested many
times as only way to deal with slavery
• In their eyes slavery only way to
preserve their economy - they didn’t
know what to do without slaves
• American Slavery had existed for so
long (1619) that it was called “a
peculiar institution”
Society tried to end slavery several times during this period.
• “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
(1852) - by Harriet B.
Stowe told a violent
story that moved
many to join
abolitionists
 Sold 300,000 copies
in
the first year.
 2 million in a decade!
Society’s Efforts to Stop Slavery
• The “Underground
Railroad” was created
by Harriet Tubman +
other conductors to
evacuate slaves from
South- nearly 50,000
saved by the “railroad.”
• Tubman herself
rescued over 300
slaves after her
escape.
The State of Slavery in America
RACISM RULED throughout country
– Even Northern Abolitionists were racist by
modern standards.
– Churches, schools, and even cemeteries
wouldn’t accept them; workers didn’t trust
them because they were worried about
their own jobs
The State of Slavery in America
In the South, girl slaves were used and sold
as breeders for more slaves.
• Southerners saw their slaves as
property, which could be moved with
them to new lands.
The Wilmot Proviso (1846)
• The Wilmot Proviso
(1846) unsuccessfully
tried to end slavery by
making it illegal in
lands won during the
Mexican War.
An America Free, or Slave?
–Several attempts made to deal with
slavery – NONE WERE
SUCCESSFUL
–The Missouri Compromise (1820) –
The nation kept an uneasy balance of
power by admitting Missouri (SLAVE
state) and Maine (FREE state)
An America Free, or Slave?
–The Compromise of 1850 – California
statehood swung the balance to the
North.
–To maintain the balance, power and
future states were allowed popular
sovereignty.
Path to War (1850-1856)
• Several events placed the country on a path
to war.
• “Bleeding Kansas” (1856) proved that
popular sovereignty was a failure in settling
this issue.
• As a result, Kansas collapsed into civil war
and more than 200 people were killed.
• The debate even spilled over into violence in
the nation’s capital.
Path to War (1850-1856)
In 1856, Preston Brooks brutally attacked
Charles Sumner with a cane over a speech
Sumner had made.
Path to War (1850-1856)
In 1857, a slave named Dred Scott sued for his
freedom and lost.
The Supreme Court said that Scott was not a
free man, and that Congress had no right to
outlaw slavery in any territory.
The Final Straws came in 1859-1860
• When John Brown’s
Raid on Harper’s
Ferry failed.
• He was captured and
hanged by the South.
1860
Election
Results
Abraham Lincoln’s Election
•Finally, Lincoln’s election in 1860 pushed the
South over the edge: slaveholders call him
“The Black Republican” because he
supported abolition. On December 20, 1860
South Carolina seceded from the Union, in
response to Lincoln’s victory.
Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860
• Abraham Lincoln won the election in 1860
over his longtime rival Stephen Douglas,
who Lincoln debated several times in
1858.
• With Lincoln’s election, the nation began
to tear itself apart.
Leadership during the War
Abraham Lincoln (US)
Jefferson Davis (CSA)
The Union and Confederacy in 1861
Realities of the Campaign
• Each side made critical errors in the early
years of the War
• Lincoln seriously underestimates the will of
the South – not prepared for response his
army receives in early years of the War
• The South wrongly assumes Britain will
come to its aid – all of Europe has banned
slavery by 1860
Ranking North v. South: 1861
R
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
•22 million population
•Bank industry and factories
•Value of goods increased
•Horses and Railroad tracks
•Firearms and munitions Production
• 90% of industry – GOODS
•Controlled the Navy
• excellent generals -Robert E. Lee and Thomas
Jackson
• Familiarity with the land makes defending
always easier than attacking
• Farmers fight better than factory workers
• Profitable economy based on cotton exports
Weapons of the Civil War
• Most soldiers were issued smoothbore
muskets that were difficult to load and could be
fired at an accurate range of only about 100
yards, (only three times in one minute.) Rifled
muskets were much more accurate and deadly
with a range of up to 500 yards.
Destruction from Artillery
• In the Civil War, some Cannons were rifled for
better accuracy and more power.
• Rifled cannons could accurately lob shells for
almost 2000 yards; that is almost one mile!.
• Smoothbore cannons were not as accurate
and could be lobbed 500 yards.
The Monitor
Key Battles
• Fort Sumter ( April 1861): Start of the War
Battle of Bull Run (1st Manassas), July 1861
• Union defeat
• Forces both sides to
realize that the War will not
end quickly
Fort Donelson – February 1862
• Attacks by Ulysses S. Grant gave the Union its
first victory of the War
Shiloh - April 1862
• Union Victory (24,000 casualties)
Antietam, 1862
• Union Victory – largest loss of life during the War
(more than 25,000 casualties)
• January 1, 1863
• Freed the slaves
only in states
that seceded
from the Union.
• It did not free
slaves in border
states.
• Constitution
forbid Lincoln to
free slaves in the
Union
William Carney
• After the Emancipation
Proclamation blacks
began to join the Union
Army
• Initially they were only
used for manual labor
• Eventually, Blacks saw
live combat
• 54th regiment out of
Massachusetts
African-Americans in Civil War Battles
• Lee realized that the South was in dire straits and
decided that it was crucial to attack the North on its
own territory
• July 1-3, 1863 - BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, Pa.
• Confed. bombardment; Union held firm
• on July 3, General Pickett led 15,000 Confed.
Troops across open fields - Union mowed them
down (= "Pickett’s Charge")
• Lee was defeated and retreated to Virginia
• Gettysburg is the largest battle in the history of the
Western hemisphere.
• Over 100, 000 people died in 3 days It was the
last time the South invaded the North.
Vicksburg – July 1863
• won by U.S. Grant, cut South in 1/2 and gave the
Union control of Mississippi River
• Grant was then given control of all Union armies 
began a "scorched earth" policy to defeat the South
Sherman’s ‘Total War’ – March 1864
• General Sherman given task of taking Atlanta; his
"March through Georgia" saw total destruction
from Atlanta to Savannah – tore up rail lines,
destroyed crops, burned/looted towns
Presidential
Election of
1864 –
Sherman’s
Total War
Assures
Victory
Surrender at Appomattox – April 1865
• April 3, 1865 - Grant took Richmond Va. - final blow to
Lee's army
• Lee surrenders on April 9, 1865
• Terms of surrender were lenient – Lincoln didn't want a
humiliated South and further conflict
Casualties on Both Sides
Civil War Casualties
in Comparison to Other Wars
Effects of the Civil War
• Creation of a single unified country (nationalism)
• Abolition of slavery
• Increased power of fed. gov't – killed the issue of state’s
rights
• To cover war debts, Union gov't issued war bonds and
intro'd income tax
• In a further illustration of fed. gov't power, Lincoln's gov't
restricted civil liberties so nothing would detract from
Union war effort (suspended Habeas Corpus) - free
press/ speech also interrupted
• U.S. now an industrial nation
• W. lands increasingly opened to settlement
• South was economically and physically devastated, w/
the plantation system crippled...
Abraham Lincoln
• Lincoln was an outspoken opponent of
slavery
• Abraham Lincoln’s speeches help define
people’s perceptions of basic human rights
& the role of government in protecting it
Abraham Lincoln
• “A house divided
against itself cannot
stand. I believe this
government cannot
endure permanently
half-slave and halffree.” - (1858)
Abraham Lincoln
“The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from
every battlefield and
patriot grave to every
living heart and hearthstone all over this broad
land, will yet swell the
chorus of the Union,
when again touched, as
surely they will be, by the
better angels of our
nature." - 1st Inaugural Address
(1861)
Abraham Lincoln
"...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 this government
of the people, by the
people, for the people,
shall not perish from the
earth." - Gettysburg Address
(1863)
Abraham Lincoln
"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; to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow and his
orphan - to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting peace, among
ourselves, and with all nations." 2nd Inaugural
Address (1865)