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Chapter 16
The Civil War
1861 - 1865
Essential Question
•In what ways did the
Civil War transform
the nation?
I. The War Begins
• - Lincoln pleads with the South to reunite the
Union – no need for bloodshed or violence
• “We are not enemies, but friends. We must
not be enemies.”
• Fort Sumter – a federal fort in South Carolina
– was running short of supplies
• Lincoln says that a ship coming down to the
fort only has food – no weapons or soldiers!
Outbreak of War
• Confederate President Jefferson Davis decides
that fort protects Charleston (an important
city) and must not stay in Northern hands
• Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard asks for
the fort’s surrender – Major Robert Anderson
refuses and the Confederates open fire on
April 12, 1861
• Anderson surrenders 30 hours later – the Civil
War begins!
Lincoln’s War Plan (Anaconda Plan)
1. Hold on to the border states that still had slavery
(Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware)
2. Suspend the right of Habeas Corpus: protects people
from being held in prison unlawfully
3. Placed Missouri under Martial Law: rule by the Army
to keep it in the Union
4. Placed a naval blockade of the South to prevent
imports to or exports from Confederate ports
5. To capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, a
way of ending the war early by capturing its main city
6. Wanted control of the Mississippi River to split the
Confederacy into two and control its major waterway
Resources for War
• North (Federal/Union)
– Twice the farmland
– 85% of nation’s factories
– 92% of manufactured
goods
– 71% of nation’s railroads
– A navy
– Twice the population
• South (Confederate/Rebel)
– Nation’s best military
leaders
– Fighting a defensive war
on their soil
– Cotton diplomacy: Great
Britain would support
Confederacy because
they needed the South’s
cotton
Training the Soldiers
• North = blue
• South = brownish gray
• Many soldiers were
volunteers with no idea
how to fight – many
were young
• Springfield and Enfield
rifles
• Two-person tents
Life for Soldiers
• Old style fighting
produced massive
casualties
• No medicines to stop
infection or disease
• Many soldiers had arms
and legs amputated
without painkillers
• Prison camps were
tightly packed, horrible,
starvation, disease
II. War in the East
• Virginia
– First Battle of Bull Run
- Union General = Irvin McDowell
- Confederate Generals = Pierre Beauregard and
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
– Manassas, Virginia – July 21, 1861
– Congressmen and senators came to watch the battle and
have a picnic, very sure about a Union victory
– Confederates defeat the Union – soldiers run into
congressmen and senators during retreat
– KEY: shocked Northerners into realizing this will not be a
short war and gave the Confederates a false sense of
confidence
Virginia – Peninsular Campaign
– Union General George
McClellan
– Confederate General
Robert E. Lee
– May – June, 1862
– McClellan attempts to
capture Richmond by
invading southern Virginia
– McClellan stopped by
Robert E. Lee and Joseph
Johnston at the Seven
Days’ Battles
Virginia – Second Battle of Bull Run
• Union General John
Pope
• Confederate General
Robert E. Lee
• August 29, 1862
• Manassas, Virginia
• Lee surprises Pope at
the Second Battle at
Bull Run – many Union
casualties
Battle of Antietam
– Union General George McClellan vs. Confederate
General Robert E. Lee
– Antietam Creek, Maryland – September 17, 1862
– Lee planned on invading the North to capture
Washington, D.C. and solicit aid from France and
England
Battle of Antietam
– Bloodiest single day of
the war – 24,000
casualties – a draw
– More casualties than the
Revolution, War of 1812,
and Mexican War
combined
– KEY: battle ends Lee’s
advance to the North and
ends chances for foreign
aid
Clash of the Ironclads
• Ironclads: ships heavily
armored with iron
– Confederates create the
C.S.S. Virginia from the
hull of an old ship called
the Merrimac
– New ship would destroy
the Union blockade
Clash of the Ironclads
• Union creates their own
iron ship – the U.S.S.
Monitor
– Norfolk Harbor – March
9, 1862
– Both ships battle to a
draw
– KEY: Iron ships would
replace wooden ones –
changed naval warfare
forever
III. War in the West
• The Battles of Fort Henry
and Fort Donelson
– Union General Ulysses S.
Grant captures
Confederate forts Henry
and Donelson on the
Cumberland River in
Tennessee
– Wants to capture the
Mississippi River
– “Unconditional
Surrender” Grant
Battle of Shiloh
• Shiloh, Tennessee – April
6-7, 1862
• KEY: Grant is determined
not to retreat and drives
the Confederates toward
the Mississippi River
• Shiloh was the bloodiest
battle in the West
• Earns Grant the
reputation of being a
“butcher”
The Fall of New Orleans
• Largest city in the
Confederacy and
gateway to Mississippi
River
• Admiral David Farragut
disguised his ships with
mud and trees to race
past two forts guarding
New Orleans
• Captured the city on
April 29, 1862
Siege of Vicksburg
• Union General Ulysses S.
Grant led a siege (surround)
at Vicksburg, a Mississippi
River outpost – starved the
citizens of the city
• Vicksburg surrendered on
July 4, 1863
• KEY: A turning point –
Mississippi River now in
Union hands
IV. Daily Life During the War
• Emancipation Proclamation:
– Lincoln needed the proclamation to
•
•
•
•
Deprive the South of their labor force
Keep foreign nations out of the war
End slavery issue once and for all
Issued after the Battle of Antietam to avoid appearing
desperate
KEY: the Proclamation freed slaves in REBELLING
states and changed a focus of the war to freeing
the slaves
African Americans in the War
• African Americans could join after
the Proclamation – 186,000
enlisted – contrabands: escaped
slaves who could join the Union
Army
• Black soldiers were discriminated
against by white soldiers,
including less pay
• 1863 – black soldiers of the 54th
Massachusetts Regiment attack
Confederate Fort Wagner, South
Carolina – the fort was never
taken and the 54th lost half its
men
Opposition to the War
• President Jefferson Davis lacked the cooperation of
other Confederate states for much needed soldiers
and supplies
• Riots over the Draft, a system that requires men to
serve in the military, occurred in both the North and
South – could avoid the draft IF you had $300 or
hired a substitute
• Copperheads: Northerners who sympathized with
the South and opposed abolition
Life as a Civilian
• Once the war started,
women in both North and
South took over family
farms and businesses
• Others became nurses to
help the wounded, both
in hospitals and on
battlefields
• Clara Barton: founder of
the American Red Cross
V. The Tide of War Turns
Battle of Fredericksburg
December, 1862 – Lee defeats
Union General Ambrose
Burnside at Fredericksburg,
Virginia
Battle of Chancellorsville
May, 1863 – Lee defeats Union
General Joseph Hooker at
Chancellorsville, Virginia
“Stonewall” Jackson is Killed
• Confederate General
Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson was shot by his
own men
• He was the best soldier
in the Confederate army
• KEY: Lee decides to
again invade the North
with the hope that
foreign nations will
enter the war
Battle of Gettysburg
• Day 1 – July 1, 1863
– Confederate raiding
party runs into Union
cavalry – fighting starts
– Union soldiers under
General George Meade
entrench themselves on
Cemetery Ridge and
Culp’s Hill
– Confederate soldiers
occupy positions on
Seminary Hill
Battle of Gettysburg
• Day 2 – July 2, 1863
– Lee orders attack on
Union left side by Little
Round Top
– Confederates stopped at
Little Round Top by
Union Colonel Joshua
Chamberlain
– Union positions hold
strong against other
Confederate attacks
Battle of Gettysburg
• Day 3 – July 3, 1863
– Lee decides to attack the
center of Union lines at
Cemetery Ridge
– Sends General George
Pickett to attack –
“Pickett’s Charge”
– Confederates soundly
defeated – retreat to
Virginia the next day
– The major turning point
of the Civil War
Aftermath of Gettysburg
• Lee’s troops never again
launch an attack in the
North
• Ends chances of foreign aid
for the South
• November 19, 1863, Lincoln
issues The Gettysburg
Address: praised the
bravery of Union soldiers
and renewed his
commitment to winning the
war
Wilderness Campaign in the East
• Grant named commander of all Union forces
in 1864, brought East to take on Lee
• Wilderness Campaign: series battles designed
to capture Richmond
• Grant suffers heavy losses, but continues to
push through Virginia knowing Lee could not
replace his losses
Sherman Strikes the South
• Union General Sherman
captures Atlanta on Sept. 2,
1864 – Sherman marches to
Savannah, leaving a path of
destruction – then moves
north to Virginia
• Total War: destroying
civilian and economic
resources
• Sherman’s destruction of
the South created a lot of
resentment
Total War - Richmond
The South Surrenders
• Union troops capture Richmond
on April 3, 1865
• Lee decides that further fighting
would be useless – on April 9,
1865, Lee surrenders to Grant at
Appomattox Court House,
Virginia
• Grant allows Lee’s soldiers to
keep their horses, and gives
Confederates some food
• Cost of the War: Union was saved
– 620,000 men died – bloodiest
war in the history of the nation
Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan
• Lincoln wanted to forgive rather than punish
the South
• A former Confederate state could enter the
Union again if:
– 10% of the population takes a loyalty oath – new
government elected
– They ratified the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution which abolished slavery
Lincoln’s Assassination
• On April 14, 1865,
Lincoln was
assassinated
– Place: Ford’s Theater,
Washington, D.C.
– Assassin: John Wilkes
Booth
– Result: The North
blames the South for the
war and Lincoln’s death
– “The South must be
punished!”