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THE CIVIL WAR
Election of 1860
Democratic Party split over
the issue of slavery,
Abraham Lincoln easily
won a majority of electoral
votes (but only 40% of the
popular vote) and became
the sixteenth President of
the United States.
Abraham Lincoln – Republican Candidate
Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas (Illinois)
Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge (Kentucky)
Constitutional Unionists, nominated John Bell (Tennessee).
Abraham Lincoln (Illinois) Republican
The South Secedes
Several Southern states refused
to accept Lincoln’s election as
President, because they feared
he would try to abolish or at
least further restrict slavery.
• Late 1860 to early 1861
southern states vote to
secede (or withdraw)
from the Union
• Formed the Confederate
States of America.
Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi was elected
as president of the
Confederacy. Previously,
Senator from
Mississippi
The War Begins at Fort Sumter
• In April 1861, President Lincoln refused to
remove federal troops from Fort Sumter,
located in Charleston, South Carolina.
• When Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter,
the Civil War (1861-1865) began.
The Cost of Civil War
• A civil war is a war between people of the same
country, and approximately 620,000 Americans
died during the four years of fighting in the
American Civil War - 360,000 men died fighting
for the Union, while 260,000 Confederates
perished.
Before and After Fort Sumter
President Lincoln calls states to send troops to serve in the
US Army.
Rather than send troops, Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas voted to secede from the Union
and join the Confederacy
1)Ongoing political debate on tariff policies,
extension of slavery and nature of the Union
(South consistently takes state’s rights position)
2)Continuous conflict between Northern
opponents of slavery and Southern proponents
of slavery.
3)US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott case
4)Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
5)Ineffective Presidential leadership through the
1850s
6)History of failed compromises over the
expansion of slavery in the territories
7)President Lincoln’s call for troops in 1861
So….
Secession of Southern States triggers a
long and costly war that concludes with
•Northern victory
•Restoration of the Union
•Emancipation of the Slaves
*Emancipation – In American History –
refers to freeing of African-American
Slaves
Early 19th Century
Debate over the power of the Federal
government vs. states rights finally
reached a climax.
Two most important issues
1 – Survival of the US as one nation
2 - Tested the US’s ability to live up to
the ideals of liberty, equality and
justice.
More Americans died in the Civil War
than any other War in the Nation’s
history.
Key Leaders of the Civil War
• Abraham Lincoln
• Served as President
throughout the War
• Opposed secession and
insisted the Union
should be held together
by force if necessary
Key Leaders of the Civil War
• Jefferson Davis
• President of the Confederate States of
America
• Davis was previously Senator from
Mississippi
Key Leaders of the Civil War
• Ulysses S. Grant
was a Union military
commander, who
won victories over
the South after
several other Union
commanders had
failed.
A West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran, Grant
had resigned his commission in 1854 over troubles with
drinking. When the Civil War began, Grant volunteered
his services and by September 1861 was promoted to
brigadier general
Key Leaders of the Civil War
• Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general
and commander of the Army of Northern
Virginia. Although Lee opposed
secession, he did not believe the Union
should be held together by force.
At the end of the war, Robert
E. Lee urged Southerners to
accept defeat and unite as
Americans again, even
though some Southerners
wanted to continue the fight.
Key Leaders of the Civil War
Frederick Douglass.
Douglass was a
former slave who
became a prominent
or important antislavery abolitionist.
During the Civil War,
Douglass urged
President Lincoln to
recruit former slaves
to fight in the Union
army.
Important Battles – Antietam,
Gettysburg, and Appomattox
• Antietam - A major
Union victory over the
Confederates as Lee
retreated from
Maryland back into
Virginia (Sept 1862)
• Important – because
the confidence after this
Confederate defeat
allowed President
Lincoln to issue the
Emancipation
Proclamation.
Gettysburg
Gettysburg - The
Union victory over
Confederates at
Gettysburg, PA, in July
1863 proved to be the
major turning point of
the Civil War. 51,000
Union and Confederate
troops died. After
Gettysburg, it was only
a matter of time before
the Union crushed the
Confederacy.
Appomattox Courthouse
After a nine-month siege, Lee was
forced to abandon Petersburg, VA
on April 2, 1865. A week later, he
surrendered to Grant at
Appomattox Court House in
Virginia. This ended the Civil
War.
Meeting in the parlor of this house, Lee
wore his best dress uniform while Grant,
smoking a cigar, was as usual disheveled in
appearance. The two quickly came to
agreement as Grant offered, and Lee
accepted, very generous surrender terms.
Four days later, the actual surrender took
place as 26,000 Confederates laid down
their weapons and were paroled.
Emancipation Proclamation
• Antietam marked a new stage in President
Lincoln’s conduct of the war. On New
Year’s Day, 1863 Abraham Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
This document freed all slaves in the
“rebelling” states (seceded Southern
states) as of January 1, 1863. This call for
emancipation of African-American slaves
changed the character of the war.
Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln with his cabinet at the first reading
of the Emancipation Proclamation on July 22, 1862.
Emancipation Proclamation
• Previously, preservation of the Union had served
as the North’s primary goal. By issuing the
Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln made the
destruction of slavery a Northern war aim and
this joined the previous war aim of preservation
of the Union
• This proclamation also discouraged any
interference of foreign governments in the war,
since neither Great Britain nor France wanted
to give the appearance of supporting slavery.
• It made the use of black troops a viable option
for the North.
The Gettysburg Address
In November 1863, four months
after the North’s great victory at
the Battle of Gettysburg,
President Lincoln traveled to
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to
dedicate a military cemetery.
In the Gettysburg Address Lincoln:
Described the Union as one nation and not a
federation of independent states (In contrast,
Southern view – states joined freely, could secede.)
Set forth the North’s now dual war aims to preserve
the Union and abolish slavery.
The Gettysburg Address
Lincoln described the Civil War as a struggle to
preserve a nation that was dedicated to the
proposition that “all men are created equal” and that
was ruled by a government “of the people, by the
people, and for the people.” According to this vision,
the institution of African-American slavery must not
exist in the United States.
Impacts
The Civil War had a big impact on AfricanAmericans, the common Soldier, and the
home front and women in Virginia
African-Americans
• Emancipation Proclamation
allowed for enlistment of AfricanAmerican Soldiers
• Many enslaved AfricanAmericans gained freedom by
running behind Union lines as the
Army approached
The Common Soldier in Wartime
• Hand-to-hand combat
• Brutal warfare
• Lonely and boring camp
life
• Wartime letters and diaries
preserved their experiences
After the War
• Many soldiers returned
to find their homes
destroyed
• Families in poverty
(particularly in the
South)
• Many on both sides
were wounded,
crippled and lived with
permanent disabilities
Women
• Assumed non-traditional
roles on the home front
• Managed homes &
families with scarce
resources
• Frequently faced poverty
and hunger
• New roles in agriculture,
nursing and war
industries during the war