Download The American Civil War

The American Civil War
1861-1865
Vs.
Causes of the Civil War
• Regional differences b/w the largely industrial North and the
agrarian South grow stronger (ex. Where Railroads should be
built and the Protectionist tariff that favored the North)
• Slavery
• The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Abraham Lincoln elected president
• Lower South secedes and creates the Confederate States of
America
– Believed they had to leave the Union in order to protect their property
and their way of life
• The Confederacy attacks Fort Sumter
Advantages and Disadvantages of
the North and South
• North’s Advantages
• South’s Advantages
Union leader – President
Abraham Lincoln
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16th President (1861-1865)
Born: Feb. 12, 1809
Died: April 15, 1865 (four days
after the war ended) 
Party: Republican
Wife: Mary Lincoln
Children: Robert, Edward,
William, and Thomas (Tad)
• Condemned slavery and
affirmed the idea of African
Americans’ natural rights
• War would be fought to
‘preserve the Union’
• Suspension of Habeas Corpus
Confederacy Leader – President
Jefferson Davis
• Born: June 3, 1808
• Died: 1889
• Born in Kentucky, went to
school at the U.S. Military
Academy
• Later in life became a Planter
living in Mississippi
• Served as U.S. Senator,
Secretary of War, and President
of the Confederacy.
• Served as a P.O.W. for two
years, U.S. dropped its case
against him in 1868.
Timeline of the Civil War
April 12-13, 1861
• Fort Sumter
• Confederate General P.G.T
Beauregard opens fire on Fort
Sumter. Major Robert
Anderson surrenders.
• The fort was a federal fort in
the South and the Confederacy
did not want northerners in the
south!
• Lincoln had ordered supplies
sent to the fort so the south
attacked.
• Both sides thought the war
would be quick!!
July 1861
• Union army marches on
Southern capital, Richmond,
Virginia.
• Routed by Confederate forces at
Bull Run, it is forced to retreat
to Washington.
• Union: Gen. McDowell
• Conf.: Gen. Johnston and
“Stonewall” Jackson
– Earned nickname by leading his
troops into battle and standing like
a “Stone wall”
• **Opened northern eyes to the
immensity of the task of the
war.
February 1862
• Union forces under
Brig. Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant capture key
Southern strongholds
of Fort Henry and
Donelson in
Tennessee.
April 1862
Battle of Shiloh
• Confederate army counterattacks Grant at Shiloh,
but he holds his ground
and Southern forces
retreat to Mississippi
• Resulted in 25,000 Union
and Confederate casualties
• Union navy seizes New
Orleans
July 1862
• Gen. George McClellan
leads Union advance on
Richmond, but is
blocked by Con. Forces
under Gen. Robert E.
Lee during the “Seven
Days’ Battles.”
• Lee was a former US
Army General
Robert E. Lee
August 1862
• Lee defeats Union
army at Second Battle
of Bull Run, and
drives Northern force
out of Virginia, and
proceeds to invade
Maryland.
September 1862
Battle of Antietam (Md)
• McClellan blocks Lee’s advance at Battle of Antietam Creek,
Maryland, where 24,000 men die.
• This is the “Bloodiest Single Day” of the war.
• Lee retreats to Virginia.
• Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation a few days later.
– Said “African Americans in rebellious states were free”
• Did not apply to border states…why not?
– Now Blacks began to enlist whereas prior to Proclamation, African
Americans who were captured by Union forces were often treated
as Contraband
– Did not issue this statement for almost two years because he
sought to retain the loyalty of the border states
– What was real purpose of Emancipation Proclamation?
April-May 1863
• Union forces attack
Lee in Virginia but are
defeated at
Chancellorsville and
retreat.
• Lee invades the north
once more in
Pennsylvania.
July 1-3, 1863
• GETTYSBURG!
• Lee’s forces run into
Union army at Gettysburg,
Penn.
• The ensuing battle results
in over 50,000 casualties.
• Lee’s army retreats south.
• Invasion of the North is
stopped!!!
• Many historians believe
this is the beginning of the
end for the south.
July 4, 1863
• After a two-month siege, Grant finally takes
Vicksburg, Mississippi, bringing most of
the region under Northern control.
• This is another nail in the coffin of the
South.
– Confederacy is essentially cut in half.
November 1863
Gettysburg Address
•
On Nov. 19, Lincoln was asked to
deliver just a few appropriate
remarks to dedicate a military
cemetery at Gettysburg.
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“Four score and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived
in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created
equal.”
Re-emphasized the idea of
“preserving the union”
“government by the people, for the
people, shall not perish”
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November 1863
• Following the Battle of
Chattanooga, Grant
drives Lee out of
Tennessee.
• The Union army is now
led by General William
T. Sherman and he takes
Knoxville.
June 1864
• The tide has officially shifted and the North
is almost in total control of the war.
• After a costly southward advance, Grant
traps Lee’s forces at Petersburg, outside of
Richmond, Virginia.
• The ensuing siege lasts for ten months.
Election of 1864
• Lincoln is first president re-elected since
Andrew Jackson
• Lincoln did not expect to win
– Union had won few major battles
– Huge # of deaths blamed on Lincoln
– Many in north opposed Emancipation
Proclamation and the inclusion of black soldiers
in US Army
Election of 1864
• Lincoln picks new running mate (Andrew
Johnson—a Southern Democrat)
– To show unity (Republicans even changed
name of party to National Union Party)
• Democrats chose George McClellan
• What changed to get Lincoln re-elected?
• 2nd Inaugural Address
• Again stresses “unity”
September-December 1864
• Sherman captures
Atlanta.
• He cuts a swath of
destruction through
Georgia and then
captures Savannah.
– Purpose was to destroy
supplies, cut RR lines,
and demoralize the
civlian population.
• This becomes known
as, “The March to the
Sea.”
• On Christmas Day of 1864
Sherman orders his men to
Atlanta Cyclorama- The Civil War, Battle of Atlanta save Savannah from
burning; he gives it to
Lincoln as a present!
April 1865
• Grant takes Richmond
on April 3 and Lee
surrenders six days
later at the
Appomattox Court
House.
• April 9th, 1865 is the
official end to the war
between the states.
April 1865
• Lincoln is assassinated
by John Wilkes Booth at
Ford’s Theater in
Washington D.C. on
April 14th. He died the
next day.
• Booth yelled, “Sic
semper tyrannis” in
English means, “Thus be
it ever to tyrants.”
• Booth broke his leg
jumping from the
balcony, and he died
several days later after
being burned in the barn
he was hiding in.
Lincoln’s Death
The Human Costs
of the Civil War
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
North
South
Total Casualties
Civil
War
All
other
U.S.
Wars
The Costs of the Civil War
Economic Costs
 Federal loans and taxes to finance the war totaled
$2.6 billion.
 Federal debt rose to $2.7 billion.
 Confederate debt ran over $700 million.
 Union inflation reached 182% in 1864 and 179%
in 1865.
 Confederate inflation rose to 9,000% by the end of
the war.