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The Civil War – a defining event in US history
50 major battles…5000 minor battles
*more American fatalities than ALL wars combined
NOTE=> the destruction of slavery was NEVER a massive
crusade in the United States (black citizens in the North were
NOT well off)
Everyone waited for President Lincoln’s inaugural speech…
•He vowed to enforce ALL laws and protect all federal property
•No comment on the fate of forts already taken by the South
•Lincoln promised no use of force unless the Federal government
was attacked
•The Confederacy held ALL Federal forts, army bases & naval
yards EXCEPT: Fort Pickens, FL and Fort Sumter, SC
Composition of forces Northern army was old & small
North had NO reliable maps of the South – had to go shopping
Southern challenges…
•1) The South had to establish a government
•2) Military built local, home guards & molded into larger
groups
•3) Surprising move  Confederate capital moved from
Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, VA
•Bad part = Southern capital no longer located deep in
Confederate territory
•Richmond only 100 miles from Washington D.C. (this
guarantees that heavy fighting will take place between the cities)
•Good part = Richmond was a key Southern city (3rd largest in
the South, many factories & the point where 5 railroads met)
Overall
•North had 22 million people; South had 5.5 million
•South had many talented graduates from West Point (the
main military training institution for the United States)
•South had crafty, military leadership from several great
military academies in the South (VMI and the Citadel to name
a few)
•KEY  the North had 90% of all the nation’s resources
War Strategy - Northern armies had to invade the South (puts
the South on the defensive)
•Basic rule of warfare  3 men on the attack are need to
dislodge 1 defender (attacking is not easy)
•Southern armies were on familiar ground; they hoped to hold
off the North until it grew tired of the fight and gave up
Major Robert Anderson commanded 80 men at Fort
Sumter
-Anderson knew Sumter could not stop an attack & sent a
letter to Lincoln requesting supplies
Lincoln grasped the complexity of it all: he could not
abandon his soldiers AND he could not provoke an attack
by sending ships
Lincoln knew the South would not all Sumter to stand (as
a symbol)
Anderson had an offer to surrender, but refused; Lincoln
sent unarmed relief ships…WITH a warning to SC of its
arrival
April 12, 1861-34 hour battle for Fort Sumter
begins (people watched)
-Anderson ran out of ammunition…Fort Sumter
was in ruins)
Sumter was surrendered without a single death
Lincoln called the attack an “act of war” – called
for 75,000 volunteers
VA, AK, NC, TN chose Confederacy; MD & MO
chose the Union (Union gets some heavily armed
forts in MD & MO)
The first Civil War battles were more like
collisions between armed mobs rather than
trained armies (Robertson)
•There was public pressure to end it all with
one, mighty battle
•President Lincoln sent 25,000 troops to
Virginia under the command of Irvin
McDowell
•His troops were untrained men who had rushed
to defend Washington D.C.
•Union troops marched south to Virginia to
capture Manassas Junction (an important rail
and river area)
•Confederate troops were commanded by P.T.
Beauregard
•Beauregard knew about Union troops and
movement with information from spies and
newspapers
•The Confederates had 2 lines of troops
waiting to attack Union forces at a stream
called Bull Run
The Union was shocked and humiliated by the loss
Lincoln decided to build a new kind of army to defend the
US capital
Lincoln appointed 34 year-old George McClellan to be
chief of all Union armies
McClellan was arrogant and believed HE was the only
hope for the Union
McClellan took MONTHS to build the great Army of the
Potomac (around 150,000 men)
1862
The Union was embarrassed by defeats to
Confederate forces in the east
Union efforts in the western US were far more
successful
•Union victories at Ft. Donelson, Ft. Henry and
Shiloh gained control of Tennessee
•Battle of Pea Ridge stopped Confederate
efforts to win Missouri
1862 (cont.)
•Union capture of New Orleans cost
Confederacy its largest city and busiest port
The Confederacy did have success in 1862…
-Confederates held on to Vicksburg,
Mississippi
-Seven Days’ Battle won by Confederates
(Richmond was safe)
-Second Bull Run was another great victory
Special facts about 1862
Union General Grant pushed the successful effort in the West
Confederate General Albert Johnston killed at the Battle of
Shiloh (considered the best field commander for the South)
The North added a second goal to its war aims…
1) Restoration of the Union
2) The destruction of slavery with the Emancipation
Proclamation
-settle the issue of what to do with blacks who came North
-discourage France or Britain from supporting the Confederacy,
a “nation”, the world’s only place where slavery was legal
-weaken Confederate forces which were supported by slave
labor
Fall, 1862 – Battle of Antietam
Confederate General Robert E. Lee wanted to take heavy
fighting OUT of Virginia, so he invaded Maryland
-both sides lost heavily (it was the bloodiest single day of the
war…and US history)
-the actual fighting proved to be indecisive
-Union was a major success because Lee lost 1/3 of his forces and
no longer tried to invade the North (no foreign help was coming
for the South, either)
-President Lincoln was furious with Union General McClellan
for not chasing General Lee; Lincoln replaced McClellan
-McClellan’s successor (General Burnside) led Union forces into
a slaughter; Lincoln replaced him with General Joseph Hooker
1863 – Important Themes
1. Key Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg
2. Northern citizens unhappy with the war
3. The horrors of war become obvious while Union
General Grant becomes increasingly powerful
Gettysburg – advance units from both armies ran into each
other; a battle was really unavoidable
a) Confederate General George Pickett attempted “Pickett’s
Charge” at Cemetery Ridge, but failed
b) Meade’s Union lost 23,000 | Lee’s Confederates lost 25,000
c) Union General Meade did not pursue (chase) Lee; Lee made
it back to safety
d) Lincoln dedicated a national cemetery to all who died there;
his speech (“The Gettysburg Address”) was famous for its
message to unite the Union
Northern citizens began to show real discontent over the war
-Emancipation Proclamation angered those willing to fight for
Union but not for slaves
-Military draft put men in battle who were too poor to hire a sub
1863 – Important Themes
Vicksburg – Union win here took a large chunk
of Confederate Army off the battlefield
a) Freed up Grant’s army to fight in other
places
b) Cut Confederacy in 2 and opened up trade
with Middle West
Copperheads (Peace Democrats) formed the political
opposition to President Lincoln {they wanted peace w/
the South}
President Lincoln’s opinion of General Grant grew more
favorable by the day…..
a) Grant had been caught off-guard at Shiloh
b) Grant had ordered bloody attacks at Vicksburg that
served no purpose
c) BUT…Grant fought without complaint, used what the
War Department gave him AND….won often
Year of optimism for the Union…..
-General Grant becomes new Army chief
-failures soon mount
-Northern morale (spirits) would reach an
all time low in August, 1864
•Grant planned to aggressively chase Robert E. Lee
•William T. Sherman took Grant’s place as Union commander in
the West
•The plan was to attack Lee with Union armies from the west,
southwest and south (to converge upon him)
•The battles at Wilderness, Spotslyvania and Cold Harbor are
collectively known as The Overland Campaign
•The Union suffered bloody losses in all 3
Other Union commanders had stopped their attack or retreated
to safe territory….General Grant attacked continuously
Grant followed Lee to Virginia with the intention of trapping
him in his capital city of Richmond
The plan almost worked; Confederate General PT Beauregard
stopped Grant at Petersburg, VA
Grant stopped attacking and planned to starve the city into
surrender (lay siege to it, just like Vicksburg)
Union General Sherman had his own Confederate General
to chase  Joseph Johnston
Johnston used evasive tactics (fight-escape-live to fight
another day and never get caught)
Johnston survived, but never won any big battles
Johnston would maneuver his
men
away from
attack
Sherman’s
armythe
would
attack
Johnston’s flank (side)
And back away to a safe location to fight again and lure
Sherman farther and farther away from his supply centers
•Confederate President Jefferson Davis did not like his
General Joseph Johnston….fired him
•Davis chose General John Hood to fight Sherman (brave,
impatient man)
•Sherman desperately wanted to score a major victory to help
his president, Mr. Lincoln, win the election
•Late 1864: Grant is has Richmond encircled; Sherman is
poised to take Atlanta
•Bold move  Robert E. Lee orders a brilliant Confederate
General Jubal Early to attempt to take Washington D.C.
•(potentially move Union operations away from their targets)
The Union is moving toward victory
•The assault on D.C. failed, but Early roamed around the
Shenandoah Valley (area between Richmond & D.C.)
•Sherman’s army pounded away at Hood until they couldn’t
hold Atlanta
•Grant did not let up on Lee to chase Early (he sent Philip
Sheridan)
•Lincoln faced tough competition in the 1864 election from
George McClellan (the general he fired), but won a second
term
•Sherman marched east of Atlanta – he was ordered not to
destroy private property
•Sherman made a desert of the land he crossed – his March to
•The 13th Amendment was passed on January 31, 1865
(abolished slavery constitutionally)
•Grant led a major attack against Lee’s forces at Five Forks on
April 1st (just outside of Richmond)
•Lee evacuated his troops & the Confederate government from
the capital city (Union troops took over a virtual ghost town)
•Lee formally surrendered on April 14th at Appomattox Court
House (terms were generous)
•President Lincoln was assassinated while watching a play (Our
American Cousin) by John Wilkes Booth
•Sherman’s attacks in the South sowed the seeds of bitter hatred
•Confederacy had great commanders ==the Union overcame it
•Morale (attitude) was largely the same on both sides
•Union superiority in supplies and men was the decisive factor
•Union had 2.2 million soldiers == South had around 800,000
Total deaths exceeded 600,000 Americans
•US spent > $6 billion dollars – South economically destroyed
** the Civil War touched the life of nearly every American**
•The war settled the question of secession == no state has every
seriously considered that action again
•The war settled another question == slavery was ended
(though blacks did NOT gain equality in any way)