Download THE CIVIL WAR

THE CIVIL WAR
Chapter 5-4
-The Civil War began on April 12, 1861
- Southern troops fired on Fort Sumter
- A federally controlled military post
- Charleston SC
- Both sides prepare
- Lincoln requests 75,000 volunteers for 90 days
- More responded than could be trained or equipped
- 4 more states join the Confederacy
o AR, NC, TN, VA
STRATEGIES AND ADVANTAGES
- Civil War was fought from southern Penn to NM
- 3 million soldiers
- millions of civilians supported troops on both sides
- “last of the old wars and first of the new”
- old – muzzle loaders – cavalry – respect for the enemy
- New – railroads – telegraph, ironclad ships – observation balloons
- Introduction of “conscription” – draft
SOUTH’S LEADERS
- South had a better army during early years
- Many Confed officers graduated from West Point
- Many officers in the south resign their commissions in the US army to
fight for the Confederacy
o Robert E. Lee – Virginia
o Rejected the Union leadership offered by Lincoln
o Took command of Confederate forces in Virginia
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN STRATEGIES
- Union’s military strategy – blockade
o Close off Confederate ports
o Ruin its economy
o Invade the south
o Divide into 3 pieces at the Mississippi River
 Through Tenn and GA
 Capture capital at Richmond VA
Southern strategy
- Fight on their familiar terrain
- Fight a defensive war
- Hold on to what they have
DIFFERENCES IN RESOURCES
- North had superior resources
o Factories
o Railroads
o Banks
o Minerals
o Grain crops
o Meat
o Twice as many people as the south
o 1/3 of southern population were slaves
- South was open to attack
o Along its land borders
o Along its coastline
o Southern government had trouble getting troops and taxes from
member states – stress on states rights
WARTIME DIPLOMACY
- Union did not want Europe helping the South
- British and French sympathetic to the South
- South expected British aid – cotton supplier
- Lincoln orders a blockade of southern ports
- South challenges blockades
- South builds an ironclad – Merrimac
o Renamed the Virginia
- South unleashes the ironclad on the Union Fleet
o Norfolk Harbor
- Union quickly builds its own ironclad – Monitor
- March 9 1862 – first battle between ironclad ships
- Monitor keeps the Merrimac from destroying the Union fleet
- Little other damage done
- South unable to break blockade
- South tries diplomacy
- South arranges for British shipyards to build and outfit Confederate
warships to prey on Northern shipping
- They were not able to break the blockade
- Increased cotton production in other British colonies took care of
cotton shortage from the Confederacy.
WAR IN THE EAST
- First major fighting centered around the two capitals
o Washington DC
o Richmond VA
o June 1, 18661
 Union army invades Virginia to capture Richmond
 30 miles from DC 30,000 Union troops meet a smaller
Confederate troop at a stream called Bull Run
 North expects a quick and easy victory
 Members of Congress and DC civilians “picnic” to watch
the battle
 They saw 2 untrained armies clash
 Southern troops quickly receive reinforcements – better
organized
 Panic – soldiers and civilians flee back to DC
 “Give me 10,000 fresh troops and I will be in
Washington tomorrow” Stonewall Jackson – Confed
general
 Jefferson Davis insists on fighting a defensive war
 Northern disaster
 Lincoln replaces Gen Irvin McDowell with Gen
George McClellan to reorganize and train the
union army
 McClellan turned back many times also in 1862
ANTIETAM
- No Confederate victories on Northern soil
- Lee plans to attack Washington from the North
- Destroy northern moral
- Sept 1862
o 45000 troops slipped in Maryland
o Lee splits his forces into 2 forces
o McClellan was to protect Washington by keeping between Lee
and the capital –
o Frantically chased after Lee
o McClellan attacked Lee on Sept. 17, 1862
o
o
o
o
o
Near Antietam Creek – Sharpsburg VA
Bloodiest single day of the war
Confederates suffer more than 11000 casualties
McClellan loses even more
His army was too damaged to follow Lee and finish him
GETTYSBURG
- The following summer
- Lee defeats Union forces at Chancellorsville
- Lee heads north into Penn
- Shadowed by Union general George Meade
- Accidental clash between small units at Gettysburg develops into a
bloody battle
- Union troops dig in on the crest of a ridge
- Confederates task to dislodge them – attack
- Concluded on July 3
- Suicidal charges by General George Pickett
- 3 days of fighting
- Union loses more than 23000
- Confederate loses more than 28000
- Lincoln “Do not let the enemy escape”
- July 4 – Lee retreats into Virginia
- Union army fails to pursue
- Lincoln frustrated “Our army held the war in the hollow of our hands”
- “Nothing I could say or do could make the army move”
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
- Both sides suffer heavy casualties
- Sparsely south could not recover from the loss of so many lives
- November 19, 1863 Lincoln visits Gettysburg
- Dedicates the battlefield cemetery and honors the soldiers buried there
- “These dead shall not have died in vain”
- the nation “shall have a new birth of freedom”
WAR IN THE WEST
- Second area of fighting
- Around the Mississippi River
- If Union controls the river the south loses its western food supply
- Union advance
o 1862
o Grant attacks Confederate troops at Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson on the KT-TN border
o Grant “No terms except unconditional surrender and immediate
surrender can be accepted”
o 13000 Confederate prisoners taken
o Union troops advance to the south – RR center Corinth
Mississippi
o Next plan was to move west and capture Memphis, Tenn
SHILO
-April 1862
- 2 day battle
- Grant surprised by Confederates under General Albert Johnston
- Escapes disaster only when reinforcements arrive
- Union – 13000 of 63000 troops casualties
- Confederates – 11000 of 40000 troops casualties
- Grant impressed by his enemy
o “I gave up all idea of saving the Union except by complete
conquest”
NEW ORLEANS
- Flag officer David Farragut ordered to capture New Orleans
- His warships had to travel up the Mississippi
- Must pass 2 Confederate forts
- Tries to pass in the darkness
- Bright moon exposed his troops
- Confeds open fire
- 90 minute battle
- 20 of 24 ships make it past the forts
- New Orleans surrenders without a shot being fired
VICKSBURG AND CHATTANOOGA
- 5 unsuccessful attempts to capture Vicksburg
- Grant begins daring campaign
- Grant marches his army down the west bank of the Mississippi
- Starts inland below Vicksburg
- Confed commander thinks Grant is trying to lure him into the fields
- Stays behind his fortification
- Union forces move quickly
- Reach Jackson without opposition
-
Grant turns and fights his way back to Vicksburg
17 days
180 miles
winning 5 battles
Grant lays siege to Vicksburg
Starving Vicksburg citizens surrender on July 4
Texas and Arkansas are cut off from the Confederacy
o Major food producers for the south
Union forces again attempt to split the south
Through eastern Tenn and Georgia
Key to plan – capture rr center on Tenn/Ga border
Sept 1863 – Union General William Rosencrans badly defeated by
Confed General Braxton Bragg – Battle of Chickamauga –NW GA
Union officer quote – page 196
Rosencrans retreats to Chattanooga
Confederate troops attack
Union saved by Grant bringing in reinforcements
Drove Confederates from the city
End of 1863 – only 4 states – GA, SC, NC, and VA – remained to be
captured
Early 1864 – Lincoln gives command in the west to General William
Sherman
o Calls on Grant to crush Lee.