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Notes on the Civil War
Ft. Sumter:
Bombardment started April 12, 1861 at 4:30 am – Edmund Ruffin fires 1st shot
Union commander at Sumter was Maj. Robert Anderson
Confederate commander was Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant (PGT) Beauregard
After 34 hours of bombardment, Anderson sends word that he will surrender
On April 14, 1861, USA flag is lowered on Ft Sumter – two men killed when
firing cannons in honor
Advantages/ Disadvantages for both sides
USA
CSA
22 million people
9 million; 3.5 of them slaves
2/3 of the railroads – US built more during 1/3 of the RR – couldn’t build more
war
(trains were used to transport food, supplies and troops – very imp. to war effort)
4/5 of the factories
1/5 of the factories
(both sides needed to switch over to war production, but after 1 year,
US was producing all they needed)
Better navy
Not much of a navy
Established government
Financially stable
needed to create a government
needed to create economic system
US had more generals, but not as good as
CSA
Union had only one military college – West
Point; all others were in the south
USA did not have a real cause for which to
fight until Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation which made freeing the
slaves the goal of the war
Had R E Lee and the better generals
Had a military tradition and were better
prepared for a military way of life
Had a cause for which to fight – the
CSA was fighting for their
independence; their land, their families,
and their way of life.
Strategies for each Side
USA
Anaconda Plan –
1. US will create a naval blockade to keep European goods from getting to the CSA and
keep CSA cash crops from being sold to make money for the war effort
2. US will take the Mississippi River to split the CSA in half and keep goods from Texas
and Mexico from getting to the east (Europe was sending goods to CSA through Mexico)
3. seize Railroad centers to cut off flow of goods within the CSA
4. take New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis to control Mississippi River
**All this will slowly “choke” the CSA to death like an Anaconda
Take Richmond – more of a symbolic strategy
Later in the war, TOTAL WAR - this is Grant’s plan to bring the CSA to its knees. Put into
effect most notably by Sherman on his March to the Sea. Destroy all that you cannot use so that
the enemy can’t use it
CSA


Defend, defend, defend – hold out until the North gives up
King Cotton Diplomacy – withhold cotton vital for Great Britian’s and France’s economy
until they agreed to recognize the CSA, declare the Union blockade illegal, and assist the
CSA in the war effort – ultimately a failure – GB and France went elsewhere for cotton
Battles in the Eastern Campaign
Army of Northern Virginia – CSA versus Army of the Potomac – USA
First Manassas (Bull Run) US – Irwin McDowell
CSA PGT Beauregard
Peninsula Campaign US – George McClellan
CSA Joseph Johnston
Second Manassas (Bull Run) – US – John Pope
CSA RE Lee
Antietam (Sharpsburg) US – George McClellan
CSA RE Lee
bloodiest single day of fighting – preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is issued
Fredericksburg US Ambrose Burnside
CSA RE Lee
Chancellorsville US Joseph Hooker
CSA RE Lee
“Stonewall” Jackson is killed by friendly fire
Gettysburg US George Meade
CSA RE Lee
Wilderness Campaign US Ulysses Grant
CSA RE Lee
Cold Harbor US Ulysses Grant
CSA RE Lee
Appomattox Courthouse US Ulysses Grant
CSA RE Lee
Surrender on April 9, 2006
Grant gave Lee VERY generous terms of surrender
Other battles of Importance
Monitor v. Virginia (Merrimack)
March 9, 1862
battle between two ironclad ships - new technology -CSA wanted to use it to destroy the
Union Blockade - a draw
New Orleans May 30, 1862 USA Admiral David Farragut and General Benjamin Butler
CSA General Mansfield Lovell
This give the USA control of the mouth of the Mississippi River
Vicksburg
May 18 - July 4, 1863
USA Ulysses S Grant
CSA John C Pemberton
Grant cannot take the town by any other means, so he lays siege to it and starves them
out. The CSA holds out as long as they can but surrender on July 4, 1863 (the day after
the end of the Battle of Gettysburg) . After Vicksburg, the only CSA hold on the
Mississippi River is Port Hudson, LA.
Port Hudson May 21 - July 9, 1863
USA Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks
CSA Maj. Gen. Franklin Gardner
The Union has also laid siege to this fort under Grant’s campaign and it falls on July 9,
1863.
Also.
Emancipation Proclamation - announced by Lincoln after Antietam; issued on January 1, 1863.
The Emancipation Proclamation stated that all slaves in territory in a state of rebellion
against the USA were freed. It did not include the slaves in the Border States (Maryland,
Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri) and does not include slaves in territory already in Union
hands such as New Orleans and Port Royal, SC (Beaufort and Hilton Head). Because the states
in rebellion considered themselves part of the Confederacy, they did not follow Lincoln’s orders,
so the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves when issued, but did free them as the
Union troops took over Confederate territory. What it did do was make the abolition of slavery a
goal of the war and give the Union a cause to fight for.