11.4 The North Takes Charge Objectives: A. What were the key battles of 1863 & 1864? B. How did the North finally win the war?

11.4 The North Takes Charge

Objectives:A. What were the key battles of 1863 & 1864?B. How did the North finally win the war?

Map: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg

Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg: Winter of 1862 and spring of 1863, Gettysburg (July 1863).

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Gettysburg: Prelude• Burnside replaces McClellan as Union

commander after Antietam, is destroyed at Fredericksburg, loosing 10,000.

• Hooker replaces Burnside, is destroyed at Chancellorsville, replaced by Gen. Meade (for Union).

• South looses Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson during Chancellorsville, accidentally shot by his own men.

Map: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg

Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg: Winter of 1862 and spring of 1863, Gettysburg (July 1863).


Gettysburg

• Meade’s 92,000 meet Lee’s 76,000 July1-3, 1863

• Total casualties: 30%– Union losses, killed and wounded = 23,000– Confederate losses, killed and wounded = 28,000

• Close victory for Union after Pickett’s charge fails

• Marks furthest northern advance of Confederacy

• Ends discussion in Europe about helping South

• Though South in decline, fighting goes on to 1865

Gettysburg: Day 1, July 1st

• Southern troops, many barefoot, hear that there is a supply of shoes at Gettysburg.

• Union Gen. Buford recognizes that Gettysburg has excellent roads and hills to use to fight Lee.

• Buford’s small force of dismounted cavalry holds on long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

• Stage is set: 90,000 Union troops will face 75,000 Southern troops the next day.

Gettysburg, Day #1• July 1, 1863• Union Calvary, John Buford• Confederate foot soldiers,

A.P. Hill• Buford saw how good the

land was.– All roads converge

• Confederates had man advantage, Union positional advantage

• Lee saw the importance of the high ground, couldn’t gain it on the 1st day

• General Meade

Map: The Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of GettysburgIn the war's greatest battle, fought around a small market town in southern Pennsylvania, Lee's invasion of the North was repulsed. Union forces had the advantage of high ground, shorter lines, and superior numbers. The casualties for the two armies--dead, wounded, and missing--exceeded 50,000 men. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

First Day at Gettysburg by James WalkerDuring the summer of 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee proposed a daring invasion into Pennsylvania in hopes that it might force the Union to end the war. It proved to be a turning point, but not the one Lee anticipated. At Gettysburg, a series of battles like the one shown here--this one on the first day of the fighting--cost Lee more than half of his entire army and forced him to retreat back into Virginia. President Lincoln hoped that the Union army would pursue the fleeing Confederates and destroy the remnants of Lee's force, but he was disappointed when he learned that Lee had escaped. "Our Army held the war in the hollow of their hand," Lincoln complained, "and they would not close it." (West Point Museum, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York)

First Day at Gettysburg by James Walker


Gettysburg: Day 2, July 2nd• Lee orders Gen. Longstreet to try to capture

Cemetery Ridge.

• Heavy fighting occurs in the Peach Orchard, Devil’s Den, and the Wheatfield (now natl. landmarks).

• Rebel troops try to capture Little Round Top to position artillery on it.

• Colonel Chamberlain and men of Maine hold hill and repulse attack with bayonet charge.

• Day is saved for Union. Lines hold.

Gettysburg, Day #2• July 2, 1863• Reinforcements

– Union (90,000)– Confederate (75,000)

• Union held the high ground– “Fish hook”

• Longstreet is ordered to attack Cemetery Ridge– Misgivings

• 4:00 pm attack across Wheat field and Peach orchard– Union send reinforcements to the

center • Little Round Top

– Confederate move to flank the Union

– 20th Maine

Sharpshooter's Last Sleep, Devils Den

This is a Civil War photograph of a sharpshooter at Devil's Den on the Gettysburg battlefield. (Library of Congress)

Sharpshooter's Last Sleep, Devils Den


Gettysburg: Day 3, July 3rd• Lee tries to break center of Union line at a point

called “the angle.” Lee concentrates artillery fire on Union lines on the ridge.

• Gen. Pickett’s men charge Union lines, covering a mile of open ground and running up ridge.

• Union artillery and infantry fire destroy Pickett’s division. Every officer killed or wounded.

• Lee withdraws. Meade does not counter-attack.• Another lost opportunity?

Gettysburg, Day #3• July 3, 1863• Lee was optimistic going into

day 3– Weakened the Union position

• Artillery assault on middle of the line– Cemetery Ridge– 2 hours

• Lee ordered assault on the middle of the line– Pickett’s Charge– Open field

• Union guns had remained silent– Poor decision?

• Confederates prepared for a counterattack– Meade never ordered

A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July 1863

(Library of Congress)

A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July 1863


Injured Confederate Soldiers Captured at Gettysburg, 1863 by Mathew BradyAt the end of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, Lee's army had suffered over 25,000 casualties. These uninjured Confederate captives, who refused to face the camera and stare off in different directions, may have spent the rest of the war in northern prison camps. (Library of Congress)

Injured Confederate Soldiers Captured at Gettysburg, 1863 by Mathew Brady


Gettysburg AddressNovember 1863

• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, not popular at time, becomes part of national identity.

• Lincoln speaks for two minutes

• Follows popular speaker Edward Everett, who speaks for two hours.

• Both men speak at a dedication of a cemetery for the war dead.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/images/platform.jpg

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/images/platform.jpg

Map: War in the West, 1861-1863


Vicksburg • Confederates controlled of Mississippi

• Grant sends his Calvary to distract Confederates– Destroy communication and

railroad lines• Lands south of Vicksburg

– April 30, 1863• 18 days of fighting

– Traveled east and then back to the west

• Captured Jackson, Miss.

• Two Frontal assaults on Vicksburg– Both failed

• May 19th and 22nd – Siege

• Bombing– Several hours a day

• Hardships faced by citizens

Confederates surrender on July 4, 1863

Day after Gettysburg

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-war-docs/images/ironclad-gunboat.gif

First ironclad gunboat built in America. The Saint Louis, ca. 1862 ARC Identifier 533123 / Local Identifier 165-C-630

Item from Record Group 165: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, 1860 - 1952

Map: The War in the West, 1863: Vicksburg

The War in the West, 1863: VicksburgGrant first moved his army west of Vicksburg to a point on the Mississippi south of the town. Then he marched northeast, taking Jackson, and finally west to Vicksburg. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Vicksburg – War in the West• Strategic town on Mississippi, high bluffs and

big bend in river

• Grant’s initial assaults fail – uses siege

• Shells the city, soldiers and civilians each day

• Citizens move into caves and eat horses, rats

• Grant’s siege of Vicksburg succeeds on July 4, one day after Gettysburg

• Confederacy is cut in half

• Union controls Mississippi & and border states

The 17th Illinois Infantry, 1864Veterans of the six-week siege of Vicksburg, the 17th Illinois Infantry remained to garrison the Mississippi town. Posing for the camera in 1864, these battle-hardened troops suggest the determination of the Union Army. (National Archives)

The 17th Illinois Infantry, 1864


Grant’s “Total War” Strategy

• March 1864, Lincoln replaces Meade with Grant

• Grant grinds down Lee’s army with his 100,000 men

• “blood and guts” battles at Wilderness (50,000 killed) and Cold Harbor (7,000 in 7 minutes)

• Grant’s strategy = WAR OF ATTRITION!!!

• Called a “butcher.” From May 4 to June 18 he loses 65,000 to Lee’s 35,000.

• Lee cannot sustain his losses, Grant can.

Burial Party at Cold Harbor, Virginia

Burial parties returned to battle fields after the battles to bury the dead. Here those who didn't survive are buried in Cold Harbor, Virginia. (Library of Congress)

Burial Party at Cold Harbor, Virginia


Telegram from Abraham Lincoln to Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant at City Point, Virginia, 08/17/1864

ARC Identifier 301640 Item from Record Group 107: Records of the Office of the Secretary of

War, 1791 - 1947

Map: The War in Virginia, 1864-1865


Sherman’s March to the Sea• Grant appoints William Tecumseh Sherman commander

in Mississippi. Sherman begins “total war” on South• Targets homes, railways, crops, towns• Burns everything in his path, burns Atlanta Sept. 1864• After destroying GA, went into SC

GOAL: destroy supplies destined for Northern front.Weaken Southern morale and resolve to fight.

WAS IT A SUCCESS? It did increase desertions and shorten war. Yet, many atrocities occurred and civilians suffered most.

Map: Sherman's March to the Sea


Sherman's March to the SeaDetermined to "make Georgia howl," William Tecumseh Sherman and his band of "bummers" slashed their way through the South during the winter of 1864, destroying military and civilian property along the way. This painting shows Sherman astride a white horse looking on while his men rip up a rail line and burn bridges and homes. (Collection of David H. Sherman)

Sherman's March to the Sea


Election of 1864• Democrats split into 3 groups – War Democrats, Peace

Democrats and Copperheads.• Radical Republicans run on separate ticket.• Republicans and War Democrats form the Union Party.• McClellan runs on Southern Democratic ticket• Lincoln wins 55% of vote:

- “bayonet votes”

- recent victories in war help

- opponents factionalism split the vote• Lee surrenders at Appomatox Courthouse, April 9,

1865 (Lincoln assassinated April 14, 1865).

http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/1864/1864e.htm

http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/000000c7.htm

11.5 The Legacy of the War

Objectives:A. What were the economic, political, military and social consequences of the war?

B. Why is the Civil War considered a “turning point”?

Documents

11.4 The North Takes Charge Objectives: A. What were the key battles of 1863 & 1864? B. How did the North finally win the war?