The American Civil War

Causes of the Civil War

• The Causes of the war were many, but included the following:

1. The Compromise of 1850

2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

3. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

4. Formation of the Republican Party (1856)

5. “Bleeding Kansas” (1856)

6. Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

7. Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

8. Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry (1859)

North v. SouthAbraham Lincoln President Jefferson Davis

Ulysses Grant, William T. Sherman

General(s) Robert E. Lee

Washington D.C. Capital Richmond, VA

23 states – 22 million Population 11 states – 9 million

Established Government

Abraham LincolnLarge PopulationManufacturing

75% more railroadsWealth

Advantages Reason for FightingDefensive WarBetter military

leadersMilitary traditionCould trade cotton

on world market

Difficult military leadership

Weak motivationFar from home

Long coastline to blockade

Disadvantages Jefferson DavisInflation

States’ RightsInferior men, money,

machines

The Early Years of the War1861-1862

• The war was initially fought both in the East (mainly Virginia) and in the West (Tennessee).

• The Union plan, called the Anaconda Plan by critics, proposed to:– Capture Richmond

– Blockade the Atlantic Coast

– Gain control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two.

• Most victories early in the war went to the Confederacy

• Lincoln had begun a search for a general that would last him two long, bloody years.

Fort SumterApril 12-14, 1861

Charleston, South Carolina

• Lincoln ordered reinforcements of the Fort, and the Confederates attacked

• First firing of the Civil War—South fires on federal property!!

• No one was killed by the firing, but Lincoln’s call for volunteers convinced the last four Confederate states to secede

First Bull RunManassas, Virginia

July 21, 1861

• Both sides predicted victory within 90 days, and this first battle was met with a carnival spirit.

• Confused and defeated, the Union retreat turned to chaos as the army passed the civilians who had brought picnics out from Washington to “watch the war”.

• Both sides realized that this war would not be short, but long and bloody.

Engaged 35,000Casualties 2,890

Engaged 29,000

Casualties 1,982

ShilohShiloh, Tennessee

April 6-7, 1862

• Confederate surprise attack- attempt to control the West

• North recovered and barely won – led by Sherman and Grant

Engaged 62,000Casualties 13,000

Engaged 44,000 Casualties 11,000

Weapons in the War

AntietamSharpsburg, MarylandSeptember 17, 1862

Lee’s 1st invasion of the North

o Lee hoped to win Maryland’s support (and supplies) for the South and win European support

o Lincoln needed a Northern victory to issue an Emancipation Proclamation

o The North knew Lee’s plans but Lee was able to rebound quickly

o The battle was a draw, but Lee retreated South of the Potomac

*Bloodiest Day in American History*

AntietamEngaged 85,000Casualties 12,410

Engaged 45,000

Casualties 11,172

Results of Battle:•South’s hopes of foreign aid were dashed

•Lincoln issued preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

This photo of the battle of Antietam was one of the first battle photos ever taken.

Dunker ChurchIronically, the Dunkers were a pacifist sect. In four hours of

fighting around this church, 13,000 men fell.

Burnside BridgeGeneral Burnside forced his men to cross this narrow bridge even though

the surrounding water was shallow enough to ford.

Confederate dead at Antietam

FredericksburgFredericksburg, Virginia

December 13, 1862

• This Union loss halted the march on Richmond

• Union losses were heavy as they marched across an open field; many wounded froze to death overnight

Engaged 120,000Casualties 12,630

Engaged 79,000

Casualties 5,300

Wounded soldiers at Fredericksburg

Confederate dead at Fredericksburg

These Confederate dead are waiting to be buried

Chancellorsvillenear Fredericksburg, Virginia

May 1-5, 1863

• Lee again repulsed a march on Richmond

• Perhaps Lee’s greatest victory, the Rebels suffered the loss of Stonewall Jackson to friendly fire

• The poor morale of the Union troops convinced Lee to again invade the North

Engaged 130,000Casualties 17,000

Engaged 60,000

Casualties 13,000

GettysburgGettysburg, Pennsylvania

July 1-3, 1863

• Turning Point of the Civil War

• Lee had several goals:

– Draw the Union army out of Virginia

– Fuel anti-war feeling in the North

– Feeding and supplying his troops

– Last-ditch effort to win foreign aid

Day 1—Gettysburg

Day 2—Gettysburg

Day 3—Gettysburg

• The first two days fought to a draw, Lee made a bold attempt to win– Pickett’s Charge, sending thousands marching over a mile across an open field and in which more the 50% of the Rebels died

• Lee was never able to recover from this loss of men- Gettysburg is the bloodiest battle of the war, the worst ever fought on American soil.

Engaged 95,000Casualties 23,000

Engaged 80,000

Casualties 28,000

Weapons and Tactics

Gettysburg

Confederate Dead at Devil’s DenThe hand-to-hand fighting was fierce – one in every

three men in the 4th Maine was killed

Union dead July 1st and 2nd

Gettysburg Address

This crowd at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery in November, 1863 hears Lincoln utter, in less than three minutes, one of the greatest political speeches in American history.

VicksburgVicksburg, MississippiMay 19 – July 4, 1863

• Major Union victory after a long siege:

• Gave North control of the Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in half

• Brought U.S. Grant into the spotlight

Engaged 75,000Casualties 9,362

Engaged 30,000

Casualties 1,000

Captured 29,000

The Wildernesswest of Fredericksburg, Virginia

May 5-6, 1864

• Grant, marching on Richmond, engaged in a war of attrition that Lee could not afford

• The dense wood made for low visibility and fighting at close range

• The firing ignited a forest fire from which many wounded were unable to escape

Engaged 119,000Casualties 18,000

Engaged 62,000

Casualties 10,800

The Wilderness

Sherman’s March to the SeaAtlanta to Savannah, Georgia

July to December, 1864

• Sherman wanted to break the South’s will to fight

• Sherman cut his army from supply lines and lived off the land

• The army cut a sixty-mile wide path of destruction, virtually destroying the state

All of these incidents stemmed from the same root question:

Who is more important, the states or the Federal government?

Appomattox Court HouseApril 9, 1865

Appomattox Court House, Virginia

• Lee surrendered his starving troops to Grant• Grant gave Lee and his men generous terms• The Union soldiers, cheering the end of the war,

were stopped by Grant to show respect to the Confederates

The Human Cost of the War

Dead WoundedTotal

North 364,511 288,881 646,392

South 260,000 194,000 454,000

Total 624,511 475,881 1,100,392

The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, by the best estimates:

Battle deaths: 110,070

Disease, etc.: 250,152

Total 360,222

The Confederate strength, known less accurately because of missing records, was from 750,000 to 1,250,000. Its estimated losses:

Battle deaths: 94,000

Disease, etc.: 164,000

Total 258,000

Confederate losses by states, in dead and wounded only, and with many records missing (especially those of Alabama):

North Carolina 20,602

Virginia 6,947

Mississippi 6,807

South Carolina 4,760

Arkansas 3,782

Georgia 3,702

Tennessee 3,425

Louisiana 3,059

Texas 1,260

Florida 1,047

Alabama 724

(Statisticians recognize these as fragmentary, from a report of 1866; they serve as a rough guide to relative losses by states).

In addition to its dead and wounded from battle and disease, the Union listed:

Deaths in Prison 24,866

Drowning 4,944

Accidental deaths 4,144

Murdered 520

Suicides 391

Sunstroke 313

Military executions 267Killed after capture

104

Executed by enemy 64

Unclassified 14,155

The Economic Cost of the War

• In dollars and cents, the U.S. government estimated Jan. 1863 that the war was costing $2.5 million daily. A final official estimate in 1879 totaled $6,190,000,000. The Confederacy spent perhaps $2,099,808,707. By 1906 another $3.3 billion already had been spent by the U.S. government on Northerners' pensions and other veterans' benefits for former Federal soldiers

The Faces of the Civil War

Abraham LincolnOur 16th President, Lincoln was a self-made man. Licoln was an ambitious, prosperous lawyer from Illinois who led the Union while maintaining the belief that the American experiment of democracy

was sacred and must be preserved. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and died the following day.

Robert E. Lee

Lee did not approve of secession or of slavery, but he could not fight against his native Virginia. After the war he encouraged his fellow Southerners to accept their defeat and rejoin the Union. He died in 1870.