The Civil War (1861-1865)

CHA3U

Jefferson Davis

• February 4th 1861 – Confederate States of America

• S.C., Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas

• Jefferson Davis – President

The Aftermath of Fort Sumter• Virginia, N.C., Arkansas

and Tennessee join Confederacy

• Richmond, Virginia named capital

• Northwest portion of Virginia seceded from Virginia and joined the Union creating West Virginia

• Missouri and Kentucky were divided having both a pro-Northern and pro-Southern government

Blockade

• Union General Winfield Scott, Commander of U.S. Army, devises The Anaconda Plan

• Effort to win war with minimal bloodshed• Union blockade of main southern ports would

weaken Confederate economy• Capture and control the Mississippi River would

split the South• South believed “Cotton was King” • Believed that cotton was so essential to Europe,

European powers would intervene in the war on their behalf

The Anaconda Plan

Battle of the Ironclads

• ironclad – steam warship protected by steel or iron plates of armor

• March, 8th- 9th, 1862• CSS Virginia – an

ironclad of the Confederate Navy built from the burned out hull of the USS Merrimack

Battle of the Ironclads

• Virginia attacked blockade

• Battle took place near the mouth if Hampton Road, Virginia

• March 8 – Virginia wreaks havoc on Union wooden warships

• Rams and sinks the USS Cumberland, shells and destroys the USS Congress

The Sinking of the USS Cumberland

USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia

• March 9, Virginia pursues badly damaged USS Minnesota

• Encounters USS Monitor – Union ironclad

• Furious battle lasts hours ending in a draw as Virginia retreated

• Both sides claimed victory

• South unable to end blockade

• Ushers in new era of navl warfare

First Battle of Bull Run• First major battle of the war

• Fought near Manassas, Virginia on July, 21 1861

• “You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike." – Winfield Scott

• Union forces routed and forced to retreat to Washington

• Alarmed at casualties and to prevent more states from leaving the union, Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution

General “Stonewall” Jackson

• One of the great tactical commanders in U.S. history

• Revered Confederate General

• Earned nickname and fame at Bull Run

• “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall”

First Battle of Bull Run

• No more 90 day enlistments for Union soldiers

• Lincoln asks for 3 year enlistments

• Winfield Scott out – General George McClellan in

• 34 years old and had never tasted defeat

General Robert E. Lee

• Privately denounced Confederacy

• Turned down Lincoln’s offer for command in Union Army

• Would fight only in defense of Virginia

• Virginia secedes• Assumes command of

the Army of Northern Virginia

The Seven Days Battle• Series of 6 major battles in June/July 1862

where Lee drives McClellan’s Army of the Potomac away from Confederate capital Richmond

• McClellan was outfought and outthought• Confederate victory but costly • (casualties: C - 20 000/U - 16 0000)• Northern morale crushed by McClellan’s defeat• There would be no quick end to the war• With Richmond safe, Lee can look towards

invading the North (Maryland Campaign)

Antietam• September, 18th 1862• Bloodiest day in U.S. history (24 000

casualties)• Fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland• First major battle to take place on Northern

soil• Lee (45 000 – Army of Northern Virginia) vs.

McClellan (90 000 men – Army of the Potomac)

• Special Orders No. 191

Antietam• Lee deploys men in defensive

position along low ridge near Antietam Creek

• Series of attacks/counter attacks amid the cornfields and woods

• General Burnside captured stone bride and advanced against Confederate flank

• General A.P. Hill arrived at last second and drove Burnside back

• McClellan refused to commit his entire force, allowing Lee to fight him to a draw

Confederate dead at Antietam

Lincoln and McClellan

Aftermath of Antietam

• Tactical draw, but South left battlefield• End of Lee’s Maryland Campaign• Much needed strategic victory for the North• Lincoln dismisses McClellan for not pursuing

Lee’s army, General Ambrose Burnside in • Ends the possibility of European recognition of

the Confederacy• Provided Lincoln the opportunity to announce

The Emancipation Proclamation

Road to Freedom

• March, 1862 – Lincoln forbids Union Army officers from returning fugitive slaves

• April, 1862 – Frees slaves in the District of Columbia and compensates slave owners

• June, 1862 – Congress outlaws slavery in the territories – in conflict w/ Dred Scott ruling that Congress could not regulate slavery

The Emancipation Proclamation

• Lincoln issues executive order feeing all the slaves in the Confederate States of America that did not return to the Union by January 1 1863

• Acceptance of blacks into Union Army and navy

• War for the Union must become a war for freedom

• Added moral force to Union cause

Emancipation Proclamation• Applied only to states

that had seceded from the Union

• Left slavery untouched in the loyal border states

• Exempted parts of South that were under Northern control

• Freedom dependent on Union military victory

Gettysburg

• Union Army revolving door leadership – no one can defeat Lee

• Burnside -- Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker replaced by Gen. George Meade 3 days before battle

• Meade left to stop Lee’s second invasion of the North

• Gettysburg, Pennsylvania July 1-3, 1863

Gettysburg

• Town critical as a dozen key roads converged there

• Lee hoped to turn his attention toward Philadelphia or Baltimore or Washington

• Lee – 75 000 men

• Meade 97 000 men

• Greatest battle the Western Hemisphere has ever witnessed

A Harvest of Death

Day 3 – Pickett’s Charge

• General George E. Pickett commanded 15 000 Confederate soldiers across open field at the centre of the Union lines

• Pounded by artillery and rifle fire• Reached Union lines but failed to breach it• In less than 50 minutes the Confederacy had

suffered 10 000 casualties• The failure of Pickett’s Charge marked the end

of the battle

Pickett’s Charge

Aftermath• 51 000 casualties• Confederacy was spiritually and physically

exhausted by battle• Retreat to Virginia, Meade criticized for not

pursuing• Lee would never again attempt an

offensive operation of such scale• Confederacy never recovered from losses

at Gettysburg

The Gettysburg Address

• Speech by Lincoln at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 17th 1863

• 269 words• Sought to redefine the

purpose of the war• “…a new birth of

freedom”

Ulysses S. Grant

• A failure in everything except marriage and war

• Calm under fire• Western Front - first

Union victories at Forts Henry and Donaldson

• 1862 – Shiloh – turned certain defeat into victory

• July 4, 1862 - Vicksburg Campaign ends with the Confederate surrender at Vicksburg and Union control of the Mississippi

Ulysses S. Grant

• “The greatest general of his age and one of the greatest strategists of any age.”

• Lincoln puts Grant in charge of all Union forces• Promoted to Lt. Gen. – a rank last held by

Washington• Command of 533 000 men – largest army in the

world• Grant promoted Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh

Sherman in charge of the western armies

William Tecumseh Sherman

• Grant and Sherman believed in total war

• Only utter defeat of Confederacy and their economy could end war

• Sherman given orders to move towards Atlanta

Sherman’s March to the Sea

• Sherman captured Atlanta, heart of Confederacy, in November of 1864

• Scorched earth policy• Goal was to end the

South’s capacity for war

• Wanted to add pressure on Lee and break the stalemate w/Grant

Sherman’s March to the Sea

• Six week march• Freed 10 000 slaves• Wrecked 300 miles of railroad tracks -

“Sherman’s Neckties”• Seized over 20 000 horses, mules and heads of

cattle• Destroyed cotton mills and burned the fields• Destroyed South’s capacity to wage war• Controversial and memory still lives in minds of

Southerners

1864 – The Wilderness

• Grant called for 4 simultaneous blows at the heart of the Confederacy

• Meade was to lead the Army of Potomac South against Lee near Richmond

• Grant would accompany Meade• The Overland Campaign (Wilderness campaign) – series

of battles fought in Virginia against Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia

• Lost several battles and 55 000 men, but Grant refused to allow Lee to retreat

• Strategic victory for the Union, leaving Lee in a desperate position

The Overland Campaign

• Fighting was ferocious

• Union soldiers would pin their names inside their uniforms so there bodies could be identified

• Final entry of Union diary found - “June 3 1864: Cold Harbor. I was killed.”

The Election of 1864• First election every held during a civil war• Lincoln believed he had little chance of being re-

elected, “the people were wild for peace”• Lincoln ran under the banner of the National

Union Party• Democratic opponent was former General

George McClellan – nominated on a peace platform he personally rejected

• Democrats campaigned on a “negotiated peace”• An end to the war, with or without victory• “Don’t change horses in the middle of a stream!”

The Election of 1864• With Sherman on the move

outside Atlanta and Grant closing in on Richmond, the possibility of Union victory grew

• Soldiers were allowed to vote in the filed for the first time

• 70% voted for Lincoln • The Confederacy had hoped

to earn independence by out-lasting Lincoln

• All hope of a political victory for the South was gone

The Election of 1864

Appomattox

• Early 1865, Lee’s army thinned by casualties and desertion, Petersburg and Richmond fell

• Lee could no longer tactically or logistically wage war

• April 9, 1865 Lee surrendered Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House

• Grant’s respect for Lee and his desire to fold Confederacy back into the Union, Lee was allowed to keep his saber and his horse “Traveler”

Surrender at Appomattox

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

• March 4, 1865• End of war was a mere

formality• Slavery was at end• Speech is inscribed on

Lincoln Memorial• Confederate spy from

Maryland named John Wilkes Booth watches address

John Wilkes Booth

• Popular stage actor• Confederate sympathizer• Opposed Lincoln’s plan to

extend voting rights to former slaves

• Gathered a group of conspirators and plotted to kill Lincoln, V.P. Andrew Johnson and Sec. of State William Seward

Ford’s Theatre

• April 14, 1865, - Lincoln and wife Mary Todd Lincoln attended Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington

• Booth knew theatre and play well

• Slipped into President’s box at 10:15

Sic Semper Tyrannis

• Booth shot Lincoln in back of head

• President collapsed• Booth leapt from balcony• “Sic semper tyrannis” –

“Thus always to tyrants” or “The South is avenged”

• Booth escaped

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Death of Lincoln

• Lincoln died next morning• Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton – “Now he

belongs to ages.”• Andrew Johnson was sworn in as17th President• First president to be assassinated • Lincoln’s funeral procession from Washington to

Springfield Illinois viewed by millions • Booth killed 12 days later

Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865

• Martyr• Considered greatest

presidents in U.S. history

• He saved Union, freed slaves, and presided over second founding of America

• OP Baseball.

Lincoln Memorial