Tides are a 'changing

First African American RegimentHigh Water Mark

Capture the Mississippi

Storming of Fort Wagner (SC)July 18, 1863

• 54th Massachusetts Regiment (African American) led an assault to capture the fort from Confederates

• Initial strike was unsuccessful; however, recruit of African American soldiers increased for the desperate Union Army

• 60 days later the fort was captured

Turning Point (East)

• July 1-3, 1863• Robert E. Lee vs. George

Meade (“old snapping turtle”)

• Attempt to break the Union back (win in the north)

• Confederate loss (~30% casualties)

• Union fails to pursue Lee following his retreat

• Nov. 19 1863 – Gettysburg Address (dedication to lost lives and reasserting why the Union must continue to fight)

Battle of Gettysburg (PA)

Battle of GettysburgDay 1July 1, 1863

• Confederates take over town of Gettysburg (why important? – shelter, supplies, take cover)

• Union pushed back to Cemetery Hill

Battle of GettysburgDay 2 (July 2, 1863)

• Union holds on at Little Round Top and Culp’s Hill– Preventing the Confederates

from surrounding the Union

• 20th Maine under Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain

Battle of GettysburgDay 3July 3, 1863

• George Pickett (C) leads a charge with 12,000 men across an open field

- attempt to break through the Union line

• Confederacy retreats to the South (July 4, 1863) with no pursuit by Meade

Turning Point (West)Battle of Vicksburg (MS)

• May 1863• John C. Pemberton vs. U.S.

Grant

• Grant lay siege (surrounding a city – nothing in, nothing out) on Vicksburg, MS

• “We are utterly cut off from the world, surrounded by a circle of fire.”

• “People do nothing but eat what they can get (horses, dogs, rats), sleep when they can, and dodge the shells.”

Turning Point (West)Battle of Vicksburg (MS)

• Pemberton surrenders July 4, 1863

• Mississippi River is now controlled by the Union– Movement of Union troops

and supplies

• U.S. Grant is commissioned to lead the Army of the Potomac as Lt. General

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

• Last Union General for the Army of the Potomac

• Employed a total war strategy– Destroy everything of value

• Houses, farms, livestock, fields, railroads, etc.

• Keep the pressure on Lee– Keep Lee on the move

• Petersburg to Richmond (from the north - Grant)

• Atlanta to Savannah (from the south - Sherman)

William T. Sherman (U)March to Sea

• Nov. 1864 – April 1865

• Ordered by Grant to employ total war– Live off the land and destroy

the rest

• Marched from Atlanta to Savannah (towards the Atlantic Ocean); then north to meet up with Grant in VA

http://www.history.com/topics/william-t-sherman/videos#shermans-terrifying-tactics (movie clip)

http://www.history.com/topics/william-t-sherman/interactives/shermans-march (map)

Ulysses S. Grant

• Trapped the Confederate army in Richmond

• “There is nothing left for me to do but go and see General Grant,” Lee said, “and I would rather die a thousand deaths.”

• April 9, 1865: Lee surrendered to Grant in Appomattox Courthouse, VA –ending the Civil War