The Civil War

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The Civil War

• 1861-1865

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The Election of 1860

• Lincoln carried the North and carried the
  election
• The Southern votes did not affect the outcome at
  all
• Lincolns name was not even on the ballot in 10
  Southern states

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• To the South, Lincolns election meant that they
  no longer had a voice in national government.
• Secession!

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What issues divided the nation when the war began?

• Southerners believed they had a right to leave
  the Union. They wanted to keep their way of life,
  especially the institution of slavery.
• Northerners believed they had to save the Union.

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In August, 1862 Lincoln wrote a letter to Horace
Greeley, an editor of the New York Tribune, who
published an open letter insisting President
Lincoln free the slaves immediately. In Lincoln's
reply he wrote "If I could save the Union
without freeing any slaves, I would do it, and if
I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I
would do it, and if I could do it by freeing some
and leaving others alone, I would also so
that (Voices of America, p.138).
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North South

• 22 million people
• Produced 90 of nations manufactured goods
• 70 nations rails
• Strong navy and merchant fleet
• Were advancing into unfamiliar territory

• 9 million people (more than 1/3 were slaves)
• Believed they were fighting a war of independence
• Knew the countryside
• Few factories
• Few railroads
• More emphasis on states rights, therefore, not
  as united as the North

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War Leaders
Abraham Lincoln President of the Union
Jefferson Davis President of the South
Robert E. Lee General of the Confederate army
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Bombardment of Ft. Sumter

• Confederate troops in South Carolina shelled the
  fort held by federal troops
• Union ran out of ammunition and surrendered the
  fort
• No one was killed in the fight

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The Battle of Bull RunJuly 21, 1861

• Union troops set out for Richmond, VA from
  Washington, DC., followed by hundreds of people
  who just wanted to watch the show
• General Jackson rallies the Confederates behind a
  stone wall, hence the nickname Stonewall
  Jackson.
• Union troops panicked and ran

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General Stonewall Jackson
http//americancivilwar.com/pictures/stonewall_jac
kson_2.jpeg
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This battle showed that both Union and
Confederate soldiers needed training.
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It also showed that the war would be long and
bloody.
Bull Run battlefield
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General McClellan

• Transformed the new Union recruits into
  well-trained soldiers
• Only one problemhe didnt want to use them.

President Lincoln visits General McClellan at his
headquarters on October 4, 1862. Visible on the
ground at the lower left is a captured
Confederate battle flag.
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Battle of the IroncladsMerrimack v. Monitor
In an attempt to reduce the North's great naval
advantage, Confederate engineers converted a
scuttled Union frigate, the U.S.S. Merrimack,
into an iron-sided vessel rechristened the C.S.S.
Virginia. On March 9, 1862 in the first naval
engagement between ironclad ships, the Monitor
fought the Virginia to a draw, but not before the
Virginia had sunk two wooden Union warships off
Norfolk, Virginia.
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Officers on the Monitor. Notice the dents from
cannon shells
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AntietamSeptember 1862

• General Lee takes the offensive, marches north
  into Maryland
• McClellan was slow to act
• In the day-long battle, more than 23,000 Union
  and Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded.
• Neither side could claim victory.

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Antietam battlefield
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Dead soldiers along the Hagerstown Turnpike
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This battle holds the Civil War record for the
most people killed in one day of fighting.
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General Ambrose Burnside

• Appointed by Lincoln to replace McClellan as
  commander of the Army of the Potomac.

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Battle of FredericksburgDecember 1862

• One of the Unions worst defeats
• Confederate guns mowed down wave after wave of
  charging Union troops.

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ChancellorsvilleMay 1863

• Took place on thickly wooded ground in
  Chancellorsville, VA.
• Lee and Jackson defeated Union troops in three
  days.
• Jackson was shot at by his own soldiers, who
  thought he was a Union soldier. He died days
  later.

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Civil War letter written by Union officer John T.
Norton (Lieutenant, 97th Regiment New York State
Volunteers, Company G) to his father, Morgan
Norton of Norway, Herkimer County, New York. The
letter is dated May 23rd, 1863. Norton discusses
the Battle of Chancellorsville and mentions the
death of Stonewall Jackson , referring to him as
"the bravest of the brave." Camp, 9th Regt.
N.Y.S.V.May 23d, 1863 Dear Father On the 2d
day of May the enemy opened upon us again with
shell but did not much injury. All this below
Fredericksburg. On this day the 3d Sunday, the
hottest of the fighting took place from 5 1/2
a.m. to 10 1/2 o'clock a.m. It was one continual
roar of musketry and artillery which exceeded
anything I ever heard. There were 4 cannon shots
fired in a second. A brigade of rebels charged
our position and about 50 men returned to tell
the tale. This was a little on the left of our
Corps. In the afternoon our Regiment went on
picket. Next morning a rebel had the audacity to
fire at me while eating breakfast.. If the
rebels call it a victory, it was a dear one to
them for at the last calculation they lost two to
one, and it would not take many such victories to
end the rebellion. Besides losing one of their
best Generals who is a host in himself, namely
Jackson, the bravest of the brave. Hoping this
will find you all in good health. Your
affectionate son, Lieut. John T. Norton
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Union Success in the West

• General Ulysses S. Grant began moving to take
  control of the Mississippi.
• Was surprised by Confederates at the Battle of
  Shiloh
• Grant showed toughness, and the Union won.

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Ulysses S. Grant
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Emancipation Proclamation

• Freed slaves in the Confederate states
• Formally announced on January 1, 1863
• Changed the purpose of the war
• Won the sympathy of Europeans, especially
  workers, making it less likely that the South
  would get aid from Britain

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Blacks in the Union Army

• Thousands of free blacks volunteered to join the
  army
• Congress had to change the law forbidding blacks
  to serve as soldiers
• The army assigned African American volunteers to
  all-black units, commanded by white officers.
• They didnt even get equal pay as whites until
  late in the war.
• About 200,000 blacks had fought for the Union,
  nearly 40,000 lost their lives.

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The 54th Massachusetts Regiment led an attack on
Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina.
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Hardships of War
Civil War wounded
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The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War
soldier was disease. For every soldier who died
in battle, two died of disease. Diarrhea and
dysentery alone claimed more men than did battle
wounds. The Civil War soldier also faced
outbreaks of measles, small pox, malaria,
pneumonia, or camp itch. Malaria was brought on
by usually camping in damp areas (that were
conductive to breeding mosquitos) while camp itch
was caused by insects or a skin disease.
Neglect of camp hygiene was a common problem as
well. Ignorance of camp sanitation and scanty
knowledge about how disease was carried led to a
sort of "trial and error" system. An inspector
who visited the camps of one Federal Army found
that they were, "littered with refuse, food, and
other rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of
decomposition slops deposited in pits within the
camp limits or thrown out of broadcast heaps of
manure and offal close to the camp. Lack of
shoes and proper clothing further complicated the
problem, especially in the Confederacy as the War
progressed. The diet of the Civil War soldier was
somewhere between barely palatable to absolutely
awful. It was a wonder they did not all die of
acute indigestion.
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A deserted camp and wounded soldier
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At the critical battle of Antietam, Clara Barton
assisted at a makeshift hospital in a farmhouse
that was under enemy fire. It was at Antietam
that Miss Barton earned her reputation as "the
angel of the battlefield," a nickname given to
her by Dr. James Dunn. Putting her own life in
serious danger, she nursed and comforted the
wounded men as Confederate shells flew overhead
and exploded around the house. In these harrowing
circumstances, Miss Barton experienced some of
the most memorable moments of the war.
A man lying upon the ground asked for drink I
stooped to give it, and having raised him with my
right hand, was holding the cup to his lips with
my left, when I felt a sudden twitch of the loose
sleeve of my dress the poor fellow sprang from my
hands and fell back quivering, in the agonies of
death A ball had passed between my body and
the right arm which supported him cutting
through the sleeve, and passing through his chest
from shoulder to shoulder. -Clara Barton, "Works
and Incidents," quoted in Voices of the Civil
War Antietam (1996).
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The War Ends

• Section 5

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The art of war is simple. Find out where your
enemy is, get at him as soon as you can, and
strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving
on. --Ulysses S. Grant
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Fall of Vicksburg

• Union triumph in the West
• Grants forces lay siege to the city for 6 weeks,
  until the Confederates surrendered
• The entire Mississippi was now under Union control

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Union Victory at Gettysburg, PA

• 3 day battle
• Picketts charge fails to take the Union upper
  ground
• The Confederates would never try to invade the
  North again

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Gettysburg Address

• 50,000 dead or wounded
• Lincoln said the Civil War was a test of whether
  or not a democratic nation could survive
• Entire speech 10 sentences long, 3 minutes to
  deliver

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Grants Plan for Total War

• Destroy food, equipment, anything that the South
  used to survive
• Did not discriminate between civilian and
  military possessions

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General Sheridan

• Destroyed farms and livestock in Virginias rich
  Shenandoah Valley
• Burned 2,000 barns filled with grain

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Shermans March to the Sea

• Captured Atlanta, Georgia and marched to the
  Atlantic Ocean, destroying everything in his path
• Ripped up railroad tracks, built bonfires with
  the ties and then heated and twisted the rails
• Burned barns, homes, bridges, factories

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Civil War Ends

• Lincoln is reelected
• Richmond is besieged and falls to Grant
• Robert E Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House

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Surrender
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Turning Point

• 360,000 Union soldiers died
• 250,000 Confederate soldiers died
• No war has ever resulted in more American deaths
• War cost 20 billion dollars
• Democrats lost influence, Republicans in power
• Put an end to slavery
• The idea of secession was dead

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Resources

• http//www.civilwar.com/
• http//www.civil-war.net/