The Furnace of Civil War, 1861-1865

1
Chapter 21

• The Furnace of Civil War, 1861-1865

2
A "Ninety-Day War"

• After Fort Sumter, both sides felt they could
  quickly defeat the other
• Volunteers were plenty with 30,000 marching off
  to Washington DC in order to train for the Union
• Lincoln once again announced that he had no
  intention of ending slavery the war would be
  fought to preserve the Union
• He thought a fast and resounding victory would
  convince the South of the folly of secession
• Southerners felt one good defense would keep the
  North from bothering them anymore
• Both sides would be very wrong. One of the few to
  say it would be a long and devastating war was
  General William Tecumseh Sherman who was promptly
  retired as crazy, then brought back.

3
The first battle of armies Bull Run

• Lincoln decided that a small victory near
  Richmond, Virginia might be all that was needed
  to demonstrate Northern superiority and lead to a
  capture of the Confederate capital
• On July 21, 1861, Yankee recruits headed off
  toward Bull Run followed by members of Congress
  and others who intended to watch the little war
• "Stonewall" Jackson (Southern general) earned his
  nickname here, as the North was soundly defeated

General Thomas Stonewall Jackson

• The victory worked against the South as many
  participants, brimming with overconfidence,
  promptly deserted while the number of enlistments
  in the Southern army was reduced.

4
Can I get some help please? Abe Lincoln

• Later in 1861, the Army of the Potomac (North)
  was turned over to General George McClellan
• McClellan was a master of training and drilling
  while also greatly loved and admired by those
  under his command
• In actual battle he proved to be quite inept,
  constantly under the mistaken belief that the
  enemy outnumbered him or perhaps he was just
  afraid
• Lincoln was constantly agitated by his generals
  until the last year of the war.

Union General George McClellan
5
The second major skirmish

• Finally, Lincoln ordered McClellan to attack
  (actually he jokingly asked if he could borrow it
  if the General wasnt going to use it)
• In the spring of 1862 he sailed his troops
  through the Chesapeake Bay landing on a peninsula
  between the James and York rivers just southeast
  of Richmond
• The troops worked their way to the very edges of
  Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign
• But they were turned away by Robert E. Lee, who
  had decided to remain loyal to his state, in the
  Seven Days' Battles.

6
The first modern war

• The American Civil War represented many firsts
  including
• a new, much more accurate rifle
• the Gatling gun (a primitive machine-gun)
• and "ironclads" (battleships plated with iron)
• The South raised an old wooden U.S. warship, the
  Merrimack, gave it ten guns and plated the sides
  with iron railroad rails.
• When Lincoln learned of this he immediately
  ordered work on a version for the Union.

7
Battle of Ironclads

• On March 8, 1862, the Merrimack sank two Union
  ships and grounded a third in the waters off of
  Virginia
• The next morning the Monitor arrived armed with
  just two guns that were mounted on a revolving
  turret
• The two ships exchanged fire at close range for
  four hours doing little damage

• The Merrimack was later destroyed by its' own
  Confederate soldiers who feared it would fall
  into Union hands
• England and France were horrified, as suddenly
  their tremendous wooden navies were rendered
  obsolete.

The turret topped Monitor rams the Merrimack
while both ironclads fire.
8
The Pivotal Point Antietam

• After success in the Second Battle of Bull Run,
  Robert E. Lee decided to strike inside Northern
  territory
• He ventured into Maryland hoping to gain support
  from both the Border state and Europe
• Lincoln had reluctantly put George McClellan back
  in command of the Army of the Potomac
• One of the key developments that enabled
  McClellan to stop Lee at Antietam was the fact
  that Union soldiers had discovered a dropped copy
  of Lee's plan
• not in text - Most historians argue that
  McClellan failed to take full advantage of his
  knowledge
• Militarily the battle was a draw.

Lincoln (top hat) with McClellan (third from
left) shortly after the conclusion of Antietam.
Lincoln thought McClellan would now chase Lee and
his injured army.
9
Outcomes of Antietam

• The border-states remain with the North
• England and France do NOT intervene as had been
  expected
• though the Union suffered higher numbers of dead
  and wounded, Lee lost approximately 25 of his
  army
• Lincoln had the victory he needed to announce his
  proclamation
• McClellan is removed from his field command once
  and for all..
• WHAT?
• Shortly after the conclusion of the battle,
  Lincoln visited the site to survey the damage and
  speak to McClellan
• Lincoln returned to Washington believing that the
  Army of the Potomac would follow and attack Lee's
  retreating army and end the war
• As soon as he got back to his office Lincoln
  received a telegram from McClellan explaining he
  would need 100,000 more soldiers plus supplies if
  he was going to chase down Lee
• Lincoln could not find a general willing to
  fight.

10
The Emancipation Proclamation

• More hype than substance - On September 23, 1862,
  Lincoln announced that as of January 1, 1863, all
  slaves "in areas of active rebellion" (not the
  border states of the Union) are forever free
• All-Black units began to fight for the Union as
  the North now had a moral stake in the war.

Lincolns Cabinet asked him to wait for a Union
victory
11
War in the West

• For the most part things had gone better for the
  Union in the west
• David Farragut seized control of New Orleans in
  the spring of 1862
• General Ulysses S. Grant led victories in
  Tennessee and Mississippi with one loss at Shilo
• Now all that was needed was to take the fortress
  at Vicksburg and the North would control the
  Mississippi River. Victory came on July 4, 1863
  and with it Northern trade was reopened helping
  to silence those pushing for peace in the North
• Grant returned to Tennessee clearing out all of
  the Confederates and opening the door to Georgia
  for William Tecumseh Sherman. Grant would have
  done it himself but he was called to the east to
  serve as the new general-in-chief.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the field. He
was known to drink more than he should but
presumed he developed his habit sending so many
men to death.
12
Gettysburg

• The sleepy Pennsylvania town proved to be the
  South's last opportunity in a number of ways
• After surprising successful defenses in the
  Virginia towns of Fredericksburg and
  Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee decided to try
  another attack on the Union
• While Grant was bombing Vicksburg, Lee launched
  an offensive on Northern troops under the command
  of General George Meade at Gettysburg
• From July 1-3, 1863, furious fighting was capped
  by the Southern mistake of Pickett's Charge. Lee
  took full responsibility for the loss,
  apologizing to retreating troops and offering his
  resignation to Jefferson Davis
• Coupled with the loss at Vicksburg, the South now
  lost all hope of European recognition and
  assistance
• About 27,000 confederates were killed, ? of the
  troops under Lee's command. Meade failed to
  follow the retreating South probably because he
  had only been in charge for six days and 23,000
  of his men were dead, wounded, or missing.

13
Lincolns Gettysburg Address

• In September, Lincoln visited the site in order
  to dedicate a cemetery.
• He followed the 2-hour speech of another orator
  with a 269-word address that received little
  applause from the stunned audience
• Even the photographer only managed to get a shot
  of the president sitting back down in his chair.
  It has since become known as the Gettysburg
  Address.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a
great battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field as a final
resting place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live It is altogether
fitting and proper that .
14
Shermans March

• In 1864, General Sherman set out to smash the
  South to pieces
• Using the unorthodox strategy of abandoning his
  supply lines and living off the land, Sherman and
  his 60,000 soldiers first swept through Georgia
• They tore up and melted railroads, burned entire
  cities to the ground including Atlanta, and ate
  very well
• He next turned his attention to South Carolina
  where the destruction was even more vicious
  because the state had been the first to secede
• His success allowed Lincoln to announce that the
  end of the war was near.

15
The Election of 1864

• Hardly a given, Lincoln needed Sherman's
  successes to help push him past .George
  McClellan
• Lincoln (Union Party) 212 2,206,938
• McClellan (Democrat) 21 1,803,787

• McClellan won the states of Kentucky, Delaware,
  and New Jersey
• The seceding states were not allowed to vote
• To help ensure victory for Lincoln, absentee
  ballots were sent to troops stationed in the
  South.

16
The Election of 1864

• For this one election the Republican name was
  temporarily abandoned
• The Union Party was made up of Republicans and
  War Democrats who supported Lincoln
• Peace Democrats did not support Lincoln and voted
  for McClellan
• Copperheads were against Lincoln, the draft,
  emancipation, and openly obstructed the war
  effort.

17
Died of a theory Jefferson Davis

• Shortly after the election a Union victory seemed
  only a matter of time
• Unlike past generals, Grant chased Lee despite
  heavy casualties. Richmond fell and Lee finally
  surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9,
  1865.

Appomattox Courthouse
Confederate General Robert E. Lee
18
Good Friday

• April 14, 1865 - Lincoln is assassinated by John
  Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater
• It was part of a larger conspiracy to kill
  Lincoln, Grant (who was supposed to be at the
  theater with Lincoln), VP Andrew Johnson, and
  William Seward.
• Seward was severely stabbed while lying in bed
  recovering from a cart accident but fought off
  his attacker and survived
• The man assigned to Johnson lost his nerve
• Booth was hunted down and died in a shootout at a
  farm in Virginia on April 26th
• Many were arrested and four were tried and
  executed as part of the conspiracy
• As time wore on, increasing numbers of
  Southerners perceived that Lincoln's death was a
  calamity for them for he had given indications of
  a soft-on-the-South policy. After his death the
  Radical Republicans will spend the next 12 years
  punishing the South.

John Wilkes Booth
Inside Fords Theater