Civil War

1
Civil War Year by Year
2
Steps to Secession

• Nov. 1860
• 6th - Lincoln elected president. A number of
  southern states had threatened secession if he
  won.
• Later that month, the General Assembly sets aside
  money to defend the state and calls for secession
  convention

3

• December 1860
• 7th - Gov. Joseph Brown writes letter to
  Georgians stating he was more concerned about
  Republicans being in power than Abraham Lincoln
• 20th South Carolina becomes the first state to
  secede (leave the Union.)

4

• January 1861
• 16th - delegates met in Milledgeville (by now
  the 4th capital) for a secession convention. 4
  states had already seceded South Carolina,
  Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama
• 19th Georgia officially seceded from the United
  States.

5

• February 1861
• Delegates from 7 southern states including GA
  met in Montgomery and formed a new country named
  the Confederate States of America or the
  Confederacy.
• Jefferson Davis was president of the CSA and
  Alexander Stephens (from Georgia) was the
  vice-president.

6
1861

• April 12 - First shots of the Civil War were
  fired at Ft. Sumter, South Carolina
• First actual battle near railroad junction of
  Manassas, Va., right outside of Washington DC

7
1862

• JUNE
• Robert E. Lee named commander of Confederate
  army, renaming it the Army of Northern Virginia

8
1862

• SEPTEMBER
• Battle of Antietam (Maryland) is the bloodiest
  one-day of the Civil War 26,000 casualties
• This was Lees first attempt to invade the North
• Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation to
  take effect Jan. 1, 1863

9
1863

• January
• Emancipation Proclamation issued to free all
  slaves actually got rid of loopholes that kept
  blacks from enlisting in Union army

10
1863

• First week of July turning point of the war for
  the Union
• 1st 3rd Battle of Gettysburg.
• Lees second and last attempted invasion of
  the north. This battle had the most casualties
  of any in the war.
• 4th - Vicksburg (Miss.) surrenders to Union
  forces after 6-week siege left city in ruins

11
1863

• September
• Battle of Chickamauga (Georgia) Confederate
  forces hold off attempted invasion of Georgia and
  send Union troops retreating to Chattanooga.
  This was the last decisive Confederate victory of
  the war.
• November
• Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address
• Rebels attempt to seize Chattanooga but Union
  keeps the city in its control

12
Spring/Summer 1864 The Atlanta Campaign

• The Confederacy
• Joseph E. Johnston commander (replaced Braxton
  Bragg)
• 60,000 troops made up his strong Army of Tennessee

13
Spring/Summer 1864 The Atlanta Campaign

• The Union
• Led by Gen. William T. Sherman
• 100,000 troops
• I will make Georgia howl.

14
Spring/Summer 1864 The Atlanta Campaign

• Sherman captures Atlanta in Sept. and telegraphs
  the president Atlanta is ours and fairly won.
• With the capture of Atlanta, the Union has gained
  control of the last supply center of the south.

15
Spring/Summer 1864 The Atlanta Campaign
16
The March to the Sea

• Sept. Nov. Sherman and his troops stay in
  Atlanta until November. They stay long enough to
  have plenty of supplies brought in before burning
  the city and for the 1864 presidential election
  to be decided
• Nov. 21 Sherman begins the March to the Sea
  with 62,000 troops

17
What was the March to the Sea?

• The March to the Sea was the Unions destruction
  of rural Georgia by marching from Atlanta to
  Savannah a distance of 250 miles. Troops
  attacked the civilian infrastructure homes,
  crops, animals. They cut a path 60 miles wide,
  causing 100 million in damage.

18
The March to the Sea
19
The March to the Sea

• Sherman divided his troops into two columns
  each following a major rail line through the
  state
• One of the most famous souvenirs from the march
  were Shermans neckties
• Sherman arrived in Savannah on Dec. 21 and
  presented the city to President Lincoln as a
  Christmas present.

20
1865

• March
• President Lincoln is inaugurated for his 2nd
  term Lee launches his last offensive against
  Grant but it fails
• April
• 9th Robert E. Lee surrenders to U.S. Grant at
  Appomattox. Grant agrees to generous terms of
  surrender for Confederate officers and soldiers
• 14th Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes
  Booth