Civil War

1
Civil War

• Battles and The Homefront

2
Fort Sumter- April 1861

• First Battle, Confederates taking federal forts,
  mints, arsenals.
• Strategic location- harbor of Charleston, SC
• Union Major Robert Anderson running out of
  supplies, asked for more.
• Lincolns Dilemma let it fall and look weak or
  lose other states (only deep S. had seceded)
• Resupply but without armies or arms
• Confederates attacked, Anderson surrendered
• Results 0 dead, AK, NC, TN VA. secede.
• DE, KY, MD, MO loyal to Union, also W. VA.

3
Advantages and Disadvantages

• North/Union

• South/Confederacy

• Smaller Population
• Fewer Factories
• Fewer Railroads
• __________________
• Excellent Generals (Lee, Jackson)
• Outdoor tradition- experience with guns
• Defensive War

• Larger population
• More factories
• More Railroads
• Navy
• __________________
• Had to conquer south

4
Strategies

• North/Union

• South/Confederacy

• Capture Richmond (confed. capital)
• Anaconda Plan- strangle the south
• Gain control of Mississippi River
• Naval blockade
• Utilize superior numbers resources but this
  took time

• Capture Washington DC, invade the North
• Demoralize the Union
• Help from 3.5 million slaves
• Cotton diplomacy- help from England France

5
July 1861 First Bull Run

• Lincoln ordered general to Richmond w/barely
  trained troops, People came w/picnics to watch
• Met Confederates, dug in on high ground behind a
  creek (Bull Run)
• Union winning until Thomas Stonewall Jackson
  and men stopped them, shouting Rebel Yell
  woh-who-ey! Who-ey! (eerie sound, chills thru
  Union troops)
• Union retreat, spectators horrified, ran
• Results Both sides realize war longer than 3
  months
• North shocked/shamed, South proud

6
Soldiers Experiences

• Enthusiasm to enlist, boredom set in during
  training (baseball invented during rest time)
• Shortages food, uniforms (Union-blue,
  Confederacy- Gray), shoes
• Illnesses (influenza, typhoid, pneumonia) lack
  of sanitary medical treatment anesthesia
  (pain-killers)- many died from infected wounds
  (including Stonewall Jackson)
• As war continued became a rich mans war and a
  poor mans fight, desertion common

7
(No Transcript)
8
Homefront

• Women replaced male factory workers (100,000 jobs
  in arsenals, factories, sewing rooms)
• Mary Boykin Chestnut- diary of a southern woman
  frustrated with failures of southern leaders,
  watched with horror and amazement (as) the only
  world we cared for, (was) literally kicked to
  pieces (Boyer, 378)

Mary Boykin Chestnut Source http//s3.amazonaws.
com/findagrave/photos/2002/167/8574_1024321157.jpg
9
Battle of New Orleans- April 1862

• Importance cut off supplies to Western
  Confederacy move troops up Mississippi R.
• Farragut and ships attacked 2 forts guarding
  approach from Gulf of Mexico
• Unsuccessful shelling, decided to sail past, 17
  warships during 4/24 am
• All but 4 made it to NO, 4/29 city surrendered
• Results Union morale up, victories in the west.
• South had lost 50,000 square miles of territory,
  1000 miles of rivers, 2 state capitals, largest
  city

10
September 1862 Antietam

• key turning point
• AL waiting to issue Emancipation Proclamation to
  free slaves in rebel areas but not in border
  states
• Lee on offensive, wanted Brit support (wanted to
  see if could win on Union soil)
• Lee crossed into MD. (55,000 men, 5000 lost)
• Union troops found battle plans around cigar box.
• McClellan planned counterattack, 75,000 men met
  Lee at Antietam Creek MD.

11
September 1862 Antietam

• Results bloodiest single day battle in U.S.
  history (Confed 13,000 casualties/Union 12,000)
• AL fired McClellan for letting Confed escape to
  VA.
• Raised confidence in the north, Lee Can BE
  DEFEATED.
• Lincoln issued Emancipation Proclamation
• South lost hope of support from Europe- Britain
  would not enter a war fought against slavery.

12
Opposition to the War

• North/Union

• South/Confederacy

• Copperheads- northerners who sympathized with the
  South
• Lincoln suspended habeas corpus- jailed them
  without trials for the duration of the war
• Draft Riots, e.g. in NY after Emancipation-
  wanted to fight for the Union, not for slaves.

• Opposed the draft- Confederacy passed 1st
  conscription act in US history
• Poor ended up fighting more- plantation owners
  bought their way out of service
• Argued for states rights

13
British Cartoon Showing Pensive Lincoln after NY
Draft Riots shows fears about emancipation,
racism among northern whites
Source http//www.historygallery.com/prints/Punc
hLincoln/1863riots/1863riots.htm
14
April 1863 Chancellorsville

• AL switched to Fighting Joe Hooker daring plan
• Divide troops into 3 cut off supplies, attack
  both flanks
• Men in forest wilderness, near Chancellorsville,
  VA.
• Lee divided his troops, Stonewall Jackson 30K
  through wilderness to outflank Hooker
• Hooker heard movements, assumed confed retreat
• Lee Jackson attacked from 2 sides, Hooker
  withdrew in defeat
• Results Jackson died (shot by own troops in
  arm, infection, 8 days later died)
• South morale boost, AL turned ashen, Sumner
  all is lost

15
July 1-3 1863 Gettysburg

• Fresh off victory, Lee decided to invade north
• Resupply feed troops with seized goods
• Lee to PA. With 75K troops, AL ordered Hooker to
  attack, Hooker hesitated was replaced w/Meade
• Confed near Gettysburg, scouts heard of shoe
  supply
• 2 Union brigades on high ground NW of Gettysburg,
  fired on approaching shoe raiders
• Day 3 Picketts Charge ordered 15K men to
  rush Union atCemetery Ridge, ½ survived, no 2nd
  attack
• Lee retreated, Meade could not pursue (bad
  weather)

16
July 1-3 1863 Gettysburg

• Results Union 23,000 casualties, Confed
  20,000
• Gettysburg Address-dedication of cemetery-
  statement of democratic ideals
• Four Score and 7 years ago our fathers brought
  forth a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
  dedicated to the proposition that all men are
  created equal
• It is rather for us to highly resolve that
  these dead shall not have died in vain- that this
  nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
  freedom- and that government of the people, by
  the people, for the people, shall not perish from
  the earth.
• Turning point Union won, but failed to end the
  war
• Lincoln Our Army held the war in the hollow of
  their hand and they would not close it.

17
Charleston, SC July 1863

• 54th Massachusetts Infantry
• July 1862 act and Emancipation Proc encouraged
  blacks to enlist
• Union unable to gain control of forts near
  Charleston
• 6,000 troops in desperate frontal attack on Fort
  Wagner at entrance to harbor, 54th led the charge
  (expected great losses)
• July 18, night, 54th clawed their way to top of
  sloping walls,
• Siege ended September 6 when confed evacuated.
• But African Americans not given less than ½
  pay until 6/1864, no command)

18
May 1863 Vicksburg

• Grant had to take Vicksburg to gain control of
  Mississippi River.
• Plan march into enemy territory, bottled up 1
  force in Jackson, raced west to trap other enemy
  force inside Vicksburg
• 6 week Siege of Vicksburg, prevented confederate
  reinforcements, eating mules/rats
• July 3, 1863 Grant and Pemberton under oak tree,
  surrendered next day
• July 8 confederates at Port Hudson, LA. also fell
• Results Union gained total control of
  Mississippi River, cut off Ark, LA., TX from
  confed.

19
Summer 1864 Campaign

• Lincoln promoted Grant to chief general b/c able
  to use N. soldiers/supplies
• War of attrition Grants plan to march on
  Richmond, until S. out of men/supplies/will
• Pushed into Wilderness (Chancellorsville) losing
  men, pushed on
• May 10-19 Spottsylvania Court House, VA losing
  men, kept on
• Mid-June Petersburg VA. RR center, called off
  assault, siege to Petersburg
• Results 60,000 Union casualties, but strategy
  succeeding because the Union had more men

20
Shermans March to Sea

• Union general William Tecumseh Sherman
• Sherman commander of Ten army, campaign to
  destroy S. RR/industries
• 100,000 troops toward Atlanta, outmaneuvered
  Johnston, defeated Hood
• Atlanta fell September 2, 1864, Sherman burned it
• Result Confed. Lost last RR link across
  Appalachian mts.
• President Lincoln (in danger of not getting
  nomination) re-elected over McClellan
• Renewed hope that conflict would soon end

21
Shermans March to Sea

• Sherman towards Savannah, took supplies,
  destroyed things for Confederates
• Uprooted crops, burned farmhouses, slaughtered
  livestock, tore up RR
• Strategy of total war against troops and economic
  resources,
• must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the
  hard hand of war
• Result effective but left deep/bitter scars
  across the South
• Reached Savannah in 12/1864, resupplied by Union
  navy (Xmas gift to AL)

22
April 1865- Appomattox

• April 2, 1865, Lee withdrew from Richmond, army ½
  size of Grants
• Lee tried to flee westward to join more troops,
  Grant cut him off
• Lee asked for surrender terms house in tiny
  village, talked of Mexican War days
• Confederate officers could keep side arms
• Soldiers fed and allowed to keep horses/mules
• None tried for treason

23
April 1865- Appomattox

• Conciliatory tone (quotations, p. 395)
• Lee rode off, Union troops celebrating, Grant
  silenced them
• the war is over, the rebels are our countrymen
  again.
• Lee to his men, did all I could, you did duty,
  leave rest to God, return home
• April 26, 1865 General Joseph Johnston
  surrendered to Sherman under similar terms at
  Durham Station, NC