Battles of the Civil War

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Battles of the Civil War

• 10th Grade U.S. History
• Civil War
• By Lauren Davis

Note To open hyperlinks, you need to right click
on the underlined word/s and select Open
Hyperlink.
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Before you start!

• Recognize key facts of each of the battles listed
  on the slides. Be able to recognize the
  differences between them and why they are
  important. (Vocabularybattles)
• You do not have to remember the specific date the
  battles took place, but you do need to know the
  correct order of when the battles took place.
• Go through and read each slide and click on the
  hyperlinks for an activity.
• Remember to take your time going through the
  virtual tour. I will expect you to be able to
  take a quiz over what you learned on this virtual
  tour!

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Fort Sumter

• Fort Sumter is located in Charleston Harbor South
  Carolina. When South Carolina seceded on December
  21, 1860, Union troops under US Major Robert
  Anderson moved in to secure the fort. Though the
  fort was not yet completed, it was a vital
  position which controlled shipping in and out of
  Charleston. On April 12, 1861, after repeated
  calls for surrender, Confederate General P.G.T.
  Beauregard ordered Southern cannons to open fire
  on the Union held fort, officially beginning the
  hostilities between the North and the South.
  After 36 hours of continued bombardment, Anderson
  finally surrendered the fort. The Confederates
  held the fort until February 1865, when under the
  threat of Union General William T. Shermans
  advancing army, they abandoned the
  fortification. 

Click Here to view a Slide Show of what Fort
Sumter looks like today! Fort Sumter Today
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Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run took place on July,
21, 1861 in Manassas, Virginia, approximately 25
miles from Washington D.C. Thinking that the
Union Army would quickly crush the Confederate
forces, citizens from Washington D.C. followed
the Union Army out to Manassas with their picnic
lunches.
These citizens would slow the Union retreat back
into the capital after the Confederate Army began
to overrun Union positions. What would become a
Union defeat was the first major land battle of
the Civil War. Southern General Thomas Jackson
was given his nickname Stonewall during the
course of this battle.
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Fort Pulaski
For a Virtual Tour of the Fort Visit this website!
As part of the Unions Anaconda Plan to defeat
the South, Fort Pulaski was attacked on April
11th, 1862. The fort with its 7-1/2-foot solid
brick walls, most of which were made in Savannah,
was thought impregnable to the Unions cannons.
However the Union Army used the attack on Ft.
Pulaski as a test of their newly developed rifled
cannon, which could fire their shot with greater
accuracy and a higher rate of speed than the
older cannons. After just thirty hours of
bombardment from positions on Tybee Island, the
Confederates surrendered the fort and the use of
brick fortifications was made obsolete. With the
capture of the fort, the Union army was able to
blockade the most important sea port in Georgia.
For the remainder of the conflict, the fort was
used to house Confederate prisoners of war.
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Antietam
Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in
American history and the first major battle of
the war to be fought on Northern territory. The
casualty rate for both sides was extremely high
with both armies losing over 22,000 men.  Though
neither side could claim an outright military
victory, the battle gave President Lincoln the
confidence to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation, which on paper, freed the slaves in
those states in rebellion.
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Gettysburg
Considered the turning point of the Civil War,
this three day battle, culminating in the
disastrous Picketts Charge, was a major defeat
for the South. Confederate General Robert E. Lee,
invading the North for a second time, had hoped
that a victory would persuade Northern
politicians to seek a peace agreement.  Though by
the end of the first day of fighting things
looked promising for the South, the tide of
battle quickly turned in favor of the North. On
the third day of fighting Lee ordered General
George Pickett and over 12,000 men to assault the
Union line, a mile away over an open field. In
less than an hour of fighting, Picketts unit had
suffered a casualty rate of over 50. Over the
course of the three day battle the Confederate
Army had over 23,000 causalities, a loss of men
that they could ill afford. In November of 1863,
President Lincoln delivered what would become one
of his most memorable speeches at the dedication
of the Gettysburg Cemetery.
Click here to hear the Gettysburg Address!
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Vicksburg
General Ulysses S. Grant began the siege of
Vicksburg, located on the banks of the
Mississippi River, on May 18th, 1863. After a
prolonged siege, the Confederate Army finally
surrendered on July 4, 1863, just one day after
the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E.
Lee, lost on the battlefields of Gettysburg.
Grant, by capturing Vicksburg, effectively split
the Confederacy in half, and led him to be named
the commander of all the Union Armies by
President Abraham Lincoln.
For modern day pictures of Vicksburg click here!!!
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Shermans March
In early November 1864, General William T.
Sherman, and two columns of Union troops began
marching out of Atlanta, Georgia towards the port
city of Savannah.  The two columns, which stayed
between twenty and sixty miles within each other,
faced little resistance as they moved southward
towards the coast. Burning and pillaging as they
went, the troops demoralized the civilian
population through Shermans total war
campaign. Finally in early December 1864, Sherman
and his troops were on the outskirts of Savannah,
taking the city and Fort McAllister (Richmond
Hill) as the Confederate defenders snuck across
the Savannah River into South Carolina.  Though
Sherman spared the city from destruction, both
South and North Carolina would feel the fury of
his wrath.
CLICK HERE for a tour!
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• These are only some of the major battles of the
  Civil War.
• Source http//www.massieschool.com/civil-war/page
  1.html
• THE END!!