1864-1865: The End of the War

Arlington National Cemetery

First of several National Cemeteries for American Dead.

Now, all American veterans entitled to burial at one of 155 now in the nation

No Confederate dead allowed

Arlington was originally Robert E. Lee’s home in Arlington, VA

Richmond Bread Riots ‘64

Food shortages hit Confederate cities especially hard.

West Virginia has left the South, East

Tennessee and North Georgia contemplate leaving too.

Fort Pillow, Tennessee 1864

Confederate soldiers under Nathan Bedford Forrest murder 300 Union soldiers after they surrender, almost all of them African-American.

Union refuses to exchange or parole prisoners...both sides build POW camps.

Remember Fort Pillow! becomes Union battle cry

Camps are terrible.

Elmira, New York

Andersonville, Georgia

Soldiers die of starvation, torture, disease

“Remember Fort Pillow!”

Confederacy claims Black Union Troops often kill Southern prisoners. Both sides become more violent.

Prisoners, civilians increasingly targeted.

Election of 1864

George McClellan’s Democratic Party wants to end the war, reverse Emancipation

Proclamation.

Lincoln feels he needs to win election to save the nation. In July, 1864, it looks like Lincoln will lose.

North begins to

destroy Southern infrastructure

Sherman’s March

William Tecumseh Sherman brings total war to America.

Destroys Georgia’s, South Carolina’s and North Carolina’s economy

Sheridan in the Valley

Union General Philip Sheridan brings “Scorched Earth” to the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

The Valley was the major breadbasket for the Northern Virginia troops.

Every farm is burned down.

Grant commands five Union armies

He will focus on Lee’s army near Richmond, while four other armies destroy the South.

In the first month of fighting in 1864, more soldiers die than the previous three years combined.

The Wilderness to Petersburg, in Virginia. 1864-1865

Continuous war

Trenches, mines, grenades, machine guns, observation balloons… World War I preview.

Casualties are even more extreme

Grant loses 60,000 men…40% of his army

Lee loses 35,000…50% of his army.

Desertions rise dramatically in South.

Mortuary Services

created

Petersburg Siege

June 1864-April 1865

African-Americans in South

Nearly 50% of slaves run away during the war. 2 million of 4.5 million enslaved.

Many ex-slaves act as spies, scouts, workers, and even sabotage Confederate railroads, shipping. Eventually, 50,000 former enslaved men serve in Northern Army

The Peace Movement in the North

Democrats believe they will win election in ‘64 and end the war. However, Sherman’s victories in the Deep South convince the North they are about to win.

Sherman’s March to the Sea

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman leading his army from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, in late 1864. The purpose was to demonstrate Union power and to destroy the Confederacy's ability to wage war by targeting infrastructure and resources

Atlanta & Savannah in Georgia, Charleston & Columbia South Carolina

all destroyed…

Lincoln wins re-election over McClellan in 1864

Adds Andrew Johnson, a states-rights, white-supremacist Democrat from Tennessee, as Vice-President.

Republicans manipulate voting in the Union Army. Democratic officers are suspended, removed from command, even jailed.

Sherman’s victories help sway voters to stick it out.

13th Amendment

Slavery abolished from Constitution, country

just before the end of the war. (No Southern

congressmen to block it).

13th Amendment: 1865

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except

as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall

have been duly convicted, shall exist within the

United States, or any place subject to their

jurisdiction.

Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by

appropriate legislation.

The War Ends

Grant’s forces capture Richmond, Lee surrenders his forces at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia on April 9, 1865.

Lincoln assassinated

April 15th, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. A famous actor who was a Confederate sympathizer from Virginia.

Booth killed weeks later by Union Cavalry

5% of the population affected

About 750,000 men die in battle

Another 2 million die from illness.

Nearly 5 million are wounded, often debilitated for life.

Now what?

Andrew Johnson is now President, and will have to lead the Reconstruction of the Nation.

He is a pro-Union Democrat from the rebel state of Tennessee.