Civil War

Fort Sumter

• federal property that happened to be located in confederate SC

  1. SC cut off supply lines to Union troops at Ft. Sumter

  2. Lincoln responded by sending supplies/provisions to the Union troops

  3. SC fired on the Union suppliers (war starts)

Lincoln’s Goal with the Civil War

• to SAVE the Union, not to save or destroy slavery

The Confederacy’s Goal with the Civil War

• top priority: convince the Union and the world to recognize it’s independence

• protect slavery and protect states rights

States that seceded before Ft. Sumter’s surrender

• TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC, FL

States that seceded after Ft. Sumter’s surrender

• AR, TN, NC, VA

Slave states that adhered to the Union

• MO, KY, WV, MD, DE

How many states were in the Union?

23

How many states were in the Confederacy?

11

Since the Confederacy was also disadvatanged in population, how did they compensate for it?

they mobilized 80% of their military age

Who took the offensive position in the war? Who took the defensive position in the war?

• offensive: Union

• defensive: Confederacy

What was the U.S.’s goal with the Civil War?

• to restore the Union, as Lincoln said

After Ft. Sumter, how did people and Lincoln initially think the war would be?

“short and decisive”

The First Battle of Bull Run

• CAUSE:

  • Union forces wanted to march onto Richmond

1. 37,000 Union troops confronted Confederate troops at Bull Run Creek, VA

2. Citizens sat and watched while having picnics

3. Union troops almost won the battle: “war is over”

4. Then Confederate reinforcements came in led by Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, and rallied his troops in a strong formation

5. Union army panicked and ran away, Confederates were too tired and disorganized to chase them

• IMPACT:

  • shocked northerners

  • Lincoln always learned from mistakes

The Union’s Anaconda Plan

• created by Winfield Scott

• 3 pronged strategy

  1. Army of the Potomac would defend D.C. and put pressure on the Confederate capital, Richmond

  2. Federal Navy blockade would block Confederate access to foreign goods and weapons

  3. Union armies would divide the Confederacy by pushing along inland water routes

Confederate Strategy

• prolong war so that Britain and France could join because of the lack of Southern cotton

• prolong war to change sentiment in the North so that Lincoln would negotiate

• Confederate diplomats tried to negotiate with Britain and France, but only received military supplies instead of recognition as an independent state (Britain got enough cotton from India)

Why did immigrants fight in the Civil War?

• strong belief in the Union cause

• cash bonuses

• extra food

• regular pay

• need for a steady job

Jefferson Davis’ Conscription Law (1862)

• men aged 18-35 had to serve in the Civil War for 3 years

• all men but federal workers were forced to serve, some citizens could buy their way out

• Union started drafting a year later

Why did most people voluntarily fight in the Civil War?

• duty, honor, and patriotism

Robert Smalls

• enslaved navy pilot took his family north on a ship and continued to advocate for the rights of African Americans to serve in the Union Army

• Met with Lincoln in White House

Fighting along the Kansas-Missouri border

• Pro-Confederate Leader William Quantrill ordered his men to kill everyone in Lawrence, Kansas, their opponents, Jayhawkers responded by torturing and massacring Confederate prisoners

Native Americans in the Civil War

• many allied with one side or the other

• some felt a connection with Southerners and owned slaves

Texans in the Civil War

• sent many soldiers from all walks of life

• produced famous Confederate Generals

Kentucky and Tennessee in the Civil War (1862)

• General Ulysses S. Grant attacked the Confederate Army defending Kentucky and Tennessee

• Union Forces captured Confederate Fort Henry and Fort Donelson

• 12,000 Confederate Forces surrendered and Union Forces took Nashville

• gave access to KY, some of TN, and the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers

Battle of Shiloh

• After the defeats in Kentucky and Tennessee, Confederates fled southward to protect Memphis and the Charleston Railroad that connected the Mississippi to the Atlantic

• then they moved onto Corinth where they would regroup under General Johnston

• General Grant planned to attack, General Johnston got to know of his plan and launched a surprise attack near Shiloh, a Methodist Church

• many of Grant’s troops were defeated

• the next morning the Union took the offensive, the Confederates retreated, but the Union Forces were too tired to chase them

• IMPACT: bloody battle

New Orleans in the Civil War

• 3 weeks after the Battle of Shiloh

• Union Forces took New Orleans by Naval Force

• freed slaves and gained control of cotton plantations

• big blow to Confederate Economy because of the port

McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign (Battle of Seven Pines)

• 1862

  1. McClellan moved his large army by water to reach Richmond, VA

  2. Johnston’s army struck McClellan’s army

  3. Only the arrival of federal reinforcements prevented a Union defeat, there were heavy casualties for both sides

Second Bull Run (Manassas)

• Robert E. Lee was able to thwart Union efforts to take Richmond by attacking them from multiple directions

• occurred almost where the first Bull Run occurred

How did enslaved people reach the Union?

• as the Union pushed into the Confederacy freedom seekers began arriving in Union army camps needing food and shelter

• they were called “contrabands”, but really, they were refugees

What did Union officers do with freedom seekers?

• they either put them to work in the camp (ex. digging trenches, building forts, washing clothes, etc.) or simply set them free

How did the Union Army Camps deal with the increasing number of formerly enslaved refugees?

• they housed the refugees in about 500 camps, they were often dangerous , crowded, and disease-ridden, but better than what they had in the South

How did Lincoln start to emancipate slaves?

1. April, 1862: signed an act that abolished slavery in D.C.

2. Second Confiscation Act: freed all “contrabands” from Union Camps

3. June 1862: signed a bill that excluded slavery from western territories

• Only in July, 1862 did Lincoln finally admit that emancipating slaves was necessary to win the war

Battle of Antietam

1. Robert E. Lee led Confederate troops into MY to get control of D.C. and MY’s agriculture

2. McClellan found out and attacked the army near Sharpsburg, MY

   • Ended the Confederate invasion of the North

   • extremely bloody battle

   • if the Confederates won, Britain may have recognized them as an independent state

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

• if Confederate leaders didn’t stop fighting and returned to the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation would be in effect and free all slaves in Confederate States

• in January 1863, it became reality

• the Emancipation Proclamation was not based on justice or morality, it was simply a military strategy, Lincoln would only admit to the morality of it later

Effects of the Emancipation Proclamation

• allowed African Americans to enlist in the Union Army

• gave moral legitimacy to the Union cause in the eyes of Europe

Battle of Fredericksburg

• Newly appointed Union General Burnside planned to take on Richmond

• Robert E. Lee set up his soldiers to defend Richmond and used lots of high-grade weapons

• worst Union defeat of the war

New York City Draft Riots

• white people in NYC were worried about African Americans taking “their” jobs, so they rioted and attacked African Americans along with others

Militia Act (1862)

• authorized the army to use formerly enslaved people as laborers or soldiers

• Lincoln didn’t encourage African Americans to join the army because he feared sentiment in the border states (where slavery remained in place)

• many African American soldiers only became a part of the army after the Emancipation Proclamation

Bureau of Colored Troops

• recruited free African Americans and formerly enslaved people to the Union army

Pacific Railway Act (1862)

• provided funding and grants for a transcontinental railroad from NB to CA

Homestead Act (1862)

• granted 160 acres of pubic land to each settler who agreed to work it for 5 years

• Dep. of Agriculture helped farmers become more productive

Morrill Land-Grant College Act (1862)

• provided states with 30,000 acres of federal land to finance the establishment of public universities that would teach “agriculture and mechanic arts”

National Banking Act (1863)

• created national banks that could issue paper money that would be accepted across the country

How did the Union (Congress) pay for the war?

• raising taxes, printing paper money, and selling government bonds to investors

  1. they first attempted to raise taxes and impose them through the Internal Revenue Service, but very few citizens had a high enough income to pay them, so Congress started issuing more paper money in the Legal Tender Act of 1862

How did the Confederacy pay for the war?

• had a much harder time paying for the war than the Union

1. paper money was the most effective

2. bond issues worked fine

3. taxes were imposed but with minimal enforcement and easy evasion

Habeas Corpus Act of 1863

• allowed the president to have people arrested on the “suspicion” of treason

• led to sheriffs arresting lots of Confederate sympathizers

Battle of Chancellorsville

• overconfident Union General Hooker attacked Lee and Stonewall’s forces but failed

• Confederate victory

Battle of Vicksburg

• Vicksburg gave access to multiple states and cities

• Union General Grant imposed a siege on Vicksburg

• gave Union access to the Mississppi river, splitting the Confederacy

Battle of Gettysburg

• largest and most dramatic battle of the war

• Union victory

• destroyed all Confederate hopes of being an independent state

Gettysburg Address

• 1863

• Lincoln sought to unify the nation and point out how ending slavery goes hand in hand with America’s founding democratic principles

Chattanooga

• river port to Georgia

• Union won, giving them access to TN and winning the war in the West

Lincoln’s Reelection

• McClellan was his democratic opponent, wanted a peaceful solution to the war and was more willing to negotiate with the South

• Sherman’s W in Atlanta allowed Lincoln to win the election

General Grant’s Military Strategy

• to fight confederates everywhere

• sent troops to TN, LA, and VA to launch offensives

• General Tecumseh Sherman lead the Union army in TN

• was willing to get his troops killed

Fort Pillow Massacre

• former confederate fort in TN that was taken by the Union

• Confederates led by Forrest came back and killed 300 surrendering Union soldiers, many were black

How does Sherman push South?

• Sherman moved from TN to Atlanta

• Sherman and his troops win Atlanta from Confederate General Hood

• Sherman and his troops resupply and rest in Atlanta before destroying/burning it

• 40K grateful slaves were freed in Atlanta as a result (unintentionally)

Sherman’s March to the Sea

• a path Sherman and his troops took to destroy Confederacy infrastructure

• Atlanta to Savannah to Columbia to Raleigh

• General Hood try to distract Sherman by going into Alabama and TN but didn’t work, Sherman sent someone else instead

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

• focused on peace and reconciliation

• assigned blame to no one, neither the Union or Confederacy

Appomattox Court House

• General Grant and Lee met here to discuss Lee’s surrender

• none of Lee’s troops would be tried for treason and they’d be given food

• Confederates burned Richmond so Union couldn’t get anything from there, then they went West

How was the Union transformed after the war?

• ready to be a global leader

• end of slavery

• strengthened the Republican party

• boosted Northern economy

• promoted westward expansion

• improvement in agriculture

• restoration of checks and balances

• federal gvt became the largest employer

• new companies were created and given money by federal contracts

Women after the war

• some became nurses and controlled farms and businesses

• many became ministers/chaplains

13th Amendment

• freed all enslaved people everywhere