Civil War Timeline Supplement

Directions: As we explore the Civil War Timeline posted to Canvas, I recommend jotting down additional notes/thoughts for certain events that we highlight here.

• Lincoln inaugurated March 4th, 1861

• By January, southern states are leaving the country

South Carolina Secedes

• South Carolina is first to secede from the U.S. after Lincoln wins

• Declared themselves independent

Reasoning

• Just trying to own slaves, northern states trying to be aggressive + hostile

• Nullification → going against national law, northern states enforced personal liberty laws

• Thoughts about Lincoln : Reference the speech where he mentions freeing slaves eventually, get agitated

• Republicans are trying to take power

- (Other states quickly follow)

South Government

• Gather in Montgomery for a convention

• create the Confederate Constitution

• Seven seceded states

• Like constitution, but more focused on autonomy

• Jefferson Davis → provisional president of Confederacy

Map Analysis of Sedition

• Green symbolizes Union (the U.S.)

• Orange symbolizes the confederate states

• Border states are slave states → join union, still part of the U.S.

• Delaware

• Maryland

• Kentucky

• Missouri

Oct. 1861 → West Virginia created

• Some people from Virginia wanted to break away from the Confederacy, remain part of the Union

Fort Sumter Battle

• Fort Sumter is in South Carolina

• U.S. fort deep in Confederate state → surrounded by confederate soldiers

• Resupply ship gets bombarded by confederate soldiers

• Shot the first shot → Confederacy

• First battle of the Civil War

Infographic Analysis (1860)

• 2x the amount of people in the Union vs confederacy

• Way more __________ in North than South

• Infrastructure

• Workers

• Manufacturing

• Banks

• Value of farmland

• Railways (can help with communication/transportation)

Same amount of farm acreage between North and South

Military strategy

Anaconda Plan

Union

• Blockade Southern Ports

• Control Mississippi River (Split Confederacy)

• Capture Richmond, VA (Confederate capital)

Confederacy

• Survive as a nation

• Defend

• Cautious opportunism

First Battle of Bull Run

• July 21st, 1861

• A.k.a. First Battle of Manassas

• Union army marches south for this battle

• 45,000 union soldiers confronting confederacy

• This battle did not end until 1865

• People treated it like a form of entertainment (picnics on battlefields)

• Dynamic of different reinforcements coming in, since railroads are super close

• Right on the border of confederate states and union

• Confederacy is victorious

Personnel changes

• Lincoln replaced General McDowell with McClellan

• McClellan leads union army

A Blockade of the South

• Union navy blockades south coastal borders

• South relying on factories in the North, but North doesn’t want to trade with them

• South also can’t trade with other countries

• Lincoln→ Commander in Chief

Abraham Lincoln Takes Action

• Lincoln cut off food, railroad, material imports from the North

• McClellan gets fired because McClellan ignores orders

Battle of the “Monitor” and the “Merrimac”

• North is constructing iron warships

• clad→ covers in

• Shell covered in iron (rest is wood)

• South can’t produce this ship

• Conflict in Civil War → South has territory in which the Iron clad prototype was

• Monitor → Completely made by Iron

• Blockade stayed

The Battle of Shiloh

• 1862

• Confederate forces attack Union

• Ulysses S. Grant → Leadership within Union Army

• Federal troop were about to be fully defeated, until reinforcements came in, and the next morning the Union was back on their feet

• 13,000 out of 63,000 Union soldiers died

• 11,000 out of 40,000 Confederate troops killed

Battle of New Orleans

• War of 1812 → Andrew Jackson got his fame from that war

• Control New Orleans → Control Mississippi River

The Battle of Fredericksburg

• Northern Virginia

• Really close to Washington D.C. (Union is worried)

• McClellan is replaced by Burnside

• McClellan was criticized for not being able to take commands from Lincoln (Lincoln is having trouble finding a leader who he trusts).

• Confederate victory

Jan. 1863 → Emancipation Proclamation

January 1st

• Lincoln only freed the slaves in certain states through the Emancipation Proclamation - which states were these? (Hint: Look at lines 1 - 2.)

Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware → The Border States, not free states

Did this probably for:

• Economic purposes

• Compromise

The rest are declared free

The First Conscription Act

• Conscription → Draft

• Reading

The Battle of Chancellorsville

• General Hooker

• Not in power much longer

• U.S. divided it’s army → part of Anaconda plan

• Concentrated army in Northern Virginia

• Split some into Washington D.C.

• And the rest go into the South

• Confederacy

The Vicksburg Campaign

Union won

The Gettysburg Campaign

• June 1863

• Pennsylvania

• Happening over a course of days

• Over July 4th

• 165,000 fighting

• 23,000 casualties on Union side

• 28,000 casualties on Confederacy

• Deadliest Battle of the war

• Union is victorious

• Confederates pushing into Union territory

• Considered the “Turning Point”

• The Union can afford to lose men, while the Confederacy doesn’t.

• Lincoln shows up to the battle

• Speaks at the commemoration

• Leave the bodies in field, turn it into cemetery

• “Four score and seven years ago,” referencing declaration of independence

• Lincoln wants to preserve the Union

• Edward Everett gives a speech as well

• Everett speaks for two hours

Important People

Union

1. McClellan → Abraham Lincoln ordered him a command, McClellan “rejected” it

2. Grant → Going to become president

Confederate

1. Robert Lee → Divided on which side to join, Nickname “Stonewall Jackson”

General William T. Sherman Atlanta Campaign

• Goes all the way from the north to Georgia

• Mission is to destroy confederate infrastructure (railways, roads, canals)

• Disrupt Confederate supply lines

• Him and his men destroy factories, bridges, railroads, and public buildings

• This can be called “Total War” → destroying anything to make enemy surrender

• Play a big role in reconstruction

• “March to the Sea” → important name for next year

Lincoln Reelection

• South does not participate in vote → has its own electoral system

• Most are red → Voted Lincoln (Republican)

• Only 3 states blue → McClellan (Democrat)

The KKK

• Burning Cross→ symbol

• Many southern whites were upset with the forced inclusion of blacks into the political system

• 1866 → KKK formed in Tennessee as a social organization

• White supremacists

• Goal: Terrorize blacks and prominent white Republicans

• Democrats → hate republicans (promoted abolition)

• Methods: marches, burning crosses, lynching, etc.

• Some wear white sheets over heads

• Still not comfortable with 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment

KKK Primary Source

• Targeted towards Republicans → Radical

• The author is threatening to nail republicans into boxes (caskets, coffins) and send them away to the KKK.

• James Davie → Radical Republican

The Election of 1876

• Rutherford B. Hayes REPUBLICAN (Wins) vs. Samuel Tilden DEMOCRAT

• 1876: Republicans only control 3 southern states (SC, LA, FL)

• Democrats return to power → “the redemption” (getting a second chance after the first)

• The “Redeemers” (southern democrats) join power with Northern Democrats→ become Democrats as a whole.

• Democrats sympathize with the KKK

• Election Results → disputed

• Tilden won popular vote

• Hayes won electoral votes

Compromise of 1877

• Special Congressional Commission investigates if the winner is correct

• Investigate → conclude that Hayes did win

• Southern Democrats accept on two conditions

• Guarantee of federal aid to the South

• Removal of all remaining federal troops

• Threat of succession is pretty much gone

• Marks the end of reconstruction