The American Civil War

1861-1865

What happened after the Election of 1860?

• The Confederacy States of America was formed.

• Each state would be independent.

• President of Confederacy was Jefferson Davis.

• 7 states had seceded.• The first to secede was

South Carolina.• The Confederate capital

would eventually be Richmond, Virginia.

What happened at Fort Sumter?

• Opening confrontation of the Civil War in April 1861.

• Lincoln decided to resupply the fort and Davis ordered an attack.

• The Union surrendered the fort and the war had begun.

What was the importance of Virginia?

• After Fort Sumter, Virginia agrees to leave the Union.

• Most heavily populated Southern state and most industrialized.

• Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina made the Confederacy 11 states.

What were the border states?

• Four remaining slaves states that remained in the Union.

• Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri.

• Many of their citizens fought for the Confederacy and many fought for the Union.

What were the Confederate advantages and strategies for war?

• Cotton• First-rate generals• Strong military tradition• Soldiers defending

homeland• Defensive strategy• Encouraged to attack

North if the opportunity arose.

What were the Union advantages and strategies for the war?

• Railroads• Manufacturing centers• Anaconda Plan had 3

parts:1. Union navy would blockade Southern ports.2. Union riverboats and armies would take over Mississippi (split Confederacy)3. Capture Richmond

What happened at the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run)?

• First major battle in the Civil War.

• Stonewall Jackson became a Confederate hero.

• Major victory for the Confederates.

Who was General George McClellan?

• Appointed head of the Union Army by President Lincoln.

• Had a reputation of being too cautious.

What happened at Forts Henry and Donelson?

• 1862- Union army invaded Tennessee.

• Ulysses S. Grant led the Union troops in the West.

• Union captured both forts.

What happened at the Battle of Shiloh (1862)?

• Taught both sides a valuable lesson.

• Need to send out scouts, build fortifications, and dig trenches.

• Bloody battle that cost over 100,000 troops were killed, wounded, and captured.

Who was David G. Farragut?

• Union admiral that captured the city of New Orleans.

• Took control of Baton Rouge and Natchez.

How did technology influence warfare?

• 1862- ironclad ships are introduced.

• Monitor- Northern ship• Merrimack- Southern

ship• Battle was a draw.• New weapons- rifle, minie

ball, grenades, and land mines.

Who was Robert E. Lee?

• Leader of the Army of Northern Virginia.

• Led Confederate forces to many early victories.

Why was the Battle of Antietam is important?

• Lee’s troops into the Northern state of Maryland.

• General McClellan (Union) was too cautious and the battle is considered a draw.

• September 17, 1862- bloodiest day in American history.

• More than 26,000 casualties in one day.

What was the Emancipation Proclamation?

• Issued on January 1, 1863.

• Freed slaves in the Confederacy, but NOT border states.

• Symbolic importance• Free blacks and enlisted in

the Union army.• Confederates were

outraged.

What is habeas corpus?• A Court order that

requires authorities to bring a person held in jail before the court to be read his charges.

• Lincoln suspended this right during wartime.

• 13,000 Confederate sympathizers were arrested and held without trial.

What were copperheads?

• Northern Democrats who wanted peace with the South.

• Many were jailed for their support of the South.

What is conscription?• A Draft that would force

certain members of the population to serve in the Army.

• Both the Union and Confederates had a draft.

• Many who had money bought their way out of the draft.

• July 1863- New York City Draft Riots. Attacked African Americans, 100 were killed.

Who was Mary Chesnut?

• Southerner who kept a diary during the American Civil War.

• Represented what life was like for Southerners on the home front.

What was the role of African Americans during the War?

• Many signed up as Union soldiers (200,000).

• Most famous was the 54th Massachusetts.

• Fort Pillow- Confederates killed hundreds of African American Union troops.

• Confederacy- many slaves resisted or ran away to fight for the Union.

How did the war affect both the North and South economically?

• South- food shortages and high prices, money was worthless (inflation)

• North- Industries boomed, Army needed supplies, wages did not keep up with prices, income tax

What was the Civil War medicine like?

• U.S. Sanitary Commission- improve hygiene and recruit and train nurses.

• Dorothea Dix led the nurses.

• Field hospitals often had to amputate limbs.

• Clara Barton- Civil War nurse who will later create the American Red Cross

What was Andersonville?• Confederate prison that

held 33,000 men into 26 acres.

• Committed war crimes such as starving prisoners and not giving them water.

• 15% of Union prisoners died

• 12% of Confederate prisoners died

• Northern prison camps were not much better.

What was important about the battle of Gettysburg?

• Turning point of the war (July 1863).

• High water mark of the Confederacy

• 3 day battle that had over 50,000 casualties.

• Little Round Top• Picketts Charge• Gives the Union a clear

advantage• Video Clip: Little Round Top

What happened at Vicksburg?

• Jul 3 1863- Grant leads Union to defeat Confederates in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

• Two key victories on one day Vicksburg and Gettysburg/

What was the Gettysburg Address?

• November 1863- Lincoln goes to Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery.

• Most famous words in U.S. History.

• Talks about healing a nation.

Gettysburg Address

• “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… that we highly resolve that these dead should not have died in vain—that this nation under God, shall have another birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

What was Sherman’s March to the Sea?

• Theory of total war. • Sherman destroyed all

cities in towns in the South (Carolinas and Georgia) in order to break the Confederacy.

• Strategy criticized because civilians were impacted.

What was the election of 1864?

• Race was McClellan against Lincoln.

• McClellan promised to end the war, but Northerners supported Lincoln.

How did the war end?

• Appomattox Court House, VA- Lee surrendered to Grant in April 1865.

What were the political changes of the Civil War?

• Increase of federal power

• New paper currency and taxation

What were the economic effects of the Civil War?

• Union war costs were $2.3 billion.

• Confederate war costs were $1 billion.

• National debt $2.7 billion.• Union inflation 182%• Confederate inflation

7,000%.• National Banking Act- set

up federally chartered banks.

What were the human costs of the Civil War?

• 360,000 Union soldiers killed.

• 260,000 Confederate soldiers killed.

• 275,000 Union soldiers wounded.

• 225,000 Confederate soldiers wounded.

What was the 13th Amendment?

• Passed in 1865.• Officially ends

slavery.

Who was Matthew Brady?

• Famous Civil War photographer.

• Gave realistic images to families on the home front.

What happened to Abraham Lincoln?

• Assassinated at Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth on April 15th, 1865.

• Booth went on the run for 12 days until he was finally killed.

• 1st President to be assassinated.