The Civil War 1861-1865

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Key Background Events• 1 - 3/5 Compromise - 1787• 2 - Missouri Comp - 1820• 3 - Mexican Cession - 1848, • 4 - Compromise of 1850 • 5 - Fugitive Slave Act - 1851 • 6 - Uncle Tom - 1852• 7 -Kansas-Nebraska - 1854• 8 – Sectionalism over Parties• 9 - Republicans 1854

• 10 - Bleeding Kansas 1856• 11 -John Brown 1856-1859• 12 - Sumner Brooks 1856• 13 - Lincoln-Douglas 1858• 14 - Election of 1860• 15 - Secession - Dec 1860 • 16 - Fort Sumter 4/12/1861• 17 - Bull Run July 21, 1861

Major Themes

• Sectionalism• States Rights• Slavery• Does the South have the right to Secede?• War of Northern Aggression – or - The War for

Southern Independence• Preservation of the Union

What would have happened had theDemocrats not split?

How did theycompare?

The Divided United States in 1861

On April 12, 1861, General P.G.T. Beauregard, opened fire on Fort Sumter.

Shells flew for 36 hours.

At 2:30pm on April 13 Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort and evacuated the next day.

No one was killed during the battle.

The Civil War Begins….

Key Events – Turning Points

• Bull Run – Sunday April 21, 1861, first actual battle, stunning Union defeat

• McClellan replaces General Irvin McDowell

• Antietam – April 16-18, 1862. Actually a draw, but Lincoln claimed victory for the Union

• The “victory” at Antietam led Lincoln to write the Emancipation Proclamation – issued on Jan. 1, 1863

• Vicksburg – May 18-July 4, 1863. Divided the Confederacy – Grant appointed to lead the Union Army.

• Gettysburg – July 1-3 1863. 165,000 fought. Total Casualties=51,112

The only known Photograph of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg

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.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

A Timeless speech……..

From Atlanta to the end…• Sherman’s March – November- December 21, 1864, General William

T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march, 75 miles wide, from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. He cut a “Bloody Swath.” “Sherman’s war of Total Destruction.”

• Appomattox – Following a series of defeats and ultimately losing the Appomattox campaign to Grant , Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865 to Grant. The town was Appomattox Court House in Virginia at the home of Wilmer McClean at 1:00 PM

• Lincoln Assassinated - Abraham Lincoln is shot 5 days later and died on the morning of April 15, 1865. He was 56 years old.

A brief look at Gen. Sherman…“I have already received guns that can cast heavy and destructive shot as far as the heart of your city; also, I have for some days held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison of Savannah can be supplied, and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city of Savannah, and its dependent forts, and shall wait a reasonable time for your answer, before opening with heavy ordnance. Should you entertain the proposition, I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army—burning to avenge the national wrong which they attach to Savannah and other large cities which have been so prominent in dragging our country into civil war.”

— William T. Sherman , Message to William J. Hardee, December 17, 1864, recorded in his memoirs

Sherman’s surrender message to Confederate General William Hardee before taking Savannah

By the Numbers• How many

soldiers?• North – 2,128, 948• South – 1,082, 119

• Twice as many Union soldiers as Confederates

• War Deaths• Approximately

620,000 • combat, accident,

starvation, and disease

War Deaths in US History

Approx. 1,264,000 American soldiers have died in the nation's wars

Facts about Soldiers• Average Age– Union 25.8– Confederacy – unknown, by

war’s end boys and old men joined the fight

Wages per Month– Union White - $13.00 – Union Black - $7.00

– Confederacy - $11.00

• The Draft• Confederacy was first –

April 1862, owners of 20+ slaves were exempt

• Union – 1863, you could pay $350 for a substitute, often the Irish went. Riots in July 1863

African American Soldiers

• North – Approximately 190,000

• At first they served as Grave Diggers and Supply Personnel

• After the Emancipation Proclamation 150,000-170,000 fought in the Army and Navy

• South – Approximately 90,000

• Primarily servants and manual labor

• 3/4/1865 Gen. Order 14 called for raising Black combat regiments.

• No records indicate that it actually occurred.

Why two names for each Battle?

• Union commanders typically named battles after the nearest river or creek.

• Confederates typically named battles after the nearest city or town.

• Ex. Bull Run and Manassas are the same battle

Key Government Actions• April 27, 1861: Writ of Habeas Corpus Suspended• August 6, 1861: The First Confiscation Act• 1861: Soldier Pensions• 1861: The Legal Tender Act aka "Greenbacks“• 1862: Pacific Railway Act• 1862: Homestead Act• Jan. 1, 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation• 1863: Conscription Act• 1864: The Wade-Davis Bill• March 3, 1865: The Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedman's Bank• 13th Amendment - Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865,

and ratified on December 6, 1865

And now what?

• Lincoln Assassinated - Abraham Lincoln is shot 5 days after Lee’s surrender and died on the morning of April 15, 1865. He was 56 years old.

• The conspiracy fueled North-South distrust and now Reconstruction was doomed.