The Civil War

(1861-1865)

SECESSION IN GEORGIA After Lincoln’s election GA held

a special session of the Gen. Assembly to debate the issue of secession (the act of pulling out of the Union)

Alexander Stephens urged GA not to secede; stated GA should remain loyal

He was ignored & the Secession Convention was held on Jan. 16, 1861

Secession Vote was held on Jan. 19th

with 208 for secession and 89 against.

Representatives publicly signed the Secession Ordinance on Jan. 21st & publicly announced GA had left the Union.

Confederate States of America

Formed in Montgomery, AL in March of 1861 by the southern states that had seceded (SC, AL, GA, FL, MS, LA, & TX)

Wrote a constitution, developed a gov’t, and declared itself independent of the USA.

The Leaders of the Confederacy

Pres. Jefferson Davis VP Alexander Stephens

(from Georgia)

Attack on Fort Sumter-War Begins!!!By April 1861, Confederate forces

controlled nearly all forts, post offices, and other federal buildings in the South

Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC was one of only 3 forts that the Union still held in the South.

April 12, 1861: Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard begins firing on Ft Sumter after Major Robert Anderson, the Union commander, refuses to surrender. The Civil War has started.

April 13: after a day’s bombardment, Fort Sumter is surrendered

New States Secede & Join the CSAAfter the attack on

Ft Sumter, four more states seceded:VirginiaNorth CarolinaTennesseeArkansas

CSA capital is moved to Richmond, VA

CSA army is formed

The Union & Confederacy in 1861

Border StatesSlave states that

stayed in the Union

Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, & Missouri

Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in MD to keep it in the Union

Lincoln used martial law to keep Missouri in the Union

KY and DE voted to remain in the Union

North vs. South in 1861

North South

Population 22 million9 million

(including 3.5 million slaves)

Economy

119,500 factories made more than 90%

of nations goods. 105,835

acres of farmland.

20,600 factories.56,832 acres of

farmland.

• North and South began training troops, gathering clothing, equipment and supplies.

• Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve as soldiers for 90 days against the South.

• Confederacy enlisted every able bodied man above the age of 18.

Railroad Lines, 1860

Resources: North vs South

Overview of the Civil War Strategies

The Union’s “Anaconda Plan”1. Blockade all

Confederate Ports = prevent other countries from providing aid to South & the South from exporting goods.

2. Capture Mississippi River = stop moving supplies and men from & into the West

3. Capture Richmond, VA, the Confederate capital

The South’s Plan1. Wear down the enemy; use the

unpopularity of the war in the North to force peace talks

2. Use blockade raiders-fast ships to break blockades and capture enemy ships.

3. King Cotton Diplomacy – belief that if South stopped selling cotton to England and France, those countries would come to the aid of the South in order to protect their own economies.

Lincoln’s Generals

Irwin McDowellWinfield Scott

George McClellan Ambrose Burnside

Joseph Hooker

George Meade

Ulysses S. Grant

The Confederate Generals

James LongstreetGeorge Pickett

“Stonewall” Jackson

Robert E. Lee

Jeb Stuart

Battle of Bull Run (1st Manassas)

July, 18611st major battle of Civil WarFought in Manassas, VA to control

3 important railroad junctions located there that supplied Richmond

Union Gen. Irwin McDowell led troops from Washington, D.C. toward Richmond.

Confederate Generals Beauregard and Thomas (Stonewall)Jackson met Union troops at Bull Run and defeated them.

4,878 total casualties (dead, missing, captured or wounded).

This battle showed both sides that the war would be long and bloody.

September 1862 - Battle of AntietamGen. Robert E. Lee marched Confederate troops

into Maryland. Confederate messenger lost one set of Lee’s battle

plans. A Union soldier found them and turned them over to Gen. McClellan.

Battle:McClellan attacks Lee along Antietam Creek near

Sharpsburg, MDAfter 12 hrs there is no change, both sides are back

where they had started that morning.Lee loses 1/3 of his army & chooses to retreat back to VALincoln declares a Union victory because Union

troops are still on the battlefield.

Battle of Antietam “Bloodiest Single Day of the

War”

23,000 casualties

September 17, 1862

TheEmancipationProclamation

By mid-1862, Lincoln believed that the goals of war needed to be broadened; he decided to emancipate (free)slaves in the Confederacy if the Confederacy did not surrender by Jan. 1, 1863.

Announced his plan just after Union win at Antietam in Sept 1862

Emancipation Proclamation went into effect January 1, 1863. It did not free slaves in the Border States or CSA slaves until the area was taken back by Union forces..

Battle of Gettysburg: 1863•General Lee marched north into Pennsylvania, hoping he could destroy the Union army and capture Washington.•July 3: Lee decided to send troops against the Union middle ; the 15,000 man charge failed and Lee was forced to retreat back to VA.•The North lost 23,000 men while the South lost 28,000 men•The Battle of Gettysburg is considered the turning point of the war, guaranteeing the South would lose the war

Gettysburg Casualties

Battle of Vicksburg

After New Orleans and Memphis fell, Vicksburg was the only Confederate-controlled city on the Mississippi

In early 1863, Union troops under Grant laid siege to Vicksburg for 6 weeks.

Southerners in the city used mules and rats as food & lived in caves along the heights along the river to escape the daily bombardment.

Finally, on July 4, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered and the entire Mississippi was under Union control.

Battles of Chattanooga & Chickamauga In 1863, Union Gen. William

Rosecrans tried to capture Chattanooga, TN

September 19-20: Rosecrans met Confederates along GA/TN border at Chickamauga Creek under command of CSA Gen. Braxton Bragg; Bragg won the battle and dr0ve Rosecrans into TN

Bragg did not pursue Union forces into TN, allowing the Union to maintain control of the important rail center of Chattanooga.

November 23-25: with reinforcements from Grant, Rosecrans was able to defeat Bragg, who retreated to Dalton, GA

The retreat into GA opened the door to invasion of GA by the Union.

Georgia Campaign & Battle of Atlanta• Union Gen. William T. Sherman was

in charge of the army in Chattanooga, TN. Sherman’s goal was to capture Atlanta, a transportation & manufacturing center for the South

• February 1864, Sherman moved his 112,000 men south into GA against Joseph E. Johnston’s 60,000 men.

• Johnston was forced to retreat after each battle but burned bridges and blocked roads, forcing Sherman to take 4 months to reach Atlanta, covering about 2 miles a day

• Although Johnston defeated Sherman at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, he was replaced by John Bell Hood

• Hood & Sherman fought for July & August until Atlanta was surrounded at the end August, forcing the city’s surrender on Sept 1, 1864.

Sherman’s March to the Sea Sherman’s army stayed in

Atlanta until November 15 then began its March to the Sea to capture Savannah

Union forces burned Atlanta a 2nd time when evacuating the city

62,000 soldiers cut a path 60 miles wide on the 300 mile trip to Savannah, burning homes and farms as they went, using the practice of total war to destroy the ability of GA to support the CSA war effort.

December 24, 1864: Sherman, captured Savannah & presented the city to the president as a Christmas present.

AppomattoxLee and his men moved

southwest of Richmond in an attempt to reach Danville, VA and then connect with General Johnston’s army in NC.

However, on April 9, 1865, Lee and his army were surrounded at Appomattox Court House, and Lee was forced to surrender to Gen Grant

The Civil War ended at this point although there were still forces fighting.

Civil War PrisonsOne of the worst

Confederate prisons for Union POWs was in Andersonville, GA; between 1864 and 1865, about 30% of the 40,000 Union prisoners there died

Andersonville’s commander, Captain Henry Wirz, became the only Confederate executed for war crimes in 1865 for “excessive cruelty”

Union prisons were not much better; over 26,000 Confederates died in Northern prison camps

Cost of the WarThe war cost the USA over

$6 billion; by 1910, after benefits had been paid to veterans and widows, the price soared to $11.5 billion

The war cost the South about $4 billion

New estimates in 2011 have found that over 700,000 soldiers died in the Civil War; about 1/3 died on the battlefield while the rest died from disease, wounds, or imprisonment

Casualties on Both Sides

Civil War Casualtiesin Comparison to Other Wars