Transcript The Start of the Civil War

The Start of the Civil
War
Chapter 11
Strengths and Weaknesses

Northern Strengths
– Larger population
– More railroads and
factories
– Resources (coal, iron)
– Better balanced economy
– More $
– Established government
– Army, and navy (could
blockade)

Northern Weaknesses
– Had to attack to preserve
the Union
– Less trained leaders
– Not total support – some
wanted to “let South go”

Southern Strengths
– Better military leaders
– Defensive position – didn’t
have to conquer North,
just not be defeated
– Familiar territory
– Fighting to preserve their
way of life (survival) –
rabbit and the fox

Southern Weaknesses
– Smaller population
– Economy primarily based
on one crop
– Few factories and railroads
– Large population of slaves
– New government
Union Military Strategies

The Anaconda Plan
– Naval Blockade
 Prevent trade with
Europe
– Gain control of the
Mississippi River – split
the Confederacy

Capture Richmond
– Public wanted a quick
end

Gen. Winfield Scott
Lincoln keeps “border”
states (MO, KY, DE,
MD) saying he would
not interfere w/slavery
Confederate War Strategy


President Jefferson
Davis
War of Attrition
– Defensive war
– Push back Union
advances until they give
up (wear them down)

Try to get foreign allies
– South produces 75% of
world’s cotton
– Try to get England and
France to help
1st Bull Run (Manassas)

July 21, 1861
– First major battle of the
war
– General Irvin McDowell
(Union) vs. Gen.
Beauregard and Gen.
Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson (Confederacy)

McDowell)
Confederate Victory
– Confederacy forces Union
retreat
– Union troops run back to
Washington
– Showed both sides that
the war would not be
easy
Jackson
Early Battles

McDowell replaced by McClellan
– Respected by men but hesitant
– Organizes army of the Potomac

Ulysses S. Grant in the west
– Fort Henry & Fort Donelson
– Shiloh – first battle with massive casualties;
horrified both sides
Union captures New Orleans but unable to
capture entire Miss.
 Ironclads – Monitor vs. Virginia
(Merrimack); ended in draw but end of
wooden ships

Tactics and Technology

Tactics
– Based on European
ways of fighting
– Slowly changed with
the new technology

Technology
– Cone shaped bullets
rather than round
– Repeating rifle
– Heavy artillery
– Made battle deadly
– http://www.history.com
/videos/civil-war-tech
Early Battles
 Lincoln
urges McClellan to attack
 Failed to take Richmond (against
Lee)
 Also another loss at the Second
Battle of Bull Run (Lee & Stonewall
Jackson instrumental)
2. Emancipation and the War
 Lincoln
and slavery
– Originally only wanted to preserve the
Union
– Did not think he had the right to abolish
slavery
– Ending slavery became a war strategy
 Antietam
– bloodiest single day of
the war (23,000), MD
 Gave Lincoln the victory he needed
Emancipation
 The
Emancipation Proclamation
– January 1, 1863, slaves in areas of
rebellion against the government would
be free
– Didn’t apply to border states
– Also hoped to stop British support
(wouldn’t support a war about slavery)
 Reaction
mixed
to the Proclamation was
African Americans Fight

Contraband
– Slaves became property
of the Union then were
freed

African American
Soldiers
– Gained ability to fight
after the proclamation
– All black regiments
under a white officer
– 54th MA Regiment


Robert Shaw
Battle of Ft. Wagner
Sec. 3 Politics in the North
Financial Measures
– 1861, first federal
income tax, bonds,
Homestead Act, tariffs

Emergency Wartime
Actions
– Martial Law
– Draft – could also hire
substitutes

Opposition to the War
– Riots protesting draft
– Copperheads – against
war
– Lincoln suspends the
writ of habeas corpus
Politics in the South

Draft
– Southerners were not
reenlisting
– General Lee pushes for
a draft – required
military service
– April 1862, Confederate
Congress passes first
draft law
– 18 to 35 required three
year service
– Exception


Owners of more than
20 slaves
Could hire substitute
Life in the War

Southern Economy
– Food production
declines
– Cotton production
continues
– Inflation

Northern Economy
– Most northern
industries were helped
by the war
– Women fill jobs
– Some profited from war

Prison Camps
– Andersonville, Georgia
– Prisoner exchange
ended

Medical Conditions
– Attempt to control
disease but most
casualties resulted from
this
– Amputations common
– Clara Barton

Creates the Red Cross
Union vs. Conf. Soldiers
 http://www.history.com/videos/conf
ederate-vs-union-soldiers
4. Turning Points

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Chancellorsville &
Fredericksburg 1862 –
key Conf. victories
Jackson killed
http://www.history.com
/videos/stonewalljackson
The Siege of Vicksburg city surrounded, people
starved, surrendered
July 4, 1863
Cut South in half – one
of their main goals
Gettysburg - 1863


July 1
– Union takes position along Cemetery Ridge
– Confederacy takes position along Seminary Ridge
July 2
– Longstreet slow to attack, Meade gets reinforced
– Little Round Top – Joshua Chamberlain, bayonets
– http://www.history.com/videos/chamberlaindefends-little-round-top3
– Lee orders a direct assault on the center of the line
– Pickett’s Charge – “I have no division.”
Results of Gettysburg

Union
– 23,000+ casualties

Confederates
– 28,000+ casualties
July 4th,
Confederates
retreat
 No other invasions
of North
 Turning point

Gettysburg
 http://www.history.com/videos/getty
sburg-battle-strategy
 Pickett’s Charge
 http://www.history.com/videos/lastcharge-at-gettysburg
The Gettysburg Address
November 19,
1863
 Lincoln speaks
briefly
 Powerful and
moving speech
 New definition of
the United States

Grant Takes Command



1864 - Grant given full
control of the Union army
Lincoln about Grant “He
fights.”
VA – attempt to take
Richmond - Battle of the
Wilderness, Spotsylvania,
Cold Harbor, Petersburg
– Huge toll on Confed.


TOTAL WAR – civilians,
economy, materials, break
the will of the people
William T. Sherman in
control in the west
Grant
Sherman in Georgia





Battle of Kennesaw
Mountain – brief
victory for South
Atlanta falls eventually
and much is burned
600 mile path of
destruction
Part of “total war”
Sherman’s March to
the Sea
Sherman
Election of 1864

Lincoln fears losing
– Andrew Johnson named Vice-President
candidate (Democrat from TN)
Democrats nominate George McClellan
 With Sherman taking Atlanta, Lincoln
easily wins
 Thirteenth Amendment

– Ratified on December 6, 1865
– Ended slavery in the U.S.
5. End of the War


Grant controls
Richmond after siege
Sherman begins to
move north
– Destroys South Carolina

Appomattox Court
House
– April 9, 1865, Lee
surrenders to Grant
at Appomattox
Court House, VA
– Solemn and
dignified
Lincoln’s Assassination
John Wilkes Booth leads failed plot to kill
General Grant, Vice President Johnson,
Secretary of State Seward, and President
Lincoln
 April 14, 1865

– 5 days after war’s end
– Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.
– Booth mortally wounds Lincoln
 Died
the next morning
– Booth killed in a tobacco warehouse in Virginia
Why the North won
 Better
technology
 Large population
 Abundant resources
 Fearless leaders who would do
anything to win (Grant, Sherman)
 Steady leadership of Lincoln
 Decision to proclaim emancipation
Impact
600,000 dead
 Hundreds of thousands more wounded
 Harsh reality of total war
 Southern terrain devastated
 New opportunities for southern blacks but
also obstacles
 War helped cement federal authority
 Matthew Brady – Civil War photographs
 How will the South rebuild?
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