Transcript people.ucls.uchicago.edu

The End of the
Unforeseen
Leland Culver, David Libes, Jason Tothy,
Julian Skosky-LaLonde
(Group 4)
Ulysses S. Grant
● Hiram Ulysses Grant is born on April 27, 1822 in Point
Pleasant, Ohio
● His father, believing that he is hopelessly impractical,
enrolls him at West Point Military Academy, where a clerk
mistakenly registers him as Ulysses S. Grant
● After graduating, Grant marries Julia Dent, who bears him
four children
● In 1854, he leaves the army and goes East to see his family
● Grant then tries and fails several other jobs in an attempt to
support his family
● Grant re-enters the army at the beginning of the war
Robert E. Lee
● Lee is born on January 19,1807 at Stratford in
Virginia
● Lee marries Martha Washington’s granddaughter,
Mary Custis in 1831, two years after he graduates
from West Point
● Custis bears seven children to Lee
● Lee is promoted three times for bravery during the
Mexican war where he meets a young Grant and is
the Nation’s most promising soldier at the beginning
of the Civil War
● Lee hates slavery but loves Virginia, so he refuses
command of the Union army and leaves the Union
Union Objectives
● Ulysses S. Grant designs a four-point strike
plan to bring the Confederacy to its knees
● George Gordon Meade to lead the army of
the Potomac against Lee
● General Benjamin Butler to come up the
James river towards Richmond
● General William Tecumseh Sherman to
capture Atlanta
● General Franz Sigel to capture the
Shenandoah Valley
Petersburg
● Grant wished to capture Petersburg because it protects
the south edge of Richmond
● The army of the Potomac out guesses Lee, who thought
that they would go for Richmond, and General William
F. Smith leads the attack on June 15
● Smith waits too long into the night, so he lost his
advantage and Lee arrived with reinforcements
● This forced the Union to engage in a 9-month siege that
would result in countless casualties for both sides
The Darkest Hour
● All of Grant’s plans end in stalemates
● The Army of the Potomac is stuck outside Petersburg
● Sherman’s army is being waylaid by General Nathan Bedford Forrest in
Tennessee
● Siegal’s army is stopped in the Shenandoah
● Lincoln needs a Union victory if he wants to win the Election of 1864
The Election of 1864
“After four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, we demand
that immediate effort be made for a cessation of hostilities at the earliest practicable
moment” -Democratic national platform
● The war Democrats and Republicans join to form the National Union party, whose
goal was to finish the war and move on to reconstruction
● The new National Union party nominates Lincoln
● The Democrats nominate former General of the Army of the Potomac George B.
McClellan
● Lincoln had to be reelected in the midst of Civil war, when no president since
Andrew Jackson had been reelected, but he said he had to maintain the election, or
then rebellion “might fairly be claimed to have already conquered and ruined us”
-Lincoln
Lincoln’s Running Mate
● Lincoln ran with Andrew Johnson in the election of 1864 instead of Hannibal
Hamlin
● During his first election, Maine-born Hamlin made sense as a running mate, as
Maine was really the first state to embrace Republicanism
● The Democratic governor of Union-occupied Tennessee made sense as a running
mate for the 1864 election as it would help
Hamlin
Johnson
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
● On March 4 1865 Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address to a broken
nation.
● It was a cold and windy day, just like his last address, but just before Lincoln
begins to speak, the clouds part and he is revealed by a ray of sunlight
● During his speech Lincoln revealed some of his goals to reconstruct America
William T. Sherman
“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is, the sooner it will be
over” -William Tecumseh Sherman
● Born february 18, 1820-february 14, 1891 (aged 71 but four days away from age 72)
● Lancaster, Ohio
● One of eleven children
● When William was 9 years old, his father died suddenly, and left him with very little
amounts of money
● Sherman attended West Point an orphan, and forged a friendship with Grant in
Kentucky during the early days of the war
● Hates the newspapers, regarding them as worse than spies, and is ruthless in
war
● Joined army and appointed second lieutenant in the third artillery
● Fought in the mexican american war
Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign
Sherman’s March
● Gives birth to the modern war tactic of Total War
● Before leaving, Sherman destroys Atlanta
● 62,000 soldiers with a supply chain of 25 miles march in two great columns
towards the Ocean
● Sherman’s men eat better on their march than ever before, living off the land
● Looting, burning, pillaging, seriously disheartens the already dying Confederacy
● Sherman’s march wreaked 100 million dollars of havoc
● 25,000 Slaves fled to Sherman’s lines
● Sherman gives siege to Savannah on December 11, taking it on December 20
● Sherman’s men were much much harder on South Carolina than they were on
Georgia, because it was the first state to Secede
● Feb 19 1865- Fort Sumter and Charleston are abandoned
Hood’s Diversion
● John Bell Hood tries to divert Sherman’s troops by heading North to join with
Nathan Bedford Forrest, Sherman ignores him
● An army a third again as large as Hood’s lies in wait for Hood commanded by
George Thomas
● At Franklin Hood orders 13 hopeless charges, in which 12 Confederate Generals
and 7000 soldiers are lost
● George Thomas then attacks the remainder of Hood’s army at Nashville
Southern Desperation
● The Confederacy begins to “live a Greek tragedy” (Shelby
Foote)
● Confederate political leaders say that the Confederacy is
fighting a second American Revolution, and that times are
bound to be tough
● “Not the fall of Richmond, nor Wilmington, nor Charleston
nor Savannah nor Mobile, nor all combined can save the
enemy from the constant and exhaustive drain of blood and
treasure which must continue until he shall discover that no
peace is attainable unless based on the recognition of our
indefeasible rights.” -Jefferson Davis, giving official birth to
the lost cause
The Union takes Richmond
● On January 31, 1865 the US Congress votes 119 to 56 to abolish slavery, and 11
months later, it is ratified by the States
● In 9 months, Grant slowly extends his trenches around embattled Petersburg
● Grant’s Armies rout Petersburg on April 2
● Lee flees Petersburg across the Appomattox river, and tells Davis to evacuate
Richmond
● April 2, evening, Davis evacuates Richmond, moving his government 140 miles
south to Danville, Virginia
● The Union seizes Richmond on April 3
Battle of Appomattox
● On April 8, 1865 the last battle of the Civil War occurred.
● The Union seized Appomattox Station where the Confederate supplies were
arriving.
● The Confederates started to shell the station which started the battle
● Lee retreats to Appomattox Courthouse, flanked on three sides by troops
outnumbering him nearly 5 to one
● On April 9, palm Sunday, Lee tries to break out of the flanking maneuver
● Gordon drives cavalry from their positions and mounts a hill to see the entire
Union army of the James bearing down upon him, a solid wall of blue
Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox
● On April 9, 1865
● General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union.
● Lee had surrendered because of the battle of the previous day that exhausted his
army
● Although the South had not fully surrendered Lee was the South’s best
commander and commanded the largest army.
● Lee signed a Document that said that his soldiers would be put on parole and
observed by the government
● Grant, however, allows Confederate Officers to keep their sidearms and personal
effects, people could also keep their own horses, Grant gives 25,000 rations
1863-4 Timeline
May 31June 12Cold
Harbour
1863
July 22- Battle
of Atlanta
1864
Oct 18Grant is
given
command of
all Union
armies
May 8-12Wilderness,
Spotsylvania
June 15-18
Unsuccessful
assault on
Petersburg,
siege begins
Nov 8Sept 1Sherman takes Lincoln reelected
Atlanta
July 30
Battle
of the
Crater
Oct 19- Battle
of Cedar
Creek, Union
takes
Shenandoah
Dec 11
Siege of
Savannah
Nov 12Beginning
of
Sherman’s
March
Dec 20
surrender
of
Savannah
1865 Timeline
February 17Columbia, South
Carolina
surrenders
Feb 22Wilmington,
North Carolina
is abandoned
April 3Union
marches
into
Richmond
1865
Jan 31- 13th
amendment is
passed by
Congress
Feb 19Charleston and
Fort Sumter are
abandoned
March 4Lincoln
gives his
Second
Inaugural
Address
April 9Surrender at
Appomattox
Dec 6- 13th
Amendment is
ratified by the
states
Thank You
for
Watching