Transcript “A Great Civil War”

“A Great Civil War”
1861-1865
Why did the North fight?
• Secession did not necessarily entail Civil
War; some advised “Let the wayward
sisters depart in peace.”
• Lincoln believed he had to “preserve the
Union.”
• Northerners believed it was their patriotic
and moral [religious] duty.
Lincoln’s first days
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Fort Sumter Crisis
Struggles with Seward
Fort Sumter shelled—April 12, 1861
Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers
Secession of the Upper South
L. holds the border
L. suspends writ of Habeas Corpus
Ex parte Merryman
The Balance Sheet:
Advantages/Disadvantages
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North
3x military population
Food
Railroad mileage—
over 3x the CSA
• Productive capacity
• Industrial capacity
• finance
• South
• Defensive war—a win
or a tie
• Interior Lines
• Slavery
• Rifle
• Knowledge of
landscape
Questions historians consider
• Is God on the side of the strongest
battalions?
• Vietnam experience
• Did the North win or the South loose?
Opening Salvo—Bull Run
• Union Commander Irwin McDowell
• Southern Commanders Joseph Johnston, P.
G. T. Beauregard
• “Stonewall” Jackson
• Confederacy was disorganized by victory as
much as the Union was disorganized by
victory.
Battle at Bull Run
Naval Action--Blockade
War in the East
Lincoln Searches for a General
Peninsular Campaign
• Closest to Richmond that A of P came until
1865
• Showed flaws in McClellan and in L.s
relationship with his generals
• Battle of Fair Oaks brought Lee to the fore
Robert Edward Lee
Road to Antietam
• L. brings John Pope from west and Pope
looses 2d Manassas
• Lee Invades Maryland
• L. relies on McClellan
• Battle-9-17-62 is stalemate
• L. issues preliminary EP on 9/22 and fires
McClellan in November
Emancipation
• Crittenden-Johnson Resolution
• “Contrabands of War”
• Confiscation Acts/abolition of slavery in
areas under federal control/Militia Act
• Preliminary EP
• Permanent EP
• 13th Amendment
Lincoln’s Search for a General
• McClellan had the
slows and wouldn’t go
where Lee seemed to
go.
• L. tried McClellan,
Pope, McClellan,
Burnside, Hooker,
Meade, Grant
• Burnside blundered at
Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg
Hooker Failed at Chancellorsville
• Lee and Jackson executed brilliant flanking
maneuver
• Hooker lost his nerve
• L. backed Hooker until the end of June
• Lee lost his best general—Jackson died on
May 10: “Let us cross over the river and
rest under the shade of the trees.”
Lee, Jackson, and Hooker
Gettysburg
• Overdone in “memory”, but it really
mattered
• Pickett’s charge on July 3, 1863 was
dramatic
• Lincoln though was more concerned with
the west and thought that Meade had not
pursued Lee vigorously enough.
Pickett and Meade
Lincoln’s Answers Lay in the
West
• Union was largely successful in opening up
the western Rivers.
• Tennessee was liberated by 1862
– Forts Henry and Donelson
– Shiloh
– Rise of Grant
U. S. Grant
Campaign for Vicksburg
• Unconventional tactics
• Vicksburg taken after a 47 day siege
• “The father of waters now flows unvexed to
the Sea.”
Vicksburg Siege
Vicksburg Battlefield and
Pemberton
Grant to the East
• Grant oversaw the conquest of CSA rail
center at Chattanooga—Arthur MacArthur,
father of Doug, won Medal of Honor
• Sherman left in charge of Army of the
Tennessee
• Grant made Lt. General and camped with
Army of Potomac
War in West: Atlanta and march
to the Sea
Why did this matter?
• Weakened CSA morale in Ga. Homefront
• Helped L. win 1864 election
• Demonstrated power of total war.
Overland Campaign/Siege of
Petersburg
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Wilderness to Cold Harbor
Grant the Butcher
Lee the King of Spades
End Run to Petersburg
Siege of Petersburg (June 1864-April 1865)
Siege of Petersburg
Appomattox
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Grant was magnanimous
“Damn me if I ever love another country.
Lincoln knew “thing had been pressed.”
Lincoln toured burned out Richmond
Richmond, 1865