Transcript Document
Chapter 16
A New Birth of Freedom,
1862-1865
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Slavery & the Civil War
• Confederacy wanted to keep slavery out
of the war
- non slaveholders in South
- recognition from Britain
- proclaimed liberty rather than slavery
Fredrick Douglas
• “to fight against slaveholders, without
fighting against slavery, is but a
halfhearted business, and paralyzes the
hands engaged in it” – Fredrick Douglas
The Decision for Emancipation
Civil War became a “total war”
- must end slave labor in South
- tower of strength
- Lincoln’s cabinet
- Lincoln waited for the right time
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Lincoln on Emancipation
• It is a “military necessity, absolutely
essential to the preservation of the Union.
We must free the slaves or be ourselves
subdued. The slaves are undeniably an
element of strength to those who have
their service, and we must decide whether
that element should be with us or against
us.”
- Abe Lincoln, July 22, 1862
The Battle of Antietam
• Sharpsburg, Maryland (1862)
– Union victory?
– single bloodiest day in American history
– 23k casualties
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The Emancipation Proclamation
• Lincoln followed Antietam with
Emancipation
• portrayed as a means to saving the
Union
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Lincoln on Emancipation
• “If I could save the Union without freeing
any slave I would do it, and if I could save
it by freeing all the slaves I would do it;
and if I could save it by freeing some and
leaving others alone I would also do that.”
• - Abe Lincoln, September, 1862
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Did not go into effect until 1-1-1863
• Only freed slaves in areas under rebellion
“Contraband of War”
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Economic Problems in the
South
• food shortages & inflation (p 417)
• Richmond Bread Riot (1863)
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Problems in the North
• Antiwar Protestors denounce draft
• Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus
(A4)
– Rioters and antiwar activists arrested
Angels of the battlefield
Women’s wartime profession
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Chancellorsville
• Casualties: 13k South & 17k North
• “My God,!” exclaimed Lincoln when he
heard the news of Chancellorsville. “What
will the country say?”
The Gettysburg Campaign
• Lee moves north into PN (7-1-1863)
• Union army devastated on first day of
battle
- Lee’s critical decision
“The enemy is there, and I am going to
attack him there”- Robert E. Lee,
Gettysburg
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Gettysburg (continue)
• Union army regroups
• Lee orders attacks on
union flanks, they fail
• “Pickett’s Charge”:
attack in the center, it
fails
• Lee retreats 7-4-1863
(50k total casualties)
Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863
The Vicksburg Campaign
• Grant assaults Vicksburg for control of
the MS River
– marched 180 miles & won 5 battles
– Vicksburg surrenders (July 4)
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Result of Vicksburg
• Union control of MS river
• Confederacy split in two
• Lincoln’s response:
“Grant is my man and I am his the rest
of the war”
The Year of Decision
• Gettysburg & Vicksburg: turning point
of Civil War
- Southern defeatism
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Emancipation Confirmed
• Thirteenth Amendment
– Ratified by states December 1865
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Black Men in Combat
• 54th Massachusetts Infantry
– Fought bravely at Fort Wagner
POWs
• Prison camps
– Overcrowded
– Andersonville (GA)
- 13k Union soldiers
died
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Sherman’s March, 1864-5
• destroys
Confederate
property, railroads
etc
• burned Atlanta and
Savannah (01/1865)
• Force Confederacy
to surrender
The Road to Appomattox
• Lee’s Army stands alone
• Grant attacks in Richmond
• Confederacy defeated
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Lee surrenders at Appomattox
April 9, 1865
“There was nothing left for me to do, but to go and see
Grant, and would rather die a thousand deaths”
– General Robert E. Lee
The Assassination of Lincoln
• Ford’s Theatre, April 1865
• John Wilkes Booth
• Confederate armies continued to
surrender April – June
• Jefferson Davis: captured in Georgia
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Conclusion
• Civil War was a “total war” (p 436)
• Civil War cost 625,000 lives
- 1.1 million casualties
• 1865: 13th Amendment abolished
slavery and ensured liberty of all
Americans
• Regional transfer of power from South
to North
• Reconstruction (1877)
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