Transcript The Civil War

The Civil War
• General Winfield Scott asked Robert
E. Lee to command the Union’s
troops.
• Lee was one of the best officers in the
U.S. Army.
• Lee was from VA
• One-third of the military officers chose
to support the Confederacy
• Seven of the eight military colleges
were located in the South
• The North had a strong Naval
tradition
Advantages/Disadvantages
• North
• Twice as many people
living here
• Industry gave the
North an economic
advantage
• Produce 90% of the
nation’s pig-iron
• Most of the nation’s
railroad tracks were
found here
• The North also
controlled the treasury
and could continue to
collect tariffs
• Legal Tender Act
passed by Congress
• South
• One-third of the people
were slaves
• The South had to set
up armories and
foundries after the war
began
• The South could
produce a lot of food
• The South had the best
leadership
• Southerners felt that
they were fighting for a
cause
Party Politics
• Many Northern Democrats and
Republicans challenged Lincoln’s policies,
once the war began.
• Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union,
even if that meant allowing slavery to
continue.
• The War Democrats supported the Civil
War and restoring the Union. They did not
want to end slavery.
• The Peace Democrats, referred to by
Republicans as Copperheads, opposed the
war.
• In 1862 Congress passed a law that
required the states to use conscription, or
the draft.
• Lincoln also suspended the writ of habeas
corpus – a person’s right not to be
imprisoned unless charged with a crime
and given a trial.
The First Modern War
• New military technology.
• Cone shaped bullets
• Iron Clad ships
• Cannon shot that would explode on
impact
• New Tactics
• Huge armies made up of civilian
volunteers
• Trench warfare and barricades were
used
• Attrition – the wearing down of one side
• Soldiers and resources
• The Anaconda Plan
Mobilizing Troops
• Confederate reinforcements at the
First Battle of Bull Run were led by
Thomas J. Jackson, or “Stonewall”
Jackson.
• one of the most effective commanders
in the Confederate army
• The Union Army commander was
General Irwin McDowell. He would
panic at the sign of Confederate
reinforcements, and order his troops
to retreat.
Naval War
• The Union navy had blockaded all
Confederate ports by 1862, except
for Charleston, South Carolina, and
Wilmington, North Carolina.
• Lincoln wanted to cut the South’s trade
from the rest of the world.
• The Union couldn’t stop all of the
blockade runners, small, fast
vessels, used by the South to
smuggle goods past the blockade.
War in the West
• Union troops were led by Ulysses S.
Grant
• Wanted to control the Cumberland and
Tennessee Rivers – this would cut TN in
two
• Grant had victories at Forts Henry
and Donelson
• Grants troops launched a surprise
attack at Shiloh – the Union army
was victorious, however; they
suffered twenty thousand casualties
War in the West
• Confederate troops led by General Braxton
Bragg invaded Kentucky.
• They were stopped by General Don Carlos
Buell at the Battle of Perryville.
• Buell was ordered by Lincoln to seize
Chattanooga and cut the rail lines that
passed there to deprive the Confederacy of
supplies they needed.
• Buell moved too slowly and Lincoln
replaced him with General William
Rosecrans.
• Bragg’s forces attacked Rosecrans’ forces
near Murfreesboro. Union reinforcements
convinced Bragg to retreat to
Chattanooga.
War in the East
• General George B. McClellan took over the
Union army in the east after General
McDowell’s loss at the First Battle of Bull
Run.
• The Union wanted to capture Richmond.
• McClellan took too long to capture
Yorktown. This gave the Confederates
time to move troops to protect Richmond
• Joseph Johnston attacked McClellan’s
troops.
• Divided McClellan’s forces
• The Union suffered great casualties
War in the East
• Robert E. Lee took over Johnston’s forces
and began a series of attacks against
McClellan known as the Seven Days’
Battle.
• Heavy Union casualties
• Lee then attacked Union forces surrounding
Washington D.C.
• This was known as the Second Battle of Bull Run
• Union troops had to retreat and the Confederate
troops were just 20 miles from D.C.
• The Battle of Antietam followed. This was the
bloodiest one-day battle of the war. (23,000)
• McClellan inflicted so many casualties on the
Confederate army that Lee decided to retreat to
Virginia.
• This convinced Lincoln to put an end to slavery.
The Emancipation
Proclamation
• September of 1862
• Lincoln announced that
he would free all
enslaved persons in
states in rebellion after
January 1, 1863
• The Emancipation
Proclamation changed
the Civil War from a
conflict over
preserving the Union to
a war to free the
slaves.