Transcript Part 4

The Furnace of
the Civil War,
1861-1865
Ch. 21, p.473-477
Grant Outlasts Lee
Grant was a general who was willing to send thousands of men out to die in
order to ensure Confederate defeat because he knew that he could afford to
lose twice as many men that Lee could.
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In a series of wilderness encounters fought in the Virginia mountains,
Grant fought Lee, with Grant losing about 50,000 men.
In one particular instance at the Battle of Cold Harbor, the Union sent
soldiers into battle with papers pinned on their backs showing their
names and addresses, and thousands died within a few minutes.
The public was outraged and shocked over this kind of gore and death,
and demanded the relief of General Grant, but U.S. Grant stayed.
Lincoln wanted somebody who’d keep the “axe to the grindstone,” and
Grant was his man.
Confederate Siegeworks at
Petersburg
• In February 1865, the Confederates finally
attempted to negotiate for peace.
• Lincoln met with Confederate representatives, but
refused to accept less than complete “re-Union” and
emancipation of the slaves. The Confederates, on
the other hand, refused anything less than
independence.
• In the end, Grant and his men captured Richmond,
burnt it, and finally cornered Lee at Appomattox
Courthouse at Virginia in April of 1865, where Lee
formally surrendered. The war was finally over.
The Burning of Richmond, April 1865 The proud Confederate capital, after
holding out against repeated Union assaults, was evacuated and burned in the final days of the war.
Former soldiers in arms greet and…..
….sign the official surrender.
Prisoners from the Front, by Winslow Homer, 1866
This celebrated painting reflects the artist’s firsthand observations of the war. Homer brilliantly captured the
enduring depths of sectional animosity. The Union officer somewhat disdainfully asserts his command of the
situation; the beaten and disarmed Confederates exhibit an out-at-the-elbows pride and defiance.
The Confederate Surrender at Appomattox
• The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down lyrics
Songwriter: Robertson, Robbie;
Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train
'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive
By May the 10th, Richmond had fell
It's a time I remember, oh so well
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, “Na, na, na…"
Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me
"Virgil, quick, come see, there goes Robert E. Lee!"
Now I don't mind choppin' wood, and I don't care if my money's no good
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest
But they should never have taken the very best
• Like my father before me, I will work the land
And like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand
He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in
his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, na…"
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, na…"
Lincoln: Before & After
The Martyrdom of Lincoln
•
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln
was shot in the head by John Wilkes
Booth and died shortly after.
•
Before his death, few people had
suspected his greatness, but his
sudden and dramatic death
seemingly erased his shortcomings
and made people remember him for
his dedication to restoring the
United States.
•
The South cheered Lincoln’s death
at first, but later, his assassination
proved to be a total calamity for
them, because he would have
almost certainly treated them much
more charitably than they were
actually treated during the
Reconstruction of the coming years.
- “With malice toward none, with
charity for all”.
•
»
Abraham Lincoln
Artifacts from Abraham Lincoln's Person the Night
He Was Assassinated
Lincoln with son “Tad” shortly before the end……..
An interesting sidenote….”The
Curse of Robert Todd Lincoln?”
• Robert Todd Lincoln, the
president's oldest son, was at
Lincoln's side when he passed
away in 1865. Years later, as
Secretary of War, Todd Lincoln
was present and ready to meet
President James A Garfield,
when Garfield was assassinated.
And, when Todd Lincoln entered
the Pan-American Exposition
Hall in Buffalo, NY, President
William McKinley was
assassinated by an anarchist.
Abraham Lincoln's Funeral Procession, Washington D.C.
The Aftermath of the Nightmare
•
The Civil War cost 600,000 + men, $15 billion,
and wasted nearly an entire generation of
young men.
•
However, the Civil War gave America the
supreme test of its democratic existence, and the
U.S. survived, proving its strength and further
increasing its growing power and reputation
•
And, of course, slavery was also eradicated
forever.
•
The war paved the way for the United
States’ fulfillment of its destiny as the
dominant republic of the Western
Hemisphere—and later, the world.