Transcript The Civil War

The Civil War
Ch.11 Sec.1
The Civil War Begins
A. 7 southernmost states that had already seceded, formed
the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861
B. Confederate soldiers began taking over federal
installations in their states
C. By the time of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration on
March 4, only two Southern forts remained on Union
hands
1. Most important was South Carolina’s Fort Sumter
2. The new president received a dispatch from the fort’s
commander, Major Anderson that the Confederacy was
demanding surrender or face attack
a. supplies of food and ammunition would last 6 weeks
at the most
D. Lincoln was presented with a dilemma
1. if he ordered the navy to shoot its way into
Charleston harbor, he would be responsible for
starting hostilities
2. if he ordered the fort evacuated, he would be
treating the Confederacy as a legitimate nation
and this would anger the Republican Party,
weaken his administration, and endanger the
Union
3. Lincoln executed a clever political maneuver
a. he would not abandon Fort Sumter, but
neither would he reinforce it; he would merely
send in “food for hungry men.”
E. Jefferson Davis was now facing a dilemma
1. if he did nothing, he would damage the image of the
Confederacy
2. if he ordered an attack on Fort Sumter, he would turn
peaceful secession into war
3. Davis chose war
F. News of Fort Sumter’s fall united the North
1. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve
2. The response was overwhelming with Iowa having 20
times the state’s quota rushing to serve
G. Lincoln’s call for troops had a very different reaction in
the states of the upper South
1. Virginia, unwilling to fight against other Southern
states seceded-a-terrible loss to the Union
2. Virginia was the most heavily populated state in the
South and the most industrialized-crucial ironworks
and navy yard
3. In May, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina
followed Virginia-11 states now in the Confederacy
4. The western counties of Virginia were antislavery, so
they seceded from Virginia and were admitted into the
Union as West Virginia in 1863
5. The 4 remaining slave states- Maryland, Delaware,
Kentucky, and Missouri remained in the Union,
although many of the citizens fought for the
Confederacy
H. Northerners and Confederates alike expected a short,
glorious war
1. the Union enjoyed enormous advantages in resources
2. Lincoln proved to be a decisive yet patient leader
3. The Confederacy had some advantages notably “King
Cotton”
• a. 1st rate generals
• b. strong military tradition
• c. soldiers who were highly motivated to defend their
homeland
I. the two sides pursued different military strategies-the
Anaconda Plan-suffocates its victims
1. the Union navy would blockade Southern ports-neither
export cotton nor import much needed manufactured
goods
2. Union riverboats and armies would move down the
Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two
3. Union armies would capture the Confederate capital at
Richmond, Virginia
4. The Confederacy’s goal was mostly defensive
J. the 1st major bloodshed occurred on July 21, 3 months
after Fort Sumter fell
1. 30,000 inexperienced Union soldiers came upon an
equally inexperienced Confederate army encamped
near the creek of Bull Run
2.the battle was a seesaw affair, the Union had the upper
hand in the A.M., but the Confederates held firm,
inspired by General Thomas J. Jackson who was
described as standing like a “stone wall”-General
Stonewall Jackson
3. in the afternoon, Confederate reinforcements arrived and
turned the tide giving the South its 1st victory
4. the Union troops began a panicky retreat
K. Lincoln responded to the defeat at Bull Run by calling for
the enlistment of 500,000 men to serve for 3 years
instead of 3 months
1. 3 days later, he called for an additional 500,000 men
2. he appointed General George McClellan to lead this
new Union army
3. in February 1862, a Union army invaded western
Tennessee with General Ulysses S. Grant at it’s head
• a. brave, tough, and decisive military commander
• b.
11 days, Grant’s forces captured 2 Confederate
forts- Henry and Donelson
• c. 1 month, Grant gathered his troops near a small
Tennessee church named Shiloh, close to the
Mississippi border
• d. April 6, thousands of yelling Confederate soldiers
surprised the Union forces
• e. With the Union forces on the edge of disaster, Grant
reorganized his troops, ordered up reinforcements,
counterattacked at dawn the following day
• f. By mid-afternoon the Confederates forces were in
retreat
• g. The Battle of Shiloh taught both sides a strategic
lesson-Generals realized that they had to send out scouts,
dig trenches, and build fortifications
L. the Confederates failure to hold on to its OhioKentucky frontier showed that part of the Union’s 3 part
strategy, the drive to take the Mississippi and split the
Confederacy might succeed
M. On the Mississippi River, a Union fleet approached the
river’s mouth led by 60 year old David G. Farragut
with the orders to seize New Orleans, the
Confederacy’s largest city and busiest part
1. On April 24, Farragut ran his fleet past 2 Confederate
forts and 5 days later the U.S. flag flew over New
Orleans
2. During the next 2 months, Farragut took control of
Baton Rouge and Natchez
3. a new type of was machine, the ironclad ship helped
• a. the North’s ironclad the Monitor traded fire with the
South’s ironclad Merrimack
b. although the battle was a draw, the era of wooden
fighting ship was over
4. even more deadly than the ironclad ships was the
invention of the rifle and the Minnie ball
5. rifles were more accurate and soldiers could load rifles
more quickly and fire more rounds during battle
6. the Minnie ball was more destructive than earlier
bullets
7. the Civil Was used primitive hand grenades and land
mines
N. The North’s plan to capture the Confederate capital at
Richmond faltered
1. 1 of the problems was General McClellan being
extremely cautious
2. after 5 months of training McClellan insisted he could
not move against Richmond until he had 270,000 men
3. after dawdling all winter, McClellan finally got under
way in the Spring of 1862
4. he encountered a Confederate army commanded by
General Joseph E. Johnston
5. after a series of battles, Johnston was wounded and
command of the army passed to Robert E. Lee
6. Lee moved against McClellan in series of battles
7. Lee’s determination and unorthodox tactics so unnerved
McClellan that he backed away from Richmond
8. Lee moved against the enemy’s capital and his troops
won a resounding victory at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run
9. At this point, McClellan had a tremendous stroke of
luck-finding a copy of Lee’s army orders
10. The plan revealed that Lee’s and Stonewall
Jackson’s armies were separated for the moment
11. For once, McClellan acted aggressively
12. The two armies fought on September 17 beside a
sluggish creek called the Antietam
a. the clash proved to be the bloodiest single-day battle
in American history-casualties totaled more that
26,000
b. the South retreated and on November 7, 1862,
Lincoln fired McClellan
c. Lincoln characterized McClellan as having “the
slows.”