Transcript Civil War Battles and Technology

The American Civil War
Battles and New Technologies
A Nation Divided
Population in the South, 1850
Fort Sumter is Attacked! War Begins!
 April 10, 1861, Confederate forces
demand the surrender of the Union
garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston
Harbor.
 Garrison commander Anderson
refused. On April 12, Confederate
batteries opened fire on the fort
 At 2:30 pm, April 13, Major
Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter,
evacuating the garrison on the
following day.
Fort Sumter is Attacked! War Begins!
 The bombardment of Fort
Sumter was the opening
engagement of the American
Civil War.
 Although there were no
casualties during the
bombardment, one Union
artillerist was killed and three
wounded (one mortally)
when a cannon exploded
prematurely while firing a
salute during the evacuation
on April 14.
Battle of Bull Run
First Battle of Bull Run
 The First Battle of Bull Run,
also known as the First Battle of
Manassas was the first major
land battle of the American Civil
War, fought on July 21, 1861,
near Manassas, Virginia.
 Unseasoned Union Army troops
under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell
advanced across Bull Run against
the equally unseasoned
Confederate Army under Brig.
Gens. Joseph E. Johnston and
P.G.T. Beauregard, and despite the
Union's early successes, they were
routed and forced to retreat back
to Washington, D.C.
First Battle of Bull Run
 Union casualties were
460 killed, 1,124
wounded, and 1,312
missing or captured
 Confederate casualties
were 387 killed, 1,582
wounded, and 13
missing.
Why was Washington Concerned?
 Union forces and civilians alike
feared that Confederate forces
would advance on Washington, D.C.,
with very little standing in their way.
 On July 24, Confederates were
observed moving in and about
Manassas Junction and Fairfax but it
was ascertained that there was no
evidence of massing Rebel forces
 Because of Washington, D.C.’s
location geographically – it was
vulnerable to attack
Union Strategy, 1861
, Anaconda Plan & Naval Blockade 1861
 Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the U.S. Army,
devised the Anaconda His idea was that a Union blockade of the
main ports would weaken the Confederate economy; then the
capture of the Mississippi River would split the South.
 In May 1861, Lincoln enacted the Union blockade of all
Southern ports, ending regular international shipments to the
Confederacy.
 When violators' ships and cargoes were seized, they were sold
and the proceeds given to Union sailors, but the British crews
were released.
Anaconda Plan & Naval Blockade 1861
 By late 1861, the blockade stopped most local port-to-
port traffic. British investors built small, fast "blockade
runners" that traded arms and luxuries brought in from
Bermuda, Cuba and the Bahamas in return for highpriced cotton and tobacco.
 Shortages of food and other goods triggered by the
blockade, foraging by Northern armies, and the
impressment of crops by Confederate armies combined
to cause hyperinflation and bread riots in the South.
Early Naval Technology and Battles
 On March 8, 1862, the
Confederate Navy waged a
fight against the Union Navy
when the ironclad CSS
Virginia (Merrimac) attacked
the blockade; against wooden
ships she seemed unstoppable
 The next day she had to fight
the new Union warship USS
Monitor in the Battle of the
Ironclads. The battle ended in
a draw, which was a strategic
victory for the Union in that
the blockade was sustained.
Early Naval Technology and Battles
 The Confederacy lost the
Virginia when the ship
was scuttled to prevent
capture, and the Union
built many copies of
Monitor.
Union Naval Blockade
Union Naval Seizures
Areas of Union Control
The Western Theatre, 1862
The Western Theatre – 1861 - 1865
Major Battles and Events of the Western Theatre
 Vicksburg
Location: Mississippi
Dates: May 18-July 4, 1863
Estimated Casualties: 35,825
total (US 4,550; CS 31,275)
Results: Union victory
 Shiloh
State: Tennessee
Dates: April 6-7, 1862
Estimated Casualties: 23,746
total (US 13,047; CS 10,699)
Results: Union victory
Major Battles and Events of the Western
Theatre
 Chickamauga
Location:Georgia (1863)
Dates: September 18-20, 1863
Estimated Casualties: 34,624
total (US 16,170; CS 18,454)
Results: Confederate victory
 Atlanta
State: Georgia
Dates: July 22,
Estimated Casualties: 12,140
total (US 3,641; CS 8,499)
Results: Union victory
William T. Sherman
Sherman’s March to
the Sea
Sherman became one
of Lincoln’s most
trusted Generals as a
result of his
performance during
the war in the West
Sherman’s March, 1864-5
War in Trans-Mississippi Theatre, 1862
Trans-Mississippi Theatre
 Guerrilla activity turned much of Missouri into a
battleground.
 Missouri had, in total, the third-most battles of any state
during the war.
 The other states of the west, though geographically isolated
from the battles to the east, saw numerous small-scale
military actions.
 Battles in the region served to secure Missouri, Indian
Territory, New Mexico Territory, and Arizona Territory for
the Union.
Source: Wikipedia
Trans-Mississippi Theatre
 Confederate incursions into Arizona and New Mexico
territories were repulsed in 1862 and a Union campaign
to secure Indian Territory succeeded in 1863.
 Late in the war, the Union's Red River Campaign was a
failure.
 Texas remained in Confederate hands throughout the
war, but was cut off from the rest of the Confederacy
after the capture of Vicksburg in 1863 gave the Union
control of the Mississippi River.
Source: Wikipedia
War in the Eastern Theatre to 1862
Ulysses S. Grant
Robert E. Lee
Major Battles of the Eastern Theatre
 Antietam
State: Maryland
Dates: September 16-18, 1862
Forces Engaged: Armies
Estimated Casualties: 23,100 total
Results: Inconclusive (Union
strategic victory.)
 Fredericksburg
State:Virginia
Dates: December 11-15, 1862
Forces Engaged: 172,504 total
(US 100,007; CS 72,497)
Estimated Casualties: 17,929 total
(US 13,353; CS 4,576)
Results: Confederate victory
Major Battles in the East cont’d
 Chancellorsville
State: Virginia
Dates: April 30-May 6, 1863
Forces Engaged: 154,734 total (US 97,382; CS
57,352)
Estimated Casualties: 24,000 total (US 14,000;
CS 10,000)
Results: Confederate victory
 Gettysburg
State: Pennsylvania
Dates: July 1-3, 1863 Principal
Forces Engaged: 158,300 total (83,289
[US];75,054 [CS])
Estimated Casualties: 51,000 total (US 23,000;
CS 28,000)
Results: Union victory
Gettysburg Campaign
Gettysburg Map
- Overview
Gettysburg, Day 1 (8 a.m.)
Day One
 General Buford realized the importance of
the high ground directly to the south of
Gettysburg, knowing that if the
Confederates could gain control of the
heights, Meade's army would have difficulty
dislodging them.
 He decided to utilize three ridges west of
Gettysburg: Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge,
and Seminary Ridge (proceeding west to
east toward the town).
 These were appropriate terrain for a
delaying action by his small division against
superior Confederate infantry forces, meant
to buy time awaiting the arrival of Union
infantrymen who could occupy the strong
defensive positions south of town at
Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Culp's
Hill.
Gettysburg, Day 1 (10 a.m.)
Gettysburg, Day 1 (5 p.m.)
 Movie: Gettysburg
 Colonel Buford – Scene 9
Day Two
 Chamberlain and the 20th Maine were
sent to defend the southern slope of
Little Round Top the far left end of the
Union line, with the 83rd Pennsylvania,
44th New York, and 16th Michigan
infantry regiments to their right.
 He quickly understood the tactical
significance of Little Round Top, and
thus the need for the 20th Maine to
hold the Union left at all cost.
 The men from Maine waited until
troops from the 15th Alabama regiment
charged up the hill, attempting to flank
the Union position. Time and time again
the Confederates struck, until the 20th
Maine was almost doubled back upon
itself.
Day 2 (cont’d)
 With many casualties and ammunition running
low, Col. Chamberlain recognized the dire
circumstances and ordered his left wing to initiate
a bayonet charge. From his report of the day: "At
that crisis, I ordered the bayonet. The word was
enough.“
 The 20th Maine charged down the hill, with the
left wing wheeling continually to make the
charging line swing like a hinge, thus creating a
simultaneous frontal assault and flanking
maneuver, capturing many of the Confederate
soldiers and successfully saving the flank.
Gettysburg, Day 2
 20th Maine 1:49 – 2:18
 Chapter 28
Day Three
 Lee to attack the Federal II Corps position
at the right center of the Union line on
Cemetery Ridge.
 Prior to the attack, the artillery of the
Confederacy would bomb Federal positions
weakening the enemy's line.
 Around 3 p.m., the cannon fire subsided,
and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from
the ridgeline and advanced the threequarters of a mile (1,200 m) to Cemetery
Ridge in what is known to history as
"Pickett's Charge".
 As the Confederates approached, there was
fierce flanking artillery fire from Union
positions on Cemetery Hill and north of
Little Round Top, and musket and canister
fire from Hancock's II Corps.
Day Three
 Nearly one half of the attackers did not return to
their own lines.
 The Federal line wavered and broke temporarily
at a jog called the "Angle" in a low stone fence
but reinforcements rushed in to reinforce the
position and the Confederate attack was
repulsed.
 The farthest advance of Brig. Gen. Lewis A.
Armistead's brigade of Maj. Gen. George
Pickett's division at the Angle is referred to as
the "High-water mark of the Confederacy",
arguably representing the closest the South ever
came to its goal of achieving independence from
the Union via military victory.
Gettysburg, Day 3
 Pickett’s Charge
 Side 2 – 1:06.45 – 1:30.55 – Chapter 18+
1863
Eastern Campaigns,
1864
The End is Near, 1864-1865
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Lincoln makes Grant commander of all Union armies –
beginning of 1864
Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac places Maj. Gen. Sherman in command of most of the western
armies.
Grant takes up total war – must defeat Confederate forces and
destroy their economic base in order to end the war - destroy
homes, farms, and railroads.
Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the
entire Confederacy from multiple directions: Richmond;
Shenandoah Valley; Atlanta and march to the sea (the Atlantic
Ocean); railroad supply lines in West Virginia; Mobile, Alabama.
Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and
fought several battles
Grant's battles of attrition at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and
Cold Harbor resulted in heavy Union losses, but forced Lee's
Confederates to fall back again and again.
He pinned down the Confederate army in the Siege of
Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for
over nine months.
Source: Wikipedia, Official American Civil War Website
Richmond Falls
 Richmond is the Confederate capital
 Lee's army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was
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now much smaller than Grant's.
Union forces won a decisive victory at the Battle of
Five Forks on April 1, forcing Lee to evacuate
Petersburg and Richmond.
The Confederate capital fell to the Union XXV
Corps, composed of black troops. The remaining
Confederate units fled west and after a defeat at
Sayler's Creek
it became clear to Robert E. Lee that continued
fighting against the United States was both tactically
and logistically impossible.
Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on
April 9, 1865
As a sign of Grant's respect and anticipation of
peacefully folding the Confederacy back into the
Union, Lee was permitted to keep his officer's saber
and his horse, Traveller.
Resources
 HSTY2056 PowerPoints - Frances Clarke, University of
Sydney
 McPherson, James M., Ed. The American Heritage New
History of the Civil War. NY: American Heritage Publishing
Company, 1996.
 Wikipedia – Maps and Dates