Transcript The American Civil War 1861

The American Civil War
1861-1865
SSUSH9
• The War with Mexico 1845-1847
• A. In 1844 the independent republic of Texas was annexed,
added to the Union, and a war with Mexico was the result.
• B. President James Polk declared war in 1845. The
American Army invaded and took control of New Mexico
and southern California. The second American army, led by
Zachary Taylor conquered Northern Mexico .
• C. The third army, commanded by Winfield Scott, captured
Vera Cruz and then Mexico City which ended the war.
• The Consequences of the War with
Mexico
• A. The treaty that ended the war was
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
B. The treaty had three parts. First
Mexico would recognize the Rio
Grande river as the southern boundary
of Texas. Second the U.S. would take
possession of the Mexican provinces
of California and New Mexico. The
third part stated that the U.S. would
pay Mexico 15 million dollars for these
provinces.
C. One other result of the war was The
Wilmot Proviso. This was an
amendment to a bill and it wanted to
forbid slavery in any of the new
territories. It passed the House twice
but it failed in the Southern
dominated Senate. More evidence of
the growing sectionalism in America.
• A. In 1849 a gold rush to California
caused the population to go over
100,000 people. The state applied for
admission to the Union as a free state
and the problems started.
• B. Henry Clay again comes up with a
solution: The Compromise of 1850.
Admit California as a free state and in
the other territories let the voters
decide if the want slavery or
not(popular sovereignty).
• C. The second part banned the slave
trade in Washington D.C. but allowed
slave owners to keep their slaves.
• D. the third part was The Fugitive
Slave Law. This forced state authorities
to help capture escaped slaves.
• There were several
significant events that
occurred and led to the Civil
War.
• A. In 1854 Senator Stephen
Douglas of Illinois proposed
that the Nebraska Territory
be divided into two states,
Kansas and Nebraska.
People in these states
would choose if they
wanted slavery or not. This
was called The KansasNebraska Act cancelled The
Missouri Compromise. It
allowed slavery to expand
into areas forbidden in the
past. This act causes a great
deal of violence and hatred
and it divides the North and
the South even more.
• The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act caused several
things.
• A. The act was based on popular sovereignty, which
meant which ever side had the most people would win
the vote. Kansas became flooded with pro-slavery and
anti-slavery supporters and they fought each other for
control. Kansas became known as “bleeding Kansas”.
• B. The Republican Party was created in response to
this act. This new party was against the expansion of
slavery.
• Two other events occurred at this time that
caused more disunion among Americans.
• A.. The Dred Scott case. Dred Scott was a slave
who had been taken to the free territory of
Wisconsin. He sued his owner in court because
of this and he stated he should be free.
• B. The Supreme Court ruled that Scott was not a
citizen but only property therefore he could not
sue his master.
• John Brown’s Raid
• A. John Brown was a radical abolitionist. He
had been in Kansas and his massacre of proslavery supporters caused the state to be
called “bleeding Kansas”.
• B. In 1858 Brown moved east with the goal of
starting a slave rebellion in the South.
• C. In October 1859 Brown led a small group
of men in an attack on the Federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry in Virginia. He hoped to
capture the guns and ammunition and start a
slave uprising in the South.
• D. Army units led by Col. Robert E. Lee
captured John Brown and his men after a two
day battle. John Brown was found guilty of
treason and hung. He became a martyr for
the abolitionists and devil and criminal to the
South.
• In November 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected
President and his main goal was to preserve the Union.
He stated his beliefs about slavery in the quote “If
slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong”. Most
people in the North would not fight to abolish slavery
but they would fight to preserve the Union and Lincoln
knew this. By the time the war ended most
northerner’s knew that the only way to preserve the
union was to abolish slavery.
• Lincoln’s efforts to preserve the Union.
• A. He suspended “the writ of Habeas corpus”.
This meant that people could now be arrested
without knowing the charges against them.
President Lincoln needed to do this because of
enemy spies and traitors.
• B. He used two speeches to try to preserve the
union and also set a new moral tone to the war.
The Gettysburg Address is the most famous
American speech of all time. In this he states
that only through victory can the Union be
saved.
• C. In his second inaugural address in March 1865
Lincoln urged charity for the South and for the
nation “to bind up its wounds…to achieve… a
just and lasting peace”. President Lincoln
wanted the South back as countrymen as soon
and peacefully as possible.
• Northern and Southern generals.
• A. The Union army produced two great
generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T.
Sherman. Grant defeated the Confederate
army at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga , and
Richmond. Sherman attacked and burned
Atlanta and he then marched through Georgia
to Savannah.
• B. Robert E. Lee was the South’s
greatest general. Many historians
say he is the best general of the
whole war. He was always
outnumbered and yet he very
rarely lost a battle. The other great
general for the South was Thomas
“Stonewall” Jackson who was very
religious and an incredible leader of
men.
• C. The President of the
Confederate States of America was
Jefferson Davis. He was a graduate
of West Point and he had been
Secretary of War during the War
with Mexico. His poor leadership is
one reason the South lost the war.
• Important battles of The Civil
War.
• A. The first battle of the war was
Fort Sumter. The fort guarded
the harbor of Charleston South
Carolina and on April 12, 1861
Confederate forces attacked took
control of it, starting the war.
• B. The battle of Antietam took
place in September of 1862.
General Lee invaded Maryland
and he was defeated. In one day
of this battle 22,000 men were
killed or wounded. After this
victory President Lincoln issues
The Emancipation Proclamation.
• C. Control of the Mississippi River was vital to
winning the war. In July of 1863 the Union
army won the Battle of Vicksburg and this
victory divided the Confederacy in two.
• D. General Lee (South) was defeated by
General Meade at The Battle of Gettysburg.
Many historians believe this was the battle
that decided the North would win the war.
• E. The Union army under General Sherman was in
Chattanooga, Tennessee and Sherman decided to attack south
toward Atlanta. The southern army was half the size of the
union army . After a series of very tough and bloody battles
Sherman succeeded in taking Atlanta. At that time Atlanta was
the second most important city in the Confederate states. Its
loss was a mortal blow to the South. This was called The Battle
of Atlanta.
• F. The last battle of the war was the battle for the capital of
the Confederacy, Richmond. General Grant captured the City
in May , 1865 and General Lee was forced to surrender. The
day was April 9, 1865.
• The Significance of the Emancipation
Proclamation.
• A. This proclamation freed slaves in all
the states in rebellion against the Federal
government. It left the slaves in the so
called border states in slavery.
• B. There were several consequences of
the proclamation. First it committed the
National Government to a policy of
abolishing slavery in the South.
• C. Second it enlarged the purpose of the
war, Union armies are now also fighting
against slavery.
• D. Third it increased the number of slaves
seeking freedom and it allowed
recruitment of blacks into the Union
army.
• The American Civil War caused a huge economic split to
occur between North and South.
• A. There were three major reasons for this. First the
north had a population of 22 million the South 5.5 million
(free whites).
• B. At the end of the war the North had over 80% of the
functioning railroads and 85% of the factories and
manufactured goods in the country.
• C. The war had ended slavery and destroyed the South’s
economy while at the same time it caused the
transformation of the North into a complex, modern
industrial society.
Reconstruction
SSUSH10
• Reconstruction was the effort by the Federal
government to help rebuild the devastated South and
to help the newly freed slaves. There were two plans
for Reconstruction.
• A. Presidential Reconstruction was a plan created by
President Lincoln and it was essentially made to treat
the South with kindness and to punish them as little as
possible. His plan stated that when 10% of the people
in a rebel state took an oath of loyalty they could reenter the Union. The Confederate states also had to
rewrite their constitutions making slavery illegal.
• Congressional Reconstruction was a reaction
to the policies of President Andrew Johnson
and to 2 events in the South. First the people
of the South returned ex-Confederates to high
offices and Congress. The second event was
the adoption of “Black Codes “ to restrict the
freedom of the former slaves.
• The Radical Republicans wanted to reform Southern society
in three ways.
• A. They wanted to redistribute the land in the South to the
newly freed slaves. The land would be taken from those
planters who had supported the war.
• B. The Republican Congress set up The Freedman’s
Bureau. It provided food, shelter, and medical aid to freed
slaves and poor whites. The third reform was in education.
The Bureau set up almost 3,000 schools including many
black colleges such as Morehouse College in Atlanta.
• A In December 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment
had been ratified by the required states. It made
slavery illegal.
• B. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in
1868 and made the ex-slaves official citizens.
• C. In order to ensure voting rights of freedmen
and women Congress passed The Fifteenth
Amendment. It gave all freedmen the right to
vote
• There was a great deal of resistance to racial
equality during reconstruction.
• A. The Black Codes were adopted by Southern
legislatures to restrict the rights and movements
of blacks. Blacks could not rent land or borrow
money. They were forced to sign work contracts,
and blacks were prohibited from testifying
against whites in court. People in the North just
thought this was putting slavery back in place.
• B. To enforce these codes and to intimidate freed
blacks and poor whites, organizations like the Ku
Klux Klan (KKK) came into being. This group later
was disbanded by its founders only to reappear in
the early 1900’s.
• President Andrew Johnson and the
Radical Republican Congress did not
get along. Congress could pass laws
but they were afraid Johnson would
not enforce the laws.
• A. Congress passes the Tenure of
Office Act which states that only
Congress can remove from office a
person they appoint.
• B. Johnson believes the Act is
unconstitutional and he removes
the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
from office.
• C. Congress now impeaches (brings
to trial) President Johnson. The
charges are very weak and Johnson
is acquitted (not guilty). The Radical
Republicans are now in charge of
Reconstruction.