Transcript The CIVIL WAR

The CIVIL WAR
Differences between the
North and the South
North
• Nicknames: Union, North
Blue, Yankees
• Lots of factories
• Lots of railroads and track
• Large cities
• Larger population
• Telegraph wires
• Lots of immigrants
• UNION
South
• Nicknames: South, gray,
Confederates, rebels, secess
• Large farming areas
(plantations)
• Not many factories
• Smaller cities
• Not many railroad tracks
• Over a million slaves
• CONFEDERACY
NORTH
UNION
• BLUE
• YANKEES
SOUTH
CONFEDERACY
• GRAY
REBELS, SECESS
The Civil War boils down to: the tension
between the northern and southern states on
two basic issues:
• #1. Slavery - is the Federal
government going to pass laws
that eventual end slavery? If
so, let’s get out of here
• #2. States rights – can the
Federal government continue
to pass laws that states in the
South do not want to follow
• If so, the Southern states think
it best to quit the United
States
• IN SUM – We in the South are
NOT going to live in a country
where the Northern States
make rules that we don’t like
• On February 4, 1861 representatives from the
Southern states met and formed their own
country, the Confederate States of America.
Their Constitution protected the institution of
slavery and the sovereignty of the states.
• President Lincoln tried to convince the states
in the South who had not joined the
Confederacy to remain loyal to the Union. The
South also tried to convince these states to
join the Confederacy.
• The Confederacy also began demanding that
the US abandon military bases in the South
including Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor
South Carolina.
• President Lincoln refused to abandon the fort
and on April 12, 1861 the Confederates opened
fire on the fort. After 34 hours the Union
commander surrendered the fort.
Label
• 1. What advantages did each side have
• Lincoln responded by asking for 75,000
volunteers to join the army to stop the
Confederate rebellion. By May, Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas had joined
the Confederacy.
Southern Victories
• Even though the North enjoyed many
advantages the South did have some of their
own advantages including better generals, and
soldiers who were fighting to defend their
homes.
• The Union developed a strategy that included
blockading Southern ports to keep the South
from selling cotton.
The Union’s 3 part strategy
• 1. Blockade the
South’s coast
• 2. take the Mississippi
top to bottom
• 3. Take Richmond,
Virginia –the
Confederate capital
• Another part of their plan was to capture the
Confederate capital city of Richmond located
less than 100 miles south of Washington D.C.
• In the first year of the war the Confederates
easily defeat two separate attempts by the
Union to capture Richmond. The Union
suffered humiliating defeats and people began
questioning the war.
• In the Western area of fighting the Union was
able to defeat a Confederate army at the
battle of Shiloh. Another group was also able
to capture the city of New Orleans.
The Emancipation Proclamation
• Lincoln personally viewed slavery as a sin but
did not believe that he had any power to
abolish it where it existed.
• As commander of the armed forces Lincoln
believed that he had the power to confiscate any
property Southerners owned that could be used
against the Union, including slaves.
• After the Union victory at the battle of
Antietam President Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation. This document
freed all of the slaves in areas of the US still in
rebellion and also allowed African Americans
to join the military.
• The Proclamation took effect on January 1,
1863. Many Northerners believed that the
Proclamation gave the North a moral
advantage. The South viewed this as further
proof that the North wanted to destroy their
way of life.
• By the end of the war over 180,000 African
Americans had joined the army and made a
significant contribution to the Union victory.
The War Turns
• In 1863 the war turned in the North’s favor.
From July 1st-3rd a Union and Confederate
army clashed around the city of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania.
• The three day battle was a huge Union victory
and it would be the last major offensive
fought by the Confederates.
• On July 4th a Union army under the command
of General Ulysses S. Grant captured the city
of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River; this gave
the Union complete control of the river
cutting the Confederacy in half.
• In November 1863, President Lincoln visited
Gettysburg to help dedicate a National
Cemetery. The speech he gave there known
as the Gettysburg Address is one of his most
famous speeches.
• In March 1864 President Lincoln chose
General Grant to command all of the Union
armies. Grant pledges to destroy the
Confederate armies and never retreat until the
job is done.
Appomattox
• In Virginia, General Grant continued to push
General Lee and the Confederates further
south and with each battle Lee’s army shrank.
• Another Union army under the command of
General Sherman cut a wide path of
destruction through the South first by
capturing Atlanta, Georgia and then
continuing on to the city of Savannah.
Sherman’s March to the Sea
• Burned and destroyed
cities, towns, houses,
crops, railroads,
livestock
• On April 9th, 1865 General Lee and his army
was forced to surrender to General Grant at
Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
• On April 14th President Lincoln was
assassinated while attending a play with his
wife. He was one of the more than 620,000
Americans to die.
• About 970,000 Americans were wounded
during the war, many wounds required
amputation.
RECONSTRUCTION 1865-1877
• The period after the
Civil War when
Congress was making
laws about how to put
the country back
together and
• how to allow the
southern states back
into the union
• Congress added the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution. This law officially outlawed
slavery in the United States.
• Next Congress passed
the 14th Amendment
that said “all persons
born or naturalized in
the United States”
were citizens and
therefore entitled to
equal protection of the
law.
• Finally in 1870 the
15th Amendment was
added giving people
the right to vote
regardless of “race,
color, or previous
condition of
servitude”.
• Many Southern states passed “black codes” or
“Jim Crow laws” to deny African Americans
the rights the federal government had given
them. It will be 100 years before African
Americans will have equal rights in the South.
Reconstruction
• After the fighting stopped the country went
through a period known as Reconstruction, this
lasted from 1865 to 1877 and included military
occupation of the South.
• Congress tried to pass many laws and create
organizations to help the newly freed exslaves including the Freedmen’s Bureau and
the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
• Some people tried to take advantage of the
situation. Northerners, known as
carpetbaggers, moved to the South to buy
cheap land and start businesses. This angered
many Southerners.
• Many Southerners tried to oppose Northern
Reconstruction and limit the rights of African
Americans. Others formed vigilante groups
including the Ku Klux Klan to restore white
supremacy.
• Reconstruction ended in 1877 with the South
being physically reconstructed but not socially.