Transcript The Battles of the Civil War

Overview
 Fort Sumter
 federal fort located in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina
 refused to surrender to the Confederates
 Sixty-eight soldiers in the fort from December 26th, without
supply.
 When Lincoln made the decision to resupply the Fort, the
Confederacy decided to assault.
 In the middle of the night April 11, 1861,
 an ultimatum; either surrender by 4 A.M. or the
Confederate cannons would open fire.
 At 4:30 A.M. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard gave
the order to open fire.
 The next afternoon the fort was surrendered
 The Civil War had begun.
 To take Richmond, the Confederate capital, the Union army would
first have to defeat the Confederate troops stationed at the town of
Manassas, Virginia.
 July 21, 1861, Union forces commanded by General Irvin McDowell
fought with Confederate forces headed by General Pierre
Beauregard near a little creek called Bull Run north of Manassas.
 At one point in the battle, a Confederate officer rallied his troops by
pointing his sword toward Southern General Thomas J. Jackson.
 The officer cried, “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Rally behind
the Virginians!” From this incident, Jackson won the nickname “Stonewall”
Jackson.
 His men held fast against the Union assault.
 fresh troops arrived, the Confederates equaled the Union forces in
number and launched a countercharge.
 Attacking the Union line, they let out a blood-curdling scream.
 This scream, later called the “rebel yell,” caused the Union troops to panic
and run
 The Confederate victory in the First Battle of Bull Run thrilled the South
and shocked the North.
 Many in the South thought the war was won. The North realized it had
underestimated its opponent.
 Lincoln sent the 90-day militias home and called for a real army of 500,000
volunteers for three years.
 General Robert E. Lee led his army into Maryland, a Union
State
 A gamble to win the war.
 the first time Lee had attacked a Union state.
 A Confederate officer accidentally left a copy of Lee’s
battle plans wrapped around three cigars at a campsite.
 When Union troops stopped to rest at the abandoned campsite,
a Union soldier stumbled on the plans.
 The captured plans gave Union General George McClellan a
chance to stop Lee and his army.
 The Union army massed against Lee near the Antietam Creek
on September 17, 1862.
 In a day long battle, 23,582 Americans died, becoming the single
bloodiest day in U.S. history.
 Both sides lost an equal number of men.
 The Confederate force, which was smaller however, was forced to
withdraw.
 In the aftermath of the Union victory, Lincoln announced the
Emancipation Proclamation and also began to allow African
American soldiers to fight for the Union.
 December 11-15, 1862
 Over 120,000 Union troops under General
Ambrose E. Burnside were met at
Fredericksburg, Virginia by a Confederate
force of 78,000 under Robert E. Lee.
 The Union attack failed –
 resulting in more than 12,500 casualties
compared to 5,000 for the Confederates.
 Remembered as one of the most one-sided
battles of the war.
 Lincoln fired Burnside from his command.
 The victory restored Confederate morale lost
after the defeat in the Battle of Antietam.
 Just the opposite happened in the Union.
 This was one of the lowest points of the war for
the Union.
 Vicksburg, Mississippi
 the last major Confederate strongholds on the
Mississippi River.
 General Ulysses S. Grant began his attack on
Vicksburg in May 1863.
 his direct attacks failed, settled in for a long siege.
 Grant’s troops surrounded the city - prevented the
delivery of food and supplies.
 the Confederates ran out of food.
 In desperation, they ate mules, dogs, and even rats.
 after nearly a month and a half, they surrendered.
 The Union victory fulfilled a major part of the
Anaconda Plan.
 The North had taken New Orleans the previous
spring.
 with complete control over the Mississippi River, the
South was split in two.
 The Confederates learned of a supply of shoes in the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
 July 1, 1863, they ran into Union troops.
 Both sides called for reinforcements, and the Battle of Gettysburg was on
 The fighting raged for three days.
 On the rocky hills and fields around Gettysburg,
 90,000 Union troops, under the command of General George Meade
 clashed with 75,000 Confederates.
July 3 - The turning point
 Lee ordered General George Pickett to attack on the middle of the Union line.
 It was a deadly mistake.
 Some 13,000 rebel troops charged up the ridge into heavy Union fire.
 Pickett’s Charge, as this attack came to be known, was torn to pieces.
 The Confederates retreated and waited for a Union counterattack.
 But once again, Lincoln’s generals failed to finish off Lee’s army.
 The furious Lincoln wondered when he would find a general who would defeat Lee once and for all.
 The toll
 The North had lost 23,000 men,
 Over one-third of Lee’s army, 28,000 men, lay dead or wounded.
 Lee led his army back to Virginia.
 Many consider this battle to be the turning point of the war. Lee would never invade Northern
territory again.
 General William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the
Sea
 Followed his successful attempts to take Atlanta
 Helped Lincoln get reelected.
 Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant believed that the Civil War would
end only if the Confederacy was broken emotionally and
physically.
 Sherman waged total war
 a war not only against enemy troops, but against everything
that supports the enemy.
 His troops tore up rail lines
 destroyed crops
 burned and looted towns.
 The results Sherman's March destroyed the Confederacy's
ability to carry on the war.
 Sherman’s name is still cursed in some parts of the South
 but he is also recognized as a great strategist, a forceful
leader, and together with Ulysses Grant – the ablest Union
general of the war.
 June 1864 - Grant’s armies arrived at Petersburg, Virginia, just
south of Richmond.
 Unable to break through the Confederate defenses, the Union forces
dug trenches and settled in for a long siege.
 The two sides faced off for ten months.
 Lee could not hold out.
 Grant was drawing a noose around Richmond
 Lee pulled out, leaving the Confederate capital undefended.
 The Union army marched into Richmond on April 3, 1865.
 Lee fled west
 From Richmond and Petersburg
 Grant followed in pursuit
 Lee knew the situation was hopeless.
 He sent a message to General Grant that he was ready to surrender.
 April 9, 1865, Lee and Grant met at the Appomattox Court House
to arrange the surrender.
 Grant offered generous terms of surrender.
 After laying down their arms, the Confederates could return home in
peace
 Taking their private possessions and horses with them.
 Grant also gave food to the hungry Confederate soldiers.
 After four long years, the Civil War was over.