Transcript The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day of the Civil War for both

The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day of
the Civil War for both Union and Confederate
troops. Which side had the most casualties?
EQ: What new technologies impacted the Civil War?
Objective and Scales:
 The student will be able to evaluate the war on
different fronts as well as new technologies and
weapons that impacted the war with 80% accuracy
 Where does today’s objective fit into the unit learning
goal scale?
 Objective E and F
 How do you reach mastery of SCALE Everest for
objective E and F?
 TOC: Page 121-New technologies and weapons
1. Soldier's Life
 Trained for up to 10 hours a day when not
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in battle
Camp life was often miserable. Lack of
clean water led to outbreaks of smallpox,
typhoid fever, and other diseases
Both sides built prison camps for captured
soldiers (POW)
Nearly 10% of soldiers who died in the
war, died in prison camps
POW’s were forced to eat rats to survive,
many died of starvation or exposure
2. New technology/weapons
 New weapons made this war
more deadly than any other
 New rifles and cannons where
far more accurate and had
greater range than old muskets
and artillery
 B/C of this many soldiers were
slaughtered by following order
to cross open fields against
deadly new weapons
Weapon Types
 Artillery
 Firearms larger than small arms
 Small arms
 Any weapon smaller than a canon and carried by a
soldier
 Edged weapons
 Bayonets, sabers, swords, short swords, cutlasses, Bowie
knives, pikes and lances
Napoleon
 Made from bronze
until South ran out,
then iron
 Max range-1700 yards
 Most effective at 250
yards
 Probably caused most
causalities of all
artillery pieces
Small Arms
 Classified by caliber; mode of loading
(breech/muzzle) and maker
 Most used was .58 cal Springfield Musket and .69 cal
Harper’s Ferry Rifle
 Both muzzle loading and fired mini ball
 These rifles changed infantry tactics
 Before, soldiers would be in mass groups and charge the
enemy
 After, with greater accuracy and longer range (lethal at over
½ mile) frontal assaults were very deadly
Small Arms
Musket
•Smoothbore
•Long-barreled shoulder
arm
Carbine
•Short-barreled rifle
Rifle
•Shoulder gun with spiral
grooves cut into the inner
barrel
Handguns
•Pistol
•Revolver
.58 cal Springfield Musket
.69 cal Harper’s Ferry Rifle
Minie Ball
 Before – use of rifles was impractical because
ammo was expensive and loading was time
consuming
 1848 – French army Capt. Claude F. Minie
developed smaller, hollow-based bullet
 Easier loading, expanded upon firing and spun out of
gun barrel. The spin made them more expensive but
very accurate and far traveling.
 1855 – Harper’s Ferry Armory worker James H.
Burton found a cheaper way to make the ball
 Became the standard bullet for both sides
Minie Ball
Edged Weapons
 Bayonets
 Swords
 Sabres
 Short Swords
 Cutlasses
 Bowie knife
 Pikes and lances
Edged Weapons
 Mostly served as decoration
 Out of about 250,000 wounded treated in Union
hospitals only about 922 were injured from an edged
weapon; most were from private disagreements
 Sabre
 Cavalry sword
 Lethal with trained mounted soldiers
 Volunteers created many lop-eared horses
 Sword
 Sign of officer’s authority
 Lance
 Deadly with trained troops
 Shortage in the South
North vs South Comparison
 North had a huge advantage over South in all
artillery and higher percentage of rifled cannon to
smoothbore cannon.
 Union had about 1,200 Napoleons produced for
them; Confederacy produced between 500-600 on
their own.
 In small arms, the South depended on smuggled
imports from England and France.
 South was at disadvantage in majority aspects of
weapons simply because of the lack of material
availability and technology.
3. Ironclads
 Both sides also made use of ironclads-
warships covered with protective iron
plates
 Cannon balls would bounce off the plates
 The most famous naval battle of the war
occurred when two ironclads, the Union’s
Monitor and the Confederacy’s
Merrimack fought to a stalemate in
March of 1862
 Union ironclads played an important role
in gaining control of the Mississippi River
Delta
4. War in the East
 After the Union was defeated at Bull Run,
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Lincoln removed McDowell and put General
George McClellan in command
McClellan was a good organizer, but cautious
He spent seven months training his army, but
Lincoln grew impatient
McClellan tried to take Richmond, but the
Union in May of 1862 was unsuccessful again
Robert E. Lee (Conf.) wanted to take
advantage of the Union loss, with Richmond
safe he wanted to invade the North
He believed a win on Union soil could earn
the South, European allies
But…..what happens next COULD have
changed things…
5. Antietam
 Union soldiers found a copy of General Lee’s
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battle plan for the battle of Antietam in Maryland
Sergeant John Bloss and Corporal Barton W.
Mitchell found a piece of paper wrapped around
three cigars, it became evident it was Lee’s battle
plan!
McClellan now knew that Lee's forces were split
into five parts and scattered over a 30-mile stretch
McClellan’s caution got the best of him and he
lost the advantage
When he finally mobilized troops (18 hours), Lee
was alerted and closed the gap between his
scattered forces
Antietam turned out to be the bloodiest day in the
Civil War (almost 23 thousand), September 17th
Antietam is considered a draw from a military
point of view, but Lincoln and the Union claimed
victory
Lee’s retreat would give Lincoln the “victory” he
needed before delivering the Emancipation
Proclamation…a document that would change the
ENTIRE war
6. The War in the West
 Lincoln’s army in the West would not be so cautious
 Ulysses S. Grant would lead the most successful
armies
 Grant and McClelland were very different, Grant was
risk taker.
 Under Grant Union forces made major advances,
seizing control of most of the Miss. R
 Grant met Confederate General Albert Sidney
Johnston on April 6, 1862 at the battle of Shiloh
 Costly, but important for both sides
 Union forced the Confederate army to withdraw from
the railroad center in Corinth, TN.
 2 weeks later, David Farragut (U) entered the Miss. R
from the Gulf and captured New Orleans, LA.
 By summer of 1862, Union controlled the entire Miss.
River
Summary and Progress Chart
 Explain how new weapons impacted the Civil War
using specific examples. Explain the outcome of
Antietam and Shiloh.
 Complete progress chart for objective E and F