Transcript The Civil War Begins

The Civil War Begins
Confederacy Grows
• After Virginia leaves the Union in April
1861, three more states join the
Confederacy
– Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina
• This builds the total Confederate
membership to 11 states
• Four slave states remain in the Union
– Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri
Americans Expect a Short War
• Both the North and South expected a short
and glorious war
• Soldiers went to war; bands and onlookers
assembled on the sidelines to watch the
battles
The Match up
• Both sides were unevenly matched
– The Union had more fighting power, more
factories, greater food production, and a more
extensive railroad system
– The Confederacy earned profits from the
cotton trade, had first-rate generals, strong
military tradition, and were motivated to
protect their homeland
Southern Weakness
• The South valued local and limited
government
• Many Confederate state governors
refused to cooperate with the Confederate
government
• Southerners did not believe in a strong
centralized government, but this was
needed to run a war
Strategies
• Southern strategy:
– Defend the South
– Drive into the North whenever possible
– Continue until the North gets tired or the British come
to aid
• Northern strategy:
– Blockade the Southern coast, cutting off all supplies
from Europe
– Gain control of the Mississippi River
– Divide the Southern states and conquer piece by piece
– Capture Richmond and defeat Robert E. Lee’s army
The Southern Ifs
• How the South could possibly win the war:
– If all border states leave the Union
– If foreign aid materializes
– If the South can hold off the North long
enough for the North to get sick of fighting
Anaconda Plan
Anaconda Plan
• General Winfield
Scott comes up with
the plans to suffocate
the South
• He is deemed too old
and unhealthy
• Lincoln replaces him
because he wants a
quick war
War in the East
• Lincoln orders General Irvin McDowell to
march on the Confederate capital city of
Richmond, Virginia
• Only 100 miles separate Washington D.C. and
Richmond
1st Battle of Bull Run
• July 1861
• 30,000 quickly trained,
inexperienced Union soldiers
encounter a smaller Confederate
army under the command of
General Beauregard at Manassas
Junction, Virginia
• At first the Union appears to gain
the upper hand, but the
Confederates stand firm under the
command of General Thomas
“Stonewall” Jackson
Confederate Generals
Gen. Beauregard and Gen. Jackson
1st Battle of Bull Run
• The Confederates receive reinforcements and
turn the tide of the battle
• The Northern army panics and runs back to
Washington, D.C.
• The Southerners were too exhausted and
disorganized to follow them back to the Union
capital
• South finds out that it could fight!
• North finds out that it will not be a quick or easy
war!
Peninsular Campaign
• After the loss at Bull Run, Lincoln calls for
the enlistment of 500,000 men to serve
three years in the Union military
• A few days later he would call upon
500,000 more men to enlist
• Lincoln replaces General McDowell with
General George B. McClellan
Change of Command
Gen. McDowell and Gen. McClellan
Peninsular Campaign
• McClellan wants to train his army
• Spends almost a year getting ready
• On February 1862, he moves his army to
the peninsula below Richmond and moves
upward to attack the city
• The Union army is halted by General
Robert E. Lee and the Southern army just
outside of Richmond
Peninsular Campaign
• Lee sends Jackson to
Washington
• McClellan withdraws
from the fight to
protect the Union
capital
• Northerners are now
disgusted with losing
• Lincoln searches for
another general
Gen. Robert E. Lee
Western Victories
• While the North and South were fighting the
Peninsular Campaign in the east, the Union was
busy winning campaigns in the west under the
command of General Ulysses S. Grant
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Western Victories
• Union strategy was to capture the Mississippi
river and divide the Confederacy from its
supplies
• In February 1862, the Union captures Fort Henry
on the Tennessee River and Fort Donalson on
the Cumberland River
• Grant heads south and barely wins in a
bloodbath at Shiloh in March/April 1862
– Deadliest two-day battle of the Civil War
• 23,000 causalities
New Orleans
• As Grant continued to march south, a
Northern naval fleet of 40 ships, under the
command of sixty-year-old David Farragut
overtakes New Orleans
– Largest Confederate city and busiest port
• Farragut cuts off Mississippi, Arkansas,
Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee
• Grant traps a Confederate army in
Vicksburg, Mississippi
New Orleans
Admiral David Farragut
New Weapons of Warfare
• New ironclad ships easily destroyed
wooden ships
• Grant utilized these ironclads when
capturing Forts Henry and Donelson
• Era of wooden fighting ships was over
– Monitor (Union) vs. Merrimack (Confederate)
– Battle in March 1862 to a draw
• Rifles replaced Muskets
– More accurate, easier to load