Transcript Major battle of Civil War

Civil War - Major Battles & Events
1st Battle of Bull Run – Manassas, VA
 1st Major battle of Civil War in VA, July 1861
 Union led by General McDowell – 35,000
 Confederates led by Beauregaurd - 22,000
 Met at Bull Run Creek, Manassas
 Hundreds of people from the North gathered to watch the
battle and picnic
1st Battle Bull Run Continued
 10,000 more Confederates arrive under General Thomas




Jackson.
“…look there’s Jackson standing like a stonewall.”
Became “Stonewall” Jackson
Confederates Win!
North realized war would not be easy or quick – Lincoln
begins to doubt his generals
“Stonewall” Jackson
2nd Battle of Bull Run
 Fought in August, 1862
 Confederates – Gen. Robert E. Lee
 Union – George McClellan
 Confederates Win (again)!
Battle of Antietam – Sept. 17, 1862 –
Fought in MD
 Bloodiest single day battle in U.S. History!
 General McClellan – North (Union)
 General Robert E. Lee – South (Confederates)
 12,000 Union + 13,000 Confederate Casualties
 Important victory for the Union – Stopped Lee’s
advance North – UNION WINS!
Antietam - Continued
 Sept 4, 1862 – Lee and 40,000 Confederate Soldiers arrive in






Maryland.
Lee issues a Proclamation urging people in MD to join the
Confederates
They don’t.
Union Soldiers find Lee’s battle plans wrapped around his cigar
Soldiers take plans to McClellan.
He does nothing for 4 days (too timid)!
Armies clash at Antietam Creek (Sharpsburg) on Sept.17, 1862
Antietam Continued
 After the battle – Lincoln created the Emancipation
Proclamation
 War Strategy to weaken Southern war effort
 Emancipation Proclamation set (Confederate only) Slaves
Free
 He fired General McClellan
Lincoln visits Antietam
Emancipation Proclamation
 “. . . All persons held as slaves within any State or
designated part of a State the people whereof shall then
be in rebellion against the United States shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free.” ( Sept. 22nd, 1862)
 By freeing slaves in all rebellious states (the
South), Freed African Americans could then be
recruited into the Union Army.
President Lincoln
Signs the Emancipation Proclamation with his
cabinet
 Went into effect January 1, 1863
What did it do?
 Every slave working in a field or factory freed a white
Southerner to fire a gun at Union soldiers!
 Slaves in areas of rebellion are free!
 Did not free slaves in border states nor Confederate areas
under Union control.
 Congress began to allow African Americans to volunteer as
laborers in July 1862.
•War Department also gave “contrabands” (escaped
slaves) the right to join the Union army in South Carolina
 About 180,00 African Americans served with the Union Army
Hampton Roads
 1st battle ever fought with ironclad ships
 Monitor was the Union ship (North)
 Merrimac was the Confederate Ship (South – renamed
Virginia)
 The battle was near the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton Roads,
VA.
 Battle is a draw (no winners) – Invention of ironclad ships
proves to be successful
Battle of Gettysburg
July 1-3, 1863
 Robert E. Lee – South
 George Meade – North
 Bloodiest (worst) battle in Civil War
 Known for Pickett’s Charge (South) – Confederates
Slaughtered
 Became a Cemetery where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg
Address
Gettysburg - Continued
 Spring 1863 – Lee split forces into 2 groups.
 While riding the front lines – Stonewall Jackson is shot by his
own men. Jackson dies a few days later.
 Lee launches more attacks – Goal is to break the North’s will
to fight.
Gettysburg - Continued
 Day 1 – Confederates split into raiding parties in PA –
looking for food and shoes in Gettysburg.
 Union and Confederates find each other and start
shooting.
 Day 3 – A failed Confederate Attack up Cemetery Ridge.
 Almost 75,000 Confederate soldiers and 90,000 Union
soldiers fought in Gettysburg.
 Casualties: 23,049 Union / 28,063 Confederate =
51,112 Total!
Gettysburg Continued
 Victory at Gettysburg was on same day as Victory in
Vicksburg.
 Turning Point of the War for North!
 After Gettysburg – France and England refused to
help / support the C.S.A.
Soldiers at Gettysburg, PA
Federal (Union) Casualties
Gettysburg Address
 Nov. 19, 1863 – Lincoln gives speech at Gettysburg.
 Dedication speech for battlefield cemetery.
 269 words, less than a 2 minunte speech!
Gettysburg Address
11/19/1863
 15,000 folks came to hear Lincoln’s dedication to the
memorial.
 It was a 2-minute speech about the state of the Civil War.
 Here’s the audio of the speech read by Jeff Daniels:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speec
hes/gettysburgaddress.htm
Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg Cemetery
Siege at Vicksburg,
Mississippi- ended early July 1863
 General Grant (North)
 Pemberton (South)
 Goal – Split the South and take control of Mississippi
River (Admiral Farragut had taken New Orleans, Baton
Rouge & Natchez)
 Turning point of the war (North gets upper hand &
control of the west)
 Grant seals off city and starves people out.
 People eat dogs, horses, rats (7 weeks)
 People live in caves to avoid being hit with shells.
Vicksburg Continued
 Confederate Soldiers almost mutiny!
 Confederates surrender on July 4th.
 Vicksburg did not celebrate the 4th of July again for almost 80
years.
 North wins!
Sherman’s March- TOTAL WAR
•Lincoln needed a victory for the Union
Army to help him win the election of
1864
•Sherman’s goal – Campaign to
destroy the south’s infrastructure and
provide Lincoln with victory – it worked!
Sherman's March to the Sea
 William Tecumseh Sherman (North)
 Marches 100,000 troops from Atlanta, GA to Savannah,
GA.
 Goal: Destroy everything in their path (buildings, RR,
homes, farms, animals)
 Strategy: TOTAL WAR!
 Total War – Destroying civilian and economic resources.
 Left path of destruction 60 miles wide – angered the
south deeply!
End of War – Appomattox Courthouse,
Virginia
 April 9th – 1865
 Union (Gen. Grant) & Confederate (Lee) meet in
Appomattox Courthouse (small town)
 Grant assured Lee that his troops would be fed and
allowed to keep horses.
 They would not be tried for treason.
 President Davis called for guerilla warfare- Lee declined
 “The war is over, the rebels are our countrymen again.”
Effects of the War
 About 620,000 Americans died
 Slavery was ended-13th Amendment
 South was in ruins
 Southern economy destroyed
 Hostility between North & South
 How does Lincoln re-unite Country again? He won’t have the
chance