Transcript Union vs. Confederate

Union vs. Confederate
Billy Yank vs.
Johnny Reb
Ft. Sumter
• April 12, 1861, 4:30 AM The Confederates open fire on
Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor.
Lincoln-Why Go to War?
• Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union, he did
not believe the South had a right to secede.
• He did not set out to destroy slavery.
• Right after Ft. Sumter, he called for 75,000
volunteers to put down the rebellion. Over
250,000 volunteered.
• The original enlistment was for 90 days.
Most everyone believed this would be a
short fight.
Union Soldiers
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Called Yankees, Yanks, Billy Yank, Blue Bellies
Joined for Patriotism or were Drafted
75% American born
African Americans
Immigrants- Irish, Germans, Englishmen
Came from all different occupations- accountants,
blacksmiths, Farmers
• Color- Blue
• They were better equipped, Better fed, Better
supplied.
• The song most associated with the Union was the
“Battle Hymn of the Republic”, which was put to the
tune of “John Brown’s Body”
Union Advantages
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Abraham Lincoln as their leader
The manufacturing capabilities
Transportation
They had more people
They had more money
They had a Navy
Immigration
Invention and innovation
The Confederates
• 7 Deep South states leave the Union after Lincoln’s election. In
each of those 7 states they start seizing (taking over) federal
(Union) holdings in their states. (Armories and arsenals, ship
yards, forts, military outposts)
• Thousands of boys and men rush to join the newly created
Confederate Army.
• Once Ft. Sumter is fired on 4 more states join the Confederacy
• The Confederate government sells the Idea that they are
fighting for the Southern way of life and for Southern
Independence.
• The overwhelming majority of soldiers that sign up do not
have slaves.
• If one owned 20 or more slaves they could get an exemption
from fighting in the army.
Confederate Soldiers
• Johnny Rebs, Rebels, Butternuts,
• Fighting for a Personal Cause- Volunteered for
Service, Fighting for Independence and Southern
way of life. Fighting because “Yer down here”
(because the Yankees invaded the South)
• Farmers, Militia men, Outdoorsman
• Identified themselves by their state
• Admired their Leaders- especially Lee
• Color- Gray or Butternut
• Not well supplied or equipped
• After the first year many were barefoot
• Songs- Dixie and the Bonnie Blue Flag
• Gave the Rebel Yell to terrify the Yankees!
Confederate Advantages
① They had Robert E. Lee as their General
② They were fighting for a cause- Independence and to
preserve the Southern way of life.
③ Home field advantage/knew the land- most of the war was
fought in the South. Lee won most of the battle because he
picked the ground and made the Union attack uphill.
④ Great generals under Lee
⑤ Union had bad generals
The Regiment
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This is the most important unit of the Civil War.
Regiments were raised in one area.
You would join up with your brothers, cousins, friends.
Everyone knew everyone else.
The doctor that took care of you all your life, would be the
regimental surgeon.
A prominent man from the community would be the Colonel.
If we were to raise one from our area, Mr. Bucher would be
our Colonel.
It was supposed to be 1000 men but the average size of a
regiment in the CW was 300-400 men.
Nebraska had 2 regiments, the 1st and 2nd Cavalry
If a regiment got into a bad part of the battle, an area could
lose all the men of a generation. Sorry girls no one at home to
marry
Infantry
• On both sides, most of the men who joined up went into the
infantry.
• These are the foot soldiers.
• They march into battle in formation.
• Their color was light blue
Calvary
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Soldiers on horseback.
Can move with greater speed than any other unit.
Can change the course of the battle.
Can fight from the horse or dismount and fight like infantry.
Often sang songs to help them ride in rhythm.
Their color was gold
• Famous Calvary CW officers:
• George Custer
• Nathan Bedford Forrest
• J.E.B Stuart
Artillery
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These are the cannons
6 cannons to a battery
To operate a battery it took 144 horses and 100 men.
Their color was Red
How are the soldiers the same?
• Average age- teenager
or early 20’s
• Women disguised
themselves in battle
• Military life was a hard
adjustment
• Camp life, cooking,
homesickness, under
someone else's
control
• $ and slaves could keep
some men from serving
• “Rich man’s war, Poor
man’s fight”
Most Soldiers worried
about Family back home.
• How will they
survive?
• What will they do if
I am killed?
• Major Sullivan
Ballou wrote this
letter one week
before he was
killed.
The Average Soldier
• 5’8”
• 143 lbs
• 25 yrs old
• Over 100,000 in
Union Army not yet
15 yrs old
• Drummer boys as
young as 9
Question?
• only 25% of the South owned slaves
• less than 10% of the North were abolitionists
• Lincoln made this statement: My paramount object
in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to
save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union
without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could
save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I
could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I
would also do that.
• In your opinion was this war over slavery?
Why?
Why are they fighting?
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Some to end slavery and some to keep slavery.
Some for Union
Some for their rights, or States rights.
Some for Adventure
Some were Drafted- Conscription
Some Rebs were fighting because “Yer down here”,
yankee invasion.
Casualties-Dead,
Wounded, missing
• 1/65 would be killed
in battle
• 1/10 would be
wounded
• 1/13 would die from
disease
Civil War Deaths
• The official number of deaths in the Civil War is
620.000. But many estimate the true number to
be closer to 750,00
• 620,000 is 2.5 % of the entire population
• In today’s numbers that would be 7,000,000
American lives lost
Vittles=Food
• North: Beans, Bacon, Pickled Beef (called salt
horse), mixed compressed vegetables, and hard
tack.
• Coffee was the preferred drink of both armies.
Drank 4 pints a day. Because of the blockade the
Southerners made coffee from substitutes, peanuts,
potatoes and chickory
• South: ate Sloosh or coosh- cornmeal in bacon
grease like a corndog without the dog.
Oh be Joyful
• Soldiers would make their own alcohol.
One recipe called for Bark juice, Tar
Water, Turpentine, Lamp Oil, Brown
Sugar and Rubbing alcohol.
• Soldiers called their concoctions
• Pop Skull
• Knock em Stiff
• Oh Be Joyful
Outfitting Armies
• In the North factories
produced uniforms
and weaponry.
• Southerners often
went into battle in
homemade uniforms
or farm clothes, with
weapons imported
from other countries.
Resources
Lincoln in the North
• He took control of all railroads
• He took advantage of the Industrialization of
Northern business and got them to produce
wartime necessities.
• He loved new inventions
• He was the first comander in chief to use the
telegraph to transform the war.
Outfitting Armies
• Haversack(backpack) used to
carry extra clothes
and personal items.
• Blanket roll
• Canteen
Arms
• Most common weapon of the war was the
Springfield Rifled musket
• .58 caliber
• Confederates used a British copy
The Minnie Ball
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Invented by a Frenchman Claude Minnet’
Conical shaped, soft lead
Because of it shape flew farther and straighter.
It caused tremendous damage to bones
Medicine
• Technology was far more advanced
than medicine in the Civil War
• If you were shot in the limbs and the
bullet struck bone, the doctors only
choice was to amputate.
• If you were shot in the torso or head
there was nothing the doctors could do
for you.
Medicine
• Two improvements were made:
• Antiseptics
• Anesthetics
What was on every Civil War
battlefield?
The Dying Tree
• For the ones that could not be helped medically
they set them under a nice shade tree to die.
African American’s in the CW
• Both the North and the South used
blacks as labor, building fortifications,
digging graves, building corduroy
roads, bridges, latrines, etc.
• Both sides used them as soldiers. The
North started in 1862 after the
Emancipation Proclamation. 180,000
African Americans served in the Union
Army.
• The South started arming them
towards the end of the war, but it was
too late.
Casualties
• Casualties= Dead, wounded, missing
• Missing= deserters, dead and
unrecognizable, or captured
• What happened to the ones that were
captured?
Prisoner of war camps
Union
• Elmira
• Camp Douglas
• Fort Delaware
• Johnson’s Island
• Point Lookout
Confederate
• Andersonville
• Belle Isle
• Danville prison
• Salisbury Prison
Prison Camps
• Prison camps on both sides were terrible
and ill supplied.
• Disease ran rampant
• 1000’s died in the camps
• The Southern prison camp Andersonville
had the worst reputation but Northern camps
were just as bad