Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee• 1 month after Fort Henry and Fort Donelson

• Grant gathered his troops near a small TN church named Shiloh.

• April 6, 1862 thousands of Confederate troops led by General BeauregardBeauregard and JohnstonJohnston surprised the Northern soldiers.

• Some were shot while making coffee or still in bed.

• Grant counterattacked at dawn the next day.

• Just a few hours later, the Southern soldiers were retreating.

• Shiloh taught both sides a lesson:

• Send out scouts, dig trenches, and build fortifications.

• This battle was extremely bloody and violent.

Mass grave 700 unknown

Shiloh National Cemetery

SurvivorsSurvivors

Taken in 1908, 46 years after the Battle.Taken in 1908, 46 years after the Battle.

• Nearly 24,000 soldiers died or were wounded.• This battle was tricky…the Union just might split the

Confederacy into two sections by taking the Mississippi River.

• Grant headed toward the river when a Union fleet of 40 ships approached the mouth of the river in Louisiana.

• The commander of the fleet was David G. Farragut• He was given the assignment to seize New Orleans.

• It was becoming the busiest port and largest city.

A Revolution in Warfare• The Ironclad ship

• Withstood cannon fire and flames more than wooden ships.

• North:North: “Monitor”“Monitor”• South:South: “Merrimack”“Merrimack”• They fought each other when the Merrimack

attacked 3 wooden, Union ships. The Monitor showed up to their defense.

New Weapons• Rifle

• More accurate than old-fashioned muskets• Soldiers could load more quickly and fire more

rounds

• Minie Ball• Soft, lead bullet that was more destructive

• HandHand GrenadesGrenades

• Land Mines

• All this new technology gradually changed military strategies.

The War for the Capitals• General GeorgeGeneral George McClellan McClellan was not accomplishing his

goal of taking over Richmond, the Confederate capital.

• Robert E. LeeRobert E. Lee took over the Confederate forces.

• The met near Richmond and for 7 day fought on and off.• Known as the Seven Days Battle.• June 25-July 1, 1862.

• McClellan backed away.

Antietam• Lee won a 2nd battle at Bull Run.

• He moved on toward Washington, D.C.

• He crossed the Potomac River into Maryland.

• A Union soldier found a copy of Lee’s army orders near a Confederate camp.• The plan revealed that Lee’s and Stonewall Jackson’sStonewall Jackson’s

two armies were separated for the moment.

• McClellan acted aggressively and ordered to attack Lee’s men.

• The battle took place on September 17, 1862 near a creek called Antietam.• It was the bloodiest single day battle in American

history.• 26,000 died.• The Confederate soldiers retreated back across the

Potomac River into Virginia.

• Lincoln fired General McClellan because he had “the slows”.

Lincoln’s other troubles…• Britain was no longer dependent on Southern cotton.

• Found new sources in Egypt and India.

• Britain became dependent on Northern wheat and corn when their crops failed.

• Britain remained neutral, not choosing either Union or Confederacy.

Emancipation Proclamation• Lincoln disliked slavery but he did not believe

that the federal gov’t. had the power to abolish it where it already existed.

• “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery.”

• Lincoln decided it would benefit the Union army to emancipate slaves.• They would no longer be forced to grow

food or build forts or aid the Confederacy in any way.

• January 1, 1863• “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…And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

Reactions…• Free blacks could enlist in the Union army.

• Democrats in the North (Copperheads) thought it would prolong the war by antagonizing the South.• Made South more

determined than ever to fight to preserve its way of life.

• Many supported it if that’s what it took to eventually reunify the nation.

• Jefferson Davis called it the “most execrable [hateful] measure recorded in the history of guilty men.”

• The Confederacy knew that if it lost, its slave-holding society would perish.

Political Problems

• Both armies originally relied on volunteers.• Heavy causalities and deserters led to

conscription, a draft that would force certain members of the population to serve in the army.

• Confederate law drafted all able-bodies white men between the ages of 18-35. • After large death tolls, it was changed to 17-50.

• Union law drafted white men between the ages of 20-45 for 3 years.• A man could pay $300$300 to avoid the draft

altogether.• Only 46,000 draftees actually went into the

army.• 92% of the 2 million soldiers were volunteers.• 180,000 were African-American.

• Draft Riots• 1863, NYC, Irish immigrants rioted.• They did not think it was fair to fight a war to

free slaves.• July 13-16, 100 peopled died.