The North Takes ChargeChapter 11

Section 4

Armies Clash at GettysburgPrelude to Gettysburg:

1863- Confederacy gains confidence after defeating the North at Chancellorsville.

Confederate Gen. Lee outmaneuvered Union Gen. Joseph Hooker

Lee now believes that he can invade the Union and force Abraham Lincoln to withdraw troops farther north.

Lee pushed all the way into Pennsylvania…

Armies Clash at GettysburgGettysburg (Day 1)

Confederate and Union armies clash north and west of the town of Gettysburg.

Confederate troops able to push Union soldiers out of the town

However Union troops occupied the high ground to the South of Gettysburg (Cemetery Ridge)

Lee knew that the battle wasn’t won until the Confederates forced the Union off the ridge.

Armies Clash at GettysburgDay 2

Lee orders Confederate troops to attack Cemetery Hill

Union troops had left Little Round Top undefendedUnion Col. Chamberlain took his Maine troops and

rushed to defend itAfter repeated attacks, low on ammo and men

Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge Confederate troops tired on marching up hill in

extreme hear surrendered in groves.Chamberlain saved the Union lines from being

bombarded with Confederate artillery.

Armies Clash at GettysburgDay 3

Confederate and Union armies exchanged artillery fire for hours

When Union artillery silenced Gen. Lee sent his men straight into the middle of Union forces

As the Confederate forces neared the Union artillery continued

The aggressive attack of the Confederacy back-fired

Lee was forced to march his men back to Virginia

Lee would never attempt to invade the Union again

Gettysburg AddressNovember 1863

Ceremony held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg

Edward Everett, a noted orator, spoke for over two hours

President Lincoln spoke for just over two minutes Lincoln’s speech “remade America” “Before the war people said, ‘The United States are.’ After Lincoln’s speech people said, ‘The United States is.’ “

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate...we can not consecrate...we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Confederacy Wears DownLoses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg

decimated Confederate forcesConfederacy could now only hope to hang on

long enough to break Union morale and force a armistice; instead of surender

Running low on food, shoes, uniforms, guns, and munitions people of the South began to ask for an end to the hostilities

Confederacy Wears DownConfederate Morale

Support of the war deteriorated over timeFarmers were asked to grow less cash crops

and more food Taxes forced them to give up portions of their live

stock and produceMany Southern states had soldiers desert the

army and fight for the UnionStates openly held peace meetings

Even though the motions failed the fact they existed spelled disaster for the Confederacy

Confederacy Wears DownSherman’s March

William Tecumseh Sherman given command of the Mississippi military division

Started in Atlanta in 1864- Burned Atlanta and marched to the ocean burning EVERYTHING in his path Sherman believed in total war- destroy all military and

civilian property Make the South “so sick of war that generations would pass

away before they would again appeal to it” –Sherman As Sherman headed North to help finish off Lee,

destroyed South Carolina even worse than GeorgiaHowever; as he approached North Carolina he began

handing out food and other supplies. Why?

Confederacy Wears DownThe Surrender at Appomattox:

Late March 1865, clear that the Confederacy was nearly lost

Gen. Grant, Sheridan, and Sherman were all approaching Richmond, VA (Confed. capital)

President Davis flees the capital and burns it down to keep it from falling to the Union

April 9th 1865, Lee and Grant meet at Appomattox Court House to arrange Confederate surrender.

Lincoln allowed Lee’s soldiers to go home with their personal possessions, horses, and food

The Civil War finally ended.