Chapter 11: The Civil War

Section 1: From Bull Run to Antietam

• The first shots fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in April 1861 signaled the start of the nation’s Civil War.

–War between the Union states of the North and the Confederate states of the South.

The First Battle of Bull Run

• AKA Battle of Manassas• Lincoln ordered the Union headed

by Gen. Irving McDowell into action–July 16- marched the poorly prepared army into VA•Manassas- important railroad junction

• Opposed by smaller confederate force under (Pierre Gustave Toutant)P.G.T. Beauregard.–Because of McDowells delays, Beauregard was able to strengthen his army (11,000 men added)

• McDowell attacked on July 21st

– South refused to give up

• Led by Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson

• Reinforced by more troops

• Sides

– 35,000 troops on each side

– Union 2,900 casualties Confederacy 2,000s

– Won by the Confederates in July 1861.

Preparing for War

• North–More railroad tracks & factories–Balanced economy–More money in the bank–Functioning army/ government–2/3 of the population

• South

–Military colleges (officers)

–Didn’t need to initiate military action to win the war

–Fighting to preserve their way of life

Union Military Strategies

• After the fall of Sumter, Lincoln ordered a naval blockade of the seceded states

– Hoped to keep the south from shipping its cotton to Europe & prevent them from importing goods

• Plan was to use troops & gunboats to gain control of the Mississippi & cut off the South– Named the Anaconda Plan

– Souths basic idea was to prepare & wait (defensive war)

–War of attrition•One side inflicts continuous losses on the enemy in order to wear down the strength.

Confederate War Strategies

• More successful for the north

• Stopped exporting cotton

–Sudden loss would cause Great Britain & France to help the south gain its independence

–failed

Fort Henry & Donelson

• Feb. 1862 Grant advanced south along the Tennessee River

• These forts were important water routes into the western Confed.

• Feb. 6– Union gunboats pounded Ft Henry into surrender & a few days later Ft Donelson did too

The Battle of Shiloh

• In April 1862 General Ulysses S. Grant's army was encamped along the Tennessee River just north of the Mississippi border – poised to strike a blow into the heartland of the South. Grant

had been at this location for about a month, awaiting the arrival of additional troops under General Buell before he began his march southward.

• Twenty miles to the south, in Corinth, Mississippi, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston ordered his troops northward with the plan of attacking Grant before Buell arrived.

• The stage was set for one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles.

• Buell's reinforcements finally arrived during the night as did forces under General William H. Wallace, strengthening the Union lines with 22,500 fresh troops.

• With the break of dawn, Grant attacked, pushing the exhausted Confederates steadily back until they finally began a retreat in the early afternoon that left the field to the Union forces.

• The confrontation had been a slaughter on both sides. • Corpses littered areas of the battlefield to the extent that, as

General Grant described, "it would have been possible to walk across the clearing in any direction stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." Nearly 100,000 troops had faced each other and almost 24,000 ended as casualties. This horrendous outcome was a wake-up call to the nation announcing that the continuing war would be costly for both sides.

• April 7th- Union reinforcement arrived overnight–Defeated the South

• Casualties• Union 13,000/Confederacy 11,000

including Johnston • Bloodiest single battle- destroyed

Northern hopes that war would soon be over

The Peninsular Campaign

• May 1862

–McClellan landed near Norfolk trying to capture Richmond•Strengths- outstanding organizer, excellent strategy & well liked

•Weakness- very cautious & never seemed ready to fight

• Transported 100,000 troops to a peninsula southeast of Richmond

–McClellan asked for more troops

–Despite urging from Lincoln to act, he didn’t

–Waited outside Yorktown for one month

• May 31st South suddenly attacked

–Battle of Seven Pines

–(Union victory)

The South Attacks

• With McClellans forces still threatening Richmond

• Jackson pretended to prepare for an attack on Washington

• Lincoln cancelled the orders for McClellan’s additional troops to protect the capital

• Jackson then joined Lee outside Richmond & attacked McClellan called the Seven Days’ Battle

• (Confederate Victory)

Second Battle of Bull Run

• Gen. John Pope was put in overall command (north)

• Lee divided his army & sent Jackson north in a sweeping movement around Pope’s position

–Struck behind Pope’s army & destroyed supplies

• Pope ordered an attack on Jackson while Lee attacked

• Confederate victory & McClellan was returned to command

The Battle of Antietam• Outcome:• The result of the battle was inconclusive but the north

did win a strategic advantage. 23,100 casualties. • Significance of the Battle of Antietam:• The Battle of Antietam forced the Confederate Army to

retreat back across the Potomac River.• Bloodiest day of the Civil War.