Chapter 21Chapter 21

The Furnace of Civil War 1861-1865

Bull Run

• 90 day war- “no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with slavery where it exists”

• Bull Run (Manassas Junction)• Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson• Defeat for Union

The Army of the Potomac Marching up Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., 1861In this painting Union troops parade before the Battle of Bull Run. Colorfully uniformed, they are a regiment of Zouaves, who adopted the name and style of military dress from a legendarily dashing French infantry unit recruited from Berber tribesmen in North Africa. But bright uniforms were not enough to win battles, and these troops were soon to be routed by the Confederates.

Stonewall Jackson

George McClellan and Peninsula Campaign

• George McClellan (Army of the Potomac)• Peninsula Campaign (James and York

Rivers)• Robert E. Lee (Army of Northern Virginia)

• 7 Days’ Battles: June 27- July 1, 1862• McClellan pushed back to the sea

• Total War 6 part Union plan

Lee and McClellan

Union Strategy

• 1. Blockade coasts Anaconda Plan• 2. Take Mississippi River (cut CSA in

½) Anaconda Plan• 3. Liberate slaves (undermine economy)• 4. Troops to Carolinas and Georgia• 5. Capture Richmond• 6. Engage enemy and force submission

Battle of the Merrimack and the Monitor, March 9, 1862

Antietam

• Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30, 1862) moved to Maryland Campaign

• Lee vs. General John Pope• The Battle at Antietam Creek (near Sharpsburg,

Maryland)- September 17, 1862 stop CSA advance

• Antietam= CSA near victory• Lincoln issued preliminary Emancipation

Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

• Official document released January 1, 1863• Slaves “forever free” in states in rebellion

• Border states and conquered CSA not affected• Strengthen moral cause• 13th amendment• Mixed emotions in North• South saw it as an attempt to start slave revolt

Gettysburg

• General AE Burnside= new general of Army of the Potomac

• Launched attack at Fredericksburg, Virginia• Replaced by Joseph Hooker• Chancellorsville, Virginia (May 2-4, 1863)

• Jackson killed by friendly fire

• Lee moved towards Pennsylvania

A. E. Burnside

The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 With the failure of Pickett’s charge, the fate of the Confederacy was sealed—

though the Civil War dragged on for almost two more bloody years

Gettysburg

• George G. Meade- 3 days before battle • Union army of 92,000 vs. CSA army of

76,000 at Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)• Unsuccessful Pickett’s Charge- “high water

mark of the Confederacy”• Gettysburg Address- November 1863

George Meade

Western Theater

• Ulysses S. Grant• February 1862: captured Forts Henry and

Donnelson• Kentucky tied to Union, opened GA and Tenn.• Battle at Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862): southern

Tennessee

• Admiral David G. Farragut- captured New Orleans spring 1862

Western Theater

• Area between Vicksburg, Mississippi and Port Hudson, Louisiana= CSA movement

• Grant attacked Vicksburg surrendered July 4, 1863

• July 9th= fall of Port Hudson• Union control of Mississippi River• Stop demands for peace from Butternut Region• No foreign intervention

Sherman’s March to the Sea

• Grant sent to eastern Tennessee liberate Union troops at Chattanooga• Georgia open to invasion• Grant= general in chief

• General William Tecumseh Sherman• Burned Atlanta by November 1864• 60,000 troops to Savannah (Dec. 22, 1864)• Total War= weaken CSA morale• Turned north toward South Carolina

General William Tecumseh Sherman

1864 Election

• Problems within Republican party• Salmon P. Chase• Congressional Committee on the Conduct of

the War• Expanding presidential power

• Split within Democrats• War Democrats vs. Peace (Copperhead)

Democrats• Union Party formed

1864 Election

• Democrats nominated George McClellan• Union victories= favor for Lincoln

• Farragut seized Mobile, Alabama, Sherman (Atlanta), General Sheridan destroyed Shenandoah Valley in Virginia

• “Bayonet votes”, voting on the front

• Lincoln= 212 EV vs. 21 for McClellan (popular vote closer)• Defeat for Lincoln= last chance for South

Presidential Election of 1864 (showing popular vote by county)Lincoln also carried California, Oregon, and Nevada, but there was a considerable McClellan vote in each. Note McClellan’s strength in the Border States and in the southern tier of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois—the so-called “Butternut” region.

War of Attrition

• Grant brought in from West to oversee Meade push forward regardless of casualties• Destroy the enemy 1 piece at a time• Overland Campaign (push towards Richmond)• Battle at Cold Harbor (Grant seen as a butcher!)

• Hampton Roads Peace Conference (failed)• April 1865: Lee surrendered at Appomattox

Courthouse, Virginia (cornered by Union)

Grant’s Virginia Campaign, 1864–1865 The Wilderness Campaign pitted soldier against desperate soldier in some of the most brutal and terrifying fighting of the Civil War. “No one could see the fight fifty feet from him,” a Union private recalled of his month spent fighting in Virginia. “The lines were very near each other, and from the dense underbrush and the tops of trees came puffs of smoke, the ‘ping’ of the bullets and the yell of the enemy. It was a blind and bloody hunt to the death, in bewildering thickets, rather than a battle.”

Lee Surrenders

Lincoln’s Assassination

• April 14, 1865: Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater died the next morning• Death= forget Lincoln’s shortcomings• South now had to face vindictive North

(Lincoln would have protected them)• Andrew Johnson now president, opposition

from Congress• Reconstruction=struggle

John Wilkes Booth

Aftermath of the Civil War

• 600,000 Americans KIA or by disease• Destroyed an entire generation of young men

• $15 billion• Ended the fight between strong federal

government and states righters• Inspired British democracy• Destroyed slavery, North and South still

split