Civil War

Battles and The Homefront

Fort Sumter- April 1861• First Battle, Confederates taking federal forts,

mints, arsenals.

• Strategic location- harbor of Charleston, SC

• Union Major Robert Anderson running out of supplies, asked for more.

• Lincoln’s Dilemma: let it fall and look weak or lose other states (only deep S. had seceded)

• Resupply but without armies or arms

• Confederates attacked, Anderson surrendered

• Results: 0 dead, AK, NC, TN & VA. secede.

• DE, KY, MD, MO loyal to Union, also W. VA.

Advantages and DisadvantagesNorth/Union• Larger population

• More factories

• More Railroads

• Navy

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• Had to conquer south

South/Confederacy• Smaller Population

• Fewer Factories

• Fewer Railroads

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• Excellent Generals (Lee, Jackson)

• Outdoor tradition- experience with guns

• Defensive War

StrategiesNorth/Union• Capture Richmond

(confed. capital)

• Anaconda Plan- strangle the south

• Gain control of Mississippi River

• Naval blockade

• Utilize superior numbers & resources but this took time

South/Confederacy• Capture Washington

DC, invade the North

• Demoralize the Union

• Help from 3.5 million slaves

• Cotton diplomacy- help from England & France

July 1861 First Bull Run• Lincoln ordered general to Richmond w/barely

trained troops, People came w/picnics to watch

• Met Confederates, dug in on high ground behind a creek (Bull Run)

• Union winning until Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and men stopped them, shouting Rebel Yell: “woh-who-ey! Who-ey!” (eerie sound, chills thru Union troops)

• Union retreat, spectators horrified, ran

• Results: Both sides realize war longer than 3 months

• North shocked/shamed, South proud

Soldiers’ Experiences• Enthusiasm to enlist, boredom set in during

training (baseball invented during rest time)

• Shortages: food, uniforms (Union-blue, Confederacy- Gray), shoes

• Illnesses (influenza, typhoid, pneumonia) & lack of sanitary medical treatment & anesthesia (pain-killers)- many died from infected wounds (including Stonewall Jackson)

• As war continued became “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,” desertion common

Homefront• Women replaced male

factory workers (100,000 jobs in arsenals, factories, sewing rooms)

• Mary Boykin Chestnut- diary of a southern woman: frustrated with failures of southern leaders, watched “with horror and amazement (as) the only world we cared for, (was) literally kicked to pieces” (Boyer, 378)

Mary Boykin ChestnutSource: http://s3.amazonaws.com/findagrave/photos/2002/167/8574_1024321157.jpg

Battle of New Orleans- April 1862• Importance: cut off supplies to Western

Confederacy & move troops up Mississippi R.

• Farragut and ships attacked 2 forts guarding approach from Gulf of Mexico

• Unsuccessful shelling, decided to sail past, 17 warships during 4/24 am

• All but 4 made it to NO, 4/29 city surrendered

• Results: Union morale up, victories in the west.

• South had lost 50,000 square miles of territory, 1000 miles of rivers, 2 state capitals, largest city

September 1862 Antietam• key turning point• AL waiting to issue Emancipation Proclamation to

free slaves in rebel areas but not in border states• Lee on offensive, wanted Brit support (wanted to see

if could win on Union soil)• Lee crossed into MD. (55,000 men, 5000 lost)• Union troops found battle plans around cigar box.• McClellan planned counterattack, 75,000 men met

Lee at Antietam Creek MD.

September 1862 Antietam• Results: bloodiest single day battle in U.S. history

(Confed 13,000 casualties/Union 12,000+)• AL fired McClellan for letting Confed escape to VA.• Raised confidence in the north, Lee Can BE

DEFEATED.• Lincoln issued Emancipation Proclamation• South lost hope of support from Europe- Britain

would not enter a war fought against slavery.

Opposition to the WarNorth/Union

• Copperheads- northerners who sympathized with the South

• Lincoln suspended habeas corpus- jailed them without trials for the duration of the war

• Draft Riots, e.g. in NY after Emancipation- wanted to fight for the Union, not for slaves.

South/Confederacy• Opposed the draft-

Confederacy passed 1st conscription act in US history

• Poor ended up fighting more- plantation owners bought their way out of service

• Argued for state’s rights

British Cartoon Showing Pensive Lincoln after NY Draft Riots: shows fears about

emancipation, racism among northern whites

Source: http://www.historygallery.com/prints/PunchLincoln/1863riots/1863riots.htm

April 1863 Chancellorsville• AL switched to “Fighting Joe” Hooker daring plan• Divide troops into 3: cut off supplies, attack both

flanks• Men in forest wilderness, near Chancellorsville, VA.• Lee divided his troops, Stonewall Jackson + 30K

through wilderness to outflank Hooker• Hooker heard movements, assumed confed retreat• Lee & Jackson attacked from 2 sides, Hooker

withdrew in defeat• Results: Jackson died (shot by own troops in arm,

infection, 8 days later died)• South morale boost, AL turned “ashen”, Sumner “…

all is lost”

July 1-3 1863 Gettysburg• Fresh off victory, Lee decided to invade north • Resupply & feed troops with seized goods• Lee to PA. With 75K troops, AL ordered Hooker to

attack, Hooker hesitated & was replaced w/Meade• Confed near Gettysburg, scouts heard of shoe supply• 2 Union brigades on high ground NW of Gettysburg,

fired on approaching shoe raiders• Day 3: Pickett’s Charge: ordered 15K men to rush

Union atCemetery Ridge, ½ survived, no 2nd attack• Lee retreated, Meade could not pursue (bad weather)

July 1-3 1863 Gettysburg• Results: Union: 23,000 casualties, Confed 20,000• Gettysburg Address-dedication of cemetery-

statement of democratic ideals: • “Four Score and 7 years ago our fathers brought forth … a new

nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”

• “It is rather for us to… 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.”

• Turning point: Union won, but failed to end the war• Lincoln “Our Army held the war in the hollow of their

hand and they would not close it.”

Charleston, SC July 1863 • 54th Massachusetts Infantry• July 1862 act and Emancipation Proc encouraged

blacks to enlist• Union unable to gain control of forts near Charleston• 6,000 troops in desperate frontal attack on Fort

Wagner at entrance to harbor, 54th led the charge (expected great losses)

• July 18, night, 54th clawed their way to top of sloping walls,

• Siege ended September 6 when confed evacuated.• But African Americans not given =: less than ½ pay

until 6/1864, no command)

May 1863 Vicksburg• Grant had to take Vicksburg to gain control of

Mississippi River.• Plan: march into enemy territory, bottled up 1

force in Jackson, raced west to trap other enemy force inside Vicksburg

• 6 week Siege of Vicksburg, prevented confederate reinforcements, eating mules/rats

• July 3, 1863 Grant and Pemberton under oak tree, surrendered next day

• July 8 confederates at Port Hudson, LA. also fell• Results: Union gained total control of Mississippi

River, cut off Ark, LA., TX from confed.

Summer 1864 Campaign• Lincoln promoted Grant to chief general b/c able

to use N. soldiers/supplies• War of attrition: Grant’s plan to march on

Richmond, until S. out of men/supplies/will• Pushed into Wilderness (Chancellorsville) losing

men, pushed on• May 10-19 Spottsylvania Court House, VA losing

men, kept on• Mid-June Petersburg VA. RR center, called off

assault, siege to Petersburg• Results: 60,000 Union casualties, but strategy

succeeding because the Union had more men

Sherman’s March to Sea• Union general William Tecumseh Sherman• Sherman commander of Ten army, campaign to

destroy S. RR/industries• 100,000 troops toward Atlanta, outmaneuvered

Johnston, defeated Hood• Atlanta fell September 2, 1864, Sherman burned it• Result: Confed. Lost last RR link across

Appalachian mts.• President Lincoln (in danger of not getting

nomination) re-elected over McClellan • Renewed hope that conflict would soon end

Sherman’s March to Sea• Sherman towards Savannah, took supplies,

destroyed things for Confederates• Uprooted crops, burned farmhouses, slaughtered

livestock, tore up RR• Strategy of total war against troops and economic

resources,• “must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the

hard hand of war…”• Result: effective but left deep/bitter scars across

the South• Reached Savannah in 12/1864, resupplied by

Union navy (Xmas gift to AL)

April 1865- Appomattox• April 2, 1865, Lee withdrew from Richmond,

army ½ size of Grant’s• Lee tried to flee westward to join more troops,

Grant cut him off• Lee asked for surrender terms: house in tiny

village, talked of Mexican War days• Confederate officers could keep side arms• Soldiers fed and allowed to keep horses/mules• None tried for treason

April 1865- Appomattox• Conciliatory tone (quotations, p. 395)• Lee rode off, Union troops celebrating, Grant

silenced them:• “the war is over, the rebels are our countrymen

again.”• Lee to his men, did all I could, you did duty, leave

rest to God, return home• April 26, 1865 General Joseph Johnston

surrendered to Sherman under similar terms at Durham Station, NC