THE CIVIL WARTHE CIVIL WAR1861 - 18651861 - 1865

The War Begins

Civil War begins with southerners firing on Ft. Sumter in the

harbor of Charleston, S.C.

Opinion in the North demanded action to “Save the Union”

Other states in the South joined S.C. in seceding from Union

Virginia split into two states, border states stayed in the Union

but had many southern sympathizers; Maryland,

Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware

Inside Fort Sumter after its surrender

Advantages and Disadvantages

North

Most of the population More wealth

Almost all industry and factories 2/3rds of all railroads

More food production no slaves to guard

Almost the entire navy

South

Fighting in defensive role superior generals

Valuable cotton to sell Possible help from England

Slave labor

Early Stages of the War

The South won almost all the battles in the first 2 years of

the war

The first Battle at Bull Run (Manasas) showed war would not

be quick and easy as many expected

Robert E. Lee led outnumbered rebels to victories at

Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness

Union army did best in the West led by U.S. Grant winning at

Shiloh and later Vicksburg

Union navy very effective in blockading the South

A steam frigate

Emancipation

Slavery continued in border states; slaves captured by Union

forces held as contraband

After narrow victory at Antietam Pres. Lincoln decided to issue

the Emancipation Proclamation.

Proclamation mostly a propaganda success; it helped convince

Britain not to help the Confederacy, and it gave

Union forces a noble cause to fight for

Since war was now about ending slavery AND saving the

Union, many blacks in the North were willing to fight

against the South

Emancipation Proclamation

The War On the Home Front

Both aides had to use conscription to get soldiers; North

paid bounties for enlisting; draft riots across the

North targeted blacks

Southerners suffered more than northerners because of

shortages, runaway slaves, limited man power

North had an economic boom and war profiteers

Both sides used paper $ and had high inflation

Home front - continued

Prison camps on both sides were terrible; the worst by far

was Andersonville in Georgia

Women on both sides took men’s jobs, served as spies (Harriett Tubman), nurses (Clara Barton,

Dorothea Dix

Clara Barton

Ending the War

New technology in war- railroads, telegraphs, gatling guns,

ironclad warships, submarines, balloons, repeaters

Turning point was Battle of Gettysburg 1863. General Grant

took over all Union forces after the battle and used his

greater numbers to pound Lee and the rebel army

General William T. Sherman made his famous ‘March to the

Sea’ in 1864.

Lincoln was re-elected in 1864;

1865 Lee was forced to surrender; war ended; Lincoln was

assassinated

Battle of Hampton Roads between the Monitor and the Merrimac

Dead Rebel sharpshooter at Devil’s Den, Gettysburg

Robert E. Lee Ulysses S. Grant

William T. Sherman George B. McClellan

‘Stonewall’ Jackson James Longstreet

Richmond, VA 1865

African-American Soldiers