Lincoln Faces a Crisis Section 1 – 478-482

1. Lincoln Faces a CrisisSection 1 – 478-482 • By the time Lincoln took office in 1861, seven states had already left the Union. • Lincoln claimed: • He would not try to end slavery. • The federal government would not attack the South. • There would only be conflict if the South attacked the North. • He wished to preserve the Union.

2. Lincoln Faces a Crisis • By early 1861, the South (Confederacy) decided that unity with the North (Union) would not be in their best interest. • The Confederates were taking over many federal installations including: • Mints, Armories, Forts Fort Sumter - Charleston, South Carolina

3. Lincoln Faces a Crisis • Fort Sumter, located in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor was a key Union outpost b/c it controlled shipping traffic into Charleston. • The first battle of the Civil War: • On April 12, 1861 Confederate officers demanded that the Union garrison leave the fort. • The Union garrison’s commander refused the demand, and Confederate cannons opened fire. • Fort Sumter held out for 34 hours, but eventually the garrison surrendered.

4. Choosing Sides • Union: Free states in the North. • Capital = Washington D.C. • President: Abraham Lincoln • Confederacy: Slave states in the South. • Capital = Richmond, VA • President: Jefferson Davis • Union/Confederacy: Border states that were both free and slave • Kentucky and Missouri • Troops served on each side during the war.

5. The Volunteer Spirit • Neither the Union nor the Confederacy was prepared for war. • At the beginning, each side depended on volunteers to begin filling its ranks. • In the border states often times members of the same family fought on opposite sides • President Lincoln’s wife was from Kentucky and she had four brothers who fought for the Confederacy.

6. The Volunteer Spirit • Civilians on both sides volunteered their time and resources to the war effort. • They were responsible for: • Raising Money • Providing aid for soldiers and their families • Running hospitals • Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (The first woman to earn a medical license), established the U.S. Sanitary Commission. • The Sanitary had tens of thousands of volunteers who sent bandages, medicine, and food to Union army camps and hospitals. • Many volunteers also worked in the camps and the hospitals.

7. The North vs. The South • At the beginning of the war, each side held advantages. • North: • Larger population = more soldiers • More factories and shipyards • Better railroad network = more efficient transportation • The ability to raise more money • South: • Had a military tradition that provided a skilled officer corps • Had to defend itself until the North tired of the war • The North had to capture and then occupy large areas of enemy territory.

8. The North vs. The South • The Union and the Confederacy based their early military strategies on their individual strengths. • Union: Two parts under General Winfield Scott • 1. Destroy the South’s economy through a naval blockade of southern seaports. • 2. Gain control of the Miss. River to divide the Confederacy and cut its communications • Confederacy: Two parts under Pres. Jefferson Davis • 1. Defend its territory and wear down the Union’s will to fight. • 2. Capture and occupy Washington D.C.

9. The North vs. The South • The South also tried a different strategy for winning the war. • Confederate leaders believed they could win foreign allies with Cotton Diplomacy. • This idea was based on the belief that the British government would support the South because cotton was important to the British textile industry. • Unfortunately for the South: • Britain had a large surplus supply of cotton when the war began. • Britain was able to get cotton from India and Egypt to make up for the dwindling supply from the Confederacy.

10. The War in the East Section 2 – 483-487 • After the fall of Fort Sumter, northerners demanded action. • Pres. Lincoln responded by ordering a Union force of 35k troops to march from Washington D.C. to Richmond VA. • Their orders were: Capture Richmond and prevent the Confederate Congress from meeting. • In July 1861, 35k Union and 35k Confederate troops fought the first major battle of the war about 30 miles outside of Washington D.C. • Neither side was prepared for the horror that lay ahead.

11. The War in the East • The First Battle of Bull Run: • At first, the Union gained the upper hand, but quickly lost it when Confederate troops rallied around General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. • Fresh Confederate troops arrived overnight and the next day, the Union began a general retreat towards Washington D.C. • If the Confederates had pressed the attack, they might have captured Washington D.C., but they were too exhausted to continue. • The Confederate victory at this battle ended the Union’s hopes for a quick and easy victory.

12. More Battles in Virginia • Lincoln continued to pursue the strategy of capturing Richmond. • Lincoln appointed General George B. McClellan as the overall Union commander. • McClellan felt that his force was outnumbered and chose to wait to attack Richmond. • This inaction gave the Confederates time to strengthen the defenses around Richmond. • Jefferson Davis appointed Robert E. Lee as commander of the Confederate forces in VA.

13. More Battles in Virginia • During the summer of 1862, the war raged in Virginia. • Seven Days’ Battle and the Second Battle of Bull Run. • The Union army was not successful in capturing Richmond during either of these battles. • By the fall of 1862, the Union army had been driven out of Virginia, and General Lee decided to take the war into northern territory.

14. The Battle of Antietam • In September 1862, 40K Confederate troops entered Maryland. • Their goal was to take the fight to the Union. The South believed that their attack on Union soil would: • Break the Union spirit to fight. • Convince European powers to give aid to the South. • The two armies met and fought the Battle of Antietam. • Prior to the battle, Union soldiers found a copy of Lee’s battle plan and McClellan used it to plan a counterattack. • The Union won the battle but suffered 12k casualties. • The Confederacy suffered 13k casualties. • This was the bloodiest single-day battle of the war.

15. The Battle of Antietam • The Confederate defensive position at the sunken lane

16. The War at Sea • The Union had the most ships and had the industry to build more. • They used their ships to create a blockade along the Southeast coast and the Gulf of Mexico. • Blockade = Virginia to Texas • The Confederacy had small, fast ships called Blockade Runners that could outrun the Union’s larger warships, but there weren’t enough of them to make up for the South’s overall trade loss.

17. The War at Sea • As a result of the Union blockade, the Confederacy started to build a new type of warship with the intent of breaking through the blockade. • Ironclad = heavily armored ship • Both sides eventually built ironclads, and since the Union also had them, the blockade remained intact. • The CSS Virginia attacking a Union wooden sailing vessel

18. The War at Sea • The USS Monitor

19. Western Strategy Section 3 – 488-491 • The Union’s strategy in the West focused on controlling the Mississippi River. The reasons for doing this were: • The eastern states of the Confederacy would be cut off from their western food-producing allies. • Union army bases on the Miss. R. could send troops to attack the Confederacy’s communication and transportation lines. • Ulysses S. Grant was the overall Union commander during the western war. • By February, 1862 the Union controlled Kentucky and most of Tennessee. • In April, 1862 Grant was pushing toward Mississippi.

20. Western Strategy • Following orders, Grant halted his troops at Shiloh, TN • As he was awaiting more troops, the Confederate troops attacked. • Initially, the Battle of Shiloh was a victory until, Union reinforcements arrived and the Union counterattacked. • By the end of the second day, the Confederate troops retreated and the Union had won greater control of the Mississippi River Valley.

21. Fighting for the Mississippi River • After the victory at Shiloh, the Union pressed its attack. • The Union next set its sights on New Orleans. • From New Orleans, the Union forces could march north as Grant’s forces marched south. • In late April 1862, the Union Navy and Army had captured New Orleans. • From there the two Union armies advanced, one north and the other south. • They met at Vicksburg, MS in May of 1863.

22. Fighting for the Mississippi River • In the Spring of 1863, Grant surrounded Vicksburg and cut off all resupply and reinforcements from helping the dug-in Confederate defenders and the city’s residents. • The Siege of Vicksburg lasted for six weeks. • The Confederate forces and residents within the city’s defenses eventually ran out of food and had to eat horses, dogs, and rats just to survive. • In July, 1863 the Confederate commanding officer at Vicksburg surrendered his army and the city to the Union.

23. Freeing the Slaves Section 4 – 492-497 • Lincoln supported freeing slaves if it would help the North win the war. • Emancipation = the freeing of slaves. • Lincoln had three concerns regarding emancipation: • Northern prejudice against African Americans might weaken northern support for the war. • Some northerners might consider that slaves were still property that southerners had the right to keep. • The Constitution did not give Lincoln the president the power to end slavery. • Lincoln decided to issue an order freeing all slaves in Confederate controlled areas. • This order didn’t outlaw slavery, just that all current slaves were to be released.

24. Freeing the Slaves • Lincoln waited for a northern victory in the east before announcing his plans. • Immediately following the Union’s September 1862 victory at Antietam Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (EP). • The EP was scheduled to go into effect on January, 1 1863 • When news of the EP reached southern states, slaves began to escape in large numbers, especially when they heard that Union forces were nearby.

25. African Americans and the War • As slaves escaped to the North, many wished to serve in the Union’s armed services. • The Union navy had already been accepting African American volunteers. • Northern abolitionists wanted the Army to accept African American volunteers as well. • Since the Union needed soldiers, Congress allowed African Americans to sign up as laborers in July, 1862. • The War Department allowed contrabands (escaped slaves) the right to join the Union army in SC, LA, and KS.

26. African Americans and the War • By the spring of 1863, African American units were fighting with the Union army. • The 54th Massachusetts Infantry played a key role in the July, 1863 attack on SC’s Fort Wagner.

27. African Americans and the War • About 180K African Americans bravely served in the Union Army. For most of the war they: • Faced discrimination and were paid less than white soldiers. • Were led by white officers. • If captured they were often killed or sold into slavery.

28. Problems in the North • Northerners were growing upset by the length of the war and the increasing number of casualties. • A group of northern Democrats began to speak out against the war and were labeled by war sympathizers as copperheads. • Some northern copperheads sympathized with the South’s struggle, were opposed to abolition, and wanted the war to end.

29. Problems in the North • Because of the copperheads’ actions and the potential threat they posed to the war effort, Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus (HC). • HC = the constitutional protection against unlawful imprisonment. • Union officials began to put their enemies in jail w/o evidence or trial. • In 1863 Congress passed a law allowing men to be drafted into military service. • Wealthy people legally bought their way out of the draft. • Often poor immigrants were drafted immediately upon arrival in the U.S.

30. Southern Struggles • The North’s naval blockade took a heavy toll on the South’s ability to trade. • Shortages of food, ammunition, tools, cloth, medicine, etc. • By the spring of 1863, food riots took place in several southern cities. • Conf. Pres. Jefferson Davis ordered that local newspapers not print the riots so that the North wouldn’t find out about them. • In 1862 the South passed a draft for men to enter military service. • Men who held slaves didn’t have to serve in the military • This also caused riots b/c only poor southerners had to serve in the military.

31. Southern Struggles • Union Naval Blockade

32. Life on the Home Front • In the North and the South, most people were involved in the war effort in some way. • They worked in: factories, farms, plantations, medicine, etc. • Women were very important in providing medical care for soldiers. • Dorothea Dix = headed 3k+ women who worked as paid nurses in the Union army • Clara Barton = organized volunteer efforts to collect and deliver medicine and supplies to Union troops on the battlefield. • Her worked formed the basis of the American Red Cross. • Sally Louisa Tompkins = established a hospital in Richmond, VA for wounded Confederate soldiers.

33. Life on the Home Front • Military prisoners on both sides suffered greatly. • There was usually a shortage of food, medicine. • Often they were treated harshly and abused by their captors.

34. The Battle of Gettysburg Section 5 – 498-503 • Because of recent Confederate victories, Lee decided to move offensively into Union territory. His goals were: • To break the Union’s will to fight. • To capture supplies from the Union army. • Lee marched his forces into southern PA near Gettysburg. • The Confederates sent a raiding party into town to get supplies, and were fired on by Union troops. • Eventually, 75k Confederate troops faced 90k Union Troops.

35. The Battle of Gettysburg • The Battle of Gettysburg (BoG) = July 1 – 3, 1863. • Union and Confederate troops squared off at sites like Little RoundTop, the Peach Orchard, Culp’s Hill and Devils Den. • Both sides one individual fights while the casualty lists increased. • By the evening of July 2nd, General Lee knew that a decisive attack on the Union’s center would make the difference in the outcome of the battle.

36. The Battle of Gettysburg • Late on the afternoon of July 3rd, General Lee ordered a frontal assault on the Union’s line that was positioned on Cemetery Ridge. • The attack started by 150 Confederate artillery pieces firing on the Union line. • The Union responded with counter battery fire and eventually 300 guns were in the battle. • The artillery duel lasted about 2 hours. • After the artillery fire had lifted, approximately 12,500 Confederate infantry under the command of General George Pickett set off on a 1 mile long front.

37. The Battle of Gettysburg • Pickett’s infantry came under intense cannon fire as they marched across ¾ of a mile of open ground. • By the time the infantry was within 400 yards of the Union line, they came under intense rifle fire and artillery canister rounds. • The union line was behind a low stone wall. • Several hundred Confederate soldiers did breach the stone wall, but after a brief period of fierce hand-to-hand combat all were either killed or captured. • The Confederates began a retreat in which only 6,500 of the original 12,500 returned.

38. A Turning Point • Gettysburg marked a turning point in the war. • Lee’s troops would never again launch an attack into Northern territory. • In November, 1863 Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address (GA) at the battle site where 51k men became casualties. • GA = Lincoln spoke of the importance of liberty, equality, and democratic ideals and that the war was being fought to protect those principles.

39. Grant’s Drive to Richmond • Because of Grant’s earlier successes, Lincoln gave him overall command of the Union army. • Lincoln ordered Grant to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, VA. • From early 1864 through June of 1864, the two armies fought a series of battles in Virginia = the Wilderness Campaign. • These battles stretched the Confederate army’s soldiers and supplies to their limits. • The Union army suffered twice as many casualties as the Confederates. • The Union could rebuild its losses, the Confederacy couldn’t.

40. Sherman Strikes South • Lincoln was up for re-election in 1864 and needed a key victory on the battlefield to secure his second term. • Under orders from Grant, General William Tecumseh Sherman marched south from TN in the spring of 1864 with 100k troops. • Sherman’s mission: destroy southern railroads and industries and capture Atlanta, GA. • By July 1864, Sherman’s army was within cannon shot of Atlanta. • The Confederate forces trapped in Atlanta held out until early September when the city was surrendered.

41. Sherman Strikes South • Atlanta was destroyed and its remaining residents were ordered to leave. • The Confederacy had lost its most important rail hub and center of industry. • Sherman’s victory showed northerners that progress was being made and they re-elected Lincoln in a landslide.

42. Sherman Strikes South • In mid November, 1864 Sherman took 60k troops and began his next attack. • Sherman’s mission: capture the port city of Savannah, GA. • This mission has come to be known as Sherman’s March to the Sea. • Sherman’s army waged total war = destruction of both military and civilian resources. • Sherman felt that total war would ruin the South’s ability to fight.

43. Sherman Strikes South • The Union army destroyed railways, bridges, crops, livestock and anything else that could benefit the South’s war effort. • Plantations were burned and slaves were freed. • Sherman’s army reached and captured Savannah, GA in December, 1864 • Sherman’s March left a path of destruction 50 miles wide and 250 miles long.

44. The South Surrenders • In early April 1865, Sherman defeated the last of the Confederate forces in North Carolina and Grant was able to force Lee to retreat from Richmond. • The Union army had captured the Confederate capital at Richmond. • In mid-April 1865, Grant’s army surrounded Lee’s remaining force just west of Richmond in the small town of Appomattox Courthouse, VA. • On April 9, 1865 (Palm Sunday), General Lee signed the surrender documents. • 620k Americans died fighting in the Civil War.