Section 17.3 : The North Wins

1. Section 17.3: The North Wins Today’s Essential Question: What were the major events that led to the Union victory?

2. What We Already Know Lincoln had a difficult time finding an effective general to command the Union armies.

3. What We Already Know Most battles in the Eastern Theater had resulted in Confederate victories.

4. What We Already Know Lee’s first invasion of the North was stopped by McClellan’s Union forces at Antietam.

5. The Road to Gettysburg Battle of Antietam (September 1862) – McClellan stopped Lee’s Northern invasion, but failed to finish off Lee’s army, which retreated safely to Virginia.

6. The Road to Gettysburg • Lincoln fired McClellan for his failure to pursue Lee after Antietam. • He replaced him with Ambrose Burnside, but Burnside also proved to be a disappointment.

7. The Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia (December, 1862) Burnside’s men had to build pontoon bridges to cross the Rappahannock River before they could attack Confederate troops in the town.

8. Burnside had to send landing parties over in boats during the night to drive off sharpshooters that were firing at the bridge builders.

9. The Battle of Fredericksburg Burnside ordered sixteen separate charges by his men to attack the Confederate troops positioned on the high ground above the river.

10. The Confederates fought from trenches and a stone wall at the top of a hill overlooking the river, and poured fire down on the advancing Union soldiers.

11. The Union suffered 12,600 killed or wounded. • Lincoln replaced Burnside with General Joseph Hooker.

12. The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia (May, 1863) With half as many men as Hooker, Lee still managed to cut the Union forces to pieces.

13. The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia (May, 1863) • As General “Stonewall” Jackson returned from a patrol on May 2, Confederate sentries thought he was a Union soldier and shot him in the left arm. • A surgeon amputated the arm, but Jackson caught pneumonia and died a week later.

14. The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia (May, 1863) When he learned of Jackson’s wounds and amputation, Lee remarked, “He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.”

15. Lee’s Second Invasion of the North • Lee hoped that a Confederate victory in Union territory would fuel Northern discontent with the war and bring calls for peace. • He also hoped a Southern victory would lead European nations to give diplomatic recognition and aid to the Confederacy.

16. The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3) • Lee crossed into southern Pennsylvania. He entered Gettysburg looking for shoes for his men, but ran into Union troops. • The fighting would rage for three days, with 90,000 Union troops commanded by General George Meade facing 75,000 Confederates led by Lee.

18. Gettysburg’s Unique Geographic Features • Cemetery Ridge • Little Round Top • Devil’s Den • Seminary Ridge

19. July 1 – Lee’s men entered Gettysburg, but were slowed by Union cavalry. Throughout the day, Lee’s forces poured into Gettysburg, as did Union troops from the south. By day’s end, Lee’s troops held the town, while Union troops were driven back to positions south of Gettysburg on a piece of high ground called Cemetery Ridge. July 2 – Confederates attacked Union positions and tried to flank them at Little Round Top. Heroic efforts by Union soldiers from Maine kept Lee’s men from gaining the advantage on Meade’s position along Cemetery Ridge.

20. July 3 – Pickett’s Charge Lee ordered General George Pickett to mount a direct attack on the middle of the Union line.

21. July 3 – Pickett’s Charge 13,000 rebel troops charged up the ridge into heavy Union fire.

22. July 3 – Pickett’s Charge Pickett’s men were torn to pieces by Union soldiers who chanted, “Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg !”

23. July 3 – Pickett’s Charge The Confederates retreated, but again the Union general Meade failed to pursue Lee’s army.

24. The Union Victory atGettysburg • Lee’s hopes for a Confederate victory in the North were crushed. • The North had lost 23,000 men, but over one-third of Lee’s army, 28,000 men, lay dead or wounded.

25. The Union Victory atGettysburg • Lee led his army back to Virginia and never again invaded the North. • Britain gave up all thought of supporting the South.

26. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

27. 34. Why the Battle of Gettysburg considered an important turning point in the Civil War? Choose all that are true!

28. 34. Why the Battle of Gettysburg considered an important turning point in the Civil War? • It ended Lee's second invasion of the North. • Lee lost over one-third of his army. • The Union victory helped Lincoln win reelection in 1864. • It revealed Grant as a Union general who could win tough victories. • The defeat ended Southern hopes of European diplomatic recognition and aid. Choose all that are true!

29. The Gettysburg Address On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln spoke at the dedication of a cemetery in Gettysburg for the 3,500 soldiers buried there.

30. The Gettysburg Address • His speech was short, and few who heard it were impressed. Lincoln himself called it “a flat failure.” • Even so, the Gettys–burg Address has since been recognized as one of the greatest speeches of all time.

31. The Gettysburg Address • In it, Lincoln declared that the nation was founded on “the proposition that all men are created equal.” • He ended with a plea to continue the fight for democracy so that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

32. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

33. 35. Which of Jefferson’s ‘self-evident truths’ did Lincoln mention in his Gettysburg Address? • All men are created equal. • All men are given unalienable rights by their Creator. • Governments are created to protect the rights of the people. • Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are some of the people's rights.

34. The Fall of Vicksburg (July 4, 1863) Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.

35. The city's geographical location on the high bluffs overlooking a hairpin turn in the river made it ideal for defense.

36. The approach from the east was rugged and well-guarded. The Confederates had constructed a line of defense consisting of nine major forts connected by a continuous line of trenches and rifle pits.

37. The line formed a huge semicircle around Vicksburg, manned by a garrison of 30,000 men.

38. Grant’s Strategy By late spring 1863, Grant had spent months unsuccessfully attacking the city from the east.

39. Grant’s Strategy • Grant decided to march the Union army down the west side of the river, and cross back over to the area south of Vicksburg. • With grim determina–tion, Grant ordered his men to cut a road through the thick forest and swamp on the west side of the river.

40. Grant’s Strategy • As Grant's infantrymen slogged their way south, the Union fleet ran by the guns at Vicksburg under the cover of darkness. • The fleet withstood the punishing fire that poured forth from Confederate cannon with the loss of only one ship. • By morning, the Union fleet was below Vicksburg.

41. In a few days, Grant used the Union ships to land 22,000 men on the east bank of the river and began moving them north to capture Vicksburg.

42. Grant’s Strategy After burning Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson, Grant marched to Vicksburg and drove the Confederate army commanded by General John C. Pemberton back into the city.

43. The Siege Throughout the month of May and into June, Union soldiers slowly extended their lines to the left and right until they encircled Vicksburg.

44. The Confederates inside Vicksburg were cut off from all supplies, but the citizens still refused to surrender. • Disease and starvation began to spread rapidly through the city as the summer dragged on and the siege continued.

45. The Siege Finally, on the morning of July 4, 1863, the Confederates surrendered, turned over their weapons and other equipment, and were allowed to return home.

46. The Importance of Vicksburg • Since New Orleans had been taken the previous spring, the Union now had total control over the Mississippi River, and the South was split in two. • The Anaconda Plan was now almost complete. • The tide of war turned in favor of the North.

47. In Grant, Lincoln found a man who was willing to fight no matter how great the odds.

48. Grant as Union Commander • March 1864 – Lincoln named General Grant commander of all the Union armies. • Grant’s plan to defeat the Confederacy – His men would pursue Lee’s army in Virginia, while Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman pushed through the Deep South to the Atlantic coast, then turn north and join Grant’s attack against Lee.

49. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

50. 36. Why was Northern success in the Siege of Vicksburg important? Choose all that are true!