The Civil War, a Nation Divided

1. The Civil War, a Nation Divided By John Mehm

2. Causes for war • The industrialization of the northern states allowed goods to be manufactured factories for low costs and little labor. However, the southern states remained rural and relied on the free labor of slaves to produce their goods. This caused tension between the two sides. The North wanted to abolish slavery with their declining need for slave labor, while the South wanted to continue to use slave labor. The southern states threatened to secede from the Union and become their own country. They wanted to continue their way of living using slaves to further their personal wealth. The southerners wanted a President that would protect the slave owners and lived the same way they did.

3. Abolitionists and free slaves like Fredrick Douglas were growing in power and in number, President Lincoln felt forced to take action and abolish slavery. • The southern states feared being overpowered in elections and votes because of their small population in comparison to the north, they wished to have slaves counted as a part of the population in the votes. So the compromise that every slave would count as three fifths of a person was reached. • The states where slavery was legal attempted to coax the new territories into becoming slave states to prevent the escape of slaves to free states. • The south wanted the right to vote on any law passed for example, the one set down by Lincoln stating that slavery must be abolished

4. Fine Men Make Fine Leaders (pt.1) President Lincoln Born on Feb.12, 1809 in Hardin County Kentucky. His mother passed away when he was only ten years old. His father was a harsh man by all accounts and remarried soon after Abrahams mother passed away. His step-mother was a strict woman that did not care for Abraham. Having grown up without parents that cared for him in his early years, Abraham could barely read or write. He was not thought of as a smart boy, but pushed himself to read and become a learned man. When he came of age he found work on a farm splitting rails for fences, and owned a store in Salem, Illinois. During this time he studied and became a lawyer and later spent eight years in the State Legislature. He married Mary Todd and they had four children. In 1860 he won the American Presidential election. As President he instated the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan.1,1863 which declared all slaves in Confederate states were free. He gave his famous Gettysburg address to commemorate all those lost in the battle. Lincoln was loved by the people and looked up to so much so that he won the re-election in 1864. On April14,1865, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Fords Theatre.

5. Fine Men Make Fine Leaders(pt.2) Robert E. Lee Born on January 19,1807in Stratford Virginia. • He Graduated second in class at west point in 1829. During the Mexican War Lee was Captain of engineers under Winfield Scott. Lee decided to go back to West Point not as a student, but as the superintendent and held the position from 1852 to 1855.He Led the Marines that captured John Brown at Harper’s Ferry on October 2,1859. Because he graduated from the same school as many of the Union Generals and leaders, he knew their techniques, and was able to use their downfalls against them. Lee was called to serve in the Confederate Army, although he was against what it stood for but, decided that his loyalty first and foremost lay with Virginia. He agreed to lead the Confederate Army, and went on to become the most famous Confederate General. On October2,1870 General Robert E. Lee died of natural causes.

6. Battle of Bull Run • As Union soldiers approached Richmond, Virginia, they were anxious to see the end of the war, but were unexpectedly met by Confederate troops at Bull Run Creek. “Stonewall” Jackson arrived to aid the Confederate effort, he told his men to rush the Union and to be as loud as possible while doing it. The noise of the men and their ferocious charge scared away the inexperienced Union troops, and thus a southern victory was landed.

7. Battle at Antietam • Robert E. Lee was convinced that if he could make just one Confederate victory on Union soil Europe might support the south. Lee’s troops marched into Maryland, not expecting to be slaughtered be McClellan’s troops. Over 2,770 Confederate troops were found dead, and another 11,000 went missing and were never found.

8. Battle of Gettysburg • As northern troop numbers were declining. Lee hoped that one more crippling victory would win him the war from the already weakened north. On July 1, 1863 Union and Confederate troops met just west of Gettysburg. There were as many as 90,000 union troops, and 75,000 Confederate troops. Lee and his men searched for a weak point in the Union formation but the union held their defenses. Finally the Confederate troops charged right down the middle of the Union, in the end, more than 17,500 Union soldiers lay dead, and 23,000 Confederate troops were killed or wounded.

9. A Civil War Timeline. • January,1861- the southern states secede from the Union to become their own country • March,1861- Lincoln is elected President of the Union • April,1861- Fort Sumter attacked • July,1861- Battle of Bull-Run • April,1862- battle of Shiloh • June,1862- battle of Seven Pines • December,1862- battle of Fredricksburg • January,1863- Emancipation Proclamation • May,1863- battle of Chancelorville • July,1863- battle of Gettysburg • September,1863- battle of Chickamauga • November,1863- battle of Chattanooga • June,1864- battle of Cold Harbor • July,1864- Confederate troops approach Washington D.C. • November,1864- Abraham Lincoln is re-elected • January,1865- Confederacy Falls • April,1865- the Confederacy formally surrenders at Appomattox courthouse • April,1865- President Lincoln is assassinated • May,1865- the remaining Confederate troops surrender

10. Surprising facts: • About 100,000 soldiers were 15 years or younger • The youngest Confederate General was only 17, he was too young to vote until after the war • Firsts of the war were: • U.S. Navy admiral • Flame throwers • Submarines • Snorkel • Repeating rifles • Bugle call “Taps” • African American Army officer • Medal of Honor, • Steel ship, • Hospital ships, • Working machine guns, • The Secret Service, • Mine fields.

11. Works Cited • Anderson, Dale. The Battle of Gettysburg. 1.Milwaukee: World Almanac Library, 2003. • Beller, Susan. American Voices from the Civil War. 1. Brookfield: Twenty-First Century Books, 1999. • Davis, Burke. The Civil War Strange and Fascinating Facts. 1. New York : The Fairfax Press, 1983. • Freeman, Joanne. “Timeline of the Civil War.”www.memory.loc.gov. The Library of Congress. • Sullivan, George. American Voices From the Civil War. 1. New York: Benchmark Books, 1999.