The American Civil War

The American Civil War

Blockade • Tactic used by the Union Navy in which Union ships prevented merchant vessels from entering or leaving the South’s ports, crippling southern trade.

Robert E. Lee1807-1870 • Labeled as the finest soldiers in the United States by General Winfield Scott prior to the Civil War, Lee accepted command of the Confederate Army out of duty to his native-state, Virginia, even though he opposed secession and did not own slaves.

Anaconda Plan • 2-part Union plan of attack devised by General Winfield Scott; 1st, the Union would blockade southern ports, starving the South of income and supplies. 2nd, the Union army would drive south along the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy in two.

First Battle of Bull RunJuly 21st, 1861 • The first large-scale battle of the Civil War; an invading Union force of 30,000 was stopped at Bull Run Creek near Manassas, Virginia and retreated back to Washington D.C. • The Battle of Bull Run proved to both North and South that the war would not be a short engagement; reports of the carnage of the battle shocked both sides as well.

Stonewall Jackson • Thomas J. Jackson; Confederate general, second-in-command to Robert E. Lee. A Virginia-Native, West Point graduate, and devoutly religious, Jackson is the only General on either side who was never defeated. He was killed by friendly-fire following the Confederate victory at Chancelorsville in 1863.

Irvin McDowell / George B. Mclellan • Irvin McDowell – Commander of Union forces in the Battle of Bull Run; following defeat McDowell was relieved of duty and sent to Arizona to fight against the Apaches. • George B. McClellan – Second Commander of the Army of the Potomac (Union Army of the East); McClellan trained the inexperienced army and turned it into a skilled fight force, but his reluctance to lead the army into battle forced Lincoln to remove him as Commander in 1862.

Ulysses S. Grant1822-1885 • Leader of the Union Army of the West during the Battle of Shiloh; following the Union victory at Vicksburg, Grant became the last General to command the Army of the Potomac, leading the Union to victory over the Confederacy in 1865. He went on to become President of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

ShilohApril 6th and 7th, 1862 • The deadliest battle in American History up to that time, in the battle of Shiloh, in southwest Tennessee, 25,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded.

Second Battle of Bull RunAugust 29th and 30th, 1862 • Confederate victory in northern Virginia which re-energized Lee and the South following the Battle of Shiloh.

Closure Assignment #5 • Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 11, Section 1: • Which side do you think had the best long-term chances for victory at the start of the Civil War? Why? • Choose two battles discussed in this section and describe one effect of each. • Based on what you have read, how did Grant and McClellan differ as military leaders?

Contraband • “Captured War Supplies”; Union soldiers during the Civil War freed and protected slaves in the south, claiming that African slaves were contraband. This logic led to the freeing of thousands of slaves before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

AntietamSeptember 17th, 1862 • The bloodiest day of the American Civil War; 23,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in this battle in Maryland. Though the Union lost more men than the Confederacy, Lee’s Confederate army was forced to retreat. • This Union victory enabled Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation / 54th Massachussetts Regiment • Emancipation Proclamation – Formally announced on 9/22/1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the military order proclaiming that all enslaves people in the Confederate states would be considered free by the United States on 1/1/1863. • 54th Massachusetts Regiment – The first all African American unit in United States military history; by the war’s end more than 180,000 African American volunteers had served in the Union military.

Income Tax / Homestead Act • Income Tax – A tax based on an individual’s annual earnings; the first Income Tax in the United States was introduced by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War to pay for military expenses. • Homestead Act (1862) – Laws passed by congress which made western lands available for settlement at a very low cost to those who would farm it.

Conscription / Copperheads • Conscription – The practice of requiring specific citizens to join the military; also known as the draft, conscription in the United States was first introduced during the Civil War. • Copperheads – Political organization in the Union during the Civil War which opposed Lincoln’s conduct of the war and demanded an end to the fighting.

Habeas Corpus • Constitutional right which protects a person from being held in jail without being charged for a specific crime; During the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended this right, empowering the military to arrest people suspected of being disloyal to the Union.

Clara Barton1821-1912 • One of the first professional female nurses; provided medical care to solders during the Civil War. Following the war, Barton founded the American Red Cross.

Closure Assignment #6 • Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 11, Sections 2 and 3: • Do you think Lincoln was right to wait so long before declaring emancipation? Why or why not? • How did wartime needs lead to limitations on individual freedom in the North? Do you think such actions were justified? • Why do you think nursing came to be a profession dominated by women? Is this still true today?

Fredericksburg / Chancellorsville • Fredericksburg (December 13th, 1862) – Confederate victory in which Lee’s Confederates defeated new Union General Ambrose Burnside, even though they were outnumbered 120,000 to 80,000. Union casualties in the battle were more than double those of the Confederacy. • Chancellorsville (April 30th – May 6th, 1863)– Confederate victory in the which drove the Union army, led by General Joseph Hooker, from Virginia. However, shortly after the battle General Stonewall Jackson was killed by friendly fire, leaving Lee alone to command the Confederate army.

Vicksburg / Siege • Vicksburg (May 18th to July 4th , 1863) – Site of a successful Union siege led by General Ulysses S. Grant at the last Confederate fort on the Mississippi River. Union victory split the Confederacy in two, separating Texas and western territories from the east. • Siege – A military tactic in which an army surrounds, bombs, and cuts off all supplies to an enemy position in order to force it to surrender.

GettysburgJuly 1st – 3rd, 1863 • The key turning point of the American Civil War; Union victory against Lee’s Confederate Army near this small town in Pennsylvania crippled the Confederate Army, forcing Lee to retreat back to Virginia, signaling the last invasion of the Confederates on to Union soil.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain / George Pickett • Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain – Leader of a Union unit from Maine which successful defended the southern edge of the Union lines at the Battle of Gettysburg. For his bravery, Chamberlain was given the honor of receiving the official Confederate Surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865. • George Pickett – Leader of the final Confederate charge at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3rd, 1863; thousands of Confederates were killed by Union rifle and canon fire, ending the battle as a Union victory.

William Tecumseh Sherman / Total War • William Tecumseh Sherman – Second-in-command to General Grant, following Grant’s call to serve as commander of the Army of the Potomac Sherman acted as commander of the Union Army of the West, leading 60,000 troops on a 250 mile march through the hear of the Confederacy in 1864 from Tennessee to Savannah, Georgia. • Total War – The practice of attacking civilians as well as soldiers in order to weaken the enemies economy and the will of the people that support the army.

Closure Assignment #7 • Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 11, Section 4: 1. Using examples from this section, write a general definition of the term turning point. 2. In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln stated that the purpose of the war was to ensure “that this nation… 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.” What do you think he meant? 3. Why do you think General Sherman felt justified in destroying civilian property during his march through Georgia.

Closure Question #1: What alternatives did the South face in February 1865? Do you think they made the right choice? • In the summer of 1864, Grant continued his bloody drive toward Richmond. But at Petersburg, about 20 miles south of Richmond, the Confederacy made a desperate stand. Petersburg was a vital railroad center. If Grant captured it, he could cut all supply lines to Richmond. As he had at Vicksburg, Grant turned to siege tactics. Throughout the summer and fall and into the winter, his forces tightened their grip around Petersburg. Both sides dug trenches and threw up fortifications to guard against attack. By March 1865, the two opposing lines of defense stretched for more than 30 miles around Petersburg. • Fighting was fierce. Union troops suffered more than 40,000 casualties. The Confederates lost 28,000 men. However, unlike Grant, Lee had no replacement troops in reserve. As the siege of Petersburg wore on, Union strength grew in comparison to the Confederate defenders. With the Confederate position truly desperate, southerners began to talk of peace. In February 1865, a party led by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens met with Lincoln to discuss a feasible end to the war. However, these discussions produced no results. The Confederate delegation was unwilling to accept a future without slavery.

Petersburg / Appomattox Court House • Petersburg – Last major battle of the American Civil War; located 20 miles south of Richmond, General Grant laid siege to General Lee’s army from the Summer of 1864 to April 2nd, 1865, ending with the retreat of General Lee’s army and the Union capturing the capital of the Confederate States of America. • Appomattox Court House – Site of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac on April 9th, 1865. Though some Confederate armies would not surrender until June 1865, Lee’s surrender marked the end of the American Civil War for all real purposes.

Closure Question #2: What was Lincoln’s attitude toward the defeated South? How do you think his death might have affected plans for reuniting the country? • Despite the failure of the February 1865 meeting, Lincoln was confident of an eventual victory. He now began to turn his attention to the process of bringing the Confederate states back into the Union. This would be no easy task. Many northerners had a strong desire to punish the South harshly. • Lincoln had a different goal. While committed to the defeat of the Confederacy and an end to slavery, he believed that the Union should strike a more generous stance with the rebellious states. At the beginning of March, in his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln declared his vision of a united and peaceful nation. “With malice toward none,” Lincoln said, Americans should “do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.”

John Wilkes Booth • Assassin who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14th, 1865; just 5 days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House.

Closure Question #3: Why do you think a larger percentage of American troops died in the Civil War than in any other American war? • The United States had never experienced a war like the Civil War. Some individual battles produced casualties greater than the United States had previously sustained in entire wars. When the war was over, more than 600,000 Americans were dead. Hundreds of thousands more were maimed. The Civil War ushered in the harsh reality of modern warfare. For the first time, ordinary citizens could see the carnage of the battlefield through the photographs of journalists such as Matthew Brady. His exhibition, “The Dead at Antietam”, provided graphic evidence of the terrible realities of war. • As a result of the war, the southern landscape was in shambles. Many Confederate soldiers returned to find their homes and farms destroyed. Millions of dislocated white southerners drifted aimlessly about the South in late 1865. Defeat had shaken them to the very core of their beliefs. Some felt that they were suffering a divine punishment, with one southerner mourning, “Oh, our God! What sins we must have been guilty of what we should be so humiliated by Thee now!” Others, however, came to view the Civil War as a lost, but noble cause. These white southerners kept the memory of the struggle alive and believed that, eventually, the South would be redeemed.

Closure Assignment #8 • Answer the following questions based on Chapter 11, Section 5: • What alternatives did the South face in February 1865? Do you think they made the right choice? • What was Lincoln’s attitude toward the defeated South? How do you think his death might have affected plans for reuniting the country? • Why do you think a larger percentage of American troops died in the Civil War than in any other American war?

The American Civil War