What factors and events led to the
Union victory in the Civil War?
The nation split in two with the election of Lincoln.
From 1861 to 1865, a bloody Civil War was fought
between the United States of America and the
Confederate States of America.
The future of slavery and of the Union was at stake.
The War Begins 3.3
Goal
Advantages
The Union
The Confederacy
Preserve the union
Gain independence
• Growing population
• More industry
• Better railroads
• Strong navy
Disadvantages • Small standing army
• Troops were not very
committed
• Lacked the best
military leaders
• Had the nation’s
best military leaders
• Troops committed to
the fight
• Less factories for
making war supplies
• Few vital ports
• Smaller population
The South had the advantage of simply
needing to hold out longer than the Union.
The North had to conquer the Confederacy.
The North
pursued
the
Anaconda
Plan to cut
off supplies
to southern
ports.
Confederate
forces were
led by the
experienced
general
Robert E.
Lee.
•During the first two years of the war,
neither side gained a clear victory or
captured the other’s capital city.
Early Civil War battles
Bull Run (July 1861)
Shiloh (April 1862)
Antietam (Sept. 1862)
Fredericksburg (Dec. 1862)
Lincoln’s primary goal
was to preserve the
Union.
However, in 1863 he
issued the
Emancipation
Proclamation, freeing
all slaves in rebel
states.
The Union began to recruit
African American soldiers.
Some 180,000 black men
served.
The Civil War changed civilian life in the
North in many ways.
• Mines and factories increased production to
supply military needs.
• The government raised taxes and tariffs.
• When Congress instituted a draft, riots
broke out in Northern cities.
• Lincoln suspended the right of habeas
corpus.
The tide of the war began to shift in the
Union’s favor in 1863.
•After victory at Vicksburg, Union General
Ulysses S. Grant achieved the Union goal of
splitting the Confederacy in two.
Next, the Union faced a Confederate invasion
at the Battle of Gettysburg and defeated Lee’s
troops there. The battle destroyed one third of
Lee’s forces.
Grant
Lee
•President Lincoln
went to Gettysburg a
few months later to
dedicate a battle
cemetery.
His speech that day,
the
Gettysburg Address,
reaffirmed the ideas
for which the Union
fought.
Map of the Civil
War
Most Civil War
battles were
fought on
Confederate soil.
•Union General William T. Sherman led
troops on a march through Georgia and
South Carolina.
Pursuing a strategy of total war, Sherman’s
troops targeted all the resources needed to
support the rebel army.
In spring of 1865, the Confederacy was
exhausted. General Lee surrendered to
General Grant on April 9.
The Civil War had many lasting impacts.
The South was in shambles. Freedom promised
new opportunities for African Americans.
Although debates about states’ rights would
continue, never again would states attempt to
secede.