Turning Points of the War
How did the Battles of Vicksburg
and Gettysburg change the
course of the Civil War?
Vicksburg
Union Victory at Vicksburg
• In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant’s armies converged on
Vicksburg
• Union victory split the Confederacy in half
• Grant becomes General-in-Chief of the
Union armies
• Ended the South’s hopes for victory
Gettysburg – turning point
• Gettysburg is the largest battle in the
history of the Western hemisphere.
• Over 100, 000 people died in 3 days.
• It was the last time the South invaded
the North.
Battle of Gettysburg
• General Lee hoped to
win a victory on Union
soil with hopes of
strengthening peace
movement in North
and getting direct
foreign support
Battle of Gettysburg
• Day 1 Confederate cavalry had driven the
Federals south
• Federals rallied into defensive positions
• Day 2 Major engagements occurred on
Union right and left; Lee hoped to flank
Feds
• Day 3 Lee ordered Gen. George Pickett’s
division to attack the Union center
Battle of Gettysburg
• Lee retreated to Virginia
• Union losses 23,000 men killed or
wounded
• Confederacy losses 28,000 men killed or
wounded
• South never again fought on Union soil
Gettysburg Address
• that from these honored
dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full
measure of devotion -- that
we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have
died in vain -- that this
nation, under God, 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.
»
Abe Lincoln
Confederate Dead
Grant Takes Command
• Lincoln understood
his chances of
reelection in 1864
depended on Union
successes in the
battle field
• Lincoln appointed
Ulysses S. Grant
command of all the
Union forces
Grant Takes Command
• Appointed William
Tecumseh Sherman in
charge of the west
Grant Takes Command
• Believed in total war
• Attacked military and
civilian targets
• Grant’s tactic was to
attack and attack
again and confront the
enemy
Battle of the Wilderness
• Starting in May 1864
Grant threw his troops
into battle after battle
• 1st in wooded area
called the Wilderness,
near Fredericksburg,
Virginia
Sherman’s March
• Sherman moved
south toward
transportation center
at Atlanta
• Occupied Atlanta
• Confederate army
tried to circle and cut
Sherman off from
railroad supply lines
Sherman’s March
• Ignored supply lines,
marched southeast
through Georgia to
the sea
• Created a wide path
of destruction
• Lived off the land as
he went
Sherman’s March
• Wanted to make
Southerners “so sick
of war that
generations would
pass away before
they would again
appeal to it.”
Sherman’s March
• After reaching
Savannah just before
Christmas, Sherman
turned North to help
Grant, “wipe out Lee.”
• 25,000 freed slaves
following behind
eager for freedom
Sherman’s March
• Sherman wanted to
grant each
freedman’s family
forty acres and a
mule
• Both of which would
be liberated from the
former wealthy
plantation owners
Sherman’s March
• Entering North
Carolina, last state to
secede, stopped
burning private
homes
• Started handing out
food and other
supplies to people
The Election of 1864
• Politics as usual in
the North
• 1864 Presidential
election
• Lincoln opposition
from Democrats and
within party
The Election of 1864
• In November, with the
help of ballots cast by
Union soldiers, Lincoln
won an easy victory
• Won 212 out of 233
electoral voter
• Lincoln’s ability to unify
the bitterly divided
North helped the
Union win
New Birth of Freedom
• Emancipation
Proclamation only
freed slaves in Rebel
held land
• What to do with
slaves in border
states?
New Birth of Freedom
• Reintroduced in
January 1865 after
Lincoln’s reelection
• Amendment passed
with 2 votes to spare
• Ratified the 13th
Amendment, to end
slavery
The End of the War
• April 9, 1865
• Private home in
Virginia village called
Appomattox
Courthouse
Appomattox
• Lee and Grant met to
arrange surrender
• Grant paroled Lee’s
soldiers and sent
them home with
personal
possessions, horses,
and 3 days worth of
rations.
Assassination of Lincoln
• Lincoln shot and killed
5 days after Lee
surrendered to Grant
at Appomattox
• Shot at Ford’s
Theatre in
Washington, DC,
while watching
• Our American Cousin
with his wife
Lincoln is assassinated
Assassination of Lincoln
• Shot with a pistol in
the back of the head
by John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
• 26 year old actor and
Southern sympathizer
• leaped from balcony
to the stage
• spur caught on flag
draped across box,
landed hard on left
leg, broke it
Assassination of Lincoln
• Dr. Samuel Mudd, set
Booth’s broken leg
• Mudd did not know
Booth was an
assassin
• Sent to Prison in
Florida
Assassination of Lincoln
• Union Cavalry
Caught Booth
• 12 days later
• Trapped him in a
tobacco shed, lit it on
fire
• Booth refused to
surrender, Union shot
him and dragged
body from shed
Assassination of Lincoln
• Lincoln died 7:22 AM
next morning, April
15, 1865
• 1st time US president
assassinated
• Funeral train carried
Lincoln’s body to his
hometown of
Springfield, Illinois
Punishment of the killers and
conspirators