The
Civil
War
The Election of 1860
Four parties run candidates for President –
remember that the US system depends on the
willingness of the American people to accept
the winner
Stephen
Douglas
John C.
Breckinridge
Abraham
Lincoln
John Bell
And the winner is…..
South’s Reaction
Angry that the president had no Southern support;
thought the South and the US should no longer stay
together threaten to secede
Confederate States of America
South Carolina: seceded on Dec. 20, 1860
-Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and
also secede
Texas
February 7, 1861 – the seceded states create their own
nation -- President: Jefferson Davis (a former US senator
from Mississippi)
Lincoln’s Response to Secession
Secession is
legally void –
no state may
leave the
Union once it
has joined
Southern
states need to
return to the
Union at once
Fort Sumter
Opening Shots of the War -- April 20, 1861
Ft. Sumter, SC – Federal Fort in Charleston Harbor
-Ft. Sumter was shelled (attacked) by the
Confederate forces
-US troops @ the fort were forced to surrender
The War Has Begun
North -v- South





Union (North)
More Resources ($$)
More industry &
transportation (RR)
More population = more
soldiers
Kept border states from
seceding
Not all Southerners
supported secession
(Southwest VA, Eastern
TN, Western NC)
Confederacy (South)
 Generals are better
trained (best generals
leave US army and join
CSA army)
 Soldiers are more
experienced with guns,
horses, terrain
 Soldiers are defending
their own land and their
liberty
People of the Civil War
Union (North)
Confederacy (South)
Abraham Lincoln
• President of the United States during the Civil
War
• insisted that the Union be held together, by
force if necessary
Jefferson Davis
• President of the Confederate States during the
Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant
• Union military commander
• won victories over the South after several
Union commanders had failed
Robert E. Lee
• Confederate general of the Army of Northern
Virginia
• Opposed secession, but did not believe the
Union should be held together by force
• Urged Southerners to accept defeat and unite
as Americans again, when some Southerners
wanted to fight on after Appomattox
People of the Civil War
Union (North)
Confederacy (South)
Frederick Douglass
Stonewall Jackson
• Former slave who became prominent black
• Confederate general who gained notoriety at
abolitionist
the First Battle of Bull run
• urged Lincoln to recruit former slaves to fight in • Killed by friendly fire in Chancellorsville
the Union army
Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Abolitionist who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• The book depicted life for a African-Americans
under Slavery
Clara Barton
• Nurse who helped Union soldiers on the
battlefield
• Later formed the Red Cross