The North Takes Charge
Gettysburg
The Gettysburg Address
The Confederacy Wears Down
Armies Clash at Gettysburg
Gettysburg was considered the turning point of the Civil War and crippled the South so
badly that Gen. Lee was never able to possess sufficient forces to invade the Northern
states.
Prior to Gettysburg the South had several victories including one in Chancellorsville, VA.
A big loss that occurred after was when Confederate troops mistook Stonewall Jackson
as a Yankee and shot him in the arm. He lost his arm and died shortly after of
pneumonia.
Gen. Lee decided to invade the North as a way to tip the scales in the Confederacy’s
favor. He sent his troops into Pennsylvania.
For 3 days the Union and Confederacy fought in Gettysburg and the end result was a
Union victory. The overall loses were 30% with the Union losing 23,000 men (killed and
wounded) and the Confederates with 28,000.
Grant Wins at Vicksburg
Vicksburg, MI was one of the only two Confederate holdouts preventing the Union from
taking complete control of the Mississippi River.
Gen. Grant sent a cavalry brigade to destroy the rail lines as a distraction, and then sent
an infantry near Vicksburg. He laid siege to Vicksburg, forcing the soldiers to surrender
due to starvation since many were forced to eat dogs and mules due to the extent of the
siege.
Five days after Vicksburg fell on July 4th, 1863, the Port Hudson, LA, the last
Confederate holdout on the Mississippi, also fell. This cut the Confederacy in two.
The Gettysburg Address
November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg. Lincoln’s
speech was thought to have “remade America,” and is one of the most famous speeches
of all time.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us—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.”
The Confederacy Wears Down
The victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg cost the South a tremendous amount of
manpower, not to mention the dwindling supplies that had become an issue prior to
these battles. The South was unable to attack and hoped to hold on long enough to
force an armistice rather then surrender.
The Confederates morale deteriorated due to fighting on the home front. The food
shortages caused Congress to urge planters to reduce cash crops in order to grow more
local crops. Farmers were taxed in livestock and produce while planters were not
which created tensions. Soldiers even began deserting and fighting for the North.
Jefferson Davis struggled to run the Confederacy since his Congress fought at every
turn and many wanted peace.
Grant, after being appointed commander of all Union armies by Lincoln, appointed
William Tecumseh Sherman as commander of the military division of the Mississippi.
Both men believed in total war which would encompass not only the Southern soldiers
but the citizenry who aided the cause as well.
Sherman & Total War
Grant’s strategy was to immobilize Lee’s army in VA while Sherman raided GA. Grant
lost 60,000 men in his attacks on Lee, but the Union could afford these loses while the
South could not afford the 32,000 men they had lost in these battles.
Sherman decided to use the land as a source of supplies rather then use the R.R. which
was being blocked by Confederates. He planned to travel S.E. through GA leaving a
path of destruction behind him.
He traveled from Atlanta to Savannah, burning, looting, and destroying everything in
sight. His goal was to make the people of the South realize how destructive this war
would get thus destroying the will of the Confederate civilians to continue the war.
Election of 1864 & The End of War
The election of 1864 held heavy opposition for Lincoln due to the war’s length, the high
casualty rate, and recent Union loses.
Many Democrats joined pro-Southern party members to nominate George McClellan,
Radical Republicans formed a 3rd party and nominated John C Fremont. Lincoln’s
supporters dropped the Republican name and retitled themselves the National Union
Party, and chose Andrew Johnson as Lincoln’s running mate.
Lincoln wins a second term due to absentee ballots cast by Union soldiers and the
victories won by Sherman and Grant.
The Confederacy had been beaten by Grant and Sherman, as well as Gen. Sheridan’s
victories in VA. On April 9th, 1865, in a Virginia village called Appomattox Court House,
Lee and Grant met to arrange a Confederate surrender.
The Civil War ended after 4 years of fighting and cost countless dollars as well as lives.
Conclusions
Gettysburg was the “last stand” for the Confederates and drastically
changed the war thereafter.
The Anaconda Plan came to fruition as Vicksburg fell to Grant and Sherman
took his long march to the sea.
The Civil War would effectively change the course of American history for
the next 50 years. The economy and lives of citizens felt the biggest effects
of all.
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