THE CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
Before the War
• For a long time, Congress was
equally split between slave states
and free states
• Many compromises along the way
to keep the balance
Missouri Compromise
• Debate over whether to have Missouri
enter as a slave state or free state
• Compromise: Missouri – slave state
Maine – free state
• Also banned slavery in the Louisiana
Territory north of the parallel 36°30’ –
Missouri’s southern border
Missouri Compromise Map
•
Compromise of 1850
For the North:
– California a free state
– Washington D.C. – no slavery
• For the South:
– New Mexico Territory – decide later
– Congress wouldn’t pass new laws about
slavery in territories won from Mexico
– Congress would pass stronger laws to help
slaveholders recapture runaway slaves
Fugitive Salve Act
• Made it easier for slave owners to
get slaves back
–Suspected slaves held without warrant
–No right to jury trials
–Set up a federal commissioner to
decide cases
• $5 for releasing the defendant
• $10 for turning defendant over to
slaveholder
Compromise of 1850 Map
Compromises
• Most people in the North and the
South thought that the
compromises would continue to
save the Union
Underground Railroad
• Network of homes and people
who helped slaves escape North
• At first slaves just had to make it
to the North; after the Fugitive
Slave Act, slaves had to go all the
way to Canada for freedom
• Harriet Tubman – one of the most
famous conductors. She had a
reward of $40,000 for her capture
Harriet Tubman
Dred Scott v. Sandford
• Dred Scott was a slave who
sued for his freedom after his
owners death because his
owner took him to live in a
territory where slavery was
illegal
• Case went to the Supreme Court
Dred Scott Decision
• Supreme Court ruled:
– A slave (Scott) was not a U.S.
Citizen so he could not sue in
U.S. courts
– Court also said that Congress
could not outlaw (ban) slavery
• Southerners cheered
• Northerners were outraged
Portrait of Dred Scott
by Louis Schultze
•Abolitionist – a
person who wanted to
eliminate (or make
illegal) slavery
Harpers Ferry Raid
• Abolitionist, John Brown, led the
raid – he wanted to inspire slaves
to fight for their freedom
• He thought if he could arm slaves,
they would rise up and fight back
• He tried to capture the weapons
in the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers
Ferry, Virginia
• Brown and 18 followers captured
the arsenal
• U.S. Marines attacked and took
over the arsenal
• Brown was captured and hanged
for treason
• Many small attacks on both sides
(free and slave) happened during
the next few years
The Tragic Prelude
by John Steuart Curry
U.S. Marines, under the command of
Colonel Robert E. Lee, put an end to
John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry
Election of 1860
• Political parties split – couldn’t agree
• Lincoln and Douglas split most of the
Northern vote – Lincoln won most of the
Northern states
• Breckinridge and Bell split Southern vote
• Abraham Lincoln’s platform – wanted to
keep the Union together and opposed
slavery’s expansion into the territories
• Abraham Lincoln elected with about 40%
of the total vote – North had a greater
population than the South
Election of 1860 Results
President Abraham Lincoln
secede – withdraw from the Union
• After the election, South Carolina
becomes the first state to secede
• Then Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas
secede
• They formed Confederate States of
America
• Jefferson Davis was named
president of the C.S.A.
Civil War
North versus South
1861-1865
Reasons for the Split
• South didn’t want the North telling
them what to do or making laws they
didn’t want
• North and South didn’t agree on
slavery issues
• South wanted more states rights
• North favored stronger federal laws
• South didn’t like President Lincoln
Fort Sumter
• First battle of the Civil War
• On an island in Charleston harbor
in South Carolina
• Northern forces surrendered after
running out of supplies – no
casualties
• After the battle at Fort Sumter,
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee
and Arkansas joined the
Confederacy
• Confederacy – Southern states that left
the U.S. to form their own country, the
Confederate States of America
• Union – Northern states that remained
loyal to the United States government
Border States
• Slave states that didn’t leave the
Union but mostly supported the
Confederacy
• Border States: Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri
• Union – 24 states
• Confederacy – 11 states
Strengths & Weaknesses
• North had about 22 million people
• South had about 9 million people
– 3.5 million were slaves
• 85% of nations factories in the North
• North had double the railroad
mileage of the South
• Almost all the naval power and
shipyards belonged to the North
Union Blockade
• Blockade – an attempt to stop people
and supplies from going in or out of a
port
• Union tried to prevent any goods, troops
and weapons from entering the
Southern states – tried to collapse the
Southern economy
• Cotton exports fell by 95% - biggest
source of money to the South
• Blockade part of a larger plan –
Anaconda Plan
Anaconda Plan
• Strategy of General Winfield Scott
• Anaconda Plan tried to keep the south
from getting supplies
• Union used 500 ships to patrol the coast
from Virginia to Texas
• Some ships did make it through the
blockade – mostly small, fast ships
called blockade runners
• Plan was very effective – South had few
supplies and economy basically halted
st
1
Battle of Bull Run
• Took place in Virginia
• Union goal was to capture the Confederate
capital in Richmond, Virginia
– about 90 miles from the Union capital of
Washington D.C.
• Union doing well at first, then South got
reinforcements and the Union broke ranks and
ran
– South was thrilled – thought they’d won the war
and the North would give up
– North was shocked – knew they’d underestimated
the South
Naval Battle
• Union Monitor and Confederate
Merrimack (CSS Virginia)
• First battle with ironclads – a warship
that is fully covered and protected by
iron
• Ironclads were durable to cannon fire
• Changed the way naval battles were
fought – ironclads could easily defeat
wooden ships
• Battle was a tie, both ships survived but
were later burned or sunk
Monitor and Merrimack: the first
fight between ironclads
Battle of Shiloh
• Largest battle fought in the western part
of the country - Tennessee
• Confederacy attacked the Union – won
the first day
• On second day, reinforcements came
from the North – drove back the
Confederate Army
• Both sides had heavy losses
• North’s victory solidified Union Armies
dominance in the west
Battle of New Orleans
• Largest city in the Confederacy and
a major port
• Important Union victory –took
control of the city
Antietam
• First major battle fought in the northern
part of the country
• 1862 in Maryland – bloody battle – Union
attack and Confederacy counterattack
• On the night of second day Confederate
Army started to retreat
• Basically a tie, but Union claimed victory
because the Confederates retreated back
to Virginia
• 22,000 killed or wounded
• Famous nurse Clara Barton was
present at the battle taking care of
wounded Union soldiers
• Clara Barton founded the American
Red Cross
• President Lincoln called it a victory
and announced the Emancipation
Proclamation
Emancipation
Proclamation
• Was an executive order from
President Lincoln that promised
freedom for slaves in the south
once the Union took back control
Battle of Gettysburg
• Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
• One of the most important battles of the
Civil War for the North
• Confederate General Robert E. Lee
invaded the North trying to defeat them
once and for all
• Union Army held and sent Lee retreating
• Battle lasted three days
• 1st day – Confederates outnumbered
the Union and pushed them back
• 2nd day – both armies at full strength
– Union Army 94,000
– Confederate Army 72,000
– Both sides had heavy losses
• Union Army held their lines
• 3rd day – Lee made all or nothing
attack, he felt if the South could win
the battle they would win the war
• 3rd day continued
– Lee sent General Pickett with 12,500
men on a direct charge at the heart of
the Union Army – attack was called
Pickett’s Charge
• Pickett was defeated and half his men
injured or killed
– Confederate Army retreated – Union
Army did not pursue
• President Lincoln was upset – thought
they could have ended the war if they
pursued the Confederate Army
• Deadliest battle of the Civil War
–46,000 casualties (8,000 dead)
• After the battle, President Lincoln
made the Gettysburg Address
–Speech made to dedicate a national
cemetery
–Lincoln’s speech lasted 2-3 minutes
and had 268 words
Sherman’s
March to the Sea
• Union General Sherman marched
through Georgia from Atlanta to
Savannah
• Took control of major city – Atlanta
• Took control of major sea port –
Savannah
Scorched Earth
• Type of warfare where troops
destroy industry and crops in their
path
• Sherman’s troops: destroyed cotton
gins and lumber mills, burned,
looted and destroyed much in their
path
Commanding Generals
• By the end of the war, the main,
commanding generals were:
– Union: Ulysses S. Grant
– Confederacy: Robert E. Lee
Appomattox Courthouse
• Not a battle
• Site in Virginia where Confederate
General Robert E. Lee formally
surrendered to Union General
Ulysses S. Grant
• Lee surrendered because his army
was exhausted, outnumbered and
half-starved
• Basically meant the war was over
and the North had won in April 1865
• Some units fought on for a few
weeks more
• After the war, Jefferson Davis tried
to escape, was captured and sent to
prison for 2 years
• 625,000 total dead in the Civil War
– more than any other war
– 2/3 of deaths due to disease
Assassination
•When a person is
murdered for
political reasons
Assassination of
Abraham Lincoln
• 5 days after Lee surrendered
• President Lincoln and his wife Mary
Todd Lincoln went to the Ford’s
Theatre to see the play “Our
American Cousin”
• An actor and Southern sympathizer
named John Wilkes Booth snuck
into the balcony and shot President
Lincoln in the back of his head
• Lincoln was taken across the street
and died the next morning
• Booth jumped down to the stage
and broke his leg but escaped
• A week later he was cornered in a
barn, was either shot or killed self
After the War:
Reconstruction
• Reconstruction – rebuilding of the
war torn Southern states so they
could be readmitted to the Union
• Much of the South destroyed
• The purpose of Reconstruction was
to help the South become part of the
Union again
Reconstruction
•
•
•
•
Rebuilt roads
Got farms running again
Built school
Many Northerners wanted the South
punished
– President Andrew Johnson, became
president after Lincoln assassinated,
was from the South and wanted to be
more lenient (easy) on the CSA
• Congress disagreed and passed
harsh laws for Southern states
• Many Southern states passed Black
Codes to get around laws passed by
Congress
• Black Codes - Laws in the South
that made it difficult for black people
to get jobs, own land, vote and go to
school
• States rejoined the Union 1866-1870
Vocabulary
• Copperhead – nickname for
Northerners who were against the
Civil War
• Carpetbagger – a Northerner who
moved to the South during the
Reconstruction in order to become
rich
Many in the South viewed carpetbaggers
as opportunists looking to exploit, and
profit from, the region’s misfortunes.
Vocabulary
• Yankee – nickname for people from
the North as well as the Union
soldiers
• Rebel – nickname given to people
in the South supporting the
Confederacy
Yankee
(blue)
Rebel
(grey)
Amendments
• 13th – outlawed slavery
• 14th – said black people were
citizens and protected by laws
• 15th – gave all people the right to
vote regardless of race