Civil War
United States History
Mrs. O’Shea
1860 Presidential Election
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Abraham Lincoln won
39% popular vote
180 electoral votes
not a single electoral vote from
South
Name did not appear on many
southern ballots
1860 ELECTION RESULTS
Southern Secession
 South Carolina seceded in
Dec. 1860
 6 others states followed =
Texas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Alabama
Florida
Georgia
 Created Confederate States
of America
Fort Sumter
• Federal fort outside
Charleston, SC
• Federal supply ship shot at by
Confederates
• Lincoln wanted to preserve
Union – must protect fort
• April 12, 1861 – Confederates
seize fort
• Lincoln called on loyal states to
supply 750,000 militiamen to
subdue the rebellion.
• Ordered blockade of southern
ports.
Battle of Bull Run
• Union troops – not prepared
• Sent by Lincoln to capture Richmond –
Confederate capital city
• Met with 32,000 Confederate troops outside of
Manassas.
• Union troops were sent running back to
Washington, D.C.
IMPORTANCE
• Boosted Confederates morale
• Signaled to Union that they needed to prepare
for a real war
CASUALTIES
• Heavy casualties on both
sides – killed, wounded,
captured, or MIA
• Disease (typhoid fever,
dysentery, salmonella,
gangrene, malaria)
Casualties (deaths)
Revolutionary War = 4,400
Mexican American War = 13,000
Civil War = 600,000
WWI = 115,000
WWII = 407,000
Korean War = 33,000
Vietnam War = 58,000
War in Iraq = 4,244 (as of February 13, 2009)
Really rough estimates – Mrs. O’Shea
Casualties (deaths)
700,000
600,000
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
115,000
100,000
4,400 13,000
33,000 58,000
4,244
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Deaths
407,000
Lincoln and Slavery
• “Preserve the Union”
• Personally opposed to slavery
• Came to regard abolishing slavery as a
strategy for winning war
• Slave working in field = one more Southerner
fighting in fields
Emancipation Proclamation p. 396
• effectively removed any
chance of a negotiated
settlement between the North
and the South.
• The Emancipation
Proclamation caused an outcry
to rise from the South who
said that Lincoln was trying to
stir up slave rebellion.
• The North now had a much
stronger moral cause. It had
to preserve the Union and free
the slaves.
African Americans in War
• July 1862 – Congress allows African-Americans
to join military
• January 1, 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation –
encouraged freed slaves to fight
• By 1865 – 180,000 African Americans had
enlisted (10% of troops)
• Less pay
• Black regiments – white officers
• 54th Massachusetts Infantry – bravery in attack
on Ft. Wagner – first medal of honor (Sergeant
William Carney) GLORY
Plans to Win!!!
• Union – attacked from West and
East – Anaconda Plan (choke
them)
• Confederacy – attacked Union
through Virginia (scare
Northerners – fuel anti-war
movement in North)
Gettysburg Address
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Dedication of cemetery
Honors Union soldiers
Expresses grief of nation
Necessity of preserving the Union
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php
?storyId=1512410
North – Strategy
Anaconda Plan – General Winfield Scott
Slowly entwine and crush
Bull Run
• Bull Run Ends the "Ninety-Day War"
• President Abraham Lincoln concluded that an attack on
a smaller Confederate force at Bull Run would be worth
trying. If successful, the victory would show the
superiority of Union arms and might eventually lead to
the capture of Richmond.
• On July 21, 1861, the Union and Confederate forces
met. A Union victory was thought to be for sure, as
evident when spectators showed up. The Confederates
won as "Stonewall" Jackson held his line of Confederate
soldiers until reinforcements arrived.
Antietam
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The Pivotal Point: Antietam
After General Lee crushed McClellan's forces in Richmond, Lee moved
northward. In the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30, 1862),
General Lee defeated General Pope's Union forces.
As Lee moved into Maryland, he met McClellan's forces again at the Battle
of Antietam on September 17, 1862. McClellan managed to halt Lee's
forces after his forces discovered Lee's battle plans. Although not a victory,
the Union stopped the Confederate march northward.
Antietam provided Lincoln with the military backing to issue the preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation on September 23, 1862. On January 1,
1863, Lincoln issued a final proclamation. Lincoln now made the Civil War
a war to end slavery because he declared that "the rebels could not
experiment for 10 years trying to destroy the government and if they fail still
come back into the Union unhurt."
The Confiscation Act of 1862 punished "traitors" by declaring their slaves
property of war who shall be free.
Total War
• extensive destruction and appropriation of
property not justified by military necessity
and carried out unlawfully and wantonly
• unlawful deportation, transfer, or
confinement.
• It was adopted in August 1949, and
defines humanitarian protections for
civilians in a war zone, and outlaws the
practice of total war.
• Art. 53. Any destruction by the Occupying
“War is cruelty. The
crueler it is, the sooner it
will be over.”
Sherman’s March p. 412
• Union General William Sherman’s total
war
• GOAL = destroy the Confederacy's ability
to wage further war
• 300 mile path of destruction – destroying
railroads, bridges, factories, livestock,
crops, etc.
• Most likely speed up the ending of the war
South Surrenders
Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia (private home –
not a court building)
-take horses and go home
-obey laws
April 9, 1865
Lincoln Assassinated
• April 14, 1865
• John Wilkes Booth – wanted to
kidnap in exchange for Confederate
prisoners.
• Changed plans – killed Lincoln
• Ford’s Theater
Execution