Chapter 21
The Furnace of Civil War
1861-1865
Bull Run
• 90 day war- “no purpose, directly or
indirectly to interfere with slavery where it
exists”
• Bull Run (Manassas Junction)
• Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
• Defeat for Union
The Army of the Potomac Marching up Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington,
D.C., 1861
In this painting Union troops parade before the Battle of Bull Run. Colorfully uniformed, they are a regiment of
Zouaves, who adopted the name and style of military dress from a legendarily dashing French infantry unit
recruited from Berber tribesmen in North Africa. But bright uniforms were not enough to win battles, and these
troops were soon to be routed by the Confederates.
Stonewall Jackson
George McClellan and Peninsula
Campaign
• George McClellan (Army of the Potomac)
• Peninsula Campaign (James and York
Rivers)
• Robert E. Lee (Army of Northern Virginia)
• 7 Days’ Battles: June 27- July 1, 1862
• McClellan pushed back to the sea
• Total War 6 part Union plan
Lee and McClellan
Union Strategy
• 1. Blockade coasts Anaconda Plan
• 2. Take Mississippi River (cut CSA in ½)
Anaconda Plan
• 3. Liberate slaves (undermine economy)
• 4. Troops to Carolinas and Georgia
• 5. Capture Richmond
• 6. Engage enemy and force submission
Battle of the Merrimack and the
Monitor, March 9, 1862
Antietam
• Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30,
1862) moved to Maryland Campaign
• Lee vs. General John Pope
• The Battle at Antietam Creek (near Sharpsburg,
Maryland)- September 17, 1862 stop CSA
advance
• Antietam= CSA near victory
• Lincoln issued preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
• Official document released January 1, 1863
• Slaves “forever free” in states in rebellion
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Border states and conquered CSA not affected
Strengthen moral cause
13th amendment
Mixed emotions in North
South saw it as an attempt to start slave revolt
Gettysburg
• General AE Burnside= new general of
Army of the Potomac
• Launched attack at Fredericksburg, Virginia
• Replaced by Joseph Hooker
• Chancellorsville, Virginia (May 2-4, 1863)
• Jackson killed by friendly fire
• Lee moved towards Pennsylvania
A. E. Burnside
The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863
With the failure of Pickett’s charge, the fate of the Confederacy was sealed—
though the Civil War dragged on for almost two more bloody years
Gettysburg
• George G. Meade- 3 days before battle
• Union army of 92,000 vs. CSA army of
76,000 at Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)
• Unsuccessful Pickett’s Charge- “high water
mark of the Confederacy”
• Gettysburg Address- November 1863
George Meade
Western Theater
• Ulysses S. Grant
• February 1862: captured Forts Henry and
Donnelson
• Kentucky tied to Union, opened GA and Tenn.
• Battle at Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862): southern
Tennessee
• Admiral David G. Farragut- captured New
Orleans spring 1862
Western Theater
• Area between Vicksburg, Mississippi and
Port Hudson, Louisiana= CSA movement
• Grant attacked Vicksburg surrendered
July 4, 1863
• July 9th= fall of Port Hudson
• Union control of Mississippi River
• Stop demands for peace from Butternut Region
• No foreign intervention
Sherman’s March to the Sea
• Grant sent to eastern Tennessee liberate
Union troops at Chattanooga
• Georgia open to invasion
• Grant= general in chief
• General William Tecumseh Sherman
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Burned Atlanta by November 1864
60,000 troops to Savannah (Dec. 22, 1864)
Total War= weaken CSA morale
Turned north toward South Carolina
General William Tecumseh Sherman
1864 Election
• Problems within Republican party
• Salmon P. Chase
• Congressional Committee on the Conduct of
the War
• Expanding presidential power
• Split within Democrats
• War Democrats vs. Peace (Copperhead)
Democrats
• Union Party formed
1864 Election
• Democrats nominated George McClellan
• Union victories= favor for Lincoln
• Farragut seized Mobile, Alabama, Sherman
(Atlanta), General Sheridan destroyed
Shenandoah Valley in Virginia
• “Bayonet votes”, voting on the front
• Lincoln= 212 EV vs. 21 for McClellan
(popular vote closer)
• Defeat for Lincoln= last chance for South
Presidential Election of 1864 (showing popular vote by county)
Lincoln also carried California, Oregon, and Nevada, but there was a considerable
McClellan vote in each. Note McClellan’s strength in the Border States and in the
southern tier of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois—the so-called “Butternut” region.
War of Attrition
• Grant brought in from West to oversee
Meade push forward regardless of
casualties
• Destroy the enemy 1 piece at a time
• Overland Campaign (push towards Richmond)
• Battle at Cold Harbor (Grant seen as a butcher!)
• Hampton Roads Peace Conference (failed)
• April 1865: Lee surrendered at Appomattox
Courthouse, Virginia (cornered by Union)
Grant’s Virginia Campaign, 1864–1865
The Wilderness Campaign pitted soldier against desperate soldier in some of the most brutal and terrifying
fighting of the Civil War. “No one could see the fight fifty feet from him,” a Union private recalled of his month
spent fighting in Virginia. “The lines were very near each other, and from the dense underbrush and the tops of
trees came puffs of smoke, the ‘ping’ of the bullets and the yell of the enemy. It was a blind and bloody hunt to
the death, in bewildering thickets, rather than a battle.”
Lee Surrenders
Lincoln’s Assassination
• April 14, 1865: Lincoln shot by John
Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater died the
next morning
• Death= forget Lincoln’s shortcomings
• South now had to face vindictive North
(Lincoln would have protected them)
• Andrew Johnson now president, opposition
from Congress
• Reconstruction=struggle
John Wilkes Booth
Aftermath of the Civil War
• 600,000 Americans KIA or by disease
• Destroyed an entire generation of young men
• $15 billion
• Ended the fight between strong federal
government and states righters
• Inspired British democracy
• Destroyed slavery, North and South still
split