Bellwork
• In the last lesson, what gains did the Union
make in the war?
American History
Section 13, Unit 4
The Final Phase
Objectives
• Analyze how and why the Union’s war aims
changed
• Explain why the Emancipation Proclamation
applies only to slaves living in areas of
rebellion against the U.S.
• Describe the strategies Grant and Sherman
employed to win the war.
• Identify some consequences of the war
Shifting Beliefs
• As the war continued,
many northerners began
to question whether or
not the saving the Union
without ending slavery
was worth it.
• Since the war was caused
by slavery, many began to
believe that the war can
only end when slavery
ends.
Shifting Beliefs
• After fierce debate, Republicans pushed two
acts through Congress in 1862:
1. One authorized African Americans to serve in
the military
2. The other freed slaves held by Confederate
soldiers or those who aided the Confederacy.
Shifting Beliefs
• Some did criticize the President for not doing
enough to end slavery.
• Lincoln, however, responded with:
“My paramount object in the struggle is to save the
Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery.”
Question: Based on this quote, what do you feel is
important to Lincoln at this time?
Shifting Beliefs
• Privately, however,
Lincoln was aware that
slavery was too important
to the southern war
effort, as the Confederacy
depended on slaves for
their survival.
• Lincoln hoped that if
slaves heard the North is
fighting to free them,
they would run away and
weaken the South’s
economy.
Shifting Beliefs
• Lincoln lacked the constitutional authority to
simply abolish slavery.
• However, he had the authority to institute
military measures.
• With this, in July 1862, Lincoln informed his
cabinet that he was going to free all slaves
living in areas that are rebelling against them–
i.e. not Union controlled states.
Keep in mind, a few border states still had slaves, but had not
seceded from the Union.
Emancipation Proclamation
• In this, Lincoln created
the Emancipation
Proclamation, which was
at first kept secret until
the Union won a major
victory.
• Their victory came in
Antietam in 1862 and
only a few days later, a
preliminary draft of the
proclamation would go
into effect.
Emancipation Proclamation
• While slavery wouldn’t be abolished for
another three years, the institution of slavery
was doomed.
• Slaves who had heard that Union troops were
nearby were inspired to leave their masters to
join the army.
African American Soldiers
• The Emancipation Proclamation and the act in 1862
encouraged African Americans to enlist. By August
1862, the first official black regiments were
organized.
• Some, such as Frederick Douglass, saw military
service as an important step towards citizenship for
African Americans.
African American Soldiers
• Although the Union army accepted black
soldiers, it did not offer them full equality.
• For much of the war, black soldiers received
less pay and white officers commanded every
black regiment.
• Despite that, African American soldiers
impressed many and, by the end of the war,
20 African Americans would go on to win the
Congressional Medal of Honor.
African American Soldiers
• By the wars end, more
than 166 all-black
regiments fought in 449
engagements in the
war.
• As a whole, around
32,000 black people
gave their lives for the
Union.
New Leadership
• The Emancipation Proclamation was one key
to Union success.
• The other was General Ulysses S. Grant.
• Grant understood that the Union had
advantages in terms of soldiers and supplies
and used these to his advantage, such as
forcing the Confederacy to fight until they run
out of supplies.
New Leadership
• Grant suggested to
Lincoln that he fight a war
of attrition– to continue
fighting until the South
ran out of men, supplies,
and will.
• With this in mind, Grant–
who was now the
commander of all the
Union forces by 1864–
moved 122,000 troops
towards Chancellorsville,
Virginia.
Ulysses S. Grant
New Leadership
• For two days, Grant continued an onslaught
on the Confederate rebels, but they held their
ground.
• Grant lost 18,000 men to the Confederacies
13,000 losses.
Question: Would it be in Grant’s best interest to retreat
and resupply?
New Leadership
• Rather than rest, Grant continued on.
• He swung his forces 10 miles to the South,
forcing Lee to keep his weary men on the
field.
• Union losses were heavy, and one Confederate
soldier remarked, “We have met a man this
time, who either does not know when he is
whipped, or who cares not if he loses his
whole army.”
New Leadership
• Grant continued South to attack Petersburg,
Virginia, in mid-June.
• Petersburg was a railroad hub and by
capturing it, Grant hoped to cut off
Richmond’s supplies.
• However, Lee held on and after days, Grant
called off the direct assault after losing 60,000
men.
New Leadership
• However, Grant had
achieved at least one
part of his goal.
• Lee’s army was
dwindling, with no
reserves available.
Soldiers in Petersburg
Sherman’s March
• As Grant was working
his way towards
Richmond, general
William Sherman– who
had been made the
commander of the
Tennessee army by
Grant– moved some
100,000 troops out of
Tennessee and towards
Atlanta, Georgia.
Roger Sherman
Sherman’s March
• Sherman had quickly taken Atlanta as the
Confederates fell back.
• By taking this city, Sherman had cut the only
Confederate railroad link across the
Appalachians.
• To secure his control, he evacuated and then
burned a significant portion of the city.
Sherman’s March
• The fall of Atlanta gave a
significant boost to
Lincoln’s reelection
campaign.
• Republicans were upset
that the war took so long,
but Sherman’s victory
gave many hope the war
would soon end.
• In 1864, Lincoln defeated
Democrat George
McClellan.
Because the war was not going so
well, Lincoln actually had a tough
time winning this election. However,
the victory at Atlanta showed many
Northern voters that the Union could
still land heavy blows against the
Confederacy.
Sherman’s March
• After the burning of Atlanta, Sherman moved
towards Savannah, Georgia and sieged the
city’s supplies and destroyed anything that
might be useful to the Confederates.
• Sherman’s campaign was part of his ideology,
where he believed that the only way to defeat
the South was to destroy their economic
resources.
– His actions would leave a deep scar across all the
South.
Sherman’s March
• By late 1864, Sherman
resupplied at Savannah
and, by early 1865, he
and his men turned
north to link up with
Grant and fight the final
battle.
An image of Sherman’s march,
showing his destruction of
Southern resources.
Appomattox
• As Sherman’s army moved north through the
Carolinas, Grant’s troops hammered at the
doors of Richmond.
• While Grant moved forward, General Lee
withdrew from Richmond and within hours,
Union troops took the Confederate capital.
Appomattox
• Lee had hoped that he could secure more
troops by traveling westward, but was blocked
off by Grant.
• With his once-army reduced to 30,000 men–
many who no longer had shoes– Lee asked for
terms of surrender.
Appomattox
• Grant and Lee met in a
house in the tiny village
of Appomattox Court
House on April 9, 1865.
• The terms of surrender
were simple:
1. Confederate officers
could keep their
sidearms and horses.
2. Confederate officers
would be fed and
allowed to return to
their homes.
Before they even began to discuss
the surrender, Lee and Grant
actually discussed their Mexican
War days. It took some time before
they returned to the business at
hand.
Appomattox
Question: Why do you think the terms of surrender were so lenient?
• While the terms of surrender were simple, they
actually had a larger reaching effect.
• Once Richmond fell, and after many Confederates
heard that Lee had surrendered, most
Confederate soldiers stopped fighting.
• The terms of surrender were also designed to
make it so that the Confederate soldiers would
not want to rebel anymore.
“Let all the men who claim to own a horse or mule take the
animals home with them to work on their little farms.”– Grant
“This will do much toward [uniting] our people.” --- Lee
Consequences
• While the war was over, the consequences of the
war were immense.
• No other war on American soil ended with as many
casualties as the Civil War, with 360,000 Union
soldiers and 258,000 Confederate soldiers dying.
Military Deaths in American Wars
Consequences
• Loss of life was not the only consequence.
Question: How do you think this war affected the South’s economy?
• The war devastated the South’s economy.
Many African Americans– who were suddenly
free– had an uncertain future without work.
• As well, tens of thousands of whites were
homeless and jobless.
Consequences
• However, the North
experienced many
positive economic
outcomes of the war.
• Agriculture and industry
had expanded during
the war to meet the
needs of the military.
Consequences
• As well, northern
enterprises of steel,
petroleum, food
processing,
manufacturing, and
finance continued to
expand after the war.
Consequences
• However, one of the most important
consequences of the war was that it finally
resolved the issue of slavery.
• Never again would the U.S. government
sanction the use of slaved peoples.
• But aside from the removal of slavery, the war
also made the Republican party the dominant
political force of the time.
Reconstruction
• While the war ended,
the U.S. was still on a
long path towards being
united yet again.
• This path would require
the North and South to
mutually work together
again.
Questions
• If you have any questions, please ask now.
Next lesson
• In the next lesson, we will begin discussing the
Reconstruction Era of the South.
Review
1. Why is it that Northerners began to believe that to end
the war, they had to end slavery as well?
2. What were the strategies used by (1) Ulysses S. Grant and
(2) William Sherman? Please make sure to explain your
answer.
3. How did the Emancipation Proclamation lead to increased
African American military enlistment?
4. Summarize the consequences of the Civil War on the
North and the South.
5. Why do you think the Union went easy on the
Confederacy concerning their terms for surrender? Why
benefit might this action have had?
6. Imagine you are a African American who enlisted in a
black regiment. Explain why you might believe that
military service is an important step towards citizenship.