The Civil War 1861-1865
www.Buschistory.net
Topic 12
Key Background Events
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1 - 3/5 Compromise - 1787
2 - Missouri Comp - 1820
3 - Mexican Cession - 1848,
4 - Compromise of 1850
5 - Fugitive Slave Act - 1851
6 - Uncle Tom - 1852
7 -Kansas-Nebraska - 1854
8 – Sectionalism over Parties
9 - Republicans 1854
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10 - Bleeding Kansas 1856
11 -John Brown 1856-1859
12 - Sumner Brooks 1856
13 - Lincoln-Douglas 1858
14 - Election of 1860
15 - Secession - Dec 1860
16 - Fort Sumter 4/12/1861
17 - Bull Run July 21, 1861
Major Themes
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Sectionalism
States Rights
Slavery
Does the South have the right to Secede?
War of Northern Aggression – or - The War for
Southern Independence
• Preservation of the Union
What would have
happened had the
Democrats not split?
How did
they
compare?
The Divided United States in 1861
The Civil War Begins….
On April 12, 1861,
General P.G.T.
Beauregard,
opened fire on
Fort Sumter.
Shells flew for 36
hours.
At 2:30pm on April
13 Major Robert
Anderson
surrendered the
fort and evacuated
the next day.
No one was killed
during the battle.
Key Events – Turning Points
• Bull Run – Sunday April
21, 1861, first actual
battle, stunning Union
defeat
• McClellan replaces
General Irvin McDowell
• Antietam – April 16-18,
1862. Actually a draw,
but Lincoln claimed
victory for the Union
• The “victory” at Antietam
led Lincoln to write the
Emancipation
Proclamation – issued on
Jan. 1, 1863
• Vicksburg – May 18-July
4, 1863. Divided the
Confederacy – Grant
appointed to lead the
Union Army.
• Gettysburg – July 1-3
1863. 165,000 fought.
Total Casualties=51,112
The only
known
Photograph of
Abraham
Lincoln at
Gettysburg
A Timeless speech……..
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 battlefield 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.
From Atlanta to the end…
• Sherman’s March – November- December 21, 1864, General
William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march,
75 miles wide, from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. He cut a
“Bloody Swath.” “Sherman’s war of Total Destruction.”
• Appomattox – Following a series of defeats and ultimately losing
the Appomattox campaign to Grant , Lee surrendered on April 9,
1865 to Grant. The town was Appomattox Court House in Virginia
at the home of Wilmer McClean at 1:00 PM
• Lincoln Assassinated - Abraham Lincoln is shot 5
days later and died on the morning of April 15,
1865. He was 56 years old.
A brief look at Gen. Sherman…
“I have already received guns that can cast heavy and
destructive shot as far as the heart of your city; also, I have for
some days held and controlled every avenue by which the
people and garrison of Savannah can be supplied, and I am
therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city of
Savannah, and its dependent forts, and shall wait a reasonable
time for your answer, before opening with heavy ordnance.
Should you entertain the proposition, I am prepared to grant
liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be
forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of
starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest
measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army—
burning to avenge the national wrong which they attach to
Savannah and other large cities which have been so prominent
in dragging our country into civil war.”
— William T. Sherman , Message to William J. Hardee,
December 17, 1864, recorded in his memoirs
Sherman’s
surrender
message to
Confederate
General
William
Hardee before
taking
Savannah
By the Numbers
• How many
• War Deaths
soldiers?
• Approximately
• North – 2,128, 948
620,000
• South – 1,082, 119 • combat, accident,
• Twice as many
Union soldiers as
Confederates
starvation, and
disease
War Deaths in US History
Approx. 1,264,000 American soldiers have died in the nation's wars
Facts about Soldiers
• Average Age
– Union 25.8
– Confederacy – unknown,
by war’s end boys and
old men joined the fight
Wages per Month
– Union White - $13.00
– Union Black - $7.00
– Confederacy - $11.00
• The Draft
• Confederacy was first –
April 1862, owners of
20+ slaves were exempt
• Union – 1863, you could
pay $350 for a
substitute, often the
Irish went. Riots in July
1863
African American Soldiers
• North – Approximately
190,000
• At first they served as
Grave Diggers and
Supply Personnel
• After the Emancipation
Proclamation 150,000170,000 fought in the
Army and Navy
• South – Approximately
90,000
• Primarily servants and
manual labor
• 3/4/1865 Gen. Order 14
called for raising Black
combat regiments.
• No records indicate that
it actually occurred.
Why two names for each Battle?
• Union commanders typically named battles
after the nearest river or creek.
• Confederates typically named battles after the
nearest city or town.
• Ex. Bull Run and Manassas are the same battle
Key Government Actions
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April 27, 1861: Writ of Habeas Corpus Suspended
August 6, 1861: The First Confiscation Act
1861: Soldier Pensions
1861: The Legal Tender Act aka "Greenbacks“
1862: Pacific Railway Act
1862: Homestead Act
Jan. 1, 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation
1863: Conscription Act
1864: The Wade-Davis Bill
March 3, 1865: The Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedman's Bank
13th Amendment - Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865,
and ratified on December 6, 1865
And now what?
• Lincoln Assassinated - Abraham Lincoln is shot
5 days after Lee’s surrender and died on the
morning of April 15, 1865. He was 56 years
old.
• The conspiracy fueled North-South distrust
and now Reconstruction was doomed.