U.S. History Ch. 11
Notes
The Civil War
1) Although the South had many
experienced officers to lead its
troops, the North had several
economic advantages.
2) In 1860 the population of the
North was 22 million while the
population of the South was only 9
million. The North’s larger
population gave it a distinct
advantage in raising an army and
supporting the war effort.
3) In 1860 roughly 80 percent of the
nation’s factories were in the North.
These factories produced more
than 90 percent of the country’s
clothing, boots, shoes, and pig iron
essential for manufacturing
weapons and equipment.
4) The South had only one factory
capable of producing weapons
(canons, etc…), the Tredegar Iron
Works in Richmond, VA.
5) The North enjoyed several
financial advantages. In addition to
controlling the national treasury, the
Union could expect continued
revenue from tariffs. Many Northern
banks also had large reserves of
cash that they loaned the
government for the war effort.
6) Another disadvantage for the
South was the Confederate
constitution, which emphasized
states’ rights and limited the central
government’s power. The
commitment to states’ rights
interfered with Davis’s ability to
conduct the war.
7) The Union defeat at the first
Civil War battle, the First Battle
of Bull Run, made it clear that the
North would need a large, welltrained army to defeat the South.
8) Early in 1862 Union general
Ulysses S. Grant began a
campaign to seize control of two
important rivers within the
Confederate States: the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.
9) Control of the Cumberland and
Tennessee rivers would cut
Tennessee in two and provide the
Union with a river route deep into
Confederate territory.
10) Confederate forces launched a
surprise attack on Grant’s troops,
who were camped about 20 miles N
of Corinth, MS near a small church
named Shiloh. Grant rushed
around the battlefield and
assembled a defense that held off
repeated Southern attacks.
11) The Battle of Shiloh stunned
people in both the North and the
South. 20,000 troops had been
killed or wounded, more than in any
other battle up to that point.
12) The Civil War began with an
attack on Fort Sumter, a Union fort
just off the coast of Charleston, SC.
Not a man was killed in the attack.
13) The Battle of Antietam
fought between Union forces under
George B. McClellan and
Confederate forces under Robert E.
Lee was the bloodiest one-day
battle in the Civil War. 6000 men
were killed.
14) The Battle of Antietam was a
crucial victory for the Union. If the
Confederate forces under General
Lee had won the British would have
become involved in the war.
15) The South’s defeat at Antietam
had a significant political impact in
the United States. It convinced
President Lincoln that the time had
come to end slavery in the South.
16) Although most Democrats
opposed any move to end slavery,
Republicans were divided on the
issue. Most Republicans were strong
abolitionists, but some only
opposed the further spreading of
slavery.
17) On Sept. 22, 1862,
encouraged by the Union victory at
Antietam, President Lincoln publicly
announced that he would issue the
Emancipation Proclamation - a
decree freeing all slaves after Jan.
1, 1863.
18) Pressed by the costs of the war,
both the N and the S struggled to
keep their economies working. The
S suffered more from wartime
inflation and critical shortages,
while the N responded quickly to
changes brought about by the war.
19) Due to the South’s struggling
economy and food shortages as a
result of the war, many Confederate
soldiers deserted and returned
home to help their families.
20) The North experienced an
economic boom because of the war.
Its growing industries benefited
greatly from the wartime demands
for clothing, weapons, and other
necessities.
21) The Emancipation Proclamation
officially permitted African
Americans to enlist in the Union
army and navy. Almost immediately
African Americans rushed to join
the military.
22) About 180,000 African
Americans served in the Union army
during the Civil War, roughly 9
percent of the army’s total soldiers.
Another 10,000-15,000 served in
the Union navy.
23) Among the 1st African American
regiments officially organized in the
th
N was the 54 Massachusetts.
The regiment fought valiantly at
Fort Wagner near Charleston
Harbor in July 1863, losing nearly
half of its soldiers in the battle.
24) Disease was one of the greatest
threats facing Civil War soldiers. In
many cases, regiments lost half
their men to illness before ever
going into battle.
25) The Civil War was a turning
point for the nursing profession in
the U.S. The courage and energy
shown by women also helped to
break down the belief that women
were weaker than men.
26) A vital part of the Union
strategy in the Civil War was
gaining control of the Mississippi R.
If the Union could capture
Vicksburg, MS, the last Confederate
stronghold on the river, the North
could cut the South in two.
27) Gen. Grant decided that the
only way to take the city of
Vicksburg was to put the city
under siege – cut off food and
supplies and bombard the city until
its defenders gave up.
28) On July 4, 1863, with his
troops starving, the Confederate
commander at Vicksburg
surrendered. Grant’s successful
siege of Vicksburg divided the
Confederacy in two as the Union
gained control of the Miss. River.
29) The Battle of Gettysburg
became the bloodiest and most
famous of Civil War battles with
23,000 Union and 28,000
Confederate troops killed, and it
proved to be the turning point of
the Civil War.
30) In November 1863 President
Lincoln dedicated a portion of the
Gettysburg battlefield as a military
cemetery. His speech known as
The Gettysburg Address became
one of the best-known orations in
American history.
31) Lincoln rewarded Grant by
appointing him general in chief of
the Union forces following
general Grant’s successes at the
siege of Vicksburg and the battle
of Chattanooga.
32) The Union Navy launched an
operation to close the port of
Mobile, AL, which was the last
major Confederate port on the Gulf
of Mexico east of the Mississippi R.
33) The Union navy didn’t
completely capture Mobile in
Alabama, but it did seal off Mobile
Bay making it virtually impossible
for the Confederacy to ship goods in
and out of the Deep South.
34) In late August 1864 Union
General William Tecumseh Sherman
sent his troops south around
Atlanta to cut the roads and
railways leading into the city.
Without too much effort Sherman
was successful in capturing Atlanta.
35) After occupying Atlanta,
Sherman proposed to march across
GA. “I could cut a swath to the
sea,” he explained, “and divide the
Confederacy in two.” The march
would be “a demonstration to the
world…that we have a power that
Davis cannot resist.”
36) Sherman ordered his troops to
destroy everything in the city of
Atlanta that was of military value,
including railroads, warehouses,
mills, factories, and machine shops.
37) On Nov. 15th, 1864, Sherman
began his March to the Sea. His
troops cut a path of destruction
through GA that was in places 60
miles wide.
38) Lincoln won the election of
1864 and secured a 2nd term as
President. With 55 percent of the
popular vote he interpreted his
reelection as a mandate to end
slavery permanently by amending
the Constitution.
39) Lincoln described his plan to
restore the Southern states to the
Union, and in the speech he
mentioned including African
Americans in Southern state gov’t.
One listener, actor John Wilkes
Booth, said to a friend, “That is the
last speech he will ever make.”
40) The North’s victory in the Civil
War strengthened the power of the
federal gov’t over the states,
brought a final end to slavery, and
left the South socially and
economically devastated. The years
after the war would become known
as the era of Reconstruction.