1861 – 1865 THE CIVIL WAR. When war began in 1861, both sides were confident in their ability to...

1861 – 1865

The Civil War

The Civil War• When war began in 1861, both sides were

confident in their ability to win. What they did not realize was that four long, perilous years lay ahead of them in what would become the deadliest war in American history. By the time the war ended, over 600,000 lives were lost.

The Civil War• During the war, farms became battlefields and

homes were turned into hospitals. Towns were divided, and sometimes families were too. Brothers fought against brothers, fathers and sons were on opposing sides, and schoolmates and old friends often faced each other in battle.

The Civil War• In 1861, citizens gathered in town squares all

across the country to hear speeches about freedom, states’ rights, and glorious death on the battlefield. In the North, many men jumped at the chance to fight for the Union. In the South, men also volunteered to defend their rights and their land. The country was divided in two….

The Civil War

*1861*

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 1: January -- The South Secedes

• When Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery, was elected president, the South Carolina legislature perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states -- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 2: February -- The South Creates a

Government • At a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, the

seven seceding states created the Confederate Constitution, a document similar to the United States Constitution, but with greater stress on the autonomy of each state. Jefferson Davis was named as president of the newly formed Confederate States of America (aka the Confederacy).

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 3: March -- Lincoln's Inauguration

• At Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, the new president said he had no plans to end slavery in those states where it already existed, but he also said he would not accept secession. He hoped to resolve the national crisis without warfare.

Lincoln’s Inauguration

“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to

interfere with the institution of slavery in

the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so,

and I have no inclination to do so. “

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 4: April -- Attack on Fort Sumter

• The day after he was inaugurated, Lincoln received a dispatch for Major Robert Anderson, the commander of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. He was low on supplies and the Confederates were demanding he surrender the fort.

• Lincoln informed the governor that he was sending supplies but would not “throw in men, arms, or ammunition” unless they were fired upon. Confederate president Jefferson Davis ordered his forces to fire on the fort early on April 12. Union forces held out for 33 hours before surrendering.

Fort Sumter

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 5: April-June -- Four More States Join the

Confederacy

• The attack on Fort Sumter prompted four more states to join the Confederacy. Beginning in April, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee all seceded from the Union. With Virginia's secession, Richmond was named the Confederate capitol.

The Confederacy

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 6: June -- More States Choose a Side

• Residents of the western counties of Virginia did not wish to secede along with the rest of the state. This section of Virginia was admitted into the Union as the state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863.

• Despite their acceptance of slavery, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri did not join the Confederacy. Although divided in their loyalties, these states chose not to secede.

West Virginia

Border states

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 7: July – First Battle of Bull Run

• The first major battle took place in Manassas Junction near Bull Run River. Inexperienced Union troops attacked inexperienced Confederate troops. At first, they were able to drive the Rebels back but after receiving reinforcements from General Thomas Jackson, the Rebels surged forward with a scream that became known as the “Rebel yell”. Jackson fought “like a stone wall” and was afterwards known as Stonewall Jackson. The Union army was forced to hastily retreat back to Washington, D.C.

Battle of Bull Run

Civil War Timeline: 1861• Event 8: December -- The Union Blockade

• In 1861, the Union launched its blockade of southern ports. By the end of the year, most southern ports were closed to foreign ships. As the blockade shut down its ports, the Confederacy asked Britain for help in protecting its ships. The British refused and as a result, the South could not export its cotton to Europe nor import needed supplies.

*1862*

Civil War Timeline: 1862• Event 9: February -- Early Union Victories

• One goal of the Union was to gain control of the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers; this would split the South in two and hinder their ability to transport goods. Union commander Ulysses S. Grant was ordered to move against Confederate forces in February. With the aid of a fleet of ironclads, Grant captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. When the Confederate commander at Fort Donelson asked Grant for his terms, Grant’s reply was “no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted”.

General Ulysses S. Grant

Civil War Timeline: 1862• Event 10: March -- Monitor vs. Merrimack

• The Confederacy seized a Union ship called the Merrimack and rebuilt it using iron plates on top of the wood. They then attacked a group of Union ships off the coast of Virginia. The North’s wooden ships couldn’t damage the ironclad so the North sent the Monitor, their own iron-clad ship to fight the Merrimack. Neither ship sank.

ironclads

Civil War Timeline: 1862• Event 11: April -- The Battle of Shiloh

• On April 6, Confederate forces attacked Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh, Tennessee. By the end of the day, the Union troops were almost defeated. During the night, reinforcements arrived, and by the next morning the Union commanded the field. When Confederate forces retreated, the exhausted Union forces did not follow. Casualties were heavy -- roughly 20,000 men were killed or wounded in the two day battle.

Battle of Shiloh

Civil War Timeline: 1862• Event 12: April -- New Orleans Falls

• A few weeks after Shiloh, the North won another important victory. On April 25, David Farragut captured New Orleans, Louisiana, the South’s biggest city. This defeat meant that the Confederacy could no longer use the Mississippi to carry its goods to sea.

Civil War Timeline: 1862• Event 13: March-June -- McClellan Hesitates

• In the East, General George B. McClellan led the Union’s Army of the Potomac. Their goal was to capture Richmond, Virginia (the Confederate capitol). McClellan hesitated and took weeks as opportunities to attack slipped away. The delays gave the Confederates a chance to prepare their defense of Richmond.

General McClellan

Civil War Timeline: 1862• Event 14: June -- The Seven Days' Battles

• At the end of June, Union forces finally met the Confederates in a series of encounters called the Seven Days’ Battles. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was in command of the army opposing McClellan’s. Lee’s cavalry leader circled around the Union army, gathering information about Union positions. Confederate forces drove the Yankees back and Union troops failed to capture Richmond.

General Robert E. Lee

Civil War Timeline: 1862• Event 15: August -- Second Battle of Bull Run

• Although Union forces were pushed back from Richmond, they were still only 25 miles away. Lincoln ordered McClellan to move his army back and join forces with Major General John Pope. Stonewall Jackson’s forces had moved north to attack Pope’s and joined up with Lee’s forces. The two armies met in a battle that resulted in a Confederate win and now Rebels were within reach of Washington, D.C.

“Stonewall” Jackson

Major General John Pope

Second Battle of Bull Run

Civil War Timeline: 1862

• Event 16: September -- Battle of Antietam • On September 17, Confederate forces under General Lee were

caught by General McClellan near Sharpsburg, Maryland. This battle proved to be the bloodiest day in American history with roughly 23,000 casualties. The battle had no clear winner, but because General Lee withdrew to Virginia the next day, McClellan was considered the victor. Lincoln, who had told McClellan to “destroy the rebel army” was furious when McClellan chose not to pursue the retreating Confederate troops; he removed McClellan from his command and replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside. The battle convinced the British and French, who were contemplating official recognition of the Confederacy, to reserve action. This battle also marked a change in Northern goals as Lincoln used the win to take action against slavery.

Major general joseph hooker

• “In the time that I am writing every stalk of corn [in the cornfields to the north] was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before.”

Antietam

*1863*


• Event 17: January -- Emancipation Proclamation• Although Lincoln considered slavery immoral, he was

reluctant to move against it because of the border states. Lincoln knew that making an issue of slavery would divide the people and make the war less popular. Up until this point, the main goal of the war was to preserve the Union, not end slavery. As the war went on, more and more Northerners believed that slavery was helping the South’s effort to win. Enslaved people in the South raised crops used to feed the armies and did the heavy work in the trenches at the army camps. The North began to realize that ending slavery would be create many obstacles for the South.

Emancipation proclamation

• “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery…I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.”


• Event 17: January -- Emancipation Proclamation• The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on

January 1st. It stated that all slaves living in states that were in rebellion against the United States were to be considered now and forever free. Although the effects of the decree were limited, by the end of the war, one-sixth of the slave population had fled into areas controlled by Union armies to escape the bonds of slavery.

Civil War Timeline: 1863• Event 18: April -- First Conscription Act

• In April, the Confederate Congress passed a draft law requiring men between 18 and 25 to serve in the army for three years. The North passed a similar law called the First Conscription Act, requiring men 20 - 45 to register their names in the pool. Violent protests broke out in New York City as many were angered by the draft and opposed to fighting to free African Americans.

Civil War Timeline: 1863• Event 19: May -- The Battle of Chancellorsville

• In May, Union General Hooker launched a campaign against General Lee. Lee split his army, attacking a surprised Union army in three places and almost completely defeating them. Hooker withdrew across the Rappahannock River, giving the South a victory, but it was the Confederates' most costly victory in terms of casualties; they also lost Stonewall Jackson.

Civil War Timeline: 1863• Event 20: May-July -- The Vicksburg Campaign

• The city of Vicksburg sat on a high bluff above the Mississippi River, which the Union was still working to gain total control of. For weeks, Grant had laid siege to the town. Finally, on July 4, Vicksburg surrendered. With the surrender of Port Hudson in Louisiana, the Union now held the entire Mississippi. Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas were sealed off from the rest of the Confederacy.

Civil War Timeline: 1863• Event 21: July -- The Battle of Gettysburg

• Despite their loss of Jackson, Lee moved north in June with an army of 75,000. He hoped a victory on Union soil would persuade Britain and France to aid the Confederacy.

• Meanwhile, General George Meade was put in charge of the Army of the Potomac. His army met Lee’s on July 1, 1863 near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After a brief skirmish, Meade’s men occupied four miles of high ground along an area known as Cemetery Ridge. About a mile west, 75,000 Confederate troops gathered.


• The battle went on for three days. On the second day, the Confederates worked to find weak spots in the Union position, but the Union lines held firm. Meade set up headquarters atop a small hill called Little Round Top and laid his men out in a defensive position resembling a fish hook around the hill. Despite heavy losses, the Union held their line.

• On the third day, Lee ordered an all-out attack. Cannons filled the air with smoke and thunder. Confederate Major General George Pickett led 15,000 soldiers across the low ground that stood between the two armies. His charge marked the northernmost point reached by southern troops but his men suffered heavy losses at the hands of Union soldiers.


• Lee knew that after Pickett’s Charge, the battle was lost. These men had been easy targets for the Union soldiers and barely half of the Rebels returned from the charge. “It’s all my fault”, Lee told his troops as they retreated back to Virginia. From here, he would only wage a defensive war on southern soil.

• The losses at Gettysburg were staggering; the most of any Civil War battle. Between the three days of fighting, there were somewhere between 40 - 50 thousand casualties including roughly 10,000 deaths.

Gettysburg

Civil War Timeline: 1863• Event 22: November -- The Gettysburg Address

• On November 19, at a ceremony dedicating a cemetery at Gettysburg, President Lincoln beautifully expressed what the war had come to mean. The “great civil war” was testing whether a nation “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…can long endure.” He called on Americans to remain “dedicated to the great task remaining before us…that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government, of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg Address• “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.”

Gettysburg Address• “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 battle-field 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.”

*1864*-

*1865*

Winter 1864 (Jan. – April)

Civil War Timeline: 1864• Event 23: May-June -- Grant’s Plan

• General Grant devised a plan to attack the Confederacy on all fronts. The Army of the Potomac would try to crush Lee’s army in Virginia. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army would advance to Atlanta and crush Confederate forces in the Deep South. If the plan worked, they would destroy the Confederacy. During a series of battles - Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, the Confederate lines held, but Grant always resumed attack quickly. His assault turned in to a nine month siege.

Grant’s Wilderness Campaigns

Civil War Timeline: 1864• Event 24: November -- Lincoln is Reelected

• Any hope for the South now lay in the defeat of President Lincoln in the election of 1864. Lincoln was doubtful he would win reelection but two northern victories came just in time to reassure voters that the conflict was soon to be over. Lincoln won with fifty-five percent of the popular vote.


• Event 25: December -- Total War• Leaving Atlanta in ruins, Sherman convinced Grant to let him

try a bold plan called “total war”. As Sherman’s army advanced, it lived off the land, troops took what they needed, and destroyed railroad lines along the way in an effort to weaken the South in any and all ways possible. They left a path of destruction fifty miles wide and devastated states.

• Meanwhile, Grant planned a final attack on Richmond. On April 1, Union forces finally broke through Confederate lines to capture the city. Lee told his officers, “There is nothing left for me to do but go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.”

Sherman in Atlanta


• Event 26: April -- Surrender at Appomattox• Grant’s terms of surrender were generous. Confederate

soldiers could go home safely if they promised to no longer fight. They could take supplies and weapons with them. He also ordered that Lee’s half-starved men receive food.

• Union troops began to shoot their guns and cheer wildly in celebration. Grant told them to stop celebrating. “The war is over,” he said, “the rebels are our countrymen again.”

Richmond

Civil War Timeline: 1865• Event 26: April -- The Assassination of Lincoln

• On April 14, as President Lincoln was watching a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor from Maryland obsessed with avenging the Confederate defeat. Lincoln died the next morning. Booth escaped to Virginia. Eleven days later, cornered in a burning barn, Booth was fatally shot by a Union soldier. Nine other people were involved in the assassination; four were hanged, four imprisoned, and one acquitted.

Lincoln’s Assassination

Civil War Timeline: 1865• Event 28: December -- 13th Amendment

• By December of 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was officially adopted. It said that, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

• Slavery was finally abolished in the United States!

1861 – 1865 THE CIVIL WAR. When war began in 1861, both sides were confident in their ability to...

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