THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR

THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR

Standard SSUSH9: Evaluate key events, issues, and individuals related to the Civil War.

The Election of 1860 By 1860, the country was falling apart And the election of 1860 was centered on ONE ISSUE: Slavery. The Democratic Party had split into two FACTIONS: Southern Democrats nominated John Breckinridge Who supported aggressive expansion of slavery Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas Who supported the use of popular sovereignty to settle the issue And the new Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln Who supported the CONTAINMENT of slavery and GRADUAL abolition.

The South Explodes Southern Democrats voted for Breckinridge Northern Democrats voted for Douglas ALL Republicans voted for Lincoln Who won the Presidency with only 39% of the vote And who was not even on the ballot in many Southern states And Southerners were FURIOUS that we had elected a President who many people had never heard of.

Lincoln was able to win the election of 1860 largely because... A.) most Americans had become abolitionists. B.) free blacks in the North gave him their support. C.) the Democratic Party had split in two. D.) Douglas threw his support behind Lincoln.

Secession! A few weeks after the election, the state of South Carolina made an announcement: Because they had voluntarily chose to join the Union after the Constitutional Convention They could voluntarily choose to LEAVE IT And officially seceded on December 20, 1860. They were quickly followed by six additional states Which formed a NEW NATION The Confederate States of America And established a capital at Montgomery, Alabama And elected a President: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.

Lincoln's election led many Southerners to believe that... A.) the South controlled the nation's government. B.) slavery was evil and should be eliminated. C.) compromise between the North and South was possible. D.) the South must secede from the Union.

Lincoln was elected in November of 1860 But did not take office until March of 1861 James Buchanan a Democrat was still in office when South Carolina left the union Buchanan pointed out that there was nothing in the Constitution which said the Federal Government could FORCE states to remain in the Union And so when SC seceded He did nothing to stop them Which is what ENCOURAGED six additional states to join South Carolina in secession. James Buchanan

Fort Sumter, Charleston S.C. Ft. Sumter sits in the middle of CHARLESTON HARBOR In South Carolina. The harbor was ringed with heavy artillery Making the fort a sitting duck. When SC seceded, the US Army was ordered to surrender the fort immediately The Army REFUSED And on April 12, 1860 The South Carolina militia OPENED FIRE The fort was shelled for 24 hours And the US Army surrendered. These are the FIRST SHOTS of the Civil War.

Effects of Fort Sumter Before Fort Sumter, most people thought the conflict would be resolved through COMPROMISE. However, the actions of South Carolina showed that COMPROMISE would not be possible. President Lincoln responded by calling for volunteers to the US Army The Confederates saw this as an action of war against them And four more (upper South) states left the Union and joined the Confederate States.

The PRIMARY effect of the Confederate Army's attack on Ft. Sumter was... A.) the start of the Civil War. B.) another compromise between North and South. C.) the Dred Scott decision. D.) the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The Confederate States of America President: Jefferson Davis. Capital: Montgomery, Alabama; later Richmond Virginia Upper-South States: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee & Arkansas. Deep South States: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina & Florida. National Anthem: Dixie.

The Confederate States of America

The Border States When war broke out, four SLAVE states remained in the Union Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland Later, West Virginia broke away from Virginia and joined the Union as a free state.

Crackdown on the Border States Large portions of the Border States populations supported SECESSION And Lincoln was determined to prevent that from happening. In so doing, he undertook one of the most CONTROVERSIAL actions of his presidency He authorized the suspension of HABEAS CORPUS in the border states. Habeas Corpus is part of DUE PROCESS it refers to the right of an accused person to appear before a judge and hear the charges If a person is not officially charged, they will not have a trial; if they don t have a trial, they will never be set free. The suspension of Habeas Corpus allowed the federal government to arrest any American suspected of supporting the Confederacy And to hold them without trial for the duration of the Civil War.

The Union (The North; The USA) The North had double the amount of railroad track And twice as many factories as the South. This gave the North huge advantages in: Transportation of troops and military equipment, and Manufacturing of guns, bullets, and gunpowder The North also already had a government, and a Navy And, most importantly, 2/3 of Americans lived in the North.

The Confederacy (The South; The CSA) Seven of the eight military colleges in the US were in the South So most of the top military LEADERSHIP in the US went over to the Confederacy when the war began. Also, the Union Army was made up largely of city-dwellers and factory workers While the Confederate Army was made up of men who had lived their whole lives hunting, camping, and riding horses. So the Union Army had MORE soldiers And the Confederate Army had BETTER soldiers, and BETTER leadership.

Which of the following was the North's greatest ADVANTAGE in the Civil War? A.) the fact that it was fighting a defensive war. B.) the performance of its brilliant military leadership. C.) the fact that most of the US' industry was in the North. D.) the value of its huge cotton crop.

MAJOR FIGURES of the US Civil War

Grant started as a minor Union general in charge of Western campaigns And was finally promoted to full command of the Union Army nearly four years into the war. His success lay in his recognition that the North s greatest advantage was its numerical superiority And his willingness to sacrifice HUGE numbers of men to win battles. After the war, he was elected US President. Ulysses S. Grant

Robert E. Lee was considered the finest military officer in the United States And when the war broke out, he was offered command of the Union Army. Unfortunately, he could not bring himself to bear arms against his home state Virginia Instead opting to command the Confederacy. He was a GENIUS And regularly won battles in which he was hugely outnumbered Which probably caused the Civil War to last much longer than it otherwise would have. Robert E. Lee

Although a MODERATE on the slavery issue Lincoln s election caused Southern secession. In his time, he was one of the most UNPOPULAR US Presidents Many people blamed him for sending so many hundreds of thousands of soldiers off to die And he almost lost the election of 1865 Which occurred shortly before his assassination. Abraham Lincoln

Jeff Davis was a former US Secretary of War And a Congressional representative from Mississippi. He was the first and only CSA President And has been criticized by historians by refusing to give up when it was clear that the South could not win. He was captured at the end of the war Spent two years in prison And was then pardoned. Jefferson Davis

Thomas Stonewall Jackson got his nickname after the first Battle of Bull Run He was another military GENIUS who sided with the Confederacy And, like Lee, won numerous battles despite being outnumbered. His death at the Battle of Fredericksburg By friendly fire Was the beginning of the end of the Confederacy. Stonewall Jackson

Sherman, to this day, is considered a RUTHLESS VILLAIN to many Southerners For his refusal to differentiate between military and civilian targets He coined the phrase War is Hell And believed that in order to end it as soon as possible, he had to bring MISERY and PAIN to the Southern population And break their spirit to fight. He invaded Georgia three separate times And each time, his armies brought TOTAL, SCOURING destruction wherever they went. William Tecumseh Sherman

The cardinal rule of warfare is Get there first with the most men. And Union military leaders determined to launch a lighting assault on Manassas, Virginia However, Union troops were so poorly trained, that it took them four days to march the 25 miles from D.C. to Manassas Giving the Confederacy ample time to call up reinforcements And when the two armies finally met on the battlefield They were of equal size. The 1 st Battle of Bull Run

35,000 soldiers met on the battlefield Plus thousands of spectators who had brought their families to watch the battle The Union quickly took control of the battle, forcing the Confederates to fall back Until a Confederate General shouted There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall. Rally around the Virginian! Jackson then led a counterattack that forced a disorganized retreat In which hundreds of Union soldiers threw down their rifles and ran away The sudden retreat caught the spectators by surprise Causing a spectacular mess of picnic baskets, small children, running soldiers, booming cannon, screaming mothers, etc., etc. Disaster at Manassas

The 1st Battle of Bull Run resulted in... A.) a major victory for the Union Army. B.) an attack on Washington, D.C. by the Confederate Army. C.) the realization that the Union Army was poorly trained. D.) the death of General Stonewall Jackson.

In the early stages of the war, the Confederates won EVERY MAJOR BATTLE And Confederate troops began to take on a MYSTICAL, UNBEATABLE quality in the minds of Union Soldiers. Therefore, Robert E. Lee decided to abandon Confederate war strategy And launch an invasion of the NORTH Hoping that by whipping the Union Army on its home soil He would BREAK THEIR SPIRIT TO CONTINUE FIGHTING And thereby force a peace settlement. Southern Victories

General Lee hoped two things would result from his invasion of the North 1. Great Britain would declare its support for the Confederacy and 2. Abraham Lincoln would be forced to seek a peace deal. Confederate forces entered Union territory in western Maryland And the resulting battle killed 26,000 men In the single bloodiest day in US history. Although the Union once again failed to score a victory Lee s reputation for INVINCIBILITY was shaken. The Battle of Antietam

After the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation Which is one of the greatest STROKES OF GENIUS in political history. The proclamation freed all the slaves in the Confederacy So it freed approximately ZERO slaves But it had two effects: 1. It redefined the war as a war to end slavery placing the South on the side of EVIL 2. It kept Great Britain out of the war because the British people would not support joining a war to protect slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation

As a result of the Emancipation Proclamation... A.) the conflict was redefined as a war to end slavery. B.) European nations gave support to the Confederacy. C.) four more states seceded from the Union. D.) slaves were allowed to fight in the Confederate Army.