The Civil War

Selecting a Research Topic :The Multi-Genre Project

Over the next month, you will be focusing your

research on a single person or event from the Civil War Era.

Therefore, you must pick a topic that genuinely piques your interest.

You will spend a lot of energy becoming an expert on your topic in order to build historical empathy. What was it like to walk in their shoes? What influenced their actions? Or, how did the battle or event influence the outcome of the war?

Why Topic Selection is So Important:

After looking at the following slides, your task is

to rank your top 3 choices for research topics. You will need to defend your reasons for picking

your topic to your teacher. Ask Yourself:

What really captures my interests? Will I be motivated to spend an extended amount

of time studying this topic? Is it something that is important to me? Why is this topic fascinating to me?

Defend Your Choice

The nation was split between the north (UNION) and the south (CONFEDERATE)

Border states were slave states that did not leave the union. People in these states fought on both sides.

Civil War Map

Union Historical Figures

- What started as a war to preserve the Union, and keep all the United States together changed over time into a war to end slavery.- These individuals fought, worked, gave speeches, wrote articles, nursed, spied and helped the on the side of the Union.- An abolitionist is a person who wanted to outlaw and end slavery. Not everyone in the north, however, held the same views on slavery.

Clara Barton

Nicknamed, "the angel of the battlefield," Clara Barton began attending to wounded Union soldiers after the early losses at Bull Run

Her courage in the face of danger soon became legendary.

Barton began organizing donations and distributing necessary medicines and materials.

Years later, she went on to found the American Red Cross.

Mary Ann Bickerdyke

Came to be known as “Mother Bickerdyke”

Hospital Administrator Talents ranged from

brewing coffee for her “boys” to assisting with amputations

Legendary for ability to scrounge together supplies

Matthew Brady

Premier photographer of the Civil War

Father of photojournalism

Took thousands of pictures during the Civil War

His photos have helped us understand the war

John Brown

Radical abolitionist Fought in Bleeding

Kansas Led a group that

murdered 5 people at Potowatamie Creek

Attacked Harpers Ferry to seize weapons to arm slaves.

Ambrose Burnside

Union General roller-coaster military career

included early Civil War successes, promotion to major general, a bloody draw at the Battle of Antietam and taking over command from George McClellan.

Two spectacular failures--the "Burnside mud march" and the "Burnside mine"--led to his first retirement, his return, and final removal from command.

Later he served as Rhode Island's governor and U.S. Senator.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Wounded 4 times Promoted to

Brigadier General by U.S. Grant

Earned Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Gettysburg

Served as Governor of Maine

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Wartime leader of Union nurses

After war became a worldwide leading advocate for better treatment of the mentally ill in prisons and asylums

Frederick Douglass

Escaped slavery Learned to read and

write and published his own autobigraphy

Abolitionist Pressed President

Lincoln to enlist black soldiers in the Union Army

David Farragut

Navy Admiral Served with

distinction for over 40 years

Famous for quote, “Damn the torpedoes!”

Led the Union to victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay

Ulysses S. Grant

Nicknamed U.S. (Unconditional Surrender) Grant.

Rose from obscurity to be the top Union General by wars end.

Went on to be elected president in 1868.

Joseph Hooker

West Point Graduate Union General Nicknamed “Fighting

Joe” for his bravery at Williamsburg

Fell out of favor by 1864

Abraham Lincoln

President of the Union during the Civil War

Signed the Emancipation Proclamation

Famous for Gettysburg Address following the battle of Gettysburg.

Ely Parker

Seneca Indian with legal training

Wrote the terms for confederate surrender

Headed the nation as the leader of the Indian Affairs Bureau

George McClellan

Union General Brilliant soldier,

excellent at training troops.

Hesitancy and differences with his commander and chief Abraham Lincoln, led to his dismissal as top general.

Wendell Phillips

Abolitionist Harvard graduate Leading orator of the

time period After war continued

to fight for human rights including Womans Rights and native American Rights

William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionist who founded the American Anti-Slavery Society

Wrote a newspaper called The Liberator

Elisha Hunt Rhodes

Union Soldier Joined Rhode Island

volunteers in 1861 His diary of the war

supplied a candid and fascinating impression of the slaughter and tragedy of the war

Dred Scott

Famous for trying to get his freedom

1857 case ruled against him and stated that slaves are property and cannot become free if they move to a free state.

Court case further fanned the flames leading to the civil war

Harriet Tubman

Famous conductor on the Underground Railroad

Led over 300 slaves to freedom

Nicknamed “the general” for her tough discipline

Would lead slaves at gunpoint to keep them silent as they fled

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union General Captured the southern

city of Atlanta Fought with the

philosophy of Total War-burning and destroying civilian infrastructure

1864 “March to the Sea” decimated the South's ability to wage war

Robert Smalls

Slave who was born in South Carolina

Freed himself and crew by commandeering the CSS Planter and sailing it north

Became a sea captain for the Union

Annie Wittenmyer

Cared for wounded soldiers during the Civil War

Helped create the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home

First president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

Pauline Cushman

Union Actress and Spy

Became known as Miss Major Cushman by wars end for her service to the Union cause.

Emma Edmonds

Dressed as a man to enlist in the Union Army

After contracting malaria, she returned to the civil war as a nurse and spy

George Armstrong Custer

Brilliant Cavalry commander for the Union

Cocky and headstrong After Civil War,

continued to fight in the west

Infamous for his defeat during the Indian Wars at “Custer’s Last Stand” at the Battle of Little Bighorn

Daniel Webster

Politician from Massachusetts

Worked for compromises during the time leading up to the Civil War

Served as U.S. Secretary of State two times.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Referred to by Abraham Lincoln as, “The little lady who started this big war.”

Her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin changed the way many Americans felt about slavery.

Nat Turner

Led a slave rebellion in 1831, in Virgina

Contributed to southern fears of blacks overthrowing their masters

ConfederateHistorical Figures

-The following historical figures fought on the southern side. They believed that individual states had the right to allow slavery or not.

-The south was called the Confederacy, or the Confederate States of America

Confederate Flag

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beaurgard

Field Commander for the South.

Veteran of Mexican American War.

Left Union Army to defend home state of Louisiana.

Fought at Fort Sumter & Bull Run

John Wilkes Booth

Stage Actor from the south

Assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C.

John Calhoun

Leading southern politician from South Carolina

Died 11 years before Civil War began

Believed strongly in states rights and was an inspiration to southern secession.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederacy

From Kentucky Supported Robert E.

Lee Imprisoned after

Civil War

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Brilliant southern cavalry officer (led troops on horseback).

After Civil War became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku-Klux-Klan

Rose O’Neal Greenhow

Famous southern Spy

Well known in Washington D.C. high society

Used her connections to pass secrets to Confederate generals.

Ambrose P. Hill

Known as a ferocious fighter

Virginian and graduate of West Point

Fought with Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and

John Bell Hood

Leader of the legendary Texas Brigade

Wounded at Gettysburg

Defended Atlanta against Sherman

After war went into business but died penniless

Thomas Jackson

Famously brave, eccentric and secretive general for the south.

Robert E. Lee’s most trusted officer.

Nicknamed “Stonewall Jackson” at First Battle of Bull Run.

Shot by his own troops on accident.

Robert E. Lee

Regarded as the war’s finest general.

Fought for the south due to his loyalty to his home state of Virginia.

Lincoln asked him to lead the Union Army.

Opposed slavery.

James Longstreet

West Point graduate who fought for the south

Often argued with Robert E. Lee

Blamed for Pickett’s charge and failure at Gettysburg

Went on to be the U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

George Pickett

Southern General Cut down the

famous Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg

Notorious for ill-fated “Pickett’s Charge” at Gettysburg.

J.E.B. Stuart

Left Union Army to fight for the Confederacy

Excelled at gather intelligence about the other side

Charasmatic leader who died at the battle of Yellow Tavern Crossroads

Famous for saying, “I would rather die than be whipped.”

Sally Louisa Tompkins

Nicknamed the “Angel of the Confederacy”

Started her own private hospital in Richmond, Virgina, to care for wounded confederate soldiers

Eli Whitney

Invented the Cotton Gin

Helped make Cotton farming a booming industry in the south and very profitable - $

Therefore, furthered the expansion of slavery into western territories

Civil War Battles

Fort Sumter

Sea Fort in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

Held by the Union at the very start of the war

Bombing of Fort Sumter in the early morning hours of April 12, 1861 were the first shots fired in the Civil War

Antietam

Bloodiest single day battle of the Civil War and of American History

Over 20,000 soldiers died

Took place near Sharpsburg, Maryland

1st Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

First major battle of the War

The south wins the battle Shows north that this will

not be a quick and easy war

Wealthy northerners brought picnic lunches to watch the battle, until the confederates broke through the line, when they had to run for safety!

Vicksburg

Citizens of Vicksburg had to live in dug-out homes during the siege of Vicksburg due to all of the bombing.

City on the Mississippi River. Confederate Cannons on the top of bluffs controlled the river

U.S. Grant lays siege to the town.

Eventually, the north wins this battle and city.

Key turning point in war during the summer of 1863.

Gettysburg

Turning point of the war for Union victory Took place July 1-3, 1863 Highest death toll of the war Ends Lee’s invasion of the north.

March to the Sea

After capturing Atlanta, Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman, marched to the sea, burning, destroying and pillaging everything in their path.

Total War – trying to end the war by destroying southern infrastructure.

Appomattox

Final battle and surrender of Robert E. Lee.

More Battles…These could be good topics if you are really interested in war strategy or a specific battle. Fields of Fury would be an excellent place to start your research.

Fort Donelson Shiloh Battle of New Orleans Peninsular Campaign Seven Days Battles 2nd Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) Fredericksburg Chancellorsville Chickamauga Chattanooga The Wilderness & Spotsylvania Cold Harbor The Battle of Atlanta The Battle of Mobile Bay Petersburg

Additional Topics

Bleeding Kansas

Armed fighting between southern, “border ruffians” and northern “free soilers.”

Political fighting between the north and south over Kansas: Would it enter the union as a free or slave state?

Fugitive Slave Act

Passed as a measure of the Compromise of 1850

Allowed southern slave owners to come north and reclaim escaped slaves

The Anaconda Plan

Proposed by General Winfield Scott

The Union’s plan to win the Civil War

Surround and block the south and squeeze them until they give up.

Border States

States that were between the North and South and did not secede from the Union.

What did people in these states think about the Civil War?

The Emancipation Proclamation

Presidential Order executed by Abraham Lincoln on January 1st, 1863

Only slaves in states that were in rebellion were freed by this order

Wartime measure that Lincoln passed out of necessity to get African American soldiers to fight for the Union cause.

Secession

Southern states leave the United states to form their own country called the Confederate States of America

The Underground Railroad

The network of safe houses and routes that slaves followed to escape to the North.

“Conductors” like Harriet Tubman led these slaves to safety

Woman At War

What role did woman take during the Civil War?

Thousands of women in the North and South joined volunteer brigades and signed up to work as nurses.

By the end of the war, these experiences had expanded many Americans’ definitions of “true womanhood.”

African Americans at War

After the Emancipation Proclamation, thousands of African Americans joined Union ranks to fight for their freedom.

Boys at War

Boys as young as 12, 13 and 14 went off to fight in the civil war.

What was their experience like?

Ironclads

Steam powered warships covered with iron or steel armor plates.

The Monitor and the Merrimac

Andersonville Prison

Southern prison near Andersonville, Georgia

Infamous for terrible, gruesome conditions and lack of supplies for captured soldiers

Of the approximately 45,000 Union prisoners held during the war, nearly 13,000 died of starvation, malnutrition, diarrhea or disease.

Reconstruction

1865-1877

The time period after the Civil War is known as The Reconstruction Era.

How did southern states become part of the Union again?

What happened to newly freed, former slaves?

Camp Randall

Training facility for Wisconsin soldiers during the Civil War

Over 70,000 volunteer recruits received training at Camp Randall

Today is the site of the Badgers Football Stadium

Wisconsin Volunteers

During its four long years, more than 90,000 Wisconsin soldiers fought for the Union cause.

Do you have an ancestor who fought for the Union?

Old Abe, a female bald eagle was the mascot for the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry(No this is not a topic option)

Sources

Pictures and information gathered from:

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War