As the war began in April, 1861, what was the Confederacy fighting for?

As the war began in April, 1861, what was the Union fighting for?

The primary cause of the conflict was

slavery. Why then was the

Union not actively trying to destroy slavery

in 1861?

If it became a war about slavery in 1861, the border states would have surely seceded.

Lincoln also understood that the

American public was not unified on

the issue. Any move towards

emancipation early in the war would

have further divided popular opinion about the war.

The Union blockade of the South increased

slowly over time, especially as the U.S.

navy focused its attention on specific

major southern ports.

To equip itself with a navy to

combat the blockade, the Confederacy

turned to British

shipbuilders.

Ships like the Alabama and the “Laird rams” upset the Union and tensions between the U.S.

and Great Britain began to grow.

The only real Confederate threat to the Union blockade appeared in 1862 when the

Confederate navy turned this…

U.S.S. Merrimack

Into this…

C.S.S. Virginia

Richmond

Norfolk

On March 8, 1862, the Virginia approached

U.S. navy ships blockading the port of Norfolk. The ironclad

Virginia sunk the wooden hulled U.S.S.

Congress and the U.S.S. Cumberland. It also heavily damaged the U.S.S. Minnesota. Darkness prevented it from finishing the job.

That night a very odd looking ship pulled along side the wounded Minnesota.

U.S.S. Monitor

On March 9, 1862 the

Virginia and the Monitor

shelled each other for four hours in the

Battle of Hampton

Roads. The Virginia

withdrew and the Union blockade

held.

The Union approached the Mississippi River from two directions.

On April 7, 1862 Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated

Confederate forces in

Tennessee after two days of

fighting at the Battle of Shiloh.

Union casualties were 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing); Confederate casualties were 10,694 (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing or captured).

This total of 23,741 men represented more than the total U.S. casualties in the Revolutionary War, the War of

1812, and the Mexican-American War combined.

The Battle of Shiloh is important for two reasons:

1. Grant began to attract the attention of Lincoln and other politicians in Washington.

2. It largely secured the state of Tennessee for the Union and allowed Grant to move toward capturing the upper Mississippi River.

Throughout early April the Union navy gathered ships in the Gulf of Mexico for an

assault on New Orleans in an attempt to sail up the Mississippi from the South. By April 24, 1862 40 ships were ready for the attack.

Two Confederate

forts, Ft. Jackson and Ft. St. Phillip

guarded the mouth of the river. Union

ships had to fight their way past those forts to

capture the city.

The Union navy was led by Adm. David

Farragut who successfully led his ships past the forts and on to capture

New Orleans on April 29, 1862.

By the end of 1862 only two cities stood in the way of the Union

accomplishing the second part of the Anaconda Plan.

Vicksburg, MS and Port Hudson, LA

refused to surrender. Grant settled his army

in for a siege of Vicksburg to force a

surrender.

Washington

Richmond

The third part of the plan called for the Union army to capture Richmond, the Confederate Capital.

To that end Lincoln ordered Gen. Irvin McDowell to lead

the army from Washington for an attack on a small

Confederate force at Manassas, VA.

McDowell and the Union were

defeated at the Battle of Bull Run,

July 21 1861.

The Confederate victory was

largely due to the leadership of Thomas J.

Jackson whose soldiers from Virginia stood

like a “stonewall” against the Union

onslaught.

Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured; Confederate casualties were

387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing.

Following the disaster of Bull Run, Lincoln

turned to a new commander to

more thoroughly

prepare Union forces for what was now sure to be a long, bloody war.

Gen. George B. McClellan

McClellan was a thorough

commander who excelled at training and preparing an

army to fight.

Unfortunately for Lincoln and the

Union, McClellan wasn’t so good at leading that

army into battle.

By late spring in 1862, Lincoln finally convinced McClellan to get on with the task of capturing Richmond. The General led the Army of the Potomac south into the

disastrous Peninsula Campaign.

Between June 26, 1862 and July 2, 1862 Robert E.

Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, attacked McClellan during

the Seven Day’s Battle. The Confederate victory

during these battles forced the Army of the Potomac to retreat back down the

peninsula and sail home to Washington.

Following McClellan’s failure on the

peninsula, Abraham Lincoln gave

command of the Army of the Potomac to Gen. John Pope.

Pope did no better losing to Lee at the

2nd Battle of Bull Run in late August, 1862.

Lincoln quickly allowed McClellan to

return to his command.

As Union losses mounted,

abolitionists increasingly called for Lincoln to strike a blow for slavery, to turn the war into a moral crusade, to rally the American

public around a higher calling.

By mid 1862 Lincoln was moving in that direction. Not only

did he hope to strengthen the

Union cause, but emancipation made

sense from a military standpoint

as well.

Slaves were crucial in allowing the Confederate Army to function. They served as cooks, nurses, scouts, and most importantly hauled necessary

supplies and built camps for the soldiers.

But in contemplating a

blow against slavery, Lincoln had his eye on

even bigger issues.

Due to the unprecedented

success of Lee and the Army of

Northern Virginia throughout 1861 and early 1862,

France and Great Britain had begun

to consider the possibility of a Confederate

victory.

Given this reality, Lincoln informed his cabinet that he had decided to turn the war into a contest over slavery

by emancipating the slaves. How would this help?

His cabinet argued that

Lincoln needed to wait. Anyone

tell us why?

The Confederate government knew

that one more victory might bring

Europe into the conflict. Embolden

by his previous successes, Lee decided the time was ripe for an invasion of the

North.

Little did Lee know that he was heading for the bloodiest day in all of American history, and an event that would change the course of the War.