Major Battles of the Civil War

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Major Battles and events of the

American Civil War

1861-1865

Name of Battle Fighting Over Outcome of Battle

Extras

Fort Sumter Control of an island fort in the Charleston, SC harbor

North evacuated, South took the fort.

No-one was killed.South violated Monroe Doctrine, Lincoln called for troops.

War is All HellWar is All Hell-William T.

Sherman

It is going to cost a lot of money for the South to win their independence from the USA and they are not really equipped to fight a long war.

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It is going to cost a lot of money for the South to win their independence from the USA and they are not really equipped to fight a long war.

They intend to win the war quickly by playing a version of “Capture the Flag”.

Southern War Strategy:

Invade Washington, DC, capture Lincoln and gain control of the Capitol building.

Gutsy! Could it work?

It almost did…

The Battle of First Bull Run

Or

Battle of Manassas Junction

July 21, 1861 1.

Principal Commanders:   Union States: Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowellConfederate States: Brig. Gen. Joseph E.

Johnston and Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard

• Forces Engaged: 60,680 total   • Union: 28,450   Confederate States:

32,230 • Estimated Casualties: 4,700   • Results: Confederate victory

• Southern forces attempted to take the US capitol by attacking from the Virginia approach.

• CSA General PGT Beauregard made a huge mistake by not pursuing US forces into Washington after he had won on the battlefield.

• The South retreated. The North had a scary wake-up call!

•Union Blockade of Southern ports was secured.

•Lincoln appointed another General to command troops around Washington and to train the volunteers.

•Southern volunteers were also turning out in huge numbers.

1861

Merrimac vs. MonitorMarch 9, 1862

2.

Hampton Roads, Virginia

• This naval battle, off the coast of Virginia, marked the first ever conflict between two metal ships, or “Ironclads”.

• The Monitor eventually won when the Merrimac was forced to scuttle itself.

• However, the Merrimac had already rammed and sunk two Northern ships that were made of wood.

Shiloh~Pittsburg Landing

April 6, 1862 3.

Major Battles of the Civil War

Shiloh was a struggle for control of the Mississippi River at the Northwestern corner of that state.

Shiloh yielded another surprise for Lincoln: a general who could win a major battle!

Ulysses S. Grant

Confederates Enact Conscription

April 16, 1862

• Under the Conscription Act, all healthy white men between the ages of 18 and 35 were liable for a three year term of service.

• The act also extended the terms of enlistment for all one-year soldiers to three years.

Surrender of New OrleansApril 28, 1862

Major Battles of the Civil War

AntietamSeptember 16-18, 1862

4.

Major Battles of the Civil War

• Robert E. Lee crosses over into Northern territory to mount an attack on Washington.

• This was the bloodiest single day of fighting ever in American History, with over 23,000 Americans killed.

• The Confederates actually suffered fewer losses, but their retreat gave

the North the victory.

Lincoln Issues the Emancipation

Proclamation

Stated: September 22,

1862

To take effect:January 1, 1863

5.

“…That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom…”

…”And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.”

The 54th Massachusetts

Regiment

Colonel

Robert Gould Shaw

Glory

William Harvey Carney

First Black United States Medal of Honor recipient

Veterans of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry at the dedication of the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the men of the 54th, May 31, 1897

Union Conscription BeginsMarch 1863

• Because of recruiting difficulties, an act was passed making all men between the ages of 20 and 45 liable to be called for military service.

• You could, when drafted, pay a man to go in your place. This was seen as discriminatory towards the poor.

ChancellorsvilleApril 30-May 6, 1863

6.

• This battle is considered to be Robert E. Lee’s most brilliant victory.

• He got a little over-confident, and began to plan an assault that would prove to be his defeat.

VicksburgMay 22, 1863

7.

The fall of Vicksburg divided the CSA into two parts….

•Grant was now the “hero” of the West.

•Lincoln reassigned him to defend Washington, DC.

•Grant Travels East.

Possibly made bolder by his victory at Chancellorsville, Lee decides that now is the time to strike from a direction least expected by the North ~ North!

Move troops through difficult terrain into Southern Pennsylvania and attack Washington, DC from above…

GettysburgJuly 1-4, 1863

CSA General Robert E. Lee USA General George Meade 8.

What’s So Great About Pennsylvania?

• Objective: Big Round Top. The only “high ground” for approximately 50 miles.

•In the 1860’s, people got their information from newspapers.

•Battlefield correspondents actually sat on the battlefields and took notes.

•They then “wired” their stories back to their papers and a story might hit the stands in 1-2 days.

Field Telegraph

•Using electrical impulses and Morse Code, messages could be sent over long distances.

•Those distances had to be connected by a wire.

•If the wire was cut…

What? No CNN?

• Lee and Meade’s armies numbered over 90,000 men.

• For Lee, this was a gamble. He was betting most of the Southern army on a swift and crushing defeat.

• Meade won the battle and wiped out most of Lee’s future ability to mount another offensive.

Shocking photos like this one were captioned, printed and sold to an American populace hungry for news

about the progress of the war.

Casualties at Gettysburg:Commonly considered the turning point of the war

  Killed Wounded Missing Total % of Total

Union 3,155 14,530 5,365 23,040 27%

Confederate2,600-4,500

12,800 5,25020,65025,000*

30%-34%

•Total Confederate casualties have been estimated to be as great as 28,000.

•It is usually agreed that total Confederate casualties numbered at least 1/3 of Lee's army.

This battle is known for three main things:

• 1/3 of the Southern Army was defeated.

• It was the farthest North a Southern army ever got.

• After Gettysburg, the South will fight on, but the war is basically over.

Entrance to the “Soldiers Cemetery” At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

•The Battle of Gettysburg forever changed the little town of Gettysburg.

•The battlefield contained the bodies of more than 75,000 dead soldiers and several thousand horses of the Union's Army of the Potomac and the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia.

•The stench of rotting bodies made many townspeople violently ill in the weeks following the battle, and the burial of the dead in a dignified and orderly manner became a high priority for the few thousand residents of Gettysburg.

•The Battle of Gettysburg forever changed the little town of Gettysburg.

•The battlefield contained the bodies of more than 75,000 dead soldiers and several thousand horses of the Union's Army of the Potomac and the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia.

•The stench of rotting bodies made many townspeople violently ill in the weeks following the battle, and the burial of the dead in a dignified and orderly manner became a high priority for the few thousand residents of Gettysburg.

No Pressure, Right?

• Contrary to popular myth, Lincoln neither completed his address while on the train nor wrote it on the back of an envelope.

• On the morning of November 19 at 9:30 a.m., Lincoln joined in a procession with the assembled dignitaries, townspeople, and widows marching out to the grounds to be dedicated astride a chestnut bay horse.

• Lincoln was not the featured speaker at the event. The most famous speaker of the 1800’s was a man named

Edward Everett who was a lawyer and a politician.

• He spoke before Lincoln – for over two hours! Hardly anyone recalls what he said.

Edward EverettEverett's Gettysburg Address

•Only known photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg.

•The crowd was so moved by his 8 minute speech that they quickly surrounded him in thanks and congratulations once he had finished. He had only one bodyguard. •Can you imagine this scene today?

How would the Secret Service react?

Good writers edit!

The Gettysburg Address

is the name of the famous (and short!) speech given by Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery honoring the soldiers of both sides who died in the battle.

9.

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. 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 battlefield 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. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

“That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

“The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

ChickamaugaSeptember 18, 1863

10.

Lookout Mountain (Chattanooga)

November 24, 1863

11.

A Northern force of 12,000 men under the command of General Joseph Hooker encountered a force of 1,200 Rebels who were entrenched in the side of the mountain.

During the battle a fog descended on the mountain, and the Southern forces slipped away…Towards Dalton, Georgia.

Battle of Kennesaw MountainJune 27, 1864

12.

The Battle of AtlantaJuly 22, 1864

13.

Sherman vs. Johnston

Sherman burned Atlanta, forever earning the name for himself in our history book as the

“devil” of Georgia.

• Once the railroad line entering Georgia was secured, General William T. Sherman was given command of the Northern offensive in Georgia with the instructions to take Atlanta and make the people of Georgia “howl”.

• He used a process of “scorched earth” to move across

the countryside and to leave destruction in his wake.

Sherman’s March to the Sea

14.

The siege and surrender of Atlanta September 2, 1864 (10 months after Chickamauga) demonstrated the unwillingness of Southern troops to surrender despite overwhelming odds against the possibility of winning.

Maybe that’s what the continued display of this flag means? Southerners do not quit easily?

• General Sherman began his march through Georgia to the sea. In the course of the march, he cut himself off from his source of supplies, planning for his troops to live off the land.

• His men cut a path 300 miles in length and 60 miles wide as they passed through Georgia, destroying factories, bridges, railroads, and public buildings. 

• Destination: Savannah

Route of Sherman Through Georgia

Election of 1864

•In the middle of all of the decisions and headaches of fighting a war to keep the country together, Lincoln had to run for re-election in 1864. His opponent? One of the men he had fired as head of the defense of Washington, DC – George McClellan.

•The success of the Atlanta Campaign is generally considered to be the reason he was re-selected as President.

McClellan the Democrat

His platform was primarily the

repeal of the Emancipation Proclamation.

He (and many others) felt Lincoln had over-stepped his bounds when he freed Southern slaves.

Election of 1864

15.

The Fall of Richmond

• At approximately 7 A.M. on Sunday, April 2, 1865, Ulysses S. Grant's army attacked Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia. By mid-afternoon, Confederate troops had begun to evacuate the town.

• The Union victory ensured the fall of Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, located just 25 miles north of Petersburg.

16.

Jefferson Davis, the Confederate Cabinet and about $100,000 worth of gold bars boarded a train and left the city.

They were bound South to safety.

The gold was to be returned to France who had loaned the money to support the Confederacy.

The fate of the gold bars has never been discovered…

The gold was to be returned to France who had loaned the money to support the Confederacy.

Last seen around Washington, Georgia in 1865.

The fate of the gold bars has never been discovered…

Appomattox CourthouseApril 9, 1865

17.

Major Battles of the Civil War

The Surrender Terms

• Commanding officers had to give up their weapons.

The Surrender Terms

• Commanding officers had to give up their weapons.

• Southern officers were able to keep their horses.

• Grant supplied food for 25,000 Southern soldiers who had not eaten in several days.

• Southern soldiers were to return to their homes and stop fighting.

The Surrender Terms

• Commanding officers had to give up their weapons.

• Southern officers were able to keep their horses.

• Grant supplied food for 25,000 Southern soldiers who had not eaten in several days.

• Southern soldiers were to return to their homes and stop fighting.

The Surrender Terms

• Commanding officers had to give up their weapons.

• Southern officers were able to keep their horses.

• Grant supplied food for 25,000 Southern soldiers who had not eaten in several days.

• Southern soldiers were to return to their homes and stop fighting.

Lee and Traveller

Lincoln’s AssassinationApril 14-15, 1865

Actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln. This was part of a larger plan to kill several men who had aided in the destruction of the South.

18.

Booth entered the box where Lincoln was viewing the play and shot him at point-blank range in the back of the head.

Lincoln was carried across the street from Ford’s Theatre to a private home and died there the next morning.

“Sic Semper

Tyrannis!”

Booth avoided capture for 11 days, riding through the countryside and stopping for help and supplies along the way.

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the

United States

19.

Lincoln’s body lay in state in the Rotunda in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC.

Lincoln’s Funeral Procession down Pennsylvania Avenue

After 5 funerals and two previous gravesites, Lincoln’s final resting place finally became this tomb in Springfield, Illinois in 1874.

On the morning of April 26, 1865, Booth was discovered hiding in a barn in Bowling Green, Virginia.

The barn was set afire and Booth tried to run from the burning structure.

He was shot in the neck and bled to death on the ground.

George Atzerodt

Was supposed to

kill Vice-President

Andrew Johnson.

Never attacked anyone.

Mary Surratt

Ran the boarding house where Booth lived.

John Surratt

Husband of Mary.

Lewis Powell

Attempted to murder Secretary of State Seward by stabbing him in his home.

The Conspirators

• Lincoln conspirators were hanged following three months of questioning.

• Mary Surratt became the first woman ever executed in American history.

Durham StationApril 17, 1865

CSA General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to General William T. Sherman near Raleigh, North Carolina.

20.

Capture of Jefferson Davis

May 9, 1865

• Davis was captured in Irwinville, Georgia as he was attempting to reach the coast and catch a boat out of the Southern states.

• He was imprisoned for two Years, then released.

Pardon of Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis received a pardon for his actions by Georgian Jimmy Carter on the

17th of October 1978.

•The Civil War began at Manasses at the home of Wilmer McLean and ended in the house he had moved to in order to escape the fighting in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.

Following a twelve day coma, Robert E. Lee passed away on October 12, 1870.

• After the Civil War, Sherman became Commanding General of the Army (1869–83).

• He was responsible for the conduct of the Indian wars in the West. Despite the prodding of many, he refused to enter politics. He died on February 19, 1891.

• Twenty-six years after his surrender to Sherman at Durham Crossing, Joe Johnston died of pneumonia, contracted while he stood hatless in the

rain at William T. Sherman's funeral, March 21, 1891.

Grant entered politics and was elected the 18th President of the United States of America.

Grant’s 8 years as President were marked by corruption and scandal. He died of throat cancer on July 23, 1885.

His tomb in New York state is the largest in North America.

Finis.

Now what?

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Major Battles of the Civil War

Exam Extra Credit: Correctly identify the following points on the map.

Identify each of these major battle sites, label the points, print out this sheet, and bring to our exam tomorrow to add 10 points to your test. Good Luck : )