Slide 1 Siege at Vicksburg May 19 - July 4, 1863 -By the spring of 1863, Union forces controlled New Orleans and most of the Mississippi River. Thus the Union objective of securing complete control of the Mississippi River was close to being accomplished but there was one section still under control by the Confederacy a stretch between Vicksburg and Port Hudson. -Unsuccessful attempts at capturing Vicksburg had been attempted in 1862 but failed. -Control of Vicksburg was critical for the South. Beef from Texas, sugar/salt/molasses from Louisiana were essential for feeding Confederate troops. These supplies, including lead from Missouri all funneled through Vicksburg and its railroads. -General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the union forces in the west, began a siege of the heavily fortified city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Union artillery bombarded the city for 7 weeks. 24 hour bombardment on all sides meant the city is cut off. Food and supplies grew scarce. Finally the Confederates surrendered on July 4. Federal warships now controlled the full length of the Mississippi and cut off TX, LA, and AR from the rest of the confederacy.
Slide 2 Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863 -The Battle of Gettysburg would prove to be Lee s major offensive in the war. He invaded the Union in Maryland and Pennsylvania. His goal was to either destroy the Union army or capture a major northern city. He hoped this would help stoke the fires of the growing peace movement. 200,000 were dead and there appeared to be no end of the war in sight. Northerners were growing more and more dismayed with the war. -On July 1, 1863 the invading southern army surprised the Union units at Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania. The battle lasted three days between Lee s Confederate Army and Union troops led by George Meade. -Lee s troops were outnumbered and unable to break through Union lines. Lee was forced to retreat on July 3 back towards Virginia. -This proved crushing confederate defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg - this proved to be the military turning point in the war. From this point forward the Confederate Army will be consistently on the defensive. -On November 19, 1863 Lincoln dedicated a national cemetery at Gettysburg with perhaps his most famous address in US history. 15,000 people attended. In 2 minutes Lincoln laid out the history of the republic, the war, the need to continue the fight, and a vision for the future.
Slide 3 Sherman s March -As a result of his successes in the West, Lincoln made Grant the commander of all the Union armies in early 1864. -His goal was simply to outlast Lee by fighting a war of attrition. Although he would suffer heavy losses he succeeded in reducing Lee s army in each battle and forcing it into a defensive line around Richmond. -The chief instrument of Grant s aggressive tactics for subduing the South was General William Tecumseh Sherman. -Sherman was a pioneer of the tactics of total war. His troops destroyed everything in their path: cotton fields, barns, houses, etc. Anything the enemy might use to survive. -Sherman took Atlanta, GA in Sept. 1864, Savannah, GA in December, and Columbia, SC in Feb 1865 (the capital of South Carolina and the cradle of secession. -His march had its intended effect: breaking the will of the South and its ability to fight on.
Slide 4 The Election of 1864 -In the midst of the war, the Union held a presidential election in 1864. -General George McClellan (yep the same guy fired by Lincoln twice) was the Democratic nominee for president. He ran on the platform calling for peace. -Republicans renamed their party the Unionist party as a way of attracting the votes of War Democrats and Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson, a war democrat from Tennessee, as his vice presidential candidate -Because of heavy losses Grant was taking on as a part of his war of attrition, Lincoln fully expected to lose the election. But the good news such as capture of Mobile Bay in August by Admiral Farragut and Sherman s capture of Atlanta in September turned the tide. -The Lincoln-Johnson ticket won 212 electoral votes to the Democrats 21. The popular vote was much closer - McClellan took 45 % of the total votes cast. -At his 2nd inaugural address he urged that the defeated South be treated benevolently with malice toward none; with charity for all.
Slide 5 Surrender at Appomattox April 9, 1865 Lee Grant -The effects of the Union blockade, combined with Sherman s march of destruction, spread hunger through much of the South in the winter of 1864-1865. -On the battlefront in VA, Grant continued to outflank Lee s lines until Richmond, VA fell on April 3, 1865. -Lee retreated from Richmond with less than 30,000 men. He tried to escape but was cut off. He surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9. 1865.
Slide 6 Lincoln s Assassination April 14, 1865 Ford s Theatre Booth -John Wilkes Booth was an embittered actor and southern sympathizer who shot and killed the president while he was attending a theatrical performance at Ford s Theatre in Washington, DC. -On the same night, a coconspirator attacked but only wounded Secretary of State William Seward. -These shocking events aroused the fury of northerners at the very time that the South most needed a sympathetic hearing. -Lincoln s loss was widely mourned, but the extent of the loss of his leadership was not fully realized until the reunited country had to deal with the postwar reconstruction period.
Slide 7 Political Impacts of the War 1. Republicans dominated Congress 2. Expansion of Presidential Power -Suspended the writ of habeas corpus -Ex Parte Milligan (1866) 3. Supremacy of the federal gov t was established Secession of the southern states had created Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. Within the ranks of Republicans however there were sharp differences between radicals and moderates. Lincoln s actions in prosecuting the war set many precedents for the president s emergency powers. Following the secession of the South Lincoln unilaterally increased the size of the army, spent unappropriated funds from the US treasury, and suspended the writ of habeas corpus. The first 2 actions were in direct violation of the Constitution. Although the Constitution says that the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in times of emergency it doesn t state specifically who can and many believed because it was included in Article 1 that only Congress could. Throughout the war Lincoln took initiatives the clearly fell within the purview of the legislative branch: the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, the declaration of martial law, seizure of property, suppression of newspapers; arresting without a warrant and prohibiting the postal service for treasonable correspondence. In justifying his actions, Lincoln cited the Constitution s requirements that he act as commander in chief, to oversee the execution of federal law and his pledge to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. But because his actions enjoyed broad support in Congress and the general population no challenges to his authority occurred at least until after the war. For example, President Lincoln was very concerned about Southern sympathizers undermining the war effort in the North. These "Copperheads" were especially active in the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. To combat this threat, President Lincoln issued a number of orders putting certain civilian areas in the North under military control and imposing martial (military) law. This enabled the military to arrest and try civilians whom they suspected of being disloyal. Lambdin Milligan and four other men in Indiana were charged with plotting to steal weapons and free Confederate soldiers held in prisoner-of-war camps. A military court sentenced them to die, but in the case Ex Parte Milligan the Supreme Court ruled that the government had acted improperly in Indiana where during the war certain civilians had been subject to a military trial. The court declared that such procedures could be used only when regular civilian courts were unavailable. Milligan was released from prison and never convicted by a civilian court. In Lincoln s defense it must be noted that no president before or since has faced a crisis of such magnitude as the Civil War, and thus swift and and extraordinary action may well have been necessary. Yet, as Clinton Rossiter, noted scholar of presidential power, observed, There is however, this disturbing fact to remember: he set a precedent for bad men as well as good States rights and nullification was no longer an issue. The North s victory in the civil war established the supremacy of the federal government over the states as a fact.
Slide 8 Economic Impacts of the War 1. Tariffs, excise taxes, and an income tax were used to finance the war 2. Greenbacks were issued 3. New class of millionaires emerged The north tried to finance the war largely by borrowing (through the sale of government bonds) this amount however was not enough. So Congress resorted to raising tariffs, adding new excise taxes (for example a butcher had to pay.30 for every head of beef he slaughtered,.10 for every hog, and.05 for every sheep), and instituting the first income tax (3% of income over $800 in 1861, then increased to a graduated rate rising from 5% of income over $600 to 10% of income over $10,000 in 1864). To collect these revenues the Bureau of Internal Revenue was created. The US Treasury also issued over $430 million in a paper currency known as greenbacks. This paper money could not be redeemed in gold, a fact which led to creeping inflation. Many northern businessmen profited from the war - those that could satisfy the North s urgent needs for military supplies. Some took advantage of this need by selling shoddy goods at high prices. Fortunes made during the war will concentrate capital in the hands of a new class of millionaires that will finance the continued industrialization of the north after the war. Wartime business laid the groundwork for the fortunes of such tycoons as J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon, and Andrew Carnegie.
Slide 9 Social Impacts of the War 1. 620,000 dead 2. Women in the work force 3. End of Slavery -13th Amendment (Dec. 1865) The loss of life was significant. This was more than all previous wars and would be more than the US lost in WWI or WWII. The absence of millions of men from their normal occupations added to the labors and responsibilities of women at home. Southern and northern women alike stepped into the labor vacuum created by the war. They operated farms and plantations by themselves or, in the cities, took factory jobs normally held by men. In addition, women played a critical role as military nurses (this opened up the field of nursing to women for the first time the most important being Dorthea Dix and Clara Barton who would later found the Red Cross) and as volunteers in soldiers aid societies. The enormous responsibilities undertaken by women during the war gave impetus to the suffrage movement after the war. Africans Americans will be the most profoundly affected by the Civil war. With the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, 4 million people were now freed men and women. Slaves with no rights had become free citizens whose rights were guaranteed by the US Constitution.