1861 - 1900

  • Government Confederate States of America was created

    Jefferson Davis was chosen to be the president of the Confederate States of America
  • Trent Affair

    A Union warship cruising on the high seas north of Cuba stopped a British mail steamer, the Trent, and forcibly removed two Confederate diplomats bound for Europe.
  • Lincoln became the president

    In the election of 1860, his opponents were Douglas(North Democrat), Beckinridge(Southern Democrat), Bell(Constitutional Union)
  • Battle of Fort Sumter

    The starting point of the Civil War. On April 19 and 27, the president proclaimed a leaky blockade of Southern seaports.
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    The Civil War

  • Bull Run Battle

    P439
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    Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War

    • a government panel in Washington during the American Civil War whose most controversial function was to investigate the cause of Union battle losses
    • It was dominated by “radical” Republicans who resented the expansion of presidential power in wartime and who pressed Lincoln zealously on emancipation.
  • Homestead Act of 1862

  • Battle of Fort Henry

    • Ulysses S. Grant
    • Union won
  • Battle of Donelson

    • Ulysses S. Grant
    • Union won
  • Merrimack(Confederate) vs. Moniter(Union)

    • The most alarming Confederate threat to the blockade
    • For four hours, on March 9, 1862, the little “Yan-kee cheesebox on a raft” fought the wheezy Merrimack to a standstill.
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    Battle of Shiloh

    • Shiloh was the junction of the main Confederate north-south and east-west railroads in the Mississippi Valley at Corinth, Mississippi
    • Ulysses S. Grant
    • Union won
    • Though Grant successfully counterattacked, the impressive Confederate showing at Shiloh confirmed that there would be no quick end to the war in the West.
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    Second Battle of Bull Run

    Union Failed. Emboldened by this success, Lee daringly thrust into Maryland. He hoped to strike a blow that would not only encourage foreign intervention but also seduce the still-wavering Border State and its sisters from the Union.
  • Antietam Creek Battle

    McClellan succeeded in halting Lee at Antietam
  • Battle of Fredericksburg

    • Lincoln replaced McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac with General A. E. Burnside
    • Union failed
    • More than ten thousand Northern soldiers were killed or wounded in “Burnside’s Slaughter Pen.”
  • National Bank System

    A financial landmark of the war
  • Emancipation Proclamation (final)

    the character of the war will be changed. It will be one of subjugation. . . . The [old] South is to be destroyed and replaced by new propositions and ideas
  • The Man Without a Country

    • A fictional story of Philip Nolan written by Edward Everett Hale
    • Immensely popular in the North and helped stimulate devotion to the Union
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    Battle of Chancellorsville

    • Lee daringly divided his numerically inferior force and sent “Stonewall” Jackson to attack the Union flank. - Probably the most brilliant victory of Lee, except he lost “Stonewall” Jackson
    • Joseph (“Fighting Joe”) Hooker (Union) - badly beaten but not crushed
  • Battle of Port Hudson

    • In the spring of 1862, a flotilla commanded by David G. Farragut joined with a Northern army to strike the South a blow by seizing New Orleans.
    • Union won
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    Battle of Gettysburg

    • General George G. Meadethree days before the battle was joined at 2 a.m.
    • Meade took his stand atop a low ridge flanking a shallow valley near quiet little Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
    • The failure of General George Pickett’s magnificent but futile charge finally broke the back of the Confederate attack—and broke the heart of the Confederate cause.
    • After the battle, Davis wanted to negotiate with the North, but Lincoln refused to allow the Confederate peace mission to pass through Union lines.
  • Battle of Vicksburg

    • The siege of Vicksburg was Grant's (the command of the Union forces) best-fought campaign of the war
    • Political significance:
    • Reopen the Mississippi helped to quell the Northern peace agitation in the area of the Ohio River valley.
    • Add economic pain to border section’s already shaky support for the “abolition war.”
    • The twin victories also conclusively tipped the diplomatic scales in favor of the North
  • Gettysburg Address

    • Lincoln journeyed to Gettysburg to dedicate the cemetery
    • Lincoln read a two-minute address, following a two-hour speech by the orator of the day, a former president of Harvard
    • For declaration of equality
  • Battle of Chattanooga

    • Chattanooga was liberated, the state was cleared of Confederates, and the way was thus opened for an invasion of Georgia
    • Grant was rewarded by being made general in chief
  • Wilderness Campaign

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    Battle of the Wilderness

  • Battle of Cold Harbor

  • Capture of Atlanta

    • Georgia’s conquest was entrusted to General William Tecumseh Sherman
    • Sherman burned Atlanta on Nov. 16, 1864.
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    Savannah Campaign

    • Sherman's March to the Sea
    • The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21.
    • His forces followed a "scorched earth" policy, destroying military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property and disrupting the Confederacy's economy and its transportation networks.
    • The operation broke the back of the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender.
  • Thirteenth Amendment

    • It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.
    • The Thirteenth Amendment also nullified the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Three-Fifths Compromise - The ultimate doom of slavery was legally achieved by action of the individual states and by their ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.