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The American Civil War
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Election of 1860
This election, in which Abraham Lincoln was elected president, pushed the southerners over the edge and to the decision of secession. The only hope for the south was for the Democrat candidate, Stephen Douglas, to win the election, but Lincoln won all of the free states in the north, which was 59% of the eclectoral votes. This ciritcal election led to the creation of the Confederate States of America by the seven states in the South. -
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate that had served as the secretary of war under President Pierce, became the president of the Confederacy of Feburary 18, 1861 after leaving the U.S. Senate. Pierce remained the president for the entire time of the Confederacy but failed to find a strategy to bring down the Union. Although he did not win the war and was captured, he is still praised for his defiance, refusal to accept defeat and resistence to Reconstruction. -
Fort Sumter
In the South, federal troops occupied Fort Sumter, one of the two forts in the South. President Lincoln wanted to supply these troops with vital supplies, but the South would not hear of it. He gave the South two option, either permit the fort to hold out or be attacked. The South clearly answered the president with an attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. -
Winfield Scott and the Anaconda Plan
Winfield Scott devised a plan, the Anaconda Plan, that was an outline strategy for subduing the seceding states. The plan would block Southern ports and call for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in to two. Since the plan was too passive, it was not favored by northeners who wanted a more vigorous prosecution of the war. The name came from the snake like image that the plan created. -
Battle of Bull Run
30,000 federal troops marched from Washington, D.C to attack the Confederate troops near Bull Run Creek to start the first major battle of the war. The Union forces came close to victory unitl General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson led Confederate reinforcemetns to drive the Union troops back to Washington. The battle supported the myth that the Rebels were unable to be beaten in battle, and it ended the illusion of a short war. -
Robert E. Lee
President Lincoln invited long time army soldier Robert E. Lee to lead the entire Union army. Lee declinded because his home state, Virginia, was suceeding. After following his state, he became the senior military adviser to President Davis in the South. He military tactics were made clear after his many victories against the Union. -
George McClellan
George McClellan was a major general in the Civil War that organized the famous Army of the Potomac and briefly served as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. McClellan was good for his well-trained and organized army for the Union, but his lack of aggression led him to be replaced. He also overestimated the strength of his enemy which left large portions of his army to be unengaged at decisive points. -
Monitor vs. Merrimac
In order for the North to win the war, they had to improve their economy and navy and shut the south's down. The Union was in trouble because the Confederates had a ironclad ship, the Merrimac, that could sink the Union's wooden ships. As a result, the Union built their own ironclad ship, the Monitorm, that ended up fighting against the Merrimac. -
Battle of Antietam
Lee led his troops into the enemy territory in Maryland with the hopes of gaining a major victory in the North to convince Britain to aid the Confederacy. McClellan discovered the plan because a copy of it had been accidentally dropped by a Confederate officer. At Antietam Creek, the Union intercepted the Confederates and had the bloodiest single day combat of the entire war where over 22,000 men were killed or wounded. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
Before December of 1862, Lincoln replaced McClellan with General Burnside. Burnside led a large Union army to attack Lee's army at Fredericksburg. Burnside's strategy of reckless attack caused the Union to suffer 12,000 losses when the Confederate army only lost 5,000 troops. By the end of the year, there was no prospect of military victory for either side. -
Emancipation Proclamation
In 1862, Lincoln had already made up his mind to use his power to free the slaves. He did not share his decision with anyone unitl he could win suppor of conservative northerners. After the Battle of Antietam, Licoln announced that all slaves in the states would be freed on the first day of the new year. As promised, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 that freed the slaves. -
Thomas Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson was one of the most tactical U.S. commanders in the U.S. history and one of the most well-known commanders after Robert E. Lee. His military career consisted of the Valley Campaign of 1862 and the corps commander of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee. On May 2, 1863, a Confederate picket accidentally shot Jackson. While this did not kill Jackson, he later died from pneumonia eight days later. -
Battle of Gettysburg
In the East, Lee intended for the North to call for peace or gain foreign intervention for the South by destroying the Union or capturing a major northern city. On July 1, 1863, Lee's men suprised the Union units at Gettsburg. The battle that followed was the most crucial battle of the war. Unlike Lee's predictions, the battle destroyed a good part of the Condederate army and left Lee's forces weakened for the remainder of the war. -
Vicksburg
The Union objective was to have complete control of the Mississippi River, so General Grant heavily attacked the city of Vicksburg for seven weeks before the Confederates surrendered on July 4, 1863. This long attack resulted in nearly 29,000 soldiers' death and the Union's victory of Vicksburg. By this time, the Union had control of Mississippi and cut off Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas from the Confederacy. -
Gettysburg Address
Four and a half months after the Union defeated the Confederacy, Lincoln took a little over two minutes to invoke the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence. This speech, the Gettysburg Address, became one of the best know speeches in American history. Lincoln delivered it at the dedication of the Soldier's National Cemetery in Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 -
Sherman's March
An instrument of Grant's tactics for subduing the South was General Sherman. Sherman, leading a force of 100,000 soldiers, set out on a campaign of deliberate destruction from Georgia to South Carolina. His troops destroyed everything in their path that could be used by the enemy to aid them in war. The march was completed in February 1865 when the troops set fire to Comlumbia. -
Appomattox Court House
Even though the Confederate government tried to obtain peace, Davis would not accept anything besides independence, and Lincoln would not accept anything short of restoration of the union. Lee tried to escape to the mountains with less than 30,000 men but was cut off and forced to surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Grant treated his enemy with respect and allowed for Lee's men to return home with their horses. -
Lincoln's Assassination
While attending a performance in Ford's Theater in Washington, an embittered souther sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, shot and killed President Lincoln. That same night, Secretary of State William Seward was wounded by a coconspirator. The loss of Lincoln was widely mourned but was not fully appreciated until the North and the South had to reunite and deal with postwar Reconstruction. -
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant commanded the Union army when they defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America. Grant remained in command of the army during the Reconstruction and implemented the plans to reoccupy the South. Do to his popularity in the North, Grant became the 18th president of the United States of America in 1868.
