34-1 The United States 1880

THE CIVIL WAR
1861-1865

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Civil War and Reunion
There was a different way of life in the northern and southern states.
Between 1861-1865, the North and South fought a Civil War.
1865, the North won the war.

Comparing the Regions
The North
The northern states were industralized.
They had most of the factories, railroads, and canals.
Labor was done by hired workers.
20% of the people lived in cities.
The North had immigrants from all parts of the world.
Northern leaders wanted a strong central government.
They wanted the government to help industry and improve transportation.
They did not want to allow slavery in new areas.

The South
The South depended on agriculture.
Tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and cotton were important.
Crops were grown on large plantations using slave labor.
Slaves made up 1/3 of the population in the South.
Only 10% of the people in the South lived in cities.
Not many people immigrated to the South.
The leaders in the South wanted states to have the right to govern themselves.
The did want to allow slavery in new areas.

Causes of the War
Economic and social differences between the North and South.
The South grew cotton.
Cotton was their main crop.
The North bought the cotton and manufactured products with it.
The South was based on plantation life.
The North was based on industry.

Major Battles

First Bull Run (Manassas) 21 July 1861

Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell
On July 16, 1861, the Union army under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell marched from Washington.
The Confederate army was drawn up behind Bull Run beyond Centreville.
On the 21st, McDowell crossed at Sudley Ford and attacked the Confederate left flank on Matthews Hill.
Fighting raged throughout the day as Confederate forces were driven back to Henry Hill.
Late in the afternoon, Confederate reinforcements arerive.
One brigade arrived by rail from the Shenandoah Valley.
The Confederates extended and broke the Union right flank.
Thomas J. Jackson given the nickname “Stonewall" by General Bee.
The Federal retreat rapidly deteriorated into a rout.
Although victorious, Confederate forces were too disorganized to pursue.

General Barnard Elliot Bee
20 July 1861, Confederate General Barnard Elliot Bee wounded by an artillery shell.
21 July 1861, General Bee dies and Col. Francis Stevens Bartow was killed.

Col. Francis Stevens Bartow
Bartow was using the regimental colors of the Geotrgia 8th to lead his men.
As he handed the colord to the color bearer a Yankee bullet struck him.
Bartow's final words were: "They have killed me boys! Never give up the field."

By July 22, the shattered Union army reached the safety of Washington.
This battle convinced the Lincoln administration that the war would be a long and costly affair.

1861 July 27, Lincoln appoints McClellan Commander of the Potomac replacing McDowell.
1861 November 1, General Winfield Scott resigns.
McClellan is general-in-chief of all Union forces.
1862 January 1, Lincon issues War Order #1.
All United States land and naval troops will advance by February 22.

1862 Feb 6, Grant captures Fort Henry in Tennesse.
1862 Feb 16, Grant captures Fort Donaldson;
1862 Feb 20, Lincoln's 11-year old son Willie dies of a fever.

General Samuel R. Curtis General Earl Van Dorn
Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) March 7-8, 1862
The Battle of Pea Ridge was a land battle of the American Civil War fought at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas.
In the battle, Union Army forces led by General Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate troops under General Earl Van Dorn.
The outcome of the battle essentially cemented Union control of Missouri.
On the night of March 6, Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn set out to outflank the Union position near Pea Ridge.
He divided his army into two columns.
On March 7,the Federals learned of the approaching Confederates.
They marched north to meet Van Doren's advance.

General Ben McCulloch Gen James M McIntosh
Two Confederate generals, Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch and Brig. Gen. James McQueen McIntosh were killed.
General Ben McCulloch
McCulloch achieved initial success at Pea Ridge.
He overran a Union battery.
He then drove toward the rear of the right flank of the main Union line.
He moved forward for a closer look at Union positions.
He was shot from the saddle by a Union sharpshooter and died instantly.
Reports indicate that, never fond of military uniforms, McCulloch had gone into battle wearing a black velvet suit.

General James McQueen McIntosh
McIntosh commanded the cavalry of General Ben McCulloch’s wing of General Earl Van Dorn’s army.
On March 7 at Elkhorn, McIntosh met his death within a few minutes of General McCulloch.
After leading a brilliant charge of cavalry, McIntosh rushed into the thickest of the fight.
He was at the head of his old regiment.
He was shot through the heart.
His body, with that of General McCulloch, was conveyed by wagon to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
He now lies buried in the National Cemetery.

The ranking colonel was captured.
This halted the Rebel attack.
Van Dorn led a second column to meet the Federals in the Elkhorn Tavern and Tanyard area.
By nightfall, the Confederates controlled Elkhorn Tavern and Telegraph Road.
The next day, Union Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, regrouped and consolidated his army.
He counterattacked near the tavern.
He successfully used his artillery to slowly force the Rebels back.
Running short of ammunition, Van Dorn abandoned the battlefield.
The Union controlled Missouri for the next two years.
This was one of the few battles in which a Confederate Army outnumbered a Union Army.

Monitor and the Merrimac 8-9 March 1862
March 8, 1862, the first Confederate ironclad steamed down the Elizabeth River into Hampton Roads.
It attacked the woodensided U.S. blockading fleet anchored there.
Built on the hull of the U.S.S. Merrimac the new warship had been christened C.S.S. Virginia.

The Merrimac rammed and sunk the twenty-four-gun woodenhulled steam-sailing sloop Cumberland.
The Merrimac headed for the fifty-gun frigate Congress.
A Union officer watched the one-sided fight.
The Merrimac fired "shot and shell into her with terrific effect."
"The shot from the Congress glanced from her iron-plated sloping sides, without doing any apparent injury."
The results of the first day's fighting at Hampton Roads proved the superiority of iron over wood.
The next day iron was pitted against iron as the U.S.S. Monitor arrived on the scene.
It was just in time to challenge the Merrimac, which was returning to finish off the USS Minnesota.
The Confederate ironclad carried more guns than the Union Monitor, but it was slow, clumsy, and prone to engine trouble.
The Union prototype, designed by John Ericsson, was the faster and more maneuverable ironclad.
It lacked the Rebel vessel's brutish size and power.
The Virginia put to sea at about 6am and by Barn was in the Roads heading towards the USS Minnesota.
At about 8:20am on the Monitor, anchored alongside the Minnesota.
Worden saw the Virginia for the first time and orders the anchor to be raised.
At about 8:25am the two ships closed together.
The Virginia opened fire first and some 10 minutes later the Monitor returned fire.
The two vessels closed within 300 yards of each other and began a deadly ballet.
They circled each other for an hour and a half exchanging broadsides.
At about 11:35arn the Virginia ran aground and the Monitor manueverd to come on her stern and continued to shell her.
Both ships took many direct hits but the armour on both resisted almost everything.
Lieutenant S. Dana Greene, an officer aboard the Monitor, described the first exchange of gunfire.
"The turrets and other parts of the ship were heavily struck.
The shots did not penetrate; the tower was intact, and it continued to revolve.
The Monitor continued to pour fire into the grounded Virginia, until she managed to free herself.
At about 11:45am the Virginia tried unsuccessfully, to ram the Monitor.
At 11:55am the Monitor retired to shallow water to replenish her turret stocks of ammunition from the below deck stores.
The Virginia took advantage of the lull to fire on the USS Minnesota.
At 12:05am the Monitor returned to the fray and the two ships again tried to ram each other.
An attempt by the crew of the Virginia to board the Monitor was thwarted.
The plan appeared to be to jump on the deck and smother turret and cover the vision slits in the pilothouse.
Fortunately for the Monitor, Worden saw the boarding party gathering on the Virginia's spar deck and steered away.
At about 12:10am a shot from the Virginia hit the pilothouse on the Monitor injuring Worden
He was forced to hand over command to Lt Dana Green his second-in-command.
Green steered the Monitor to shallow water to regroup.
The Virginia could not get close to the Monitor or the Minnesota as its draft was too deep.
The Captain was now Roger Catesby Jones.
He had replaced Buchanan who had been injured in the first day's activities.
Jones told his crew that because the ship was leaking and the crew exhausted, they would return to Norfolk.
Neither side could claim victory - the Monitor was hit 23 times.
The Virginia was hit 20 times.
Neither ironclad seriously damaged the other in their one day of fighting, March 9, 1862.
The Merrimac was indeed prevented from attacking any more of the Union's wooden ships.
A new age of naval warfare had dawned.

On the 4th April the Virginia was ready for action again.
The Virginia was ordered to attack Union troop transports in the Roads.
The transports fled for the protection of Fort Monroe as the Virginia appeared.
Eventually it was action on land that settled the Virginia's fate.
On May 9th a force of 10,000 Union troops was ferried across the Chesapeake Bay and threatened to capture Norfolk.
The Confederates abandoned Norfolk and left the Virginia.
The Virginia was too deep in draft to get up the James River to Richmond like the remainder of the Confederate Fleet.
As a result on the 11th May the then Captain, Josiah Tattnel, ran her aground of Craney Island and the crew blew her up. T
The repaired Monitor remained on the James River in support of McClellan's Peninsula Campaign until October 1862.
In October she returned to Washington.
She was refitted with a new pilothouse, new smokestacks and a cover for the turret.
In November, she returned to duty in Newport News enforcing the blockade.
In December 1862 she is ordered south to Wilmington to help the blockade.
On this journey whilst under tow from the USS Rhode Island she reached Cape Hatteras before hitting a storm.
The order was given to abandon ship and the Rhode Island assisted in taking off the crew.
At 12:30am on 31st December she sank taking 4 officers and 12 men with her.

March, Pennisular Campaign begins.
McClellan's Union army begins advance to Confederate capital, Richmond.
Lincoln takes over as commander.

Shiloh (The Battle of Pittsburgh Landing) 6-7 April 1862
April 6
In the early morning hours the Confederate troops storm out of the woods.
They attack a surprised Union troops around Shiloh Church.
The surprised Union troops rallied after the initial attack but continued to lose ground.

General Albert Johnston
One casualty of the afternoon's combat was General Johnston.
He lost his life while directing his troops from the front lines.
His death severely affected the Confederate's morale and their belief in victory.
The Confederate attack become disorganized and looses momentum just before nightfall.
Union troops take up defensive positions around Pittsburg Landing.

General D.C. Buell General William H. Wallace
General Buell's reinforcements finally arrived during the night.
Forces under General William H. Wallace, also strengthened the Union lines with 22,500 fresh troops.
April 7
With the break of dawn, Grant attacked.
He pushed the exhausted Confederates steadily back to the area where they started their attack.
They finally began a retreat in the early afternoon that left the field to the Union forces.
The Battle of Shiloh is over.
The Confederate troops withdraw to Corinth, Mississippi.
13,000 Union troops killed and wounded.
Confederates lose 10,000 men
President Linoln is pressured to relieve Grant.
He refuses because Grant fights.

Battle of New Orleans
On April 18, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded from the Union, David Farragut picked up and left his home in Norfolk Virginia.
Despite his Southern connections, he remained loyal to the Union.
In 1861, after this display of loyalty to the Union, the Navy named him as commander of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron.
He was ordered with the awesome duty of capturing New Orleans.
Farragut some how slipped past the guns at Fort Jackson, and Fort Saint Phillip.
On April 25, 1862, Farragut arrived at the city, and it was captured five days later.
His success was emphatic, and gave the North a much needed confidence boost.

Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) 1862 May 31

General Joe Johnston
On May 31, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston attempted to overwhelm two Federal corps.
They appeared to be isolated south of the Chickahominy River.
The Confederate assaults, though not well coordinated, succeeded in driving back the IV Corps and inflicting heavy casualties.
Reinforcements arrived, and both sides fed more and more troops into the action.
Supported by the III Corps and Sedgwick’s division of Sumner’s II Corps the Federal position was finally stabilized.
Gen. Johnston was seriously wounded during the action.

Gen. Gustavus Woodson Smith
May 31, 1862, the command of the Confederate army devolved temporarily to Maj. Gen. G.W. Smith.
The next day he suffered a nervous breakdown.
On June 1, the Confederates renewed their assaults against the Federals.
The Federals had brought up more reinforcements but made little headway.
Both sides claimed victory.

General Robert H. Hatton
Confederate brigadier Robert H. Hatton was shot in ther head and killed.
General Johnston attacks McClellan's troops near Richmond.
McClellan is nearly defeated.
1862 June 2, Robert E. Lee takes over command from Johnston.

General JEB Stuart
The Seven Days Battle (Battle of Malvern Hills) June 25-July 1, 1862
June 25-July 1, Lee attacks McClellan army near Richmond.
One of Lee's first action was to order James Ewell Brown Stuart to scout out union positions.
Stuart led his 1200 cavalry troopers on a three day ride around Union lines.
He completely circled Union forces.
Lee knew that he had to attack before McClellan could begin a siege of Richmond.
On June 26th he attacked at Mechanicsville, the far flank of the Union line.
The brunt of the attack was made by the forces of AP Hill.
It was a lopsided fight.
The Confederates sustained 1500 casualties, while the Union sustained only 400.
McClellan however, felt that he should withdraw the forces to a more defensible position at Gaines Mill.
The next day Lee attacked again.
The battle went on for the whole day.
By the end of the day Confederate forces succeeded in breaking through Union lines at Turkey Hill.
McClellan made the decision to give up his base of supply at the White House and move it to Harrison's landing.
He gave orders for all his forces to retreat to the James River.
McClellan was convinced he had lost.
McClellan had over 60,000 troops that were not engaged during this battle.
On June 29 Lee attempted to destroy the Union army at Savage Station.
On June 30 he tried again at Glendale.
Lee made a final effort at Malvern Hill to destroy the Union army.
The Hill was well defended, and 5590 confederates died while trying to scale it.
The union lost only a third as many.
So the Seven Days campaign came to an end.
The confederates who had started out with less men then the union, lost more in the campaign.
However, when the battle opened Union forces threatened Richmond.
When it ended McClellan's army of the Potomac was bottled up in Harrison Landing.

1862 July 11, Lincoln after 4 months of being a commander hands over the job to Gen. Henry "Old Brains" Halleck.

Second Battle of Bull Run (2nd Manasas) 29-30 August 1862

Gen. John Pope Pope General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson General James Longstreet
75,000 Federal troops under Gen. John Pope Pope are defeated by 55,000 Confederates under Sonewall Jackson and Longstreet.
August 28
Jackson ordered an attack on a Federal column that was passing across his front on the Warrenton Turnpike.
He did this in order to draw Pope's army into battle,
The fighting at Brawner Farm lasted several hours and resulted in a stalemate.
Pope became convinced that he had trapped Jackson.
He concentrated the bulk of his army against him.
August 29
Pope launched a series of assaults against Jackson's position along an unfinished railroad grade.
The attacks were repulsed with heavy casualties on both sides.
At noon, Longstreet arrived on the field from Thoroughfare Gap and took position on Jackson's right flank.
August 30
Pope renewed his attacks, seemingly unaware that Longstreet was on the field.

Genral Fitz-John Porter
Massed Confederate artillery devastated a Union assault by Fitz-John Porter's command.
Longstreet's wing of 28,000 men counterattacked in the largest, simultaneous mass assault of the war.
The Union left flank was crushed.
The army was driven back to Bull Run.
Only an effective Union rearguard action prevented a replay of the First Manassas disaster.
Pope's retreat to Centreville was precipitous, nonetheless.

Pope blamed Fitz-John Porter for his defeat.
General Fitz-John Porter was court-martialed for disobeying an order to attack.
He was ordered to attack the left flank of the Confederate line.
The court-martial board was stacked by Edward Stanton against him,
Porter was found guilty.
He spent much of his life trying to prove his innocence.
The defense portrayed Pope as incompetent.
Porter proved that he saved lives by not attacking.
In May 1879, Congress restored Fitz-John Porter to the rank of Colonel with no back pay.
Two days later, Porter retired.

August 31, 1862, Lee ordered his army in pursuit.
This was the decisive battle of the Northern Virginia Campaign.
The Union army retreats to Washington.
Lincoln relieves Pope.

1862 Sept 4-9, Lee and 50,000 troops head to Harper's Ferry.
McClellan and 90,000 men purse Lee.

Battle of Antietam 17 Sept. 1862

General George B. McClellan General Robert E Lee General Joseph Hooker
On September 16, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan confronted Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Sharpsburg, Maryland.
At dawn September 17, Gen. Joseph Hooker’s corps mounted a powerful assault on Lee’s left flank.
This was the beginning of the single bloodiest day in American military history.
Attacks and counterattacks swept across Miller’s cornfield and fighting swirled around the Dunker Church.
Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center.
This Federal advantage was not followed up.

General Ambrose E. Burnside
Late in the day, Gen. Burnside’s corps finally got into action.
They crossed the stone bridge over Antietam Creek and rolling up the Confederate right.
At a crucial moment, A.P. Hill’s division arrived from Harpers Ferry and counterattacked.
They drove Burnside back and saved the day.
Although outnumbered two-to-one, Lee committed his entire force.
McClellan only sent in less than three-quarters of his army.
This enabled Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill.
During the night, both armies consolidated their lines.
Throughout the 18th, in spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan.
Lee removed his wounded south of the river.
McClellan did not renew the assaults.
After dark, Lee ordered the battered Army of Northern Virginia to withdraw across the Potomac into the Shenandoah Valley.
26,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing.

1862 September 22, Lincoln issues preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

McClellan was slow to follow up on the victory at Antietam.
1862 November 7, Lincoln replaces McClellan with General Burnside.

Battle of Perryville (Battle of Chaplin Hills) October 8, 1862
Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg reaches the outskirts of Louisville and Cincinnati.
He was forced to retreat and regroup.
The Federal army of 55,000 was led by Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell.
On October 7, they converged in three columns on the small crossroads town of Perryville, Kentucky.
Union forces first skirmished with Rebel cavalry on the Springfield Pike.
The fighting became more general, on Peters Hill, as the grayclad infantry arrived.
The next day, at dawn, fighting began again around Peters Hill.
A Union division advanced up the pike, halting just before the Confederate line.
The fighting then stopped for a time.
After noon, a Confederate division struck the Union left flank and forced it to fall back.
When more Confederate divisions joined the fray, the Union line made a stubborn stand.
They counterattacked, but finally fell back with some troops routed.
Buell did not know of the happenings on the field, or he would have sent forward some reserves.
Even so, the Union troops on the left flank, reinforced by two brigades, stabilized their line.
The Rebel attack sputtered to a halt.
Later, a Rebel brigade assaulted the Union division on the Springfield Pike.
They were repulsed and fell back into Perryville.
The Yankees pursued, and skirmishing occurred in the streets in the evening before dark.
Union reinforcements were threatening the Rebel left flank.
Bragg, short of men and supplies, withdrew during the night.
He paused at Harrodsburg and continued by way of Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee.
The Confederate offensive was over, and the Union controlled Kentucky.

Frederickburg 13 December 1862
Burnside loses 12,653 men and suffers a defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The Confederates lost 5,309 men.
Burnside ordered 14 frontal assaults on entrenched Confederates at Marye's Hill.

On November 14, Burnside sent a corps to occupy the vicinity of Falmouth near Fredericksburg.
The rest of the Union army soon followed.
Lee reacted by entrenching his army on the heights behind the town.
On December 11, Union engineers laid five pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock under fire.
On the 12th, the Federal army crossed over.
On December 13, Burnside mounted a series of futile frontal assaults on Prospect Hill and Marye’s Heights.
The attack resulted in staggering casualties.
Meade’s division, on the Union left flank, briefly penetrated Jackson’s line.
But they were driven back by a counterattack.

General C. Feger Jackson General George Bayard
Union Generals C. Feger Jackson and George Bayard were killed in battle.

General C. Feger Jackson
The Third brigade had not advanced over one hundred yards>
The Confederate battery on the height on its left was re-manned.
They poured a destructive fire into its ranks.
General Meade ordered General Jackson to move by the right flank till he could clear the open ground in front of the battery.
He would then, ascend the height through the woods, sweep round to the left and take the battery.
General Jackson had ridden forward to give the contemplated order.
Before the order had passed his lips, he was struck by a volley from the enemy and mortally wounded.

General George Bayard
Bayard and his Cavalry Brigade opened the Battle of Fredericksburg.
On December 13, 1862, they held the Rebels until the Federal infantry could be positioned.
Later that afternoon Bayard was at Major-General Franklin’s headquarters in a grove of trees near Fredericksburg.
He was struck in the hip by a shell fragment.
He died the following day, within days of his pending marriage.

General Thomas R.R. Cobb General Maxey Gregg
Confederate Generals Thomas R.R. Cobb and Maxey Gregg were killed in battle.

Generals Thomas R.R. Cobb
A Union bombardment in the early afternoon caused a piece of shrapnel to strike Cobb just above his right knee.
It snapped the bone and pierced an artery.
After receiving a makeshift tourniquet, he was taken to Mrs. Wiet’s house.
Her house was in use as a division hospital a couple miles behind Lee’s Hill.
Dr. John T. Gilmore, the chief surgeon, attended the general.
He tried to stop the bleeding.
Deep in shock, Cobb passed away about 1:00 that day.

General Maxey Gregg
Gregg's part in the battle of Fredericksburg was described by Robert E Lee.
The Federals were successful on the right.
A large Union force had penetrated the wood as far as Hill's reserve.
Here they encountered Gregg's brigade.
The attack was so sudden and unexpected that Orr's Rifles mistook the enemy for our own troops.
The Confederates were thrown into confusion.
While rallying them, Brig.-Gen. Maxey Gregg, fell mortally wounded."
The Confederacy has lost two noble citizens and two of its bravest and most distinguished officers.

On December 15, Burnside called off the offensive and recrossed the river, ending the campaign.

1863 January 1, Lincoln frees the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln advocates using blacks as soldiers.
Burnside initiated a new offensive in January 1863, which quickly bogged down in the winter mud.
1863 January 25, Lincoln replaces Burnside with Gen. "Fighting Joe" Hooker.
1863 January 29, Grant is appointed commander of the Amy of the West.
Grant is ordered to capture Vicksburg.
1863 March 3, Congress begins a military draft.
Males 20-45 are affected.
You are exempted if you pay $300 or find a substitute.

Chancellorsville 1-4 May 1863
On April 27, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker led the V, XI, and XII Corps on a campaign to turn the Confederate left flank.
He crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers above Fredericksburg.
On April 30 and May 1, he passed the Rapidan via Germanna and Ely’s Fords.
The Federals concentrated near Chancellorsville.
The III Corps was ordered to join the army via United States Ford.
Sedgwick’s VI Corps and Gibbon’s division remained to demonstrate against the Confederates at Fredericksburg.
In the meantime, Lee left a covering force under Maj. Gen. Jubal Early in Fredericksburg.
Lee marched with the rest of the army to confront the Federals.
As Hooker’s army moved toward Fredericksburg on the Orange Turnpike, they encountered increasing Confederate resistance.
Hooker had reports of an overwhelming Confederate force.
Hooker ordered his army to suspend the advance and to concentrate again at Chancellorsville.
Pressed closely by Lee’s advance, Hooker adopted a defensive posture, thus giving Lee the initiative.
On the morning of May 2, Lt. Gen. T.J. Jackson directed his corps on a march against the Federal left flank.
Fighting was sporadic on other portions of the field throughout the day.
At 5:20 pm, Jackson’s line surged forward in an overwhelming attack that crushed the Union XI Corps.
Federal troops rallied, resisted the advance, and counterattacked.
Disorganization on both sides and darkness ended the fighting.
While making a night reconnaissance, Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men and carried from the field.
J.E.B. Stuart took temporary command of Jackson’s Corps.
On May 3, the Confederates attacked with both wings of the army and massed their artillery at Hazel Grove.
This finally broke the Federal line at Chancellorsville.
Hooker withdrew a mile and entrenched in a defensive “U” with his back to the river at United States Ford.
Union generals Berry and Whipple and Confederate general Paxton were killed.
On the night of May 5-6, after Union reverses at Salem Church, Hooker recrossed to the north bank of the Rappahannock.
This battle was considered by many historians to be Lee’s greatest victory.
Hooker is defeated by a smaller Confederate force at Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia.
Hooker retreats.
The Union lost 17,000 killed, wounded, or missing from their 130,000 man army.
The Confederates lost 13,000 men of their 60,000 man army.
Hooker said, "I lost confidence in Joe Hooker."
1863 May 10, Stonewall Jackson dies of his wounds.
Lee says, "I have lost my right arm."

1863 June 3, Lee with his Confederate Army of 75,000 begins his Second Invasion of the North.
He crosses the Potomac and enters Pennsylvania.
Major cities in the North such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington were under threat of attack.

General George G Meade
1863 June 23, Lincoln appoints Gen. George Meade, as Commander of the Potomac, replacing Hooker.
He marched to intercept Lee.
On Tuesday morning, June 30, an infantry brigade of Confederate soldiers searching for shoes headed toward Gettysburg.
The Confederate commander looked through his field glasses and spotted a long column of Federal cavalry heading toward the town.
He withdrew his brigade and informed his superior, Gen. Henry Heth.
Gen. Heth told his superior, AP Hill, he would go back the following morning and "get those shoes."

Gettysburg 1-3 July 1863
Day 1: Wednesday morning, July 1,
Two divisions of Confederates headed back to Gettysburg.
They ran into Federal cavalry west of the town at Willoughby Run and the skirmish began.
Events would quickly escalate. Lee rushed 25,000 men to the scene.
The Union had less than 20,000.
After fierce fighting, there were heavy casualties on both sides.
The Federals were pushed back through the town of Gettysburg.
They regrouped south of the town along the high ground near the cemetery.

General R.S. Ewell
Lee ordered Confederate General R.S. Ewell to seize the high ground from the battle weary Federals "if practicable."
Gen. Ewell hesitated to attack.
This gave the Union troops a chance to dig in along Cemetery Ridge.
The Union moved in reinforcements with artillery.
By the time Lee realized Ewell had not attacked, the opportunity had vanished.
Meade arrived at the scene and thought it was an ideal place to do battle with Lee's Army.
Meade expected reinforcements totaling up to 100,000 men to arrive and strengthen his defensive position.
Confederate General James Longstreet saw the Union position as nearly impregnable.
He told Lee it should be left alone.
He argued that Lee's Army should instead move east between the Union Army and Washington.
They could then build a defensive position.
This would force the Federals to attack them instead.
But Lee believed his own army was invincible.
He was also without his much needed cavalry.
They served as his eyes and ears during troop movements.
Cavalry leader Jeb Stuart had gone off with his troops to harass the Federals.
Stuart's expedition would turn out to be for the most part a wild goose chase.
This left Lee at a disadvantage until he returned.
Lee decided to attack the Union Army's defensive position at the southern end of Cemetery Ridge.
He thought it was less well defended.

Day 2: 10 a.m. the next morning, Thursday, July 2,
Gen. Longstreet was ordered by Lee to attack.
But Longstreet was quite slow in getting his troops into position.
He didn't attack until 4 p.m. that afternoon.
That gave the Union Army even more time to strengthen its position.
When Longstreet attacked, some of the most fierce fighting of the Civil War took place.

Devil's Den
Places such as Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the Wheat Field and the Peach Orchard would be remembered.
Longstreet took the Peach Orchard.
He was driven back at Little Round Top.

Little Round Top
Because of its harsh terrain Confederates could not advance up the rocky slope.
The Union troops poured musket and cannon fire down on them from the heights.
The Confederates tried to use a flanking maneuver to their right, on the Union left flank.
They charged up the hill through the woods.

Colonel Joshua Chamberlain
Waiting for them on the southern slope was Col. Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine regiment.
Chamberlain had been placed there to guard the left flank of the Union line.
They were the extreme left flank of the Union line.
If they failed to hold off an attack, the Confederates certainly would have captured the hill.
Chamberlain's orders were to "hold 'til the last".
Meaning, hold at all cost until the last man.
385 determined men of the 20th Maine were charged by about 850 Alabamians from the 15th and 47th Alabama.
The fight grew hotter as the Rebs made repeated uphill assaults against the Maine boys.
Each time they were beaten off into the thick woods.
Despite this, Confederate pressure did not let up.
Hand-to-hand fighting developed, but the Maine boys held firm.
Chamberlain kept his men well in hand, prepared to meet each new attack.
The Bamians were repeatedly able to rally and move forward.
But finally, the limits of endurance were reached.
Battered by both the 83rd Pennsylvania and the 20th Maine, the Alabamians fell back.
The Confederates wavered, thirsty, and exhausted.
After having fired over 20,000 rounds, the 20th Maine was nearly out of ammunition.
Chamberlain called his officers together one last time.
He ordered a charge down the hill, sweeping the Rebs to their left toward the front slope of the hill.
Chamberlain screamed "bayonets!" and the 20th Maine began their infamous brave charge down the hill.
Beginning from the left, the men rose from their places and stormed forward sweeping to their right.
They covered the 30 yards or so in less than a minute.
They threw the enemy into confusion.
The Confederates fell back hotly pursued by the determined Yanks.
The Rebs came under fire from the U.S. sharpshooters as they fled down the hill.
They were closely pursued by Chamberlain's victorious men, who took over 400 prisoners.
The 20th Maine had suffered about 30 percent casualties.
The 15th and 47th Alabama had been shattered, losing upwards of 40 percent of their men.
Chamberlain was later awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor for his defense of Little Round Top.

About 6:30 p.m. Gen. Ewell attacked the Union line from the north and east at Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill.
The attack lasted into darkness.
The attack was unsuccessful at Cemetery Hill.
The Rebels did seize some trenches on Culp's Hill.
By about 10:30 p.m., the day's fighting came to an end.
The Federals had lost some ground during the Rebel onslaught.
But they still held the strong defensive position along Cemetery Ridge.
Both sides regrouped and counted their causalities.
The moaning and sobbing of wounded men could be heard all night.
Generals from each side gathered in war councils to plan for the coming day.
Union commander Meade decided his army would remain in place and wait for Lee to attack.

Lee's Plan
Longstreet again tried to talk Lee out of attacking such a strong position.
But Lee thought the battered Union soldiers were nearly beaten.
He thought they would collapse under one final push.
Lee decided to gamble to win the Battle of Gettysburg and in effect win the Civil War.
He would attack the next day at the center of the Union line along Cemetery Ridge where it would be least expected.
To do this he would send in the fresh troops of Gen. George Pickett.
Along with this, Gen. Ewell would renew the assault on Culp's hill.

Day 3: 4:30 AM Friday, July 3
Lee's timetable was undermined as Union cannons pounded the Rebels on Culp's Hill to drive them from the trenches.
The Rebels did not withdraw, but instead attacked the Federals around 8 a.m.
Thus began a vicious three hour struggle.
The Rebels charging time after time up the hill only to be beaten back.
The Federals finally counter attacked and drove the Rebels off the hill and east across Rock Creek.
Around 11 a.m. the fighting on Culp's Hill stopped.
An eerie quiet settled over the whole battlefield.
Once again Lee encountered opposition to his battle plan from Longstreet.
Lee estimated about 15,000 men would participate in the Rebel charge on Cemetery Ridge.
Longstreet responded, "It is my opinion that no 15,000 men ever arrayed for battle can take that position."
But Lee was unmoved.
The plan would go on as ordered.
Throughout the morning and into the afternoon amid 90° heat and stifling humidity the Rebels moved into position.
They were in the woods opposite Cemetery Ridge for the coming charge.
Interestingly, some Union troops were moved away from Cemetery Ridge on Meade's orders.
He thought Lee would attack again in the south.
Several hours before, Meade had correctly predicted Lee would attack the center.
Now he thought otherwise.
He left only 5,750 infantrymen stretched out along the half-mile front.
They were going to have to face a 15,000 man Rebel charge.
Lee sent Jeb Stuart's recently returned cavalry to go behind the Union position.
They were to divert Federal forces from the main battle area.
Around noon, Union and Confederate cavalry troops clashed three miles east of Gettysburg.
Stuart was eventually repulsed by punishing cannon fire and the Union cavalry led in part by 23 year old Gen. George Custer.
The diversion attempt failed.
Just after 1 p.m. about 170 Confederate cannons opened fire on the Union position on Cemetery Ridge.
This was to pave the way for the Rebel charge.
This was the heaviest artillery barrage of the war.
Many of the Rebel shells missed their targets and flew harmlessly overhead.
The Federals returned heavy cannon fire.
Soon big clouds of blinding smoke and dust hung over the battlefield.
Around 2:30 p.m. the Federals slowed their rate of fire, then stopped all together.
They were trying to conserve ammunition and to fool the Rebels into thinking the cannons were knocked out .
That's exactly what the Rebels did think.

Pickett's Charge
Pickett went to see Longstreet and asked, "General, shall I advance?"
Longstreet, now overwhelmed with emotion, did not respond.
He simply bowed his head and raised his hand.
Thus the order was given.
"Charge the enemy and remember old Virginia!" yelled Pickett.
12,000 Rebels formed an orderly line that stretched a mile from flank to flank.
In deliberate silence they slowly headed toward the Union Army.
A mile away on Cemetery Ridge the Federals gazed in silent wonder at this spectacular sight.
But as the Rebels got within range, Federal cannons using grapeshot opened up.
Deadly accurate rifle volleys ripped into the Rebels.
Many Rebels were killed and holes were torn in the advancing line.
The line of Rebel infantry, became a horrible mess of dying and wounded.
Pickett stopped his troops, and gave the orders to redress the lines.
Men stepped on their dying comrades and filled up the holes were the shells had fallen.
They continued their march to Cemetery Ridge.
But the Rebels continued on.
As they got very close, the Rebels stopped and fired their rifles once at the Federals.
Then they lowered their bayonets and commenced a running charge while screaming the Rebel yell.
A fierce battle raged for an hour with much brutal hand to hand fighting, shooting at close range and stabbing with bayonets.

General Lewis A Armistead
All of Pickett’s brigade commanders were dead except for General Armistead.
Armistead with 300 men charged at a bent in the Union line known as the Angle.
The band of Confederates broke the Union line.
They charged into a bloody fight of hand to hand combat and shooting at point blank range.
Armistead cried “Give them the cold steel.”
As he placed his hand over a captured Union cannon, Armistead was killed.

General Hancock rides the Federal Line on Cemetery Ridge
General Hancock and reinforcements arrived in time to patch up the hole in the Union line.
Hancock approached the Vermont Brigade commanded by Brigadier General George Stannard.
He suddenly reeled in his saddle and began to fall to the ground.
Two of Stannard's officers sprang forward and caught Hancock as he fell.
It was discovered that Hancock had suffered a severe injury.
A bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and penetrated eight inches into his right groin.
It carried with it some wood fragments and a large bent nail from the saddle.
His aides applied a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding.
Hancock removed the nail himself.
He said, "They must be hard up for ammunition when they throw such shot as that."
Hancock remained present at the angle until the position was secure.
For a brief moment, the Rebels nearly had their chosen objective, a small clump of oak trees atop Cemetery Ridge.
All of the Confederate men who broke into the Union lines were captured or killed.
But Union reinforcements and regrouped infantry units swarmed in and opened fire on the Rebel ranks.
The battered, outnumbered Rebels finally began to give way.
The great human wave that had been Pickett's Charge began to recede as the men drifted back down the slope.
The supreme effort of Lee's army had been beaten back, leaving 7,500 of his men lying on the field of battle.
Lee rode out and met the survivors, telling them, "It is all my fault."
And to Pickett he said, "Upon my shoulders rests the blame."
Later when he got back to headquarters Lee exclaimed, "Too bad. Too bad! Oh, too bad!"
The gamble had failed.
The tide of the war was now permanently turned against the South.
Confederate causalities in dead, wounded and missing were 28,000 out of 75,000.
Union casualties were 23,000 out of 88,000.
That night and into the next day, Saturday, July 4, Confederate wounded were loaded aboard wagons.
They began the journey back toward the South.
Lee was forced to abandon his dead.
The Confederates begin a long slow withdrawal of his army back to Virginia.
Union commander Gen. Meade did not immediately pursue Lee.
This infuriated President Lincoln.
He wrote a letter to Meade saying he missed a "golden opportunity" to end the war right there.
The letter was never delivered.

Chickamuga 19-20 September 1863
A decisive Confederate victory for Gen Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennesse.
After the Tullahoma Campaign, Rosecrans renewed his offensive, aiming to force the Confederates out of Chattanooga.
The three army corps comprising Rosecrans’ s army split and set out for Chattanooga by separate routes.
In early September, Rosecrans consolidated his forces scattered in Tennessee and Georgia.
Rosecrans forced Bragg’s army out of Chattanooga, heading south.
The Union troops followed it and brushed with it at Davis’ Cross Roads.
Bragg was determined to reoccupy Chattanooga.
He decided to meet a part of Rosecrans’s army, defeat them, and then move back into the city.
On the 17th he headed north, intending to meet and beat the XXI Army Corps.
As Bragg marched north on the 18th, his cavalry and infantry fought with Union cavalry and mounted infantry.
They were armed with Spencer repeating rifles.
On the morning of the 19th, fighting began.
Bragg’s men hammered but did not break the Union line.
The next day, Bragg continued his assault on the Union line on the left.
In late morning, Rosecrans was informed that he had a gap in his line.
In moving units to shore up the supposed gap, Rosencrans created one.
James Longstreet’s men promptly exploited it.
He drove one-third of the Union army, including Rosecrans himself, from the field.
George H. Thomas took over command and began consolidating forces on Horseshoe Ridge and Snodgrass Hill.
Although the Rebels launched determined assaults on these forces, they held until after dark.
Thomas then led these men from the field leaving it to the Confederates.

The Union retired to Chattanooga while the Rebels occupied the surrounding heights.

1863 Octobr 16, Lincoln appoints Grant commander of all operations in the West.

Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863
On November 19, President Lincoln went to the battlefield to dedicate it as a military cemetery.
The main orator, Edward Everett of Massachusetts, delivered a two hour formal address.
The president then had his turn.
He spoke in his high, penetrating voice and in a little over two minutes delivered the Gettysburg Address.
Many people in the audience were surprised by its shortness and leaving others quite unimpressed.
The speech and its words, "government of the People, by the People, for the People," have come to symbolize democracy.

Chattanooga 23-25 November 1863
On November 23-24, Union forces struck out and captured Orchard Knob and Lookout Mountain.
On November 25, without orders, Union soldiers assaulted and carried the seemingly impregnable Confederate position on Missionary Ridge.
One of the Confederacy’s two major armies was routed.
The Federals held Chattanooga, the “Gateway to the Lower South."
Chattanooga became the supply and logistics base for Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta Campaign.
Grant defeats the siege of Confederate Gen. Bragg's army.
Federal troops avenge the defeat at Chickamauga.

Grant Takes Charge
1964 March 9, Lincoln makes Grant commander of all the armies.
Gen Sherman succeeds Grant as Commander of the West.
1864 May 4, Grant and 120,000 troops begin to advance on Richmond.
Grants intends to engage Lee in a war of attrition.
Lee had 60,00 troops in his Army of Northern Virginia.
Major battles are fought Wilderness May 5-6,

Battle of Spotsylvania May 8-12
Spotsylvania Court House, Battle of , a long, indecisive battle of the American Civil War.
It took place from May 8 to May 19, 1864, near Spotsylvania Court House, a small village north of Richmond, Virginia.
The Union forces, totaling about 112,000, were under command of General George G. Meade.
They actually were led by his superior, General U. S. Grant.
The Confederate army, which numbered some 61,000 men, was commanded by General Robert E. Lee.
Grant's strategy to end the war by encirclement and destruction of Lee's smaller army.
Grant ordered a march south to get around Lee's flank.
Lee anticipated this and was waiting for the Union army at Spotsylvania when Grant arrived.
On May 8 the Union forces began the attack on the entrenched Confederate line.
At the center the line projected outward in a V-shape.
On May 12, Grant launched a massive assault on the “Bloody Angle,” as the projection came to be known.
Twice his troops penetrated the Confederate trenches, splitting Lee's army.
Each time ferocious counterattacks drove the Union troops back.
For the next six days Grant assaulted the Confederate line.
On May 19 he broke off action and moved south again to attempt another flanking movement.
Union losses were about 17,000 killed and wounded;
Confederate losses were more than 8,000.

Cold Harbor 1-3 June 1864
On May 31, Sheridan’s cavalry seized the vital crossroads of Old Cold Harbor.
Sheridan is relying heavily on their new repeating carbines and shallow entrenchments.
Early on June 1, , Sheridan’s troopers threw back an attack by Confederate infantry.
Confederate reinforcements arrived from Richmond and from the Totopotomoy Creek lines.
Late on June 1, the Union VI and XVIII Corps reached Cold Harbor.
They assaulted the Confederate works with some success.
By June 2, both armies were on the field.
They formed a seven-mile front that extended from Bethesda Church to the Chickahominy River.
At dawn June 3, the II and XVIII Corps, followed later by the IX Corps, assaulted along the Bethesda Church-Cold Harbor line.
Grant makes a mistake and 7,000 soldiers are killed in 20 minutes.
Many of the Union soldiers had predicted the outcome.
One dead soldier's entry in his diary dsaid, "I was killed."
Grant commented in his memoirs that this was the only attack he wished he had never ordered.
The armies confronted each other on these lines until the night of June 12.
Grant again advanced by his left flank and marched to James River.
On June 14, the II Corps was ferried across the river at Wilcox’s Landing by transports.
On June 15, the rest of the army began crossing on a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Weyanoke.
Abandoning the well-defended approaches to Richmond, Grant sought to shift his army quickly south of the river to threaten Petersburg.

1864 June 15, the Union army missed a chance to capture Petersburg.
This would have cut off the Confederate railroad.
Grant's forces surround Lee for nine months.

1864 June 20, Sherman battles Rebels under General Hood in Atlanta.
1864 Sept 2, Sherman captures Atlanta.

1864 Oct 19, Union victory by calvary General Sheridan in the Shenndioah Valley against Jubal Early.

Siege of Peterburg
The Siege of Petersburg lasted from June 1864 to March 1865.
Both sides dug their trenches, boosted their fortifications, and waited for the other to attack, or be starved out.
On multiple instances, sallies were attempted.
None were as devastating as the Battle of the Crater.
The plan was for Union engineers to dig a tunnel directly under Confederate lines.
Then they would load a pit with explosives, and blow a gaping hole into the Confederate lines.
Black troops were specially trained under General Burnside for this attack.
They were to rush into the breach, fan out, and force the Confederate lines back for more Union troops to enter.
The plan failed.
General George Meade, commanding general of the Army of the Potomac, feared that the attack would fail.
He thought he would suffer severe political repercussions due to the use of black troops to breach the Confederate lines.
To avoid accusations of racism and political fallout, Meade replaced the specially trained black troops at the last minute.
Brigadier General James Ledlie's troops were selected to lead the charge into the breach.
He failed to tell his men or train them properly.
He was also drunk on the morning of the battle, away from the front lines, and not providing leadership for his troops.
Instead, when Union troops rushed in, they failed to go around, and piled into the crater en masse.
They thought it would be of better use as a rifle pit.
They were stuck, with more and more troops piling into the pit.
The Confederates began to turn their guns and artillery onto the troops in the pit.
By the end of the battle, over 5,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded.
The Confederates lost slightly over 1,000.

Sherman's March to the Sea 15 November 1864

General William T Sherman
Burning of Atlanta
When he entered Atlanta, Sherman issued an order requiring all the people to leave within five days.
Hood protested against this order.
The mayor and council of Atlanta appealed to Sherman to withdraw.
They pointed out that most of the inhabitants were women and children.
Sherman would not revoke his orders.
When preparations for the southward march had been made, the people had been forced to depart.
Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground.
Sherman destroyed warehouses and railroads.

The March Begins
Sherman left behind all disabled or weak men, and made up a fine army of 60,000.
5,000 of them were cavalry.
The army was to feed itself on the country.
Each brigade had a party of foragers, called "bummers."
These men were instructed to take all necessary provisions, horses and mules.
They were ordered not to enter dwellings, nor insult the people.
They were told to leave a part of their property to every family, so that none would be destitute.
Where the army was not opposed, Sherman ordered that mills, cotton gins and houses should not be destroyed.
If resistance were made they were to be burned.
All these orders were very badly obeyed.
There was no effort to enforce the instructions.

The Bummers
The "bummers" found the barns bursting with grain, fodder, and peas.
The outhouses were full of cotton and the yards crowded with hogs, chickens, and turkeys.
The soldiers in the Southern armies were starving.
Not because there was no food, but because the rail roads had been destroyed.
It was impossible to send supplies to the front.
Sherman was not content simply to use what food and supplies he needed.
He boasted that he would "smash things to the sea" and make Georgia howl.
His men entered dwellings, taking everything of value that could be moved, such as silver plate and jewelry.
They killed and left dead in the pens thousands of hogs, sheep and poultry.
Many dwellings were burned without any justification.
Sherman in his own Memoirs testifies to the conduct of his men.
He estimated that he had destroyed $80,000,000 worth of property.
One of the most serious aspects of his work was the destruction of the railroads.
The Central from Macon to Savannah, for instance, was almost totally ruined.
Sherman punished South Carolina more severly than the other Confederate states.
They were the first to succeed.

Atlanta to Midgeville
The march was directed toward the capital, Milledgeville.
Sherman divided his army into two divisions.
The right wing was commanded by General O. O. Howard.
He was to follow the railroad by Jonesboro and McDonough.
He had orders to stop at Gordon, on the Central of Georgia Railroad.
The left wing was under General H. W. Slocum.
He was to march by way of Decatur and Covington to Madison.
From there he was to go Milledgeville.
General Sherman was leading the left wing.
The army would spread out, visiting the important towns in that section of the state.
On November 15, the movement from Atlanta began.
By the 23rd, Sherman and the left wing reached Milledgeville.
Howard and the right wing had stopped at Gordon.
Sherman did not destroy the capitol buildings at Milledgeville.

Midgeville to Savannah
On November 24th the march was resumed in the direction of Savannah.
Sherman's army visited in this section Sandersville, Tennille, Louisville, Millen and other towns.
In Louisville Sherman's men piled all deed books in front of the court house and burned them.
The logic was that the big plantations would not be able to prove land ownership.
These actions are the bane of Georgia and South Carolina genealogists.
The cavalry, under Kilpatrick, passed through many places not visited by the army, such as Waynesboro.
In this part of Georgia Sherman was opposed by small bodies of cavalry and infantry under various generals.
These small forces did not expect to stop Sherman's army.
They hoped to keep it in a narrow path, so as to limit the amount of destruction.

The Fall of Savannah
On December 9^th the Federal army reached the neighborhood of Savannah.
The city was defended by General Hardee with 10,000 men.
Savannah was well protected by forts>
The rice swamps had also been flooded.
Cannon fire was exchanged, but the city was not damaged.
Federal gunboats controlled the coast and the mouths of the rivers.
Hardee saw that it would be impossible to hold Savannah.
On December 21st, in order to save his army, Hardee withdrew across the Savannah River into South Carolina.
On the following day Sherman entered Savannah.
He sent this telegram to President Lincoln.
"I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah."
"With one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition."
"Also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."
Sherman left behind a 60 mile by 300 mile swath of destruction.

1864 December 15-16, Gen Hood's Rebel army of 26,000 is crushed at Nashville by 55,000 Federals.
He was trying to draw Sherman's army out.
Blacks were in the Union Army led by Gen George Thomas.

The Beginning of the End
1865 March 25, Lee attack the center of Grant's army.
Four hours later the attack is broken.
1865 April2, Grant begins a general advance.
They break through Lee's lines.

Confederate General Ambrose Hill
Confederate General Ambrose Hill is killed.
On April 2, 1865, Hill was shot in the heart by a Union straggler.
He’d just been at a conference with Lee as the Union were breaking through the defenses west of Petersburg.
Hill rode out to try and bolster the southern forces.
He didn’t realize how far the breakthrough had gone.
Hill was dropped from his saddle.
Lee evacuates Petersburg.
Richmond is evacuated.
Fires and looting break out.
The next day, Union troops enter the city.

Lee Surrenders 9 April 1865
Lee surrenfders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.
Grant allows Rebel officers to keep their sidearms.
Soldiers may keep their horses and mules.
The Civil War resulted in freedom for 4,000,000 enslaved African Americans and the preservation of the Union.

John Wilkes Booth
Lincoln Assasinated 14 April 1865
John Wilkes Booth was a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland.
He had formulated a plan to kidnap Lincoln in exchange for the release of Confederate prisoners.
April 11, Booth attends a speech in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for blacks.
Booth changed his plans and determined to assassinate the president.
He learned that the President and First Lady would be attending Ford's Theatre.
His co-conspirators were to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward.
Lincoln's main bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon was not with Lincoln.
Lincoln had told Lamon about his dream regarding his own assassination.
Lincoln left to attend the play Our American Cousin on April 14, 1865.
Lincoln sat in his state box (Box 7) in the balcony.
Booth crept up behind the President.
He waited for what he thought would be the funniest line of the play "You sockdologizing old man-trap."
He hoped the laughter would muffle the noise of the gunshot.
When the laughter began, Booth jumped into the box and aimed a single-shot, round-slug 0.44 caliber Henry Deringer at his head.
He fired at point-blank range.
Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth but was cut by Booth's knife.
Booth then leapt to the stage and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" Latin for "Thus always to tyrants" and escaped.
Booth broke his leg in the leap to the stage.
A twelve-day manhunt ensued.
Booth was chased by Federal agents under the direction of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
He was eventually cornered in a Virginia barn house and shot, dying of his wounds soon after.
Other conspirators were arrested.

Lewis Powell, Mary Surratt, David Herold and George Atzerodt were brought to trial, convicted, and hung.

Major Rathbone
Eighteen years after Lincoln’s assassination, Henry Rathbone reenacted Booth’s brutal attack on President Lincoln.
Armed with knife and pistol, Henry attacked his family.
He murdered Clara with a pistol and tried to kill his children.
He then stabbed himself.
He lived and was declared insane.
He was institutionalized for the rest of his life.

Reconstruction
As important as the war itself was the tangled problem of how to reconstruct the defeated South.
In the South plantations and homes were burned during the war.
The fields were left unattended.
The Confederate money was worthless.
The Southerners felt very beaten.
Because of this Lincoln wanted to make it easy for the Southern states to rejoin the Union.
Many Northerners were angry over this.
The rebuilding of the South started right away.
Reconstruction had some important achievements.
Congress also divided the South into five military districts.
Each of these had a general in charge of the region.
The general sent troops out into the district to make sure the Blacks were given fair rights.

Lincoln's Plan
Lincoln asked only four things of the Southerners.
To free the slaves
Confederate government disband
New state governments for each Southern state be formed
No former leaders of the Confederate or high ranking officers could be a part of the new government

13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment
The 13th Amendment was passed in December 1865.
It said that slavery was unconstitutional.
The 14th Amendment said all Black were citizens of the United States and all laws against Blacks were unconstitutional.
The 15th Amendment was passed.
It gave Blacks over the age of 21 the right to vote.
Blacks could serve in Congress.
Encouraged by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution, African Americans at last nourished hopes for full equality.
Their hopes were to be dashed.

Carpetbaggers
A group of Northern people came to the South to find power and money.
They were called carpetbaggers.
They took money for getting laws passed, giving railroad rights, and helping certain people.
Most carpetbaggers were only looking to make themselves rich and were not looking for the good of the South.

Compromise of 1877, called for federal troops to leave the South.
Southern white resistance brought about the "redemption" of the South and African Americans were disenfranchised.
The redemption measures enforced greater racial separation and increased white intimidation and violence.
Former Confederates held racist views about the new roles for African-Americans in the South.
They were fearful of a social and economic system in which Africa-Americans were now free.
Intimidation through violence emerged throughout the South,
This kept most African-Americans from experiencing their full rights of citizenship.
It would take another 100 years for the goals of Reconstruction to be fully and permanently realized.

Cultural Changes
By 1870, the United States was becoming a strong industralized country.
It was also becoming a world power.
Urbanization changed life in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
A large number of immigrants came to Amercian cities.
City life provided jobs and education.

Classes
The lives of lower, middle, and the upper class differed greatly.

Upper Class
They lived in huge homes staffed with servants.
Upper class men held business and professional jobs.
Their wives rarely worked outside the home.
Children attended tax supported public schools.

Middle Class
They lived in apartment houses.
They were six to eight stories high with two apartments on each floor.
Another type of house was the row house.
It was a private house that shared a side wall with a neighbor.
Some lived in two family houses.
Some lived in single-familt residences.
Middle class men held business and professional jobs.
Their wives rarely worked outside the home.
Children attended tax supported public schools.

Lower Class
Lived in old houses or commercial buildings made into apartments called tenements.
Areas of large numbers of tenements were called slums.
Lower class men and women worked in factories.
Lower class children rarely went past elementary school.

Daily Life
The invention of the refrigerator ended the need for daily shopping.
People had time to read magazines, books, and newspapers.
They enjoyed music and the theater.
City governments set land aside for parks.

Bates, Samuel P. MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA PHILADELPHIA: T T. H. Davis & Co., 1876.

"The First Ironclad Battle." The American Civil War Roundtable UK. http://www.americancivilwar.org.uk/news_12-august-2006-the-first-ironclad-battle-%E2%80%93-the-uss-monitor-and-the-css-virginia-9th-march-1862_63.htm .

Greenblatt, Miriam, and Lemmo, Peter. Human Heritage A World History. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill, 2001.

O’Reilly, Francis Augustín. The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.