Civil War Timeline Jack Smith 1 st Hour SEEK Social Studies Due 10 th May

The Civil War ( ) The Civil War started in 1861, as a result of the Southern half of the Union seceding, to form their own nation. The South, known during the war as the Confederates, elected Jefferson Davis as their president. The secession, because of the South wanting slavery and independence, led to U.S president Abraham Lincoln’s decision to fight to preserve the Union.

Siege of Fort Sumter In April of 1861, the day after taking office, Abraham Lincoln receives a message from the commander of Union forces in Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, stating that the fort was low on supplies and that Confederate forces were demanding its surrender. Lincoln responded by sending a message to Governor Francis Pickens of South Carolina, which said that Lincoln was sending a group of unarmed supply ships to the fort. Southern president Jefferson Davis decided to have his forces attack the supply ships. Without supplies, the fort surrendered on April 14 th, without any casualties. The siege marked the beginning of the American Civil War.

First Battle of Bull Run The first major battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run, was fought in the summer of 1861 near a river (Bull Run) in northern Virginia. About 30,000 inexperienced Union troops led by Gen. Irvin McDowell attacked inexperienced Confederate troops led by P.G.T. Beauregard. Hundreds of Washington D.C. residents went to the battle site to picnic and watch. (!) Southern reinforcements led by General Thomas Jackson seemed to put up quite a fight, “like a stone wall” which led to Jackson’s nickname “Stonewall” Jackson. The Union was eventually pushed back, along with picnicking civilians.

Capture of New Orleans A few weeks after Shiloh, the Union navy under the command of David Farragut took control of New Orleans. This meant that the Confederacy could no longer use the river for transportation of goods to sea. Towards the end of the war, Farragut would capture Mobile Bay in Alabama.

Capture of Fort Donelson The Union had realized that to win, they had to control the Mississippi River and its tributaries. In February 1862, the North began its war on the rivers when naval commander Andrew Foote and Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and moved towards Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. The Confederates in Fort Donelson quickly noticed they had no way to win, and surrendered the fort. When Grant uttered the words “unconditional surrender” he quickly gained the support of the Northerners.

Battle of the Ironclads The Confederacy had found an abandoned Union warship, the Merrimack, and had it re-serviced and coated in iron. The South had a secret weapon, and used it to open Southern ports, countering Gen. Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan. However, the Union had an iron vessel of its own- the Monitor. The two ships met in the Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of Virginia. After four hours of fighting, the battle was deemed indecisive, because both sides withdrew. Each ship was intact and practically unscathed. Contrary to popular belief, these weren’t the first ironclad warships, as the Koreans were building them in the sixteenth century.

Battle of Shiloh General Grant, in the West, had 40,000 troops headed south along the Tennessee River towards Corinth, Mississippi. The army had encamped in Pittsburg Landing, about twenty miles from Corinth. The Confederates decided to attack first. Confederate forces led by Albert Sydney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard counterattacked Union troops. The battle was a slight victory for the Union, but losses were very large, with 23,000 casualties total. Following the victory, Union forces took control of Corinth.

Antietam Upon arriving in Maryland, Confederate general Robert E. Lee had his army split into four parts and moving in different directions. Lee hoped he could confuse Gen. George B. McClellan about the size and destination of his army. One of Lee’s officers lost the battle plans, which were found by two Union soldiers, who brought it to McClellan. McClellan did not attack immediately, and the two sides met in the Battle of Antietam, near Sharpsburg in Maryland. Antietam is the bloodiest single-day battle in the war, with over 6,000 killed and 17,000 wounded. Because of his defeat, Lee retreated into Virginia.

The Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln thought of the war as a fight to re-unite the Union, but he changed his views on slavery and felt that the war should be a fight to end it. Lincoln had initially opposed the decision to end slavery, fearing that he would lose many Union supporters and those in the border states. On September 22 nd, 1862, shortly after the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln announced that he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and on January 1 st, 1863, he did, freeing any slaves in Southern territory. The Proclamation did not actually free any slaves at all. It did, however, change the government’s position on slavery, deciding that if the Union won the war, slavery would be permanently banned.

Battle of Fredericksburg Robert E. Lee, after his defeat at Antietam, moved his troops back to Virginia. The new Union general, Ambrose Burnside, had his troops march into Virginia and try to take Richmond. Lee decided to counterattack near the small town of Fredericksburg. Lee had his forces dig trenches in the hills, and when the Union attacked in December 1862, and Lee’s entrenched forces drove back the Union forces. After the loss, Burnside resigned and was replaced by General Joseph Hooker.

Battle of Chancellorsville In May of 1863, Lee divided his troops in response to General Hooker’s having done the same thing. Some troops stayed to protect Fredericksburg, a second engaged the main Union force, and a third attacked the Union force by surprise. Stonewall Jackson turned and attacked the Union from the rear. Caught between two Confederate forces, Hooker withdrew his men. The battle was fought well into the night, and a Confederate soldier, in his confusion, shot his own general, hero Stonewall Jackson. Jackson died a week later.

The Battle of Gettysburg In July of 1863, a small town in Pennsylvania was to be the place of one of the most important battles in the war. Gettysburg was of no strategic importance whatsoever, and how so much fighting took place there was almost an accident. The Confederates walked into the town looking for supplies, however the two factions encountered each other. Outnumbered, Union Major General George Meade’s troops took to a section of high ground known as Cemetery Hill. After reinforcements for both sides, and on the second day of fighting, Confederate generals tried to remove Union forces from hills Big Round Top and Little Round Top. Meade’s troops held their positions. On the third day, Lee made an important decision. He had a plan destined to “create a panic and virtually destroy the Union army.” This plan, Pickett’s Charge, involved thousands of Confederate soldiers marching through an open field. At first, Pickett’s Charge seemed like it might work- the troops broke the Union’s frontlines. After four days of fighting, the North emerged victorious, but with heavy losses of its own. Gettysburg was a major turning point in the war.

Siege of Vicksburg On July 4 th, 1863, the day that Lee retreated from Gettysburg, Union troops led by Ulysses S. Grant captured the river city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant first attacked Vicksburg in April, and launched a siege in May, for 47 days. During the siege, about 9,000 Confederates and 10,000 Union troops died, from disease or starvation. A few days later, the South lost Port Hudson, its last stronghold on the Mississippi River. The success split the Confederacy in two.

The Petersburg Siege Grant, continuing his movement south after three battles near Richmond, laid siege to an important railroad junction crucial to movement of troops and supplies. If Grant took Petersburg, then Richmond would be cut off from the rest of the South. Grant beset Petersburg for nine months.

Sherman’s “March to Sea” The last few months of the war showed that the North had a strong determination. General William T. Sherman and his men approached the aspect of “total war” and destroyed cities and farmland from Atlanta all the way to Richmond to join with Grant’s forces.

Lee’s Surrender The formal end of the war was on April 9 th, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Grant and Lee met, shook hands and talked a little. They agreed that “the soldiers could keep their small firearms, the officers could keep their horses, and that no soldiers would be disturbed while making their way home.” 5 days later, after being reelected in 1864, Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C.