What You Need to Know about the American Civil War for STAAR L. Petersen

Dates: 

Names for the Union  Yankees  United States of America  Blues  Federals  The North

Names for the Confederacy  Confederacy  Confederate States of America  Grays  Rebels  The South

Presidents  US – Abraham Lincoln  Capital – Washington, DC  Confederacy – Jefferson Davis  Capital – Richmond, VA

Views of Civil War  South – states’ rights was their justification  Union –  First - To preserve the Union  Much Later – to free slaves

Northern Advantages  Larger population (North – 22 Million, South – 9 million including 3.5 million slaves)

Northern Advantages  Most of the nation’s mineral deposits – iron, coal, copper, and other precious metals  More factories - 86% of nation’s factories located in the North

Northern Advantages  More Railroads – The North had 2.5 times the railroad mileage as the South  U.S. Navy – Almost 90% of the U.S. ships stayed with the Union.

Northern Advantages  Leadership of Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln pulled the nation through the most difficult time in its existence. A lesser man would not have been able to do that.

Southern Advantages  Generals – many West Point trained  1/3 of the career officers in the U.S. Army resigned to join the Confederacy

Southern Advantages  Fighting a Defensive War; didn’t have to invade North, just not lose  Northern troops did not know the territory  Northern troops far away from supply lines

Southern Advantages  Fighting for a Cause they believed in.  Southerners believed that they were fighting for liberty based on the ideas in the Declaration of Independence.

Southern Advantages  Leadership of Robert E. Lee - Inspired Confederate soldiers to fight on, despite the odds

Military Commanders  Union – Ulysses S. Grant  Confederacy – Robert E. Lee

Northern Strategy - Anaconda Plan –  seize railroads & Mississippi River to split Confederacy, cut off supplies  blockade ports  capture Richmond

Southern Strategy –  fight a defensive war, hold on until the North gave up  capture Washington, DC.

Abraham Lincoln’s Speeches  Emancipation Proclamation - freed slaves in rebelling states, NOT in border states  Added abolition of slavery to war aims  After Antietam

Abraham Lincoln’s Speeches  Gettysburg Address – at dedication of Gettysburg battle site as national cemetery; said they were fighting to save the Union and democracy

Gettysburg Address Read the text at et/web/creative/lincoln/ speeches/gettysburg.ht m

Abraham Lincoln’s Speeches  2nd Inaugural Address -encouraged everyone to think of the Union, wanted to bring the country back together peacefully

2 nd Inaugural Address Read the text at m/124/pres32.html

Important Events & Battles:  Ft. Sumter - First battle  Antietam - Emancipation Proclamation issued after this battle; new emphasis on fighting to free slaves keeps European nations out of the civil war

Important Events & Battles  Vicksburg – Union captured the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River; Union controls Mississippi River

Important Events & Battles:  Gettysburg - turning point of the war, North slowly gets the advantage as Southern casualties grow; Gettysburg Address follows it

Important Events & Battles:  Appomattox Courthouse, VA- Lee surrenders to U.S. Grant, ending the war  South loses

Important People:  Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson – Confederate officer under Lee; died from wounds at Chancellorsville

Important People  William Tecumseh Sherman – Union officer; burned Atlanta in his “March to the Sea” campaign

Important People  Julia Ward Howe – wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”; marching song of the Union army describing life in army, and poem “John Brown’s Body”

Important People  William Carney – 1 st African American soldier awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor

Important People  Philip Bazaar – 1 st Hispanic-American awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor

Important People  Clara Barton – founder of the Red Cross; Civil War nurse

Important People  John Wilkes Booth – assassinated Abraham Lincoln

Reconstruction   The period of rebuilding and reuniting the nation after the Civil War: after Lincoln’s assassination the process is much harder on the South; Congress (Radical Republicans) wanted Military Reconstruction

Important People  Hiram Rhodes Revels – 1 st African American elected to Congress

Homestead Act  Government offered public lands to settlers out west, growing crops and homes

Morrill Act  Set western land aside to fund agricultural and mechanical colleges (how Texas A&M got started)

Dawes Act  Sold Indian land and sent Indians to reservations; put Native American children in schools that virtually eliminated their culture

Compromise of 1877  Ended Reconstruction  Federal government would give more aid and leave the South alone; South promised to maintain rights for African American

Reconstruction  The period of reuniting the country after the Civil War.  Much bitterness felt by the South – lasted for generations

Lincoln Assassinated  John Wilkes Booth – Southerner  Made Reconstruction harder on the South  Lincoln had wanted peace  People wanted to punish the South after his death

Reconstruction  Seceding states had to go through a process to be formally readmitted into the Union  Confederate officers lost citizenship until pardoned

Reconstruction Amendments  13 – freed slaves  14 – gave former slaves citizenship (also had details about citizenship for former Confederates)

Reconstruction Amendments  15 – right to vote guaranteed to all races (aimed at African Americans) Free Citizens Vote

Reconstruction Amendments  13 th – freed slaves  14 th – gave former slave citizenship  15 th – gave African Americans the right to vote