Devastation and New Freedom Ch. 11-4, P. 410-417

Key Terms Battle at Appomattox Thirteenth Amendment guerrilla

Essential Questions What was General Grant’s strategy for defeating the South, and how did he and General Sherman implement it? What were the issues and results of the election of 1864? How was the South finally defeated on the battlefield? How and why did John Wilkes Booth assassinate President Lincoln?

General Grant’s Strategy Lincoln realized that his re-election depended on victory on the battlefield. He put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union forces. Grant’s plan was to attack and destroy the Confederate army, using the North’s industrial might and superior manpower. He ordered William Tecumseh Sherman to lead the Union forces in the west.

General Grant’s Strategy In the East, Gen. Grant threw his men at the Southern army. In the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, Union forces faced massive losses. Instead of retreating, however, they pushed on, taking 65,000 casualties in two months.

General Grant’s Strategy Sherman, meanwhile, had laid siege to Atlanta. From July to September, Sherman bombed the city, finally taking it after 3 months of siege. He ordered the city evacuated and burned it to the ground. Next, he led 62,000 Union soldiers on a march to Savannah, burning and destroying everything of military value in their path.

Election of 1864 Lincoln faced not only the Democrats but also Radical Republicans in 1864. Radical Republican John C. Fremont ran on a platform of immediate emancipation for blacks and punishment for the south. Democratic candidate George McClellan ran on a platform of peace with the South and ending the bloodshed.

Election of 1864 Lincoln replaced Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to appeal to Democrats. Also, news of Sherman’s capture of Atlanta reached voters before election day. Fremont dropped out when Radical Republicans managed to iron out their differences. Lincoln won, 212-21.

Defeat of the South Grant moved to take the Southern Capitol, Richmond. The Confederates had run away from Sherman, and he took Savannah without a fight. Then, he marched his troops north, destroying South Carolina.

Defeat of the South Robert E. Lee escaped Richmond with 35,000 troops. Hungry and without supplies, they were tracked by Grant at every turn. Eventually, they were surrounded in Appomatox, Virginia, and Lee was allowed to surrender.

Lincoln Assassinated Southern supporters had been planning to capture Lincoln and hold him hostage. With the war ended, the plan lost its value. However, once it became clear that Lincoln would allow freed slaves to eventually vote, the plan’s leader, an actor named John Wilkes Booth, plotted to kill the President.

Lincoln Assassinated The plan included the killings of Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward as well, but Johnson was not attacked and Seward was only injured. Booth shot Lincoln from behind in a crowded theater, and escaped into the night. Two weeks later, after a nationwide manhunt, he was cornered in a barn in Virginia, where he refused to surrender and was killed.