Dis End of the War

Dis 1: ’84 Headline: Command of Union armies given to Grant Supporting details: March 10, Suffering through poor generals, President Lincoln has appointed U.S. Grant to command all armies of the United States. 2. Grant was not able to visit Washington to receive his appointment in person. 3. He was in Virginia visiting the Army of the Potomac, still under the command of General George Meade. Result: The appointment of Grant strengthens the Union’s military potential, speeding up the eventual Confederate defeat.

Disp 2 Headline: Sherman’s troops begin march through Georgia Supporting details: November 15, Calculated to bring fear and the war itself to the civilian populationof Georgia, General William T. Sherman and his Union troops have left the recently captured city of Atlanta and are on a march to the Atlantics sea. 2. As Federal troops left Atlanta in flames, the 60,000-strong force has been ordered to destroy property and lay waste to everything that might help the South continue the war. The object is to split the South again and reach Savannah, on the Atlantic Coast, by December. Result: Sherman’s March to the Sea will devastate the Confederacy.

Dis 3 Headline: Federals take Petersburg; occupy Richmond Supporting details: April 3, Under the tenacious leadership of U.S. Grant, Union armies have finally beaten Rebel forces under R.E. Lee and captured the region around Petersburg and Richmond, the rebel capital. 2. The nine-month siege of Petersburg cost 60,000 Union troops in the first month and came just after the gritty slugfest at Cold Harbor. 3. On Monday, April 3, 1865, Union troops entered and occupied the Confederate capital. The war is just about over. Result: Grant beat Lee at Petersburg and occupies the Rebel capital.

Dis 4: Headline Lee surrenders to Grant Supporting details: April 9, Confederate General Robert E. Lee has officially surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. 2. The three-hour meeting, ending with the surrender, took place on Palm Sunday in Appomattox Court House, VA. 3. Terms included surrender of the Confederate Army, and turning over of Rebel arms and supplies. The Rebels were allowed to keep their private horses and arms. Lee did not give up his sword. Result: The surrender at Appomattox by Lee ends organized Confederate fighting.

Dis 5 Headline: Assassin’s bullet kills President Lincoln Supporting details: April 15, News has spread throughout the nation that President Lincoln, the architect of the Union victory, was shot and killed as he attended a play at Ford’s Theater in the Capital last night. 2. The deed was done at about 10:20 p.m. on April 14 during a performance of “Our American Cousin.” Lincoln was in the company of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and a young couple, Major H.R. Rathboneand Miss Clara Harris. The assassin appears to be actor John Wilkes Booth, who fired one pistol shot at close range into Lincoln’s skull while the president sat in a special box above the stage. Result: The nation mourns the death of its beloved president, who died at 7:22 a.m. on April 15.

After the War Following the End of the War, the period known as Reconstruction begins. ( Basically to rebuild the South and bring them back into the Union) With Lincoln dead, the challenge went to his Vice President Andrew Johnson

Amendments Before Lincoln’s death, In January of 1865, Congress passed the 13th Amendment, which made slavery illegal in the United States. 14th Amendment guaranteeing citizenship and equal protection under the law to all people in the US and banned former Confederate officials from holding state or federal office.

After the election of 1868, Congress passed the final Civil War Amendment. The 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote. To help newly freed African slaves find jobs, food, and homes, Lincoln before his death also passed and created the Freedom’s Bureau to help with this issues.

Challenges In the South, new southern governments began passing laws called Black Codes to limit the freedom of African Americans. a. An example of a Black code, was that all persons of color who work will be called servants and those who they work for will called Masters. Basically no more official slavery but life would continue on in the South as if nothing happened for awhile. A response to the 14 Amendment, many in the South formed what is now known as the Ku Klux Klan, which will terrorize people of color all throughout the South and spread to the entire US. Reconstruction will not end until 1876, when the last of Union soldiers leave the South, and though the Union is restored and slavery has ended, the United States still has a long way to go in its recovery.