1. THE CIVIL WAR

2. Election of 1860
Democratic Party split over the issue of slavery, Abraham Lincoln easily won a majority of electoral votes (but only 40% of the popular vote) and became the sixteenth President of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln – Republican Candidate
Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas (Illinois)
Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge (Kentucky)
Constitutional Unionists, nominated John Bell (Tennessee).
Abraham Lincoln (Illinois) Republican

3. The South Secedes
Several Southern states refused to accept Lincoln’s election as President, because they feared he would try to abolish or at least further restrict slavery.
Late 1860 to early 1861 southern states vote to secede (or withdraw) from the Union
Formed the Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected as president of the Confederacy. Previously, Senator from Mississippi

4. The War Begins at Fort Sumter
In April 1861, President Lincoln refused to remove federal troops from Fort Sumter, located in Charleston, South Carolina.
When Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War ( ) began.

5. The Cost of Civil War
A civil war is a war between people of the same country, and approximately 620,000 Americans died during the four years of fighting in the American Civil War - 360,000 men died fighting for the Union, while 260,000 Confederates perished.

6. Before and After Fort Sumter
President Lincoln calls states to send troops to serve in the US Army.
Rather than send troops, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy

7. Seven Major Causes of the Civil War
Ongoing political debate on tariff policies, extension of slavery and nature of the Union (South consistently takes state’s rights position)
Continuous conflict between Northern opponents of slavery and Southern proponents of slavery.
US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott case
Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Ineffective Presidential leadership through the 1850s
History of failed compromises over the expansion of slavery in the territories
President Lincoln’s call for troops in 1861

8. So….
Secession of Southern States triggers a long and costly war that concludes with
Northern victory
Restoration of the Union
Emancipation of the Slaves
*Emancipation – In American History – refers to freeing of African-American Slaves

9. Early 19th Century
Debate over the power of the Federal government vs. states rights finally reached a climax.
Two most important issues
1 – Survival of the US as one nation
2 - Tested the US’s ability to live up to the ideals of liberty, equality and justice.
More Americans died in the Civil War than any other War in the Nation’s history.

10. Key Leaders of the Civil War
Abraham Lincoln
Served as President throughout the War
Opposed secession and insisted the Union should be held together by force if necessary

11. Key Leaders of the Civil War
Jefferson Davis
President of the Confederate States of America
Davis was previously Senator from Mississippi

12. Key Leaders of the Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant was a Union military commander, who won victories over the South after several other Union commanders had failed.
A West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran, Grant had resigned his commission in 1854 over troubles with drinking. When the Civil War began, Grant volunteered his services and by September 1861 was promoted to brigadier general

13. Key Leaders of the Civil War
Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general and commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Although Lee opposed secession, he did not believe the Union should be held together by force.
At the end of the war, Robert E. Lee urged Southerners to accept defeat and unite as Americans again, even though some Southerners wanted to continue the fight.

14. Key Leaders of the Civil War
Frederick Douglass. Douglass was a former slave who became a prominent or important anti-slavery abolitionist. During the Civil War, Douglass urged President Lincoln to recruit former slaves to fight in the Union army.

15. Important Battles – Antietam, Gettysburg, and Appomattox
Antietam - A major Union victory over the Confederates as Lee retreated from Maryland back into Virginia (Sept 1862)
Important – because the confidence after this Confederate defeat allowed President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

16. Gettysburg
Gettysburg - The Union victory over Confederates at Gettysburg, PA, in July 1863 proved to be the major turning point of the Civil War. 51,000 Union and Confederate troops died. After Gettysburg, it was only a matter of time before the Union crushed the Confederacy.

17. Appomattox Courthouse
After a nine-month siege, Lee was forced to abandon Petersburg, VA on April 2, A week later, he surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. This ended the Civil War.
Meeting in the parlor of this house, Lee wore his best dress uniform while Grant, smoking a cigar, was as usual disheveled in appearance. The two quickly came to agreement as Grant offered, and Lee accepted, very generous surrender terms. Four days later, the actual surrender took place as 26,000 Confederates laid down their weapons and were paroled.

18. Emancipation Proclamation
Antietam marked a new stage in President Lincoln’s conduct of the war. On New Year’s Day, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This document freed all slaves in the “rebelling” states (seceded Southern states) as of January 1, This call for emancipation of African-American slaves changed the character of the war.

19. Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln with his cabinet at the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on July 22, 1862.

20. Emancipation Proclamation
Previously, preservation of the Union had served as the North’s primary goal. By issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln made the destruction of slavery a Northern war aim and this joined the previous war aim of preservation of the Union
This proclamation also discouraged any interference of foreign governments in the war, since neither Great Britain nor France wanted to give the appearance of supporting slavery.
It made the use of black troops a viable option for the North.

21. The Gettysburg Address
In November 1863, four months after the North’s great victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to dedicate a military cemetery.
In the Gettysburg Address Lincoln:
Described the Union as one nation and not a federation of independent states (In contrast, Southern view – states joined freely, could secede.)
Set forth the North’s now dual war aims to preserve the Union and abolish slavery.

22. The Gettysburg Address
Lincoln described the Civil War as a struggle to preserve a nation that was dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal” and that was ruled by a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” According to this vision, the institution of African-American slavery must not exist in the United States.

23. Impacts
The Civil War had a big impact on African-Americans, the common Soldier, and the home front and women in Virginia

24. African-Americans
Emancipation Proclamation allowed for enlistment of African-American Soldiers
Many enslaved African-Americans gained freedom by running behind Union lines as the Army approached

25. The Common Soldier in Wartime
Hand-to-hand combat
Brutal warfare
Lonely and boring camp life
Wartime letters and diaries preserved their experiences

26. After the War Many soldiers returned to find their homes destroyed
Families in poverty (particularly in the South)
Many on both sides were wounded, crippled and lived with permanent disabilities

27. Women Assumed non-traditional roles on the home front
Managed homes & families with scarce resources
Frequently faced poverty and hunger
New roles in agriculture, nursing and war industries during the war