Terms

The North
The South
Causes of Secession
Union
Confederacy
Abraham Lincoln
Jefferson Davis 
Northern Advantages
Southern Advantages

First Bull Run
Thomas Jackson
Anaconda Plan
Soldier Life
William Quantrill
Guerrilla Warfare
Western Theater
Eastern Theater
Trans-Mississippi Theater
Shiloh
Battle of Antietam 
​Emancipation Proclamation

Ulysses S. Grant
Robert E. Lee
Southeast Missouri
Contrabands
Gettysburg 
Vicksburg
Grant's 1864 Campaign
Atlanta
Sherman's March to the Sea
Appomattox
​Lincoln Assassination

Assignments

Terms

Assignment 1

CW Crossword

Quiz 1

Civil War 1861-1865

War for the Union 

War of Southern Independence

War of the Rebellion

When Confederates fired on Fort Sumpter, the Civil War had finally begun.  While there were many reasons that regular soldiers fought the Civil War, the reasons why it began are very clear for both the North and the South.  In the North, President Abraham Lincoln made it clear that the North's goal (at first) was only to preserve or save the Union, to bring the Southern states back into the United States that had left.  The South made it clear that the reason that it left, or seceded was because they believed the North would never allow slavery to expand and would threaten the institution of slavery where it already existed now that there were more "free states" than there were "slave states."  

The Confederacy was made up at first, of the seven Deep South states, but eventually four more states from the Upper South would join and two border states as well (that's the reason there are thirteen stars on the Confederate flag.  The Confederacy consisted of the following states:  Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and eventually the border states of Missouri and Kentucky (11th and 12th stars on the Confederate flag).  

Jefferson Davis

The South or Confederacy elected President Jefferson Davis to be their president.  Davis was a slave owner from Mississippi who had experience in the army as an officer during the Mexican-American War and as a politician having formally been a secretary of War for President Zachery Taylor.   The Confederate capital was in Richmond, Virginia, within 100 miles of the Union or Northern capital in Washington D.C. 

---

Confederate Capital building in Richmond.

The Union (The North)

The Union was led by President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, a Republican. Lincoln's views on slavery changed throughout his life.  By the time he became president of the United States, Lincoln was personally against slavery, but he had no intentions at first of making slavery illegal where it already existed.  

Most of the Northern states that were in the old northwest, like Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois, joined Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops in order to put down the rebellion in the South because they wanted to keep the Union the together, most were not opposed slavery.  

Union Advantages to the War - The Union had several advantages over the South when the war began:
1.  22 million soldiers would join the Civil War to fight for the Union, the North had a much larger population than the South.  The South only had 9 million. 
2.  Transportation - the North had a much better train and steamboat transportation system that would help move soldiers and materials to the front where the fighting was. 
3.  Industry - 90% of the factories used to make weapons and war materials were located in the North.  

Abe Lincoln

Southern Advantages - The South may not have had the amount of men, factories, or trains that the North had, but it would fight a defensive war which takes less men to be successful.  The South planned to dig fortifications or earthworks, get behind them, and wait for the Union soldiers to attack.  Because the Confederates would be behind fortifications, they would most likely be able to kill more of the enemy.  
2.  The South had more trained military officers with experience than the North.  More officers from the old U.S. Army were from the South than the North.  When the Southern states left or seceded, those officers resigned from their positions in the U.S. Army and joined their own state Confederate units.  
3.  The Southern culture was built around rural farming, which gave Southerners an edge on riding horses.  Confederate cavalry was more experienced at the beginning of the war and had better horses than the Northern cavalry (Cavalry is a unit soldiers on horseback).  
4.  The South planned to wear the North down by making them attack them in well prepared earthworks and eventually they believed the Northern people would tire of war  and eventually quit.  

Union Soldiers

Confederate Soldiers 

The Battle of First Bull Run

After Fort Sumter, the Union and Confederates began gathering for a battle they knew would be coming between the Confederate capital in Richmond, and the Union capital in Washington D.C.

On July 21, 1861, 37,000 Union soldiers marched out of Washington D.C. toward Manassas Junction located near Bull Run Creek.  This would be the first taste of real combat for most of the soldiers and they did not know what to expect.  

Map of the battle at First Bull Run.

Stonewall Jackson at Bull Run

Confederate troops under the command of Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard were camped along the south side of Bull Run Creek when the Union soldiers arrived on the battlefield on the north side of Bull Run Creek.  There was only one bridge across the creek.  Both sides faked crossing the bridge and found shallow places in the creek above and below the bridge to cross instead.  Throughout most of the morning, Union soldiers began pushing the Confederates back and looked like they might win the battle.  Confederate reinforcements arrived and under the command of Confederate General Thomas Jackson, they stood firm refusing to fallback or retreat.  One officer who saw Jackson's men exclaimed, "There is General Jackson with his Virginians standing like a stonewall!"  From that moment on, General Jackson became, "Stonewall" Jackson.  Jackson ordered his men to charge the Union soldiers, this caused the Union soldiers to break and run.   The battle was over, the Confederates had won.  

---

The Union Army's retreat from Bull Run turned to panic, wealthy people had shown up to watch the battle from a ridge near the battlefield, the scene was almost like a picnic, they hadn't planned on Union soldiers losing the battle and running through them in confusion.  Union soldiers ran all of the way back to Washington.  The first major battle of the Civil War had ended in a Confederate defeat.  Many began to realize that this might be a long war, instead of short one.  

Union Strategy - The Anaconda Plan​

One of the Union's biggest strategies was to use the U.S. Navy to defeat the Confederates.  The Confederates had little to no actual Navy especially early in the war.  The plan, called the Anaconda Plan, was to control the major rivers in the South with naval ships, while also creating a wall of naval ships that would anchor just off of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coast.  This way the Confederacy would be able to ship supplies or receive help from European governments for weapons and supplies, thus constricting, or squeezing the life out of the South just like the Anaconda snake does its prey.  

Anaconda Map

Soldiers Life

Union soldiers in camp.

The reasons that soldiers joined the Civil War were as varied as the types of people that fought in it.  In the North, most wanted to preserve the Union, while others wanted to fight to end slavery.  In the South, the vast majority of soldiers did not own slaves and believed they were fighting to preserve the independence of their state from what they believed was an over powerful federal or national government.  

Union soldiers in camp.

Once they joined, they found out that very little of being a soldier was actually fighting.  Most of their time was spend in camp, doing drill to learn how to be better soldiers, digging fortifications, or just waiting for something to happen.  Because many of these soldiers had never been in large groups of people before, disease became the number one killer of soldiers instead of bullets.  Bad food, and poor drinking water did not help the situation.  

Large Union army camp.

Soldiers came up with ways to pass the time in camp.  They played games with dice and cards, although gambling was not allowed, they did it anyway.  They began playing a new game called round ball, which became the game of baseball.  They sang songs, read newspapers, and wrote letters home to loved ones. 

Missouri Border War

Because of the fighting that occurred during Bleeding Kansas before the war, many Missourians along the Kansas and Missouri border already hated one another.  This hatred became very personal as pro-slavery men from Missouri and anti-slavery men from Kansas began using the war as an excuse to attack each other, often times burning down the homes and killing family members of those they did not like. 

Missouri Guerrilla Fighter

William Quantrill

On the Missouri side of the border, men gathered in small groups or bands to fight together.  They were not interested in the large scale battles and discipline that it took to be soldiers in the regular army, they joined to protect their homes and attack the people and homes of their enemies which were Union forces and people from Kansas.  Some of these men, called bushwhackers or guerrilla fighters, had experienced personal wrongs that had been done to their family which made their hatred very deep.  One man, William Quantrill had been a school teacher before the Civil War.  Since his family were called Southern sympathizers, or someone who tended to take the side of the South, his sister was rounded up by Union soldiers along with the family members of other guerrilla fighters and housed in an old jail in Kansas City, which collapsed killing several including Quantrill's sister.  Quantrill was one of the most notorious guerrilla fighters of the war.  

In 1863, Quantrill got his revenge when he gathered a large group of guerrilla fighters and attacked the Jayhawker, or antislavery town of Lawrence, Kansas, where they killed every male in town they could find.  The fighting in Missouri was like that everywhere, even in Southeast Missouri.  It became brother against brother.  

Bloody Bill Anderson

The Theaters of the War

Eastern

Where the heaviest or most large scale battles were fought.  Located mostly in Virginia and states that are along the Atlantic coast.  Example of Easter Theater battles:  First Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Appomattox.

Western

Located west of the Atlantic states to the Mississippi River.  States like Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi.  Battles included: Shiloh, Vicksburg, and many others.  Sometimes people include the western sides of North Carolina and South Carolina in the Western Theater.

Trans-Mississippi

Located WEST of the Mississippi River.  Includes Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Indian Territory (Oklahoma).  Some of the battles:  Wilson's Creek, Cape Girardeau, Pea Ridge, New Orleans.  Because it is located so far from the capitals of the U.S. and C.S. forces, it was often neglected.  

1861 - 1862

In 1861 the Union suffered two major defeats, First Bull Run and Wilson's Creek, Mo.  In August of 1861, Union forces outside of Springfield, Missouri were defeated by Confederate General Sterling Price.  In November of 1861 Union troops occupied Cape Girardeau, under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant.  

Grant was not the type of general to sit around and do nothing.  on November 8, 1861, he moved two columns of his men south.  One traveled to Bloomfield, Missouri where on November 9, 1861 soldiers from Illinois took over the newspaper office in Bloomfield and started the Stars and Stripes Newspaper.   

Ulysses S. Grant

The second column moved South by steamboats and unloaded at a place called Belmont, near present day East Prairie, Missouri.  Here Grant fought his first Civil War battle.  The battle ended in a draw and he retreated back to the safety of Cape Girardeau.  

Battles of Fort Donelson - February 1862

Grant was transferred east across the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Paducah, Kentucky in January 1862.  Being a man of action, Grant wanted to move south through Kentucky and into Tennessee and take control of two rivers, the Tennessee River and Cumberland Rivers.  There were two forts on those rivers, one, Ft. Henry, was on the Tennessee River.  Having been flooded recently by heavy rain, the Confederates left or evacuated Ft. Henry on February 6, 1862.  Grant then turned his attention to Ft. Donelson about ten miles away on the Cumberland River.  On February 13, 1862, Grant had Ft. Donelson surrounded on three sides with the river on the back of the fort guarded by Union gunboats.  On February 16, 1862, Confederate forces surrendered to Grant.  This gave President Abraham Lincoln the first major Union victories of the war and made Grant a national hero.  

---

The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862

Grant wasn't satisfied to sit by and do nothing.  After capturing Ft. Donelson, Grant regrouped his men and marched south to Pittsburg's Landing on the Tennessee River about ten miles from the border with Mississippi.  His men camped in the woods surrounding a small church, called Shiloh Church.  Grant's plan was to wait until good weather arrived and continue his move south and eventually attack the Confederates who were dug in about twenty miles away at Corinth, Mississippi.  

The Confederates at Corinth were under the command of Albert Sydney Johnston and his Army of Tennessee, about 40,000 men.  Johnston was an aggressive fighter and knew that Grant was camped at Pittsburgh's Landing.  Johnston rightly believed that Grant wouldn't be prepared for an attack on his forces at Pittsburgh's Landing.  On April 5, 1862.  Johnston moved his army north to surprise Grant's army. 

Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston rallying his Confederate troops before attacking.

At daylight on April 6, 1862, Confederates rushed out of the woods in a charge toward Grant's unsuspecting army, many of whom were still asleep or cooking their breakfasts.  Grant's army tried to rally or regroup, but were quickly beaten back.  Union soldiers made a desperate stand at a crossroads later known as the hornet's nest because the bullets that whizzed by sounded like angry hornets.  Johnston urged the Confederates forward, late in the afternoon he was struck by Union bullet in the knee, it cut an artery and he soon bled to death.  As darkness fell, the Confederates only needed a few more hours the next day to finish the job. 

Much to Grant's relief, on the night of April 6th, Union reinforcements arrived under Don Carlos Buell.  The next morning, April 7th, Confederate General PGT Beauregard, now in command of Confederate forces at Shiloh after Johnston's death, found that he was facing thousands of fresh troops.  Grant with his new forces attacked the Confederates and drove them from the field, Grant had won another major victory for the North, but this one came at a higher price than any of the other battles that had been fought.  More than 13,000 Union soldiers had been wounded, killed, or captured.  The Confederates lost more than 10,000 in wounded, killed, or captured (soldiers wounded, killed, or captured are called casualties).  The battle of Shiloh showed the country that the Civil War was going to be a long and bloody war.  

Painting of the Hornet's Nest at Shiloh.

Actual picture of Hornet's Nest at Shiloh.

In the Eastern Theater, 1862

Union General George B. McClellan

In Virginia during 1862, a lot happened.  Union General George B. McClellan tried to take the Confederate capital of Richmond by marching up the Peninsula from the east.  After a series of battles called the 7 Days Battles, thousands of troops were killed or wounded and McClellan still had not taken the capital.  The Confederates were commanded by Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, who was wounded in one of the battles, a man named Robert E. Lee took over the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, a position he held until the end of the war.  

Confederate General Robert E. Lee

The Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862

In the fall of 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee wanted to take the war to the North by taking his army north to Maryland.  On morning of September 17, 1862, Lee's army was camped outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland facing Antietam Creek.  On the opposite side of the creek was Union General George B. McClellan.  McClellan had 87,000 troops, while Lee had just under 40,000.  To make matters worse for Lee, a copy of his orders, Special Orders #191, had fallen into the hands of McClellan, who should have been able to crush Lee with superior numbers and Lee's battle plan, but McClellan was a man of extreme caution.  

Confederate dead at Bloody Lane at Antietam.

Bloody Lane at Antietam today.

McClellan attacked Lee's forces first on the North end of the battlefield, but no where else, this allowed Lee to move troops to that area of the battlefield to help stop the Union soldiers, it was mostly fought in a cornfield.  After the Union was repulsed or beaten back there, McClellan then attacked the Confederate center at what became known as the Bloody Lane, again, Lee was able to stop McClellan because he did not put all of his troops on the attack at once.  Late in the afternoon, Union soldiers attacked on the Confederate right or southern end of the battlefield at Burnside's Bridge, which they finally took and successfully held but not before receiving horrible casualties.  Lee fearing that he could not stand another attack the next day, retreated in what became known as a slight Union victory.  

Antietam is one of the most important battle of the Civil War for a couple of reasons.  First, it was the bloodiest single day in American history (and remains to this day), with over 22,000 men from both sides killed, wounded, or captured in a single day.  Secondly, and more importantly, it was the Union victory that Abraham Lincoln looked for to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. 

Confederate Dead at Antietam

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all of the slaves in STATES OF REBELLION.  This made the war officially about more than just preserving the Union, it was know a war to free millions of enslaved African Americans, also called, "A new birth of freedom."  This victory for the Union also ensured that European powers would not interfere and join the side of the Confederates.  

Col. Robert Gould Shaw

With the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln also authorized that blacks, whether they had been former slaves that were freed (called contrabands), or were already freeman, could join the Union army in special units to fight against the Confederates.  He established the United States Colored Troops or USCT.  The most famous of which was the 54th Massachusetts commanded by Robert Gould Shaw, an abolitionist from Boston.  The 54th Massachusetts Infantry became famous after their attack on the Confederate Fort Wagner outside of Charleston, South Carolina.  The first black troops used in battle, however, occurred at the battle of Island Mound in Missouri. 

54th Massachusetts Infantry

Southeast Missouri

The Civil War in Southeast Missouri was similar to other areas of Missouri.  The first major battle was at Fredricktown, Missouri in September 1861, then Belmont in November of that year.  In March of 1862, Union troops marched from Cape Girardeau and surrounded Confederates at New Madrid, Missouri and Island #10 on the Mississippi River.  After using large gunboats to fire on the town, Confederates retreated across the river into Tennessee, by late April 1862 most of Southeast Missouri was in Union hands.  

Confederate John S. Marmaduke

Throughout most of 1862 and 1863, Confederates tried to recruit men from Stoddard County with some success.  Over 800 Stoddard Countians fought for the South during the Civil War while only about 100 fought for the North.  In the spring of 1863, Confederate General John S. Marmaduke led 8,000 Confederate Cavalrymen through southeast Missouri and attacked the forts at Cape Girardeau.  Defeated they retreated back down the Cape Road and fought a battle at Bloomfield on April 30, 1863, before slipping back into Arkansas.  That was the last time any sizable Confederate force would be in southeast Missouri until 1864 when General Sterling Price made a raid into Missouri.  The Civil War in Southeast Missouri was mainly guerrilla warfare and small skirmishes between Union and Confederate cavalrymen.  While Missouri did not have a lot of big battles, it had the third most battles of any state during the Civil War.  

1863

Gettysburg

The year 1863 turned out to be a pivotal year for the Civil War.  In the East, General Robert E. Lee invaded the North again in order to get a decisive victory in enemy territory.  For three days, his Army of Northern Virginia battled Union General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac at small crossroads town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg.  Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded in the three days of fighting, but most importantly, it was the first time that Lee had been really beaten in a battle.  Gettysburg was a turning point, Lee had lost more men than he could replace, and many of his best commanders were killed or wounded during the battle.  

Confederate prisoners at Gettysburg

In the Western Theater, another great campaign and battle was unfolding.  Union General Ulysses S. Grant became convinced that the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi, located on the river, must be taken.  If Vicksburg fell, the Union would control the Mississippi River from New Madrid to New Orleans.  On May 1, 1863, Grant landed his army south of Vicksburg at Port Gibson, Mississippi.  Confederate Missouri troops under John S. Bowen and Gen. Francis Marion Cockrell fought against Grant's army which was more than twice the size of their small army.  A series of battles were fought at the Confederates retreated toward the huge fortifications of Vicksburg.  On May 19, 1863, Grant had the Confederates trapped in Vicksburg and began siege operations to starve or blow them out of Vicksburg. 

After 47 days of siege, Confederates under John C. Pemberton, surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863, the Union now controlled the Mississippi River. 

1864

Gen. William T. Sherman

In the summer of 1864 Union forces under Union General William T. Sherman began the campaign to take the Confederate city of Atlanta, Georgia, one of the most important manufacturing cities in the South.  After a series of battles outside of Atlanta, on July 22, 1864, Union troops captured Atlanta and ran Confederates out of the city.  This was a major victory for the Union, now the Union could use Atlanta to ship men and supplies to other places where fighting was occurring in the South. 

---

In November of 1864, Sherman began a march with his army east through Georgia from Atlanta.  His goal was to march his army to the Atlantic coast near Savannah and then turn north and go through South Carolina and North Carolina and meet up with Grant in Virginia.  Along the way he would burn and destroy any Southern resources that he wanted.  He wanted to make the South pay for starting the war, in what he called, total war, or taking the war to the people.  Sherman's March to the Sea, was a great victory for Sherman.  He captured key cities like Savannah and Charleston, and even defeated a Confederate Army in North Carolina.  Many people that live in Georgia and South Carolina even today still hate Sherman for the destruction he caused in his march to the sea.  

Sherman's March To the Sea

Grant's Overland Campaign of 1864

By 1864, Abraham Lincoln moved Ulysses S. Grant to the Eastern Theater to help defeat Robert E. Lee.  Grant's plan was to use his superior forces in a drive to take the Confederate capital during the summer of 1864.  Beginning in May, Grant attacked Lee's forces in a densely wooded area known as the Wilderness on May 8-9.  Grant suffered horrible casualties in what was technically a Confederate victory, but refusing to retreat or stop, the next day Grant marched his army to the right of the Confederates in an effort to get between Lee and Richmond.  Another battle was fought at Spotsylvania Courthouse where again, Grant's army suffered terrible numbers in killed and wounded, but still he tried to get around lee.  Thinking that Lee's Army was exhausted and near done, Grant attacked Lee who was behind fortifications at a place called Cold Harbor from the end of May until June 12.  Grant lost 7,000 men in one attack at Cold Harbor, but still he refused to quit and moved around Lee. 

Removing the dead bodies at Cold Harbor.

Lee and Grant played a deadly game of leap frog, until finally Grant had Lee trapped in Petersburg, Virginia, just south of the Confederate capital.  For 291 days, Lee's army remained in Petersburg, while Grant tried to starve him out. 

1865

In April of 1865, Lee finally broke out of Petersburg, but his army was in bad shape.  Most of his good commanders were dead or sick, his men were weak, and Grant seemed to be fresh and ready to continue fighting.  Lee, realizing that he had no realistic chance of winning decided that it was over and met with Grant at the Wilbur McLean house Appomattox to discuss terms of surrender.  On April 9, Grant and Lee met, and Lee agreed to surrender his Army of Northern Virginia.  Confederate troops from the Trans-Mississippi and Western Theater were also surrendering, the Civil War was over.  

The Civil War had cost over 625,000 dead soldiers from both North and South, or roughly 2% of the total population of the United States at the time, most of those dead were from disease.  Now the big question became what would happen to those who had fought against the United States and how would the country begin to heal?  How much, if any, would the South be punished?

John Wilkes Booth

Lincoln's Assassination:   On April 14, 1865, Lincoln attended a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.  He was there to see the play, My American Cousin, a popular play at the time.  An actor and former Confederate sympathizer (someone who agreed with the ideas of the South), John Wilkes Booth, entered the presidents private booth on the balcony.  He opened the door and shot President Lincoln in the back of the head before jumping from the balcony onto the stage and through the back to a waiting horse for his getaway. 

Lincoln Assassination

Booth had organized originally to kidnap the president and other officials but eventually changed the plan to murder.  He and a few others attacked other important US government officials.  Eventually Booth was caught and killed in a gunfight and fire, those that helped him were also caught, most were hanged.  What Booth didn't realize is that his actions not only did not help the South, it hurt it.  Lincoln's plan to reconstruct the South was lenient and based more on healing wounds than punishing.   Lincoln's death gave radical republicans who wanted to punish the South for the war a reason to gain power.