U.S. History Outline: VIII. The Civil War (1861-1865)
Major change caused by Civil War - states lost individual identities & became one nation economically, politically, & socially
South had initial advantage, but North had long-term advantage
Congress without the South
More efficient
Passed national development plans
Homestead Act (1862)
Morral Act (1862)
created public trust lands
school land - land grant colleges
Intercontinental railroad finished
Financial development
National Bank Act (1863)
Created new central bank
Made up of state banks holding federal deposits
Income tax (1861)
Paper money
Draft instituted March 1863
First time the U.S. had used a draft
Draft riots by poor, Irish
Lincoln called for 2-million-man army, wartime production, declared blockade of South
"Copperheads"
Northern Democrats who denounced war
(copperhead is a snake)
1862 - Lincoln suspended Writ of Habeus Corpus
Allowed army to arrest civilians who interfered with war
Election of 1864
Lincoln (Union Party) versus George McClellan (Northern Dem.)
Union Party formed from pro-war factions of many parties
McClellan was pro-peace
Sherman captured Atlanta a month before election, making it clear North would win war
Emancipation Proclamation
1861 - Confiscation Act
Declared forfeit slaves of any individual who took up arms against Union
Allowed Union army to seize plantations
1862 - John C. Freemont's Emancipation Proclamation
Slaves in areas controlled by Union army would be free
Jan 1, 1863 - Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
Freed slaves in the 11 Confederate states
13th Amendment (1865)
Made slavery illegal
14th Amendment (1868)
Made former slaves citizens with full rights
Barred Conferates from federal government
Absolved the U.S. from the Confederacy's debts
15th Amendment (1870)
Former slaves had full voting rights
Slavery not immediately abolished at state level
Women's movements
U.S. Sanitary Commission
Organized women to serve as nurses for Union army
Created by Dorothea Dix
Joined by Clara Barton & Susan B. Anthony
Clara Barton - Red Cross
Susan B. Anthony - women's suffrage
Confederacy
Government of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis - President
Alexander Stephens - VP
South divided over question of secession
Political elite favored secession
People were not all as enthusiastic
Enlistment problems led to Southern draft (1862)
Confederacy was a weak national government
Favored states' rights
Some states failed to collect taxes or enforce draft
Economics
War gave North an economic boom
Blockade crippled Southern economy
Food riots in South
South had military equipment
(Calhoun had used influence to move military outposts to South)
Commanders
Winfield Scott - first Union general
Robert E. Lee - Confederate commander
Winfield Scott didn't do much, Lincoln replaced him with George McClellan
First Phase of War
1862 - Virginia campaigns launched by McClellan
D.C. and Richmond were only across Potomac from each other
McClellan wanted to seize Richmond
1st Virginia campaign - Peninsular campaign
McClellan sailed to Yorktown peninsula, marched toward Richmond
Lee cut him off, they entrenched there
2nd front - Battle of Bull Run
Union army attacked from the north
Stopped by "Stonewall" Jackson
3rd front - Freemont
Union army attacked from west
Stopped by Jackson
2nd Battle of Bull Run
Direct attack from D.C. to Richmond
Union lost again
Fall of 1826
South attacked D.C. from the northwest
Stopped at Antietam (Jackson again)
First major Union victor
Union general - Burnside
North pushed straight on towards Richmond, but were stopped at Battle of Fredricksburg
May 1863
Lee marched to Antietam, trying another northwest attack
Entered Gettysburg and met Union army
July 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg
Decisive Union victory
Stonewall Jackson killed
Southern army retreated back to Confederacy
Second Phase of War
Union decided to strangle South by stopping supplies
Union needed to take Mississippi to cut off South from West
South had forts all along Mississippi
Grant (Union general in West) moved down Mississippi, taking major ports
1862 - Grant took Ft. Henry & Ft. Shiloh on Ohio River
More people died at Shiloh than had been killed in every U.S. war to date
Grant got nickname "Unconditional Surrender"
1862 - Union ironclads began to move up Mississippi, taking New Orleans
June 1862 - Vicksburg attacked
Sherman (Union army) attacked from north
Farragut (Union ironclads) attacked from south
Fortress at Vicksburg repelled both attacks
Wilderness campaigns
Northern guerilla troops slowly moved south through border states
1862-3 - Siege of Vicksburg
Vicksburg surrendered July 4, 1863
Coincided with Gettysburg victory
1863 - Pause in the war - both sides exhausted
Draft riots in North, food riots in South
South almost completely cut off from supplies
South low on men, North insituted draft
Third Phase of War
Ulysses S. Grant took control of Union army, set out to crush South
Nov. 1863 - Grant marched southwest from Nashville, destroying everything in his path
Sept. 1864 - "March to the sea"
Sherman, Grant, Union army laid seige to Atlanta
Sherman sent half of army to Savannah
Cut a path of destruction through Georgia, cutting South in half
May 1865 - Appomatox
Grant returned to North and attempted another attack on Richmond
Lee's forces blocked him but were finally pinned down
April 9, 1865 - Lee surrendered to Grant
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