1. Ch. 21 Notes The Furnace of the Civil War

2. The First Battle of Bull Run 1.With an army unprepared for battle, Lincoln decided to send his army, under the charge of Winfield Scott and Irvin McDowell, to attack a smaller Confederate force at Manassas Junction, VA. 2.Lincoln believed that if they won, it might convince the Confederacy that the Union army was superior to theirs and could even lead to the capture of Virginia. 3.Instead, the Confederate forces route the Union troops and convince everyone in the North that this is going to be a long, costly war – Confederate troops on the other hand believed that the win convinced the North they couldn’t win and many troops deserted and many many who were planning on enlisting decided not to.

3. Union Strategy in the War 1.The Union had three main goals: 1.Blockade the southern ports to prevent the south from getting their cotton to market (and destroy their economy in the process) and from receiving foreign goods - blockade runners have some success getting through at the beginning of the war but by the end the blockade is very effective. 2.Split the Confederacy by taking the MS River (the Anaconda Plan). 3.Capture Richmond, VA.

4. The Monitor and the Merrimack 1.The biggest threat to the blockade was the Merrimack, a Confederate ironclad. 2.The Union built their own ironclad, the Monitor, to counter the Merrimack – they fought to a draw. 3.Confederate troops later had to scuttle the Merrimack to prevent it from being captured by Union troops.

5. George McClellan 1.After the First Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln put George McClellan in charge of the Union troops. 2.McClellan was a very capable leader and loved by his troops but much too cautious. 3.Lincoln finally had to force him into action. 4.He sailed his troops to the south of Richmond (to avoid Confederate troops) and fought the Peninsula Campaign, (Battle of Seven Days) which ended in a loss.

6. The Battle of Antietam 1.After the Second Battle of Bull Run, Robert E. Lee decided to invade Maryland – hoping that a win there would encourage the border states to secede. 2.Unfortunately for Lee, Union troops find his battle plans and McClellan ends up defeating him. 3.After the battle, McClellan decides not to pursue Lee in his retreat, believing he’s lost too many men – Lincoln ends up replacing him because of this – only to soon put him back in charge. 4.The battle was also important because it discouraged European intervention on behalf of the Confederacy.

7. The Emancipation Proclamation 1.After finally getting a victory, Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. 2.The Emancipation Proclamation frees the slaves inside of the Confederacy. 3.In part done to weaken the Confederacy’s war effort, it also gave the north the moral high ground in the war and helped discourage European intervention. 4.The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free all slaves – Lincoln was afraid if he tried to free the slaves in the border states they would secede.

8. Effects of the Emancipation Proclamation 1.Abolitionists didn’t think the Emancipation Proclamation did enough – they wanted all the slaves freed (the 13 th Amendment would eventually do this). 2.Other northerners, especially immigrants, didn’t want to fight a war over freeing the slaves – some soldiers actually deserted over this issue. 3.It also caused the Republican party to lose seats in Congress in the next elections. 4.Black soldiers begin enlisting in the Union army (the south tries to enlist slaves right before the war is over as they realize they don’t have enough troops to actually win the war.

9. Slavery During the War 1.Some slaves run away to the nearest Union troops when the war starts. 2.After the Emancipation Proclamation, even more will flee to the Union army – many are put to work by the Union army and are referred to as contrabands. 3.Other slaves remain where they are and continue to work, which hurts the Confederacy also because they have to leave troops in place to make sure they don’t rebel. 4.Many slaves that do remain on the plantations gain better conditions for themselves by refusing to work.

10. Burnside and Hooker 1.After Antietam, Lincoln gives the Union troops to Ambrose E. Burnside (even though he doesn’t want them). 2.Burnside is too reckless and loses around 12,000 men attacking Lee at the Battle of Fredricksburg – he then resigns. 3.“Fighting Joe” Hooker then takes charge – he loses to Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville even though he has twice as many men. 4.Hooker will be replaced by George Meade.

11. Battle of Gettysburg 1.After Chancellorsville, Lee decided to invade the north again, believing that a win in the north would get the Union to agree to peace. 2.Meade arrives at Gettysburg first and takes the high ground – Lee decides to attack anyway. 3.After three days (and Pickett’s Charge), Lee is defeated and withdraws from the north – this is the turning point in the war for the Union - the southern cause is now doomed.

12. Siege of Vicksburg 1.The day after Gettysburg, Vicksburg surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant. 2.With the fall of Vicksburg, the Union now has control of the MS. River. 3.After Vicksburg, Grant will soon be put in charge of all Union troops as well, giving Lincoln the general he needs to win the war.

13. The Election of 1864 1.In the Election of 1864, the Republicans join with the War Democrats to form the Union Party and nominate Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. 2.The Peace Democrats, the most dangerous northern group to the Union cause, run George McClellan. 3.Things didn’t look good for Lincoln but the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg convince the north that he is capable of seeing the war through to victory.

14. Grant in Charge 1.When Grant takes charge, he uses his numerical superiority to his advantage, attacking Lee’s armies simultaneously and directly, trying to cause Lee as many losses as possible. 2.While he concentrates on taking Richmond, he turns Phillip Sheridan lose in western Virginia to cause as much destruction as possible 3.He also sends William T. Sherman on his “March to the Sea” – Sherman marches from Chattanooga, TN, to Savannah, GA, causing as much destruction as possible. 4.This strategy was known as total war and its purpose is to not only destroy the enemies ability to fight but also their will to fight – its highly effective as large numbers of Confederate troops desert to go home and defend their land.

15. William Tecumseh Sherman

16. The End of the War 1.After taking Savannah, Sherman moves north through South Carolina. 2.Grant eventually takes Richmond (after the nine month Siege of Petersburg) and Lee is trapped between the two. 3.Lee will surrender to Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia on April 9, 1865.

17. Lincoln’s Assassination 1.Now that the war is over, the process of restoring the nation has to start (Reconstruction). 2.Before he gets a chance, Lincoln will be assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Fords Theater on April 15, 1865. 3.This actually hurt the south because Lincoln wanted to make reconstruction easy for the south.