USHC Standard 3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of how regional and ideological differences led to the Civil War and an understanding of the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on democracy in America. USHC 3.2: Summarize the course of the Civil War and its impact on democracy, including the major turning points; the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation; the unequal treatment afforded to African American military units; the geographic, economic, and political factors in the defeat of the Confederacy, and the ultimate defeat of the idea of secession.

How did secession lead to war? • Secession challenged democracy • A minority of Americans decided to leave the Union because they were dissatisfied with the outcome of the 1860 election • Southerners feared that the new administration would force them to grant freedom to their slaves • President Lincoln pledged to preserve the Union and democracy • Confederates fired on federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor and the Civil War began

FORT SUMTER

MAIN IDEA: The course and outcome of the Civil War depended upon the economic resources of the North and the South, the geographic factors that influenced strategy and the military and political leadership that influenced public support

Economic Factors • The Union had far greater economic resources including industrial capacity, miles of railroad tracks, manpower and a navy • The South depended on the power of King Cotton and their trading relationship with Great Britain to provide the manufactured goods and ships that they lacked • The Union’s strategy to blockade southern ports disrupted this trade throughout the war

Geographic Factors • The North’s offensive strategy was based on geography and included splitting the South at the Mississippi River and taking the capital at Richmond (Anaconda Plan) • Anaconda Plan: the name widely applied to an outline strategy for subduing the seceding states in the American Civil War, the plan emphasized the blockade of the Southern ports, and called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two • The South’s strategy was mainly to seek support from Great Britain and defend their region until such aid was obtained or the North tired of the war effort

Anaconda Plan

• Confederate forces invaded the North twice in an effort to gain foreign support and hasten the end of the war but were repulsed at Antietam and defeated at Gettysburg • Initially the South enjoyed advantages in both military leadership and geography • Southerners were able to effectively move their men and material via railroads between battle fronts in the east and the west under the effective leadership of Robert E. Lee • Southerners were also more familiar with their home terrain

Southern Advantages HOME TERRAIN Robert E. Lee military leadership

Political Factors • The North had the advantage in political leadership • Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president defending the states’ rights argument, was not able to get the states of the Confederacy to effectively work together to pursue the war effort • Abraham Lincoln was able to articulate the purpose of the war as the preservation of the Union and “government of the people, by the people and for the people” and to retain sufficient public support to continue the fight despite initial military defeats

Control of the military Northern advantages GREATER population INDUSTRY Abraham Lincoln Political leadership Control of the military