American Studies I CP

11.1

Pages 380-389

Setting the Scene

• First shots fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina

• April 1861

• Both sides felt it would be a quick war

• In July 35,000 Union Troops trained in Washington

• Less then a 100 miles away from the Confederate Capital of Richmond VA

The First Battle of Bull Run

• General Irvin McDowel commanded the Union Troops

• Felt his troops were not ready

• But, these volunteers only signed on for 90 days… time is running out to make an attack

Lincoln ordered

• The troops to march on the town of Manassa to interupt an important railway junction

• July 16th McDowell marched his poorly prepared troops

Confederate Postion

• Lead by P.G.T Beaureghard (hero of Port Sumter)

• His smaller force was camped long a stream call Bull Run, some 4 miles north of Manassas

Only 25 miles from Washington DC

The Union Army

• Takes 4 days to march the 25 miles to Manassas

• Lack of training and discipline

• Accompanying the troops was a huge crowd of civilians from Washington, planning to picnic and watch the battle

• (remember no one knew what to expect from the new weapons)

Confederate Troops

• This 4 day delay gave Beauregard to strengthen his army by adding some 11,000 troops (plus he had info from a spy)

• Confederate troops were packed into freight cars and sped to the scene

• (first time a train was used to transport troops)

July 21st

• The two forces faced each other

• Union forces slightly greater than Confederate forces

• BUT… if McDowell can break the line, he could take Richmond less than 75 miles away

After hours of hard fighting

• The Union forces had the advantage

• Virginia soldiers (fighting on their home soil) lead by General Thomas Jackson refused to give up!

• Another Confederate officer rallied his retreating men saying….

Look!

• There is Jackson standing like a stone wall behind the Virginians!!!

• The Union advance was stopped

• The legion of Stonewall Jackson is born

Tired and discouraged

• Union forces began to fall back• Then a train load of fresh Confederate

troops arrived • An orderly Union retreat fell apart• Hundreds of union soldiers dropped their

weapons and ran home• A disorganized blend of civilians and

troops raced back to the saftey of Washinton

This was the first major battle of the Civil war

• In the North it is known as the first battle of Bull Run (the stream)

• In the South it is known as the First Battle of Manassas (after the town and railway)

Both sides realize

• This will be a bloody and costly war

Casualties

• About 35,000 troops on each side

• About 70,000 total

• Union suffered 2,900

• Confederate 2,000

Preparing for War

• The fat is in the fire now!!!

Northern Advantages

• Population

• North had 21.5

• South had 9 million (which included 4 million slaves)

• Railways

• North had 21,700 miles

• South had 9,000 miles

Northern Advantages

• Factories• The North Had 110,100• The South had 20,600

• Remember the 3 M’s• Manpower• Materials• Morale (Motivation)

Southern Advantages

• Leadership

• 7 out of 8 military colleges were in the South and most officers sided with Confederacy

• Military Tactics

• The south was defending its borders and all the Confederates had to do was repel and not attack

Southern Advantages

• Morale

• Many Southerns were eager to fight as they were fighting on their own land and for their way of life (plantations, farming, independence from federal government which was trying to take their freedoms (slaves) away)

Union Military Strategies

• Naval blockade of all the seceded states• Shutting down the South’s port along the

Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi to split confederacy

• Kept the South from shipping its cotton to Europe

• Kept South from importing materials needed for the war and consumer goods for civilians

Called the

• Anaconda Plan

• Goal was to get the South to seek peace

• Wasn’t as exciting as attacking Richmond…But, it won us the war

• Materials and Morale

Confederate War Strategies

• Prepare and wait• Southerners hoped that Lincoln would just

let them go in peace• Plan was called a War of attrition• One side inflicts continuous losses on the

enemy in order to wear down its strength• In the end, it was the North that waged a

successful war of attrition against the South

War of Attritionback fires for the South

• Didn’t work for the South because they had 9 million people (4 million slaves) and the North had 21.5 million men

Second Strategy (that back fired)

• The South produced 75% of the world’s cotton before the Civil War

• Most of this cotton supplied Britain and France

• So… the south told farmers not to grow cotton. They hoped this would force Britain and France to support the south and recognize the Confederacy

It back fired because

• Britain and France went to India and Egypt to full fill their need for cotton and would not recognize the Confederate States of America

• By the time the south realized this strategy had failed, the Union Blockade prevented cotton from leaving the south

No Cotton

• If the south could not sell cotton, then it couldn’t make money and they needed money to buy materials for war. Also, you can NOT eat cotton. Tons of cotton sat in warehouse while people starved and men did NOT have materials for war

Tactics and Technology

• European commanders fought by concentrating their forces and attacking

• But, they did not have accurate cannons or muskets and they could not rapid fire these weapons

• THIS ALL CHANGES DURING THE CIVIL WAR. The first modern war after the industrial revolution

Problem

• Most Generals were trained in these tactics which relied on mass charges of troops to overwhelm the enemy.

Technology

• Gun Makers realized – No rifling 100 yards– With rifling 500-600 yards – Mini ball (bullet shaped) better than round

• Cannons now fired– Shells which exploded– Canister

War in the West

• Union forces invaded

• Arkansas

• Louisiana

• Mississippi

• Tennessee

• Goal was to control the Mississippi river

Why?

• Why would the Union Forces want to control this river?

• Where did it flow to?

Union Leaders

• General George McClellan was the new Commander of the Union Forces

• General Ulysses S. Grant was the new commander of western forces

The command base for the West

• Paducah Kentucky, where the Ohio and Tennessee river meet

Forts Henry and DonelsonProtected Tennessee and

Cumberland rivers

February 1862

• Grant leads Union forces south along Tennessee River with 15,000 troops

• Gunboats were steam powered boats with cannons and were designed to work in shallow rivers

February 6th

• Grant shelled Fort Henry and forced it to surrender before troops arrived

• Then Grant marched his army east and attacked Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. After three days of shelling the fort fell

• Grant continues south towards Mississippi and Alabama

Note

• The shelling of civilian populations becomes a tactic of Grants

Battle of Shiloh

• Corinth, Mississippi

• An important railroad center near Tennessee / Mississippi border

Generals

• For the Union = Grant

• Support from General Don Carlos Buell who was bring troops from Nashville TN

• For the confederacy = Johnston

Setting the Scene

• Grant stops out side of Corinth to wait for Buell to bring in reinforcements

• Johnston who has 40,000 troops launches an attack before Grant can get more troops

Day 1 April 6, 1862

• Johnston's forces surprise Grant’s troops

• After the first day of fighting at the Battle of Shiloh union troops are pushed back almost into the Tennessee River

• That night, Grant is advised by his officers to retreat. He does not

Day 2 at Shiloh

• During the night Buell’s troops arrived

• The next day Union forces counter attacked and drove back confederate forces.

• The Union WINS!!!

Casualties

• Union suffers 13,000 casualties

• Confederates suffers nearly 11,000 including General Johnston

• North and south know now for sure that this will be a long a bloody war

Back East

• Union war ships maintained the blockade of Virginia's coast and the Atlantic coast

• But, the confederates have a secret weapon

• A ship that looked like a barn roof, and which cannon shot bounced off of

The Merrimack (confederate)

Era of the Ironclads

• Now the north raced to create Ironclads of their own to fight the Merrimack

• Unlike the southern ship which was an old wooden ship (The Virginia) covered in iron, the Union ship would be made of iron and completed in 100 days (Union spies told Lincoln of the new weapon which allowed the Union to build its own)

The Monitor

Monitor guns

Monitor arrives off Virginia coast

• March 9th 1862

Battle between Ironclads

• After several hours of fighting the Merrimack withdrew

• Neither ship was seriously damaged

What ever happened to

• May 1862

• The Merrimack was blown up by the Confederates at its base in Norfolk, Virginia so that it did not fall in Union hands in

The Monitor

December 1862

The Monitor sinks in a storm

Mariners Museum VA

Peninsular Campaign

• Union General George McClellan

• Little “Mac” was a great strategist, well organized, and well liked by his men

• But, he was overly cautious

• Lincoln orders him to attack the Capital at Richmond VA. This will be the Union’s second attempt to take the seat of the Confederate Government

March 1862

• McClellan orders the Army of the Potomac out of Washington

• He transports 100,000 troops to a peninsula southeast of Richmond

• McClellan meets a small group of confederates

• McClellan pulls back and asks Lincoln for more troops… and then he waits

May 31st

• McClellan attacks

• Confederate commander General Joseph Johnston (he gets killed at Shiloh on April 7th 1862)

• Battle of Seven Pines

• Both take heavy casualties

• South won because they were willing to take chances

Why retreat??

• McClellan has taken fewer casualties and still has more men

• He is within 50 miles of Richmond

• Argh!!!! Fight little mac!!!

In the mean time…

– Lincoln is furious with McClellan and his missed opportunity

– He fires McClellan and replaces him with General John Pope

– He demands that McClellan returns to Washington and turn his troops over to the command of General Pope

– Lee knows, if both army combine, he will be severely outnumbered. He must attack Pope’s troops before the two combine

Richmond still in danger

• But, Lee knows that McClellan would be too afraid to attack even though he had more troops than Lee

Opposition to the warThe Copperheads

• Because of the early Northern loses

• Remaining Democrats in Congress (remember, most Democrats were from the South)

• This group of Democrats were call the Copperheads, after poisonous snake.

Brilliant Confederate strategy

• General Stonewall Jackson pretends to prepare to attack Washington DC

• Because of the threat to Washington DC, Lincoln will not send reinforcements to McClellan

• Jackson then sneaks away to join LeeNear the railway junction of Manassas

The Second battle of bull run

• Lee again divides his army giving Jackson half

• Jackson sweep around Pope’s troops and attacks the back.

• Pope turns all his troops to face Jackson

• Then Lee attacks the new rear of Pope’s troops

• Pope is under attack from both ends

The battle of Bull Run

• Confederate Victory• General Pope is removed from command\• General McClellan was returned to his post • Lincoln is not pleased with McClellan

– We must use what tools we have– He has the slows– If he can’t fight, he makes others ready to fight

Richmond is safe

• Lee now decides to attack the North

• Political goal: to get the European support for the South and to weaken Northern Support for the war.

The Battle of Antietam

• September 17,1862

• Confederate General = Lee

• Union General = McClellan (again)

• Lee’s army slips past the troops guarding Washington and heads towards Maryland

Which way did he go

• McClellan has NO idea where Lee is

• Really??? He can’t find the Army of Northern Virginia

A pack of cigars saves the Union

• A confederate Officer drops Lee’s plan which are wrapped in a pack of cigars

• Union soldier finds plans and gives them to McClellan

• McClellan takes 16 hours to react

• By this time… Lee realizes that the Union knows his plans

September 17, 1862

• Lee’s 40,000 troops

• McClellan’s 75,000 troops with 25,000

In one day Lee loses 1/3 of his army

The confederates retreat

• The battle of Antietam became the bloodiest day of the civil war

• 26,000 dead most in the first 3 hours of fighting

• Three days of fighting at Gettysburg 52,000 dead…

Antietam

• Sets up the Emancipation Proclamation

• Is the first big Union Victory