Post on 02-Jan-2016
transcript
The primary cause of the conflict was
slavery. Why then was the
Union not actively trying to destroy slavery
in 1861?
Lincoln also understood that the
American public was not unified on
the issue. Any move towards
emancipation early in the war would
have further divided popular opinion about the war.
The Union blockade of the South increased
slowly over time, especially as the U.S.
navy focused its attention on specific
major southern ports.
Ships like the Alabama and the “Laird rams” upset the Union and tensions between the U.S.
and Great Britain began to grow.
The only real Confederate threat to the Union blockade appeared in 1862 when the
Confederate navy turned this…
U.S.S. Merrimack
Richmond
Norfolk
On March 8, 1862, the Virginia approached
U.S. navy ships blockading the port of Norfolk. The ironclad
Virginia sunk the wooden hulled U.S.S.
Congress and the U.S.S. Cumberland. It also heavily damaged the U.S.S. Minnesota. Darkness prevented it from finishing the job.
On March 9, 1862 the
Virginia and the Monitor
shelled each other for four hours in the
Battle of Hampton
Roads. The Virginia
withdrew and the Union blockade
held.
On April 7, 1862 Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated
Confederate forces in
Tennessee after two days of
fighting at the Battle of Shiloh.
Union casualties were 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing); Confederate casualties were 10,694 (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing or captured).
This total of 23,741 men represented more than the total U.S. casualties in the Revolutionary War, the War of
1812, and the Mexican-American War combined.
The Battle of Shiloh is important for two reasons:
1. Grant began to attract the attention of Lincoln and other politicians in Washington.
2. It largely secured the state of Tennessee for the Union and allowed Grant to move toward capturing the upper Mississippi River.
Throughout early April the Union navy gathered ships in the Gulf of Mexico for an
assault on New Orleans in an attempt to sail up the Mississippi from the South. By April 24, 1862 40 ships were ready for the attack.
Two Confederate
forts, Ft. Jackson and Ft. St. Phillip
guarded the mouth of the river. Union
ships had to fight their way past those forts to
capture the city.
The Union navy was led by Adm. David
Farragut who successfully led his ships past the forts and on to capture
New Orleans on April 29, 1862.
By the end of 1862 only two cities stood in the way of the Union
accomplishing the second part of the Anaconda Plan.
Vicksburg, MS and Port Hudson, LA
refused to surrender. Grant settled his army
in for a siege of Vicksburg to force a
surrender.
Washington
Richmond
The third part of the plan called for the Union army to capture Richmond, the Confederate Capital.
To that end Lincoln ordered Gen. Irvin McDowell to lead
the army from Washington for an attack on a small
Confederate force at Manassas, VA.
McDowell and the Union were
defeated at the Battle of Bull Run,
July 21 1861.
The Confederate victory was
largely due to the leadership of Thomas J.
Jackson whose soldiers from Virginia stood
like a “stonewall” against the Union
onslaught.
Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured; Confederate casualties were
387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing.
Following the disaster of Bull Run, Lincoln
turned to a new commander to
more thoroughly
prepare Union forces for what was now sure to be a long, bloody war.
Gen. George B. McClellan
McClellan was a thorough
commander who excelled at training and preparing an
army to fight.
Unfortunately for Lincoln and the
Union, McClellan wasn’t so good at leading that
army into battle.
By late spring in 1862, Lincoln finally convinced McClellan to get on with the task of capturing Richmond. The General led the Army of the Potomac south into the
disastrous Peninsula Campaign.
Between June 26, 1862 and July 2, 1862 Robert E.
Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, attacked McClellan during
the Seven Day’s Battle. The Confederate victory
during these battles forced the Army of the Potomac to retreat back down the
peninsula and sail home to Washington.
Following McClellan’s failure on the
peninsula, Abraham Lincoln gave
command of the Army of the Potomac to Gen. John Pope.
Pope did no better losing to Lee at the
2nd Battle of Bull Run in late August, 1862.
Lincoln quickly allowed McClellan to
return to his command.
As Union losses mounted,
abolitionists increasingly called for Lincoln to strike a blow for slavery, to turn the war into a moral crusade, to rally the American
public around a higher calling.
By mid 1862 Lincoln was moving in that direction. Not only
did he hope to strengthen the
Union cause, but emancipation made
sense from a military standpoint
as well.
Slaves were crucial in allowing the Confederate Army to function. They served as cooks, nurses, scouts, and most importantly hauled necessary
supplies and built camps for the soldiers.
Due to the unprecedented
success of Lee and the Army of
Northern Virginia throughout 1861 and early 1862,
France and Great Britain had begun
to consider the possibility of a Confederate
victory.
Given this reality, Lincoln informed his cabinet that he had decided to turn the war into a contest over slavery
by emancipating the slaves. How would this help?
The Confederate government knew
that one more victory might bring
Europe into the conflict. Embolden
by his previous successes, Lee decided the time was ripe for an invasion of the
North.
Little did Lee know that he was heading for the bloodiest day in all of American history, and an event that would change the course of the War.