Georgia Georgia and the American Experienceand the American Experience
Chapter 8:Chapter 8:
The Civil War, A Nation The Civil War, A Nation in Conflictin Conflict
Study Presentation Study Presentation
Georgia Georgia and the American Experienceand the American Experience
Section 1: Section 1: The Road to War
Section 2: Section 2: The War on the Battlefield
Section 3: Section 3: Life for the Civil War Soldier
Section 4: Section 4: Life During the Civil War
Section 1: The Road to WarSection 1: The Road to War • Essential Question
– What strategies were selected to win the Civil War?
Section 1: The Road to WarSection 1: The Road to War • What words do I need to know?
– conscription
– blockade
– blockade runner
– King Cotton Diplomacy
– strategy
The War BeginsThe War Begins• April 10, 1861, Major General P.G.T.
Beauregard leads bombardment of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor
• Federal troops and laborers inside Fort Sumter surrender on April 13
• Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia secede from the Union
• President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to put down the rebellion and protect Washington
Assembling ArmiesAssembling Armies
• Most soldiers volunteered at first, but later men were conscripted (drafted to serve in the armies)
• Some men received bounties (money) to sign up; some signed up, received the bounty, then deserted
• Poorer men sometimes accepted money to fight in place of wealthier men who didn’t want to serve
Resources, North and South Resources, North and South
• North had more people from which to create and resupply armies
• North had more factories, better railroad system, and most of the nation’s farms and wealth
• South had more experienced military leaders, and were highly motivated to defend their familiar homeland to win independence
Blockade Strategy Blockade Strategy
• Union blockaded all Southern ports to prevent cotton exports and imports of weaponry from foreign countries
• Privately operated blockade runners successfully slipped past Union ships to ship goods to and from Europe during the war
• The Union Navy included many ironclads (armored ships)
Other Wartime StrategiesOther Wartime Strategies
• “Anaconda Plan”: To squeeze Confederacy to death by capturing the Mississippi River and cutting off Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas
• Capturing Richmond, the capital, might have ended the war early, but General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army prevented that for years
Late War Strategy Late War Strategy
• Destroy Confederate armies on the battlefield
• Lay waste to the Southern land, so that civilians would call for an end to the war
• General William T. Sherman’s “March to the Sea” through Georgia was successful in the “lay waste to land” strategy
Southern StrategiesSouthern Strategies• Wear down the Union armies, which would
hasten the northerners’ desire to end the war• Use swift raiders to help break the Union
blockade• King Cotton Diplomacy: Temporarily stop
exports to England and France to inspire those nations to help break the Union blockade; France and England instead starting importing Egyptian cotton
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Section 2:Section 2: The War on the Battlefield The War on the Battlefield
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION– What were the major battles that took
place in Georgia?
Section 2:Section 2: The War on the Battlefield The War on the Battlefield
• What words do I need to know? – Chickamauga
– Atlanta Campaign
– Emancipation Proclamation
Freeing the SlavesFreeing the Slaves• Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862
• Document gave the Southern Confederacy a choice: Quit the war and keep slavery alive or keep fighting and slaves would be forever free
• Deadline was January 1, 1863• The Confederate leaders continued the war
and the slaves were declared free by the United States government in 1863
The Fall of Fort PulaskiThe Fall of Fort Pulaski • More than 100 battles or skirmishes in
Georgia; 92 happened in 1864 during the Atlanta and Savannah campaigns
• First battle, April 10, 1862, was at all-brick Fort Pulaski, near Tybee Island
• Rifled cannon used by U.S. Army in warfare for the first time; the Confederates surrendered the fort in less than two days
• No brick American forts were built after this battle
The Battle of ChickamaugaThe Battle of Chickamauga
• September 1863• Seven miles south of Chattanooga,
Tennessee• Chattanooga was major railroad center• Union troops were driven back to
Chattanooga; Confederates did not follow-up on their victory
• Union reinforcements later recaptured Chattanooga
The Atlanta CampaignThe Atlanta Campaign• Late Spring/Early Summer 1864: Sherman’s
Union Army fought series of battles against Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army
• Confederates continued to retreat further southward into Georgia
• June 1864: Sherman attacked Johnston at Kennesaw Mountain; Sherman lost but continued toward Atlanta
• July 1864: John Bell Hood replaced Johnston, battled Sherman, then concentrated defenses in Atlanta
The Battle of AtlantaThe Battle of Atlanta• Sherman surrounded the city and laid siege• Hood wanted to lure Sherman into the city to
fight, but that didn’t work• Fighting continued during July and August
1864• Hood and Atlanta’s citizens finally vacate the
city on September 1• Sherman burns the city in mid-November
then begins his march toward Savannah and the sea
The March to the SeaThe March to the Sea
• Sherman’s Union army destroys everything in its path, 300 miles from Atlanta to Savannah
• A sixty mile-wide area is burned, destroyed, and ruined during a two-month period
• Estimated losses exceeded $100 million • Captured, but did not burn, Savannah in
December 1864• Loaded and shipped $28 million worth of
cotton, stored in Savannah, to the North
The Civil War EndsThe Civil War Ends
• January 13, 1865: Fort Fisher in North Carolina captured;the last Confederate blockade-running port
• General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Virginia cannot defeat Union General U.S. Grant at Petersburg; he surrenders his army at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865
• Confederate President Jefferson Davis flees and is eventually captured in Irwinville, Georgia
Civil War PrisonsCivil War Prisons• Both North and South had prisons for captured
soldiers; thousands of men on both sides died in these prisons
• Andersonville Prison, in southwest Georgia, was overcrowded, and offered poor food, contaminated water, and poor sanitation; 13,700 Union soldiers are buried there
• Captain Henry Wirtz, Andersonville Prison commander, was later hanged for “excessive cruelty”
• Andersonville is now home to the National Prisoner of War Museum
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Section 3: Life for the Section 3: Life for the Civil War Soldier Civil War Soldier
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION– What was life like for the common
soldiers of the Civil War?
Section 3: Life for the Section 3: Life for the Civil War Soldier Civil War Soldier
• What words do I need to know?– Sutler wagon
– rations
– common soldier
The Civil War SoldierThe Civil War Soldier
• Most were under the age of 21; over 250,000 were 16-years-old or younger
• Most came from lower socioeconomic groups; wanted to seek adventure or escape boredom of farm life
• Rations (portions of food) were generally better for Northern soldiers than Southern soldiers
• Sutler wagons followed troops, and sold soldiers a variety of goods and foods; their items were very expensive, however
Uniforms and SuppliesUniforms and Supplies• In the early months of the war, troops
wore a variety of uniforms; sometimes armies were hard to tell apart
• The Confederate soldiers eventually wore gray pants or butternut-dyed homemade clothes
• Union soldiers wore blue uniforms, most mass produced in factories
Weaponry Weaponry • Forty-inch barrel Springfield rifles
replaced single-shot, muzzle-loading .54 caliber rifles
• Confederate soldiers often fought with foreign rifles, but when they broke, they depended on rifles they could gather from the battlefield
• Infantry on both sides carried long fighting blades
Camp LifeCamp Life• Boredom between battles was common
• Men wrote and read letters, played practical jokes, played games, or sang
• Many men whittled, carving items out of wood, bone, and other material
• Games of baseball were common
• Religious gatherings, including Bible and singing were popular
Black SoldiersBlack Soldiers• Some 178,985 enlisted men served in black
regiments during the Civil War• The 54th Massachusetts, led by Col. Robert Shaw
(a white officer) led an assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina in 1863; the battle proved the value of black troops
• 3,500 black men from Georgia fought in the Union Army
• The Confederate government in 1865 passed a law allowing black slaves to fight in Southern armies; the war ended before a black regiment was organized
Latino Service Latino Service • Many immigrants from Spain and Latin
America were recruited for the Union Army• Admiral David Farragut, a Latino, became
first U.S. Naval Admiral; he was a hero for capturing Mobile Bay and other ports
• Loreta Velazquez fought for the Confederacy (disguised as a man) and served as a Confederate spy
• Several states contributed entire Latino battalions
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Section 4: Section 4: Life During the Civil WarLife During the Civil War
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION– What was life like for civilians during
the Civil War?
Section 4:Section 4: Life During the Civil War Life During the Civil War
• What words do I need to know?– hardships
– shortages
– volunteers
Women in the Civil WarWomen in the Civil War• Food, items for clothes, and basic items were
in short supply, especially in the South• Staples like flour, coffee, and sugar were very
expensive or hard to acquire• Women tried to keep their families fed and
sheltered despite the difficulties• Many fought disguised as men; others served
as spies; many worked in factories• Female nurses were much valued
Women of NoteWomen of Note• Phoebe Pember of Savannah helped
administer a division in a major Richmond hospital
• Captain Sally Tompkins ran a Southern military hospital
• Clara Barton, a Union nurse supervisor, later founded the American Red Cross
• Mary Boykin Chesnut of South Carolina left a prized written record of the wartime life
Children During the WarChildren During the War• Most did chores at home to help their
families or contribute to the war effort
• Children in the South had basically no public schools; wealthy families could continue with private tutoring
• Boys as young as 10 served in both armies; thousands of soldiers were between 14- and 16-years-old
The AftermathThe Aftermath• 620,000 people died during the war;
about two-thirds died from diseases, wounds, or military prison hardships
• Healing of emotional wounds took far longer than the war itself
• The North or the South would never be the same again
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