• When the Confederacy began to form a government, they designed a currency (form of money) and began building an army and navy. Because there were no factories in the south that made weapons, they had to begin building them. • Many men went off to war. Alabamians were confident that the war wouldn’t last long…but they were wrong! • Neither side really wanted war or to fire the 1 st shot, but when southerners demanded a surrender from the northerners at Fort Sumter and they refused, Confederate troops fired. On April 13, 1861, the South fired upon the American flag and the Civil War began. • People even disagreed on what to call the war: • -War of Northern Aggression (South) • -Mr. Lincoln’s War (South) • -War of the Rebellion (North) • -War for the Union (North) Alabama at War: Conflict between the North and South Chapter 5 Lesson 2 PAGE 147
Transcript
• When the Confederacy began to form a government, they designed a currency (form of money) and began building an army and navy. Because there were no factories in the south that made weapons, they had to begin building them.
• Many men went off to war. Alabamians were confident that the war wouldn’t last long…but they were wrong!
• Neither side really wanted war or to fire the 1st shot, but when southerners demanded a surrender from the northerners at Fort Sumter and they refused, Confederate troops fired. On April 13, 1861, the South fired upon the American flag and the Civil War began.
• People even disagreed on what to call the war:• -War of Northern Aggression (South)• -Mr. Lincoln’s War (South)• -War of the Rebellion (North)• -War for the Union (North)• -War Between the States• -The Civil War (Historians gave this name even
though there was nothing “Civil” about it).
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North’s Advantages• double the amount of people• more industry and manufacturing• more railroads• had ships and a navy that could
blockade southern ports• could raise a large army• was well established• had banks with gold reserves• grew more food (South mainly grew
cotton and tobacco)• the South had many slave soldiers
which may revolt and fight against the South
• some Unionists (people supporting the Union) lived in the South
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South’s Advantages
• most battles were fought on southern land, so southerners were fighting for their homes and on familiar land
• southern boys often attended military schools
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Alabama in the War• Alabama played a very important role
in the Confederate war effort. Alabama sent approximately 90,000 men and boys to serve in the Confederate armies.
• Many Alabamians (including women) became heroes:
1. Emma Sansom-showed Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest where to cross Black Creek to catch federal raiders.
2. Juliet Opie Hopkins- left her home in Mobile to go to the Virginia front and establish hospitals to nurse wounded men.
3. Kate Cummings-went to the Shiloh battlefield in Mississippi as a nurse.
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• Alabama regiments did win a few battles, but many soldiers met death on the battlefields throughout the war.
• The greatest number of lives were lost during the war because of disease. Many men were wounded, hungry, and caught diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, and gangrene.
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• Selma became a major munitions center for the Confederacy. They produced cannons, small arms, and gunpowder.
• Mobile was important because its port allowed supplies to be imported with the help of blockade runners (daring men that used fast ships to slip around the northern ships and bring in guns, medicines, and other needed supplies). Eventually, the north was able to stop the runners and also prevent cotton from being shipped to England.
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• During war, life was very hard for everyone. Things that were imported from other placed were greatly missed (sewing needles, salt, coffee, sugar, shoes, and cloth).
• Women had to learn to make hats from leaves, reuse old clothing, spin and weave clothing, dye fabrics with plants, make black shoe polish, knit socks and sweaters, and knit blankets for soldiers. Eventually, the Confederate could no longer give uniforms to its soldiers.
• When men left to fight in the war, women and children were left alone. Planters who owned a large amount of land did not have to leave their plantation to fight in the war so that the slaves wouldn’t rebel and leave the plantation.
• A rich man could pay a man to go and serve in the army in his place.
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• In 1862, the Confederate government began to force men into the army (a draft). By 1863, the war was not as popular as it had been in 1861. Food supplies were running out and life was difficult.
• President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This freed all slaves. This may have weakened the South’s war effort.
• Blacks fought in the Civil War on both sides. Free blacks and runaway slaves joined the Union army and navy. In the South, some slaves went to fight as servants for their masters. Some former slaves gave aid to northern troops when they invaded Alabama.
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FROM THE HOMEFRONT• Women who had slaves to work
on their farms had food to eat, but many other women and children had a difficult time raising enough food.
• The men in the army were constantly worrying about their families back home. They wrote letters telling their wives to depend on their trusted slaves, raise all the food they could, and not to spend any money.
• If there were no slaves at home, many men would send their wives and children to live with parents or other family members.
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• As the war continued into its 3rd year, many people were starving in Alabama. Store supplies were sold out, gold coins and federal money had disappeared, confederate money wasn’t worth very much, so people had to barter (trade) to get what they needed.
• Alabama countryside was unsafe. Confederate deserters rode the roads in gangs, Confederate troops would demand supplies, Federal troops invaded on a few occasions, and Union raiders would cut railroad lines, destroy iron furnaces, and disrupt society.
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The Battle of Mobile Bay• August 1864, Admiral David G.
Farragut(U.S. navy) guided his flagship, the Hartford, and 18 other ships between the guns of Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan and into Mobile Bay.
• Inside Mobile Bay, his men met the Confederate forces led by Admiral Franklin Buchannan in command of the Tennessee.
• The Hartford(Union ship) was wooden and the Tennessee (Confederate ship) was an ironclad ship that was designed to withstand cannon fire. The Confederate (South) forces were outnumbered but fought until the Tennessee’s smokestack and steering gear were destroyed.
• The North now controlled Mobile Bay, but they didn’t have enough troops to capture the city of Mobile until the following Spring.
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Wilson’s Raid• March 1865, General James H. Wilson (Union)
led 3 Calvary divisions, 15,000 troops, in one last raid into Alabama.
• He crossed the Tennessee River and moved south to Jasper, then went to Elyton(Jefferson County county seat), sent another group to Tuscaloosa to burn the University of Alabama and furnaces, rode south through Montevallo, and then headed to Selma to destroy the naval arsenal and Confederate manufacturing there.
• Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was in charge of defending Selma against Wilson and his men. General Forrest had about 3,000 poorly armed and untrained men to defend the city.
• Wilson’s troops (Union) had new repeating rifles that could be fired 7 times before reloading. The Confederate troops had single shot rifles that had to be reloaded each time they were fired.
• What do you think happened in Selma?
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Wilson’s Raid• Forrest and his men were not able to
hold off the Union forces. Selma was captured by Wilson! As Wilson moved toward Montgomery, he learned that Richmond had also been captured and the leading Confederate general, Robert E. Lee, had surrendered to U.S. general Ulysses S. Grant.
• The surrender was signed at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia on April 9, 1865.
• The war was almost over…but there was 1 battle left.
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The Battle of Blakeley: The Last Major Battle of the
War• April 9, 1865, 13,000 Union
troops under General Frederick Steele marched the heavily fortified fort on the Tensaw River near Mobile, Fort Blakeley. Along with Spanish Fort, Blakeley was one of the reasons the Union forces had not been able to take over Mobile. Once these forts were taken over, Union troops moved into Mobile.
• The Mobile garrison surrendered on May5, 1865.
• The war was over, but for Alabama the next few years would be very difficult.
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Lesson Review Questions(page 163)
1. Who fired the 1st shot in the Civil War?
2. What advantages did the North have when the Civil War began?
3. What were some of the items southerners had to do without during the Civil War?
4. How did the war affect the lives of southern women and children?
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ANSWERS1. The South fired the 1st shot in the
Civil War on Fort Sumter.2. Some of the North’s advantages
when the Civil War began were more soldiers, more manufacturing and industry, more railroads, an army and navy, more gold reserves, and more food supplies.
3. Some of the items southerners had to do without during the Civil War were coffee, sugar, salt, sewing needles, new shoes, and cloth.
4. The war affected the lives of southern women and children by leaving them alone on plantations and farms in Alabama.
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