THE CIVIL WAR

Secession of Seven States from the Lower South(20 December 1860-1 February 1861)

• formation of the Confederacy(February-March 1861)
  • Montgomery, Alabama - first Confederate national capital
  • *Jefferson Davis
• seizure of federal forts in seceded states
  • *Fort Sumter

Secession of Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee from the Union

• occurred in the aftermath of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter
• transfer of Confederate capital from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia

*Anaconda Plan

• authored by Winfield Scott
• elements of Scott's approach to suppressing the rebellion
  • blockade Confederate-held ports
  • take control of the lower Mississippi River
  • wait for Unionists to retake control of the Confederate-held state governments

Theaters of Conflict:

• Virginia
• Tennessee/Mississippi River valley
• Confederate-held coastline
• trans-Mississippi West

Major Battles and Other Key Events

• *First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas(21 July 1861)
• *Monitor vs. Virginia(9 March 1862)
• Battle of Glorieta Pass(March 1862)
• Shiloh(6-7 April 1862)
• *Seven Days Battles(25 June-1 July 1862)
  • key events
    • General Joseph E. Johnston, commander of Confederate forces defending Richmond, wounded and replaced by General Robert E. Lee.
    • "Lee's" Army of Northern Virginia repulsed McClellan's Army of the Potomac from Richmond
  • impact - a key step in the development of the Civil War into a revolutionary struggle
• Antietam(17 September 1862)
  • culmination of the first Confederate invasion of the North
  • aftermath - Lincoln's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation
• Gettysburg(1-3 July 1863)
  • culmination of the second Confederate invasion of the North
  • aftermath
    • Lee's Army of Northern Virginia withdrew back to Virginia.
• Vicksburg(captured 4 July 1863)
  • culmination of Union effort to take control of the Mississippi River
  • impact - Union forces now controlled the Mississippi River, effectively bisecting the Confederacy.
• Chickamauga(19-20 September 1863)
  • Confederate victory
  • aftermath
    • Union forces retreated to Chattanooga where they were besieged by Confederate General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee.
• Chattanooga(23-25 November 1863)
  • consequences
    • Chattanooga came under Union control to be used in the spring of 1864 as a staging area for the Atlanta campaign
• The Wilderness(5-6 May 1864)
• *Sherman's march through Georgia(Fall 1864)
• Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House(9 April 1865)
• Lincoln's assassination(14 April 1865)

Major, even Revolutionary, Changes brought about by the War

• expansion of the power and authority of the national government
  • conscription laws
  • "greenbacks"
  • first U.S. income tax
• abolition of slavery
  • advocates
    • *Frederick Douglass
    • *Radical Republicans
  • steps toward abolition
    • *Emancipation Proclamation
    • Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution
• enlistment of African Americans in the U.S. Army and Navy
• *Ulysses Grant's conduct of the Union war effort, 1864-65
  • Grant's approach - use all of the Union's resources in a series of coordinated offensives against the Confederacy in the key theaters of war
  • *William Tecumseh Sherman's marches
    • march from Atlanta to Savannah
    • march through the Carolinas