Civil War PowerPoint

Leadup to The Civil War

​Main Ideas:

• The Compromise of 1850 tried to solve the disputes over slavery.

• The Fugitive Slave Act caused more controversy.

• Abolitionists used antislavery literature to promote opposition.

• Leadup to The The addition of new land in the West renewed disputes over the expansion of slavery.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Additional land gained after Mexican-American War caused bitter slavery dispute.

• Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30’.

• President Polk wanted to extend the line to the West Coast, dividing Mexican Cession into free and slavery parts.

• Some leaders wanted popular sovereignty, the idea that political power belongs to the people, to decide on banning or allowing slavery.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Some northerners wanted to ban slavery in all parts of the Mexican Cession.

• The Wilmot Proviso, prohibiting slavery there, was proposed but not enacted.

• Sectionalism, favoring the interests of one section or region over the interests of the entire country, was on the rise.

• Antislavery northerners formed a new party–the Free-Soil Party–to support the Wilmot Proviso.

• California applied to enter the Union.

• Southerners did not want California to be a free state because it would upset the balance of slave and free states.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Senator Henry Clay offered Compromise of 1850:

  • California would enter the Union as a free state.

  • The rest of the Mexican Cession would be federal land. The slavery question would be decided by popular sovereignty.

  • Texas could give up land east of the upper Rio Grande. In return, the government would pay Texas’s debt from when it was an independent republic.

  • Slave trade, but not slavery, would end in the nation’s capital.

  • A more effective fugitive slave law would be passed.

• The compromise was enacted and settled most disputes between slave and free states.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Fugitive Slave Act Details:

  • Made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest runaway slaves in free areas

  • Slaveholders could take suspected fugitives to U.S. commissioners, who decided their fate. Commissioners received more money for returning them to slaveholders.

  • Accused fugitives could not testify on their own behalf.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Reactions to the Fugitive Slave Act :

  • Enforcement of act immediate

  • Thousands of northern African Americans fled to Canada in fear.

  • Act upset northerners

  • Anthony Burns was fugitive returned to slavery with federal help in 1854.

  • Persuaded many to join abolitionist cause

Leadup to The Civil War

• Northern abolitionists used stories of fugitive slaves to gain sympathy for their cause.

• Fiction also informed people about the evils of slavery.

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was an influential antislavery novel published in 1852.

  • More than 2 million copies sold within a decade.

  • Still widely read as source about harsh realities of slavery.

Multiple Choice

_______________________ prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30’.

• Missouri Compromise of 1840

• Missouri Compromise of 1830

• Missouri Compromise of 1820

• Missouri Compromise of 1810

Multiple Choice

Antislavery northerners formed a new party–the _____________ Party–to support the Wilmot Proviso.

• Free-Tea

• Free-Soil

• Free-Pool

• Free-American

Open Ended

What were the details of The Fugitive Slave Act?

Leadup to The Civil War

• Trouble in Kansas :

  • The debate over the expansion of slavery influenced the election of 1852.

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act gave voters the choice to allow or prohibit slavery.

  • Pro-slavery and antislavery groups clashed violently in what became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

Leadup to The Civil War

• Trouble in Kansas :

• The debate over the expansion of slavery influenced the election of 1852.

• Franklin Pierce was Democratic candidate.

  • Promised to honor Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Act

  • Trusted by southerners

• Whig Party chose Winfield Scott, a Mexican War hero.

  • Southerners did not trust Scott because he had not fully supported Compromise of 1850.

  • Pierce won election by large margin.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in Congress to divide the remainder of Louisiana Purchase into two territories—Kansas and Nebraska.

• Would allow people in each territory to decide on slavery

• Would eliminate the Missouri Compromise’s restriction on slavery north of the 36°30’ line

• Antislavery northerners were outraged that free territory could be turned into slave territory.

• Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854 with southern support.

• Afterward, pro-slavery and antislavery groups sent supporters to Kansas. People from Missouri voted in the Kansas territorial legislature elections of 1855 in an effort to influence the outcome..

Leadup to The Civil War

• Lesson Objectives:

• Anti-slavery literature and the annexation of new lands intensified the debate over slavery

• Addition of new land renewed disputes over the expansion of slavery

• Compromise of 1850 TRIED to solve the disputes of slavery

• The Fugitive Slave Act caused more controversy

• Essential Question:

• Could the Civil War have been avoided? If so, how? If not, why?

Leadup to The Civil War

• Sack of Lawrence :

• Proslavery grand jury charged antislavery government with treason.

• Proslavery forces attacked city of Lawrence, the location of antislavery leaders.

• John Brown's Response:

• Abolitionist John Brown and sons killed five pro-slavery men in what was called Pottawatomie Massacre.

• Kansas collapsed into civil war.

• Congress Senator Charles Sumner criticized pro-slavery people and insulted Senator Pickens Butler.

• Representative Preston Brooks beat Sumner unconscious.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Political Divisions:

• Some Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, and abolitionists joined in 1854 to form the Republican Party.

  • United against spread of slavery in the West

  • Nominated explorer John C. Frémont, who stood against spread of slavery

• Democrats were in trouble. Those who supported the Kansas-Nebraska debate were NOT re-elected.

  • Nominated James Buchanan, Polk's secretary of state, who had not been involved in Kansas-Nebraska debate.

• Buchanan was elected by winning 14 of 15 slave states.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Dred Scott:

• Dred Scott was a slave of Missouri physician.

• Had been taken to free territory by owner

• Sued for freedom in 1846 after owner died, arguing he had become free when he lived in free territory

• Case reached Supreme Court in 1857.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Dred Scott v. Sandford :

• Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote majority opinion.

• Ruled that African Americans, whether free or slave, were not citizens and had no right to sue in federal court; also ruled Missouri Compromise restriction on slavery was unconstitutional.

• Most white southerners were cheered by the decision.

• Ruling stunned many northerners, including Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, who warned about its consequences.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Lincoln/Douglas Debates for Senator :

• Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Senate in 1858.

• His opponent was Democrat Stephen Douglas, who had been senator since 1847.

• Lincoln challenged Douglas to what became the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates.

• Lincoln stressed that central issue of campaign was spread of slavery in the West.

• Douglas criticized Lincoln for saying nation could not remain “half slave and half free.”

• Douglas put forth Freeport Doctrine: people had right to introduce or exclude slavery, and police would enforce their decision even if it contradicted the Supreme Court.

• Freeport Doctrine helped Douglas win, but Lincoln became an important Republican Party leader and later president.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Harpers Ferry Raid:

• John Brown tried to start uprising in 1858.

  • Planned to arm local slaves by attacking federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

• John Brown’s raid began on night of October 16, 1859, when he and his men took over arsenal.

• Could not get slaves to join uprising.

• Federal troops captured Brown and men in attack on arsenal.

• Brown was convicted of treason, murder, and conspiracy, and was hanged.

  • Many northerners mourned his death, but criticized methods.

  • Most southern whites felt threatened, and newspapers started to call for leaving the Union in order to remain safe.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Election of 1860:

• Northern Democrats chose Senator Stephen Douglas; Southern Democrats, Vice President John C. Breckinridge.

• The Constitutional Union Party selected John Bell of Tennessee.

• Republicans nominated Lincoln, who won with most votes of the free states.

  • Lincoln promised not to abolish slavery where it already existed.

• The result angered southerners.

  • Lincoln had NOT campaigned in the South or carried any southern states in the election.

Leadup to The Civil War

• The South Secedes:

• Lincoln insisted he would not change slavery in South, but would not let it expand.

• People in South believed that their economy and way of life would be destroyed.

• South Carolina legislature met to consider secession, formally withdrawing from the Union.

• South Carolina seceded, believing it had the right because it had voluntarily joined the Union.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Confederate States of America:

• Senator John Crittenden proposed series of constitutional amendments hoping to satisfy the South by protecting slavery.

• Lincoln believed there could be no compromise about the extension of slavery, and the plan was rejected.

• Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas joined South Carolina to form Confederate States of America.

• Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected Confederate president.

Leadup to The Civil War

• Lincoln Takes Office:

• Lincoln inaugurated on March 4, 1861.

• Opposed idea that southern states could leave the Union because they were unhappy with government’s position on slavery

• Announced in inaugural address that he would keep all government property in the seceding states

• Hoped that southern states would return to the Union

Multiple Choice

Some Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, and abolitionists joined in 1854 to form the _______________.

• Democratic Party

• Green Tea Party

• Republican Party

• Whig Party

Multiple Choice

Who did the Republican Party nominate for President in the Election of 1856?

• James Buchanan

• John C. Fremont

• Abraham Lincoln

• Roger B. Taney

Multiple Choice

Who did the Republican Party nominate for President in the Election of 1860?

• John Bell

• Stephen Douglas

• Abraham Lincoln

• John. J Crittenden

Multiple Choice

Who did the Constitutional Union Party nominate for President in the Election of 1860?

• Stephen Douglas

• Jefferson Davis

• John Bell

• John J. Critenden

Multiple Choice

What state was the first to secede from the Union?

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• West Virginia

• Virginia

Multiple Choice

Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas joined South Carolina to form _________________________.

• Confederate Countries of America

• Confederate Counties of America

• Confederate Regions of America

• Confederate States of America

Multiple Choice

Who was elected as President of the Confederacy?

• Jefferson Davis

• Abraham Lincoln

• Stephen Douglas

• John Bell

Open Ended

What did Chief Justice Roger B. Taney rule in the Dred Scott V. Sandford case?

The Civil War

• Americans Choose Sides:

• Seven southern states seceded as Lincoln took office.

• Lincoln refused to recognize secession and tried desperately to save the nation.

• Confederate officials began seizing federal-mint branches, arsenals, and military posts.

The Civil War

• Fall of Fort Sumter:

• Fort Sumter was a Federal outpost in Charleston, South Carolina.

• Confederate forces asked for its surrender.

• Lincoln refused and sent ships with supplies.

• Confederate cannons began firing on April 12, 1861.

• Fort Sumter fell 34 hours later.

• The Civil War began.

The Civil War

• Reaction to Lincoln's call:

• Lincoln declared the South was in rebellion and asked state governors for 75,000 militiamen; Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and states north of them rallied.

• Slave states of the Upper South—North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Arkansas—seceded.

• Border states—Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri—were slave states that did not join the Confederacy, but people were divided on the war.

• Western Virginia supported the Union and set up its own state government as West Virginia in 1863.

The Civil War

• Northern Resources:

• Population of 22 million

• Some 22,000 miles of railroad track

• More developed economy, banking system, and currency

• Strategy—General Winfield Scott planned to blockade southern ports and to capture Mississippi River to divide the South.

The Civil War

• Southern Resources:

• Strong military tradition that put many smart officers into battle

• Advantages of fighting on home soil – only had to defend itself until the North grew tired of fighting

• Strategy—tried to win foreign allies through cotton diplomacy: idea that Britain would support Confederacy because it needed the South’s cotton.

The Civil War

• Preparing War:

• Volunteer armies would fight the battles. Thousands of men joined the armies.

• Civilians helped those in uniform.

  • Raised money, ran hospitals, served as nurses

  • Sent supplies to troops

• Both armies faced shortages of clothing, food, and weapons.

• Volunteers had to learn the military basics of marching, shooting, and using bayonets.

The Civil War

• War in Virginia:

• First major battle of Civil War in Virginia, in July 1861

  • Union army of 35,000 under General Irvin McDowell

  • Confederate army of 22,000 under General Pierre G. T. Beauregard

• Clashed at Bull Run Creek near Manassas.

  • Additional 10,000 Confederates arrived

  • Confederate troops under General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson held against Union advance

• Confederates counterattacked

  • Union troops retreated Confederates won First Battle of Bull Run

The Civil War

• War in Virginia:

• General George B. McClellan was placed in charge of 100,000 soldiers, called the Army of the Potomac.

• McClellan launched an effort to capture Richmond called the Peninsular Campaign.  Stonewall Jackson launched an attack towards Washington, preventing Union reinforcements.

• Confederate army in Virginia was under the command of General Robert E. Lee. Lee attacked Union forces in series of clashes called Seven Days’ Battles and forced Union army to retreat in June 1862.

• Lincoln ordered General John Pope to march to Richmond.

• Jackson’s troops stopped Pope’s army before it met up with the other Union army. The Second Battle of Bull Run, or Second Battle of Manassas, was fought in August 1862; Confederates again forced a Union retreat.

The Civil War

• Battle of Antietam :

• Confederate leaders wanted to follow Lee’s victories in Virginia with victory on northern soil.

• Lee’s Confederate troops and McClellan’s Union army met along Antietam Creek in Maryland on September 17, 1862.

• The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history, with more than 12,000 Union and 13,000 Confederate casualties.

• It was an important victory for the Union, stopping Lee’s northward advance.

The Civil War

• The Union’s Naval Strategy:

• Union navy controlled the sea and blockaded southern ports.

• The southern economy was hurt because the South was prevented from selling and receiving goods.

• Some small, fast ships got through blockade, but the number of ships entering southern ports was reduced from 6,000 to 800 a year.

The Civil War

• Clash of the Ironclads

• The Confederacy turned to a new type of warship—ironclads, or ships heavily armored with iron.

• The Confederacy Captured Union ship Merrimack, turned it into ironclad, and renamed it the Virginia.

• Ironclads successfully attacked the wooden ships of the Union.

• Met by a Union ironclad, the Monitor, in battle near Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862 and it forced the Confederates to withdraw

  • Designed by John Ericsson

  • Had a revolving gun tower and thick plating

• The Monitor’s success saved the Union fleet and continued the blockade.

The Civil War

• Union Strategy in the West

• Ulysses S. Grant was commander of Union forces in West

• Western campaign focused on taking control of Mississippi River.

  • Would cut off eastern part of Confederacy from food sources in West

  • Union could use bases along the Mississippi to attack communication and
    transportation networks.

• Grant’s Army of Tennessee captured Confederate forts on Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in February 1862.

• Both sides claimed victory in bloody two-day Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, but Grant’s forces had driven Confederates back into Mississippi.

The Civil War

• Lincoln Issues the Proclamation

• Democratic Party opposed

• Abolitionists said war was pointless without freedom for African Americans. 

• Some predicted it would anger voters.

• On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves only in areas controlled by Confederacy, effective January 1, 1863.

The Civil War

• Reaction to the Proclamation

• African Americans gave thanks.

• Abolitionists rejoiced.

• Some noted that system of slavery still existed.

• Encouraged many enslaved African Americans to escape when Union troops came near.

• Loss of slaves crippled the South’s ability to wage war.

The Civil War

• African Americans Participate in the War

• African Americans volunteered to fight.

• The War Department gave contrabands, or escaped slaves, the right to join the army in South Carolina. 

• The mainly African American 54th Massachusetts Infantry was celebrated for its bravery.

• About 180,000 African Americans served with the Union army.

The Civil War

• Growing Opposition

• Copperheads were northern Democrats who began speaking against the war.

• Many were people in the Midwest who sympathized with the South and opposed abolition.

• Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, or protection against unlawful imprisonment, to jail the enemies of the Union.

The Civil War

• Life as a Civilian

• The war effort involved all levels of society.

• Women and males too young or too old for military service worked in factories and farms.

• Women were the backbone of civilian life. On farms, they performed daily chores usually done by men.

• Union volunteer Clara Barton organized the collection of medicine and supplies for delivery to the battlefield.

• In the South, Sally Louisa Tompkins established a small hospital that became a major army hospital.

The Civil War

• Battle of Gettysburg:

• Largest and bloodiest battle of Civil War

• More than 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured, or went missing in three days. 

• It was an important victory for the Union because it stopped Lee’s plan of invading the North.

• First Day:

• Lee’s forces were gathered at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1863.

• Ran into Union forces under General George G. Meade, beginning the Battle of Gettysburg

• Union took up defensive positions

The Civil War

• Second Day

• Lee ordered attack on Union troops on Little Round Top.

• Both sides fought viciously for control.

• Union forces held off Confederates.

• Pickett’s Charge

• Lee planned attack on center of Union line.

• General George Pickett led 15,000 men in Pickett’s Charge, a failed attack on Cemetery Ridge.

• Lee began planning retreat to Virginia.

The Civil War

• Aftermath of Gettysburg

• Gettysburg was turning point of war—Lee would never again attack in the North.

• Some 23,000 Union and 28,000 Confederate casualties

• Victory came the day before the Union capture of Vicksburg.

• Britain and France refused to aid South after Gettysburg.

• The Gettysburg Address

• Lincoln gave speech called Gettysburg Address at dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery.

• He praised bravery of Union soldiers and renewed commitment to winning the war.

The Civil War

• Sherman Strikes the South

• Lincoln needed victory for Union army to help him win reelection in 1864.

• General William Tecumseh Sherman’s campaign to destroy South’s railroads and industries provided Lincoln his victory.

• Sherman’s 100,000 troops marched south from Tennessee in spring of 1864 to capture Atlanta, Georgia, in September, and Savannah in December.

• Sherman practiced total war, destroying civilian and economic resources, in the hope of ruining the South’s economy and ending its ability to fight. He hoped this would speed the end of the war.

The Civil War

• The South Surrenders

• Grant broke through Confederate defenses at Petersburg, Virginia, and Lee retreated to Richmond on April 2, 1865.

• Fighting Ends

• Grant surrounded Lee’s army.

• Lee surrendered to Grant at the small town of Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.

The Civil War

• Effects of the War

• Civil War had deep and long lasting effects.

• Almost 620,000 Americans killed

• The South’s defeat ended slavery.

• Majority of former slaves had no homes or jobs.

• Southern economy was in ruins.

• Tremendous amount of hostility remained.

• Many questioned how the United States could be united again.