1. Impact of the Civil War
1. Most costly American war in terms of life lost
2. Most destructive war in the Western Hemisphere
3. 4 million people set free
4. Accelerated industrialization and modernization in the North and destroyed the plantation
system of the south
5. Called the Second American Revolution
The War
1. Lincoln told the South that he did not want to interfere with slavery but that no state had the
right to break up the Union
2. Fort Sumter-federal fort in Charleston, SC, south cut off supplies from the north, Lincoln sent
provisions, SC opened fire on April 12, 1861, captured after 2 days, united the north
3. Lincoln expanded executive power by calling on volunteers-75k, authorizing spending for the
war, suspending habeas corpus all without Congressional approval
4. After Fort Sumter, the Upper South seceded when they saw Lincoln using troops, Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, capital of the South is now Richmond
5. Border states-Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky all were slaveholders but stayed with the
Union, kept the slavery issue off the table for a while
6. First major battle was Bull Run July 1861, rebels sent federal soldiers into retreat, ended the
thought of a short war
7. Lincoln seemed very hesitant to deal with the issue of slavery
a. Wanted to keep the border states in
b. Worried about Constitutional protect of slavery as property
c. Prejudices of northerners
d. Fear of losing the next election
8. Confiscation Acts-allowed Union army to seize slaves as contraband of war, later let them
participate in fighting
9. Emancipation Proclamation-announced after the Battle of Antietam(last Southern chance to
gain British support)-all slaves in areas of rebellion would be freed on January 1, 1863
a. Did not free any slaves
b. Committed the president to fight against slavery
c. Made the war a moral war-shift from disunion to slavery6
d. Allowed union to recruit any black soldiers
e. ¼ of the AA population left to find the Union armies
f. 200,000 served in the Union army and navy
g. 37,000 died in the Army of Freedom
10. After several other generals, Lincoln settled on Grant who succeeded in reducing Lee’s army and
forcing it into a defensive position around Richmond

2. 11. General William Tecumseh Sherman-set out with 100,000 men from Tennessee to march to the
sea, used the tactics of total war, destroyed anything that the armies could use, took Atlanta in
time for the 1864 election, burned Columbia in Feb 1865, capital of South Carolina
12. Election of 1864-Republicans ran Lincoln and Johnson, Democrats ran General McClellan, Lincoln
won majority of electoral votes, popular vote much closer
13. South collapsed in hunger and devastation, Appomattox court house for surrender between Lee
and Grant
14. With malice towards none, with charity for all
15. April 14, 1865 Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth