2. Fort Sumter was to
protect the harbor of
Charlestown. Walls
were five feet thick and
50 feet high. It was not
finished yet in 1861. Its
commander was US
ARMY Major Robert
Anderson.
3.
4. Anderson continued to refuse
December 1860
The South Carolina
Legislature voted to
secede from the
Union.
Major Anderson
prepared Fort Sumter
for an attack by the
South Carolina militia.
South Carolina
demanded the surrender
of the fort.
Anderson continued to refuse
President Lincoln sent
reinforcements and
supplies to the fort but
were turned back by
South Carolina militia
cannon.
April 12th, 1861,the militia
began bombarding the fort,
continuing for 34 hours.
Threats and refusals
continued for months.
The US flag of
Fort Sumter
5. The Confiscation Act of 1861
Union forces were
to confiscate any
Confederate
property. Slaves
were “property”
to the
Confederates.
8. The First Battle of Bull Run, also
known as the First Battle of
Manassas, was the first major
battle of the American Civil War
and was a Confederate victory.
The battle was fought on July 21,
1861 in Prince William County,
Virginia, just north of the city of
Manassas and about 30 miles
west-southwest of Washington,
D.C.
The Battle
The Union's forces were slow in positioning
themselves, allowing Confederate
reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side
had about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly
led troops in their first battle. It was a
Confederate victory, followed by a
disorganized retreat of the Union forces.
As the soldiers streamed uncontrollably toward
Centreville, discarding their arms and equipment,
McDowell ordered Col. Dixon S. Miles's division to act
as a rear guard, but it was impossible to rally the army
short of Washington. In the disorder that followed,
hundreds of Union troops were taken prisoner. Wagons
and artillery were abandoned, including the 30-
pounder Parrott rifle, which had opened the battle with
such fanfare.
12. The poor performance by the Union armies at Bull Run led to immediate,
improved training by the Union armies and to Lincoln searching for a general that
could win the day.
He fired General Irvin McDowell.
Who would be next??
14. A list of McClellan's’ strengths:
Intelligent and energetic.
Likened himself to Napoleon
( could be a weakness).
An organizational genius .
Could and would prep the army for a long war.
Popular with his men.
Educated Lincoln in the academic elements of
strategy and tactics.
McClellan’s education of Lincoln in how to run a war did
contribute to the Union victory.
Touted as a future president (could be a weakness).
Displayed for the people great……………. parades.
Napoleon
15. A complete lack of a sense of timing (when to
fight, where to fight, understanding of
opponents’ weaknesses).
Reluctant to sacrifice his men when the need
arose (could be a strength).
Viewed his own abilities as far superior to those of
Lincoln (could NOT possibly be a strength).
He viewed Lincoln as possessing “inferior
antecedents and abilities.”
Occasionally arrogant (possibly due to his lack
of height).
Total lack of aggressiveness.
Would attack the enemy position if he had a
10 to 1 advantage in numbers.
“If he had a million men he would insist the enemy had
two million.” ( Sec of State Stanton)
McClellan Lincoln
A list of McClellan’s weaknesses
16. Summary.
McClellan was number one in
training of troops for war.
McClellan was LAST in using his
troops to win a battle.
17. The Union army was trained-up and ready for a fight.
BUT……McClellan would not fight.
Lincoln’s deference to McClellan finally reached its end.
Unhappy with McClellan’s dithering, in January 1862,
Lincoln issued the
“President’s General War Order Number 1”,
instructing McClellan to move forward by
February, and move on Richmond.
June and July of 1862 the Battles of Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines’s Mill, Frayser’s Farm, and
others. McClellan finally won a battle for the Union at Malvern Hill.
20. Lincoln’s Plan:
1. Protect Washington DC.
2. Ferry the Army of the
Potomac down the
Potomac River to
Fortress Monroe.
Fortress Monroe
Confederate Response:
1. Threaten Washington DC.
2. Delay the Union advance.
3. Protect Richmond.
21. That was the “PLAN”.
Here is the
“ACTUAL”
1. McClellan and 120,000
men were ferried
down the Potomac,
Chesapeake Bay and
camped at Fortress
Monroe at the James
River.
2. Lincoln held 20,000
around Washington,
D.C. for protection.
3. The Confederates held
15,000 men to protect
Richmond and sent
15,000 men down the
James River to delay
any movement of
McClellan’s Union
army.
22. Fredericksburg
McClellan
Confederate General
Stonewall Jackson has
3000 troops in the
Shenandoah Valley heading
north.
Lincoln is growing more
impatient with McClellan’s
lack of movement.
The Confederate general
Joseph E Johnston has extra
time to bring more troops
to defend Richmond.
23. Follow the blue arrows
as McClellan finally
decided to “MOVE”.
30. Port
Republic
Harrisonburg
Fredericksburg
Manassas
New Market
Luray
Mt. Jackson
Banks
25,000
Shields
7,000
Outside of Richmond
DH Hill 12,000 and Johnston 35,000
Johnson
3000
Fremont
17,000
Jackson
9000
McDowell
35000
At Fortress Monroe
McClellan 110,000
Blue Ridge
Mtns.
Massanutten
Mtns.
Allegheny Mtns.
31
A Close-up of the
Shenandoah Valley
Jackson's 17,000 men marched 646 miles (1,040
km) in 48 days and won several minor battles as
they successfully engaged three Union armies
(52,000 men), preventing them from reinforcing
the Union offensive against Richmond.
38. 39
McClellan moved! Toward
Richmond eventually being
stopped at the Battle of
Seven Pines. He was close
enough to Richmond with a
2 to 1 advantage but failed
to take it.
39. 40
#Richmond
#
Washington
#Richmond
Confederate General Joe Johnston
commanded the Army of
Northern Virginia .
Johnston halted McClellan's
advance at the Battle of Seven
Pines, but he was wounded in the
battle, and Robert E. Lee assumed
his position of command. General
Lee and top subordinates James
Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson
defeated McClellan in the Seven
Days Battles and forced his
retreat.
Ending the
Peninsula
Campaign.
40. Shows the retreat of Franklin's corps at the
Battle of Fair Oaks (Battle of Seven Pines),
June 29, 1862.
From illustrations of the Army of the Potomac, from
sketches by Mr. Alfred R. Waud.
June
25 Battles of the Seven Days.
26 Beaver Dam Creek.
27 Gaines' Mill.
29 Savage Station.
30 Frayser's Farm; White Oak Swamp.
JULY 1862
1 Malvern Hill.
Significant battles of the Peninsula Campaign
41. Within 90 days Robert E. Lee had driven
McClellan from the Peninsula, Pope had been
soundly beaten at the Second Battle of Bull
Run, and the battle lines were 20 miles (32
km) from the Union capital in Washington. It
would take almost two more years before the
Union Army again got that close to
Richmond, and almost three years before it
finally captured it.
42. 43
#Richmond
#Washington
#Richmond
A Summary of four major battles
between Washington D C and
Richmond, Virginia.
2nd Bull Run
Antietam
(Sharpsburg)
Fredericksburg
Chancellorsville
Fredericksburg
Antietam
(Sharpsburg)
Chancellorsville
2nd Bull Run
43. 44
Second Bull Run
The Northern Virginia Campaign, which included the Second Battle of Bull Run, ended in yet another victory for the South.
McClellan resisted General-in-Chief Halleck's orders to send reinforcements to John Pope's Union Army of Virginia, which
made it easier for Lee's Confederates to defeat twice the number of combined enemy troops.
Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, the Civil War's deadliest one-day fight.
Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North. Lee led 45,000 men of the Army of Northern
Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near
Sharpsburg, Maryland, on Sept/ 17th. Lee's army checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is
considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North.
Fredericksburg
When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, Lincoln fired him and replaced him with Maj. Gen. Ambrose
Burnside. Burnside was soon defeated at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when more than 12,000 Union
soldiers were killed or wounded during repeated futile frontal assaults against Marye's Heights. After the battle, Burnside was
replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.
Chancellorsville
Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, his
Chancellorsville Campaign proved ineffective and he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. Chancellorsville
is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force
resulted in a significant Confederate victory.
44. 45
Lincoln had
gone far enough
with McClellan
and
FIRED
HIM
Lincoln and McClellan pose for a photo before Lincoln “kills” him.
45.
46.
47.
48. Civil War Union Camps
Confederate prisoners captured in the
Shenandoah Valley being guarded in a
Union camp, May 1862.
thomaslegioncherokee.tripod.com
49. Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union victory at Antietam to issue a
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the rebellious
states after January 1, 1863. He justified his decision as a wartime measure and did
not go so far as to free the slaves in the border states loyal to the Union. Still, the
Emancipation Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces
and put international public opinion strongly on the Union side. Some 186,000
black soldiers would join the Union Army by the time the war ended in 1865, and
38,000 lost their lives.
50. • After the Emancipation Proclamation
(1863-4)
• Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union
victory at Antietam to issue a preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation, which freed
all slaves in the rebellious states after
January 1, 1863. He justified his decision as
a wartime measure and did not go so far as
to free the slaves in the border states loyal
to the Union. Still, the Emancipation
Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of
the bulk of its labor forces and put
international public opinion strongly on
the Union side. Some 186,000 black
soldiers would join the Union Army by the
time the war ended in 1865, and 38,000
lost their lives.
51. Follow the Leaders
Lincoln continued to search for the leader of the Army of the Potomac
that would WIN!
The Order and the major battle during his command.
Irwin McDowell First Bull Run
George McClellan Peninsula Campaign, North Virginia Campaign,
Antietam, 2nd Bull Run
Ambrose Burnside Fredericksburg
Joseph Hooker Chancellorsville
George Meade Gettysburg
Ulysses S Grant Richmond/Petersburg/Appomattox
53. Ulysses Grant
Henry Halleck William Sherman
George Thomas Don Carlos Buell William Rosecrans James McPherson
Principle
Commanders
In
Western
Theatre
56. Vicksburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Sherman through Georgia,
through the states of Kentucky and Tennessee.
While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern Theater, they were defeated many times in
the West.
At the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing), in Tennessee in April 1862, the Confederates made a surprise attack that pushed Union forces against th
river as night fell. Overnight, the Navy landed additional reinforcements, and Grant counter-attacked. Grant and the Union won a decisive victory—
the first battle with the high casualty rates that would repeat over and over.
Naval forces assisted Grant in the long, complex Vicksburg Campaign that resulted in the Confederates surrendering at the Battle of Vicksburg in
July 1863, which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River and is considered one of the turning points of the war.
The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga.
57. Both Grant
and William Tecumseh Sherman
believed in
General Sherman was to capture Atlanta and
58. Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's
army marched with an unknown destination, laying
waste to about 20 percent of the farms in Georgia in
his "March to the Sea". He reached the Atlantic Ocean
at Savannah, Georgia, in December 1864. Sherman's
army was followed by thousands of freed slaves;
there were no major battles along the March.
59.
60. Mount Jackson is the
backdrop for the
Bushong Farm on the
Battlefield at New
Market, Virginia the
scene of the famous
“Battle of Lost Shoes”
in May 1864.
61. Principal Union commanders
•Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, Army of the Potomac
•
•Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, II Corps
•
•Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, V Corps
•
•Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, VI Corps
•
•Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, IX Corps
•
•Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, Cavalry Corps
Confederate corps commanders
•Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, First Corps
•
•Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, Second Corps
•
•Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, Third Corps
•
•Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Cavalry Corps
63. Grant and Meade led the Army of the Potomac against Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia as shown on the previous slide.
Although Grant suffered severe losses during the campaign, it was a strategic Union
victory. It inflicted proportionately higher losses on Lee's army and maneuvered it into
a siege at Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, in just over eight weeks.
