The Confederacy Vs The Union:: Ascc L2 (G1-G4) The American Civil War (Part Ii)

ASCC L2 (G1-G4) The American Civil War (Part II)
The Confederacy Vs The Union:

When the southern states decided to break away, or secede, they made their own
country called the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy. They wrote their
own Constitution and even had their own president, Jefferson Davis. The Confederacy
was made up of 11 southern states including South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
The North consisted of the remaining 25 states which were located in the north. The
North was also called the Union to symbolize that they wanted the United States to
remain a single country and union. The North was bigger and had more industry than the
South. They had a lot more people, resources, and wealth giving them an advantage in
the civil war.
Fort Sumter:
The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861.
Claiming this United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened
fire on the federal garrison and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. Lincoln
called out the militia to suppress this "insurrection." Four more slave states seceded and
joined the Confederacy. By the end of 1861 nearly a million armed men confronted each
other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri. Several battles had
already taken place--near Manassas Junction in Virginia, in the mountains of western
Virginia where Union victories paved the way for creation of the new state of West
Virginia, at Wilson's Creek in Missouri, at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, and at Port
Royal in South Carolina where the Union navy established a base for a blockade to shut
off the Confederacy's access to the outside world.
Preparing for The War:

After the seizure of Fort Sumter in April 1861, both the North and the South prepared for war.
The North had a distinct economic advantage because almost all of the nation’s factories were
been located in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The Union also had nearly twice the
South’s population and thus a larger pool of young men to serve in the army. However, the
North’s new recruits were largely untrained, and most of the best military commanders had been
from the South. Abraham Lincoln offered command of the main Union army to Robert E. Lee,
but Lee, though he disapproved of secession, felt compelled to fight for his home state of
Virginia.
The Battle of Bull Run (July, 21, 1861)

War preparations took some time, so it was not until three months after Fort Sumter that Union
and Confederate troops met again at the First Battle of Bull Run in Virginia, between
Washington, D.C., and Richmond. Still believing that the war was a trifling matter that would be
over quickly, a number of government officials and spectators from both sides came to
“observe” the battle, some even packing picnic lunches. By the end of the day, Union forces had
lost and were forced to retreat. The loss shocked Northerners out of their complacency and
prompted them to prepare more seriously for the struggle ahead. Meanwhile, many Southerners
interpreted the victory as an indicator of an early end to the war and as decisive proof that most
Northerners didn’t have the will to fight.
The Emancipation Proclamation 1863

It was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President
Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It changed the federal legal status of more than 3.5
million enslaved African Americans in the designated areas of the South from slave to
free. The proclamation did have a large political impact, though, because it tied the issue
of slavery to the restoration of the Union. Indeed, reunification, not emancipation,
remained Lincoln’s most important goal by far. He once remarked, “If I could save the
Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the
slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I
would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe
it helps to save this Union.” Lincoln received a lot of criticism from the Peace
Democrats and other groups for wedding the goals of emancipation and reunification.
Despite the priority Lincoln placed on reunification, he knew that a reunified nation
would not survive long if slavery still existed. Slavery had been at the root of every
major sectional conflict since the 1780s, and the issue had to be addressed. Even though
the Emancipation Proclamation failed to ban slavery in the border states, it did mark the
symbolic beginning of the end for the “peculiar institution” for every state in the Union.
The War at Sea:

While the armies battled on land, the Union and Confederate navies clashed on the high
seas. At the very beginning of the war, Lincoln bypassed Congress and ordered a naval
blockade of all Southern ports. The South’s economy relied almost entirely on cotton
trade with Britain, so Lincoln hoped the blockade would strangle the Confederacy
financially.
The Confederate navy, though small, proved a formidable adversary. The British-built
Confederate warship Alabamasank more than sixty Union ships before it was finally
defeated. The South also created a major new naval weapon—the ironclad—when
ingenious Confederate shipbuilders refitted the old warship USS Merrimackwith a
steam engine and iron plates to make it impervious to bullets and cannonballs. The ship,
renamed the Virginia, easily destroyed several Union ships and broke through the
blockade. In response, the Union built an ironclad of its own, the USS Monitor, that
featured an innovative gun turret. The two ships met in March 1862 at the Battle of the
Ironclads, which ended in a draw.
The Finish Line:

In early 1865, the Union Army began marching through the state of Virginia, pushing back the
Confederate forces. In hopes of uniting with more Confederate troops in North Carolina, General
Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army abandoned the capital of Richmond and retreated.
However, the Union Army soon cut off their retreat and they were forced to stop at Appomattox,
Virginia.
General Grant and the Union Army had the Confederates surrounded. The Confederates were low
on supplies, many soldiers were deserting, and they were greatly outnumbered. Upon looking at
the conditions and the odds, General Lee felt he had no choice but to surrender and this put a
formal end to the bloodiest four years in U.S. history.

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The Confederacy Vs The Union:: Ascc L2 (G1-G4) The American Civil War (Part Ii)

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ASCC L2 (G1-G4) The American Civil War (Part II)

The Confederacy Vs The Union:

Preparing for The War:

The Battle of Bull Run (July, 21, 1861)

The Emancipation Proclamation 1863

The War at Sea:

The Finish Line:

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