Crisis, Civil War, and Reconstruction III unit 7

MILITARY TURNING POINTS

Gen. Lee invaded the North attempting to win a major victory that would force the Union to give up or bring in foreign help to the Confederacy.

Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863) – Gen. Lee invades Pennsylvania engaging in a three day battle which became

the turning point of the Civil War (23,000 U cas. {Meade}, 23,000 C cas. {Lee})

Pickett’s Charge – on the third day, Lee ordered an assault on the Union soldiers entrench behind a small

stone wall  Lee’s biggest mistake

• Union victory proved Gen. Lee and the Confederacy could be beaten

Gettysburg Address – Lincoln describes the Civil War as a struggle to preserve a nation that was dedicated

to liberty, and equality at a ceremonial dedication of the battlefield

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  gave the Union complete control of the Mississippi River thus completing the second phase of the Anaconda Plan
  
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  the victory at Vicksburg along with the earlier victory at Shiloh established Gen. Grant as a great general
  

Finally confident that he had found an aggressive general who could compete with Gen. Lee, Lincoln appointed Gen. Grant as the supreme commander of all Union forces. Gen. Grant then turned his attention to the long-frustrated Union effort to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia

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  he devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions:
  

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  attack Lee near Richmond;
  
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  invade the Shenandoah Valley
  
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  invade Georgia and capture Atlanta
  
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  take out railroad supply lines in West Virginia
  
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  capture Mobile, Alabama.
  

Grant was the first general to attempt such a coordinated strategy in the war and the first to understand the concepts of total war

was as important as tactical victories on the battlefield.

and lays siege to Atlanta, which falls after nearly three months

and destroying crops, livestock, civilian infrastructure he could not use carving a sixty-mile path of destruction

city in three weeks thus completing the blockade of the South and preventing precious war materials to enter the Confederacy

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  McClellan received support from Copperheads (Democrats that opposed the war), but not enough to outweigh Lincoln’s 55% of the popular vote spurred on by Sherman burning of Atlanta and the taking of Mobile, Alabama
  

In the final stages of the war, Gen. Grant relentlessly pursues Gen. Lee through Virginia engaging in numerous battles.

forces (55,000 U cas. {Grant}, 32,500 C cas. {Lee})

- 12 battles, included Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor where 7,000 lives were lost in one hour

- although the Union loses were staggering compared to the Confederates, earning Gen. Grant the nickname “the Butcher”, it was a strategic victory for the Union with Gen. Grant forcing Gen. Lee into a position he couldn’t win by slowly depleting his numbers

- Approaching Richmond, Gen. Grant took position near the last stronghold between Grant and Richmond at Petersburg forcing Gen. Lee to attempt to defend the city
Siege of Petersburg (June 1864-March 1865) – a ten-month siege of the last major city on the way to Richmond

where trench warfare drags out the campaign

- when city supply lines are finally cut, Gen. Lee is forced to withdraw away from Richmond leaving it defenseless trying to catch a break from Gen. Grant  the Union takes both Petersburg and Richmond
Surrender at Appomattox Court House (April 1865) – relentlessly pursued by Gen. Grant, Gen. Lee is forced to

surrender to Gen. Grant, which militarily ends the Civil War

Lincoln believed that Reconstruction was not a matter of punishing the South, but quickly restoring legitimate state governments that were loyal to the Union in the Southern states.

or those who committed war crimes)

- once 10% of the state’s voters had done so they could restore new state governments
Lincoln’s assassination – only five days after Lee surrendered to Grant, Lincoln attended a play at Ford’s Theatre in

Washington D.C. where John Wilkes Booth shoot the president

- Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated

- with Lincoln dead, Reconstruction would take a more severe direction