This document provides a timeline of key events leading up to and during the early part of the American Civil War, including: - Lincoln's election in 1860 prompted several Southern states to secede and form the Confederate States of America. - After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln called for volunteer troops from states and four more states seceded. - Major battles like Bull Run showed the war would be more brutal than expected, and the Union faced early setbacks in trying to defeat the Confederacy. Suspension of habeas corpus increased presidential power over dissent.

2. Timeline

 November, 1860: Lincoln elected President.
 December, 1860: South Carolina secedes.
 Winter, 1860: Six more states follow suit.
 February, 1861: Seven southern states declare
themselves the Confederate States of America.
 States begin to take control of federal holdings in the
Southern territories with little resistance from James
Buchanan.
 March 4, 1861: Lincoln delivers inaugural address.
 April 12-13, 1861: Bombardment of Fort Sumter

3. Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

 Following his election to the Presidency in 1860,
Lincoln begins to make his way toward Washington.
 Diverted by rumors of an attempt on his life.
 Recognized the importance of connecting to common
people.
 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lincolns-whistle-
stop-trip-to-washington-161974/
 Once in Washington, Lincoln faces a growing crisis
over Fort Sumter.

4. After Fort Sumter

 Lincoln calls on each state to provide a volunteer
force to retake the fort.
 In response, four more states secede, bringing the
CSA to a total of eleven states:
 Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee all
join the Confederacy
 Lincoln, fearing that the border states would secede
as well, suspends habeas corpus and arrests officials
from the states. One of the most controversial acts of
the Civil War.

5. Ex Parte Merryman

 President Lincoln asserts his authority to suspend
habeas corpus during the war and arrests dissidents,
newspaper editors, and politicians.
 Arises from Lincoln’s fear that Maryland would
block passage of troops and cut D.C. off from the rest
of the Union.
 Justice Taney (a Democrat) writes a lengthy opinion
against Lincoln.
 Free write: When is it acceptable to suspend certain
rights in the US?

6. Proclamation Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus
September 24, 1862

Whereas, it has become necessary to call into service not only volunteers but also portions of the militia of the States by
draft in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately
restrained by the ordinary processes of law from hindering this measure and from giving aid and comfort in various
ways to the insurrection;
Now, therefore, be it ordered, first, that during the existing insurrection and as a necessary measure for suppressing the
same, all Rebels and Insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United States, and all persons discouraging
volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice, affording aid and comfort to Rebels
against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law and liable to trial and punishment by Courts
Martial or Military Commission:
Second. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus is suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter
during the rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement by
any military authority of by the sentence or any Court Martial or Military Commission.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twenty fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the 87th.
By the President:ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

7. The First Battle of Bull Run

 The North reacts with outrage to the firing on Fort Sumter
– calls for an immediate offensive against the
Confederacy.
 In July of 1861, Union and Confederate forces clash in
Prince William County, Virginia, near D.C.
 Confederate forces stand their ground and launch a
devastating counterattack. Union forces begin an
unorganized retreat toward Washington D.C.
 Surprising for two reasons:
 1. Confederate victory.
 2. Brutal and savage warfare. Sobering

8. 

9. Reading

 Read through Samuel J. English’s description of the
Battle of the Bull Run and answer the following
questions on a sheet of notebook paper.
 What seems to be his tone? Surprised, frightened?

10. Gallagher’s Lies

 We’ll talk battles – briefly.
 Why?
 Impossible to talk about
the political, the social, and
the economic without the
war.
 Civil War ushers in era of
modern war.
 Each victory, each loss,
will affect the politics of
the North and the South
 Always, the specter of
peace.

11. Northern Strategy in the War

 General Winfield Scott first proposes the Anaconda
Plan as the best means to suppress the South.
 Gain control of the Mississippi
 Blockade Southern ports
 Why?
 Mississippi will cut the South in half, prevent troop
movement up the river.
 Blockade will strangle the Confederacy economically.
 Blockade will prevent any threat of assistance for the
South from the British.

12. 

13. Turning Points of the War

 The Battle of Shiloh, fought between
April 6-7, 1862, is the single bloodiest
battle to this point in American
history.
 23k casualties
 General Grants’ reputation suffers
in Northern media – claim he was
drunk.
 Lincoln: “I cannot spare him; he
fights.”
 The first of nine of the largest,
bloodiest battles of the war. Like Bull
Run, illustrates the savagery of this
new war.

14. Turning Points (cont.)

 The Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.
McClellan prevents Lee from continuing his invasion
of the North.
 Single bloodiest day of the war.
 Seven generals dead
 24k casualties in one day
 Notable, because McClellan chose to repress a third of
his force from participating, despite numerical
advantage over Lee.
 Lincoln upset with McClellan.
 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued by
Lincoln; all slaves in rebel states free on January 1,
1863.

15. 

16. McPherson on Antietam

No other campaign and battle in the war had such
momentous, multiple consequences as Antietam. In July
1863 the dual Union triumphs at Gettysburg
and Vicksburg struck another blow that blunted a renewed
Confederate offensive in the East and cut off the western
third of the Confederacy from the rest. In September 1864
Sherman's capture of Atlanta reversed another decline in
Northern morale and set the stage for the final drive to
Union victory. These also were pivotal moments. But they
would never have happened if the triple Confederate
offensives in Mississippi, Kentucky, and most of all
Maryland had not been defeated in the fall of 1862.

17. Turning Points (cont.)

 Ulysses S. Grant pushes forward in attempting to
capture Vicksburg, seat of the Mississippi despite
numerous setbacks.
 Lincoln: “I think Grant has hardly a friend left,
except myself, but what I want is generals who will
fight battles and win victories. Grant has done this,
and I propose to stand by him.”

18. Turning Points (cont.)

 From May to July of 1863, Grant engages in a series
of four battles known collectively as the Vicksburg
Campaign.
 Grant winds his way up the Mississippi, eventually
taking the Confederate fort.
 Huge Union victory.
 North now controls the Mississippi – fulfilling one
goal of the Anaconda Plan.

19. 

20. 

21. Emancipation Proclamation

 Issued on September 22, 1862, Lincoln frees all slaves in
rebel territory.
 Does not affect territories not in rebellion – in essence,
frees 3 of 4 million slaves.
 Effects:
 White southerners outraged.
 Angered Northern Democrats set on peace.
 Complicated and undermined foreign intervention by the
British.
 Satisfied anti-slavery groups in the North.
 Many more slaves begin to escape North.

22. Emancipation (cont.)

 Criticism:
 Does not affect half a million slaves in border states.
 Not passed by congress – an executive order. Sound
familiar?
 Does not make slavery illegal.
 Does affect Union occupied territories.
 Seen as more a political than moral move.

23. Emancipation (cont.)

 Praise:
“The change in attitude of the Government is vast and
startling. For more than sixty years the Federal
Government has been little better than a stupendous
engine of Slavery and oppression, through which Slavery
has ruled us, as with a rod of iron. The boast that Cotton
is King was no empty boast… What a glorious day when
Slavery shall be no more in this country, when we have
blotted out this system of wrong, and made this United
States in fact and in truth what it is in theory—The Land
of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”

24. 

25. 

26. 

27. 

28. Before Gettysburg

 Confederate army wins a
major victory at
Chancellorsville in 1863.
 Lee then plans to invade the
North and sue for peace.
 Invasion could help peace
movement in the North,
especially during election of
1864.

29. 
 Fought July 1-3, 1863.
 Union Victory – repels Southern invasion of the
North, prevents Confederate victory.
 Ends in somewhere between 46 and 51k casualties
overall – deadliest battle of the war.
 Confederates retreat.
 Major turning point for the North – coincides with
victory at Vicksburg just a day earlier.
 Months later, Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg
Address.
Gettysburg

30. 

31. The Gettysburg Address

 Clip from Ken Burns’ The Civil War:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCXUbQ4JjXI

32. March to the Sea

 Union continues to press.
 Sherman begins his march to the
sea.
 From May to September 1864,
Sherman attacks and captures
Atlanta.
 He then begins to move – without
supply lines – from Atlanta to
Savannah.
 Revolutionary military tactic. Lives
off the land, destroys the
countryside as he marches. Total
War.
 War has turned in to more than
just military tactics – economic,
political, cultural.

33. Sherman Quotes

 “This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not
fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and
young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.”
 “My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to
follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and
dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
 “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only
those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and
groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for
desolation. War is hell.”
 “I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field
of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.”

34. Election of 1864

 Lincoln v. McClellan who runs as a peace candidate.
 Sherman’s successful campaign across the South
helps reelect Lincoln.
 Lincoln wins 55% of the vote to McClellan’s 45%.
 Second Inaugural Address
 Let’s review the first inaugural address.
 As we read, think about the differences in message
and tone between the first and the second.

35. 

36. The 13th Amendment
