This document provides an overview of key events and developments during the US Civil War and Reconstruction era from 1861 to 1870. It discusses major battles of the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, treatment of fugitive slaves who fled to Union lines, Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864, and the surrender at Appomattox in 1865. It also summarizes President Lincoln's and Congress's differing plans for Reconstruction, the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau to aid freed slaves.

1. US history survey
May 15, 2012
Civil War battles
aftermath of war

2. announcements
• final class: Tuesday, May 22.
• paper # 2 due Tuesday, May 22.
• I added 10 points to all midterm exams.
• final exam: Tuesday, May 29, noon. Eat first
or bring a snack with you.

3. 1861

4. battles of Civil War
• where did most of the fighting happen?

7. fighting 1861 – 1863
• Lincoln thought one battle would defeat S & war
would end.
• fighting in N Virginia; N goal to capture
Richmond, Confederate capital.
• neither side strong enough to win; both sides too
strong to be defeated.
• N strategy: control Mississippi River & blockade S
by ocean.
• N seized islands of N & S Carolina & captured
New Orleans.

8. historical re-enactors

9. fugitive slaves = “contrabands”
• slaves fled to Union armies when they
reached their areas.
• slave owner demanded return, but union
commander refused, said they were
“contrabands of war.”
• built fortifications, cooked, did other work.
• Contraband Relief Association, Washington,
DC, founded by Elizabeth Keckley, ex-slave,
seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln.

10. contrabands, Virginia
Elizabeth Keckley, Contraband Relief Association

11. Corinth,
Mississippi
• Contraband Camp at
Shiloh Battlefield,
National Park.
• 6,000 ex-slaves lived
there.

12. contrabands employed by 13th
Massachusetts Infantry, 1862

13. Antietam, MD, 9/1862
Union victory

14. Emancipation Proclamation
• after Antietam victory, Lincoln stated, unless
rebellious states returned to Union by 1/1/1863,
he would declare their slaves free.
• “If I could save the Union w/o freeing any slave, I
would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the
slaves, I would do it. If I could free some & leave
others alone, I would also do that.”
• freed only slaves in areas of rebellion, not areas
Union controlled or in border states.
• recruited Black soldiers for 1st time.

15. Gettysburg, PA, 7/1 – 7/3/1863
• 160,000 troops; 51,000
dead, wounded,
missing, captured.
• could not ride across
field on horse, so many
bodies.
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg
Address, 11/1863,
dedication of cemetery.

16. 1864
• Sherman captures Atlanta.
• Lincoln wins re-election.
• voters supported his new policy of
unconditional surrender – no negotiated
peace.
• war continued.

17. Sherman’s march
to the sea
• destruction of Atlanta &
RR.
• 11 & 12/1864

18. Sherman’s march to
the sea, 1864
• seize, burn, destroy
everything; don’t harm
civilians.
• 60,000 troops. • 400,000 acres to be
• to cut off Mississippi, given to freed slaves,
Alabama, Georgia from 40-acre plots.
rest of Confederacy.

19. Petersburg, VA, 1865, before battle

20. soldiers’ daily lives
• volunteers w/ little • by end, Confederate
military training. troops starving.
• marched w/ 50 – 60 • Confederacy considered
pound packs. arming slaves near end.
• disease, hunger. • “If slaves make good
• 1/9 Confederates & 1/7 soldiers, our whole
Union soldiers deserted. theory of slavery is
Also AWOL. wrong. (Confederate
• early in the war, Congressman).
fraternization between
battles.

21. Black men picking up bones of dead

22. surrender at Appomattox Court House,
Virginia, April 9, 1865
• Lee surrendered to
Grant.
• Grant gave Confederate
troops parole – could
not be prosecuted for
treason.
• Jefferson Davis, Conf.
President, captured
• Confederate
May 10.
government fled
Richmond, early April.

23. enormous death toll of war – N & S
• improved weapons, but generals still relied on
old military doctrine of massed infantry
offensives (learned at West Point).
• medical ignorance – gangrene (infected wounds)
& disease (smallpox, dysentery, typhoid,
pneumonia, malaria).
• unprepared for health & supply needs.
• Andersonville, GA – Confederate prison camp for
Union soldiers. 100 died daily, summer 1864.

24. 620,000 military deaths =
2% of population
• equal to total fatalities of Revolution, War of
1812, Mexican War, Spanish-American War,
WW I & II, & Korean War combined.
• 1/5 white S men of military age died; 3 times
rate of N men.
• 2.1 million N & 880,000 S soldiers = 3 million
combatants.
• American Rev. – largest army was 30,000.

25. assassination of Lincoln, 4/14/1865

26. plans for Reconstruction
• Lincoln wanted to bring seceded states back to
Union asap (as soon as possible).
• respect private property (except slavery).
• full pardon if swear oath of allegiance.
• 10% Plan – once 10% swore allegiance, could
establish state government & ask to return.
• Congress disagreed; Lincoln vetoed 50% plan.
• Freedmen’s Bureau established 1865.

27. Freedmen’s Bureau school

29. Freedmen’s Bureau, 3/1865
• food, clothing, fuel to destitute.
• managed abandoned lands.
• could lease 40 acres abandoned or confiscated
land to freed slaves or white Unionists.
• 13th Amendment passed & ratified, 12/1865.
• abolished slavery.

30. plans change –
President Andrew Johnson
• granted amnesty &
pardons for officers.
• fall 1865, 10/11 S states
claimed they had met
• only S Senator loyal to requirements.
US, Democrat; VP ‘64. • Johnson opposed to
• Reconstruction political rights for
belonged to executive, freedmen.
not legislative branch.
• blamed planter elite.

31. Radical Republicans
• federal govt. should remake S society, especially civil
rights & suffrage for freedmen.
• S states passed Black codes, 1865, to restrict freedom
& keep as close to slavery as possible.
• Civil Rights Bill, 1866 – citizenship & rights of citizens
for Black people.
• enlarged Freedmen’s Bureau to schools & courts.
• Congress overrode Johnson’s veto of both.
• 14th Amendment – citizenship & due process of law
cannot be denied based on previous condition of
servitude.

32. Congressional Reconstruction
• 1st Reconstruction Act, 1867 – S divided into 5
military districts, under martial law.
• states had to call new constitutional
conventions, w/ universal manhood suffrage,
ratify 14th Amendment. Then readmitted.
• 7 states readmitted by 1868.
• Grant (Union commander) elected president.
• 15th Amendment, Black male suffrage, passed
1869, ratified 1870.

33. “40 acres & a mule”
• economic necessity for freedom.
• too radical to be implemented by Congress.
• former slave owners wanted compensation for
lost property (enslaved human beings).

34. Ku Klux Klan, 1866
• threatened, whipped, m
urdered Black & white
Republicans in S to
prevent voting.
• violence in 1868
election.
• KKK Act, 1871 – violent
infringement of civil &
political rights a federal
crime.

35. • Mississippi, Texas, Virginia required to ratify
14th & 15th Amendments.
• all states readmitted by 1870.

36. meanwhile,
elsewhere
• US purchases Alaska
from Russia, 1867.

37. 1st transcontinental RR, 1869
• Chinese workers started
in California.
• Irish immigrant workers
started in Omaha,
Nebraska.
• also Black workers.

38. Promontory Point, Utah, 1869

39. announcements
• final class: Tuesday, May 22.
• paper # 2 due Tuesday, May 22.
• I added 10 points to all midterm exams.
• final exam: Tuesday, May 29, noon. Eat first
or bring a snack with you.