The Civil War 1861- 1865 Fighting between the North and South over the issue of slavery. The North wins and slaves are granted Freedom, Citizenship, and the right to vote.
Secession
- The withdraw of the Southern States from the Union -Southerners did not trust Lincoln and had threatened to secede even before Lincoln won the Election of 1860 -They based their arguments on the ideas of State's Rights -They argued that they had voluntarily joined the Union and therefore they had the right to leave. -December 20, 1860: South Carolina becomes the first state to secede other southern states soon followed and formed the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as their President.
Battles of the Civil War
Fort Sumter (April 1861) -first shots of the Civil War -before supplies could arrive Confederate troops attack the fort and the Civil War begins
Battle of Antietam -single bloodiest battle of the Civil War
Siege of Vicksburg -Important Union victory -Confederates lost control of the Mississippi River -Vicksburg, Mississippi was the last Confederate stronghold along the Mississippi River
Battle of Gettysburg -Important Union Victory -The only time the Confederate Army tried to win a battle in Northern Territory -Pickett's charge was turned point in the battle -Pickett led Confederate soldiers into the middle of Union forces and it was disastrous -Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address here in honor of the dead Union soldiers stating the Union was worth fighting for, including ideas about liberty and equality.
Appomattox Courthouse -Lee surrenders; war is over -Last battle of the Civil War -Lincoln is Assassinated
People of the Civil War
Abraham Lincoln -President of The United States during the Civil War. (Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address)
Emancipation Proclamation:January 1, 1863
-Was issued to free all of the slaves in the Southern States. -Lincoln did not, however, have the power to free the slaves in the Southern States so in reality it freed very few slaves.
Gettysburg Address:November 19, 1863
Jefferson Davis -President of the Confederate States of America. Inaugural address proclaimed States' Rights.
Ulysses S. Grant -Commanding Union General: Won major victories for the Union (Shiloh and Vicksburg) -Defeated General Lee's troops in Virginia and accepted Lee's surrender at the Appomattox court house in 1865.
Robert E. Lee - Confederate General: commanded the Northern Army of Virginia -Respected by Northerners and loved by white southerners -Won early victories and invaded the North twice and lost both times (at Antietam and Gettysburg) -Surrendered to General Grant at the Appomattox court house
William Carney -1st African-American awarded the Medal of Honor while fighting with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War. He held the flag at Fort Wagner.
Philip Bazaar -Navy Seaman who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor in the Battle of Fort Fisher of the American Civil War.
April 12, 2016 marks the 155th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War!
The Reconstruction Era
Reconstruction is the process of re-admitting Southern States into the Union. -Lasted from 1865-1867
-Followed Lincoln's goals for reconstruction and pushed for the ratification of the thirteenth amendment, which prohibited slavery.
-Radical republicans wanted to use the Federal government to impose a new order on the South and grant citizenship rights to former slaves.
Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution
- 13th Amendment: Freed Slaves in all states - 14th Amendment: Made all former slaves American Citizens - 15th Amendment: Allowed all former slaves the right to vote
People of Reconstruction Hiram Rhodes Revels - American clergyman and educator who became the first black citizen to be elected to the U. S. Senate(1870-1871) during Reconstruction. He performed competently in office, advocating desegregation in the school and on the railroads.
Andrew Johnson - was the President during Reconstruction after Lincoln's death.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S ASSASSINATION
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. He died the next day from the mortal wound. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.
The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 may have given some 4 million slaves their freedom, but the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period (1865-1877) introduced a new set of significant challenges. Under the administration of President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, new southern state legislatures passed restrictive “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans. Outrage in the North over these codes eroded support for the approach known as Presidential Reconstruction and led to the triumph of the more radical wing of the Republican Party. During Radical Reconstruction, which began in 1867, newly enfranchised blacks gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning election to southern state legislatures and even to the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes wrought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South. http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/reconstruction