The American Civil War Begins

A short presentation about the beginning of the American Civil War

By Morar Florin

Presidential election of 1860

In 1860, Stephan Douglas and Abraham Lincoln ran against each other again, this time for president. Lincoln had become well known from their debates about slavery. This time, Lincoln won, becoming the 16th president.

Southern States secede

Lincoln received no support in the South because they believed he wanted to end slavery. Since there were so many more people in the North, he won the election anyway.
As soon as Lincoln won the election, the South started to secede. This means the South split from the Union. They no longer wanted to be part of the United States. Supporters of secession based their arguments on the idea of states rights. They said they had voluntarily joined the union, so they could leave when they wanted.

Confederate States of America

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede.
They were followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The eleven states that had seceded formed the Confederate States of America. They named Jefferson Davis as president. They wrote a new Constitution which made slavery legal.

Civil War
A civil war is a war between people of the same country. There have been many civil wars, but one of the worst happened in America. The American Civil War was fought to keep the South from leaving the Union. Slavery was the major issue that separated the North from the South.

The Civil War began at Fort Sumter.

Fort Sumter was in the South, and the Union had a hard time defending the fort. There were 23 states in the Union (North) at the beginning of the war. There were 11 states in the Confederacy (South) at the beginning of the war.

Norths Advantages
The North had some many advantages. They had many more people and also had more factories, which could be used to make weapons The Union also had many more miles of railroad tracks.

 The Souths main advantage was that they were fighting at home. This would mean that they would be closer to their supplies.

Souths Advantages

They also would fight harder because they were protecting their homes.
The Confederacy also had superior generals and better trained soldiers. Famous Confederacy generals that must be reminded are: General Lee (Robert E. Lee) and Stonewall Jackson (Thomas Jonathan Jackson) The South was also being supplied by England at the beginning of the war. England wanted to keep trading for

the Souths cotton.

Stonewall Jackson

Military historians consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. history. His Valley Campaign and his envelopment of the Union Army right wing at Chancellorsville are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership. He excelled as well in other battles; the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) where he received his famous nickname "Stonewall", Second Bull Run (Second Manassas), Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Jackson was not universally successful as a commander, however, as displayed by his weak and confused efforts during the Seven Days Battles around Richmond in 1862.

Robert Edward Lee

When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his personal desire for the Union to stay intact and despite the fact that President Abraham Lincoln had offered Lee command of a Union Army. During the Civil War, Lee originally served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. He soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning numerous battles against larger Union armies. His abilities as a tactician have been praised by many military historians

The First Battle of Bull Run

One of the first battles of the war was the Battle of Bull Run. The North realized after this battle that the war would not be easy and would not be over soon. Bull Run was the largest and bloodiest battle in American history up to that point. Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured; Confederate casualties were 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing. Among the Union dead was Col. James Cameron, brother of President Lincoln's first Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. Among the Confederate casualties was Col. Francis S. Bartow, who was the first Confederate brigade commander to be killed in the Civil War. General Bee was mortally wounded and died the following day

 Many new weapons were used during the Civil War. One of these weapons was an ironclad ship. An ironclad ship was a ship with iron plates on it to protect it from cannon fire.

New Weapons

Other new weapons

Deadlier cannons and bullets More accurate rifles

Battle of Antietam
First time the Confederacy invaded Northern territory was the Battle of Antietam. It was bloodiest battle day in United States history. 23,000 men lost their lives that day. The Union army stopped the Confederate army. This victory by the Union gave President Lincoln the chance to announce the abolition of slavery in the South.

Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued to the executive agencies of the United States by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1 1863. It was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress. It proclaimed all slaves in Confederate territory to be forever free; that is, it ordered the Army to treat as free men the slaves in ten states that were still in rebellion, thus applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. The Proclamation immediately resulted in the freeing of 50,000 slaves. It also allowed blacks to serve in the Union army and navy. South ignored the Emancipation Proclamation, but it did change the Confederacys focus of the war: fully to the issue of slavery.

Women in the Civil War

Women on both sides worked during the war. Many became nurses. The most famous nurse from the Union was Clara Barton. She also helped organize the American Red Cross.

Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. 90,000 Union soldiers fought 75,000 Confederate soldiers.

More than 50,000 men were killed or wounded in the battle.

The Union won the battle.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the war. The Confederacy would never invade Union territory again.

Gettysburg Address
After the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln went to the battlefield to dedicate a cemetery in honor of all those who had died. Lincoln spoke for two minutes, but his speech became very famous. It is called the Gettysburg Address.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before usthat from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotionthat we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vainthat this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.