Civil War Flashcards
Dates of the War
April 1861 - May 1865
First battle
Fort Sumter
Confederate army opened fire on the fort and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. The Confederates claimed the fort as its own. When Lincoln called out the militia to put down the insurrection. Four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy.
Last battle
Palmito Ranch, Texas - 30 days after Robert E Lee
Last Confederate victory
bloodiest battle
Antietam River in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Maj. Gen. George McClellan (Union), mounted assaults against General Robert E. Lee’s forces along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, in September, 1862. Fought against “Stonewall” Jackson.
Stalemate in battle but Confederates did retreat to Souh
23,000 casualties (3,650 dead).
Jefferson Davis
President of Confederate states
Two primary issues at stake
- Whether a nation founded on the equal right to liberty could continue to be a slave-holding country (denying liberty to blacks).
- Whether the USA was a dissolvable confederation of independent states; or an indivisible nation with a sovereign (supreme) national government.
Death toll
625,000 lives–nearly as many Americans as died in all the other US engagements combined.
Gettysburg, PA
Summer of 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched second invasion of the Northern states to defeat the Union army on Northern soil, which he hoped would force Lincoln to negotiate for peace. He failed to defeat the Union forces.
51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured, or listed as missing.
Gen Ulysses S Grant
Head of the Union Army
Gen ‘Stonewall’ Jackson
General of the Confederate Army
Gen Robert E Lee
Head of the Confederate Army
Gen William Tecumseh Sherman
Union Army General in 1864-65, he led his army deep into Confederate heartland of Georgia and S Carolina and destroyed the Confederate economic infrastructure.
Gen George Thomas
Union Army General Destroyed the Confederate Army in Tennessee at battle of Nashville
