Lincoln's first problem was the federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina: Fort Sumter
Lincoln used caution and decided to only resupply the fort and not reinforce it, but...
April 12, 1861 - Confederate cannons fired on the fort and it surrendered within 34 hours
April 15, 1861 - Lincoln called for 75,000 union troops and ordered a blockade of Southern ports - the war had begun!
4 more states seceded from the Union (map on p. 417)
Lincoln kept the Border States from seceding by declaring that the northern war aim was to preserve the Union with or without slavery
At the outset of the war, the upper classes of Europe favored the South because it offered them tariff-free access to cotton supplies but the working classes favored the North
Confederate strengths v. weaknesses (pp. 419-419)
* Biggest southern strengths were its talented military leaders
How could the south have won? Only with intervention form Britain and France which never materialized
Yankee strengths (pp. 420-421)
At first black volunteers were rejected by following the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), about 180,000 blacks served in the Union army.
President Jefferson Davis governed a loose confederation based on state's rights, which had fatal weaknesses
The Northern plan of attack had 4 phases:
- Blockade Southern ports
- Cut South in half by seizing control of the Mississippi River
- Chop South to pieces
- Capture Southern capital (Richmond, VA.)
The Battles:
Bull Run, VA (July 21, 1861) > Southern Victory
Antietam Creek, MD (Sept. 17, 1862) > Northern Victory
-prevented intervention of England and France
-long-awaited victory justified Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1/1/63) which declared "forever free" the slaves in those Confederate states still in rebellion > strengthened the moral cause of the Union
*Note: slavery was legally abolished in 1865 by the 13th Amendment
Vicksburg, MS (July 4, 1863) > Northern Victory
Gettysburg, PA ( July 1-3, 1863) > Northern Victory which doomed the cause of the South
Appomattox Court House, VA (April 9, 1865) Lee surrendered to Grant > The war was over!