The Union and Confederacy

1 II. The Civil War: Causes,Conflicts,Consequences280 Grade 5 HandbookCross-curricularTeaching IdeaGo to the Internet and find examples ofCivil War music and photographs tohelp the facts of the Civil War come tolife. (See More Resources.) In addition, Battle Hymn of the Republic from theGrade 5 music Sequencelends itselfwell to this unit of study. You may alsowish to review songs from Grade 2,including Follow the Drinking Gourd and When Johnny Comes MarchingHome. Jefferson DavisEven before the first guns had been fired, representatives for the secessioniststates had met in Montgomery, Alabama in February 1861 and formed theConfederate States of America (CSA). It was eventually decided that Richmond,Virginia, would be the capital. Jefferson Davis was elected president. Davis had represented Mississippi for several terms in the United StatesSenate and had been the secretary of war under Franklin Pierce. WhenMississippi seceded, he had resigned from the Senate.

2 It was his direct order thatlaunched the attack against Fort Sumter. Davis was a West Point graduate who had gained national fame as a hero inthe Mexican-American War. His prestige was an asset to the Confederacy . But asa leader, Davis was high-handed and divisive, feuding throughout the war withSouthern governors over military, fiscal, and political affairs. The Union and ConfederacyThe Union had many advantages over the Confederacy . The North had a larg-er population than the South. The Union also had an industrial economy, where-as the Confederacy had an economy based on agriculture. The Union had mostof the natural resources, like coal, iron, and gold, and also a well-developed railsystem. Most of the financial centers were in the North, which made borrowingmoney to fight the war difficult for the South. The Union had a small navy, butthe Confederacy had to resort to using private ships because it had no naval ves-sels. While some believed the South had the better officers, the North had twiceas many soldiers.

3 Yankees and Rebels, Blue and Gray Yankee and Rebel are nicknames that the Northerners and Southernersgave each other shortly after the start of the Civil War. The Northerners werecalled Yankees and the Southerners, Rebels. Sometimes these nicknames wereshortened even further to Yanks and Rebs. At the beginning of the war, each soldier wore whatever uniform he hadfrom his state s militia, so soldiers were wearing uniforms that didn t example, some uniforms were blue or gray, while others were black orred. As the war dragged on, that changed. The soldiers of the Union Armywore blue uniforms and the soldiers of the Confederate Army wore , that s how many people remember the two sides the North woreblue, and the South wore Battle of Bull RunNeither side North or South had a realistic view of what it would taketo fight the war in terms of time and resources. Each side thought the warwould be short and easily won.

4 The outcome of the first engagement of thewar greatly bolstered Confederate confidence and jolted the Union into arealization of how hard it would be to defeat the first battle was fought in July along Bull Run Creek near ManassasJunction, Virginia, just 20 miles from Washington. Many civilians rode out fromWashington thinking to spend an interesting afternoon watching theConfederates get a good thrashing. Some even brought picnics to eat while theywatched the confrontation. Instead, the Confederates fought tenaciously and ulti-Teaching IdeaUse Instructional Master 83, VennDiagram, with students to compare and contrast the Union and 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 280mately overwhelmed the Union forces, who retreated willy-nilly back toWashington. It was anything but an orderly retreat as the raw troops sprintedback to safety, leaving the civilians to hurry back as best they could. Fortunatelyfor the Union , the surprised and elated Confederates, who were also untrained,disorganized, and exhausted, were not in a position to press their advantage andpursue the fleeing soldiers.

5 The Battle of Bull Run is also known as the Battle of Manassas. TheConfederates often named battles according to nearby towns. The Union troopsoften referred to them according to nearby geographical features, like rivers andcreeks. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. LeeAlthough the Union had the advantage because of the size of its army, bothsides had excellent leadership. The start of the war went badly for the Union , bothon the western front along the Mississippi and in the east. Union generals in theeast had opportunities to strike at the Confederate army, but the generals oftenhesitated. Lincoln became particularly upset with General George McClellan hesitated to attack several times, Lincoln relieved him of first victories for the Union came in 1862 under General Ulysses Grant captured Fort Donelson in Tennessee. When the Confederates in thefort inquired about terms of surrender, Grant replied that no terms but uncon-ditional surrender would be accepted.

6 People began to refer to him as Unconditional Surrender Grant. In the same year, Admiral Farragut scored a major victory for the Unionwhen his squadron of ships defeated the Confederate defenses in New Orleansand took the city. This victory secured the lower Mississippi River for the Unionand was a major blow to the Confederacy . Another turning point in the waroccurred in 1863, when Grant defeated the Confederate troops in Vicksburg,Mississippi. Grant s victories there and in Tennessee gave the Union control of theMississippi River, split the Confederacy , and effectively ended the war in the control of the Mississippi River cut off the flow of much-needed suppliesand reinforcements from Texas and Arkansas to the rest of the Confederacy . In1864, Lincoln consolidated command of all the Union armies under Grant. Grant moved to the eastern front and began a long, punishing attack on theConfederate Army of Northern Virginia, a force led by Robert E.

7 Lee. By April1865 Grant s men had worn down and defeated the Confederates. Grant accept-ed Lee s surrender in the little town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Grantwent on to become the eighteenth president of the United States in 1872. Grant and Lee are often compared, as they had lived two strikingly differentlives prior to becoming rival generals in the last years of the Civil War. Grant wasborn on a small Ohio farm, whereas Robert E. Lee was born on a large plantationin northern Virginia. (Lee s plantation was seized by Union forces and became thesite of Arlington National Cemetery.) Grant was a mediocre student at the Academy at West Point and had an undistinguished military careerbefore the Civil War. He had failed in business and was rumored to be a heavydrinker. Lee also graduated from West Point but was at the top of his class. HeHistory and Geography: American281 Teaching IdeaUse Instructional Master 83, VennDiagram, with students to compareand contrast Grant and Lee.

8 Teaching IdeaCreate an overhead of InstructionalMaster 36, The Civil War, 1861 1865,to help students understand wheresome important battles took out that many battles werealso fought in the Mississippi , General Grant earned his repu-tation as a tough fighter; this is whyLincoln chose him to command theentire Union Instructional Master the map. Then use it to answer the questions Civil War, 1861 1865 Master 36 Grade 5: History & GeographyCopyright Core Knowledge FoundationNameDatePurpose: To read and interpret a map featuring the states that took part in the Civil did the opening battle of the Civil War take place at Fort Sumter? to this map, in which state were the most major battles fought? kind of battle took place at hampton Roads on March 9, 1862? and when did General Robert E. Lee surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant?Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9, 1865a sea battleVirginiaApril 12 14, 1861 Appomattox Court HouseAppomattox Court HouseLee Surrenders to GrantLee Surrenders to GrantApr.

9 9, 1865 Apr. 9, 1865 AntietamAntietamSept. 17, 1862 Sept. 17, 18621st Battle of Bull Run1st Battle of Bull RunJuly 21, 1861 July 21, 1861 Appomattox Court HouseLee Surrenders to GrantApr. 9, 1865 GettysburgJuly 1-3, 1863 AntietamSept. 17, 18621st Battle of Bull RunJuly 21, 1861 hampton RoadsBattle of Monitor v. Virginia(formerly Merrimack)March 9, 1862 Fort SumterApr. 12-14, 1861 Gulf of MexicoATLANTICOCEANR ichmondPhiladelphiaAtlantaSavannahCharle stonDurhamNew OrleansNew JerseyDelawareVirginiaMarylandNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaGeorgiaFloridaAlabamaMississippi LouisianaArkansasIllinoisIndianaOhioWest Virginia(1863)KentuckyTennesseeMissouriP ennsylvania00150300 kilometers300 miles150 WENSM ajor battleSea 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 281II. The Civil War: Causes,Conflicts, Consequences282 Grade 5 Handbookhad a highly successful military career. He served with distinction in the Mexican-American War, was superintendent of West Point for a period in the 1850s, andwas in command of the troops at Harpers Ferry that captured John Brown.

10 At the beginning of the war, Lincoln asked Lee to assume command of theUnion forces, but Lee refused out of loyalty to his home state, Virginia. He insteadaccepted a command in the Confederate army. Lee scored a number of importantvictories, but faced with dwindling resources, his army was unable to withstandthe larger, better-equipped Union Stonewall JacksonGeneral Thomas Jackson was given the nickname Stonewall because of hisactions in the First Battle of Bull Run. During the battle, a Confederate soldiernoted that Jackson and his men were standing like a stone wall. The nicknamestuck: for the rest of the war Jackson was known as Stonewall Jackson. Considered by many to be General Lee s most able general, Jackson orches-trated Confederate victories in the Shenandoah Valley campaign. He led his forcesbrilliantly at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and at the battles at Antietam andFredericksburg. He was wounded in 1863 during the battle of Chancellorsvilleand died eight days of the USS Monitorand the CSS VirginiaThe Union had a great advantage in the naval war and used its advantage toblockade Confederate ports.