chapter 6 mississippi studies

Chapter 6Civil War and Reconstruction

Confederate States of America Formed Feb. 4, 1861

• MS and NC, SC, AL, LA, TN, GA, FL, AR, VA, and TX combined to form the CSA. Jefferson Davis of MS was chosen President.

• Confederates fired on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861, signaling the beginning of the Civil War.

• MO, KY, MD, and DE did not secede, but they were still slave states.

What fraction represents the number of Confederate states to the number of slave states?

The Union Objective• Developed by Mexican War veteran General Winfield Scott, many northern newspaper publishers poked fun at the plan, calling it the Anaconda Plan, but it worked.

Which principal trade partner would be cut off from Mississippi?

The Anaconda Plan

Blockade ports Split the South in two by way of the Mississippi River; cut off railroads

“Squeeze” the South into submission

Fort Massachusetts, 12 miles off the MS Gulf Coast on Ship Island, kept an eye out for Union ships. Click the picture for more information.

The Union Plan Against MississippiBlockade the Gulf Coast.

Take control of the MS River, its cities, and major roads and railroads leading to it.

Major Union campaigns for control of Corinth/ Shiloh, TN, and Vicksburg included more battles and skirmishes, but also included leaving utter devastation in their wake.

Section 1

General Grant at Oxford

The funny thing is that this picture comes from the Grant Library located at MSU in Starkville!

Corinth and Shiloh, April 1862

• Corinth: Crossroads of the South. Two fairly new major railways crossed here.

At the Corinth Interpretive Center, this incredible water feature tells the story from the birth of a nation chronologically through the Civil War and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Click for the pic for the video!

• Through Corinth the Confederates would accumulate and move supplies for the troops.

• General Ulysses S. Grant (USA) wanted to cut off CSA supplies.

This present-day map may make it easier to see the distance between Corinth and Shiloh.

• CSA’s General P.G.T. Beauregard and Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston brought up 40,000 men to stop Grant’s army of 45,000 at Shiloh, TN, about 22 miles from Corinth.

• A horrible, bloody battle ensued, and at the end of the first day, the CSA thought it possible to defeat Grant and his intentions.

The Bloody Pond at Shiloh-The story goes that the wounded and dying made the pond red with their blood in that first day of fighting. Shiloh Battlefield is today a National Park.

Want to know more about Shiloh Battlefield Park? Click the picture below.

• Grant was reinforced overnight, and Shiloh became one of the nastiest battles of the war, with 23,000 casualties.

CSA retreated to Corinth, which became a hospital town under siege of the USA.

Click the picture to link to the story in the words of a Confederate soldier at Shiloh.

• Gen. Earl Van Dorn tried months later to retake Corinth and failed.

• He then raided Holly Springs, MS, where the USA had stockpiled train car loads of supplies for Union forces. Grant was occupying Oxford at the time. His wife, who was in HS, was almost captured!

• The raid slowed Grant’s plans by making him reroute to Memphis, but it also made him see the value of living off the land.

The following May, Van Dorn was shot and killed by a jealous husband!

Vicksburg

• President Lincoln summed it up: “Vicksburg is the key.”

• Vicksburg was stopping trade to the Midwest states and USA saw it had potential to halt CSA trade.

• It sat high on a bluff over the MS River, where the USA’s Farragut’s bombardments from gunboats had secured Natchez, but not Vicksburg.

The USS Cairo was sunk in the Yazoo River at Vicksburg, and it has recently been restored. You can see it at the Vicksburg National Military Park. http://www.nps.gov/vick/index.htm

• General John C. Pemberton’s job was to hold Vicksburg for the Confederates.

• As supplies were running out and gunboats were shooting at the city from the river, some of the townspeople had begun to build cave houses into the bluffs.

What was the inside like? Click on the picture to find out!