Social Studies Ch.11 Lesson 1

By Grace O’Doherty

Taking Sides in the War

• two days after the attack on Fort Sumpter, Lincoln declared a rebellion was occurring in the South

• to stop it, he asked the nation’s governors to raise 75,000 troops

• many northerners freely volunteered and governors from Ohio, Indiana, and several other states begged to send more

More States Secede• not all states volunteered so freely• Kentucky,Missouri and Tennessee refused to

bear a single man to fight against our Southern brothers

• Maryland and Delaware didn’t even respond to the request

• Lincoln’s call for troops called more states to secede, such as Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina

• the Western Counties of Virginia (where there was little support for slavery) refused to secede and were admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia

The Border States• loyalty remained in the border states (slave states that did not

secede)• Delaware had few enslaved people and its support of the

Union was strong• many people in Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland favored the

South• Kentucky and Missouri were important in controlling the Ohio

and the Mississippi River• unless the union could hold Maryland, Washington would be

surrounded by the Confederacy• at first, Kentucky was neutral (not favoring either side)

• Union generals wanted to occupy Kentucky but Lincoln refused ,fearing that such move would cause them to secede

• when Confederate forces attacked Kentucky, they began to support the North

• however, Lincoln acted forcefully to keep Missouri and Maryland

More…

• when Missouri’s Governor sided with the South, Union supporters set up their own state Government

• fighting broke out but Lincoln sent troops and then they stayed within the Union

• in Maryland, some Southerners destroyed railroad and telegraph lines

• Lincoln placed them under martial law (a type of rule in which Military is in charge and citizens’ rights are suspended)

• Maryland officials and others suspected of disloyalty were jailed with out trial

North Against South

• people on both sides were confident when armies were preparing

• A Union soldier said he was willing to lay down all his joys to maintain the Government

• Southerners compared themselves to Americans in 1776

Northern Advantages

• although they were outnumbered, they had distinct military advantages, such as some of the nation’s most experienced leaders

• the South would also be fighting on their own territory amd receive much help from the locals

• out of 130,000 factories, 110,000 were in the North

• they had twice as much railroad track and farmland

• they also had a larger population

Southern Advantages

The Two Sides Plan Strategy

• Union leaders wanted a quick victory and Lincoln’s plan was to blockade (military action to prevent traffic from coming into/leaving an area) Southern sea ports

• they hoped to cut off the South’s supply of manufactured goods and cotton

• A main part of the Union’s plan was to get control of the Mississippi River

• The Union also wanted to seize Richmond (their capitol) and invade Virginia

• All the South had to do was defend their land until the North got tired

• The Confederates also sought help from Britain and other European nations (they hoped their need of cotton for their textile mills would make them support the South)

Americans Against Americans

• this war broke families apart• soldiers came from many different

backgrounds • some soldiers were as young as

fourteen

First Battle of Bull Run

• Union General Irvin McDowell wanted time to turn his soldiers into an effective fighting force

• Northern newspapers were demanding the capture of Richmond and a quick end to the war

• McDowell’s 30,000 men left Washington and marched Southwest into Virginia, the same number of confederates waited at Manassas (a railroad center 25 miles away)

• armies clashed along Bull Run (a river North of Manassas)• at first, the Union army pushed forward but a Southern

commander rallied his men to hold firm• Confederates began to pull forward and the poorly trained

Union army started to panic • their was no clear victory because the Confederates were

too exhausted to pursue them

A Soldier’s Life

• most soldiers spent most of their time in camp, not fighting

• training took up to ten hours a day• when not training, they stood guard,

wrote home, and gathered fire wood• their meal could be a simple dry cracker

called hardtack

Harsh Conditions

• wet weather created muddy roads and fields

• there was a lack of clean water• small pox and typhoid fever swept

throughout various areas

Prisoners of War• both sides had prison camps for

captured soldiers• nearly 10% of soldiers who died in the

war perished in prison camps• in Elmira, New York a prison camp was

built to hold 5,000 Confederates but it held 10,000

• in Andersonville, Georgia 35,000 Union soldiers lived in a fenced, open field intended to hold 10,000 people

• as many as 100 died in a day from starvation and exposure