1. The Union in Peril:
The great meeting in Union Square, New York, to support the government, April 20, 1861

2. Conflicts Lead to Secession:
• The Dred Scott decision,
in which the Supreme
Court ruled that Dred
Scott, a slave, could not
be free by living in a free
state, enraged Northern
abolitionists
• It not only permitted the
extension of slavery but
actually guaranteed it

3. Conflicts Lead to Secession:
• Harpers Ferry, in which John
Brown lead a slave revolt in
Virginia, ended with John Brown
being hung and Southerners
fearing a northern conspiracy
• Abraham Lincoln is elected
president in 1860, without any
support of the South
• Southern Secession began with
South Carolina seceding along
with other southern states to
form the Confederate States of
America
• Jefferson Davis is elected
president of the new Confederate
nation
John Brown being adored by an
enslaved mother and child as he walks
to his execution on December 2, 1859.

4. The Civil War Begins: 1861-1865
• First shots are fired at
Fort Sumter
• Union and Confederate
forces clash at Bull Run
and Confederate forces
secure their first victory
of the war
• Union forces step up
enlistments 1861, inside the fort flying the
Confederate Flag

5. Union (North) Strength:
• Military and civilian
population
(outnumbered the
south)
• Industrial (more railroad
lines, factories, and
industries)
• Resources (iron, coal,
raw materials)

6. Confederate (South) Strengths:
• Cotton
production
• First-rate
Generals (top of
the class)
• Highly motivated
soldiers

7. Leaders:
• North (Union) President
Abraham Lincoln
• General Ulysses S.
Grant
• South (Confederacy)
President Jefferson
Davis
• General Robert E. Lee
(also General
“Stonewall” Jackson)

8. Emancipation Proclamation:
• Abraham Lincoln
issues this
proclamation
• Weapon of War:
Union soldiers freed
southern slaves to
keep the Confederacy
from using their slave
labor
• Freed the slaves in
rebel territory

9. The North takes Charge:
• The Battle of Gettysburg- Union
and Confederate troops sustain
heavy losses over a three day
period (23,000 Union, 28,000
Confederate)
• Union troops win the battle and
break the spirits of the
Confederacy
• President Lincoln issues the
Gettysburg Address that
solidified America as a unified
nation, not a collection of
individual states

10. The North takes Charge:
• General Grant
wins at Vicksburg,
Confederacy
looses a major
advantage and
control along the
Mississippi River

11. The North takes Charge:
• The Confederacy wears down,
Union General William Tecumseh
Sherman introduces the notion of
total war; civilians, livestock,
plantations/farms, infrastructure,
and all possible advantages of the
South are burned, captured, or
destroyed
• Confederacy surrenders at
Appomattox, on April 3, 1865,
ending the Civil War.
The Peacemakers (1868) by George P.A.
Healy. Aboard the River Queen, March
28, 1865, General William T. Sherman,
General Ulysses S. Grant, Lincoln, and
Admiral David Dixon Porter discuss
military plans for final months of the
Civil War

12. The War changes Lives:
• The 13th
Amendment
abolishes
slavery
• Lincoln is
assassinated by
John Wilkes
Booth, the
nation mourns

13. Reconstruction: 1865-1877
• This is the period during which the United States
began rebuilding after the Civil War, lasting from
1865 to 1877
• 14th
Amendment is passed, which prevented
states from denying rights and privileges to any
U.S. citizen- guaranteed citizenship
• 15th
Amendment: states that no one can be kept
from voting because of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude-right for all men to vote